Ends July 1$89/mo locks in for life. Reverts to $129 after July 1.
///FREE, NO SIGNUP

Free SEO + AEO Article Checker

First free tool that scores your article for both Google search AND AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity). 33 checks, two scores, zero signup.

100% free · No signup · No credit card · 10 audits / hour

///WHY DUAL SCORING

Why score your content for both Google AND ChatGPT in 2025?

In 2023, optimizing for Google was enough. By the end of 2024, that stopped being true. About 60% of B2B buyers now consult an AI engine, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Google AI Overviews, during the research phase of a purchase. If your article ranks #1 on Google but the AI engines never cite it, you lose that 60%.

The technical signals AI engines use to decide what to cite are not the same as Google's ranking signals. Traditional SEO checkers were built for the blue-link era, they audit title tags, meta descriptions, internal links, and keyword density. They miss the structural patterns that AI engines pick up: FAQ schema, direct-answer paragraphs, definition-style sentences, numeric density, and bullet lists.

This checker is the first free tool that scores both surfaces in one run. The SEO score covers the 20 checks that drive Google rankings: title structure, on-page keywords, image optimization, schema markup, HTTPS. The AEO/GEO score covers the 13 checks that drive AI citation rates: question-style headings, direct-answer paragraphs, FAQ schema, statistical density, author bylines. You see both side-by-side so you can spot the gap.

Most articles we've tested score well on one and badly on the other. A typical WordPress blog post scores 85 on SEO and 30 on AEO, solid for Google, invisible to ChatGPT. Fixing the AEO gap takes 30 minutes per article and pays off for years as AI search continues to grow.

///DEFINITION

What is AEO / GEO?

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization. GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. Both terms describe the same practice: optimizing content so AI engines cite it when they answer user questions. Different writers prefer different terms, we use them interchangeably.

Where SEO ranks pages in search results, AEO ranks content inside AI answers. When a user asks ChatGPT "what is content marketing?", ChatGPT generates a paragraph and (when configured to) names the sources it drew from. AEO is the practice of being one of those sources.

AI engines decide what to cite using three categories of signals:

  • Structural extractability, content that's easy to chunk and quote. FAQ schema, numbered lists, tables, bullet lists, definition sentences. The AI engine reads your HTML; if your answer is buried in a 600-word paragraph, it's harder to extract than a 60-word answer in its own paragraph block.
  • Trust signals, author bylines, publish dates, schema markup, HTTPS, citations to authoritative sources. The same E-E-A-T signals Google uses, often weighted more heavily by AI engines because they're shipping factual claims with their name attached.
  • Topic match and recency, semantic relevance to the user query, plus freshness. AI engines penalize stale content harder than Google does in many cases, they want answers that reflect 2025 reality, not 2018.
///METHODOLOGY

How the checker works, 33 algorithmic checks

Every check runs deterministically against the HTML of your article, no LLM judgment, no opinion, no random scoring. The same article gives you the same score every time. We fetch your URL (or accept pasted content), parse the HTML with industry-standard cheerio, and run 33 named checks. Each check has a weight, a pass/fail threshold, and (in many cases) a continuous 0-1 partial score so you get credit for being "almost there", not just "done or not done".

The 20 SEO checks below drive your SEO score. The 13 AEO checks below drive your AEO/GEO score. Combined score is the average. Both scores normalize around checks that don't apply (e.g. URL-specific checks are skipped when you paste raw content, and keyword-specific checks are skipped if you don't provide a focus keyword).

20 SEO checks (Google ranking)

Title tag present
Confirms every page has a <title>, without it, Google has nothing to display in search results.
Title length (30-65 chars)
Google truncates titles past 65 characters in SERP. Under 30 looks thin to users and reduces CTR.
Focus keyword in title
Keyword in the title tag is the single strongest on-page signal for ranking on that term.
Meta description (120-165 chars)
Meta description shapes the SERP snippet beneath your title, high impact on click-through rate.
Focus keyword in meta description
Keyword bolded in the SERP snippet when matched to query, boosts CTR by 5-10%.
Exactly one H1 tag
Multiple H1s confuse search engines about the primary topic of the page.
Focus keyword in H1
H1 reinforces the page topic for both Google and AI engines.
Valid heading hierarchy
Skipping levels (e.g. H2 → H4) breaks the document outline that screen readers and AI engines parse.
Article length ≥ 600 words
Articles ≥ 600 words rank better on average for competitive keywords. Depth wins.
Keyword density 0.5%-2.5%
Too few mentions = weak topical signal. Too many = spam penalty risk.
Keyword in first 100 words
Confirms page topic immediately, both Google and AI extract the opening as a quality signal.
At least 2 internal links
Internal links pass topical authority and help users discover related content on your site.
At least 1 external link
Citing authoritative sources improves trust signals and is rewarded by Google.
≥80% of images have alt text
Required for accessibility, and gives Google an image description for ranking in Image Search.
Modern image formats (webp/avif)
Modern formats load 30-50% faster than JPG/PNG, direct Core Web Vitals improvement.
Canonical link tag present
Prevents duplicate-content penalties when the same article exists at multiple URLs.
Open Graph tags
Controls the preview when someone shares your article on social media, drives shares and clicks.
Mobile viewport meta
Without viewport meta, mobile browsers zoom out, terrible UX and a confirmed ranking penalty.
HTTPS protocol
HTTPS is a confirmed Google ranking signal; HTTP is flagged "not secure" in Chrome.
Article schema (JSON-LD)
Article schema makes your page eligible for rich SERP features (date, author, image).

