Its own pile
Ready for AI answers sits beside Do these first and Helps on Google in Page problems.
AEO audit
An AEO audit that shows which pages AI answers can quote
AI answers quote pages that answer a question plainly. WPCentrify checks every page of every website you manage and shows which ones Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity can quote easily, and what to change on the rest.
Included on Studio and up, or a $15 add-on on Solo. Uses no AI credits.
Updated
What is an AEO audit?
An AEO audit checks your pages for the things that make them easy for AI answers to quote: questions as headings, a short direct answer under each, clear questions and answers, a named author and a date. AEO stands for answer engine optimization. You will also see it called GEO, generative engine optimization, or AI search optimization.
Most websites were written for a different kind of search, and nobody can tell which of their pages an AI assistant would pick up. WPCentrify works it out from its regular check of every page, so each page says what is missing and how to fix it, in plain words a client can read.
It sits in Page problems as its own pile, Ready for AI answers. None of it is an error, so it never lowers your SEO score or counts as a warning in reports.
The AEO audit at a glance
- Question headings, and whether each has an answer directly under it.
- Answers that open long, where the first sentence does not answer on its own.
- Answered questions with no FAQ structured data.
- Articles with no author, and articles with no date.
- Page by page, for every WordPress site you manage.
- Costs the SEO score nothing.
- Filters, sorting, branded CSV and PDF.
- Nothing is added to the website, and no AI credits are used.
Every page says what to change
Open any page to see what it already does well for AI answers and what to change, most useful first.
A blog post might have five question headings, each answered, a named author, and still no date. The report says so, with the heading and the sentence in question, so the fix takes minutes rather than an afternoon of reading.
- What is done and what is to do, page by page
- The heading and the sentence each finding is about
- In plain words a client can read
- Fair to older checks: a page read before these checks existed is not judged on them
Answers that open long
AI answers tend to quote the opening sentence under a question, so that sentence should answer the question on its own.
WPCentrify lists the questions on your pages whose first sentence runs long, with the page, so a writer can rewrite the opening line: the answer first, the detail after.
- Every question whose answer opens long
- The page and the question, side by side
- Sorted and filtered like every Page problems list
- Exported for a writer as CSV or PDF
What you get
AEO you can act on, page by page
Most AEO checkers read one page at a time. This reads every page of every website you manage.
Costs the score nothing
None of these is an error, so your SEO score and reports are untouched.
Page by page
Each page says what is missing and how to fix it.
Fair to older checks
A page read before these checks existed is not judged on them.
Filters and sorting
The same filters, sorting and exports as every Page problems list.
Branded exports
A CSV and a PDF report under your brand with White label.
What the AEO audit checks
Five checks, each tied to how AI answers pick what to quote.
| Check | What it looks for | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Question headings with an answer under them | How many headings are questions, and whether each has an answer directly beneath it. | Answer each question in the paragraph straight under its heading. |
| Answers that open long | A question whose first sentence under it is long. | Start with the answer in one short sentence, then explain. |
| Questions and answers without FAQ markup | A page with several answered questions and no FAQ structured data. | Add FAQ structured data that matches the questions on the page. |
| Articles with no author | An article that does not say who wrote it. | Show the author's name, and link to a page about them. |
| Articles with no date | An article that does not say when it was written or last updated. | Show the date it was published or last updated. |
How to run an AEO audit on a WordPress site
Connect the website to WPCentrify. The audit uses the regular check of the website, so there is nothing to install on it.
Open Page problems
Go to SEO, Page problems, and choose the Ready for AI answers pile.
Start with the most used pages
Sort by page and open the service pages and articles people reach most.
Fix the opening sentences
Rewrite answers that open long so the first sentence answers the question.
Add what is missing
Add FAQ markup where questions are answered, and an author and a date to articles.
Check again
The next check of the website shows the pile shrink.
How to make a page easy for AI answers to quote
Google says there are no special requirements to appear in its AI features and no new files or markup to add; a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. The pages AI answers quote still have a shape in common, and it is good writing for people too.
- Ask the question in a heading. Use the words people search, such as "How much does a tankless water heater cost?"
- Answer it in the first sentence. Give the price range, the time it takes, or the yes or no first. Then explain what changes it.
- Mark up real questions and answers. FAQ structured data tells machines which text is a question and which is its answer. It does not guarantee any special display.
- Say who wrote it and when. A named author and a date help people, and the systems that choose sources, judge whether to trust a page.
- Let the answering agents in. If robots.txt refuses the agents that answer people, nothing above matters. The site structure checker flags it, and AI crawler control fixes it without letting training crawlers in.
Then measure the result: the AI Overview tracker shows Google's AI answers for your keywords, and AI brand visibility shows whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity name you.
What it does not do
- Promise AI citations. It tells you how easy a page is to quote, not whether an assistant will quote it.
- Change your pages for you. Each finding says what to change; you or your writer make the change.
- Lower your SEO score. These checks sit in their own pile and never count as errors or warnings.
Answers
Questions about AEO audits
What people ask before they turn it on.
An AEO audit checks your pages for the things that make them easy for AI answers to quote: questions as headings, a direct answer under each, FAQ markup where questions are answered, a named author and a date. WPCentrify runs it on every page of every website you manage.
SEO is about ranking in search results. AEO, answer engine optimization, is about being quoted in AI answers such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Most of what helps one helps the other, and the AEO audit sits beside the SEO audit in WPCentrify.
They are close. GEO, generative engine optimization, is another name for making content easy for AI systems to use in their answers. The checks in an AEO audit serve both.
No. Its findings sit in their own pile, Ready for AI answers, and never lower the SEO score or count as warnings in reports.
Nobody can promise that. The audit makes pages easier to quote; whether an assistant quotes them also depends on what else it can find. AI brand visibility shows what the assistants actually say.
Google says you do not need new machine readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in its AI features. The audit focuses on the page itself: clear questions, direct answers, authors and dates.
The site structure checks flag a robots.txt that refuses the agents that answer people, which is different from refusing the crawlers that collect training data.
No. Everything is read from the regular check WPCentrify already runs, and nothing is added to the website.
No. The AEO audit is part of the SEO toolkit and uses no AI credits.
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