Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about ContentOptima, GEO, AI search optimization, and our pricing.
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What is ContentOptima
What is ContentOptima?
ContentOptima is an AI search optimization (GEO) tool that analyzes your web pages against 34 specific pass/fail checks and tells you exactly what to fix so AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview can read, understand, and cite your content.
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
GEO is the practice of optimizing your content so AI search engines can understand, extract, and cite it. It's the evolution of SEO for the AI era — focusing on content structure, clarity, facts, and trust signals rather than just keywords and backlinks. ContentOptima is the first tool purpose-built for GEO.
How is ContentOptima different from traditional SEO tools?
Traditional SEO tools (Surfer SEO, Clearscope, NeuronWriter) optimize for Google's ranking algorithm — keywords, backlinks, page speed. ContentOptima optimizes for how AI engines read and cite your content. It uses deterministic pass/fail checks instead of subjective AI-generated scores, so you get the same score for the same content every time.
Why should I care about AI search optimization?
AI search is growing rapidly. Google AI Overview appears in 40%+ of searches, organic click-through rates have dropped 7-13% in the past year, and millions of people now use ChatGPT and Perplexity as their primary search tools. When AI engines answer questions directly, the new premium visibility is being the source they cite.
Which AI search engines does ContentOptima optimize for?
ContentOptima optimizes for all AI search engines including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, Claude, Gemini, and any system that reads and cites web content. The 34 checks are based on universal content quality signals that all AI engines value when deciding which sources to reference.
Does ContentOptima replace my existing SEO tools?
No. ContentOptima complements your SEO toolkit. Traditional SEO tools handle keywords, backlinks, and technical SEO. ContentOptima adds the GEO layer — ensuring your content is structured for AI citation. Use both for complete coverage.
How It Works
What are the 34 checks?
The checks are organized into 5 categories: Structure (13 checks, 25 points) covers HTML elements like H1, meta description, H2 subheadings, heading hierarchy, images, alt text, FAQ sections, schema markup, schema type, canonical URL, OG tags, internal links, and multi-modal content. Relevance (7 checks, 25 points) evaluates topic alignment including H1 and meta description topic match, first paragraph quality, direct answers, H2 topic coverage, entity coverage, and content clarity. Depth (4 checks, 15 points) measures minimum word count, factual substance, comprehensive coverage, and subtopic completeness. Trust (5 checks, 15 points) checks author attribution, publication dates, content freshness, external citations, and E-E-A-T signals. Citability (3 checks, 20 points) evaluates answer-first section structure, data and statistic density, and self-contained extractable passages.
Why is my homepage not scored on the same things as a blog post?
Because a homepage is not trying to be a blog post. Articles are held to the full set: a named author, a publication date, two external citations, 500 words. A homepage, service page or pricing page is published by the organisation rather than bylined by a person, so those checks are removed from its total instead of failing it. A category page is not judged on word count or citations either, because its job is to link to other pages. Checks that do not apply are excluded from the denominator rather than passed for free, so scores stay comparable between page types. Your report says which type it detected and why.
What does 'deterministic scoring' mean?
It means the score reflects your page, not the mood of a model. Traditional SEO tools generate subjective scores that swing between runs, so you might get 72 today and 58 tomorrow on an unchanged page. ContentOptima runs 19 checks that read your HTML directly and cannot vary at all, and 15 that use AI constrained to yes or no answers, never a rating. Fix one check, gain those exact points. A handful of checks award partial credit where the answer is genuinely a matter of degree, for example how many of your images have alt text.
How do the suggestions work?
Every failed check generates ready-to-use content written in your page's language, with exact placement instructions in English. For example: 'Add after your H2 Services: [paragraph text]'. You copy the suggestion, paste it into your page, and re-analyze to see your score improve by the exact points for that check. Suggestions never invent facts — they use [brackets] for specific numbers you should fill in.
How long does an analysis take?
Typically 20-30 seconds. The engine fetches your page HTML, runs 19 DOM structural checks instantly, sends content to AI for 15 quality checks and suggestion generation, calculates the score, and returns the full report.
Can I analyze pages in any language?
Yes. ContentOptima detects the content language automatically and generates suggestions in the same language. The AI quality checks evaluate content quality regardless of language. The dashboard interface is in English.
Can I analyze text content or only URLs?