13 AEO / GEO checks (AI citation)

Direct-answer paragraph (40-80 words)
AI engines extract the first paragraph as the answer snippet. A clear opening = direct citation.
≥30% headings phrased as questions
Question-style headings match how users ask AI engines like ChatGPT, high citation rate.
FAQPage schema
FAQPage JSON-LD is the single strongest signal for AI citation. Worth the effort to add.
HowTo schema
Unlocks step-by-step rich snippets and improves AI tutorial citations.
At least 2 bullet lists
AI engines preferentially cite bullet lists, they're easy to extract as direct answers.
At least 1 numbered list
Numbered lists signal ordered information (steps, rankings), strong AI citation pattern.
At least 1 data table
Tables are highly extractable. Comparison data ranks well in AI engine answers.
Definition-style sentence ("X is Y")
AI engines love clear definitions for "what is X?" queries. One sentence can rank you.
≥3 numeric facts
Concrete numbers make content factual and citation-worthy for AI engines.
Author byline present
AI engines (especially Google AI Overviews) heavily weight E-E-A-T author signals.
Publish date metadata
AI engines prefer fresh content. Without a date, they assume the article is stale.
Readability score ≥ 60
AI engines prefer plain language, easier to parse, easier to cite. Supports English & Polish.
TL;DR or summary section
TL;DR sections are first-class citations for AI engines, they're designed to be quoted.
///FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is the SEO + AEO Article Checker really free?

Yes. No signup, no credit card, no API key. Run up to 10 audits per hour from your IP address. All 33 checks run free, you see the full report, and you can share results with anyone.

What is AEO and how does it differ from SEO?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), also called GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), is the practice of optimizing content so AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews cite it in their answers. SEO optimizes for blue-link rankings on Google. AEO optimizes for being the answer the AI gives. The two overlap (clean structure helps both) but emphasize different signals, AEO weighs FAQ schema, direct-answer paragraphs, and citation-friendly formatting more heavily.

Will my article rank on ChatGPT after I fix all 33 checks?

Fixing all checks gets you the strongest possible technical foundation, but ranking on AI engines also depends on brand authority, backlinks, and freshness, same as Google. Think of this checker as removing technical blockers, not as a guaranteed ranking. Most articles that score above 80 see citation rates 3-5x higher than articles scoring below 50.

How accurate is the scoring algorithm?

The 33 checks are deterministic and based on documented SEO/AEO best practices from Google, OpenAI, and recent academic research on AI citation patterns. There is no LLM judgment involved, same article gives the same score every time. The score is "optimized for current best practices", not "predicted Google ranking position", those depend on competition and backlinks we cannot measure from a single URL.

Does the checker work for Polish or non-English articles?

Yes. Structural checks (headings, schema, links, images, metadata) are language-agnostic and work for any language. Readability uses the Pisarek index for Polish content and Flesch Reading Ease for English. For other languages we fall back to Flesch with a disclosure note. We auto-detect language from the html lang attribute or content patterns.

What happens after I run an audit?

You see your overall score, two sub-scores (SEO and AEO/GEO), the top 3 quick wins with explanations, and the full breakdown of all 33 checks with actionable suggestions. You can copy the result URL to share with your team, anyone opening it sees the same scores via a preview card. Or click "Get 5 Free Articles" to use Articfly's AI to automatically generate fixed versions optimized for both engines.

Can I share my audit results with my team?

Yes. After an audit completes, the page URL contains the result data. Copy it and share, the recipient sees the score summary plus a "Re-run full audit" button to get the complete check list. Sharing on Twitter or LinkedIn automatically generates a custom score card preview image.

Why two scores instead of one?

A single score hides the trade-off most content writers face today: an article can rank great on Google but get ignored by ChatGPT, or vice versa. The two scores let you see exactly where you're strong and weak. A blog post might score 85 on SEO but 35 on AEO, that's a clear signal to add FAQ schema and direct-answer paragraphs, not to rewrite the whole article.

///READY?

Stop guessing. Start scoring.

Run an audit above, free, no signup. Then let Articfly auto-fix your articles so they rank on Google and get cited by ChatGPT.

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