Axiom Wave — AEO & GEO Readiness Dashboard
What Are AEO & GEO?
The way people discover information is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Traditional search — typing keywords and clicking through blue links — is giving way to AI-powered answer engines that synthesise direct responses from multiple sources. This shift demands two new optimisation disciplines alongside traditional SEO:
AEO
Answer Engine Optimisation — structuring content so AI systems can extract and present direct answers in featured snippets, voice search, and AI Overviews
GEO
Generative Engine Optimisation — crafting authoritative, citable content that AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini cite when generating synthesised responses
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation — the essential foundation. If you don't rank well in traditional search, AI platforms won't find you either
The Triple-Threat Strategy: SEO builds your base, AEO gives you precision in direct answers, and GEO earns you AI presence. These are layers, not separate strategies. Axiom Wave needs all three working together to maintain visibility as AI reshapes discovery.
Axiom Wave Overall AEO/GEO Readiness
Based on analysis of 4,562 indexable pages across the Axiom Wave website, scored against current industry best practices from Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, and leading GEO research.
- Schema & Structured Data: 72/100
- Content Depth: 48/100
- FAQ & Answer Readiness: 28/100
- Internal Linking: 55/100
- Page Structure (H1/H2): 77/100
- Technical Performance: 88/100
Composite Readiness Score: 61/100 — Axiom Wave has a strong technical and schema foundation but significant gaps in answer-readiness content, FAQ coverage, and content depth that must be addressed to compete in AI-powered discovery.
Site Crawl Snapshot
- Indexable Pages: 4,562
- Pages with Schema: 92%
- Thin Content (<300 words): 29%
- FAQ Schema Coverage: 6.3%
- Missing H1 Tags: 23%
- Avg Response Time: 0.19s
The AI Search Revolution: Why This Matters Now
AI-powered search is no longer an emerging trend — it is the present reality. Gartner predicts a 25% drop in traditional search engine volume by 2026, and the data supports this shift accelerating faster than anticipated.
- Weekly ChatGPT users (Jul 2025): 700M
- Zero-click searches in 2025: 60% (77% on mobile)
- Daily "search-like" ChatGPT prompts: 66M
- Projected US revenue through AI search by 2028: $750B (McKinsey)
How People Actually Use ChatGPT
OpenAI's September 2025 research paper, studying billions of ChatGPT messages, reveals critical insights for Axiom Wave's strategy:
- Practical Guidance: 38%
- Seeking Info: 25%
- Writing: 17%
- Coding: 4%
- Other: 16%
Source: OpenAI "How People Use ChatGPT" (Sep 2025). ~80% of usage falls into Practical Guidance, Seeking Information, and Writing.
Key implication for Axiom Wave: "Seeking Information" — the category most analogous to web search — is the second-largest use case. Users are increasingly asking AI assistants questions like "What is the best mobile plan for international travel?" or "How does 5G home broadband compare to fibre?" — exactly the queries a telecoms provider must be optimised for.
From Keywords to Conversations: The Telecoms Opportunity
Traditional keyword-based search is evolving into natural-language, conversational queries. Here's how this affects Axiom Wave:
- 5G plans UK: "What's the best 5G plan for a family of four who stream a lot?"
- roaming charges Europe: "Will I be charged extra for using my phone in Spain this summer?"
- business broadband: "What broadband speed does a 50-person office need for video conferencing?"
- IoT connectivity: "How can IoT sensors help my logistics company track fleet vehicles?"
The shift is clear: AI-powered search demands content that directly answers specific, scenario-based questions — not generic keyword-stuffed pages. When an AI Overview appears, the #1 traditional result loses 34.5% of its clicks. Only 52% of sources cited in AI Overviews come from the top 10 search results — meaning well-structured, authoritative content can leapfrog traditional rankings.
Six GEO Trends Shaping 2026
| # | Trend | Implication for Axiom Wave |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI visibility as core KPI — brands will track AI citations alongside web traffic | Axiom Wave needs AI visibility monitoring tooling immediately |
| 2 | Content depth over keyword volume — authority and evidence-backed content wins | 29% of pages are thin content (<300 words) — a critical gap |
| 3 | Brand mentions replace rankings — no "positions" in AI, only citations | Axiom Wave needs a proactive brand-mention strategy |
| 4 | Personalised AI answers — context-aware, user-specific responses | Content must address specific personas and scenarios |
| 5 | Platform loyalty forming — users sticking to preferred AI engines | Must optimise for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AND Google AI Overviews |
| 6 | Local + personalised GEO — 84% of consumers search for local businesses daily | Market-specific content for each European and African operation |
Content Depth Analysis
AEO and GEO best practices demand content that is comprehensive enough for AI to extract meaningful answers. Pages with fewer than 300 words are considered "thin" and unlikely to be cited by AI systems.
