Step 1: write for the search the engine writes
In the recommendation questions we tested for SearchIntel Study 02, the engine rarely ran the user's words as a search. It wrote its own searches, usually several, and ran those instead.
Our reading: a page should address the specific need expressed in the engine's searches, as well as the buyer's original question.
In SearchIntel Study 02, we captured 12,264 searches that ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini returned alongside their answers, across 177 category questions in two markets, each run five times. Our advice: look at the searches shown for your own topics before you write, and let them inform your wording.
Step 2: one page, one specific need
One search we captured, verbatim, with the firm's domain masked: "site:[firm].co.uk virtual ciso". That is ChatGPT going into one firm's own website to look for evidence of one specific service (SearchIntel Study 02). We describe patterns like this as early ones, not settled findings.
Our reading of this early pattern: give a specific service its own clearly titled page.
The same study has the other side of it. On a question asking for a very specific kind of provider, a well-known company's own pages appear in the answer's list of sources, and the company is named in no answer. Its pages described something more general. The competitor that won offered something built for exactly what was asked.
Step 3: state it in the buyer's words
If "virtual CISO" is the service you offer and the wording the engine's search used, say "virtual CISO" on the page. Our advice from the study is to check whether your pages state the specific service or need in the words the search used.
- Put the plain name of the thing in the title, the main heading and the first sentence.
- Say who it is for and where you offer it.
- Keep it in ordinary text. Not in an image, a slider or a PDF.
Step 4: answer first, then explain
This step is our editorial practice, not a finding. We open every page with a two or three sentence answer to the question in the title. Then each section takes one sub-question, with a heading that says what it is.
A reader, or a machine, that takes only one paragraph from the page should still leave with a complete, correct statement.
Step 5: give it facts worth citing
Our practice is to include original evidence, not only repeat what is available elsewhere. Our pages carry things only we have: our own counts, with the sample stated, and a date.
- Every figure has its source named in the same sentence.
- Say how many you looked at and where. "We tested 100 UK buying questions" tells the reader something. "Most brands do this" tells them nothing.
- Date the page, and name the person who wrote it.
- Say what you do not know. It is part of being a source someone can rely on.
We hold this site to that standard. It is what we would want from a page we were going to quote.
Step 6: make sure the page can be fetched
For ChatGPT search, OpenAI says a site should allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt and let through traffic from its published IP addresses (OpenAI's crawler documentation). Check both. A security layer that blocks unfamiliar crawlers can undo the rest of this list.
Then link to the new page from pages that already get read. A page nothing links to is hard for anyone to find, machine or person.
Step 7: know what a citation is worth
Being cited is one step. In SearchIntel Study 02, pages were read and cited and the brand was still not named. One study reported that 84% of AI citations were from earned media (Muck Rack, May 2026).
A cited list is also short. ChatGPT attached 4.0 citations to an average answer across the 100 UK buying questions in SearchIntel Study 01.
So write the page, then check two things separately: whether it is cited, and whether you are named. For the wider picture of where citations come from, see our AI citation strategy.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a blog post that AI will cite?
Pick one specific question. Answer it in the first paragraph, in the words a buyer would use. Add facts with a named source and a date. Then make sure AI crawlers are allowed to fetch the page. That is our practice. OpenAI says placement in ChatGPT search is not guaranteed.
Does a longer page get cited more?
Not in anything we have measured. We write to the length the question needs.
If my page is cited, will my brand be recommended?
Not necessarily. In our research, pages were cited in an answer's sources while the brand went unnamed. Check citation and recommendation as two separate things.