Start an AEO review with one important service page and one real customer question. Check whether the page is accessible, whether it answers the question accurately, and whether a visitor can verify your claims and take the next step. Record the starting point before making changes.
A small review is easier to act on than a long scorecard. For a charity, start with the appeal or donation page that matters most to current fundraising. For a private practice, choose a treatment or clinician page that should help someone decide whether to enquire. These are proposed starting points, not a claim that either page has a search problem.
Choose a question with a business purpose
Write the question in the words a visitor might use. “What does a charity website package include?” is a different task from “How do I claim Gift Aid?” The first belongs on a commercial scope page; the second needs accurate specialist guidance. Do not make one page pretend to solve every related question.
Inspect the page a visitor actually receives
- Open the canonical URL on a phone. Can you identify the service, audience and next step without reading a long introduction?
- Check the response status and indexability. Review Search Console’s URL Inspection result when you have access; a local checker cannot establish Google’s chosen canonical.
- Check the specific URL against the intended search crawler rules. Treat search access and training permission as separate decisions.
- Follow the links to evidence, pricing and contact. Submit a controlled enquiry and confirm that it was received.
Replace vague claims with useful details
Make a short list of claims that a prospective client would reasonably want to verify. For each, record the source, owner and review date. A clinician credential belongs with its authoritative register; a project result needs a baseline, reporting period and source data. Where evidence is missing, state the delivery facts you can support rather than inventing a performance number.
Record observations before and after the change
Save the page URL, date, relevant Search Console figures and the exact change made. If you sample an AI answer, record the question, product, date, answer and cited URLs. A mention of your name is different from a link to your website. A single answer is an observation, not a ranking or reliable market-share estimate.
Prioritise the next action
| Finding | Useful next action |
|---|---|
| Page cannot be indexed | Resolve the specific access or indexing issue. |
| Scope is unclear | Explain inclusions, responsibilities and pricing. |
| Claims lack evidence | Add a source or replace the claim with a supported fact. |
| Enquiry is not received | Repair and retest the submission path. |
| No baseline is available | Establish measurement before reporting improvement. |
Keep a change log and review equivalent periods. Do not present a technical checklist score as the probability of an AI citation. The review is complete when it produces a prioritised, testable action list with an owner for each item.