- Thin (<300): 1,329 (29.1%)
- Moderate (300-999): 1,642 (36.0%)
- Good (1,000-1,999): 1,238 (27.1%)
- Deep (2,000+): 353 (7.7%)
Finding: Nearly 1 in 3 indexable pages (29.1%) has fewer than 300 words. The median word count is just 680. For AEO/GEO, deep, authoritative content (1,000+ words) is ideal for earning AI citations — yet only 34.8% of pages meet this threshold.
Page Structure & Heading Hierarchy
Clear H1→H2→H3 heading hierarchy is essential for AI systems to parse content structure. Missing headings reduce a page's chances of being selected for AI answers.
- Pages with H1 Tag: 77%
- Pages with H2 Tags: 77.3%
- Missing Meta Descriptions: 30.4%
- Avg Title Length (chars): 56
Assessment: H1 and H2 coverage at 77% is decent but leaves 1,047 indexable pages without an H1 — these pages are essentially invisible to AI heading-based parsing. The 30.4% missing meta descriptions also reduce snippet eligibility.
Internal Linking Health
Strong internal linking helps AI crawlers discover and contextualise content. Orphan pages (0–1 inlinks) are especially vulnerable to being missed by both search engines and AI systems.
- Orphan Pages (0-1 inlinks): 15.6%
- Average Inlinks per Page: 77.7
- Median Inlinks (skewed by nav): 4
- Pages with Zero Outlinks: 201
Finding: 594 pages (15.6%) are orphaned with 0–1 inlinks. The median of just 4 inlinks shows that beyond sitewide navigation, most pages receive minimal contextual cross-linking. Additionally, 201 pages have zero outlinks — dead ends that hinder AI from understanding topical relationships.
Readability Distribution
AI systems favour clear, accessible content. Readability levels should target "Normal" to "Fairly Easy" for consumer-facing telecoms content.
- Very Easy: 776 (21.5%)
- Easy: 353 (9.8%)
- Fairly Easy: 886 (24.5%)
- Normal: 1,077 (29.8%)
- Fairly Hard: 355 (9.8%)
- Hard/Very Hard: 161 (4.5%)
Positive: 85.6% of content falls in the "Very Easy" to "Normal" range — well-suited for AI extraction. The 14.4% of harder content likely sits in investor/regulatory sections and may benefit from plain-language summaries.
Crawl Depth Distribution
Content buried beyond 3 clicks from the homepage is less likely to be crawled by AI systems. AEO best practice recommends keeping priority content within 3 levels.
- Depth 0-2: 549 (12%)
- Depth 3: 1,206 (26.4%)
- Depth 4-5: 1,413 (31%)
- Depth 6+: 1,394 (30.6%)
Concern: Only 38.4% of indexable pages sit within 3 clicks of the homepage. Over 30% of content is buried at depth 6 or deeper — these pages are unlikely to be crawled by AI systems. High-value answer content should be elevated closer to the surface.
Schema & Structured Data Coverage
Structured data is a critical trust signal for AI systems. While schema may not be used by all AI platforms yet, it makes content machine-readable and is "an easy way to convert content into structured data that makes it easier for AI search platforms to retrieve and interpret information".
- Pages with Any Schema: 3,500 (91.9%)
- BreadcrumbList Coverage: 3,331
- Article Schema: 1,398
- FAQPage Schema: 239 (6.3%)
- HowTo Schema: 0
- Speakable Schema: 0
Schema Type Distribution (Indexable Pages)
| Schema Type | Pages | Coverage | AEO Importance |
|---|---|---|---|
| BreadcrumbList | 3,331 | 87.5% | Strong |
| Organization | 1,854 | 48.7% | Strong |
| WebSite + SearchAction | 1,853 | 48.6% | Strong |
| Article + Person | 1,398 | 36.7% | Strong |
| WebPage + ReadAction | 1,817 | 47.7% | Moderate |
| Product + Offer | 322 | 8.5% | Needs Growth |
| FAQPage + Question + Answer | 239 | 6.3% | Critical Gap |
| VideoObject | 41 | 1.1% | Opportunity |
| HowTo | 0 | 0% | Missing |
| Speakable | 0 | 0% | Missing |
Schema Validation Issues
- Schema Errors: 2
- Rich Result Errors: 33
- Rich Result Warnings: 1,021
- Pages with NO Schema (8.1%):
Action needed: While schema errors are minimal (2 pages), 1,021 pages have Rich Result warnings — these reduce eligibility for Google rich snippets and AI Overviews. The 33 Rich Result errors should be prioritised for immediate fixes.
