Search is splitting in two. Classic SEO gets you ranked in a list of links for a human to click. AEO gets your content quoted inside an AI's answer. Different reader (a language model, not a person scanning a page), different rules.
The good news: AEO is mostly concrete and technical. It is not about gaming an algorithm — it is about being genuinely machine-readable, so an engine can fetch your page, understand it, and trust it enough to cite.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): ranking in traditional search results — keywords, links, page experience. The reader is a ranking algorithm; the prize is a click.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): getting AI answer engines to extract, understand and cite your content directly. The reader is an LLM; the prize is being the source it quotes.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): used almost interchangeably with AEO. If anything, GEO leans toward content and authority (being the kind of source models prefer to quote) while AEO is often used for the technical readability side. You want both — and they are complementary to SEO, not a replacement.
An engine can only cite what it can fetch, parse and trust. Roughly in order:
1. Can its crawler reach you? Your robots.txt rules for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and others.
2. Is the content in the HTML — or trapped behind JavaScript the crawler will not run?
3. Is it structured? schema.org JSON-LD that tells the engine what the page actually is.
4. Is it answer-ready? Clear headings, FAQ-style passages, an llms.txt.
5. Is it corroborated? Mentioned on sources the model already trusts — which is why communities and credible coverage matter.
Oraql scores seven signals that decide AI readability. Treat them as your checklist:
1. AI crawler access — let the major AI bots in via robots.txt.
2. Content extractability — serve real HTML, not a client-side shell.
3. Structured data — add schema.org JSON-LD (Organization, Product, FAQPage).
4. Answer-ready content — clear headings, FAQ sections, an llms.txt.
5. Metadata and semantics — titles, descriptions, Open Graph, one clean H1.
6. Crawl infrastructure — HTTPS, a sitemap, a clean robots.txt.
7. Technical hygiene — indexable, fast, nothing junk blocking the parse.
We ran this exact audit on 154 leading websites for our 2026 State of AI Search Readiness report. The average score was 80/100 — but the gaps were lopsided: sites nail crawler access and extractability (95%+ of available points) yet bleed points on structured data (37%) and answer-ready content (45%). Most of the web is crawlable but not quotable — and that gap is the AEO opportunity.
Oraql gives any URL a 0-100 AI Search Readiness score, an A-F grade, and a prioritized fix list across these seven signals — free, no signup, in seconds.
New to the building blocks? Read the honest llms.txt guide or use the free llms.txt generator.