Aramya — AI Search Optimization (AEO / GEO) Audit

Domain: aramya.in | Brand: Aramya (DSLR Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) | Audit date: 2026-08-18 Method: live robots.txt / llms.txt / raw-HTML schema inspection (curl, <script> tags preserved), sitemap enumeration, route-status probing, and alignment with business-analysis.md. Every structural finding below was verified against served HTML, not inferred from cleaned/text-extracted output. Scope note: live AI-answer testing (ChatGPT/Perplexity/Google AI Overviews for specific queries) was NOT run in this environment. The query-fanout plan in §6 is provided for the client to execute monthly; it is the missing half of a full AEO program, not a substitute for the on-site fixes in §4–§5.

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1. Executive Summary

Aramya's technical foundation for AI citation is above average for a D2C fashion brand — better than most Shopify-default setups. The site already allows every major AI crawler, ships a well-formed llms.txt, and — most importantly — emits genuinely strong product schema (Product + Offer + AggregateRating + BreadcrumbList + MerchantReturnPolicy) that AI engines can extract directly. Blog posts carry author + publish-date schema, and the homepage has 13 FAQ questions marked up.

The gaps are in presence and authority, not structure:

1. No "Where to Buy" page — despite selling on D2C + Amazon + Flipkart + Myntra + 13 Bengaluru stores, Aramya is invisible to the high-intent "where to buy Aramya" query class that AI assistants answer constantly.
2. No founder/About/brand-story page — the strongest citation asset Aramya has (founder Ankush Goyal, IIT Delhi; ₹80 Cr Series A; ₹200 Cr+ ARR claims) lives only in third-party PR, not on a citable first-party page. E-E-A-T authority is being left on the table.
3. Store-locator schema is missing — 13 physical addresses render as plain HTML with zero LocalBusiness/Store structured data, so "[brand] near me" AI answers can't be sourced from Aramya.
4. Machine-readable agent files incomplete — pricing.md, agents.md, and sitemap_agentic_discovery.xml all 404 (forward-looking but cheap to add, and pricing.md directly helps agentic buyers).

Bottom line: fix the three presence/authority gaps (P0) and Aramya moves from "decent structure, low AI recall" to "frequently cited in ethnic-wear AI answers." Effort is low-to-moderate; impact on AI visibility is high.

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2. Current-State Scorecard

Capability	Status	Evidence
AI crawlers allowed (robots.txt)	✅ Pass	GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, Bingbot/Copilot all permitted (no Disallow)
llms.txt present	✅ Pass (good)	200; lists core shopping + ~50 collections
Homepage schema	✅ Strong	Organization, WebSite, SearchAction, FAQPage (13 Q&A), ContactPoint
Product schema	✅ Strong	Product + Offer(price/availability) + AggregateRating(ratingCount) + BreadcrumbList + MerchantReturnPolicy
Collection schema	✅ Good	CollectionPage + ItemList + BreadcrumbList
Blog schema	✅ Strong	BlogPosting + author(Person) + datePublished + ImageObject
Policy pages (200, not 404)	✅ Pass	privacy / shipping / return-policy / terms-of-service / fair-policy all 200
Meta descriptions (human-written)	✅ Pass	Homepage + product pages have real descriptions, not auto-generated
"Where to Buy" page	❌ Missing	/where-to-buy, /wheretobuy → 404
About / founder story page	❌ Missing	/about, /our-story, /about-us → 404
Store-locator structured data	❌ Missing	/stores has only BreadcrumbList; no LocalBusiness/Store per location
pricing.md	❌ Missing (404)	Agentic-buyer pricing file absent
agents.md	❌ Missing (404)	Agent instruction file absent
sitemap_agentic_discovery.xml	❌ Missing (404)	Not auto-generated (custom Next.js, not Shopify storefront)
/.well-known/ucp + /api/ucp/mcp	❌ Missing (404)	Emerging agentic-commerce standard; low priority
Homepage H1 topicality	⚠️ Weak	H1 is "10 Lakh+ Women Love Aramya" social-proof banner, not a topical brand descriptor
hreflang	⚠️ Missing	No hreflang="en-IN" on homepage (recommended even for single-market India brand)
Canonical returns URL	⚠️ Non-standard	Live at /return-policy; /returns and /refund-policy 404 — AI/footer should point to canonical

Schema verification method: all schema findings above came from curl of raw HTML grepping application/ld+json — <script> tags are preserved, so these are live on the rendered page, not assumed from platform defaults.

