AI Visibility pillar / check citation-worthiness
Quotable facts on the page
Our editorial guideline, not a Google rule: we count the facts an answer engine could quote (numeric statements, attributed quotations, your own data), with phone numbers, dates and prices removed first.
By Shimon Carroll, Founder, SEO for AI Agents · Last updated
What this check measures
Numeric statements in the main text (percentages, multipliers, magnitudes, ratios and currency stated as a fact), quotations with an attribution, and mentions of data you collected yourself ("our survey", "we analyzed"). The evidence quotes up to five examples.
Why it matters
A Princeton-led benchmark study (GEO, KDD 2024) found that adding statistics, quotations and citations were among the changes that raised a source's visibility in generative engine answers on its benchmark. That is a lab result on one engine setup, not a guarantee for live engines. Bing's Webmaster Guidelines ask that facts be explicit and verifiable independently. This is our editorial guideline, not a Google rule.
How we score it
Editorial guideline, LOW at most. Pages with few quotable facts are a low finding; it never takes the first action-plan slot while a measured defect exists. Non-English pages are not measured.
Confidence-flag rules
LOW. Counting facts says nothing about whether they are true or well sourced; the evidence shows what we counted.
Common mistakes
- Vague claims ("thousands of happy clients") with no number, year or source.
- Statistics inside images.
- Testimonials with no name or attribution.
How to fix it
State specific, checkable facts with a year and a source, quote named people with attribution, and publish data you collected yourself.
Primary sources
- Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, KDD 2024 (arXiv 2311.09735 v3, 2024-06-28; a benchmark study, not a guarantee for live engines)
Princeton University and collaborators
- Bing Webmaster Guidelines (revision of 2026-02-27; accessed 2026-10-07)
Microsoft Bing
- Google Search Central, creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (accessed 2026-10-07)
Google Search Central
Changelog
- · Reads the shared numeric statements (phone numbers, dates, versions, addresses and price tables excluded) instead of a regex over the whole page text, adds attributed quotations and original-data cues, and is classified editorial with a low ceiling. Sourcing of facts is now the primary-source-citations check.