What makes a resource page easy for an AI assistant to cite?
Many advisor resource pages are built for browsing: commentary, PDFs and newsletters sorted by date. An assistant arrives with one question, so a page shaped like that question, with the answer in its first lines and its sources shown, gives it something to quote. And check that the assistants' crawlers aren't blocked.
Key takeaways
- An assistant arrives with one question; a page built for browsing can hide the answer it needs.
- Put the answer at the top, in plain words, with its sources; in a published benchmark, citing sources, quoting and adding statistics helped most, and keyword stuffing made little or no difference.
- Schema helps machines read you correctly; Google says no special structured data is required for its AI features.
- Check that the assistants' crawlers are allowed on your site before anything else.
Where this comes from
Public documentation from Google and OpenAI and one peer-reviewed study, each linked in the sources below. The page mocks are illustrative, not measured data.
Make the examples about my firm
Changes the wording of examples only, never the data. Stored in this browser only.
Why can a traditional resources page get passed over?
Because it is built for a visitor who browses, and an assistant usually arrives with one question, reads a few pages and leaves with whatever answers it.
A market update from March may not answer what a prospect asks in October, and a 12-page PDF may hold the perfect answer on page 6, behind a download button and a cover page.
The same firm’s knowledge, arranged two ways.
Illustrative example, not measured data A generic mock of your firm’s resources page; the sample answer is placeholder text, not advice.
Built for browsing
An assistant asked “Can I retire at 60 with a pension and $1.2M saved?” finds no page that answers it. The answer may be on page 6 of the PDF.
Built for the question
- Can I retire at 60 with a pension and $1.2M saved?It often depends on three numbers: your pension, your spending and when you claim Social Security.
- Should I take my pension as a lump sum?Placeholder: the answer in one line, then the detail.
- How much should I keep in cash in retirement?Placeholder: the answer in one line, then the detail.
- When should I claim Social Security?Placeholder: the answer in one line, then the detail.
The assistant finds the question as a heading and the answer in its first line.
See the data
| Layout | Can an assistant find the answer? |
|---|---|
| By date and format | Harder: the answer sits inside a PDF, behind a download |
| By question | Yes: the question is a heading, the answer its first line |
Where should the answer go on the page?
We’d put it at the top, in plain words, with its sources. The benchmark didn’t test placement; it found that citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics each improved a page’s visibility measure.
- Cite sourcesroughly 30 to 40% relative improvement
- Quotation additionroughly 30 to 40% relative improvement
- Statistics additionroughly 30 to 40% relative improvement
- Keyword stuffinglittle to no improvement
Source: Aggarwal et al., “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, KDD 2024, section 4. A research benchmark across many topics, not a test of advisor sites.
See the data
| Method | Reported result (Position-Adjusted Word Count) |
|---|---|
| Cite sources | roughly 30-40% relative improvement |
| Quotation addition | roughly 30-40% relative improvement |
| Statistics addition | roughly 30-40% relative improvement |
| Keyword stuffing | little to no improvement |
The authors found the methods especially helpful for pages ranked lower in ordinary search: citing sources lifted fifth-ranked pages’ visibility measure by 115 percent.3
Does schema markup get a firm recommended?
Not on its own, as far as Google’s documentation shows. Structured data (schema markup) helps machines read your name, town and services correctly, and it is worth doing well; Google says no special structured data is required for its AI features.
Google says there’s “no special schema.org structured data that you need to add” for its AI features.1
Markup helps a machine read you correctly.
Illustrative example, not measured data A sample firm card read by a machine, with and without markup.
What the machine reads
- Name
- Your firm
- Town
- your town (stated explicitly)your town, read from the page text if it’s clear
- Services
- Retirement income, tax planning
Recommended in an answer?
Not decided by markup alone
Markup helps a machine read you; on its own, it does not decide who gets named.
Schema is the tie, not the suit.
Can the assistants' crawlers read your site?
Check your robots.txt first: OpenAI says its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is what puts sites in ChatGPT’s search answers, and a site that blocks it won’t appear there, though it can still appear as a plain navigational link.2
A rule in robots.txt or a security setting on your web host can block a crawler without anyone noticing. Ask your web person to check it.
Paste your robots.txt: is OpenAI’s search crawler allowed in?
Open yourfirm.com/robots.txt in a browser and copy it here. It runs in your browser; nothing is sent.
OAI-SearchBot: allowed
Your robots.txt lets it in. No group names OAI-SearchBot, so it follows the User-agent: * group, which allows the whole site.
| Crawler | Group that applies | Verdict for the homepage |
|---|---|---|
| OAI-SearchBot (ChatGPT search) | * | Allowed |
| Claude-SearchBot | * | Not judged here: check Anthropic’s own documentation |
| PerplexityBot | * | Not judged here: check Perplexity’s own documentation |
This checks only your homepage against the text you pasted; other paths may have different rules, a firewall or host setting can still block the crawler, and being allowed in does not guarantee appearing in answers.
| robots.txt says | Group that applies to OAI-SearchBot | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
User-agent: * / Allow: / (GPTBot has its own group) | * | Allowed |
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot / Disallow: / | oai-searchbot | Blocked |
The checker applies the most specific matching group and the longest matching rule, and judges only OAI-SearchBot, the one crawler checked against its company’s documentation.
Your robots.txt lets it in.
What does a resource hub built to be cited look like?
It is organised by your clients’ questions, answers each one in its first lines, shows its sources, says when it was last checked, and goes past your CCO like every other page of marketing.
This page follows the same pattern, except the CCO step: Wealth I/O is not an adviser, so its own pages are approved by its founder. Switch on the x-ray at the top to see every part labelled with the job it does.
Take this with you
A seven-point check for your own resources, and one sentence to paste into ChatGPT. Optional; it stays in your browser unless you send it.
0 of 7 in place. Start with: each page answers one question your clients actually ask.
Paste this into ChatGPT
Look at [your website]. Which single page best answers the question “[a question your clients ask]”? Quote the sentence that answers it, and tell me if you couldn’t find one.
If it can’t find a sentence to quote, that’s a page worth checking first.
Your crawler check
Not run yet. Add /robots.txt to your web address to find yours.
Sending opens your own email app; nothing passes through us. Illustrative check, not a score or forecast.
Questions principals also ask
Do PDFs and market commentary hurt my firm's visibility in AI search?
Not necessarily. A PDF can hide its answer behind a download and a cover page, and dated commentary may not match the questions prospects ask. Keep them if clients value them, and add question-shaped pages alongside.
Do I need schema markup or an llms.txt file to appear in AI answers?
Google says no special structured data or AI text file is required for its AI features. Good markup still helps machines read your details correctly, so treat it as hygiene.
How do I check whether ChatGPT can read my site?
Look at your robots.txt and make sure OpenAI's search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, is not blocked. OpenAI says sites that block it will not appear in ChatGPT's search answers, though they can still appear as plain navigational links.
Do resource pages need compliance review?
Treat them as marketing. Your CCO should review them before they go live, the same as any other page on your site. We are not giving legal advice.
Sources
- Google Search Central, “AI features and your website”, last updated 10 Dec 2025, accessed and checked 7 Oct 2026.
- OpenAI, crawler documentation (OAI-SearchBot), accessed and checked 7 Oct 2026.
- Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan, Ameet Deshpande, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, KDD 2024 (arXiv v3, 28 Jun 2024), sections 4 and 5.2, accessed and checked 7 Oct 2026.