How We Score AEO Readiness (And What a 'Good' Score Actually Means)

The AEO score at citeddigital.com/aeo isn't a black box. Here's the exact methodology behind each scoring dimension, how to interpret your number, and why the industry average sits well under 40.

Why I Built a Scoring Framework

The problem with most AEO advice is that it's directional without being measurable. "Improve your structured data" is directional. "Your structured data dimension scores 12 out of 25, which is in the bottom quartile for service businesses" is actionable. The difference between those two statements determines whether someone can actually prioritize their work.

I built the scoring methodology at citeddigital.com/aeo because I needed a consistent way to benchmark businesses and track improvement over time. Here's exactly how it works.

The Six Scoring Dimensions

AI Citation Readiness (0-20 points)
This dimension assesses whether the basic conditions for AI citation are in place: Is there a functioning, crawlable website? Is there consistent external directory presence? Does the entity appear in at least one credible third-party context? This is the threshold dimension — a very low score here means AI engines may not have a coherent entity representation for this business at all.

Structured Data (0-25 points)
The highest-weighted single dimension, because structured data is the most direct and controllable AEO signal. Points are awarded for: presence of JSON-LD, schema type specificity, property completeness, FAQPage schema presence, and absence of validation errors. A perfect score requires a complete, error-free, type-specific implementation with FAQ markup. Most businesses score between 0 and 8.

Brand Entity Consistency (0-20 points)
This dimension scores NAP consistency across primary platforms: Google Business Profile, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, and the business's own website. Each platform contributes points; inconsistencies deduct points. The scoring is binary per field per platform — either the name matches exactly or it doesn't.

Conversational Content (0-15 points)
Points awarded for: presence of an FAQ section with at least 5 questions, FAQ content that mirrors natural language query patterns, service descriptions written in answer-format prose, and readability in the accessible range. This dimension measures whether content is structured to match the way AI engines retrieve information for query answering.

E-E-A-T Signals (0-10 points)
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness signals: named author attribution on content, Person schema for key team members, external publication bylines or citations, and years-in-operation signals. This dimension tends to be lower-weight because it's harder to evaluate automatically.

Local AI Readiness (0-10 points)
The local-specific layer: geo-coordinates in schema, service area declaration, opening hours in structured format, review schema implementation, and llms.txt presence. This captures the signals that matter specifically for geo-targeted AI queries.

What Industry Percentiles Actually Mean

The median AEO score for local service businesses is around 28 out of 100. That's not because businesses are doing something wrong — it's because AEO is genuinely new and most websites were built to rank in Google, not to be cited by AI engines. The signals that matter for AEO weren't on the radar of most web developers or SEO professionals even two years ago.

A score above 60 puts you in approximately the top 15% of local businesses. A score above 75 is uncommon enough that we see it primarily in businesses that have intentionally worked on AEO. The practical implication: there's a meaningful first-mover advantage available in most local markets right now, because the bar for being the most AI-visible business in your category is still relatively low.