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AEO Category

SEO Fundamentals AEO Checklist (2026)

Traditional SEO is the foundation beneath AEO. AI models that use web search (Perplexity, ChatGPT browsing, Google AI Overviews) inherit your search engine rankings as a proxy for quality. A site that ranks well in search is significantly more likely to be cited by AI. These 17 checks are your AEO floor.

6
Total checks
3
High priority
2
Quick wins

High Priority

3 checks

Enforce HTTPS across all pages

high priorityQuick win

All pages must be served over HTTPS. HTTP → HTTPS redirects must be in place.

How to implement ▸
Configure HTTP → HTTPS redirect in your server/CDN. Verify: curl -I http://yourdomain.com should redirect to https://.

Why AI cares: AI crawlers, like search engine crawlers, deprioritize non-HTTPS content. HTTPS is a non-negotiable baseline.

Build a strong internal link structure

high priorityModerate effort

Each important page should be reachable from the homepage within 3 clicks and have multiple internal links pointing to it.

How to implement ▸
Add contextual internal links within body content (not just navigation). Link from high-traffic pages to important but lower-traffic pages.

Why AI cares: AI crawlers follow internal links to discover content. Pages with no inbound internal links are likely to be missed.

Write substantial content (600+ words per page)

high priorityHigh effort

Key pages should contain at least 600 words of meaningful, original content.

How to implement ▸
Audit page word counts. Expand thin pages with FAQs, how-it-works explanations, use cases, and customer scenarios.

Why AI cares: Thin pages are deprioritized by AI models as low-information sources. AI citations heavily favor content-rich pages.

Medium Priority

3 checks

Fix broken internal and external links

medium priorityModerate effort

All internal links should resolve to valid pages. Broken links degrade crawl efficiency and user trust.

How to implement ▸
Use Screaming Frog SEO Spider or Ahrefs Site Audit to find 404s. Fix or redirect broken URLs.

Why AI cares: AI crawlers that encounter broken links during crawl may abandon that section of the site.

Improve Time to First Byte (TTFB)

medium priorityHigh effort

TTFB should be under 800ms. Core Web Vitals performance score should be above 70.

How to implement ▸
Use PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) to diagnose. Common fixes: edge CDN caching, server-side rendering, database query optimization.

Why AI cares: Slow pages are crawled less frequently and ranked lower, reducing AI citation probability.

Optimize images (WebP, lazy loading, sizing)

medium priorityQuick win

All images should be served in WebP or AVIF format, with width/height attributes set and loading="lazy" on below-fold images.

How to implement ▸
In Next.js: use the <Image> component from next/image — it handles WebP conversion, lazy loading, and responsive sizing automatically.

Why AI cares: Image optimization improves Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS), which are inherited signals in AI model ranking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does traditional SEO still matter for AEO?+

Yes — significantly. AI models that power web search (Perplexity, ChatGPT with browsing, Google AI Overviews) use search engine rankings as a quality proxy. A page that ranks in the top 10 for a query is far more likely to be cited by AI than a page on page 5. Traditional SEO is your AEO foundation.

What is the relationship between Core Web Vitals and AEO?+

Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) are Google ranking factors that affect where your pages appear in search results. Since AI models that use web search inherit those rankings, good Core Web Vitals indirectly improve your AEO score. They are also a direct quality signal — slow, janky pages are treated as lower quality by AI systems.

Find out your SEO Fundamentals score — free

ansly audits your site across all 7 AEO categories including SEO Fundamentals. Get your score in under 60 seconds.

Audit my site free →

Other AEO Categories

Structured Data
23% of AEO score · 9 checks
AI Agent Readiness
23% of AEO score · 9 checks
AI Crawler Access
17% of AEO score · 12 checks
Content Extractability
16% of AEO score · 8 checks
Semantic HTML
13% of AEO score · 10 checks
LLMs.txt & LLM Content
8% of AEO score · 6 checks
anslyansly

AI-readiness platform for websites. Check your visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

@tryansly

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