Is a technical AEO audit different from a regular SEO audit?

Yes. While there is overlap (both check crawlability and structured data), a technical AEO audit specifically looks at AI engine access. This includes checking for AI-specific crawlers in robots.txt (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, AppleBot), reviewing llms.txt implementation, assessing structured data for AI extraction rather than just rich snippets, and testing whether JavaScript-rendered content is accessible to AI crawlers that may not execute JS. Many sites that pass a standard SEO audit have AI-specific technical issues.

Should I allow all AI crawlers to access my site?

For most businesses seeking AI visibility, yes. Blocking AI crawlers means your content cannot be used as a retrieval source for AI-generated responses, which makes you less visible in the AI layer. However, some businesses have valid reasons to restrict certain AI crawlers, for example to protect proprietary content from training data usage. Decide per crawler, and note that training crawlers and retrieval crawlers often use different user agents.

How often should I run a technical AEO audit?

Run a comprehensive audit initially, then repeat it after changes that can affect crawler access. Website deployments, CMS updates, CDN configuration changes, and plugin updates can inadvertently introduce AI crawler blocks or break structured data. A full re-audit every quarter is a reasonable habit to catch gradual structural drift. The free AEO Platform AI-readiness check can serve as the technical-signal step in each round.

Free tool, not actively developed; no accounts. AEO Platform no longer sells subscriptions.

Use case

Technical AEO Auditing

Identify technical blockers preventing AI engines from discovering and citing your content.

Quick answer

Technical barriers can silently prevent AI engines from discovering, accessing, and citing your content. Unlike SEO issues that degrade rankings gradually, technical AEO blockers can create binary visibility failures: your content is either accessible to AI engines or it is not. Many organisations do not detect these blockers until they check specifically for AI engine access.

Expected outcomes

What you can achieve

Crawler access

confirmed for AI bots in robots.txt

Technical signals

checked: sitemap, llms.txt, schema

Severity list

of blockers to fix first

Re-check

after each release or CMS change

How it works

How to approach technical aeo auditing

Run the free AI-readiness check

Scan your domain with the free AEO Platform AI-readiness check at https://app.aeo-platform.com/scan. It reports on AI crawler access, sitemap, llms.txt, structured data, and FAQ and comparison pages.

Review critical blockers

Sort the findings by severity. Critical blockers, such as AI crawlers blocked in robots.txt, need action first.

Diagnose root causes

For each issue, find the cause: a server configuration, a CMS setting, a CDN rule, or a content structure problem. Check server logs and raw HTML for confirmation.

Implement fixes

Update robots.txt, add schema markup, and publish an llms.txt file where it fits. Deploy the changes and keep a note of what changed and when.

Validate and repeat

After the fixes are live, run the check again to confirm the result. Repeat after each major release or infrastructure change to catch regressions.

The solution

How to approach it

The free AEO Platform AI-readiness check covers this use case directly, within a limited scope. It is a deterministic check of technical signals: robots.txt and AI crawler access, sitemap, llms.txt, schema and structured data, and FAQ and comparison pages. It makes no calls to AI engines and does not read live AI answers, so it tells you whether the technical foundations are in place, not whether engines cite you.

A complete technical review also includes steps you run yourself. Read your robots.txt and look for rules that block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and similar crawlers. Check your server and CDN logs for AI crawler requests and for blocked or failed requests. Test whether key content is present in the raw HTML or only after JavaScript runs. Validate your structured data with a schema validator.

Rank issues by severity. Critical blockers are AI crawlers fully blocked. Major issues are partial content access. Optimisation items improve AI visibility but do not gate it. Fix the critical items first, then repeat the review after every major release, CMS update, or CDN change, because these changes can introduce new crawler blocks or break structured data.

Example queries

Queries to monitor

“How do I check if my site is accessible to AI crawlers?”

“What is llms.txt and do I need it?”

“Is my robots.txt blocking AI engines?”

“Technical requirements for AI search visibility”

“How do AI crawlers access website content?”

FAQ