SEO gets you found on Google. AEO gets you cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude.
AI engines now power 40% of web discovery — but most websites are invisible to them. No structured data for LLMs to parse, no machine-readable content maps, no citation anchors. Traditional SEO tools don’t even measure this. AEORank fixes that with a single CLI command.
Visit aeorank.dev → | View on GitHub →
The Problem#
Search is splitting in two. Google still matters — but a growing share of answers now come from AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, Copilot. These engines don’t crawl like Google. They look for different signals:
- Structured data that LLMs can parse without guessing
- Machine-readable content maps like
llms.txt(the newrobots.txtfor AI) - Stable citation anchors so AI can link back to your content
- Speakable FAQ markup that AI engines prefer to quote
- Explicit crawler permissions for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot
Most websites have none of this. They’re optimized for Google but invisible to the engines that are increasingly answering the questions.
What It Does#
One command scans your site and tells you exactly how AI-visible you are:
npx aeorank-cli scan https://your-site.comUnder 30 seconds later, you get:
- A score from 0–100 (graded A+ through F) across 12 weighted dimensions
- 8 deployment-ready files tailored to your site — drop them in and your AI visibility improves immediately
No account required. No config. Zero setup.
The 8 Generated Files#
Every scan produces 8 files, each targeting a specific AI discoverability gap:
| File | What It Does |
|---|---|
llms.txt | The new robots.txt for AI — tells language models what your site is about |
llms-full.txt | Extended content map with full context for comprehensive AI indexing |
CLAUDE.md | Repository context file — helps AI coding assistants understand your codebase instantly |
schema.json | Organization, website, and FAQ structured data in JSON-LD |
robots-patch.txt | Crawler directives for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended |
faq-blocks.html | Speakable FAQ markup that AI engines love to quote |
citation-anchors.html | Stable heading IDs enabling direct AI linking and attribution |
sitemap-ai.xml | AI-optimized sitemap with content type hints and freshness signals |
Drop these into your project root and your AI visibility improves on the next crawl. No code changes needed.
12-Dimension Scoring#
Every scan evaluates your site across 12 weighted dimensions. The weighting reflects real-world impact on AI discoverability:
High Weight (1.5x)
- llms.txt Presence — does your site speak LLM?
- Schema.org Markup — structured data AI engines can parse
- Content Structure — headings, sections, semantic HTML
Medium Weight (1.0x)
- AI Crawler Access — GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot allowed?
- Answer-First Formatting — content structured for direct answers
- FAQ & Speakable Markup — schema AI engines prefer to quote
- E-E-A-T Signals — expertise, experience, authority, trust indicators
- Meta Descriptions — concise, parseable page summaries
- Citation Anchors — stable IDs for AI attribution
Low Weight (0.5x)
- Sitemap Presence — discoverable content index
- HTTPS & Redirects — secure, clean URL paths
- Page Freshness — signals that content is current
Grade Scale: A+ (95–100), A (85–94), B (70–84), C (55–69), D (40–54), F (0–39)
CLI Options#
# Basic scan
npx aeorank-cli scan https://your-site.com
# JSON output for CI pipelines
npx aeorank-cli scan https://your-site.com --format json
# Control crawl depth
npx aeorank-cli scan https://your-site.com --max-pages 30
# Adjust concurrency
npx aeorank-cli scan https://your-site.com --concurrency 5Defaults: up to 50 pages, 3 concurrent requests. Most sites complete in under 30 seconds.
CI/CD Integration#
AEORank ships a GitHub Action for automated AEO monitoring:
- uses: aeorank/action@v1
with:
url: https://your-site.comTrack your AEO score over time, fail builds when it drops below a threshold, get automated PR comments with score diffs, and regenerate files on every deploy.
