{"id":1228,"slug":"rule-answer-customer-questions-in-first-100-150-words-for-ai-citation","title":"Rule: Restructure top service and FAQ pages to answer the customer's question directly in the first 100–150 words, with specific local detail","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["seo-content","ai-citation","agency-methodology"],"reference_body":"**Rule:** On the client's top service / FAQ pages, the **first 100–150 words** must answer the customer's actual question directly — pricing ranges for the area, named staff with credentials, real project specifics. No marketing preamble.\n\n**Why:** This serves two regimes at once. (1) **E-E-A-T / Helpful Content** — [[helpful-content-update-aug-18-2022-eeat-extra-e]] rewards demonstrable first-hand experience and demotes content written for search engines. (2) **AI citation** — AI Overviews preferentially surface concrete, extractable answers; generic templated content gets absorbed without citation. Industry data on click loss confirms the cost of *not* being the cited source: [[pew-research-ai-overview-click-through-jul-22-2025-8pct-vs-15pct]], [[ahrefs-ai-overview-click-loss-dec-2025-58pct-feb-2026-publication]].\n\n**How to apply:** Audit existing top service / FAQ pages → rewrite the first paragraph to lead with the answer and the specifics → measure AI Overview citation rate on the target queries.\n\n**Related:** [[rule-demonstrate-first-hand-experience-on-service-pages-for-eeat]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"helpful-content-update-aug-18-2022-eeat-extra-e","title":"Helpful Content Update (August 18, 2022) + E-E-A-T extra \"E\" for Experience (December 2022) + folded into core (March 2024); Google said the changes aimed to cut low-quality unoriginal content by 45%","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"pew-research-ai-overview-click-through-jul-22-2025-8pct-vs-15pct","title":"Pew Research (July 22, 2025) — real-browsing field study of 900 US adults / 68,879 March 2025 searches: clicks to traditional results 8% with an AI summary vs 15% without; only 1% clicked a link inside the AI summary","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"ahrefs-ai-overview-click-loss-dec-2025-58pct-feb-2026-publication","title":"Ahrefs December 2025 re-run (published February 4, 2026) — for every 100 clicks you could historically earn for a top-ranking page, Google now keeps 58 (up from 34.5% click loss in April 2025)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-businesses-found-on-web-google-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: How businesses got found on the web — a then→now timeline (Google-focused, SMB lens, June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-18T00:10:55.892Z","updated_at":"2026-06-18T00:10:55.892Z"}