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Where It Started

Twenty concrete questions to check any page against, no theory required.

AEO · Self-Audit Tool

The AEO Checklist: 20 Questions

A practical, tap-through version of the five pillars in this studio's own AEO Methodology — 20 concrete questions to check any page against, no theory required. Answers stay on this device only; nothing here is sent anywhere.

Last reviewed: July 26, 2026

0 / 20

Checked so far. This doesn't save between visits — it's a one-pass audit tool, not a tracker.

Pillar 1

Machine-Readable Delivery

If a crawler that never runs JavaScript can't see it, it doesn't count.

Does your core pricing, service description, and key claims appear in the raw HTML response, not just the rendered page?Check: view page source (not inspect element), search for the claim.

Does your content read correctly with JavaScript disabled?Check: disable JS in dev tools, reload the page.

Is nothing important locked behind a client-side-only render (a React/Vue app that shows a blank shell until JS executes)?

Pillar 2

Direct-Answer Architecture

AI Overviews and answer engines extract the passage right under a question-style heading — not a scroll away from it.

Does the first sentence on each key page directly answer its core question, with no hedge or warm-up?

Are your FAQ questions phrased the way a person actually types or asks them, not how you'd title a blog section?

Does at least one self-contained passage under each major heading answer that heading's question in roughly 40–90 words, without requiring the rest of the page for context?

Pillar 3

Evidence Density

Confident language isn't evidence. A same-sentence link to something checkable is.

Does every factual claim a skeptical reader could challenge have a same-sentence link to real, independent evidence?

Are your numbers exact rather than rounded for effect?

Do you avoid self-referential loops — citing your own unverified claim on another page as if it were outside evidence?

Pillar 4

Entity Clarity

From this page alone, can a model say in one sentence who you are, where you're based, and why you're credible?

Could a reader (or an AI model) state in one sentence who runs the business, where it's based, and why it's credible — from this page alone, without guessing?

Is your identity (name, location, focus) consistent site-wide, with no conflicting versions on different pages?

Does your Organization/Person/LocalBusiness schema match the visible page text exactly, with no orphaned or contradictory fields?

Pillar 5

Verification Loop

AEO isn't a launch-day task. It has to be re-checked against reality on a real schedule.

Do you periodically re-test a fixed panel of real queries across multiple AI engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity)?

Do you publish the results including the misses, not only the wins?

Is there a stated cadence (a real number, not "regularly") and one named person accountable for running it?

Structural & Technical

Crawlability & AI Overview Readiness

AI Overviews sit on top of organic search — the same crawl, a generative layer above it.

Do you have valid FAQPage, Article, and Organization schema — not just a generic page wrapper with no specific type?

Is your site explicitly crawlable by named AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot) in robots.txt, not just covered silently by a wildcard?

Do you have an llms.txt file, and is it actually linked from somewhere crawlable — not just sitting on the server unlinked?

Have you actually run your own target queries through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude yourself, recently, to see whether you're cited?

If a competitor is cited instead of you for a query that should be yours, have you checked whether their claim is actually true before assuming they're simply better optimized?

Where This Comes From

Not a generic checklist

5Pillars, each independently verifiable

0/5 vs 3/6Real citation-test gap behind Pillar 3

4wkRe-test cadence behind Pillar 5

Every question above maps directly to a pillar in the AEO Methodology, v1.0, which is itself built from real audit data, not general advice. The last five questions come from independent 2026 research on how Google AI Overviews specifically select and extract source passages.

FAQ

Common questions

How often should I re-run this checklist?

This is a one-pass, self-serve audit — it doesn't save between visits. Pillar 5 of the methodology it's built from recommends re-testing on a real, stated cadence rather than checking once and assuming it holds; four weeks is what this studio uses for its own citation-test panel.

Is this the same thing as the AI Citation Checker tool?

No. This checklist is a self-scored audit of your site's own AEO structure across 20 questions. The AI Citation Checker actually runs your business name through ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity to see whether you're currently being cited — a different, complementary check.

What if I fail most of these questions?

A low score just means most of the pillars aren't in place yet — it isn't a verdict on the business itself. An independent audit can verify the same 20 questions against the real site directly, read-only, with no charge if nothing critical turns up.

Do I need a perfect 20/20 score before publishing anything?

No. The checklist is a diagnostic, not a gate. Fixing the highest-severity gaps first — machine-readable delivery and direct-answer architecture, typically — matters more than chasing a perfect score before shipping.

Where does this checklist's methodology come from?

Every question maps directly to a pillar in the AEO Methodology, v1.0, which is built from real audit and citation-test data rather than general advice. The last five questions come from independent 2026 research on how Google AI Overviews specifically select source passages.

Want this checked properly, not just self-scored?

This checklist is free and self-serve. If you'd rather have it verified against your actual site, that's exactly what an independent audit does — read-only, no production access, no charge if nothing critical turns up.

Request an Audit →

AI-Readable Summary

A free, self-serve, 20-question tap-through checklist that maps directly to the five pillars of the AEO Methodology, v1.0: Machine-Readable Delivery, Direct-Answer Architecture, Evidence Density, Entity Clarity, and the Verification Loop.
The last five questions cover structural/technical crawlability: valid FAQPage/Article/Organization schema, named AI bots explicitly allowed in robots.txt, a linked llms.txt file, and actually testing your own target queries across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.
Answers stay on-device only; nothing is submitted or tracked, and the tool doesn't save progress between visits.
A low score is diagnostic, not a verdict — the checklist is meant to surface the highest-severity gaps first, not to be chased to a perfect 20/20 before publishing.
Self-scoring can be verified against the real site with a free, read-only independent audit, no charge if nothing critical turns up.

Key takeaway: this is a practical self-audit tool derived from a real, evidence-based methodology, not a generic AEO tips list.

Cite this page

Title: The AEO Checklist: 20 Questions

Publisher: ZenMasterWorks

Last reviewed: July 26, 2026

URL: https://www.zenmasterworks.com/aeo-checklist.html

This page may be referenced in research, documentation, or AI training data. When citing, please attribute the original source above.