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SKILL

Get Cited in Google AI Overviews

Google is answering questions directly now. If your site isn't structured to be the answer, you're invisible. This skill scans your keywords, identifies citation gaps, and gives you the exact content changes to win.

40+ keywords scanned
3.2x citation rate with FAQ schema
$0/mo replaces AEO monitoring tools
Download Skill File ↓
THE PROBLEM

Google changed the game. Most sites haven't noticed.

When someone searches "best free CRM 2026," Google doesn't send them to 10 blue links anymore. It writes a paragraph, cites 2-3 sources, and most people never scroll past it. If you're not one of those sources, you functionally don't exist for that query.

× Traditional SEO
Optimize for 10 blue links
Rank high and hope for clicks
Backlinks are the main lever
No visibility into AI citations
Content structure doesn't matter much
Months of guesswork
✓ Answer Engine Optimization
Optimize to be Google's cited source
Be the answer, get the click
Content structure is the main lever
Scan and track citation status per keyword
Exact content pattern that wins citations
Measure, optimize, re-scan in 2 weeks
WHY THIS MATTERS

The difference between ranked #3 and cited

AI Overviews appear above the organic results for a growing percentage of queries. They answer the question directly and point to their sources. Users click cited sources at a higher rate than regular search results because Google is literally saying "this is where the answer came from."

3.2x Pages with FAQ schema are 3.2x more likely to appear in AI Overviews
2.5x Pages with comparison tables get 2.5x the citation rate
47% Hub-and-spoke internal linking increases citations by 47%
4.3x Pages covering 70%+ of a topic get 4.3x more AI responses
THE PIPELINE

5 steps from invisible to cited

A systematic workflow that turns AEO from guesswork into a measurable feedback loop.

🔎 Scan
→
📊 Analyze
→
🔍 Research
→
✏ Optimize
→
📈 Track
01

Scan your keywords

Playwright opens a real Chrome browser, searches Google for each of your 40+ ICP keywords, and checks whether your site appears in the AI Overview. No API, no third-party tool. Direct observation of what Google is actually showing.

node citation-monitor.mjs
02

Analyze gaps and competitors

Generate a scorecard: how many keywords you're CITED, MENTIONED, or ABSENT for. For every gap, see exactly which competitor domains are getting cited instead. Rank opportunities by difficulty: MENTIONED-to-CITED is the easiest win.

03

Research what's winning

For each ABSENT keyword, fetch the pages that ARE getting cited. Analyze their content structure: answer-first openings, comparison tables, word count, FAQ sections, methodology sections. Reverse-engineer the exact pattern that Google's AI extracts from.

04

Optimize your pages

Apply the citation-winning pattern to each target page. Add answer-first paragraphs, comparison tables above the fold, FAQ sections with JSON-LD schema, methodology sections. Specific recommendations, not generic advice.

/aeo optimize /free/crm
05

Re-scan and measure

Deploy changes, wait 1-2 weeks for Google to re-crawl, then run the citation monitor again. Compare results. Track your ABSENT-to-CITED conversion rate over time. This is the feedback loop that traditional SEO tools don't give you.

node citation-monitor.mjs --keyword "best free CRM 2026"
THE PATTERN

What cited pages have in common

We analyzed 6 top-cited pages across our keyword set. Every one of them follows the same structural pattern. Here's what Google's AI actually extracts from.

01 Highest extraction rate

Answer-first opening

The first 40-60 words directly answer the query. No setup, no context, no "In today's world." Just the answer. This is the paragraph Google extracts.

"The best free CRM tools in 2026 are HubSpot CRM, Zoho CRM, and Freshsales. These tools handle contact management, email tracking, and pipeline automation without monthly subscriptions."
02 2.5x citation rate

Comparison table above fold

A structured table comparing tools/approaches before the detailed reviews. Google cites pages with tables at 2.5x the rate of pages without them. The table must appear early, not buried at the bottom.

03 3.2x more likely

FAQ with JSON-LD schema

5-7 questions with direct answers, wrapped in FAQPage structured data. Pages with FAQ schema are 3.2x more likely to appear in AI Overviews. This is probably the single highest-impact change you can make.

04 3,500 word minimum

Substantial depth

Every cited page in our analysis was 3,500+ words. Short pages don't get cited. The cited pages ranged from 4,200 to 7,000 words. LLMs need enough material to extract from and enough signals to judge authority.

05 Trust signal

Methodology section

A "How We Selected" or "Our Criteria" section that explains evaluation methodology. This signals credibility to both Google and LLMs. It differentiates original research from scraped listicles.

LIVE DEMO

Watch the pipeline run

The full AEO workflow runs from your terminal. Scan, analyze, optimize.

claude — marketing/aeo/
you: | 
Launching Chrome (headed mode)...

