What makes a query a "how-to" or "tutorial" query for GEO purposes?

Any prompt where the user wants a sequence of actions to accomplish a specific task, phrased as "how do I," "walk me through," "steps to," or "the fastest way to." These queries reward procedural structure over general explanation, which is why they need their own content approach separate from definitional or comparison content.

Does HowTo schema still matter if Google removed the rich result?

Yes. HowTo rich results disappeared from Google Search results in 2023, but HowTo remains a fully valid schema.org type, and it still gives AI engines an explicit, machine-readable step sequence to parse during extraction. The loss was a visual SERP feature, not the underlying markup's usefulness to AI systems.

Should I still use FAQPage schema after the May 2026 removal?

Yes. FAQPage rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on May 7, 2026, but the schema type is still valid and still helps AI engines identify clean question-and-answer pairs, particularly in a tutorial's troubleshooting section, which is often the exact passage a model needs when the user's real question is "why isn't this working."

How many steps should a how-to article have to get cited?

There is no fixed number. What matters is that each step performs exactly one action and states an expected result. A five-step tutorial where every step is precise and verifiable will out-cite a fifteen-step tutorial where several steps bundle multiple actions together and leave the outcome ambiguous.

Is it safe to mention my product inside a tutorial without it looking like an ad?

Yes, as long as the mention corresponds to a step where your product is genuinely the tool being used. Show the real interface performing the real action rather than adding a separate paragraph asserting why the product matters. Naming fair alternatives where they genuinely exist also builds the kind of trust signal that improves citation odds.

Which AI engine cites tutorial content most reliably?

No single engine dominates this category. Reddit and community sources carry outsized weight across most engines for procedural, troubleshooting-style questions, while Gemini and AI Overviews weigh technical crawlability and clean structure more heavily. Testing your own prompt list across engines matters more than optimizing for one.

Do code examples actually improve citation odds, or is that just good practice for readers?

Both. Princeton's KDD 2024 GEO research found that adding quotations and statistics to a passage measurably improved its odds of being extracted into an AI answer, and a working code snippet functions the same way: it is a specific, quotable, testable artifact rather than a generalized description a model has to paraphrase into something vaguer.

How often should I revisit published tutorials?

Review your highest-traffic and highest-intent tutorials monthly against whether a competitor's citation share is rising for the same prompts. Interfaces change, commands get deprecated, and retrieval indexes refresh continuously, so a tutorial that was citable six months ago can quietly lose that status without any warning in traditional analytics.

How to Get Cited by AI for How-To and Tutorial Queries