How to structure the top of your story for AI visibility with key takeaways and TL;DR

There’s definitely a big part of SEO that is technical and box checking still: URLs, meta descriptions and photo titles. But a whole other world of opportunities has opened up with SEO that is much more aligned with serving your audience with useful information, a good user experience and creating high-quality content.

The technical part of SEO is still important, but I think there are newer areas of SEO that more clearly align with strategies newsrooms can rally around.

The rise of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), where stories are written in a way so search engines and AI tools can figure out the answer and share it in a search result, is going to be a huge driver of who wins and loses in search in the future.

But the strategies with AEO aren’t about keyword stuffing or filling out backend information on your website. Rather, they are rooted in what drives many of us: Creating truthful, useful and easy to understand content that our readers can apply to their lives.

And one of the best ways to make sure that your content is showcased in AI Overviews and places like ChatGPT and Perplexity is to create bullets and key takeaways in specific areas of your story so an AI or answer engine can understand the points of the article.

I would argue that this strategy is good for both the AI’s but also readers.

Let’s dig into how to do this!

What to put at the top of your article

The AI machines aren’t just looking for stories that have the right keywords, but they are rewarding content that answers questions that actual humans have in language that real people use. 

Plan your content around the questions people are actually asking, and make sure that at the top of your story you feature the most important details in a format that both readers and AI can understand.

Here’s the top format to use:

Key takeaways

This should include 3-5 bullets explaining the 5ws of the article. The goal of this approach is not to tease but to lay out for the reader what they most need to know:

• What happened
• Who made the decision
• Who was impacted
• What might happen next

You should consider how keywords could be featured in an area like this. It will only help the machines see the content even more. And you should place this right under the headline.

TL;DR overview

This means “Too long, didn’t read,” which I know doesn’t really warm the hearts of journalists based on a well-written and in-depth article, but similar to key takeaways, the purpose of this is to provide a few sentences that tells the reader the outcome immediately.

This should also be at the top of your story and should be 2-3 sentences. This is a really good approach for breaking news and explainers. This is a good guide on the values of doing this.

Here is an example of how one could read: The Anderson City Council voted 5-3 to approve a water rate increase that will raise monthly water bills for most households and businesses starting this year. The additional revenue is intended to fund system upgrades, maintenance, and higher operating costs.

What are other formats that work?

Question and Answer

This could go under the top takeaways and TL;DR and is meant to provide the reader with questions and answers that are answered in the article. I wouldn’t have more than 4-5 questions and the answers need to be short (1-2 sentences). Remember, this is meant to be the kind of information the AI would surface. Under these questions your entire story could be featured.

Tip: It’s recommended to use a tool like Answer the Public that can actually provide you the AI prompts that are being used around a keyword term.

Why this matters

AI machines like facts but they also reward context, so a short why it matters section before you jump into a story, can be really effective, especially if you can clearly state what is at stake for a local community. Being as specific as possible is critical if you use this.

By the numbers

AI machines really put value into facts that are specific, and can be measured. This means things that are not just opinions and insights. Think about areas like budgets, vote totals, timelines, and percentage changes. And the good news for publishers is that so much of your content focuses on these kinds of things already like real estate, schools and government budgets. 

That’s why by the numbers works so well. If you do these, list 3-5 numbers right under those key takeaways before you get to all of the narrative detail of your story.

What we know, what we don’t

This format can include things like what we knew, the latest and what’s next. AI tools are about providing short facts and if you can concisely explain those facts in each area, this is a great layer.

Who this affects

If you can be specific about the person or audience this impacts, like parents or homeowners, AI really values that approach. So include a sentence or two on who the story and issue impacts and how before you jump into the full article.

We can help with your AI strategy

We would love to help you implement AI best practices in your newsroom. You can download this info sheet that outlines our services and reach out to me today at david@davidarkinconsulting.com so we can talk about how.