Technical Performance
Fast, crawlable sites are preferred by AI systems. Server-side rendering is important because "many AI crawlers seem to have trouble executing JavaScript".
- Mean Response Time: 0.19s
- Median Response Time: 0.16s
- Slow Pages (>2s): 1
- Near-Duplicate Pages: 0
Excellent: Axiom Wave's technical performance is outstanding. Sub-200ms response times across the site, virtually no slow pages, and zero near-duplicate content. This is a strong foundation for AI crawlability.
AEO-Critical Gaps: What's Missing
| Best Practice | Status | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| FAQPage Schema on support/help content | 6.3% coverage | Directly impacts featured snippet and AI Overview eligibility |
| HowTo Schema for guides and tutorials | 0 pages | Misses voice search and step-by-step AI answers |
| Speakable Schema for voice-ready content | 0 pages | Invisible to voice assistants like Google Assistant |
| llms.txt file for AI crawlers | Not detected | Misses opportunity to guide LLM crawlers |
| Question-based H2/H3 headings | Inconsistent | Reduces AI's ability to match content to conversational queries |
| Answer-first content structure | Inconsistent | AI needs the answer in the first 1-2 lines under a heading |
Priority Matrix: Effort vs. Impact
Recommendations plotted by implementation effort (horizontal) and expected impact on AI visibility (vertical).
⚡ Quick Wins (Low Effort, High Impact)
- Add FAQPage schema to existing FAQ/support content — 239 pages have it, hundreds more could qualify
- Create an llms.txt file to guide AI crawlers to priority content
- Fix 33 Rich Result errors blocking snippet eligibility
- Add missing H1 tags to 1,047 pages
- Write meta descriptions for 1,389 pages missing them
🚀 Strategic Investments (High Effort, High Impact)
- Create answer-first content hubs for key telecoms topics (5G, IoT, broadband, roaming)
- Build FAQ sections on every product and service page with schema markup
- Develop HowTo guides with schema for setup, troubleshooting, and comparison content
- Implement Speakable schema on top 200 pages for voice search readiness
- Expand thin content — enrich 1,329 pages under 300 words to 1,000+ words
📋 Maintenance Tasks (Low Effort, Moderate Impact)
- Resolve 1,021 Rich Result warnings across the site
- Add internal links to 594 orphan pages to improve discoverability
- Add outlinks to 201 dead-end pages for topical context
- Restructure headings as questions on informational pages
- Add author bios and E-E-A-T signals to news/blog content
📊 Long-Term Foundations (High Effort, Moderate Impact)
- Flatten site architecture — elevate deep content (30.6% at depth 6+) closer to homepage
- Build market-specific content for each European and African operation
- Implement AI visibility monitoring (track citations in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini)
- Develop original research/data — "State of Connectivity" reports to earn third-party citations
Top 10 Prioritised Recommendations
| # | Recommendation | Effort | Impact | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deploy FAQPage schema across all product, support, and service pages | Low | Critical | 2–4 weeks |
| 2 | Create llms.txt file guiding AI crawlers to core content | Low | High | 1 week |
| 3 | Fix all Rich Result errors (33 pages) and critical warnings | Low | High | 2 weeks |
| 4 | Add missing H1 tags and meta descriptions to 2,000+ pages | Medium | High | 4–6 weeks |
| 5 | Build answer-first content hubs around "What is 5G?", "IoT for business", etc. | High | Critical | 8–12 weeks |
| 6 | Enrich thin content pages — target top 500 thin pages with highest traffic potential | High | Critical | 12–16 weeks |
| 7 | Implement HowTo schema on setup guides, troubleshooting, and comparison content | Medium | High | 4–6 weeks |
| 8 | Add Speakable schema to top 200 most-visited pages | Medium | High | 4 weeks |
| 9 | Rescue orphan pages — add contextual inlinks to 594 pages | Medium | High | 6–8 weeks |
| 10 | Launch AI visibility monitoring to track brand citations across AI engines | Medium | Critical | 4 weeks |
Content Strategy for AI Citability
Beyond technical fixes, Axiom Wave needs a content strategy built for AI citation. Research shows that adding relevant statistics and quotations can boost visibility in AI-generated responses by up to 40%.
