10 Actionable Tips To Rank Your Content in AI

1. Optimize for citations, not clicks

We’ve entered the citation economy: if AI search engines don’t cite you, you’re effectively invisible—traditional backlinks matter less than extractable answers.

2. Structure content for AI extraction

Over 70% of AI-cited content follows a specific structure that makes it easy for models like ChatGPT and Perplexity to quote directly.

3. Use question-based headings (H2/H3)

Turn headings into explicit questions (e.g. “What is technical SEO?”) so AI clearly understands what is being answered.

4. Answer immediately under each heading

The first sentence should directly answer the question, not introduce context or storytelling.

5. Keep answers short and self-contained

Aim for ~30–50 words (≈150 characters) that can be fully understood without reading anything else on the page.

6. Remove links from the initial answer block

Zero links in the first answer paragraph makes it easier for AI systems to extract and cite your content cleanly.

7. Explain after the answer, not before

Use the capsule method: answer first, elaborate later with examples, data, or workflows.

8. Publish genuinely valuable content

AI favors content with updated data, original insights, personal experience, case studies, clear opinions, or proprietary workflows.

9. Rewrite existing content instead of creating new pages

Start with pages already ranking positions 8–20 in Google Search Console—they’re indexed and primed for AI citation gains.

10. Use AI to refactor content into “capsules”

Tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity can audit pages, rewrite headings into questions, and generate citation-ready answer blocks that get picked up by Google AI Overviews.