Free resource
AEO readiness checklist — 32 things to audit first
Before you spend a dollar on AEO tooling or articles: these 32 checks across brand entity, schema, content and authority decide whether LLMs can even pick your brand yet. Go through them on paper; only then start spending.
Brand + entity signals (8)
- ☐Organization JSON-LD present on the homepage
- ☐WebSite JSON-LD with a canonical `name`
- ☐Consistent brand name across homepage H1, meta title, and Organization `name`
- ☐Registered on Wikidata (or targeted for submission)
- ☐LinkedIn page exists and matches brand description
- ☐Crunchbase / Product Hunt / G2 / Capterra profiles match description
- ☐Domain is ≥ 6 months old (LLM crawl freshness window)
- ☐No name collisions with unrelated entities in public corpora
Schema + technical hygiene (10)
- ☐All key pages return HTTP 200 over HTTPS
- ☐Canonical URL declared on every page
- ☐Meta viewport present (mobile)
- ☐No unintentional noindex directives
- ☐Title + meta description in the 30-60 / 120-160 char ranges
- ☐One H1 per page, demoted heading hierarchy thereafter
- ☐Open Graph + Twitter card tags on key pages
- ☐Robots.txt accessible and sane
- ☐Sitemap.xml accessible and up to date
- ☐Response time under 800ms TTFB on key pages
Content structure (8)
- ☐Dedicated pages for every core buyer prompt (not buried in a blog post)
- ☐FAQ schema on at least one category-level page
- ☐Clear H2/H3 hierarchy — LLMs parse skimmable structure
- ☐Named comparisons (vs Competitor A, vs Competitor B) exist and are cleanly titled
- ☐Pricing, alternatives, and service pages each ≥ 400 words
- ☐Content answers the buyer question in the first 150 words
- ☐No auto-generated / thin content on high-intent routes
- ☐Image alt text present and descriptive
Authority + external signal (6)
- ☐Brand cited by at least one relevant third-party (industry publication, comparison site, Reddit thread)
- ☐At least one external review / testimonial on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, or equivalent
- ☐Press or podcast mentions indexed and crawlable
- ☐Reddit / HN / Quora threads exist in your category where you can contribute
- ☐Backlinks from ≥ 3 different domains in your niche
- ☐Brand name appears in at least one well-structured Wikipedia-adjacent source
Run this checklist automatically
SyncSEO’s Schema + technical audit checks items 2 through 17 automatically on every diagnostic — with fix hints inline. Free plan, 20 credits, no card.