Your AEO Audit Checklist: 20 Rules for Answer Engine Optimization in the Generative Era

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the new, data-driven discipline of earning citations in AI Overviews and securing “Position Zero” featured snippets.

This is where the battle for visibility is now being won or lost.

The problem is, the market is dangerously confused. Many SEOs and agencies believe AEO is just a buzzword for installing an FAQPage schema plugin and hoping for the best. This is a critical, traffic-costing error.

True AEO is a technical, rules-based methodology that requires a deep, structural analysis of your content. To establish the new standard, we are publishing the definitive 20-point AEO audit checklist that our proprietary algorithm uses to determine if a page is truly “citable.”

Don’t guess if your content will be chosen by AI. Find out now.

➡️ Run Your Free AEO Website Audit Now ⬅️

A. AEO Fundamentals: From Ranking to Answering

For two decades, SEO was about ranking for a query. AEO is about providing the definitive answer to a question.

This shift is fundamental. You are no longer just optimizing for a keyword; you are optimizing for semantic extraction and authoritative citation.

Think of your web page as a disorganized technical manual. A human can eventually find the right info. An Answer Engine will skip it entirely for a competitor’s page that is formatted like a clean, indexed reference guide.

Your job is to transform your content from the former to the latter. This methodology is the technical execution of Google’s push for creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, as AI models are explicitly designed to find, validate, and amplify the most trustworthy information on the web.

B. The Definitive 20-Point AEO Audit Checklist

This AEO audit checklist is what our rules-based engine uses to score your content. We have grouped our 20 proprietary rules into the four pillars of Answer Engine Optimization.

Group 1: Clarity & Conciseness (Answer-First Content)

Answer Engines look for immediate, unambiguous value. They will not “read” your entire article to find a definition.

1. Answer-First Rule: The primary H2 subheading is immediately followed by a concise, direct answer in a single <p> tag.
2. Conciseness Rule: The direct “answer” paragraph is under 80 words and semantically self-contained.
3. Factual Density Rule: The answer provides verifiable facts (numbers, dates, statistics) rather than just opinion.
4. No Fluff Rule: The introductory paragraph avoids filler language (e.g., “In this article, we will explore…”).
5. Readability Score: The content is clear, simple, and avoids overly complex sentences (e.g., scores 60+ on Flesch-Kincaid).

Group 2: Structure for Extraction (Semantic Formatting)

AEO requires flawless HTML structure. This is a non-negotiable technical requirement that AI models depend on to parse information.

6. Logical Heading Flow: The page follows a clean H1 -> H2 -> H3 hierarchy with no skipped levels.
7. Bulleted Lists (ul): Uses <ul> tags correctly for unordered, related items.
8. Numbered Lists (ol): Uses <ol> tags correctly for sequential steps or ranked items.
9. Definition Lists (dl): (Advanced) Uses <dl> tags for “key-value” pair definitions.
10. HTML Tables (table): Uses correctly structured <table> tags (with <thead> and <tbody>) for comparison data, not for page layout.

Group 3: Technical Signaling (Schema & Crawlability)

Schema is the “red phone” that gives explicit, machine-readable instructions to Answer Engines. Using it correctly is a massive competitive advantage.

11. FAQPage Schema: Correctly implemented for Q&A sections, with each question and answer nested properly.
12. HowTo Schema: This structured data provides explicit instructions that answer engines use to generate rich results, and you can review Google’s official gallery of supported structured data to see how critical this formatting is.
13. Article Schema: headline, datePublished, and dateModified are present and accurate.
14. Author Schema: The author field is present, linked to a bio page or social proof (sameAs) to build E-E-A-T.
15. Breadcrumb Schema: Correctly signals the page’s hierarchy within the site structure.

Group 4: Question Mapping & Intent (Query Alignment)

AEO demands that you stop thinking about “keywords” and start thinking about “questions.” You must map your content directly to the user’s entire query landscape.

16. Subheadings as Questions: Key H2s and H3s are phrased as natural language questions (e.g., “What is AEO?”).
17. Primary Intent Match: The “Answer-First” (Rule #1) directly satisfies the search intent of the primary keyword.
18. PAA Alignment: Subsections proactively answer the top 3-5 “People Also Ask” queries related to the topic.
19. Contextual Linking: Internal links use anchor text that helps answer a question or points to a clear definition.
20. Semantic Clarity: The content maintains a natural semantic balance and avoids keyword stuffing, which AI models penalize as a low-trust signal.

For a deeper look at modern site evaluation, check out our detailed AI SEO Audit guide.

C. Why a Rules-Based AEO Audit is Non-Negotiable

So, why can’t you just ask a generic LLM to perform this aeo audit?

Because a public LLM (a GPT wrapper) cannot read your code.

A generic LLM is a text-generator, not a code-auditor. It cannot crawl your site to check your <table> tags, validate your HowTo schema implementation, or score your heading hierarchy (Rule #6).

Worse, it will hallucinate. It will give you a vague, confident-sounding “recommendation” that has no basis in your site’s actual technical structure. You cannot build a client strategy on a guess.

This is why we built the SEO Grow aeo audit engine.

Our proprietary, rules-based algorithm is the only tool on the market that programmatically checks all 20 of these AEO rules simultaneously. It doesn’t guess. It doesn’t hallucinate. It runs a 100% objective analysis of your site’s code against this checklist.

Our aeo audit services remove all guesswork and provide a single, objective AEO score. This is the difference between a generic “report” and a data-driven, tactical roadmap.

Secure Your Citation Authority

In the generative era, “close enough” is a failing strategy. AEO is the new technical barrier to entry. It is the path to “Position Zero” and the only way to earn consistent citation authority in AI Overviews.

Stop guessing if your content is citable. Start building a strategy based on data.

Run your first AEO website audit and get your objective score.

➡️ Start Your Free AEO Website Audit Now ⬅️