How to Improve Your AEO Score: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Know Your Baseline

Before you fix anything, you need to know where you stand. Run a free AEO scan on your website to get your overall score and category breakdown. The Vida AEO tool analyzes 34 factors across 6 categories and gives you a score from 0 to 100.

Pay attention to the category scores, not just the overall number. A site might score 65 overall but have a 90 in content structure and a 20 in schema markup. That tells you exactly where to focus.

Category 1: Content Structure (How to Score Higher)

Content structure is the foundation of AEO. AI engines need well-organized content to parse your page accurately. Here is what they look for and how to optimize each factor.

Use a Single, Clear H1 Tag

Every page should have exactly one H1 tag that clearly describes the page's main topic. Avoid generic H1s like "Welcome" or "Home." Instead, make it specific: "AI Engine Optimization Audit Tool" or "How to Get Cited by ChatGPT."

Build a Logical Heading Hierarchy

Use H2s for major sections, H3s for subsections, and H4s for sub-subsections. Never skip levels (e.g., jumping from H2 to H4). AI uses heading hierarchy to understand the relationship between topics on your page.

Use Question-Based Headings

Headings phrased as questions (e.g., "How does AEO work?" or "What is schema markup?") directly match the way people query AI assistants. When an AI encounters a heading that matches a user's question, it is far more likely to use the following content as its answer.

Keep Paragraphs Concise

AI models process text in chunks. Short paragraphs (2-4 sentences) are easier to parse, quote, and cite. Long walls of text get summarized poorly or skipped entirely.

Add Lists and Tables

Structured formats like bulleted lists, numbered steps, and comparison tables are AI-friendly. They provide clear, extractable information that AI can directly include in its answers.

Category 2: Schema Markup (How to Score Higher)

Schema markup is arguably the single most impactful AEO optimization. It tells AI engines exactly what your content is about in a machine-readable format.

Add Organization Schema

Every website should have Organization schema on every page. This tells AI who you are, where you are located, and how to contact you. Include your name, logo, URL, social profiles, and contact information.

Implement FAQ Schema

If your page has frequently asked questions, wrap them in FAQ schema. This is one of the highest-impact AEO changes you can make. AI engines specifically look for FAQ schema when answering questions, and pages with it are dramatically more likely to be cited.

Use Article or BlogPosting Schema

For content pages, add Article or BlogPosting schema with author, publisher, dates, and description. This helps AI attribute your content correctly and assess its freshness and authority.

Add Product Schema for E-Commerce

If you sell products, Product schema with pricing, availability, ratings, and descriptions is essential. AI shopping recommendations pull directly from this data.

Consider HowTo Schema

Tutorial and instructional content benefits from HowTo schema. It structures your steps in a way AI can directly present as step-by-step instructions.

Category 3: Authority Signals (How to Score Higher)

AI engines need to assess whether your site is a credible source worth citing. Authority signals help establish that trust.

Maintain Consistent Entity Information

Your business name, address, phone number, and other identifying information should be identical everywhere it appears — on your website, Google Business Profile, social media, and directory listings. Inconsistency confuses AI and reduces trust.

Show Clear Authorship

Every piece of content should have clear attribution — who wrote it and what their credentials are. AI models use authorship as an authority signal. Add author bios, link to author profiles, and use Person schema.

Earn External Citations

When authoritative sites link to your content, AI models learn that you are a trusted source. Focus on creating content that others want to reference — original research, unique data, comprehensive guides, and expert analysis.

Build Topic Authority

Cover your domain comprehensively. If you are a coffee shop, have content about coffee origins, brewing methods, local sourcing, and sustainability — not just a menu. AI recognizes topical depth and rewards it with higher citation likelihood.

Category 4: AI Discoverability (How to Score Higher)

If AI crawlers cannot access or parse your content, nothing else matters. Discoverability is about removing technical barriers.

Configure robots.txt Properly

Make sure your robots.txt file allows AI crawlers to access your content. Some sites inadvertently block Googlebot or other crawlers, which also blocks AI engines that rely on crawled data. Do not block CSS or JavaScript files that are needed to render your page.

Maintain a Comprehensive Sitemap

Your XML sitemap should include every important page on your site with accurate lastmod dates. AI engines use sitemaps to discover content. A missing or outdated sitemap means content may never be indexed.

Ensure Server-Side Rendering

Content that only loads via JavaScript (client-side rendering) is harder for AI crawlers to access. Use server-side rendering (SSR) or static site generation (SSG) so your content is in the HTML from the first request.

