There are only two Answer Engine Optimization plugins on WordPress right now. One has been sitting in the plugin directory for months collecting dust. The other is about to blow the roof off this category.
If you’ve been searching for an AEO WordPress plugin, a WordPress AI SEO plugin, or even just a free SEO plugin for WordPress that actually handles AI search, you’ve probably found both already. You’re wondering which one to install.
I tested both side by side. This comparison breaks down exactly what each one does, where the gaps are, and which one makes more sense for different use cases.
- Quick Verdict: Who Wins?
- AEO God Mode. It’s not even a contest.
- The Answer Engine Optimization plugin by AnswerSEO runs 10 checks on your homepage and lets you manually type FAQs into a text box. That’s what you get.
- AEO God Mode runs 12 active modules across your entire site. It tracks 14 AI bots. It generates your llms.txt file automatically. It auto-detects and injects 8 schema types. And the Pro version can actually prove whether ChatGPT and Perplexity cite your pages. Nobody else can do that.
- The free version of AEO God Mode packs more features than AnswerSEO’s paid upgrade. Read the full breakdown below.
The Full Feature Comparison
Numbers don’t lie. Here’s every feature side by side.
| Feature | AnswerSEO (Free) | AEO God Mode (Free) | AEO God Mode (Pro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homepage AEO audit | ✅ 10 checks | ✅ Content Gap Scanner covers ALL posts | ✅ |
| Per-post audit | ❌ Basic meta box | ✅ Scans up to 500 posts | ✅ |
| Manual FAQ editor | ✅ Text area | Not needed. Auto-detects FAQ content | Auto-detects |
| FAQ Schema (JSON-LD) | ✅ Manual toggle | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| HowTo Schema | ❌ | ✅ Auto-detected | ✅ |
| Article Schema | ❌ | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| Organization Schema | ❌ | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| WebSite Schema | ❌ | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| BreadcrumbList Schema | ❌ | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| LocalBusiness Schema | ❌ | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| Product Schema (Woo) | ❌ | ✅ Auto-generated | ✅ |
| Speakable Schema | ✅ Manual toggle | ✅ HTTP header | ✅ |
| AI Crawler Logging | ❌ | ✅ 14 bots, custom DB | ✅ |
| AI Crawler Analytics | ❌ | ✅ Per-bot stats | ✅ |
| llms.txt Generator | ❌ | ✅ Auto-builds | ✅ |
| AI HTTP Headers | ❌ | ✅ 5 headers | ✅ |
| Robots.txt AI Rules | ❌ | ✅ 12 crawlers | ✅ |
| Conflict Detection | ❌ | ✅ 7 conflict types | ✅ |
| Setup Wizard | ❌ | ✅ 5-step guided | ✅ |
| Schema Validator | ❌ | ✅ Full validation | ✅ |
| Citation Tracker | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude |
| Citability Score | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ 10-signal A-F grading |
| AI Referral Traffic | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ 8+ sources |
| E-E-A-T Schema | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Google Search Console | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ OAuth 2.0 |
| Works with Yoast/Rank Math | No detection | ✅ Auto-detects, defers | ✅ |
| Admin UI | Standard WordPress admin | Full React dashboard | Full React dashboard |
| Price | Free | Free | £90/yr (5 sites) |
Count the green checkmarks. AnswerSEO has 4 features. AEO God Mode Free has 16. AEO God Mode Pro adds 5 more that don’t exist anywhere else on WordPress.
What AnswerSEO’s Plugin Actually Does
Let’s be fair first.
When you install Answer Engine Optimization by AnswerSEO, you get one admin page. There’s a button: “Audit Your AEO Status.” Hit it. The plugin fetches your homepage HTML and runs 10 pass/fail checks:
- Featured Snippet Ready (H1 under 60 characters)
- Quick Answer Block (short definition paragraph near the top)
- Structured Data (any JSON-LD scripts on the page)
- FAQ Schema (FAQPage type present)
- Speakable Schema (speakable markup found)
- Meta Description (50 to 160 characters)
- Readable Sentences (average 10-25 words)
- Voice-Friendly Paragraph (one paragraph under 30 words)
- Page Title (under 60 characters)
- Structured Headings (H2 or H3 tags)
You get a score out of 10. Green rows for pass, red for fail.
There’s also a per-post meta box. You manually type FAQ questions and answers. Toggle FAQ schema on or off. Toggle Speakable schema. Add a text summary.
That’s it.
What It’s Missing
This is where it falls apart for anyone serious about AI search.
No AI crawler tracking. You have zero idea if GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, or any AI bot visits your site. You’re flying blind. AEO God Mode logs every AI bot visit with timestamps, URLs, and bot names.
No llms.txt. This is the new standard for telling AI crawlers what your site covers. OpenAI and Perplexity look for it. AnswerSEO doesn’t generate it. Here is why llms.txt matters.
No AI HTTP headers. When ChatGPT’s crawler hits your page, it looks for signals like X-AI-Crawl and X-AI-Citeable. AnswerSEO sends nothing.
Schema? Only FAQ. It can check if JSON-LD exists on a page. But it only generates FAQ schema, and only when you manually toggle it per post. No Article. No Organization. No HowTo. No Product. No LocalBusiness. No WebSite. No BreadcrumbList. AEO God Mode’s schema engine handles all 8 types automatically.
No conflict detection. Run Yoast or Rank Math alongside AnswerSEO, and there’s no check for duplicate schema or conflicting output. You could end up with broken structured data and never know.
Homepage only. The audit only runs on your homepage. Your blog posts? Product pages? Landing pages? Never checked. AEO God Mode’s Content Gap Scanner checks up to 500 published posts for 10+ AEO signals.
