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Guide · How-to

HEO Score vs traditional SEO score — what's the difference?

Traditional SEO scores measure Google ranking factors. HEO Score adds AI engine visibility, answer engine readiness, and structured-data completeness. A site can score 80 on traditional SEO and 40 on HEO — and lose to a competitor who's the opposite.

When to read this:Read this if you've already had an SEO audit done + want to understand what additional work HEO covers.

The steps

How to do it.

  1. 1

    Understand what traditional SEO audits cover

    Standard SEO audits check: crawlability, sitemap, page speed, mobile-friendliness, title tags, meta descriptions, internal linking, content depth, backlinks. All of these are still relevant — they're the SEO Foundation group (8 factors / 25 points) in the HEO framework.

  2. 2

    Understand what HEO audits add

    HEO adds 24 factors traditional SEO doesn't cover: AI engine schema (FAQPage, knowsAbout), /llms.txt, definitive content (glossary), citable statistics, comparison pages, conversational tone, long-tail question pages, Wikidata entries, AI engine citation tracking, and more. These are the AI/Generative (10 factors) + Content (6) + Off-site (4) groups.

  3. 3

    Run both audits to see the gap

    Use any traditional SEO tool (Ahrefs Site Audit, Semrush, Screaming Frog) for the SEO score. Run our free HEO Checker for the HEO score. Compare. Most sites score 60-80 on traditional SEO + 30-50 on HEO — that gap is what AI engine optimisation closes.

  4. 4

    Decide which gap to close first

    If your traditional SEO score is below 60, fix that first (the basics matter most). If it's above 70 but your HEO score is below 50, the higher-leverage move is closing the AI engine gap.

Red flags

What to avoid.

  • An agency claiming their SEO audit 'covers HEO' without showing AI engine test results
  • A score that's only Google-based (won't tell you about AI engine visibility)
  • Tools that promise an 'AI SEO' score without testing real AI engine queries

Where Adsomia fits

Our honest take.

Adsomia's HEO Audit & Roadmap (₹1.25L founding) runs all 32 factors + tests 25 buyer queries across ChatGPT/Gemini/Perplexity/Claude. We give you both scores + the prioritised list of fixes. The free HEO Checker runs an automated version for self-service.

Common questions

FAQs.

Can I just keep doing traditional SEO?

You can — but you're capped at the 60% of search-style queries that still happen on Google.com. The 40%+ happening in AI engines will go to competitors who do HEO.

Does my agency's traditional SEO work need to change?

Not change — extend. Everything traditional SEO does is still valid. HEO adds 24 factors on top.

What's the lowest HEO score worth investing to fix?

Below 30 is critical (you're effectively invisible to AI). 30-50 is recoverable with 90 days of focused work. 50-70 is good — the remaining work is incremental.

Want help applying this to your business?

30-min discovery call. We listen first; written scope inside 48 hours; first deliverable in 14 days.

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