AEO Implementation Checklist
A complete implementation checklist for AEO. Work through each group in order. Each item links to the relevant documentation page for implementation details.
Structured Data
- Organization schema on every page (root layout) — implementation guide
- WebSite schema with SearchAction on homepage — implementation guide
- FAQPage schema on pages with Q&A content — implementation guide
- Article schema on blog posts and guides with datePublished and dateModified — implementation guide
- BreadcrumbList schema on every page — implementation guide
- Product/SoftwareApplication schema on product pages — implementation guide
- All schemas validated with Google Rich Results Test — implementation guide
Crawlability
- robots.txt explicitly allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot — robots.txt guide
- llms.txt file at site root with entity summary — llms.txt guide
- Server-side rendering or static generation (no client-only rendering) — AI crawler access
- No WAF rules blocking AI crawler user agents — robots.txt guide
- XML sitemap with accurate lastmod dates — sitemap guide
- All critical content accessible without JavaScript — AI crawler access
Content
- One H1 per page, heading hierarchy never skips levels — content structure guide
- First paragraph answers the page's core question (BLUF) — content structure guide
- FAQ section with 6-12 questions on high-priority pages — FAQ optimization
- Minimum 1,500 words on guide/pillar pages — content depth
- Hub-and-spoke internal linking with descriptive anchor text — content structure guide
- Comparison and ranking content uses structured formats — authority site patterns
Meta Tags
- Unique title tag on every page (50-60 characters) — meta tags guide
- Unique meta description on every page (150-160 characters) — meta tags guide
- Canonical URL on every page — meta tags guide
- Open Graph tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url) — meta tags guide
- Geo meta tags if location-specific (geo.region, geo.placename) — meta tags guide
- hreflang tags if multi-language — multi-language guide
Entity Consistency
- Same entity name, address, founding date across all pages and external profiles — entity consistency
- sameAs array in Organization schema links to all major profiles — implementation guide
- External profiles (LinkedIn, Crunchbase, etc.) match website facts — multi-source confirmation
- No conflicting entity information across owned properties — disambiguation
Monitoring
- Monthly AI Visibility Score measurement across 4 platforms — AI Visibility Score
- Target query list mapped to pages with quarterly review — target queries
- Schema validation check after every deployment — implementation guide
This checklist covers AEO (retrieval path) optimization for a single website. For the conceptual framework behind these items, see the AEO Principles. For measurement, see Measuring AEO Success.