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3. What's Working (Keep Doing)

• Crawler access is open. robots.txt grants the full set of AI search bots. No risk of being unciteable due to blocking.
• Product schema is citation-grade. The combination of Product + Offer (with price/availability) + AggregateRating (with ratingCount) + BreadcrumbList + MerchantReturnPolicy is exactly what the Princeton GEO research and the ai-seo e-commerce guidance call "AI-extractable." Aramya's 4.66/5 average across ~1,374 ratings/product becomes a citable statistic ("4.66/5 from 1,374+ reviews") instead of an invisible visual star.
• Blog hub is real and structured. 78 posts under /blogs/everyday-ethnic-by-aramya with BlogPosting + named author (e.g., Chavi Arora) + datePublished. This is the content engine that fuels "what is a kurta vs kurti," "types of fabrics for kurtis," and styling queries — high-AI-citation content types.
• FAQ schema on homepage + contact. 13 questions marked up; these feed direct-answer extraction.
• Policy pages resolve. No broken footer policy links (a common AI-trust eroder) — returns exists at /return-policy.

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4. Gaps & Prioritized Fixes

Priority legend: P0 = high AI-visibility impact, do first · P1 = meaningful, do next · P2 = forward-looking / minor.

P0-1 — Create a "Where to Buy Aramya" page

• Why: "where to buy Aramya," "is Aramya on Amazon/Flipkart/Myntra," "Aramya near me" are high-intent queries AI assistants answer directly. Aramya sells on 5+ channels (D2C, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, 13 stores) but has no single citable source.
• What: A page at /where-to-buy listing every channel with direct links: aramya.in, the Amazon brand store, Flipkart, Myntra, and the 13 Bengaluru store addresses (link to /stores). Add ItemList/WebPage schema and an H1 "Where to Buy Aramya."
• Effort: Low · Impact: High.

P0-2 — Publish an About / Founder Story page

• Why: The single biggest authority asset — founder Ankush Goyal (IIT Delhi), 2022 founding, vertically integrated Jaipur manufacturing, ₹80 Cr Series A (Z47 + Accel, Feb 2026), ~₹1,438 Cr valuation, ₹200 Cr+ ARR claim — is only in third-party PR (IndianRetailer, Entrackr, Inc42, Apparel Resources). First-party E-E-A-T pages get cited more and let Aramya control its narrative.
• What: A page at /about (or /our-story) with: founder bio + credentials, company timeline, manufacturing/vertical-integration facts, funding facts (dated, sourced), size-inclusivity mission (XS–10XL). Add Organization + Founder/Person schema, author attribution, and a "last updated" date.
• Effort: Low–Medium · Impact: High (authority → citation rate).

P0-3 — Add LocalBusiness/Store schema to the stores page

• Why: /stores lists 13 Bengaluru locations but ships only BreadcrumbList. "[brand] near me" and "Aramya store in [locality]" cannot be sourced from Aramya's own structured data.
• What: Emit LocalBusiness (or Store) JSON-LD per location with name, address (streetAddress, addressLocality, region, postalCode, addressCountry IN), telephone, openingHours, geo, and a Google Maps link. Keep the existing human-readable list.
• Effort: Medium · Impact: High for local/assistant queries.

P1-1 — Add machine-readable agent files

• pricing.md at root: structured price tiers (kurtas ₹399–₹2,699 median ₹599; kurta sets ₹599–₹3,000; bottoms ₹399–₹1,249; etc.) with units and ranges. Helps agentic buyers compare programmatically. (404 today.)
• agents.md at root: concise agent instruction file mirroring llms.txt but explicit ("Aramya sells women's cotton ethnic wear, XS–10XL; purchase at aramya.in / Amazon / Flipkart / Myntra; 13 Bengaluru stores"). (404 today.)
• sitemap_agentic_discovery.xml at root: list core shopping + collection + blog + where-to-buy + stores pages for agentic crawlers. (404 today; Shopify auto-generates this, but Aramya's custom Next.js build does not.)
• Effort: Low · Impact: Medium (mostly non-Google AI engines + future agentic commerce).

