GEO Audit (AI Readiness)

The GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) audit measures how well your website is optimized for discovery and citation by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. It analyzes your structured data, AI crawlability, content structure, and technical signals — then gives you a score and actionable recommendations.

How It Works

Hoppla fetches three resources from your site:

1. Your page HTML — analyzed for structured data, content structure, and technical signals
2. robots.txt — checked for AI bot access rules across the ~17 tracked AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, CCBot, Bytespider, Amazonbot, Applebot-Extended, meta-externalagent, and more — see Robots.txt monitoring)
3. llms.txt — a new standard that helps AI models understand your site

All analysis is done statically from the HTML — no AI API calls are made. This means the check is fast, free, and produces consistent results.

GEO is an advisory check — it produces warning status for low scores but never creates incidents.

Categories

Your GEO score is a weighted average of four categories:

Structured Data (30%)

Evaluates how well your page communicates meaning through machine-readable markup:

Check	What it measures
JSON-LD presence	Are there <script type="application/ld+json"> blocks?
High-value schema types	FAQPage, Article, HowTo, Product, Organization, BreadcrumbList
Schema completeness	Do blocks include name and description properties?
Multiple JSON-LD blocks	Comprehensive markup with multiple schema types
Content freshness	datePublished / dateModified in structured data
Entity authority	sameAs links to Wikipedia, LinkedIn, or social profiles

AI Crawlability (20%)

Checks whether AI bots can actually access and understand your content:

Check	What it measures
AI bot access	Are GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, etc. blocked in robots.txt?
llms.txt quality	Presence and structure of your llms.txt file (sections, URLs, descriptions)
No noai directives	Absence of noai / noimageai meta tags
Sitemap discoverable	Can AI crawlers find your sitemap?
X-Robots-Tag	No restrictive noindex or noai response headers

Content Structure (25%)

Evaluates how citable and well-organized your content is:

Check	What it measures
H1 heading	Single, clear H1 tag
Heading hierarchy	Proper nesting (H1 → H2 → H3, no skips)
FAQ patterns	<details>/<summary>, definition lists, FAQ sections
Author attribution	Meta author, rel="author" links, author markup
Content length	At least 300 words for meaningful AI analysis
Definition patterns	<dfn>, <abbr>, <dl> for key terms
List content	Structured lists (AI frequently cites list-format content)
Table content	Data tables with comparisons, specs, or structured data
Statistics	Numbers, percentages, and data points in content
Quotable content	Blockquotes and expert quotes
Image alt coverage	Descriptive alt text on images
Internal linking	Strong internal link structure

Technical Signals (25%)

Standard technical SEO signals that also influence AI discovery:

Check	What it measures
Meta description	Present and well-sized (50-160 characters)
Open Graph tags	og:title and og:description
Canonical URL	<link rel="canonical"> present
HTML lang	Language attribute set on <html>
Title tag	Present and well-sized (10-70 characters)
Semantic HTML	Use of <article>, <section>, <main>, <nav>, etc.
Twitter/X Cards	twitter:title and twitter:description meta tags
Content freshness meta	article:published_time, article:modified_time, <time> elements

Scoring and Grades

Each category produces a score from 0 to 100. The overall score is a weighted average:

Grade	Score Range
A+	95-100
A	85-94
B	70-84
C	50-69
D	30-49
F	0-29

Status Mapping

Grade	Check Status
A+ or A or B	ok
C, D, or F	warning

Results

Each GEO audit result includes:

• Overall score — Weighted average from 0 to 100
• Grade — Letter grade from A+ to F
• Category scores — Individual score and findings for each of the 4 categories
• Findings — Per-check pass/partial/fail status with explanations and point values
• Recommendations — Prioritized list of improvements sorted by impact (high, medium, low)

Configuration

Setting	Default	Description
Check interval	24 hours	How often to run the GEO audit. Enforced minimum is 6 hours.
OK threshold (ok_threshold)	70	Score at or above which the check status is ok (0–100).
Warning threshold (warning_threshold)	30	Score at or above which the check status is warning rather than the lowest band (0–100).

Alerts

GEO is an advisory check. When the grade falls below B (C, D, or F — i.e. the score drops below the ok_threshold), the check status is set to warning and shown on the monitor and in the standard warning lifecycle.

GEO does not emit a dedicated notification event — there is no warning.geo or GEO-specific notification. The result surfaces in the dashboard rather than through a notification feed.

Improving Your Score

Quick wins

1. Add JSON-LD structured data — Start with Organization and WebPage schemas. Add FAQPage or Article where relevant.
2. Create an llms.txt file — Place it at /llms.txt or /.well-known/llms.txt with a description of your site, key sections, and links.
3. Don't block AI bots — Ensure GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Google-Extended are not disallowed in robots.txt.
4. Add datePublished and dateModified to your JSON-LD and use article:published_time / article:modified_time meta tags.
5. Use sameAs in your Organization schema to link to Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and social profiles.

Content citability

AI models are more likely to cite your content when it contains:

• Structured lists — Steps, features, comparisons in <ul> or <ol> format
• Data tables — Specs, pricing, comparisons in <table> elements
• Statistics and data points — Specific numbers, percentages, measurements
• Expert quotes — <blockquote> elements with attribution
• FAQ sections — Questions and answers using <details>/<summary> or FAQ schema

llms.txt format

A well-structured llms.txt file should include:

# Your Site Name

A clear description of what your site offers (50+ characters).

## Key Sections

https://example.com/features
https://example.com/pricing
https://example.com/docs

WARNING

GEO is an emerging field. Scoring criteria will evolve as AI search engines mature and new standards emerge. Hoppla tracks these changes and updates the audit accordingly.