Which tool to choose
Getting cited by AI assistants is a matter of content structure and reliability, and the generic AI assistant is the tool to do it: it analyzes your pages and rewrites them in the format AI assistants prefer. The paid tools that measure how much you're cited come later, to monitor the results.
- Fix a page so it's citable: generic AI assistant, for diagnosis and rewriting.
- Check whether you're already cited: ask an AI assistant directly a question from your field and see who it cites.
- Monitor over time: dedicated tools that track the citations, useful once you have a base.
How to do it
- Open an AI assistant and run the test: ask a question your site should answer and see which sources it cites. If you're not there, you know what to improve.
- Take the page that should answer that question and analyze it with the prompt below.
- Rewrite: direct answer at the top, sharp sections, a questions-and-answers zone.
- Tend to reliability: who writes, sources cited, verifiable data. AI assistants favor the sources that look authoritative.
The operational syntax to make a page citable:
Act as an expert in content designed to be cited by AI assistants.
Here is a page of mine: "[paste the text]".
The question it should answer: "[reader's question]".
Tell me and then correct:
1. Is there a direct and complete answer to the question in the first lines, extractable on its own? If not, write it.
2. Do the section headings clearly say what each one contains? Fix them.
3. Are there verifiable statements and precise facts, or just generic phrases? AI assistants cite dense facts.
4. Add a questions-and-answers section on the related issues, each with a sharp, self-contained answer.
Write so that a single sentence or paragraph can be cited without the rest of the page around it.
The operational syntax to test whether you're cited:
Ask me 5 questions a customer would put to an AI assistant in my field: "[field]".
For each one, answer as you (AI assistant) would and tell me what kind of source you'd cite.
Then tell me: what a page like mine should have to deserve being the source cited on these questions.
The operational syntax to build the questions and answers:
For this page on the topic "[topic]", generate a questions-and-answers section.
Include the 6 most likely questions an AI assistant receives on this topic.
For each one: an answer of 2-4 sentences, complete and self-contained, that makes sense even read on its own.
Constraints: concrete and verifiable answers, no vagueness. A section like this is the one AI assistants extract most readily.
After the changes, redo the question test with the AI assistant after a few weeks: are you cited more? It's the most direct thermometer. Citations, like ranking on the classic engines, don't change from one day to the next.
A concrete example
Lucia has an accounting firm and wanted that, when someone asked an AI assistant "how does the flat-rate tax scheme work", her firm would show up. She ran the test: the assistant cited big portals, not her. She took her page on the flat-rate scheme, analyzed it with the prompt and discovered it was a wall of text with no sharp answer at the top.
She rewrote it: direct answer in the first lines ("The flat-rate tax scheme is..."), sections with precise headings, a questions-and-answers zone with the real requests from clients. She signed the page with her name and her credentials. After a few weeks, on some specific questions tied to her city, the AI assistant started citing her. She had made her knowledge extractable, not just present.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If the AI assistant keeps citing only the big sites
On generic questions the big portals dominate and beating them is hard. Shift the aim to specific questions: your sector combined with your city, a particular case, a detail the big players treat superficially. On a precise question, a specialized page like yours can become the best source.
If your pages are never extracted
Often the problem is that the answer is drowned in the text. AI assistants extract sentences and paragraphs that stand on their own. Ask the AI to rewrite each section so the first sentence already contains the answer, and the rest develops it. An answer that lives only in the context of the whole page is hard to cite.
If you don't know whether your efforts are working
Monitoring is the weak point of this work, because AI assistants don't give a report the way the classic engines do. The practical fix: once a month, put your key questions to two or three different assistants and note whether and how you're cited. It's manual, but it's the most honest signal you have.
A tip from someone who actually uses it
The work to get cited by AI assistants and the work to rank on the classic engines are the same work done well: clear answer, sharp structure, verifiable facts, authority of the writer. Don't build two separate strategies. Write pages that answer a question better than anyone, in an orderly and reliable way, and you get found by both. The quality that serves one serves the other.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is "optimization for AI engines"?
It's the set of choices that make a page easy for an AI assistant to understand and cite: a direct answer at the opening, clear headings, precise facts with sources, a questions-and-answers section, and reliability signals about who writes. In English it's called generative engine optimization. In practice it's writing content so clear and reliable that a machine can extract a certain answer from it.
Should I abandon ranking on the classic search engines?
No, and it would be a mistake. Many people still use the classic engines, and that traffic matters. The good news is you don't have to choose: the same practices of clarity and quality serve both. You work once and get found on two fronts.
Does getting cited by AI assistants really bring customers, or is it just visibility?
It's the right question, and the answer surprises those who think it's just vanity. When an AI assistant cites you as the source of an answer, you reach the person at the exact moment they're looking for a solution, with the weight of a recommendation instead of an advertisement. A citation is worth more than an ad precisely because the reader doesn't perceive it as a sale, but as advice. Few exploit it yet: whoever moves now finds less competition than whoever will wait for it to become obvious.