What to put on a page so an AI assistant can quote it
When a person asks an AI assistant a question, the assistant needs a passage that answers it. A page that answers in its first two sentences, in plain words, gives it one. A page that spends three paragraphs on how passionate the team is gives it nothing to use.
None of this is a trick. AI companies have not published how their assistants choose sources, so anyone promising citations is guessing. These are the habits that make a page easy to quote if it is chosen, and they make it clearer for people too.
Answer first
Write the first sentence as if it were the whole answer. Compare these two openings, for a made-up plumber:
- Weak: "Welcome to Example Plumbing, where we have been passionate about quality for over a decade."
- Quotable: "Example Plumbing fixes hot water systems and blocked drains across Perth, seven days a week. Call-outs start at $120."
Every service page on this site opens with a one-paragraph summary written that way, and every one of these field notes opens with its answer.
Use specific facts
Assistants answer specific questions: how much, how long, where, for whom. Put the numbers on the page in plain text: prices or price ranges with the currency, areas served, opening hours, turnaround times and what is included. "Affordable" and "fast" cannot be quoted. "From $499 USD, usually 1 to 2 weeks" can.
One topic per page
A page about everything answers nothing well. Give each service, product or common question its own page with a heading that names it. That is also how people search.
The same facts everywhere
If your website says one price, your Google Business Profile another and a directory a third, an assistant has three versions to choose from. Keep the facts identical wherever they appear, and update them everywhere when they change.
Put it in the HTML
All of this only helps if a crawler can read it. Most AI crawlers do not run JavaScript (Vercel), so text that only appears after scripts run is invisible to them. Check with how to see your site the way an AI crawler does, and state the key facts again in structured data.
Then measure what you can
You cannot see inside an assistant, but you can check the parts you control. The free GEO audit checks crawler access, page basics and structured data. If you want this done for you, with monthly content and reporting, see AI search growth.
Sources
- The rise of the AI crawler, Vercel, 17 Dec 2024