How to write web pages that AI assistants quote

AI assistants quote pages that answer a question clearly, early and with specific facts that match the rest of the web. You cannot buy or guarantee a citation, but you can write pages that are easy to quote. This article covers the writing habits that help, and our guide to AI search covers the technical side, such as crawler access and llms.txt.

Key takeaways

• Put the answer in the first two sentences under a heading that matches the question.
• Make each section understandable on its own, because assistants pull out passages and not whole pages.
• Specific, checkable facts such as locations, services, opening hours, qualifications and process steps are easier to quote than adjectives.
• Keep your business details identical everywhere they appear.
• Nobody can guarantee a citation, so measure by asking the questions your customers ask.

Start with the questions your customers ask

Write down the ten questions you hear most before someone hires you or buys from you. Those become your headings: "How long does a kitchen renovation take?", "Do you work with clients outside Amsterdam?", "What happens in the first meeting?". A heading that is a real question tells both a reader and an assistant what the passage below it answers.

Your own sales calls, emails and the questions in your inbox are better sources than a keyword tool.

Answer first, then explain

Open each section with the answer in one or two plain sentences, and put the nuance after it. Compare these two openings for a page about timelines. "Every project is different and many factors affect the schedule" tells a reader nothing. "A typical small business website takes six weeks from kickoff to launch, depending on how quickly we receive content" gives a number someone can quote. Use the same pattern with your own real timeline, and say what it depends on.

The same habit helps readers who skim, and it helps your page in Google's own featured answers.

Make every section stand alone

An assistant may quote one passage without the paragraphs around it. Avoid sections that start with "As mentioned above" or "This is why". Name the subject again in the section instead of relying on a pronoun. A short paragraph that includes who, what and where reads correctly even when it is lifted out of the page.

Prefer specific facts to adjectives

"We offer high-quality, tailored solutions" cannot be checked and cannot be quoted. "We design and build websites for independent law firms and consultancies" can. Useful specifics include the services you provide, the regions you serve, how a project runs step by step, the qualifications or registrations you hold, and how clients can reach you.

Do not invent statistics or testimonials. An assistant that finds a claim it cannot match elsewhere has less reason to trust it, and so does a human reader.

Keep your facts consistent everywhere

Assistants build their picture of a business from several sources: your website, your Google Business Profile, directories, social profiles and press. If your phone number, address, business name or service list differs between them, the picture gets muddy. Choose one wording and use it everywhere, and update every place when something changes. Our local SEO guide lists the main profiles to keep in line.

Support the text with structure

Use real headings and lists instead of styled text, include a visible author or business name, and show when a page was last updated. Structured data, which is code that labels your business details for machines, helps when it matches what is visible on the page. It does not replace good writing.

Check how you show up

Ask several assistants the questions your customers would ask, using the wording they would use, and note whether your business appears and which pages are cited. Repeat this monthly and keep the answers in a simple table. Results vary between assistants and over time, so look for a trend and not a single answer.

Pair this with the numbers in our monthly website check, so you can see whether visits and enquiries follow.

Where to start

Pick your three most important service pages and rewrite their headings as questions, with the answer in the first two sentences. Then compare your business details across the web and fix any differences.

If you want an outside view, the free website audit checks the structure and basics, and a free 30-minute discovery call is the place to discuss your content. See also the homepage structure we recommend for professional firms, and our services.