Start with the answer, not the runway
A human reader can tolerate a long introduction because the page remains visible around it. A retrieval system may evaluate a smaller passage. If the answer arrives after several paragraphs of scene-setting, the most useful sentence may never be selected with the heading that gives it meaning.
Answer-first writing puts the direct response in the first one or two sentences beneath a descriptive heading. Explanation, evidence, exceptions and examples follow.
Give every section one job
A heading should name the question the section resolves. Mixing definition, comparison, history, pricing and implementation into one section produces a passage that matches several intents weakly. Split distinct jobs into distinct, linked sections or pages.
Use explicit nouns and stable entities
Write 'OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler for search discovery' before shortening the name. Avoid passages whose first sentence begins with 'It', 'they' or 'this approach' when the antecedent sits outside the likely chunk. Use the same product, person and organisation names across headings, body copy, structured data and profiles.
Make claims quotable by bounding them
A strong claim includes its scope. Name the market, period, sample, version or condition that makes it true. If a number comes from your own analysis, publish the method. If it comes from elsewhere, link to the primary source and preserve the date.
| Weak passage | Stronger passage |
|---|---|
| GEO improves visibility. | GEO improves eligibility for AI-search retrieval and citation; it does not guarantee inclusion or ranking. |
| They use fan-out to find more sources. | Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use query fan-out to issue multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources. |
| Update content regularly. | Update a page when its facts, product details, evidence or search intent change; changing the date alone adds no value. |
| Schema helps AI understand everything. | Accurate structured data can reduce ambiguity, but it must match the visible page and no special AI-search schema is required. |
Use structures that carry relationships
- Definitions for 'what is' questions.
- Tables for repeated-field comparisons.
- Ordered steps for procedures and diagnostics.
- Bullets for parallel criteria, symptoms or requirements.
- Examples for abstract concepts.
- Source notes for evidence whose date or scope matters.
Add information gain
A competent summary of existing pages is easy to replace. Original experience is harder to replace: a tested procedure, a before-and-after example, a dataset, a decision rule, a diagram, a failure analysis or an expert judgement with its assumptions made visible. Useful originality gives both people and answer engines a reason to choose your page as the source.
Keep the page readable for people
Passage-level clarity should improve human reading, not flatten it. Use a strong narrative opening when it earns attention, but put navigable answers beneath descriptive headings. Keep paragraphs short enough to scan, avoid repetitive keyword variants and use design to distinguish definitions, evidence and actions.
The publication checklist
- Does the title promise one recognisable search intent?
- Does the first paragraph answer that intent without requiring a click or sign-in?
- Can every major section be understood if copied with its heading?
- Are entities named consistently and ambiguous pronouns repaired?
- Are claims supported, dated and scoped where necessary?
- Does structured data match the visible text exactly?
- Is there a descriptive internal link from a relevant hub page?
- Is the URL canonical, indexable, in the sitemap and available to target crawlers?
Primary sources and further reading
Book-derived explanations on this page are editorial synthesis. Platform-specific claims link to the platform's own current documentation.
Frequently asked questions
Should AI-optimised writing sound robotic?
No. Good GEO writing is clear and locally complete, but it should still use natural language, examples, judgement and a coherent human reading experience.
How long should a citable passage be?
There is no universal word count. It should be long enough to answer the question accurately and include necessary scope, but focused enough to perform one clear job.
Should every heading be a question?
No. A descriptive noun phrase can work just as well if the section's purpose and subject are unambiguous.