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  • Cover: 7 rules for writing content that AI cites. The rules we apply to every article on our site, with examples.

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How-To Guide · GEO

7 rules for writing content that AI cites

The rules we apply to every article on our site, with examples.

Short answer

Content that AI assistants cite has a sentence under every heading that answers the question directly, numbers given with their sources, comparisons laid out in tables, a current date and short answers to real questions. Bots are allowed to access the site, and the author's own observation is added at the end of the article.

8 steps · 2 min read · · Turan Yasin Salcı

Step by step · 8 steps

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  1. Make the first sentence the answer

    Phrase every section heading like a question ("What is GEO?"). Make the first sentence under it a standalone answer to that question. AI assistants often quote exactly this sentence.

    Bad: "Everything is changing fast in the digital world, and…"
    Good: "GEO is the work done to get a site cited as a source in the answers of AI assistants like ChatGPT."

  2. Put a quick-answer box at the top

    Put a 2–4 sentence summary right below the first heading. Whoever reads it, human or bot, should grasp the topic from there.

  3. Give numbers and show the source

    A GEO study by researchers at Princeton and Georgia Tech found that texts with added statistics and quotations are more visible in AI answers. Link the source next to every number. Don't write a number that has no source.

  4. Put comparisons in a table

    Put information like "X or Y?", "before/after" and "price ranges" into a table. Tables are easy to read and easy to quote.

  5. Write the date and keep the article current

    Write the last-updated date at the top of the article and update it as the topic changes. On fast-changing topics (ad rules, algorithms), a page with an old date loses trust.

  6. Add real questions at the end

    Write 3–6 questions people actually ask: Google's "People also ask" box, forums, your customers' messages. Give each a clear 1–3 sentence answer and add FAQPage markup to the page.

  7. Write a human note

    Add the author's own observation at the end of the article: what you saw in the dashboard, what happened with a client, what you disagree with. A real note, not a made-up one. It's the one thing AI can't produce on its own.

  8. The technical side: open the door to bots

    30 minutes
    • Make sure GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended are not blocked in your robots.txt file.
    • Have an llms.txt file at the root of your site: a short list of your important pages.
    • Make sure your business name, address and phone number are written exactly the same on your site, in your Google Business Profile and on your social accounts.

Sources

[A] primary source · [B] industry research · [C] practitioner · [D] our own data

Frequently asked questions

Which sentence in an article do AI assistants quote?

Usually the sentence right under a heading that answers the question on its own. That's why the heading is phrased as a question and the first sentence is written so it still makes sense when taken out of context; sentences starting with "as mentioned above" don't get quoted.

Is an llms.txt file enough to show up in AI?

No. llms.txt is a proposed standard, and which assistants read it is unclear; it's a harmless, quick task. The real impact comes from the content itself: sentences that answer the question directly, sourced numbers, and not blocking AI bots in robots.txt.

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