AIA Matrix

Improving Your Score

Practical, prioritized steps to raise your AIA Score, organized by which index they affect.

Start with whichever index is currently lowest on your dashboard — improvements there will move your overall score the most.

If Your Structure Index (S) Is Low

The Structure Index measures how cleanly an AI system can parse your page's HTML and outline.

Use semantic HTML tags instead of generic divs

<!-- Weak -->
<div class="header">...</div>
<div class="main-content">...</div>

<!-- Strong -->
<header>...</header>
<main>...</main>
<article>...</article>

Replacing generic <div> and <span> wrappers with <article>, <section>, <main>, <header>, and <footer> directly raises your Semantic Score.

Fix your heading hierarchy

  • Every page should have exactly one <h1>
  • Never skip levels (no jumping from <h1> straight to <h3>)
  • Keep headings in logical order — don't place an <h3> before its parent <h2>

A broken heading outline is one of the most common — and most penalized — structural issues. See Generative Structure for the full breakdown of how this is scored.

If Your Explicitness Index (E) Is Low

The Explicitness Index measures factual clarity and structured-data signals.

Increase fact density

Replace vague claims with specific, verifiable statements:

Weak:    "We've been helping businesses for years."
Stronger: "Founded in 2000, we've served over 200 clients across 
           Marin County and the Bay Area."

Names, numbers, dates, and locations all increase Fact Density — one of the direct inputs to your AI Derived Score.

Reduce ambiguity

Avoid filler phrases, hedged claims, and vague marketing language ("industry-leading," "best-in-class") that carry no extractable meaning. AI systems discount language that can't be verified or pinned to a concrete fact.

Close unanswered questions

If a page describes a service but never states pricing, location, or scope, that gap counts against you. Make sure every page answers the obvious questions a reader — human or AI — would have after reading it.

Add or fix Schema.org markup

Implement structured data for whichever types apply to your content: Organization, WebSite, Article, Product, FAQPage, HowTo. Validate your markup using Google's Rich Results Test — invalid or incomplete schema doesn't count toward your Schema Score even if it's present in your code.

Add the AI-Readable File Layers

This is the single highest-leverage action for the Explicitness Index. Implementing llms.txt, the Semantic Knowledge Graph, and the Markdown Knowledge Base gives AI systems dense, unambiguous, purpose-built content to draw from — directly improving both your Schema Score and AI Derived Score.

If Your Accessibility Index (A) Is Low

The Accessibility Index measures whether AI crawlers can actually retrieve your content at all.

Fix internal broken links

Run a crawl of your own site and resolve any internal 404s. See Troubleshooting for how to find and fix these using free tools like the WordPress Redirection plugin.

Reduce reliance on client-side JavaScript rendering

If your site's main content only appears after JavaScript executes, many crawlers — including some AI crawlers — may never see it. Server-side rendering or static generation for key pages significantly improves crawl reliability.

Improve Core Web Vitals

Slow Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and high Total Blocking Time (TBT) both count against you. Use PageSpeed Insights to identify specific performance issues.

Avoid aggressive bot-blocking

Review your robots.txt and any firewall/CDN-level bot rules to make sure you're not inadvertently blocking legitimate AI crawlers. See AI Crawlers for a full reference of which user-agents to allow.

Add a dedicated AI retrieval endpoint

Per the AIA scoring methodology, a valid structured JSON endpoint dedicated to AI retrieval — your /semantic/index.json — can raise your Accessibility Index to its maximum, even if the rest of your site has technical accessibility challenges. This is the fastest way to improve a low Accessibility score without a full site rebuild.

A Note on Priority

Because Structure and Explicitness are each weighted 40% (compared to Accessibility's 20%), improvements there generally move your overall score further. That said, Accessibility issues are often the fastest to fix — broken links and missing schema can sometimes be resolved in an afternoon, while structural HTML changes may require more development time.

A practical approach: fix Accessibility issues first for quick wins, then invest in Structure and Explicitness improvements for the larger score gains.

Re-Scanning

After making changes, re-scan your page to see your updated score. Professional plan users can track score history over time on their dashboard — see Quickstart for how to run a scan.

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