Structured Content Now Beats Brand Size in AI Search
AI answer engines decide which facts show up first. New research from Notified shows that well-structured press releases get cited far more often by LLMs-regardless of brand size or ad budget.
The takeaway for PR and communications teams: structure, clarity and metadata are now core distribution levers. Treat them like you treat your headline.
Key facts from the study
- 30 days of AI citation data analyzed via Notified's partnership with Profound.
- 13M+ citations across major LLMs and 200,000+ GlobeNewswire releases.
- The most visible release came from a lesser-known B2B brand-3.4x more citations than a nationally known B2C retailer and 23x more than a B2B peer.
- AI systems favored strong structural signals: clear headlines, key metrics, labeled sections, plus metadata, entity tagging and valid JSON-LD.
- Standout example: American Battery Technology Company's Q4 2025 earnings release earned 1,679 citations in 30 days and ranked highest across all structure categories.
Why this matters
LLMs pull, compress and cite. If your content is easy to parse-and easy to trust-it gets surfaced. If it's vague, unlabeled or light on metadata, it gets skipped. Simple as that.
What AI answer engines reward
- Visible signals: front-loaded headlines that name the entity and outcome, concise subheads with 2-3 metrics, clear "Key Facts" bullets, labeled sections (Summary, Financials, Product, Milestones, Outlook, Quotes), and consistent dateline/location.
- Invisible signals: valid JSON-LD (PressRelease/NewsArticle schema), organization/person entities, tickers and identifiers, clean canonical URL, descriptive meta title/description, and unambiguous entity tagging throughout.
A practical structure you can ship today
- Headline: Company + outcome + key metric or timeframe.
- Subhead: 2-3 proof points (growth %, revenue, user count, milestone date).
- Lead paragraph: Who, what, where, when-then the "so what."
- Key Facts: Bulleted summary of numbers, scope, dates and comparisons.
- Details: Labeled sections for financials, product updates, customers, market context.
- Quote: Attributed, specific, and adds meaning-not a repeat of the headline.
- About: Tight boilerplate with clear category, product set, ticker and URL.
- Media contact: Name, email, phone.
Minimum viable metadata checklist
- Valid JSON-LD for PressRelease or NewsArticle with Organization and Person where relevant.
- Canonical URL set; titles and descriptions unique and descriptive.
- Consistent entity names (company, product, tickers) across headline, body and schema.
- Numbers written consistently (e.g., "1,679" vs "1679"); time zones explicit.
- Alt text for images; captions that include entity and metric where appropriate.
Quote
"The Answer Engine Economy has changed how visibility works, and AI systems now determine which facts and companies appear in front of audiences," said Erik Carlson, Chief Executive Officer at Notified. "Our research proves that structure, not brand size, is what drives citation performance. With the SOAR Content Framework™, any communicator can strengthen authority signals and significantly improve how their published content shows up in AI search."
What you can do this week
- Convert your next release to the structure above and add a "Key Facts" section.
- Implement JSON-LD with PressRelease or NewsArticle schema; validate before publishing.
- Front-load entities and outcomes in the headline; put 2-3 metrics in the subhead.
- Standardize your boilerplate with clear category, ticker and primary URL.
- Track AI citations alongside traditional pickups to see what structure moves the needle.
Helpful resources
- Google's structured data guidelines for articles and press releases
- AI upskilling paths by job function (PR and Comms)
About Notified
Notified helps PR and IR teams control and amplify their corporate story with integrated platforms for media targeting, press release distribution and measurement, IR websites, investor events, earnings and regulatory filings. GlobeNewswire, part of the Notified ecosystem, is one of the largest and most trusted newswire distribution networks. Notified is an affiliate of Equiniti Group Limited (EQ).
Media contact
Caroline Smith
Caroline.smith@icrinc.com
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