AEO Checklist 2026: 15 Steps to Optimize Your Website for AI Search Engines

## The Definitive AEO Checklist for 2026 AI search engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now account for over 40% of all informational queries. If your website is not optimized for these answer engines, you are invisible to a rapidly growing segment of your audience. This checklist gives you 15 concrete steps to become the source that AI cites. ## AEO vs SEO: Different Priorities Before diving in, understand how AEO priorities differ from traditional SEO: | Dimension | Traditional SEO | AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) | |-----------|----------------|----------------------------------| | Primary goal | Rank on page 1 of Google | Get cited by AI answer engines | | Target crawlers | Googlebot, Bingbot | GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot | | Key metric | Click-through rate | Citation rate and snippet accuracy | | Content format | Keyword-optimized paragraphs | Direct answers, structured data, FAQ pairs | | Technical focus | Page speed, backlinks, Core Web Vitals | JSON-LD, llms.txt, schema markup | | Link strategy | Build domain authority | Ensure crawlability and structured references | | Success signal | SERP position | Appearing as a named source in AI responses | Both strategies complement each other, but AEO requires specific technical and content optimizations that SEO alone does not cover. ## The 15-Step Checklist ### 1. Write Descriptive Meta Tags Every page needs a unique `

` under 60 characters and a `` under 160 characters. AI crawlers use these to understand page purpose before reading the body. Include your primary keyword naturally. ### 2. Add Canonical URLs Set `` on every page to prevent duplicate content confusion. AI models de-duplicate aggressively, and the canonical tag tells them which version to cite. ### 3. Implement JSON-LD Structured Data Add schema.org JSON-LD for at minimum: **WebSite**, **Organization**, **Article** or **BlogPosting**, and **BreadcrumbList**. JSON-LD is the single most impactful AEO signal because AI crawlers parse it directly without needing to interpret HTML. ### 4. Create a Complete FAQ Schema Add `FAQPage` schema to any page that answers common questions. Each question-answer pair becomes a discrete unit that AI can extract and cite. Aim for 5-10 FAQ pairs per topic page. ### 5. Set Up Open Graph Tags Include `og:title`, `og:description`, `og:image`, and `og:url` on every page. These tags provide a structured summary that AI engines use when generating rich citations. ### 6. Configure Social Card Meta Tags Add Twitter Card tags (`twitter:card`, `twitter:title`, `twitter:description`, `twitter:image`) alongside Open Graph. Some AI systems pull from these as a secondary structured source. ### 7. Publish an llms.txt File Create an `/llms.txt` file at your domain root. This emerging standard tells AI crawlers what your site is about, what pages to prioritize, and what content is most authoritative. Include a site summary, key pages, and contact information. ### 8. Structure Content with Clear Heading Hierarchy Use a single `H1` per page, followed by logical `H2` and `H3` subsections. AI models parse heading hierarchy to understand topic structure. Never skip heading levels. ### 9. Write Direct, Factual Content AI engines favor content that directly answers questions in the first 1-2 sentences of each section. Avoid long introductions. Lead with the answer, then provide supporting detail. ### 10. Add Alt Text to Every Image AI crawlers cannot see images but read alt text to understand visual content. Write descriptive alt text that explains what the image shows and why it matters in context. ### 11. Include Contact Information Add structured contact data — email, phone, physical address — on your site. This signals legitimacy and helps AI engines verify your organization. Use `ContactPoint` schema markup for best results. ### 12. Allow AI Crawler Access in robots.txt Explicitly allow GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and other AI crawlers in your `robots.txt`. Many sites accidentally block these agents. Check your file for blanket disallow rules. ### 13. Submit Your Sitemap to Bing Bing powers ChatGPT Search and provides data to Perplexity. Submit your XML sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure AI-connected crawlers discover all your pages. ### 14. Use Server-Side Rendering AI crawlers typically do not execute JavaScript. If your site is a single-page application (SPA), implement server-side rendering (SSR) or static site generation (SSG) so crawlers receive fully rendered HTML. ### 15. Scan Your Site with AEO Scanner Use **AEO Scanner** (https://aeo.codecity.com.tw) to get a comprehensive score across all 9 AEO metrics. It checks meta tags, JSON-LD, Open Graph, content structure, FAQ schema, images, contact info, llms.txt, and social cards — then generates ready-to-use fix-it code snippets for every issue found. ## How to Prioritize If you can only do five things today, focus on these high-impact steps: - **JSON-LD structured data** (Step 3) — biggest single impact on AI citations - **FAQ Schema** (Step 4) — directly creates citable Q&A units - **llms.txt** (Step 7) — explicitly guides AI crawlers - **Clear heading hierarchy** (Step 8) — improves content parsing accuracy - **AEO Scanner audit** (Step 15) — identifies your specific gaps instantly Work through the remaining steps over the following weeks. Each improvement compounds your visibility across all AI search platforms. ## Start Now The shift from traditional search to AI-powered answers is accelerating. Every week you delay optimization is a week your competitors gain AI visibility. Run your free AEO scan today and start checking off this list.