Currently ContentOptima analyzes URLs — you paste a web page URL and we fetch and analyze the live HTML content. This gives the most accurate results since we check the actual page structure, meta tags, schema markup, and other HTML elements.
What happens when I re-analyze the same URL?
You get a fresh analysis of the current page content. If you've made changes based on the suggestions, your score should improve by the exact points for the checks you fixed. The score history shows all analyses for the same URL with a comparison chart so you can track progress over time.
How is the score calculated?
Each check has a specific point value. Pass a check = earn those points. Fail = 0. Some checks award partial credit where the answer is a matter of degree, for example 3 of 5 images having alt text. Checks that do not apply to your kind of page are removed from the total rather than passed for free, so a homepage is scored out of 92 and a blog post out of 100. The result is normalised to a 0-100 GEO score with a letter grade, so any two pages can still be compared.
Free Plan & Pricing
Is the free plan really free forever?
Yes. 3 analyses per month, forever, no credit card required. No trial period, no expiration, no feature limitations. You get all 34 checks, AI-generated suggestions, score history, and everything the paid plan offers — just fewer monthly analyses.
What counts as one analysis?
One analysis = one URL analyzed. You paste a URL, we fetch the page, run all 34 checks, and generate suggestions. Re-analyzing the same URL after making changes counts as a new analysis.
Do unused analyses roll over to the next month?
No, the monthly quota resets on the 1st of each month. Unused analyses don't carry over.
What do the paid plans cost?
Starter is $29/month for 50 analyses. Agency is $79/month for 200 analyses. Both include all 34 checks, every AI suggestion, and full score history — the plans differ only in monthly volume.
Billing & Subscriptions
How do I upgrade?
Log in at app.contentoptima.com, open 'Plan & Billing' in the sidebar, and choose Starter or Agency. Checkout is handled by Paddle, our merchant of record, and your new limit is active as soon as payment completes.
Can I cancel any time?
Yes. Open 'Plan & Billing' and click Manage billing to cancel in one click. You keep your paid limit until the end of the period you've already paid for, then drop back to the free plan. No cancellation fee, no email required.
Can I switch between Starter and Agency?
Yes, in either direction, from the same Manage billing screen. Paddle prorates the difference automatically so you're only charged for what you use.
What payment methods do you accept?
All major credit and debit cards, plus PayPal and local methods where available, processed by Paddle. We never see or store your card details. Every invoice is downloadable from the billing portal.
What happens if a payment fails?
Your account keeps working while Paddle retries the charge over roughly two weeks, and you'll get an email to update your card. Access only drops back to the free plan if the subscription is ultimately cancelled.
Do you offer refunds?
Contact us at info@contentoptima.com. Because the free plan lets you test the full product before paying, we handle refund requests case by case rather than by blanket policy.
How do I redeem a licence code?
Log into app.contentoptima.com, go to the 'Redeem Code' page in the sidebar, enter your code, and click Redeem. Your limit is raised instantly, and stacking a second code adds to your existing allowance.
For SEO Agencies
Is ContentOptima suitable for SEO agencies?
Absolutely. ContentOptima was built by an SEO agency (Primecut) specifically to offer GEO as a new service. The deterministic scoring makes client reporting reliable — same page, same score, clear before/after improvements that you can show in reports.
Can I use ContentOptima for client work?
Yes. There are no restrictions on using ContentOptima for client projects. Analyze client URLs, implement the suggestions, and show them measurable score improvements with the score history feature.
How do I show results to clients?
Each analysis has a detail page with a shareable URL showing the full report — score, category breakdown, individual checks, and suggestions. The score history chart shows improvement over time. You can share this link directly with clients or screenshot the results for reports.
Can I offer GEO as a new service?
Yes — this is exactly why we built ContentOptima. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is a new service that most agencies aren't offering yet. You can use ContentOptima to audit client content, provide specific fixes, and demonstrate measurable improvements in AI search readiness.
Do you offer white-label or agency plans?
The Agency plan gives you 200 analyses a month at $79, which covers most client workloads, and there are no restrictions on using ContentOptima for client work on any plan. White-label reporting is on our roadmap — contact us at info@contentoptima.com if you have specific agency needs, we'd love to hear what features would help.
Technical & Security
How do you analyze my pages?
