✦ Answer Engine Optimization
AEO Readiness Checklist
Is your business visible to AI?
A diagnostic checklist to assess how well your business is positioned to be cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and other AI platforms.
MM
Maksym Miedvied
Head of Growth, Mulder Agency
| Priority | Task | Why it matters | How to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Search your business in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews | If your business does not appear when AI answers questions in your category, you are missing leads that never reach Google at all | Manual search: ask 'best [your service] in [your city]' in each platform |
| High | Your About Us page clearly states what you do, where, and for whom | AI systems read your About page to define your business entity — vague copy produces vague citations | Manual review — can a stranger read it and describe your business in one sentence? |
| High | Your website has Organization and LocalBusiness schema markup | Structured data gives AI systems machine-readable facts about your business — name, address, category, phone, hours | Test at validator.schema.org and Google Rich Results Test |
| High | Your site uses Q&A-style headings with direct answers below | AI extracts direct answers from clearly structured content — question as heading, answer in the first sentence | Manual review of service and FAQ pages using Screaming Frog |
| High | You have 20+ Google reviews with an average above 4.2 | Review volume and sentiment are weighted heavily by AI systems when selecting businesses to recommend | Check Google Business Profile — count reviews and average rating |
| High | Your content is written in plain, conversational language | AI performs better at citing content written the way people speak — not corporate or keyword-stuffed copy | Paste a sample paragraph into Hemingway App — target Grade 7 or below |
| Medium | You have an FAQ section with FAQPage schema markup | FAQ schema increases your chance of appearing in both AI answers and Google featured snippets | Manual check — validate FAQ schema at Google Rich Results Test |
| Medium | Your blog or articles include author bylines and Person schema | AI systems factor E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust) when selecting citations | Check that articles name a real author linked to a bio page with Person schema |
| Medium | Your content includes specific numbers, stats, and examples | AI systems prefer content with verifiable facts — vague claims are ignored in favour of specific evidence | Manual review — count how many pages include at least one real number or case example |
| Medium | Your pages are updated at least quarterly and show a dateModified | AI platforms prefer fresh, maintained content over outdated pages | Check dateModified in your Article schema — compare to actual publish date |
| Low | Your site has an llms.txt file | Emerging standard that tells AI crawlers how to represent your business — adoption is growing but not yet universal | Check yourdomain.com/llms.txt — if missing, create one following the llms-txt.org spec |
| Low | Content blocks are short and scannable (under 150 words per section) | Token-efficient formatting makes it easier for AI to parse and reuse your content in responses | Manual review — split long walls of text into labelled sections |
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