Researchers Find Cited Pages Answer Questions More Directly
Cited pages provide direct answers to questions more often, according to a study by TJ Digital. This matters for businesses optimizing their websites for search engines.
Original reporting · searchenginejournal.com
Original: “Pages AI Cited Got Straight To The Answer More Often, Data Shows via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern”
Read “Pages AI Cited Got Straight To The Answer More Often, Data Shows via @sejournal,…” at Search Engine Journal →
How this was written. Clicktag wrote this article with a language model from Search Engine Journal’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from Search Engine Journal’s report
- Cited pages provide direct answers to questions more often than non-cited pages.
- The study found a difference in how often pages began with a direct answer when they were cited versus those that were not cited.
- Page traits such as having a year in the title, a publish or update date in the past 12 months, and tables are associated with higher odds of being cited.
TJ Robertson's analysis of AI answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and AI Overviews shows that cited pages open with a direct answer to the question more often than non-cited pages.
According to Search Engine Journal, the study found a difference in how often pages began with a direct answer when they were cited versus those that were not cited.
The results are based on data collected by Robertson's company TJ Digital, which sells Search Engine Optimization and Generative Engine Optimization services.
The data was gathered through purchasing questions tracked by Robertson's company for its clients, and the analysis includes two rounds of blind page ratings.
The study compared the content of 21,874 pages that were cited in AI answers with 4,507 comparative pages provided for 434 questions, referred to as 'passed-over pages'.
The agency relied upon keyword data from Ahrefs for those rankings, and categorized 174 of the 371 keywords as being similar to the question posed.
Robertson had AI raters blind-score 195 pairs of pages, and the results showed that cited pages received a higher rating for completeness than passed-over pages.
Questions and answers
What did the study find about cited pages?
The study found that cited pages provide direct answers to questions more often than non-cited pages.
How was the data for the study collected?
The data was gathered through purchasing questions tracked by Robertson's company for its clients.
What page traits are associated with higher odds of being cited?
Page traits such as having a year in the title, a publish or update date in the past 12 months, and tables are associated with higher odds of being cited.
