How to Optimize Content for AI Overviews & Citations

AI Overviews now appear in over 13% of Google searches. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude are answering questions that used to send clicks to your site. The question is no longer whether AI will reshape search – it’s whether your content gets cited when it does.

If you run a WordPress site, the good news is that many of the optimizations that make content citable by AI engines are structural. They’re about how you organize, format, and mark up your content – things you can control directly.

This post is a hands-on companion to my overview of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Where that post covers the “what” and “why,” this one covers the “how” – specifically for WordPress.

The following diagram summarizes the five pillars we’ll cover in this post (visible on large screens only):

What Makes Content “Citable” for AI Engines?

AI systems don’t read content the way humans do. They parse it into chunks, evaluate each chunk for relevance and authority, and then decide whether to cite it in a response.

Research shows that pages with strong E-E-A-T signals are cited significantly more often. Roughly 85% of AI Overview citations come from pages that exhibit at least three of the four E-E-A-T factors (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).

Content that gets cited tends to share these characteristics:

• Clear, concise definitions that directly answer a question.
• Well-structured heading hierarchy (H2, H3, H4) that AI can parse into discrete sections.
• Statistics, data points, and verifiable claims.
• Tables and lists that present information in an easily extractable format.
• Proper schema markup that provides machine-readable context.

Structure Your Content for AI Retrieval

AI engines use a process called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to find and cite content. RAG systems break your page into chunks – typically based on heading boundaries – and evaluate each chunk independently.

This means your content structure directly affects whether AI can find and use your information.

Use a Clear Heading Hierarchy

Every H2 should introduce a distinct topic. Every H3 should break that topic into specific sub-points. AI systems use this hierarchy to understand what each section is about and whether it’s relevant to a query.

A flat structure where everything lives under a single H2 makes it harder for AI to isolate the specific answer it needs.

Keep Sections Self-Contained

Each section (from one heading to the next) should make sense on its own. AI engines often cite individual sections, not entire articles. If your section depends on context from three paragraphs above, the citation won’t make sense to the reader.

Aim for sections of 200 to 400 words. This is the range that RAG systems handle best – long enough to be substantive, short enough to be focused.

Use Tables and Lists

Tables and lists are among the most cited content formats in AI Overviews. They present information in a structured way that AI systems can extract directly.

When comparing features, presenting steps, or listing options, prefer a table or list over running prose.

Google’s AI Overviews disproportionately cite content that uses tables, ordered lists, and definition-style formatting. If your content can be restructured into one of these formats, it’s worth doing.

Lead with Definitions

When introducing a concept, start with a concise, standalone definition in the first sentence or two after the heading. This “Bottom Line Up Front” (BLUF) approach gives AI engines a clean, citation-ready answer.

For example, instead of building up to a definition through context, write: “Speakable schema is a Schema.org property that identifies which sections of a page are best suited for audio playback via text-to-speech.”

Implement Schema Markup for AI Visibility

Schema markup gives AI engines machine-readable context about your content. Pages with well-implemented schema appear in AI Overviews significantly more often than pages without it.

Here are the schema types that matter most for AI citability, in order of priority:

Article and BlogPosting Schema

This is the baseline. Every blog post should have Article or BlogPosting schema that includes the author, publication date, modified date, and headline. This tells AI engines what the content is, when it was written, and who wrote it.

FAQPage Schema

FAQ sections with proper FAQPage schema are heavily cited by AI engines. The question-and-answer format maps directly to how users query AI tools. If you already have FAQ sections in your posts, make sure they use the correct microdata markup.

Speakable Schema

The speakable property identifies sections of your content that are suitable for text-to-speech playback. As voice search and AI assistants grow, this schema helps your content reach users through audio channels.

Implementation is straightforward. Add a speakable property to your Article schema using CSS selectors that point to the sections you want read aloud:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Article",
  "speakable": {
    "@type": "SpeakableSpecification",
    "cssSelector": [".entry-content h2", ".entry-content > p:first-of-type"]
  }
}

Organization and Person Schema

These establish your site’s identity and the author’s credentials. AI engines use this to evaluate authoritativeness. Include the organization name, logo, social profiles, and the author’s expertise areas.

You can learn more about implementation in my guide to adding schema and structured data in WordPress.

Optimize Author Pages for E-E-A-T Signals

AI engines evaluate the author behind the content, not just the content itself. Strong author signals increase the likelihood of your content being cited.

Build a Proper Author Page

Your author page should function as a credentials page. Include your professional background, areas of expertise, notable publications or projects, and links to your social profiles.

Add Person schema to the author page with properties like jobTitle, worksFor, sameAs (linking to LinkedIn, GitHub, Twitter), and knowsAbout.

Link Author Pages to Content

Every post should link to the author page. The author byline should be visible and clickable, not hidden in metadata. AI systems follow these links to evaluate the person behind the content.

Show Experience, Not Just Expertise

The first “E” in E-E-A-T stands for Experience. Include first-person insights, real project examples, screenshots, and case studies in your content. AI systems increasingly prioritize content written from genuine experience over generic, aggregated information.

Keep Content Fresh and Consistent

AI engines prefer recent, up-to-date content. Pages with visible timestamps, regular updates, and current data are cited more often.

Update your posts regularly. When you do, update the modified date in WordPress (it’s automatic) and make sure the content reflects the current state of things. If a tool has changed, update the screenshots. If a statistic is outdated, replace it.

Consistency also matters across your site. If one page says a feature works one way and another page says it works differently, AI systems may avoid citing either. Keep your facts aligned across all your content.

FAQs

Common questions about optimizing WordPress content for AI Overviews and citability:

Summary

Optimizing WordPress content for AI citability comes down to three things: structure your content so AI can parse it, mark it up so AI can understand it, and build authority signals so AI trusts it.

Use clear heading hierarchies, self-contained sections of 200-400 words, tables, lists, and lead with definitions. Implement Article, FAQ, and speakable schema. Build proper author pages with Person schema and visible E-E-A-T signals. Keep everything fresh and consistent.

These are not speculative optimizations. They’re practical, structural changes you can make to your WordPress site today that directly affect whether AI engines find, trust, and cite your content.