How to Do a DIY AEO Audit (And What a Tool Catches That You Won’t)

Start with the pages most closely connected to discovery, evaluation and conversion. For many B2B websites, that means the homepage, core service or product pages, important comparison or category pages and a few high-value educational resources.

Then create a small prompt set based on the questions a real buyer might ask.

• What companies provide this type of service?
• What is the best approach for solving this problem?
• How does this category work?
• What should I compare before choosing a provider?
• Is your brand relevant to a specific use case or problem?

The prompts do not need to be perfect. They need to represent the decisions your content is supposed to help influence.

Inspect each priority URL. Confirm that it loads normally, is not unintentionally blocked or noindexed and has a sensible canonical target.

• Does the page return a successful response?
• Is the page intended to be indexable?
• Is the canonical pointing where you expect?
• Can the page be reached through internal links?
• Is it included in the sitemap when appropriate?
• Is important copy available in the rendered page?

This part looks familiar because AEO still depends on basic technical accessibility. Content that cannot reliably be reached is a weak foundation for any search strategy.

Read the page as if you had never heard of the business. Ignore the logo and brand familiarity.

Can you quickly identify what the company does, who it serves, what it offers and which category or problem space it belongs to?

• The company description is specific rather than vague.
• Products and services are named consistently.
• Audience and use cases are understandable.
• Important people, products or concepts receive enough context.
• Related pages reinforce the same core positioning.
• External profiles do not contradict major business facts.

Entity clarity matters because modern search visibility extends beyond matching keywords. Systems need enough context to connect a business with the topics and problems it genuinely represents.

Take each important question and try to find its answer on the page. Time yourself mentally: does the answer become obvious quickly, or do you have to interpret several paragraphs of marketing copy first?

• Important questions receive direct answers.
• Headings describe the information beneath them.
• Definitions appear close to the terms they explain.
• Comparisons make the actual distinction clear.
• Recommendations include enough context to remain accurate.
• Paragraphs do not bury the main point beneath unnecessary setup.

Good AEO content is not content written for robots. It is content whose meaning is easier for both people and machines to understand.

Our broader Answer Engine Optimization guide explains how this fits into the larger search strategy.

Look at the claims the page makes. Some are simple business facts. Others depend on research, performance data, expertise or third-party evidence.

• Important factual claims are attributable where needed.
• Research and statistics have clear sources.
• Dates are visible where freshness matters.
• Relevant structured data reflects visible page content.
• Organization, product or service information is internally consistent.
• The brand has useful corroborating references outside its own domain.

Do not treat schema markup as an AEO cheat code. Structured data can clarify information, but it cannot make weak or unsupported content authoritative by itself.

Use the prompts you created in Step 1 across the search and answer experiences that matter to your audience.

Record what happens instead of relying on memory.

• Prompt used
• Platform tested
• Date tested
• Whether your brand appeared
• How your brand was described
• Which sources or domains were surfaced when visible
• Which competitors or alternatives appeared instead

One response is not a permanent ranking. AI outputs can vary. What matters is building a repeatable baseline that helps you see patterns over time.

This is also why AI search visibility depends on more than your website. The sources surfaced around your category can be just as useful to study as your own pages.