What Makes Content AI-Citable
| Principle | Current State | Action Required |
|---|---|---|
| Answer-first structure — direct answer in first 1–2 lines under heading | Inconsistent | Rewrite key page intros with declarative summary sentences |
| Statistics and data points — specific numbers beat vague claims | Moderate | Embed concrete stats (e.g., "339M mobile customers") throughout content |
| Question-based headings — match how users ask AI | Weak | Restructure H2/H3 tags as natural-language questions |
| E-E-A-T signals — author bios, credentials, citations | Moderate | Add author attribution to all blog/news content |
| Topical authority — cover the entire "question tree" | Moderate | Build content clusters around core telecoms topics |
| Original research — "State of X" reports earn 10x more citations | Some reports | Publish quarterly original research with citable data |
Implementation Roadmap
Weeks 1–2: Quick Wins Sprint
Create llms.txt file. Fix 33 Rich Result errors. Deploy FAQPage schema to existing FAQ content. Begin H1 tag remediation across top-traffic pages.
Weeks 3–6: Foundation Building
Write missing meta descriptions (1,389 pages). Implement HowTo schema on guides. Add Speakable schema to top 200 pages. Begin content enrichment for highest-traffic thin pages. Set up AI visibility monitoring.
Weeks 7–12: Content Transformation
Build answer-first content hubs for 5G, IoT, broadband, and roaming. Restructure headings as questions. Add FAQ sections to all product pages. Rescue orphan pages with contextual internal links.
Weeks 13–16: Scale & Optimise
Expand thin content enrichment to remaining pages. Develop market-specific content for European and African operations. Launch first "State of Connectivity" original research report. Flatten site architecture for deep pages.
Ongoing: Monitor & Iterate
Track AI citation metrics weekly. Monitor brand mentions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. Iterate content based on which queries surface Axiom Wave. Audit new content against AEO/GEO checklist before publication.
AEO/GEO Content Checklist for the Team
Apply this checklist to every new piece of content before publication:
| Checkpoint | Details |
|---|---|
| ✅ Answer-first structure | Direct answer in the first 1–2 sentences under each heading |
| ✅ Question-based headings | H2/H3 tags phrased as natural-language questions where appropriate |
| ✅ Schema markup | FAQPage, HowTo, Article, or Speakable schema applied as relevant |
| ✅ Statistics and evidence | At least 3 specific data points per 1,000 words |
| ✅ E-E-A-T signals | Author bio, publication date, last-updated date, clear sourcing |
| ✅ Internal linking | At least 3 contextual internal links to related content |
| ✅ Content depth | Minimum 1,000 words for informational content; 500+ for product pages |
| ✅ Readability | Flesch Reading Ease score of 60+ (Fairly Easy to Normal range) |
| ✅ Meta description | Compelling, 120–160 characters, includes primary answer |
| ✅ Voice-ready | Key answers readable aloud in under 30 seconds |
Appendix: Sources & References
This assessment draws on the following industry sources, all accessed in March 2026:
- Ahrefs — "Answer Engine Optimization: How to Win in AI-Powered Search" (Aug 2025)
- Semrush — "Generative Engine Optimization: The New Era of Search" (Feb 2026)
- Search Engine Journal — "The State of AEO & GEO in 2026" (2026)
- Writer.com — "Beyond SEO: The Triple-Threat Optimization Strategy" (May 2025)
- SEO.com — "6 Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Trends for 2026"
- DojoAI — "What is GEO? A 2026 Guide"
- ClickRank — "AEO Best Practices for 2026" (Jan 2026)
- Devenup — "Top 5 Trends in Generative Engine Optimization for 2026"
- AirOps — "AEO: How To Optimize Content for Answer Engine Optimization" (Jan 2026)
- Yahoo Finance / Brandi AI — "2026 Trends for GEO & AEO" (Feb 2026)
- Passionfruit — "SEO vs GEO vs AEO: Strategy & Trends" (2025)
- OpenAI — "How People Use ChatGPT" Research Paper (Sep 2025)
Methodology: This assessment was conducted by analysing three website crawl datasets (internal pages, links, structured data) containing 7,599 URLs, combined with manual inspection of the live website and benchmarking against AEO/GEO best practices from 12+ authoritative industry sources. Readiness scores are calculated from weighted metrics across six dimensions.