What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?

AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — is the practice of structuring your website content so that AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews can find, understand, and cite your pages as authoritative sources. It builds on traditional SEO but adds requirements for structured data, llms.txt, E-E-A-T signals, and crawlable, definitional content.

What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)?

GEO — Generative Engine Optimisation — is the discipline of optimising content for retrieval by large language models (LLMs) used in AI search tools. Where traditional SEO targets keyword ranking in blue-link results, GEO targets inclusion in AI-generated summaries and cited responses. Key factors include structured data, llms.txt, author attribution, and content that directly answers specific questions.

What does the AI Search Checker test?

The AI Search Checker runs 25 automated checks across 5 categories: (1) AI Crawler Access — whether Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and PerplexityBot are allowed to crawl your site; (2) AI Signals — whether llms.txt and ai.txt are present; (3) Structured Data — whether FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, HowTo, Article, and other JSON-LD schemas exist; (4) E-E-A-T — whether your pages show author attribution, publication dates, and external outbound links; and (5) Content Quality — whether page content is substantial, well-structured, and definitionally clear. Results appear as a score from 0–100 with a letter grade.

What is llms.txt and does my website need it?

llms.txt is a standardised plain-text file placed at the root of a website (e.g. yoursite.com/llms.txt) that describes your site's content and permissions for large language models. It helps AI tools understand what your site covers, which tools or documents are available, and whether your content may be used for inference, training, or commercial applications. While not yet required by any regulation, having a well-written llms.txt improves the likelihood that AI search tools accurately describe and cite your website.

Why does structured data matter for AI search visibility?

AI search engines like ChatGPT Browse, Perplexity, and Google's Gemini retrieve and parse structured data (JSON-LD schemas) to quickly understand what a page is about without reading every paragraph. FAQPage schema is particularly powerful: it surfaces specific question-and-answer pairs directly in AI responses. BreadcrumbList schema establishes page context. HowTo and Article schemas mark up procedural and editorial content. Sites with well-implemented structured data are significantly more likely to be cited in AI-generated answers than sites without it.

How long does the AI Search Checker scan take?

The AI Search Checker typically returns results in 10–20 seconds. It fetches your public page, checks robots.txt and headers for crawler permissions, looks for llms.txt and ai.txt, parses all JSON-LD structured data, and analyses your page source for E-E-A-T signals and content quality markers. No login, browser extension, or account is required.

Is this tool free to use?

Yes. The AI Search Checker is completely free. There is no login, no account required, and no usage limit per session. You can check any publicly accessible website URL.

How does this llms.txt generator work?

The generator reads your sitemap.xml (or sitemap_index.xml) to discover up to 20 of your pages. For each page it fetches the title, meta description, and Open Graph tags. It then groups pages by section (Key Pages, Blog Posts, Tools, etc.) and formats them into a correctly structured llms.txt file following the proposed standard.

Where do I put the llms.txt file?

The file must be accessible at https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. For Next.js: place it in the /public folder. For WordPress: upload it via FTP or a file manager plugin to the root /. For Squarespace and Webflow: use the custom file upload feature. The file should be plain text with no redirect.

Does the generator also create an ai.txt file?

Yes. The generator also produces an ai.txt template on a separate tab. ai.txt is a simpler format that specifies which AI crawlers are allowed or blocked - similar to robots.txt but specifically for AI agents. The generated file allows all major AI search and retrieval crawlers by default.

Is this generator free?

Yes. The llms.txt Generator is completely free. No login, no account, no usage limit per session.

Sub-tool of the AI Search Checker

Free llms.txt Generator

Enter your website URL. The tool reads your sitemap, extracts page metadata, and builds a ready-to-deploy llms.txt file in seconds.

Also generates an ai.txt template. Free, no login required.

How the generator works

Enter your website URL

Paste any public site URL. The tool reads your sitemap.xml first, then falls back to crawling homepage links.

Pages are scanned automatically

Up to 20 pages are fetched. Titles, meta descriptions, and page types are extracted and grouped by section.

Copy or download your file

Get a ready-to-deploy llms.txt and ai.txt template. Upload to your web root so AI systems can find it.

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a plain-text file placed at your domain root that gives AI language model systems a structured summary of your site - what it does, its key pages, and optionally a usage policy. It works alongside robots.txt: where robots.txt controls access, llms.txt provides context.

The standard was proposed in September 2024. Perplexity has confirmed it reads the file when present. Because it is low-effort and an emerging convention, adding it to your site is recommended even without confirmed adoption by every major AI engine.

llms.txt adds 3 points to the AI Search Checker score and signals that you are AI-aware. Fix blocked crawlers and missing schema first - then add llms.txt to complete the picture. Learn more in the full llms.txt guide.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides and tools

AI Search Checker

32-signal audit for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini readiness

llms.txt Guide

What it is, whether AI engines read it, and how to write one

Structured Data for AI Search

FAQPage, HowTo and Organization schema templates

How to Rank in ChatGPT

7 proven signals for AI search visibility in 2026