How do I write facts an assistant can quote?
For anyone who writes website copy, product pages or blog posts. After reading, you will be able to rewrite key pages so assistants can lift accurate facts from them without guessing.
Write quotable facts as short, self-contained sentences that name the subject and give a specific detail, such as a price, size, time or place, without needing the sentence before it. Put the direct answer first under a heading phrased as the question, then add the supporting detail. Say a café writes 'Pine Street Café opens at 6:30 am on weekdays and has 24 seats with power outlets': an assistant can lift that line whole. 'We open early for you!' gives it nothing to quote.
Assistants quote passages, not whole pages
When an assistant reads your page, it usually breaks it into short chunks, called passages, and judges each one on its own. A passage might be a paragraph or a section under one heading. If that passage only makes sense with the paragraph above it, it is less likely to be used.
This is why pronouns cause trouble. 'It ships in two days' means nothing once separated from the product name. 'The Linen Duvet Cover ships in two business days' survives on its own. Name the subject in every key sentence, even if it feels repetitive.
Lead with the answer, then give the proof
Put the plain answer in the first sentence under each heading, and keep the detail for after. Journalists call this the inverted pyramid. It suits people skimming on a phone and machines scanning for the passage that answers a question.
Phrase headings the way customers ask. 'How long does delivery take?' beats 'Shipping info'. Then answer in one or two sentences, ideally under 40 words, before adding conditions, exceptions and context.
Specific beats impressive
Numbers, units, dates and conditions are what assistants quote. Adjectives like 'premium', 'fast' or 'best-in-class' are not facts, so they get ignored or, worse, replaced with a guess. Swap claims for checkable details.
- Instead of 'fast shipping', write 'Orders placed before 2 pm ship the same day from Ohio.'
- Instead of 'affordable plans', write 'Plans start at $49 a month for up to 5 users.'
- Instead of 'experienced team', write 'Our three injectors are registered nurses with at least 8 years of experience.'
- Instead of 'eco-friendly packaging', write 'All packaging is recycled cardboard with no plastic film.'
Use formats that machines read cleanly
Key facts should live in plain HTML text on the page, not inside images, PDFs, sliders or tabs that only load after a click. Many crawlers read the raw page and may not run the scripts that reveal hidden content.
Tables work well for specs, sizes and pricing. Short lists work well for features and steps. A frequently asked questions section is still worth having: Google limited FAQ rich results to well-known government and health sites in 2023 and retired HowTo rich results, but question-and-answer content and valid schema still help answer engines understand what a page covers.
Show your sources and who wrote it
Pages that cite sources and show real authorship look more trustworthy to people and to machines. The 2023 research paper that coined the term GEO found that adding sources, quotations and statistics made content more visible in generated answers in its tests. Link to the standards, studies or data you rely on, add an author name and role, and keep an About page that explains who is behind the business.
Do this next
Questions people ask
Should I write for AI or for people?
For people, in a way machines can parse. Clear, specific, well-structured writing serves both, and nothing in this chapter makes a page worse for human readers.
Does page length matter?
Length matters less than whether each section answers a question clearly. A short page with precise facts often outperforms a long page that circles the point.
Is FAQ schema still worth adding if Google rarely shows FAQ results?
Yes, if the questions and answers are visible on the page. The schema helps machines understand the content even though Google shows FAQ rich results only for a narrow set of sites.