What the AI Readiness Audit checks
The audit runs 50+ checkpoints in five categories: crawlability, structure, content quality, citations, and freshness. Every checkpoint is mapped to a behaviour we have observed in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Grok. The output is a single GEO score, a per-category breakdown, and a prioritised to-do list you can hand to whoever owns the page.
The five pillars of AI readiness
1. Crawlability
Can AI bots fetch the page? We check status code, response time, redirect chains, content-length, robots.txt rules, and the most common edge-level blocks. If a bot cannot fetch the page, nothing else matters.
2. Structure
Can AI parse the page reliably? We grade heading hierarchy, semantic HTML, schema.org markup (Article, FAQPage, HowTo, BreadcrumbList, Product, Organization), and the presence of FAQ blocks. Pages with clean structure get cited verbatim; messy pages get summarised badly.
3. Content quality
Does the page answer a real question? We grade word count, reading level, answer density (the ratio of declarative answers to filler), use of lists and tables, expert quotes, and definitional clarity. AI engines reward answer-first prose over keyword-stuffed marketing copy.
4. Citations
Does the page demonstrate expertise? We check outbound citations, expert references, source diversity, and links to authoritative third parties. The pages AI quotes most are usually the pages that themselves quote sources well.
5. Freshness
Is the page current? We grade the visible date, the year mentioned in copy, the lastmod in your sitemap, and whether AI engines have a recent cached copy. Stale content gets quietly demoted; pages dated in the current year get a free boost.
The AI readiness audit is most valuable on the pages you stopped looking at three years ago. The pricing page nobody touches. The integrations page that gets traffic but no edits. Those are where AI engines look first - and where the gaps are usually largest.
50+ checkpoints, summarised
The audit runs in seconds but covers a lot of ground. Here is a representative sample by category so you know what is being graded.
| Category | Sample checkpoints |
|---|---|
| Crawlability | HTTP status, response time, redirect depth, content-length, robots.txt rules, AI-bot disallows, meta-robots, X-Robots-Tag. |
| Structure | H1 presence and uniqueness, H2-H6 hierarchy, semantic HTML usage, JSON-LD presence, FAQPage schema, Article schema, BreadcrumbList, Open Graph completeness. |
| Content quality | Word count, sentence length, reading level, list density, table presence, answer capsule presence, definitional clarity, expert quotes, declarative-to-filler ratio. |
| Citations | Outbound links count, source diversity, authority of cited domains, presence of date attribution, presence of author bio, internal-link density. |
| Freshness | Visible date, year-currency in copy, last-modified header, sitemap lastmod, schema dateModified, age of cited sources. |
How to act on the results
- Fix red categories first - a 30 in any single category drags the whole page down.
- Work through the recommendations in order. Each one is phrased as a concrete change.
- Re-run the audit after each round of fixes to confirm score lift.
- For multiple pages: audit your homepage, pricing, top 3 product pages and top 3 blog posts. Those 7 URLs typically drive 80% of AI mentions.
What the email-gated PDF includes
- The full 50-checkpoint result with raw values per check.
- An executive summary you can paste into a Slack channel or PR description.
- A printable, brand-friendly export for sharing with leadership.
- Bonus: weekly GEO tips and category benchmarks delivered to your inbox.