How do you make a page that AI assistants will cite?

AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude increasingly answer questions by summarising and citing web pages. Being one of those cited sources is a growing form of visibility. Here is what helps.

Answer the question directly and early

Assistants favour pages that state a clear, factual answer near the top. Bury the answer under marketing copy and it is harder to extract.

Be specific and factual

Concrete, verifiable statements are easier to cite than vague claims. Attribute figures to their source and avoid unprovable superlatives.

Structure for extraction

Clear headings, short paragraphs, and lists make it easy for a model to pull the relevant passage. A wall of text is harder to summarise.

Earn corroboration

Assistants trust claims that appear consistently across several independent, reputable sources. Being mentioned accurately on more than one trusted site strengthens the odds of a citation.

Stay crawlable and honest

Allow reputable AI crawlers in your robots file, keep critical content in the HTML rather than hidden behind scripts, and never fabricate facts. Accuracy is what keeps a page cited rather than corrected.