How do I write content that AI assistants will quote?
Short answer: Answer first, name yourself, be specific, keep one topic per section, and add FAQ blocks; assistants lift short, self-contained, factual paragraphs.
Write each key page so that the answer comes first, names you, and stands alone. Assistants build answers from short passages; a paragraph that works out of context is the unit they look for.
A structure that works:
- Heading as the question the customer would ask, in their words: "How much does a boiler service cost in Leeds?"
- A direct answer in the first two sentences, with the entity named and a specific figure or fact: "Smith Heating charges £89 for a standard gas boiler service in Leeds, including a Gas Safe certificate."
- Two to four sentences of context: what is included, what changes the price, how to book.
- One topic per section. If the section also covers boiler repair, split it.
- An FAQ block of three to six genuine questions with 40- to 80-word answers, marked up with
FAQPageschema.
Things that reduce the chance of being quoted:
- Opening with a slogan or a paragraph about your values before any fact.
- Vague claims: "competitive prices", "serving the wider area", "years of experience".
- Burying the answer in a table image, a PDF or content loaded by JavaScript.
- Pages that try to rank for ten related terms and therefore answer none of them clearly.
- Facts that contradict your Google Business Profile or directory listings.
A quick test: copy the first paragraph under each H2 into a blank document. If a stranger could read it and know who you are, what it is about and what the answer is, it is quotable. If it needs the rest of the page to make sense, rewrite it.
Seoptist's audit flags pages without question-and-answer-shaped passages, and the on-page recommendations on Growth and above suggest a rewritten opening paragraph per page, which you can accept or edit.