Generative Engine Optimization: Getting Cited by AI Answers
To get cited by AI answer engines, lead with a 40–60 word direct answer, use semantic HTML and question-style headings, expose clean machine-readable versions of your content, and back claims with named authors, review dates, and sources.
AI answer engines synthesize responses from sources they can parse cleanly and trust. Optimizing for them — generative engine optimization — overlaps with classic SEO but adds a few specific moves.
Answer first
Put a direct, self-contained answer of 40 to 60 words right after the headline. This is the passage an answer engine is most likely to lift and cite.
Structure for machines
Semantic HTML5 — article, header, time, figure, real tables — is trivially parseable. Question-style headings map directly to the queries people ask.
Give machines a clean copy
A plain-text or markdown mirror of each page, plus an llms.txt index, lets agents ingest your content without wading through layout markup.
Provenance is a ranking signal
Named authors with credentials, a visible review date, and a sources list are exactly the trust signals AI systems weigh before citing you.
Frequently asked questions
- What is llms.txt?
- llms.txt is a proposed standard: a markdown file at your site root that gives language-model agents a curated, link-based map of your most important content.