AEO is about making your website readable and usable for AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI features. When people ask AI instead of searching, clear machine-readable signals can make it easier for a site to be used as a source. Nothing guarantees it.
JSON-LD markup such as Organization, LocalBusiness, Product, or Article tells machines exactly what your page is about. It is a clear machine-readability signal and also powers rich results for some types in classic search. Google does not list structured data as a requirement for its AI features.
A concise FAQ block with questions your customers actually ask can make your content easier to reuse. The value is in the content, not in the markup: Google no longer shows FAQ rich results.
AI providers use separate crawlers: for model training (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended), for search discovery (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot) and for fetches triggered by a user request (ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User). If you block the search crawlers, your pages generally cannot appear as a source in those AI search features. Blocking a training crawler alone does not change that. We measure this directly from your robots.txt.
An emerging convention: a small text file that summarizes your site for AI systems, similar to what robots.txt does for crawlers. Optional and easy to add. Google says its Search does not use these files, and we know of no binding commitment from a major AI provider to use them.
Nobody can measure or guarantee actual visibility inside AI answers. Our AEO score measures readiness signals honestly — anyone promising guaranteed AI rankings is overselling.
They overlap: good SEO foundations help AEO. AEO adds machine-readability signals — structured data, Q&A content, AI crawler access, and llms.txt — that classic SEO checklists often skip.
That depends on the crawler. Blocking a training crawler such as GPTBot asks that your content is not used for model training; your presence in AI search depends on the search crawlers, such as OAI-SearchBot. If you block those, you generally cannot appear there as a source. That is a business decision. Technically, robots.txt is a request that reputable crawlers respect, not an access barrier.
Run the free Sitequiry analysis. The AEO card shows measured robots.txt access, llms.txt presence, and detected structured data with concrete next steps.
Free analysis with measured AI-crawler access, structured data, and llms.txt checks.