If you want to be cited by AI search tools, write for a 10-year-old, but provide data for a PhD.
Keep your language clear enough, so AI (and humans!) can parse it easily. But deliver sophisticated data to prove to AI (and humans!) that you’re a top-tier source.
How? By understanding LLM — and by keeping your webpages tight and to the point.
- What’s Large Language Model (LLM) readability?
LLM is the technology behind ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools. LLM readability describes how easily an AI language model can read and extract a passage to use in a response or citation.
To increase LLM readability, write webpages, sections, paragraphs and sentences that:
- Cover a single idea. AI folks call this “atomic” writing — as in the smallest indivisible unit of thought. One idea, fully expressed, ready to lift.
- Lead with your main point. AI extracts from the top of a webpage, section or paragraph first. Put your most important information there.
- Stand alone. AI lifts passages out of context. If your paragraph or sentence depends on surrounding text to make sense, AI will skip it. So write every passage as if AI might pull it out of context. Because it will.
Get these right, and every passage becomes a potential citation.
| Learn to write for AEO
If your team is still writing for Google, it’s time to update your approach. Let Ann help your writers write clearly enough for humans to read — and for AI tools to cite. |
- How long should my webpage sections be?
Make your webpage sections — the chunks of copy between subheads, or H2 headings — 120 to 180 words long.
Why? Because when AI lifts a chunk of your webpage to cite in an answer, that chunk typically runs 120 to 180 words. That’s long enough to provide a complete answer, short enough to be efficient.
As a result, pages with sections of 120 to 180 words receive 70% more ChatGPT citations than pages with sections under 50 words, according to a 2025 study of 129,000 domains by SE Ranking, via Search Engine Journal.
When sections run too long, the page becomes harder for AI to segment into meaningful ideas. AI can’t extract a clean passage from a 600-word block — so it moves on.
Make each section a self-contained answer to one question. Cover one tight, complete thought per section — not a blog post, not a bullet point.
- How long should my paragraphs be?
Keep your paragraphs to one to two sentences — short blocks focused on a single, tight point.
Why?
AI passes over long blocks of text because bots can’t cleanly extract a citable passage from dense prose.
Humans also prefer short paragraphs. Paragraphs of one to two sentences received more than 2x the attention online, according to The Poynter Institute’s Eyetrack III study.
“The longer-paragraph format discourages reading,” Eyetrack III researchers said. “And the short-paragraph format overwhelmingly encourages reading.”
Plus, visitors tend to read only the first two sentences in a paragraph, according to research by the Nielsen Norman Group. So keep paragraphs to that: just two sentences.
So keep every paragraph short, self-contained, front-loaded — easy for humans to read and for bots to lift.
Clear writing serves both readers.
Good writing has always been about clarity: Make the point fast, make it clear, make it stand alone.
AI search hasn’t changed the rules of clear writing. It’s just raised the stakes.
Ann Wylie (WylieComm.com) helps PR professionals Catch Your Readers through writing training. Her workshops take her from Hollywood to Helsinki, helping communicators in organizations like Coca-Cola, Toyota, Eli Lilly and Salesforce draw readers in and move them to act. Never miss a tip: FreeWritingTips.wyliecomm.com.
Copyright © 2026 Ann Wylie. All rights reserved.
Photo credit: Sammby
The post How to Increase AI Citations With Clear Writing first appeared on PRsay.