P1-2 — Strengthen llms.txt

• Current llms.txt is good but omits: policies (return/shipping), the future /where-to-buy, /stores, /about, and any pricing pointer. Add these so AI systems get a complete map in one read.
• Effort: Low · Impact: Medium.

P2-1 — Fix homepage H1 topicality

• Current H1 = "10 Lakh+ Women Love Aramya" (a role="contentinfo" banner). AI engines use the H1 as a primary topic signal. Add a visually-hidden or prominent topical H1 such as "Aramya — Premium Cotton Kurtas & Ethnic Wear for Women (XS–10XL)" so the page's primary topic is unambiguous. Keep the social-proof banner as a sub-element.
• Effort: Low · Impact: Low–Medium.

P2-2 — Add hreflang="en-IN"

• Single-market India brand; add hreflang="en-IN" to the homepage (and x-default) per ai-seo e-commerce guidance. Low risk, small geo-clarity win.
• Effort: Low · Impact: Low.

P2-3 — Canonicalize returns/refund URLs

• Returns live at /return-policy; /returns and /refund-policy 404. Add 301 redirects from /returns and /refund-policy → /return-policy, and ensure footer/internal links use the canonical. Reduces the chance AI/assistants hit a dead policy link.
• Effort: Low · Impact: Low.

P2-4 — Watch the emerging UCP / MCP endpoints

• /.well-known/ucp and /api/ucp/mcp are 404 (expected — not yet adopted). Monitor Google's Universal Commerce Protocol; adding it later positions Aramya for agentic buying. No action now.
• Effort: None now · Impact: Future.

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5. Content Strategy for AI Citation (Topical Clusters)

Aramya's blog already covers several "what is / how to" ethnic-wear queries. Expand along the query fan-out model — cover the parent topic AND its related sub-queries so AI retrieval catches Aramya across the whole cluster.

High-value clusters to own (with example queries AI fans out to)

1. "Best kurtas / ethnic wear for women" → best cotton kurtas India, comfortable everyday kurtas, office-wear kurtis, plus-size/XS–10XL ethnic wear, budget kurtas under ₹600.
2. "Kurta vs kurti / fabric types" → already strong (kurta-vs-kurti, linen-vs-cotton, types-of-fabrics). Add: block print vs screen print, cotton vs rayon kurtis, how to identify pure cotton.
3. "How to style a kurta" → already covered (style-with-jeans, winter styling, black-kurti). Add: kurta with palazzo, mix-and-match top/bottom sizing guide (Aramya differentiator — own this).
4. "Where to buy [brand]" / "[brand] vs [competitor]" → build the Where-to-Buy page (P0-1) + a comparison hub: Aramya vs Libas / Aurelia / Biba / Soch (size inclusivity, price, cotton focus as differentiators).
5. "Ethnic wear gifts for Diwali / festive" → Aramya has Tavira/festive lines; add a festive gifting guide (Diwali, Rakhi, office parties) — high seasonal AI-query volume.
6. "Pure cotton / sustainable ethnic wear India" → lean into vertical integration + Jaipur hand-block heritage (block print, bandhani, ajrakh, kantha) as original, citable provenance content.

Content-block patterns to apply (from ai-seo skill)

• Definition blocks for "What is a kurta set?" etc. (lead with a 40–60 word direct answer).
• Comparison tables for Aramya vs competitors and fabric types.
• Statistic blocks with sources — e.g., "Aramya carries 2,183 SKUs across 172 collections (aramya.in sitemap, 2026-08-18)" and "average 4.66/5 across ~1,374 ratings per product."
• FAQ blocks on collection and product pages (product pages currently lack FAQPage schema — add size/fabric/care FAQs).
• Author attribution + "last updated" dates on every post (already present — keep).

