01 / Technical barriers
How much is actually blocking AI systems?
| Domain | Technical barriers |
|---|---|
| Your site | 15% |
| Competitor 1 | 15% |
| Competitor 2 | 25% |
| Competitor 3 | 35% |
| Competitor 4 | 40% |
| Competitor 5 | 50% |
Technical AEO Audit · Included
Why spend 95% of your effort on something that drives 5% of performance?
Technical foundations matter. But once your site is accessible, understandable and extractable by LLMs, additional technical optimization has rapidly diminishing returns.
That's why LLMNTS doesn't charge you for the audit.
Before we work together, we include a Technical AEO Audit as part of our project due diligence. We identify genuine blockers, show you what needs fixing and move on to the work that actually drives visibility.
The basics
The basics are important.
They're still the basics.
Before content or citations can perform, AI systems need to access your site, understand its structure and recognize the entities behind it.
We check those foundations before we start.
03 — Entity recognition
Can AI systems reliably understand who you are, what you do and how your entities relate?
02 — Structured data
Does your markup clearly describe your organization, products, content and relationships?
01 — Crawlability
Can AI crawlers access, render and extract the content that matters?
Don't pay an AEO agency thousands every month to tell you to fix the foundation.
We check these three layers before we start. If something genuinely blocks LLMs, we tell you. If the foundation is good enough, we move on.
Put 5% into context
Technical foundations enable performance.
They rarely create it.
- Technical
- ~5%
- Content
- ~20%
- Citations
- ~75%
The audit
This is what we actually look at.
Access, extraction and the blockers that deserve your engineering team's attention.
02 / Content extraction
How much of the page can AI actually use?
| Platform | Content extracted |
|---|---|
| Google Search | 100% |
| Google AI Mode | 40% |
| Gemini | 35% |
| Claude | 30% |
| ChatGPT | 25% |
Illustrative values for an example page. These are not measured or universal platform extraction rates.
Useful content, reliably extracted
The answer-relevant part of a much larger page.
The content exists. AI just can't reliably extract all of it.
Client-side rendering, UI noise, duplicated responsive blocks, weak semantic structure and excessively long pages can reduce how much useful information AI systems can reliably access.
03 / What needs fixing
The blockers we actually care about.
- Important content dependent on client-side rendering
- UI and icon noise obscuring useful text
- Duplicate responsive content in the source
- Weak semantic structure on listing pages
- Pages too large or unfocused for reliable extraction
Our approach
Most websites don't need a technical AEO rebuild.
If your important content is crawlable, your entities are understandable and AI systems can reliably extract the information they need, the technical foundation is doing its job.
Perfecting every warning in a 90-page audit rarely produces proportional gains.
We don't boil the ocean.
BLOCKER?FIX IT.
GOOD ENOUGH?MOVE ON.
If implementation is required, your LLMNTS Client Success Manager can work directly with your engineering or IT team to clear the roadblocks.
This is optional. We don't turn an audit into an excuse to manufacture billable technical work.
What we check
Everything required to establish a reliable foundation.
Access
- AI crawler access
- robots.txt
- HTTP status codes
- Redirects
- Canonicalization
- Server-side vs. client-side rendering
- JavaScript dependencies
- Blocked resources
- Important content availability
Extraction
- Meaningful text in HTML or rendered output
- Semantic heading hierarchy
- Answer-relevant content separated from UI chrome
- Duplicated responsive blocks
- Excessively large pages
- Native HTML tables
- Native lists
- Content hidden behind interaction
- Content extraction consistency
Structure
- Organization schema
- Relevant entity schema
- Valid JSON-LD
- Entity relationships where useful
- Consistent entity identifiers
- sameAs where appropriate
- Breadcrumb markup
- Article, Product or FAQ markup where applicable
Entity clarity
- Clear organization identity
- Products and services associated with the correct entity
- Consistent naming
- Entity ambiguity
- Conflicting entity information
- Relevant third-party corroboration
LLM testing
- Representative pages across major AI and search systems
- Content extraction
- Missing information
- Rendering differences
- Technical blockers
- Distinguishing technical, content and citation problems
Relevant markup, where it adds clarity. Never schema for the sake of schema.
SEO + AEO
A different question requires a different audit.
The foundations overlap. The emphasis changes from technical access to useful extraction and a practical decision about what to fix.
| Dimension | Traditional Technical SEO | Technical AEO Audit |
|---|---|---|
| Crawler | Search crawlers | Search + relevant AI crawlers |
| Rendering | Can Google access and render it? | Can AI systems reliably extract the useful information? |
| Structured data | Schema validation | Entity relationships + extraction |
| Content | Indexability | Machine-readable usefulness |
| Tables & lists | Page rendering | Reliable structured extraction |
| Output | Technical issues | Blocker / Improve / Good enough |
| Goal | Technical optimization | Know what needs fixing — and when to stop |
A comparison of emphasis, not exclusive capabilities. Strong technical SEO supports both.
From audit to action
No strategy deck.
A fix your team can actually use.
Example issue 03 / 12
BLOCKERProduct-category content depends on client-side rendering
- Impact
- High
- Affected
- 12 category templates
- Why it matters
- Important descriptive content isn't consistently present in the initial HTML, reducing reliable extraction by some AI systems.
- Recommended fix
- Server-render the category introduction and core product attributes.
- Priority
- Fix before citation campaign
Questions, answered
What you need to know.
What is a Technical AEO Audit?
A Technical AEO Audit checks whether AI and search systems can access your important content, understand your entities and reliably extract useful information. It separates genuine technical blockers from content or citation gaps.
Is the LLMNTS Technical AEO Audit free?
It is included at no additional charge in our project due diligence before we begin working together. It is not a separate paid audit product.
What does a Technical AEO Audit check?
We check access, content extraction, relevant structured data, entity clarity and representative pages across major AI and search systems. Findings are prioritized as Blocker, Improve or Good enough.
Do I need to fix every technical AEO issue?
No. Fix issues that prevent access, understanding or reliable extraction. If the foundation is good enough, we move on to content and citations rather than perfecting every warning.
Can LLMNTS implement the technical fixes?
If implementation support is needed, your LLMNTS Client Success Manager can optionally work with your engineering or IT team to resolve the blockers. The audit does not create an obligation to buy implementation work.
How is a Technical AEO Audit different from a technical SEO audit?
Technical SEO and AEO share many foundations. This audit focuses on whether AI systems can extract useful information and interpret entities, with a clear decision about what needs fixing and when to stop.
Start with the right work
Don't buy another audit.
We include the Technical AEO Audit in our project due diligence so we know whether anything technical will prevent the work that follows from performing.
If there's a blocker, we'll find it.
If there isn't, we move on.
No 80-page audit.
No manufactured technical backlog.
No charge for telling you the basics.