XEOscan
Scores 35+ AI and classic SEO signals

Free AI SEO check
Instant, no signup.

See exactly what ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews need to cite your site, alongside the classic SEO signals that still matter. Related disciplines: GEO · AEO · AIO.

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No signup. Free. ~10 pages from your site, scanned in seconds.

Optimised for

How XEOscan works

01

Paste your URL

Any homepage, blog post, or doc page. We discover related URLs.

02

We crawl ~10 pages

Homepage, top posts, robots.txt, sitemap, llms.txt, schema, headers.

03

Get a scored report

Gauges, prioritised fixes, and the exact snippet to paste into your code.

What we check

AI SEO Rubric

What ChatGPT needs to cite you

Checks across crawlability, content shape, and machine-readable signals.

    Classic SEO Rubric

    What Google still needs in 2026

    Checks across technical, on-page, and Core Web Vitals.

      What AI SEO actually is

      The idea

      Readable and citable by AI

      AI SEO is the practice of making a website easy for AI assistants to read, understand and cite, while keeping the classic search signals that still drive traffic. It is the same discipline as good SEO, judged by a new kind of reader.

      It matters because the search transaction is changing: an assistant can answer a question directly and cite the sources it trusted, so the valuable position is being that source. The deep version of all of this is in the full AI SEO guide.

      Why it differs

      Why raw HTML matters

      Most major AI crawlers fetch raw HTML and do not reliably execute JavaScript, so they reward content that is already present in the page source and shaped as clear answers. If your content only appears after a client-side framework runs, those crawlers may not see it.

      That is why XEOscan evaluates raw HTML with no JavaScript executed: it mirrors how those crawlers actually read you. The discipline of being cited inside AI answers is Generative Engine Optimization.

      GEO, AEO and AIO are not the same thing

      Related, not identical

      One project, different emphasis

      GEO, AEO and AIO are related disciplines that overlap heavily and are often used loosely. They are not strict synonyms, and classic SEO is the foundation they all share. Treating them as one well-built site with four payoffs beats running four separate campaigns.

      For the full side-by-side, see GEO vs AEO vs SEO; for the GEO concept on its own, see what is GEO.

      In one line each

      The distinctions

      • GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): being cited inside AI-generated answers.
      • AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): direct-answer surfaces such as featured snippets and voice.
      • AIO (AI Optimization): the loosest label, often used for Google AI Overviews specifically.
      • SEO: ranking in classic search result links, the shared foundation.

      What we check, and why each signal matters

      Eight areas

      Signals mapped to citation

      XEOscan scores about 40 signals across eight areas. The big ones decide whether AI can cite you: can its crawler fetch you, is the content in raw HTML, is it structured and answer-shaped, and is it visibly authored and dated so an assistant can defend quoting it.

      Every check, with its severity weight, is in the full open rubric.

      Access first

      Crawler access decides the rest

      If an AI crawler is blocked, nothing else helps. We check 13 AI agents and opt-out tokens against your robots.txt and report exactly which you allow or block.

      See the AI crawlers list for each user-agent and how to allow or block it.

      Get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews

      ChatGPT

      Get cited by ChatGPT

      Let its crawlers in, serve raw HTML, write answer-shaped pages with clear authorship. Read the playbook.

      Perplexity

      Optimise for Perplexity

      It surfaces and links its sources, so clear sourcing and fresh dates matter. Read the playbook.

      Google

      Google AI Overviews

      Built on a strong classic-search foundation that AI can summarise. Read the playbook.

      Start with a free scan

      The fastest way to know where you stand is to measure it. XEOscan fetches your site the way an AI crawler does and gives you a prioritised, severity-weighted report, no signup.

      Run a free scan

      Frequently asked

      9 questions
      What is AI SEO, and how does it relate to GEO, AEO and AIO?

      AI SEO is optimising your site so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) can read, understand and cite your content. It overlaps with classic SEO but emphasises AI-crawler access, structured data, clear authorship and answer-shaped content. GEO, AEO and AIO are related disciplines that overlap heavily and are often used loosely. They are not strict synonyms: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) targets being cited inside AI-generated answers, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) targets direct-answer surfaces such as featured snippets and voice, and AIO (AI Optimization) is the loosest label, often used for Google AI Overviews specifically. For the full breakdown, see GEO vs AEO vs SEO.

      What does this tool check?

      About 40 signals across eight areas: AI crawler access (robots.txt for GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and more), discoverability (sitemap, llms.txt, canonical, HTTPS), structured data (JSON-LD), content extractability, citability (author, dates, outbound links), answer-shape, classic SEO basics, and auto-generated fix snippets, plus an optional on-demand Core Web Vitals (Google PageSpeed) test you can run from the report. See the full rubric.

      Does it actually ask ChatGPT about my site?

      No, the scanner checks the signals that make your site citable. But the "Test it yourself" panel gives you deep links to ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI search with a prefilled query about your domain, so you can see what they actually return.

      Why not scan every page on my site?

      We sample up to 10 pages chosen by type (home, about, contact, service, product, article, FAQ, pricing). That gives a more accurate read on site-wide patterns than 50 random URLs. We tell you exactly which pages we looked at.

      Will running a scan affect my server or analytics?

      Negligibly. We fetch about 10 pages once, with a clearly identified scanner user-agent. We do not execute JavaScript, so analytics that rely on JS are not triggered.

      Is it really free with no catch?

      Yes. No signup, no email gate. Results live for 7 days at a share link. The rubric is published openly.

      Does XEOscan run my JavaScript?

      No. It deliberately does not, because most major AI crawlers fetch raw HTML and do not reliably run JavaScript, so the report reflects what those crawlers actually see.

      What is the difference between GEO and AI SEO?

      AI SEO is the whole practice of being readable and citable by AI while keeping classic search signals. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the part focused specifically on being cited inside AI-generated answers. See what is GEO for the detail.

      How often should I rescan?

      After any significant content or template change, or about monthly. Results expire after 7 days, so rescan when you want a fresh shareable report.