What counts as a "definitional" or "what is" query in GEO?

Any prompt where the user is asking for the meaning, category, or basic explanation of a term, concept, or acronym, phrased as "what is," "what does X mean," "define X," or "X vs Y, what's the difference." These queries trigger direct AI answers more consistently than transactional searches.

How long should a definition be to get cited by AI engines?

The core sentence should be under 25 words and stand alone without needing the rest of the paragraph for context. The full entry, including context and an example, typically runs 100 to 200 words, short enough to extract cleanly and long enough to be genuinely useful.

Do FAQPage and HowTo schema still matter if their rich results are gone?

Yes. Losing the SERP rich-result treatment only removed the visual upgrade in classic search results, not the underlying value. The structured data itself remains a clean, explicit signal that helps AI crawlers parse Q&A pairs and step sequences correctly during the extraction stage of a response.

Which AI engine cites definitional content most often?

There is no single answer. Wikipedia's share concentrates heavily inside ChatGPT specifically, at roughly 12% of its citations, while Reddit leads citation share for Google AI Overviews and Perplexity instead, so engine-specific testing matters more than picking one favorite.

How is citation for definitional queries different from ranking for a keyword?

Keyword rankings are relatively stable and visible in tools like Search Console. AI citations are extracted per response, can change week to week as models re-crawl, and rarely show up in standard analytics, which is why dedicated citation tracking matters.

Should every definition live on its own page or inside a content hub?

Both, and they work together. Give each term its own clean, standalone entry so it is a precise extraction target, then link it into a broader hub of related content so it also signals topical authority and gives readers somewhere to go next.

How often should I update definitional content?

Review your highest-value definitional pages monthly against what competitors are getting cited for instead of you. Retrieval indexes refresh continuously, and models re-rank source passages often, so a stale or poorly structured definition can lose its citation to a sharper competitor within weeks, not months.

Can a brand-new domain get cited for a "what is" query?

Yes, more easily than for competitive commercial queries. Definitional content rewards structure and clarity over raw domain authority, so a new site with a sharper, better-sourced, well-marked-up definition can out-cite an established competitor that buried its answer under paragraphs of unrelated brand narrative.

How to Get Cited for What Is and Definitional Queries