The State of AEO

What will the report measure?

The report measures the machine-readability of real sites: how well their content survives the trip from HTML into an AI engine's answer. Each headline number comes straight from the CLEAR scores Audaeo already produces, aggregated across the sample and stripped of anything that identifies a site. These are the figures it will lead with.

How is it measured?

The method is the product, run at scale and anonymized. We publish the methodology in full before any number, because a report that cannot show its work is not evidence. Here is the approach the first edition will follow.

1. 1
   Draw a defensible sample

   Audit a set of real sites large enough to report on, with the segment and sample size stated up front. [PLACEHOLDER — set N and the segment definition with the data owner.]

2. 2
   Score every site with CLEAR

   Run the same CLEAR audit on each site, scoring every page 0 to 100 across the five dimensions from both the human and the AI-agent view. The method is identical to a customer audit, which is what makes the aggregate credible.

3. 3
   Anonymize and aggregate

   Strip anything that identifies a site, then aggregate the distributions: averages, medians, and the share of sites failing each machine-readability check. No single site is named or reconstructable from the report.

4. 4
   Publish the methodology, then the numbers

   Ship the sample definition, the scoring method, and the date range first. Only then do the figures go live, each one traceable to the run behind it, and refreshed on a stated cadence.

When does it publish, and how often?

The plan is to publish once the sample is large enough to defend, then refresh on a regular cadence so the report tracks the category over time, a State of AEO 2026, then 2027. The date and cadence are set with the data owner, not guessed.

Why will these numbers be trustworthy?

Because they come from the product, not from a survey or a guess. Every figure is a real CLEAR score from a real audit, measured the same way for every site, with the methodology in the open. That is harder to fake than a headline stat, and it is the reason the report is worth waiting for rather than filling with numbers we cannot stand behind.