When you submit a URL, our engine fetches the page HTML (similar to how a search engine crawler would), extracts the content structure, runs 19 DOM-based checks on the HTML elements, sends the content to GPT-4o-mini for 15 quality checks (yes/no answers only), calculates the score, and generates suggestions for failed checks.
Is my content stored or shared?
Your analysis results are stored for 90 days so you can review past results and track progress. The content you submit is sent to OpenAI's API for AI-powered checks — OpenAI does not use API data to train their models. We never share your content with third parties for any other purpose.
Where is my data stored?
Your data is stored in a PostgreSQL database on Hetzner managed infrastructure located in the EU (Germany). We use encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) and hashed authentication tokens.
Do you use cookies?
No. We use localStorage for authentication tokens only. We use Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics for website analytics, which may set their own cookies on the marketing site.
Can I delete my account and data?
Yes. Under GDPR, you have the right to have your data erased. Contact us at info@contentoptima.com and we'll delete your account, analysis history, and all associated data.
How do I sign up?
You can sign up at app.contentoptima.com using Google Sign-In or email login (we send a one-time code to your email). No credit card required for the free plan.
Limitations & Troubleshooting
Why does my page show 'unable to analyze' or a very low score?
There are a few common reasons: (1) JavaScript-rendered pages — if your site is built with React, Angular, Vue, or another SPA framework that renders content in the browser, our engine sees only the raw HTML source which may contain very little text. Ensure your site uses server-side rendering (SSR) or static generation so search engines and AI bots can read your content. (2) Cloudflare or WAF protection — some sites block automated requests with services like Cloudflare, Akamai, or similar firewalls. If your page returns a 403 error, the security settings are preventing our engine from fetching the page. (3) Very thin content — pages with fewer than 30 words of text content cannot be meaningfully analyzed.
Which websites can't be analyzed?
ContentOptima works with any publicly accessible page that serves HTML content. Pages that cannot be analyzed include: sites behind Cloudflare Bot Protection or similar WAFs that block non-browser requests, fully client-side rendered SPAs with no server-side HTML, pages behind login walls or paywalls, and pages that return errors (404, 500). If your own site is blocked, consider whitelisting the ContentOptima user agent or ensuring your pages use server-side rendering.
Why does my score change slightly between runs?
ContentOptima uses 19 DOM-based checks (pure HTML inspection, always identical results) and 15 AI-based checks (GPT-4o yes/no evaluations). The DOM checks are 100% deterministic. The AI checks may vary by 1-3 points between runs because AI models are inherently probabilistic. However, the overall score should remain within a narrow range for the same content. If your content hasn't changed, expect variation of no more than 3-5 points.
I got an error saying the page could not be fetched. What should I do?
This usually means the website blocked our request. Try these steps: (1) Check if your site uses Cloudflare — if so, ensure that bot traffic is not fully blocked. (2) Try analyzing a different page on the same site (e.g., a blog post instead of the homepage). (3) If the issue persists, your hosting provider or CDN may be blocking automated requests. Contact them to whitelist our user agent.
Comparisons
ContentOptima vs Surfer SEO — what's the difference?
Surfer SEO optimizes for Google's ranking algorithm using keyword density, SERP analysis, and NLP terms. ContentOptima optimizes for AI search citation using structural checks, content quality evaluation, and trust signals. Surfer gives you subjective scores that vary; ContentOptima gives deterministic pass/fail results. They solve different problems — use Surfer for traditional SEO, ContentOptima for GEO.
ContentOptima vs Clearscope — what's the difference?
Clearscope focuses on content grading based on keyword coverage and readability for traditional search. ContentOptima focuses on whether AI engines can read, understand, and cite your content. Clearscope starts at $129+/month; ContentOptima has a free tier and paid plans from $29/month.
ContentOptima vs NeuronWriter — what's the difference?
NeuronWriter helps you write SEO-optimized content with AI assistance and keyword analysis. ContentOptima analyzes existing pages and tells you exactly what to fix for AI search engines. NeuronWriter is a writing tool; ContentOptima is an analysis and optimization tool. They can work well together.
Do I still need traditional SEO tools?
Yes. ContentOptima doesn't replace keyword research, backlink analysis, or technical SEO auditing. It adds the GEO layer that traditional tools don't cover. Think of it as: SEO tools help you rank, ContentOptima helps you get cited by AI.
Still have questions?
We're happy to help. Reach out and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.