Short answer
An agency's analysis of ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews answers suggests that pages that get cited are more likely than uncited ones to answer the question at the top of the page. The study shows association, not cause, and rests on the agency's own client questions, so test the finding on your own pages first.
Highlights
- 193,507 answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews were analysed.
- 23 per cent of cited pages opened with the answer, against 14 per cent of uncited pages.
- The study shows an association; it has not been shown that putting the answer first increases citations.
2 min readAuthor: UNIT Journal EditorEditor-in-chief: Uğur Deniz İlhan
TJ Robertson, founder of TJ Digital, analysed what pages cited in AI answers have in common. According to Search Engine Journal the analysis covers 193,507 answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews. The questions are buying questions from 78 client companies, and AI raters scored pages without knowing which one had been cited.
What do cited pages do differently?
Compared with pages that appeared in the same answer but were not cited, 23 per cent of cited pages opened with a direct answer to the question; among uncited pages the figure was 14 per cent. Against Google top-ten pages the AI never retrieved, the gap was 20 per cent to 5 per cent.
On page traits, a year in the title came with more than twice the odds of citation. A publish or update date in the past 12 months came with 88 per cent higher odds, tables with 69 per cent and first-hand experience with 45 per cent.
How should the finding be read?
The agency says it sells both SEO and GEO services, and that its results show association, not cause. Nearly a quarter of cited pages also gave no answer in the part of the page the raters read. A citation is therefore not proof that a page answered the question.
What should sites in Türkiye do?
- Open your highest-demand service and product pages and check whether the first screen answers the buyer's question directly; if not, add a short, clear answer paragraph.
- Do not roll it out across the whole site at once: do it on a few pages first, then measure the change in citations on the questions you track. The study does not prove that it raises citations.
- Show a year and an update date on pages only when you have genuinely updated them, and add price and comparison tables.
- Each month, ask ChatGPT and AI Mode your customers' questions and record whether your brand appears. GEO work manages this measurement and page structure together.
Frequently asked
- Will putting the answer at the top of a page win citations?
- This analysis does not show that; it only says cited pages more often start with the answer. A test comparing pages that add it with pages that do not is needed.
Sources
- Search Engine Journal ·
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