An AI-readiness audit tells you whether AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI can find, understand, and cite your website. This 15-point checklist covers all six scoring dimensions that determine your AI visibility.
Before You Start
You'll need: - Access to your website's hosting or CMS - Ability to edit robots.txt and add files to your root directory - A basic understanding of HTML (helpful but not required)
Tip: An AEO NIUEXA page scan checks the submitted page and prioritizes its findings. Use this checklist to understand and verify those findings.
Technical Checks (15% of score)
1. AI Bot Access in robots.txt
Review which crawlers your robots.txt allows. For ChatGPT Search visibility, OpenAI documents OAI-SearchBot as the relevant crawler:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot
Allow: /
GPTBot is a separate control for content that may be used to train OpenAI's generative AI foundation models. ChatGPT-User is used for some user-initiated visits and does not determine Search inclusion. Review the official OpenAI crawler documentation before changing your policy, and review each other platform's current crawler documentation separately.
2. XML Sitemap
Verify you have a valid XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml. It gives crawlers a declared list of canonical URLs to consider.
3. HTTPS and Security
Ensure your site loads over HTTPS so readers and automated clients receive content over an authenticated, encrypted connection.
Structural Checks (15% of score)
4. Schema Markup (JSON-LD)
Check your page source for JSON-LD structured data that matches the visible content. Common examples include:
- Article or WebPage on editorial content
- Organization where the page identifies an organization
- FAQPage only when the page visibly contains eligible question-and-answer content
- HowTo only when the page contains a genuine sequence of steps and the required properties
5. Heading Hierarchy
Your pages should use a clean heading structure: one H1, logical H2s and H3s. AI systems use headings to understand content organization.
6. Semantic HTML
Use <article>, <section>, <nav>, <aside>, <main> elements appropriately. These help AI systems identify the primary content vs. navigation and sidebars.
Content Checks (25% of score)
7. Answer-First Structure
Answer the core question in the opening paragraph so readers and retrieval systems do not have to cross a long preamble to find it.
8. E-E-A-T Signals
Show Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness: - Author bios with credentials - Cited sources and references - Publication and update dates - Clear organizational identity
9. Fact Blocks and Key Information
Structure important facts in easily extractable formats: - Definition lists - Tables with clear headers - Bulleted key takeaways - Numbered step-by-step instructions
Performance Checks (10% of score)
10. Page Load Speed
Measure loading and visual stability with established web performance tools. Investigate slow server responses, large assets, and layout shifts that make a page difficult to retrieve or use.
11. Mobile Responsiveness
Ensure your site works well on small screens and with keyboard and assistive-technology navigation.
Media Checks (15% of score)
12. Image Alt Text
Every meaningful image should have descriptive alt text. AI systems use alt text to understand visual content.
13. Image Optimization
Compress images and use modern formats (WebP, AVIF) where possible.
AI-Specific Checks (20% of score)
14. llms.txt File
If it fits your publishing policy, an /llms.txt file can provide a plain-text summary for tools that choose to read it:
# Your Site Name
> Brief description of what your site is about.
## Key Topics
- Topic 1: Description
- Topic 2: Description
## Contact
- Website: https://yoursite.com
15. AI Citation Signals
Include clear attributable statements, statistics with sources, and expert quotes that AI systems can cite with confidence.
Record Your Audit
For each check, record passes, needs work, or not applicable, together with the evidence you inspected. Do not turn the checklist into an invented score: use the product's six-dimension result for scoring and the checklist as a verification record.
Next Steps
- Run an automated AEO scan for a detailed breakdown
- Fix issues in order of impact (AI-Specific and Content first)
- Re-audit after meaningful changes to verify the effect
Related Guides
- New to AEO? Start with What is AEO and Why It Matters
- For check #4 (Schema Markup), see our deep-dive: Structured Data & Schema Markup for AI Search
- For checks #7-9 (Content), see: How to Write Citation-Ready Content for AI Search
- For platform-specific optimization, see our guides for ChatGPT and Perplexity