An AEO audit checks whether your pages meet the conditions answer engines require to cite them as sources: indexed and crawlable by AI bots, readable without JavaScript, and structured with self-contained answer passages. AuditLamp evaluates applicable checks from the 187-detector catalog across all three layers, technical eligibility, passage structure, and entity clarity, free, for any URL, no email required.
Free category scores and selected findings. Full findings and export files: $10 once.
Up to 150 pages. No email required.
What does your customer need to know?
State the answer in a passage that makes sense on its own.
Support specific claims with a source people can inspect.
Make the author, business and publication date clear.
An AEO audit checks whether your site can earn the answer position instead of a buried link. Google defines the target: "Featured snippets are special boxes where the format of a regular search result is reversed, showing the descriptive snippet first." AI answers can cite several sources. We inspect measurable readiness signals, inside a 157-check audit of your whole site, up to 150 pages.
AI answers can include several supporting sources. A strong Google position does not guarantee a citation for a particular prompt, and an audit cannot predict which sources an answer will use.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of making your content the direct answer in answer engines: Google featured snippets and AI Overviews, voice search, and AI chat tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. A large and growing share of searches end with an answer shown directly on the results page or inside an AI assistant. If your content is the source of that answer, you earn visibility and often a citation. If it is not, you can be completely absent.
An AEO audit finds both the structural problems (crawlers blocked, content hidden behind JavaScript, schema missing or broken) and the content quality gaps (no self-contained answer near the top, no question-style headings, no specific facts for the engine to quote). Both halves have to pass before you can compete for answer positions.
Read more in our guides: What is AEO?, What is GEO?, and AEO vs SEO: what's the difference? If AI engines already skip your site, start with why your site isn't showing up in AI search.
Start by checking: check which AI crawlers can reach your site
The free AEO audit scans your whole site, up to 150 pages, and shows category scores with selected findings. The Full Report provides the detailed findings, their evidence and fixes. Review unintended search-crawler blocks first, while keeping training policy separate from search access.
The $10 Full Report unseals page-by-page detail with a PDF, prioritized action plan and AI-ready fix file. Related audits: the GEO audit for generative engines, the AI content audit for citability depth, and the AI search optimization hub for the whole picture.
Before the full scan, use the paragraph observations tool to inspect writing structure, or AI crawler access to review declared policies and scanner responses. Neither predicts citations. The optional llms.txt generator produces a proposed content index.
An AEO audit reviews observable page and crawler signals relevant to answer-oriented search. Formatting advice is guidance, not proof of eligibility. Google's AI features use its existing Search requirements; actual citations need separate observation.
The terms describe the same thing from slightly different angles. "AEO audit" emphasizes earning featured snippets and AI answer citations. "AI search audit" is broader and includes crawler access, entity signals and AI-specific technical requirements. Our audit covers both fully; the umbrella view lives at the AI search optimization hub.
No. The audit removes the blocks and improves the signals that make you citable. Whether any specific AI engine cites you on any specific query also depends on your topic authority, competition, and how the engine weights its sources on that query, factors we report as context, not as checks we can score for you.
The foundation is the same. Googlebot must be able to crawl and index you, your content must be readable without JavaScript, and your page must have a clear answer. Google's own AI documentation says the same foundational SEO best practices apply; there is no separate framework for AI Overviews.
A standard SEO audit focuses on ranking signals: title tags, Core Web Vitals, redirect chains. An AEO audit adds the citability layer: AI crawler policy, passage-level answer quality, structured data completeness and entity trust signals. We run both layers in one scan. Many well-ranked sites fail the second layer without knowing it.
Free scan of your whole site, up to 150 pages. No email. Worst problem first.
Free category scores and selected findings. Full findings and export files: $10 once.
187 registered detectors · SEO, AEO & GEO · the audit that shows its work