Third-party presence (authority multiplier)

• Aramya is already mentioned in IndianRetailer, Entrackr, Apparel Resources, Inc42 funding coverage — these are the third-party citations AI pulls. Ensure those articles stay current and link to aramya.in. Consider a Wikipedia presence check (none found) and authentic Reddit/community participation around ethnic-wear recommendations. Brands are 6.5× more likely to be cited via third-party sources than their own domain.

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6. AI-Visibility Monitoring Plan (Run Monthly)

Live AI-answer testing was not executed in this audit. Establish a monthly DIY check:

1. Pick the top 15–20 queries from §5 (e.g., "best cotton kurtas India," "where to buy Aramya," "Aramya vs Libas," "Aramya near me," "pure cotton kurtis").
2. Run each through ChatGPT (with search), Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
3. Record: Is Aramya cited? Which page? Which competitors are cited instead?
4. Log in a spreadsheet; track month-over-month share of AI voice.
5. Tools for scale: Otterly AI, Peec AI, ZipTie, LLMrefs (cross-platform citation tracking).

For Google specifically, there is no AI-specific Search Console report — measure with standard Performance/Coverage/Core Web Vitals and treat strong traditional rankings as the AI-Overview foundation.

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7. Recommended Implementation Order

Step	Action	Priority	Effort
1	Build /where-to-buy page (all channels + store links)	P0	Low
2	Publish /about founder & company story (schema'd)	P0	Low–Med
3	Add LocalBusiness/Store schema to /stores (13 locations)	P0	Med
4	Add pricing.md, agents.md, sitemap_agentic_discovery.xml	P1	Low
5	Expand llms.txt with policies/where-to-buy/stores/about	P1	Low
6	Add product-page FAQPage schema (size/fabric/care)	P1	Med
7	Fix homepage H1 topicality	P2	Low
8	Add hreflang="en-IN"; 301 /returns→/return-policy	P2	Low
9	Launch blog comparison + festive-gifting + fabric clusters	P1	Med
10	Stand up monthly AI-visibility monitoring (§6)	—	Low (recurring)

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8. Citations

• https://aramya.in/ — homepage, raw-HTML schema, robots.txt, llms.txt, route-status checks (2026-08-18)
• https://aramya.in/robots.txt — AI crawler allow-list verified
• https://aramya.in/llms.txt — agent context file (200)
• https://aramya.in/product/kurta-grey-butti-pure-cotton-lace-a7817 — Product/Offer/AggregateRating/BreadcrumbList schema verified
• https://aramya.in/collections/latest-kurti-collection-onsale — CollectionPage/ItemList schema verified
• https://aramya.in/blogs/everyday-ethnic-by-aramya/kurta-vs-kurti-key-differences — BlogPosting + author + datePublished verified
• https://aramya.in/stores — 13 Bengaluru locations; BreadcrumbList only (no LocalBusiness schema)
• https://aramya.in/return-policy, /privacy-policy, /shipping-policy, /terms-of-service, /fair-policy — policy pages (200)
• https://aramya.in/next-assets/production/sitemaps/sitemap_products.xml — 2,183 product URLs; sitemap_collections.xml (172); sitemap_blogs.xml (78)
• business-analysis.md (this workspace) — company facts, catalog, funding, competitors, CrUX device data
• https://www.indianretailer.com/news/funding-alert-womens-ethnic-wear-brand-aramyas-parent-raises-rs-80-cr-series-round — Series A ₹80 Cr
• https://entrackr.com/exclusive/exclusive-d2c-brand-aramya-parent-raises-rs-80-cr-led-by-z47-and-accel-11089406 — Z47 + Accel
• https://apparelresources.com/business-news/retail/ethnicwear-brand-aramyas-parent-raises-us-8-82-million-series-funding/ — ~₹1,438 Cr valuation
• https://inc42.com/company/aramya/ — founding (2022, Ankush Goyal & Chandni Mathur)

Verified-absence notes (explicit per ai-seo skill, not inferred): /pricing.md, /agents.md, /.well-known/ucp, /api/ucp/mcp, sitemap_agentic_discovery.xml returned HTTP 404 on 2026-08-18. Schema findings were confirmed via raw HTML <script> inspection, not text-extraction.