What AEO God Mode Does Differently
AEO God Mode doesn’t audit one page and call it a day. It adds real AEO infrastructure to your entire WordPress site. And I want to be honest here: I’m not sure every site needs all 12 modules right now. AI search is still shifting fast. But the difference between having these tools and not having them is the difference between seeing what’s coming and getting blindsided by it.
Free Version: What Every Site Gets
AI Crawler Allowlist and Visit Log. Tracks 14 AI bots: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, GoogleOther, Bingbot, and more. Every visit gets logged in a custom database table. Old data auto-purges after 90 days. See which AI bots hit your site.
llms.txt Generator. Builds and serves a structured context file at your-site.com/llms.txt. Pulls from your site name, categories, top pages, and business info. Cached for 24 hours. No manual work. Learn how llms.txt compares to robots.txt.
Schema Engine with 8 types. Auto-detects content and injects WebSite, Organization, Article, FAQPage, HowTo, BreadcrumbList, LocalBusiness, and Product schema. If Yoast or Rank Math already handle a type, AEO God Mode backs off automatically. Zero conflicts.
Content Gap Scanner. Checks up to 500 posts for missing AEO signals: missing schema, no FAQ structure, no definitive answers, missing meta. You get a per-post fix list.
Schema Validator. Validates your JSON-LD against required and recommended fields for each schema type. Catches errors before Google or ChatGPT does.
Conflict Detector. Scans for 7 conflict types with Yoast and Rank Math: meta title, meta description, schema output, robots.txt, sitemap, canonical, and Open Graph. Choose to defer, override, or merge.
AI HTTP Headers. Sends 5 AI-specific headers on every page load: X-AI-Crawl, X-AI-Citeable, X-Content-License, X-AI-Content-Type, and a Link header pointing to your llms.txt file.
Robots.txt Manager. Per-bot allow/disallow rules for 12 AI crawlers.
5-Step Setup Wizard. Detects Yoast, Rank Math, or AIOSEO. Imports your settings. Everything configured in under 5 minutes.
Pro Version: £90/yr for 5 Sites
Citation Tracker. The feature no other WordPress plugin has. Queries ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude to check if they cite your pages. You finally get proof whether your AEO work pays off. See how Citation Tracker works.
Citability Score. A 10-signal system that grades each page from A to F. Tells you exactly what needs fixing. Full scoring breakdown here.
AI Referral Traffic. Tracks real visitors from 8+ AI sources. IPs are hashed with SHA-256 for privacy. AI Referral Traffic details.
E-E-A-T Schema. Adds Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness signals to your author and organization schema. E-E-A-T Schema details.
Google Search Console. Full OAuth 2.0 connection with encrypted token storage. Search Console integration.
A Real Example: What Happens When You Install Both
I set up a test site with 47 blog posts back in January 2026. Installed AnswerSEO first. Ran the audit. Got a 6/10 score on the homepage. Decent enough. But I had no idea if any AI bot had ever visited any of my 47 posts. No llms.txt. No schema beyond what Rank Math already added.
Then I installed AEO God Mode alongside it. Within 3 minutes, the setup wizard detected Rank Math, imported settings, and toggled on the crawler log. Within 24 hours, the log showed GPTBot had crawled 12 of my posts. PerplexityBot hit 4. ClaudeBot visited once. I had no idea any of that was happening before.
The Content Gap Scanner flagged 31 of my 47 posts as missing FAQ schema. It flagged 19 missing a definitive answer block after the first H2. That’s the kind of granularity AnswerSEO’s homepage-only audit can never give you.
How Does It Stack Up Against Yoast, Rank Math, and AIOSEO?
Quick clarification: AEO God Mode is NOT a replacement for Yoast or Rank Math. It sits alongside them. They handle traditional SEO (titles, metas, sitemaps). AEO God Mode handles what they skip: AI bots, llms.txt, citations, and AI-specific schema.
| Feature | Yoast SEO | Rank Math | AIOSEO | AEO God Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titles and Meta | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ (by design) |
| XML Sitemap | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Schema | Basic | Many types | Yes | 8 auto-detected types |
| AI Crawler Logging | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ 14 bots |
| llms.txt | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Citation Tracker | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ Pro |
| AI Referrals | ❌ | Partial (GA) | ❌ | ✅ Pro |
| Citability Score | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ Pro |
| Conflict Detection | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
None of the big three SEO plugins track AI bots. None generate llms.txt. None tell you if ChatGPT cites your pages.
Pricing Side by Side
| AnswerSEO | AEO God Mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 10 homepage checks + FAQ editor | 12 modules, 8 schema types, llms.txt, AI bot logging, conflict detection, validator |
| Paid tier | Unknown price, Gumroad link, vague claims | £90/yr Pro (5 sites), £290/yr Agency (unlimited) |
| What paid adds | Unclear | Citation Tracker, Citability Score, AI Referrals, E-E-A-T, GSC |
Who Should Use Which?
Use AnswerSEO if you want a quick homepage score and nothing else. You don’t care about AI crawlers, llms.txt, or whether AI engines cite your content. This plugin gives you a basic checklist. That’s fine if you’re just curious.
Use AEO God Mode if you want actual AEO infrastructure. You want to know which AI bots visit your site. You want llms.txt generated without lifting a finger. You want schema across all your content. You want proof that AI search engines reference your pages.
If you’re serious about AI search visibility in 2026, the choice is obvious. AEO God Mode’s free tier outperforms AnswerSEO’s paid offering. The Pro tier has features that flat out don’t exist anywhere else on WordPress.
Try AEO God Mode free and see for yourself.