Writing to be cited by AI and writing to be read by a person are not opposing goals. What changes is the order of the information.
The two-sentence rule
Every section should answer its question in the first two sentences. After that, expand, qualify and tell the story. If your article opens with "in an increasingly digital world", you have already lost the snippet.
Structure of a citable article
- A title with the question or problem, in the customer's language.
- A 2-3 sentence intro carrying the short answer.
- One H2 per sub-question, written as concrete questions or statements.
- Data in lists and tables: figures, timelines, prices, requirements.
- A mistakes or limitations section: honesty gets cited more than marketing.
- A closing next step for the reader.
What adds credibility
- First-party numbers: what you see in your data and nobody else can publish.
- Concrete examples with names, context and verifiable outcomes.
- An update date and an author with credentials.
- Links to sources whenever you claim something checkable.
What keeps you out
- Three paragraphs of throat-clearing.
- Superlatives with no data: "the best solution on the market".
- Invented claims: if you cannot back it, do not write it. One false figure, once caught, costs you trust on everything else.
- Repeating the keyword instead of answering the intent.
Format matters more than it seems
An eight-line paragraph is hard to extract. Three sentences with one fact each is not. Use bold for the key concept of each point, not to shout. Keep one idea per paragraph.
How to know it works
Publish, wait four weeks and check whether your brand appears on the questions that article answered. If nothing changes, check two things before rewriting: whether the page is crawlable, and whether the question you answered is the one your customer actually asks.