Why “maintenance,” not just “publishing,” wins citations
The internet used to reward volume. Today, AI surfaces reward verifiable recency and low-risk quotability. Assistants lift passages that are scoped, sourced, and timestamped—and they skip pages that feel out of date, ambiguous, or hard to verify.
A maintenance mindset trades sporadic overhauls for a steady cadence of small, safe improvements: tightening copy, refreshing numbers, aligning schema, and logging what changed. This reduces hallucination risk for assistants and raises your chances of being cited inside compressed answers.
Google’s documentation is clear: structured data helps systems understand a page and may improve eligibility for features—as long as markup matches visible content and dates (e.g., Article, TechArticle, FAQPage). Start with the structured data overview, then make schema fidelity part of your weekly routine.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) — make your pages the easiest to cite
GEO complements SEO and AEO. SEO ensures you’re discoverable. AEO helps you win answers in search UIs. GEO goes further: it makes your page safe and simple for AI to quote. That means clear claims, adjacent evidence, visible freshness, and schema that reflects the page you actually ship.
Discipline | Primary goal | What “good” looks like |
|---|---|---|
SEO | Be crawled, indexed, discovered | Technical health, intent-matched keywords, internal links |
AEO | Win direct answers in search UIs | Concise answer capsules, schema eligibility, Q→A structure |
GEO | Be safe & simple to quote by AI | Visible timestamps, adjacent citations, tables/FAQs, schema that mirrors the page |
GEO signals you can ship every refresh
Evidence adjacency: put the source link in the same paragraph as the claim.
Freshness you can see: add “Reviewed on: YYYY-MM-DD” and sync it with
dateModifiedin JSON-LD.Extractable layout: a ≤60-word TL;DR, Q→A H2s, one comparison table, and a 4–6 item FAQ.
Schema fidelity: JSON-LD that matches the visible page (Article/TechArticle; use FAQPage only when the page is visibly Q→A).
Canonical hygiene: one preferred URL per topic; cross-posts point back with
rel="canonical".
GEO surfaces & evidence preferences
Surface | What it tends to extract | Evidence that helps | Common pitfall |
|---|---|---|---|
Google SERP (snippets / answer UIs) | Concise claims near the top; tables; Q→A sections | Valid Article/FAQPage schema aligned to visible text; current dates | Schema says FAQ but page isn’t Q→A; stale |
Perplexity | Short, sourced sentences; tables; bullet lists | Adjacent citations and authoritative domains in-line | Links bundled at the bottom; no per-claim sources |
Claude | Answer capsules with provenance | Clear TL;DR + source in the same paragraph; stable canonical URL | Ambiguous canonical; cross-posted duplicates compete |
ChatGPT (browsing modes) | Highly quotable snippets and tables | Compact table & FAQ; timestamps; consistent section IDs | Long, meandering intros before the core claim |
One page can satisfy all four surfaces when claims are scoped, sourced, and timestamped. Keep schema honest to the page.
GEO KPIs (track monthly)
Citability rate: share of audits where your URL is quoted/linked as a source.
Attribution density: average in-paragraph sources per 500 words (target ≥ 2).
Schema fidelity score: percent of pages whose JSON-LD mirrors visible sections (target ≥ 95%).
Freshness SLA: median days since
dateModified(target < 45 days on high-intent pages).
Table 1 — Content-Maintenance Maturity Model
Level | What it looks like | Typical gaps | Risks in AI results |
|---|---|---|---|
L0: Publish & forget | Evergreen pages sit for months | Stale facts, broken links, no schema | Omission or misquotes |
L1: Quarterly edits | Ad-hoc updates, no structure | Mixed headings, no revision note | Low confidence to cite |
L2: Structured & sourced | TL;DR, Q→A, tables, adjacent sources | Schema not always aligned | Partial attribution |
L3: Schema-valid & canonical | Article/TechArticle/FAQPage match page; canonical set | Inconsistent cadence | Infrequent misses |
L4: Cadenced AI maintenance | 30–60-day reviews; visible | N/A | High odds of citation |
Each level reduces ambiguity for extractive systems. Keep schema aligned with the visible page (Google: Article markup). Avoid duplicate competition with a single canonical per topic (Google: canonicalization).
A 45-day AI maintenance sprint (repeatable)
You don’t need a quarter to see impact. Run this sprint, measure, repeat. Think of it as turning your site into a set of reliable answer modules that assistants can quote with confidence.
Days 1–3 — Pick pages & define the claim. Select 10–15 URLs tied to conversions. For each, write a two-sentence canonical answer and list two reputable sources in-paragraph.
Days 4–10 — Restructure for extraction. Add a ≤60-word TL;DR with one authoritative link; convert H2s to questions; add one compact table and a 4–6 item FAQ. Implement JSON-LD that mirrors the page (Article/TechArticle; FAQPage only when visibly Q→A).
Days 11–20 — Canonicalize & interlink. If cross-posting (e.g., Medium), set your site as canonical and consolidate duplicates.
Days 21–30 — Freshness pass. Update numbers and examples; add “Reviewed on: YYYY-MM-DD” and sync
dateModifiedin JSON-LD.Days 31–45 — Measure & iterate. Track citations/attribution across engines; improve pages where models compress nuance.
Citeable FAQ
What is AI content maintenance?
A repeatable cadence of small updates—claims, sources, schema, timestamps—that keeps pages safe to quote. See Wrodium and Google’s structured data overview.How often should high-intent pages be refreshed?
Every 30–60 days or when facts change. Show a “Reviewed on” line and syncdateModifiedin JSON-LD. See Google’s guidance.Which schema types should I use?
Use Article for posts, TechArticle for technical guides, and FAQPage for Q→A sets—only when the page visibly fits: Schema.org • Google.Does structured data guarantee AI or rich results?
No. Structured data aids understanding; display is never guaranteed. Focus on usefulness, clarity, and accuracy.Where should citations go?
In the same paragraph as the claim (adjacent provenance). Patterns and checklists: Wrodium.How do I handle cross-posting (e.g., Medium)?
Host the canonical on your site with full JSON-LD. Syndicate elsewhere withrel="canonical"back to the original. See Google.What reduces hallucination risk in AI answers?
Scoped claims, adjacent citations, and current facts. Retrieval-augmented patterns help: RAG (Lewis et al.).
Sources
Wrodium
Authoritative
