The CITE Framework: A Practical AEO Planning Checklist

Correction — 31 October 2026: the earlier version included unsupported research or outcome claims without supporting records. Those findings and dataset promises are withdrawn. This is practical guidance, not a verified original study or client result.

What CITE means

CITE is a planning mnemonic: Clarify the customer’s questions, Index and access-check useful pages, Trust through accurate facts and checkable sources, and Echo by reviewing recorded observations. It is not an empirically validated scoring model.

Clarify: identify real questions

Use sales enquiries, support questions and relevant search data. Keep brand-led and discovery questions distinct. Assign priority by business relevance rather than selecting prompts that already name your company.

Index: check access and meaning

Confirm important pages open and provide readable explanations. Fix canonical and internal-link problems. Choose appropriate structured data for visible facts; do not add a mandatory schema stack or refresh dates without substantive changes.

Trust: publish what can be verified

Use real author information, current product details and supporting references. Withdraw unsupported statistics and fabricated testimonials. Maintain genuine profiles and respect Wikipedia and Wikidata eligibility rules.

Echo: preserve the observations

Record prompts, dates, assistant settings, answers and linked sources. Separate mentions, citations, referrals and qualified leads. Improve a page when there is a documented content or technical gap, not whenever an answer changes.

Scope and limitations

The earlier numerical client example and claim that this framework was derived from a verified 100-page study are withdrawn. Use the checklist to coordinate work; it establishes no expected citation lift, payback period or result deadline.

Sources and further reading

Google guidance on AI features