For an AI like ChatGPT to cite your page, write answers that stand on their own: the question as a heading, the answer in one or two sentences right below it, one fact per sentence, sourced numbers and specific names. Put the essentials early: in an analysis of 18,012 ChatGPT citations, 44% came from the first 30% of the text.
An AI doesn’t read your page, it cuts passages out of it
When ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews answer a question, they don’t copy a whole page. They take a passage, sometimes a single sentence, and stitch it together with others. Kevin Indig, who analyzed 18,012 ChatGPT citations, compares AI to a busy editor rather than a patient student (Growth Memo, February 16, 2026).[1]
The consequence for you is simple. A good answer buried in the sixth paragraph, starting with “as we saw above”, won’t be picked up. It makes no sense once cut out.
And no, there is no secret recipe. Google says so itself: there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special file or markup to add (Google Search Central, updated December 10, 2025).[2] Your page must first be crawlable, indexed and readable as text. The rest is writing.
What the studies say
Three pieces of work give useful benchmarks. They are measurements, not laws, and each has its own method.
- The founding GEO (also called AEO) study. Researchers from Princeton and other institutions tested several ways of rewriting a page (KDD 2024). Adding quotations, statistics or sources increased visibility in generated answers by 30 to 40%, according to the authors. Keyword stuffing lowered it by about 8%.[3]
- Position in the page. Out of 18,012 ChatGPT citations analyzed by Kevin Indig, 44% came from the first 30% of the text.[1][4]
- Sentence length. Daniel Shashko examined 42,971 citations across 520 queries and six platforms: in AI Mode and Gemini, 92.4% of cited sentences were 6 to 20 words long.[5][4]
What these numbers say together: AI picks up what is short, early, specific and verifiable. Learn more: AEO or GEO: two names for the same discipline.
Six rules for a quotable answer
This is the method we apply to every page and every article, this one included.
- The question as a heading, the way your customer asks it. “How long does a HubSpot migration take?” rather than “Our timelines”. An AI looks for an answer to a question; give it the question.
- The answer right below, in 40 to 60 words. Two sentences that answer directly, before any nuance. Context comes after.
- One sentence, one fact, and a sentence that stands alone. “Consent Mode v2 is a Google mechanism that passes the visitor’s consent choice to Analytics and Google Ads.” No “it”, “this” or “as seen above” pointing to a sentence missing from the cut-out passage.
- A number, its source and its date. “19.2% of Canadian businesses used AI to produce goods or deliver services in the year before May 2026, according to Statistics Canada” gets quoted.[6] “More and more businesses use AI” doesn’t.
- Names rather than pronouns. Your brand, your products, the city, the standard, the tool. An AI connects your page to a question through the entities it finds there.
- Text, not an image. An answer locked in an image, a video without a transcript or a poorly structured PDF reads badly. Google asks that important content be available as text, and that structured data match the visible text.[2]
Before, after
Here is an FAQ answer rewritten with these rules. The business is fictional.
Before: “Great question! Every project is unique for us, which is why we take the time to understand your needs before proposing something that suits you.”
After: “A kitchen renovation takes 4 to 6 weeks at Example Kitchens, in Laval: one week of demolition and plumbing, two to three weeks of cabinetry, one week of finishing. Quartz countertops add one week of manufacturing time.”
The first answer says nothing an AI can pick up. The second contains a duration, a place, a name and steps: it can be quoted as is.
What doesn’t help
Sorry, but some of the recipes going around don’t hold up.
- Repeating your keywords. In the GEO study’s main table, it’s the only method that lowered visibility.[3]
- Creating a special file for AI. Google says it doesn’t need one for its AI features. Better to take care of the page itself.
- Writing for the machine. A quotable answer is first a clear answer for a busy human. They are the same qualities.
Our way of seeing things
Being cited by an AI can’t be decreed, it’s measured. We write every answer with these rules, then check whether the engines actually pick it up, on real questions, before and after. Learn more: our testing protocol.
The rest is discipline: one question, one answer, one fact, one source. That’s our way of seeing things, and we won’t change. Learn more: our approach to AI search optimization.
Short. Early. Verifiable.
Frequently asked questions
How do I appear in ChatGPT's answers?
First make your site crawlable and indexable, then write answers that stand on their own: the question as a heading, the answer in one or two sentences right below, one fact per sentence, sourced numbers and specific names. Put the essentials in the first 30% of the text: that’s where 44% of ChatGPT citations came from in an analysis of 18,012 citations.
Do I need a special file or markup to be cited by AI?
Not for Google. Its documentation says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special file or schema.org markup to add. Structured data remains useful when it faithfully describes the page’s visible text.
How long should a quotable answer be?
Aim for 40 to 60 words for the main answer, in short sentences. In Daniel Shashko’s analysis of 42,971 citations, 92.4% of sentences cited by AI Mode and Gemini were 6 to 20 words long.
Do numbers and sources really help?
Yes, according to the founding GEO study (KDD 2024): adding statistics, quotations or sources increased visibility in generated answers by 30 to 40%. Keyword stuffing lowered it by about 8%. A number should always carry its source and date.
How do I know whether an AI cites my page?
By regularly asking the engines your customers’ questions and noting who gets cited. A one-off test isn’t enough: answers vary from one day and one platform to the next. Measure before rewriting, then after, on the same questions.
Sources
- ↑ a b Kevin Indig, “The science of how AI pays attention“, Growth Memo, February 16, 2026 (paywalled; full text on Search Engine Journal).
- ↑ a b Google Search Central, “AI features and your website“, Google for Developers, last updated December 10, 2025.
- ↑ a b Pranjal Aggarwal et al., “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization“, KDD 2024, arXiv 2311.09735 (v3, June 28, 2024). The authors report a 30 to 40% gain; the drop of about 8% is Sekoia’s calculation from Table 1 (Position-Adjusted Word Count: 17.7 vs. 19.3 without optimization).
- ↑ a b Ann Smarty, “Studies Reveal AI Citation Clues“, Practical Ecommerce, March 9, 2026.
- ↑ Daniel Shashko, “How Google Picks Which Sentences to Cite in AI Mode“, HackMD, March 2026 (edited March 4, 2026). The 92.4% figure covers sentences cited by AI Mode and Gemini.
- ↑ Statistics Canada, “Canadian Survey on Business Conditions, second quarter 2026“, The Daily, May 27, 2026. Businesses with employees; survey conducted April 1 to May 6, 2026.
