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infoSEO RULE · AEO_R05

AEO supporting evidence: data, sources, and verifiable claims

AI engines preferentially cite content with verifiable evidence — original numbers, named sources, screenshots, and dates. A bare claim ("most SMBs ignore SEO") gets passed over for a sourced one ("63% of US service businesses have no meta description according to our scan of 10,000 sites").

AI engines preferentially cite content with verifiable evidence — original numbers, named sources, screenshots, and dates. A bare claim ("most SMBs ignore SEO") gets passed over for a sourced one ("63% of US service businesses have no meta description according to our scan of 10,000 sites"). Supporting evidence is anything an AI engine can verify or attribute. First-party data, named expert quotes, links to authoritative third-party sources, dated case studies, screenshots with captions, code snippets that actually run.

Last updated·part of the 50-rule library

What it is

Supporting evidence is anything an AI engine can verify or attribute. First-party data, named expert quotes, links to authoritative third-party sources, dated case studies, screenshots with captions, code snippets that actually run.

Why it matters

AI engines optimise to reduce hallucination risk. They prefer to cite sources that are themselves verifiable. A page with original data becomes the source for downstream citations; a page with bare opinion is treated as noise.

How to fix it

  1. Cite numbers, with sources. Either run original research or quote a reputable source with a link. "75% of CTOs say X (source: 2024 State of DevOps Report)".
  2. Add inline links to authoritative pages. Schema.org for schema topics, Google Search Central for SEO topics, NIST for security. Builds your page into a graph of trusted sources.
  3. Date every claim. "As of May 2026" gives AI engines a freshness anchor and signals you maintain the page.

Authoritative sources

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