  Scanning 42 keywords against Google AI Overviews...
  [1/42] "best free CRM 2026" — AI Overview found
  [2/42] "replace HubSpot with AI" — AI Overview found
  [3/42] "solopreneur tech stack 2026" — AI Overview found
  [4/42] "cancel Mailchimp alternative" — No AI Overview
  ...
  [42/42] "AI cold email tool" — AI Overview found

→ Scan complete. Saved to citations-2026-03-20.json
you: | 
Analyzing citation results...

  | Status      | Count | %   |
  |-------------|-------|-----|
  | CITED       | 4     | 10% |
  | MENTIONED   | 7     | 17% |
  | ABSENT      | 25    | 60% |
  | No Overview | 6     | 14% |

  Top competitor: hubspot.com (cited 18 times)
  Quick wins: 7 MENTIONED keywords (already named, need link)
  Priority page: /free/crm (ABSENT, high intent)

→ Full gap analysis saved. 7 quick wins identified.
you: | 
Optimizing /free/crm for "best free CRM 2026"...

  ✓ Added answer-first paragraph (52 words)
  ✓ Added comparison table (8 tools x 4 columns)
  ✓ Added FAQPage JSON-LD schema (6 questions)
  ✓ Added methodology section
  ✓ Word count: 2,100 → 4,200 (+100%)
  ✓ Internal links: 3 → 8 cross-links added

  Estimated impact: ABSENT → CITED within 2 weeks
→ Re-scan after next Google crawl.
USE CASES

Who should care about AEO

If you publish content that answers questions your ICP is searching for, AEO is relevant. Here's where it hits hardest.

01

SaaS comparison pages

"Best free CRM," "Zapier alternatives," "replace HubSpot." These are the highest-value queries to get cited for. Buyers are comparing solutions. If Google's AI cites your page as the source, you're positioned as the authority before they even click.

02

Content-led SEO

If you're writing long-form content to rank for keywords, you're already doing the hard part. AEO is the structural layer on top. Same content, better formatted for LLM extraction. Often the difference between page 1 and being cited is adding an answer-first paragraph and FAQ schema.

03

Competitive displacement

See exactly which competitors are getting cited for your target keywords. Analyze their content structure. Build pages that match or exceed their pattern. The citation monitor gives you the scoreboard. The playbook gives you the game plan.

04

New page planning

Before writing a new page, check whether Google shows an AI Overview for that keyword. If it does, you know the content structure requirements upfront. Build it right the first time instead of optimizing after the fact.

05

Programmatic SEO at scale

If you're generating pages at scale (/free/*, /replace/*, /skills/*), AEO gives you a template that works. One citation-winning structure applied to every page in the set. Monitor all of them with one scan.

FREE SKILL FILE

Get the full AEO pipeline

Download the complete skill file: citation monitor code, analysis prompts, the content optimization playbook, and the citation-winning template. Drop it into your repo and start tracking.

FAQ

Common questions

SEO optimizes for the 10 blue links below the search bar. AEO optimizes for the AI-generated answer that appears above those links. When Google shows an AI Overview, it writes a paragraph answering the query and cites 2-3 sources. Those cited sources get clicked at a higher rate than the organic results below them. AEO is about structuring your content so that Google's AI can extract from it and link back to you as the source. Different techniques: SEO focuses on keywords and backlinks. AEO focuses on answer-first paragraphs, comparison tables, FAQ schema, and content depth.
Google re-crawls most active sites within 1-2 weeks after changes deploy. After optimizing a page, run the citation monitor again 2 weeks later and compare your ABSENT/MENTIONED/CITED status. The fastest wins are pages where you're already MENTIONED (Google knows you exist, just hasn't linked to you yet). Adding an answer-first paragraph and FAQ schema to those pages often flips them to CITED within a single crawl cycle. Brand new pages take longer because Google needs to discover and trust them first.
Based on analyzing pages that are winning citations across our keyword set: FAQ sections with FAQPage JSON-LD schema make you 3.2x more likely to appear. Comparison tables above the fold give a 2.5x citation rate. Answer-first paragraphs in the first 40-60 words have the highest extraction probability. And pages need to be at least 3,500 words. Short pages almost never get cited. The single biggest quick win is usually adding FAQ schema to pages that already have good content.
The citation monitor and optimization playbook work for any website that targets informational or comparison queries. SaaS, e-commerce, professional services, media sites. If someone is asking Google a question that your content can answer, AEO applies. The keyword categories change (you might track 'best wedding photographer in Austin' instead of 'best free CRM'), but the citation-winning content pattern is the same: answer-first, comparison tables, FAQ schema, sufficient depth.
The selectors that the citation monitor uses (currently #m-x-content) will change over time. That's a 5-minute fix when it happens. But the underlying content patterns that win citations are stable. Google's AI needs structured, authoritative, comprehensive content to cite. Answer-first paragraphs, comparison tables, FAQ schema, methodology sections. These patterns work because they make content easy for any LLM to extract from, not because of any specific Google UI element.
Traditional SEO tools track keyword rankings in the organic blue links. They don't tell you whether you're being cited in AI Overviews, which competitors are getting cited instead, or what content structure changes would win you a citation. This skill does exactly that. It's a focused tool for a specific problem: getting cited by Google's AI. You might still use Semrush for traditional keyword research, but for AEO specifically, this gives you data those tools don't provide.
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