How AI assistants choose sources
Search-enabled assistants retrieve sources and select information relevant to the question. Clear structure, useful content, credible sources and up-to-date information help make a page usable as a source. Selection methods vary by platform.
Google says its AI search features use the same SEO fundamentals and require no special markup. For other assistants, we check their current documentation and test access and content clarity instead of assuming they all use the same signals.
What we do
- Technical audit: indexing, speed, AI bot crawling and structured data.
- Content architecture by topic, not by isolated keyword.
- Pages with a direct answer at the top, tables, steps and real questions.
- Visible authorship and update dates.
- Structured data for the organization, services and articles where appropriate. We can also prepare an llms.txt file if a compatible tool needs one.
- A plan for presence in third-party sources: directories, press and communities.
What we don't do
We don't generate content in bulk to manipulate rankings, we don't invent reviews or mentions, and we don't repeat keywords. Beyond going against search engine policies, the academic GEO study by Aggarwal and others (KDD 2024) found that keyword stuffing reduces visibility in generative answers, while citing sources and adding data improves it.
How it's measured
We track a list of real questions from your customers in several assistants, several times a month, and record whether they cite you, whom they cite and with which page. We add the data from Search Console and Analytics.
What we deliver
- Technical audit with priorities.
- Content architecture by topic.
- Rewriting key pages with a direct answer.
- Structured data and llms.txt.
- Monthly tracking of questions in assistants and in Search Console.
Mistakes we see all the time
- Prices hidden behind a form.
- Pages with no date or author.
- Content that doesn't answer any specific question.
- Different company descriptions in each directory.
Shall we talk?
Tell us what you need and we'll reply with a concrete proposal, with scope and phases.








