geo-citability

AI Citability Scoring Skill

Core Insight

AI language models cite passages that meet specific structural criteria. Research on Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024) found GEO tactics can lift visibility in AI answers by roughly 30–115% depending on the tactic and query set (see docs/SOURCES.md for provenance on this and the length figure). The pattern: AI systems preferentially extract passages that are ~134–167 words long, self-contained (understandable without surrounding context), fact-rich (specific statistics, dates, named entities), and directly answer a question in the first 1-2 sentences.

This score is a proxy, not a measurement. It scores how extractable your passages are against these research-derived criteria — it does not ask an AI engine whether it actually quoted you. Any "expected lift" is a research-informed estimate, never a promise. For the live check of whether the engines name you, run the free scan at areyoufoundbyai.com (two buyer questions on ChatGPT and Gemini; the trial and paid tiers cover all seven engines).

This is fundamentally different from traditional SEO copywriting, which optimizes for keyword density and user engagement metrics. GEO citability optimizes for extractability -- the ease with which an AI system can pull a passage from your content and present it as a direct answer.

---

Citability Scoring Rubric (0-100)

Category 1: Answer Block Quality (30% of total score)

This measures whether content contains clear, quotable answer passages that AI systems can extract verbatim.

Scoring Criteria:

Score	Criteria
90-100	Every major section opens with a 1-2 sentence direct answer. Uses "X is..." or "X refers to..." patterns. First 40-60 words of each section can stand alone as a complete answer.
70-89	Most sections have clear answer openings. Some definition patterns present. Answers are identifiable but may need minor context.
50-69	Some sections have answer-like openings but many bury the answer in the middle or end of paragraphs. Few explicit definition patterns.
30-49	Answers are generally buried in long paragraphs. No consistent definition patterns. Content is narrative-driven rather than answer-driven.
0-29	No identifiable answer blocks. Content is entirely narrative, conversational, or fragmented. AI would struggle to extract any quotable passage.