# AI citability scoring skill Human Guide

## What This Is For
AI citability scoring and optimization. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for search and SEO workflows: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the AI citability scoring skill agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for AI citability scoring skill.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the AI citability scoring skill guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Definition patterns:** "X is [definition]." / "X refers to [explanation]." / "X means [meaning]."
- **Answer-first structure:** The answer appears in the first sentence, followed by supporting detail.
- **Quantified answers:** "The average cost of X is $Y" rather than "Many factors affect the cost of X."
- **Comparison answers:** "X differs from Y in three ways: [list]" rather than "X and Y are often confused."
- Does the passage explicitly name the subject (not "it," "this," "they")?
- Can someone understand the main point reading ONLY this passage?
- Does the passage contain at least one specific fact, statistic, or named entity?
- Is the passage between 50-200 words (the optimal extraction length)?
- Does the passage avoid starting with conjunctions ("But," "However," "And") that imply prior context?
- **Heading hierarchy:** H1 (page title) > H2 (major sections) > H3 (subsections). Never skip levels.
- **Question-based headings:** "What is [topic]?" and "How does [topic] work?" are directly matchable to AI queries.
- **Paragraph length:** 2-4 sentences per paragraph. AI systems parse short paragraphs more reliably.

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Core Insight, Citability Scoring Rubric (0-100), Category 1: Answer Block Quality (30% of total score), Category 2: Passage Self-Containment (25% of total score), Category 3: Structural Readability (20% of total score), Category 4: Statistical Density (15% of total score), Category 5: Uniqueness & Original Data (10% of total score), Analysis Procedure, Step 1: Fetch and Parse Page Content, Step 2: Segment Content into Blocks.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Does the passage avoid starting with conjunctions ("But," "However," "And") that imply prior context?
- **Heading hierarchy:** H1 (page title) > H2 (major sections) > H3 (subsections). Never skip levels.
- **Bold key terms:** Bold the first use of important terms. This aids AI entity recognition.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the AI citability scoring skill human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the zubair-trabzada/geo-seo-claude skill entry for `geo-citability`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# AI Citability Scoring Skill

## Core Insight

AI language models cite passages that meet specific structural criteria. Research from Princeton, Georgia Tech, and IIT Delhi (2024) found that GEO-optimized content achieves 30-115% higher visibility in AI-generated responses. The key finding: AI systems preferentially extract and cite passages that are **134-167 words long**, **self-contained** (understandable without surrounding context), **fact-rich** (containing specific statistics, dates, or named entities), and **directly answer a question** in the first 1-2 sentences.

This is fundamentally different from traditional SEO copywriting, which optimizes for keyword density and user engagement metrics. GEO citability optimizes for **extractability** -- the ease with which an AI system can pull a passage from your content and present it as a direct answer.

---

## Citability Scoring Rubric (0-100)

### Category 1: Answer Block Quality (30% of total score)

This measures whether content contains clear, quotable answer passages that AI systems can extract verbatim.

**Scoring Criteria:**

| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| **90-100** | Every major section opens with a 1-2 sentence direct answer. Uses "X is..." or "X refers to..." patterns. First 40-60 words of each section can stand alone as a complete answer. |
| **70-89** | Most sections have clear answer openings. Some definition patterns present. Answers are identifiable but may need minor context. |
| **50-69** | Some sections have answer-like openings but many bury the answer in the middle or end of paragraphs. Few explicit definition patterns. |
| **30-49** | Answers are generally buried in long paragraphs. No consistent definition patterns. Content is narrative-driven rather than answer-driven. |
| **0-29** | No identifiable answer blocks. Content is entirely narrative, conversational, or fragmented. AI would struggle to extract any quotable passage. |

**What to look for:**

- **Definition patterns:** "X is [definition]." / "X refers to [explanation]." / "X means [meaning]."
- **Answer-first structure:** The answer appears in the first sentence, followed by supporting detail.
- **Quantified answers:** "The average cost of X is $Y" rather than "Many factors affect the cost of X."
- **Comparison answers:** "X differs from Y in three ways: [list]" rather than "X and Y are often confused."

**High-citability example:**
```
Content delivery networks (CDNs) are distributed server systems that cache and serve
web content from locations geographically close to end users. A CDN reduces latency
by 50-70% on average by serving assets from edge servers rather than a single origin
server. The three largest CDN providers as of 2025 are Cloudflare (serving approximately
20% of all websites), Amazon CloudFront, and Akamai Technologies.
```
Word count: 58. Self-contained: Yes. Facts: 3 specific data points. Definition pattern: Yes.

**Low-citability example:**
```
If you've ever wondered why some websites load faster than others, the answer might
surprise you. There's this amazing technology that has been around for a while now.
It's changed the way we think about web performance. Let me explain how it works and
why you should care about it for your business.
```
Word count: 52. Self-contained: No (no topic identified). Facts: 0. Definition pattern: No.

---

### Category 2: Passage Self-Containment (25% of total score)

This measures whether individual passages can be extracted and understood without needing the surrounding content.

**Scoring Criteria:**

| Score | Criteria |
|---|---|
| **90-100** | 80%+ of content blocks are fully self-contained. Each passage names its subject explicitly. No reliance on pronouns referencing earlier content. Contains specific facts within the passage. |
| **70-89** | 60-79% of content blocks are self-contained. Most passages name their subject. Occasional pronoun references that require context. |
| **50-69** | 40-59% of content blocks are self-contained. Mixed use of explicit subjects and pronouns. Some passages require reading prior sections. |
| **30-49** | 20-39% of content blocks are self-contained. Heavy reliance on pronouns and contextual references. Most passages need surrounding text. |
| **0-29** | Under 20% self-contained. Content reads as a continuous narrative where extracting any paragraph loses meaning. |

**Self-containment checklist for each passage:**

1. Does the passage explicitly name the subject (not "it," "this," "they")?
2. Can someone understand the main point reading ONLY this passage?
3. Does the passage contain at least one specific fact, statistic, or named entity?
4. Is the passage between 50-200 words (the optimal extraction length)?
5. Does the passage avoid starting with conjunctions ("But," "However," "And") that imply prior context?

---

### Category 3: Structural Readability (20% of total score)