How It Compares#
The AEO/AI visibility space is growing fast. Here’s where AEORank fits relative to other tools:
vs. AI Visibility Monitoring Platforms#
| Tool | What It Does | Pricing | Open Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| AEORank | Scans your site, scores AI readiness, generates fix files | Free CLI / $29–499 paid tiers | Yes (MIT) |
| Profound | Tracks brand mentions across 7+ AI engines | Enterprise (custom pricing) | No |
| Peec AI | AI search analytics across 10 LLM engines | From EUR 85/mo | No |
| Otterly AI | Brand share-of-voice across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini | From $29/mo | No |
| Scrunch AI | GEO-first analytics and optimization | From $300/mo | No |
| SE Visible | AI visibility tracking + traditional SEO suite | From $189/mo | No |
| HubSpot AEO Grader | Free AEO score across GPT-4o, Perplexity, Gemini | Free | No |
The difference: Monitoring platforms tell you whether AI engines mention your brand. AEORank tells you why they don’t — and generates the files to fix it. Most monitoring tools are closed-source SaaS starting at $85–300/mo. AEORank’s CLI is free and MIT licensed.
vs. llms.txt Generators#
| Tool | Approach | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| AEORank | CLI scan → 8 files + score across 12 dimensions | Full AEO audit + generation |
| llms-txt.io | Web form → llms.txt only | Single file |
| AIOSEO | WordPress plugin → llms.txt + llms-full.txt | WordPress only |
| Mintlify | Auto-generates for hosted docs | Docs platforms only |
| SiteSpeakAI | Web form → llms.txt only | Single file |
| LLMagnet | WordPress plugin → llms.txt | WordPress only |
The difference: Most llms.txt generators produce one file for one platform. AEORank generates 8 files covering the full AI discoverability stack — structured data, crawler permissions, citation anchors, FAQ markup, sitemaps — for any website, not just WordPress or docs sites.
vs. Open Source CLI Tools#
| Tool | What It Does | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| AEORank | Full AEO audit + 8 file generation | Any website |
| llms_txt2ctx | Parses existing llms.txt into LLM context | Developer tooling |
| vitepress-plugin-llms | Auto-generates LLM docs for VitePress | VitePress only |
| docusaurus-plugin-llms | Auto-generates LLM docs for Docusaurus | Docusaurus only |
The difference: Open source tooling in this space is mostly framework-specific plugins or parsers. AEORank is the only open-source CLI that audits any website across multiple AI readiness dimensions and generates deployment-ready output.
By the Numbers#
| Metric | Count |
|---|---|
| Sites scanned | 2,400+ |
| Dimensions scored | 12 (weighted) |
| Files generated per scan | 8 |
| Pages crawled per scan | Up to 50 |
| Concurrent requests | 3 (default) |
| Scan time | Under 30 seconds |
| Copyrighted code reproduced | 0 — MIT licensed |
Pricing#
| Plan | Price | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited CLI scans, all 8 files, JSON output, community support |
| Pro | $29/mo | Dashboard, score history, 5 sites |
| API | $99/mo | REST API access, 50 sites, webhooks |
| Agency | $499/mo | Unlimited sites, white-label PDF reports, priority support |
The CLI is free and open source (MIT licensed). No account required. The dashboard and API are paid tiers for teams and agencies who need history, automation, and scale.
Tech Stack#
- CLI: Node.js —
npx aeorank-cli - License: MIT — fully open source
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions via
aeorank/action@v1 - Output: Terminal reports + JSON for automation
- Crawling: Up to 50 pages, 3 concurrent requests (configurable)
What’s Next#
- Historical scoring — track how your AEO score changes over time
- AI engine simulation — preview how ChatGPT/Perplexity would parse your site
- WordPress plugin — one-click AEO for the 40%+ of the web running WordPress
- More AI engines — scoring dimensions for Grok, DeepSeek, and future engines
AEO is where SEO was in 2005 — most people don’t know they need it yet. The sites that optimize now will own the AI-powered discovery layer before their competitors realize it exists.