Content & Citation · P2.3
On-site content quality: writing pages AI assistants want to quote
tl;dr
Quotable pages share four traits: a direct answer in the first paragraph, real subheadings that mirror questions, specifics (numbers, names, dates), and a clear author. Add those and citation rates climb.
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Run the auditHow AI assistants pick paragraphs
When an assistant decides to quote your page, it's looking for a self-contained chunk that directly answers the user's question. Not the whole page — usually one or two paragraphs.
That means your job isn't to write a thorough article. Your job is to make sure the most answer-shaped paragraph on the page is the first one a reader (or a bot) hits.
The quotability checklist
- 01Open with a direct answer. If the page is about 'how to deduct home office expenses,' the first sentence should describe the deduction, not greet the reader.
- 02Use H2s that read like questions. 'Who qualifies?' beats 'Qualification criteria.'
- 03Add specifics. Real numbers, real product names, real dates. Vague advice gets passed over.
- 04Use lists and tables where it makes sense. Bullets are easy to lift.
- 05Show your work. Link out to primary sources — government sites, original research, official docs.
- 06Add an author byline with credentials and a way to verify them.
- 07Keep paragraphs short. 2-3 sentences each. Walls of text get sampled poorly.
What to cut
- ·SEO fluff intros ('In today's fast-paced world…')
- ·Padding to hit a word count
- ·Repeating the keyword in every other sentence
- ·Stock disclaimers nobody reads
- ·Anything that doesn't help a reader answer their question
“Direct answer → context paragraph → structured detail (steps, list, or table) → caveats → next step.”
// tool we'd actually reach for
Frase.io
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A pattern that works
Direct answer → context paragraph → structured detail (steps, list, or table) → caveats → next step. Five blocks, in that order. It's boring and it works.
Common questions
How long should a page be?
As long as it needs to be. 600 words is fine for a focused how-to. 2,000 is fine for a comparison. Padding to 'rank-friendly' length hurts in AI search because it dilutes the quotable parts.
Should I add FAQ sections?
Yes. They map almost perfectly to how AI assistants answer follow-up questions. Wrap them in FAQPage schema.
Does keyword density still matter?
Less than ever. Write naturally. Use the words a real human would search for, in the places it makes sense to use them.
Keep reading
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