How should I write website content so AI assistants cite it?

When an AI assistant searches the web to answer a question, it reads a handful of pages and quotes the passages that answer the question best. Writing for that is the content side of AI SEO, or generative engine optimisation (GEO). Most of it is plain good writing, done with more discipline than usual.

What kind of content gets cited most by AI search engines?

The evidence points to pages that answer a specific question directly, with facts that can be checked:

• A brand's own pages, on narrow questions. When Ahrefs launched a new brand and published pages about it, 82% of the new mentions it won came in answers that cited one of its own pages. It was also named far more often on a narrow question (66.4% of answers) than on a broad one (15.8%).
• Specialist sources over general ones. When we asked Claude the two questions this guide answers, the sites it cited most often were search-industry publications and the blogs of AI search tool makers: specialists that cover the topic in depth.

What gets cited less: pages that rank their own company first. Self-ranking "best X" lists make up 3.6% of ChatGPT's citations against about 10% for Google AI Mode and Perplexity in Peec AI's data. In a test of 100 "best software" questions on Google AI Overviews, the brand behind a cited self-promotional list was left out of the actual recommendation 69% of the time.

How should a page be structured so AI can quote it?

• One question per page. Put the question, in the buyer's words, in the title and the main heading.
• Answer first. Give the direct answer in the first 40 to 60 words, before any background. This is the passage most likely to be quoted.
• Headings as follow-up questions. Each section should answer one question a reader would ask next ("How much does it cost?", "How long does it take?"), so each section can stand on its own.
• Tables and lists for comparisons. If you compare options, plans or prices, put them in a table with the basis of comparison stated.
• A visible date. Show when the page was last checked, and keep it true.

These are sensible practices rather than proven levers. A July 2026 review of 45 studies found that content an assistant has already retrieved can change what it cites, but no technique it reviewed showed a stable, long-term effect across AI platforms on how often a site is found.

Why do specific, checkable facts matter?

Because AI answers change constantly, and vague pages are easy to swap out. Tracking 37,500 citations, Ahrefs found that 50% of the sites cited in Google AI Overviews and 59% of those cited in ChatGPT were gone by the next day, while the brands named stuck around longer than the citations. A page that is the clearest, most specific source for a question has a better chance of being among the sources an assistant keeps coming back to.

In practice, that means writing "US$350 a month, three-month minimum" rather than "affordable plans", and "set up in two days for teams under 20" rather than "fast onboarding", but only where the fact is true and you're willing to keep it updated.

Should I write "best X" or comparison pages?

Write comparisons, not self-rankings. A fair comparison of the options a buyer is choosing between, with the basis stated and your own product described honestly, answers a real question. A list that ranks your company first is the format the evidence above says is cited less, and often helps the competitors on it more than you.

How long should the content be?

We found no good evidence that length itself matters. Answer the question completely, cover the follow-up questions a buyer would have, then stop. A 600-word page that answers one question well beats a 3,000-word page that answers ten questions loosely.

How do I know whether my content is being cited?

Ask the questions the page answers to the AI assistants, repeatedly, and check which sources they cite. To measure the visits and enquiries that come from AI tools, see our guide to tracking AI traffic in Google Analytics 4. For pages written for you, guide writing is available as an add-on to our audits.