CiteProof.co
Module 5 · Lesson 5.3 · Sources, original data and dates · 2 min

Sources, original data and dates: what gets a page cited by AI

Lesson 5.3 of the free AEO and GEO course: why sources, original data and up-to-date dates help a page get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and the other AI engines. The data only you have, how to cite your sources, and how much updates matter.

The video for this lesson is coming soon to YouTube. Meanwhile, the full transcript is right here.

Transcript

0:00Introduction

Lesson 5.3: sources, original data and dates.

0:05Why sources and data

AI engines look for things they can check. We saw it in lesson 1.1: in the GEO study, adding statistics, expert quotes and sources raised a page's visibility in the answers by up to 40%, on a research benchmark.

0:21Your own data

The most valuable data is the data only you have. An engine can find a thousand summaries of the same topic, but your data, it only finds on your site. Real prices and timelines. The questions and mistakes you see from customers every day. And case studies, with results: always with the customer's permission, and with a date.

0:44Citing sources

When you use someone else's data, cite it properly. Link to the original source: the study, the institution, the official document, not an article that repeats it. With the date: a six-year-old number isn't worth as much as this year's. And never a made-up number, or one rounded up for effect. One false figure is enough to lose trust in the whole page.

1:07Dates

Finally, dates. Seer Interactive found that almost 65% of requests from AI bots are for content published in the past year. And according to Averi, content updated in the last twelve months gets 3.2 times the citations on Perplexity. Updating really does pay off.

1:28Your task for today

Your task for today: on the page you're working on, add a piece of your own data, with its date. Three external sources, with links. And an update date that's visible, and true.

1:52Next lesson

In the next lesson: writing with AI, without losing quality. See you there.

Your task

On the page you're working on, add a piece of your own data, with its date. Three external sources, with links. And an update date that's visible, and true.

Track it in the course worksheet.

Sources

Checked 18 October 2026.