Over the past year, everyone at SEO meetups in Warsaw, Wroclaw, and Kyiv has been talking about the same problem: impressions in Google Search Console stay flat or grow, while clicks on informational queries drop because Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, and Perplexity answer the question right on the results page.
As an editor and SEO specialist working on Puls Polski 24 (pulspolski24.pl), Kyianyn (kyianyn.com.ua), and VitalClimat (vitalclimat.com.ua), I wanted a practical way to measure and capture those AI citations without paying hundreds of dollars a month for enterprise tracking suites.
Here is the exact workflow we use in our newsroom to structure articles for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
1. The Google Search Console Regex Filter for Conversational Queries
Before rewriting an article, we isolate long-tail question queries where our pages rank between positions 6 and 20. In Google Search Console (Performance -> Search results -> Query -> Custom regex), you can filter for conversational prompts in English, Polish, or Ukrainian:
^(who|what|where|when|why|how|is|are|can|should|jak|ile|kiedy|czy|kto|gdzie|dlaczego)
When we ran this filter across economic and utility tariff queries, we noticed a clear pattern: AI engines rarely quote paragraphs that start with a 100-word historical introduction. They extract pages that give a direct numerical answer in the first 50 words, followed immediately by a clean HTML <table>.
2. The 50-Word Direct Answer Lead + Primary Source Verification
In our Polish tax and social security analyses - such as our breakdown of 2026 PIT tax changes and health contribution tables and 13th and 14th pension net payout schedules - we enforce three strict formatting rules:
- H1 Title Length (55 - 68 characters): Short enough to prevent truncation in Google Discover cards and desktop SERPs.
- AEO Direct Answer Paragraph (45 - 55 words): Placed right below the lead subtitle, stating the exact numbers, dates, and legal acts.
- Clickable Primary Government Sources: Every tax or energy article links directly to official Polish state registries such as ISAP Sejm RP, ZUS, Podatki.gov.pl, and the Energy Regulatory Office (URE).
| Structural Element | Old Editorial Format | Updated AEO / GEO Format on Puls Polski 24 | Impact on Extraction & UX |
|---|---|---|---|
| H1 Headline | 95 - 110 characters | 55 - 68 characters | Zero title truncation in SERP |
| Opening Paragraph | General background story | 48 - 55 word factual summary | Direct extraction by AI Overviews |
| Numerical Data | Buried inside bullet lists | Semantic HTML <table> with <thead>
|
High citation rate in Perplexity / ChatGPT |
| Outbound Links | Zero external links | 3 - 4 links to .gov.pl / .edu.pl
|
Stronger E-E-A-T trust score |
3. Why First-Screen UX (Above the Fold) Still Decides Rankings
Even if your schema and tables are perfect, user behavior signals (dwell time and pogo-sticking) determine whether you hold a top spot. Using Plerdy UX heatmap and SEO audit tools, we discovered that placing a generic 6-card "Latest Posts" block above our main TEMAT DNIA hero section diluted first-screen click concentration. Removing that top grid so the main story and TOP 4 feed sit immediately below the breaking news ticker cleaned up the first screen instantly.
- Author Profile & Published Analyses: Oleksandr Savchuk on Puls Polski 24
- Connect on LinkedIn: Oleksandr Savchuk on LinkedIn
Top comments (0)