By Iliass El Barhoumi · Published · Last updated
How is answer-first structure scored?
Answer-first structure is worth 13 of 100 points, 13 of the 60 in the Selected lever, which asks “Is there a passage worth quoting?” The engine scores it with these rules:
- The page is split into sections at each heading, and every section with a body of at least 15 words is judged.
- A section passes when its first sentence is 40 words or fewer and does not open with filler such as “In this guide”, “When it comes to” or “Let’s”.
- The score is the share of judged sections that lead with their answer, so one buried section on a ten-section page costs a tenth of the points.
- The fix text names up to 3 of the sections that bury their answer, by heading.
What does a pass and a fail look like?
| Verdict | Example |
|---|---|
| Pass | Under “How long does cold brew steep?”, the first sentence reads “Cold brew steeps for 12 to 18 hours at room temperature.” An engine that lifts that sentence has the whole answer. |
| Fail | Under the same heading, the first sentence reads “When it comes to cold brew, there are many opinions about timing.” The answer is three sentences later, past the point most extractors read. |
How do you fix answer-first structure?
In the order worth doing it:
- Read only the first sentence under each heading. If it does not answer the heading on its own, rewrite it until it does.
- Move context, caveats and history after that sentence, not before it.
- Delete openers that announce the section (“In this section we will…”): the heading already did that job.
- Rescan and check the section list in the report, which names every section still burying its answer.
A scan reports the evidence behind the verdict, such as the sections, paragraphs or tokens that failed, and the fix prompt hands the same evidence to a coding agent so it can make the change for you.
Related checks in the Selected lever
- What makes a passage extractable by an AI engine? — 10 points
- Do headings matter for AI search? — 9 points
- Does formatting change whether AI quotes your page? — 9 points
- Why do AI engines prefer pages with numbers in them? — 8 points
- Does an FAQ section help you get cited? — 7 points
- Which schema types help with AI citation? — 4 points
Frequently asked questions
Is answer-first writing the same as an inverted pyramid?
Close. The inverted pyramid puts the most important fact at the top of an article; answer-first applies the same rule to every section, because an engine retrieves sections, not whole articles.
Does answer-first writing hurt readability for people?
Usually the opposite. A reader skimming headings gets the answer immediately and reads on only if they want the detail, which is the same behaviour an answer engine rewards.