There is a persistent myth that being cited by an answer engine is a matter of luck, or of gaming an opaque model. It isn't. Engines reward a small set of very concrete structural properties, and once you see them you can't unsee them.
The first is self-containment. A passage that answers a question without depending on the paragraph before it is a passage a model can lift. A passage that begins with 'As mentioned above' is not. Most business writing fails here - it's built to be read top to bottom, not sampled.
A passage that answers a question without depending on the one before it is a passage a model can lift.
The second is specificity. Models are wary of hedged, unfalsifiable claims because quoting them is risky. 'We help brands unlock growth' will never be cited. 'AI citation typically moves within four to six weeks' can be, because it's concrete enough to be checked.
The third is structure the machine can parse: question-shaped headings, clean definitions, tables where comparison is the point, and schema that labels what each thing is. None of this is glamorous. All of it works.