geo-citability

# AI Citability Scoring Skill ## Core Insight AI language models cite passages that meet specific structural criteria. Research from Princeton, Georgia Tech, and IIT Delhi (2024) found that GEO-optimized content achieves 30-115% higher visibility in AI-generated responses. The key finding: AI systems preferentially extract and cite passages that are **134-167 words long**, **self-contained** (understandable without surrounding context), **fact-rich** (containing specific statistics, dates, or named entities), and **directly answer a question** in the first 1-2 sentences. 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. | **What to look for:** - **Definition patterns:** "X is [definition]." / "X refers to [explanation]." / "X means [meaning]." - **Answer-first structure:** The answer appears in the first sentence, followed by supporting detail. - **Quantified answers:** "The average cost of X is $Y" rather than "Many factors affect the cost of X." - **Comparison answers:** "X differs from Y in three ways: [list]" rather than "X and Y are often confused." **High-citability example:** ``` Content delivery networks (CDNs) are distributed server systems that cache and serve web content from locations geographically close to end users. A CDN reduces latency by 50-70% on average by serving assets from edge servers rather than a single origin server. The three largest CDN providers as of 2025 are Cloudflare (serving approximately 20% of all websites), Amazon CloudFront, and Akamai Technologies. ``` Word count: 58. Self-contained: Yes. Facts: 3 specific data points. Definition pattern: Yes. **Low-citability example:** ``` If you've ever wondered why some websites lo