AEO checklist and audit template
From AEO.wiki, the Answer Engine Optimization reference · Published · Updated · By the AEO.wiki editorial team · How we research
Work through six phases in order: make sure answer engines can access and read your pages, improve the content itself, clarify your entity with structured data, build third-party authority, fix local signals if you serve an area, and set up measurement. Each item below shows its effort and whether it rests on vendor documentation, research or practitioner practice.
Download the audit template (CSV) for spreadsheets. Evidence labels: Vendor-documented vendor documentation, Independent study independent research, Practitioner practice common practice without direct vendor confirmation.
| Done | Item | Effort | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Access and technical foundation | |||
| Guide to AI crawlers & robots.txt | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to AI crawlers & robots.txt | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to robots.txt builder | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Rendering, speed & snippet controls | Medium | Independent study | |
| Guide to Rendering, speed & snippet controls | Medium | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Rendering, speed & snippet controls | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Freshness | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Google AI Overviews & AI Mode | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| 2. Content | |||
| Guide to Content structure | Low | Practitioner practice | |
| Guide to Content structure | Medium | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Content structure | Low | Practitioner practice | |
| Guide to E-E-A-T | High | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Citations & mentions | Low | Independent study | |
| Guide to Fan-out planner | Medium | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Multimodal content | Medium | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Freshness | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| 3. Entity and structured data | |||
| Guide to Structured data | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Entities & knowledge graphs | Low | Practitioner practice | |
| Guide to Schema examples | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Structured data | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Entities & knowledge graphs | Medium | Practitioner practice | |
| 4. Authority and third parties | |||
| Guide to Third-party presence | Medium | Practitioner practice | |
| Guide to Third-party presence | Medium | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Citations & mentions | High | Independent study | |
| Guide to Third-party presence | Medium | Practitioner practice | |
| 5. Local (if applicable) | |||
| Guide to Local AEO | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Local AEO | Medium | Practitioner practice | |
| Guide to Schema examples | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| 6. Measurement | |||
| Guide to Measuring AI visibility | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Measuring AI visibility | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to AI traffic in GA4 | Low | Vendor-documented | |
| Guide to Measuring AI visibility | Medium | Practitioner practice | |
How to run an audit
- Pick 10–20 priority pages and 30–100 priority questions.
- Record a baseline: Search Console, Bing AI Performance, GA4 AI referrals, a prompt panel.
- Fix phase 1 first; access problems block everything else.
- Re-measure after 4–8 weeks.
Checkbox state stays in your browser tab only; nothing is saved or sent.
If your pages are not indexed: triage first
Every item above assumes the page is in Google’s index. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to appear in its AI features, and that indexing and serving are not guaranteed.[1] Vendor-documented Open the Page indexing report in Search Console and match each status to its documented meaning:[2]
| Status | What Google says it means | What to check (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Crawled - currently not indexed | Crawled but not indexed; it may or may not be indexed in the future, and there is no need to resubmit. | Does the page add something no other page on your site or the web already says? Merge near-duplicates instead of publishing more of them. |
| Discovered - currently not indexed | Found but not yet crawled; Google rescheduled the crawl to avoid overloading the site. | Server speed and errors. |
| URL marked ‘noindex’ | Google found a noindex directive and did not index the page. | Search the page source and response headers for “noindex”; remove it if the page should be indexed. |
| URL blocked by robots.txt | robots.txt blocked the page; this does not guarantee it will not be indexed another way. | To keep a page out of the index, allow crawling and use noindex.[3] |
| Page with redirect | A non-canonical URL that redirects; it is not indexed, and the target may or may not be. | Link to the final URL and list only final URLs in the sitemap. |
| Duplicate without user-selected canonical | A duplicate; Google chose another page as canonical. | Add a rel=canonical, or make the pages differ substantially. |
Sitemap and thin-page hygiene
- Google ignores sitemap
priorityandchangefreq, and useslastmodonly if it is consistently and verifiably accurate. It should reflect the last significant update, such as a change to the main content, structured data or links, not a copyright-date change.[4] Vendor-documented - For noindex to work, the page must not be blocked by robots.txt, and Google does not support a noindex rule inside robots.txt.[3] Vendor-documented
- Mass-producing pages mainly to manipulate rankings is scaled content abuse, including when AI tools generate the pages without adding value for users.[5] Vendor-documented
Frequently asked questions
How long until AEO changes show results?
Crawling and re-indexing can take days to weeks. Measure over 4 to 8 weeks, and longer for authority work.
See also
References
Pages accessed October 29, 2026. See all sources and our editorial policy.
- ^ "Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search". Google Search Central. Last updated July 10, 2026. Accessed October 29, 2026.
- ^ "Page indexing report". Search Console Help. Accessed October 29, 2026.
- ^ "Block Search indexing with noindex". Google Search Central. Last updated December 10, 2025. Accessed October 29, 2026.
- ^ "Build and submit a sitemap". Google Search Central. Last updated July 8, 2026. Accessed October 29, 2026.
- ^ "Spam policies for Google web search". Google Search Central. Last updated August 28, 2026. Accessed October 29, 2026.
Categories: AEO reference and tools