Optimize Page Speed

Slow pages get crawled less frequently and may time out before AI can parse them. Aim for under 3 seconds on mobile. Compress images, minify code, use a CDN, and eliminate render-blocking resources.

Use HTTPS

HTTPS is a baseline trust signal. Sites without it are deprioritized by both traditional search engines and AI crawlers.

Category 5: Citation Potential (How to Score Higher)

Citation potential measures whether your content is formatted in a way that AI can easily quote, reference, or recommend. This is where AEO gets uniquely different from SEO.

Write Clear Definitions

When your content defines terms or concepts, do it clearly and concisely in 1-2 sentences. AI models love extracting clean definitions. Example: "AEO (AI Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing your website so AI-powered search tools can understand, reference, and recommend your content."

Provide Direct Answers

For every question-based heading, provide a direct answer within the first 1-2 sentences of the following paragraph. AI models often extract the first response after a question heading as their answer. Do not bury the answer three paragraphs down.

Include Original Data and Statistics

AI loves citing specific numbers. If you have proprietary data, survey results, case studies, or unique statistics, feature them prominently. Content with original data is cited more frequently than content that only summarizes others' work.

Create Quotable Statements

Write concise, authoritative statements that stand on their own. Think of them as sound bites for AI. A statement like "62% of search will flow through AI engines by 2030" is far more citable than a paragraph of hedged qualifiers.

Use Comparison Tables

When comparing products, tools, or concepts, use a structured comparison table. AI engines frequently pull from these when answering comparison queries (e.g., "AEO vs SEO" or "best project management tools").

Category 6: Technical Readiness (How to Score Higher)

Technical readiness covers the foundational elements that support all other AEO categories.

Add Proper Meta Tags

Every page needs a unique, descriptive title tag (30-60 characters) and meta description (120-160 characters). These are not just for Google — AI models use them to understand page context before parsing the full content.

Use Canonical URLs

Duplicate content confuses AI engines. Set canonical URLs to tell crawlers which version of a page is the primary one. This prevents your authority from being split across multiple URLs.

Optimize Internal Linking

A strong internal linking structure helps AI understand the relationship between your content. Link related pages together with descriptive anchor text. This creates a knowledge graph that AI can navigate.

Show Content Freshness

Add visible "last updated" dates to your content. AI models use freshness signals to determine whether to cite your content. Stale content with no date signals gets deprioritized.

Ensure Mobile Responsiveness

Google and AI crawlers primarily use mobile versions of your site. If your content does not render well on mobile, it may be misinterpreted or skipped entirely.

Prioritization: What to Fix First

Not all fixes are equal. Here is a priority framework based on impact and effort:

High Impact, Low Effort (Do First)

• Add Organization and FAQ schema
• Fix heading hierarchy (single H1, logical H2-H4)
• Add "last updated" dates to all content pages
• Create an XML sitemap with all pages
• Write question-based headings

High Impact, Medium Effort

• Implement Article/Product schema on all relevant pages
• Restructure content with clear definitions and direct answers
• Add comparison tables for product or concept comparisons
• Optimize page speed (image compression, code minification)

High Impact, High Effort (Plan For)

• Create comprehensive topic clusters
• Earn external citations through original research
• Build content authority across your domain
• Server-side render JavaScript-heavy pages

Measuring Progress

After implementing changes, re-scan your site with the Vida AEO tool to measure your improvement. Compare category-by-category scores to see which changes had the most impact. Paid plans include weekly automated monitoring so you can track progress over time without manual re-scanning.

You can also manually test your AI visibility by asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini questions that your business should answer. Track whether you get cited, how often, and in what context.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Focusing only on SEO keywords. AI engines understand semantics, not just exact-match keywords. Write for meaning, not keyword density.
• Hiding content behind JavaScript. If your important content only loads via client-side JS, AI crawlers may never see it.
• Ignoring schema markup. This is the single most overlooked AEO factor. Most sites have zero schema, which means AI has to guess everything about your business.
• No visible dates. Content without dates looks stale to AI models, even if it is current.
• Blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt. Some businesses accidentally block crawlers, making their content invisible.

Next Steps

Start with a free AEO scan to identify your highest-priority issues. Work through the fixes in the priority order above, starting with high-impact/low-effort changes. Re-scan after each batch of changes to track your progress.

For more background on what AEO is and why it matters, see our guide on What is AI Engine Optimization?. To understand how AEO compares to traditional SEO, read AEO vs SEO: What's the Difference?.