Read Google’s AI guidance without inventing requirements

Evidence type

Platform documentation, interpreted by GEO Primer. This is not an independent experiment or an account of other providers’ requirements.

What the source establishes

Google’s AI-feature guidance says supporting pages must be indexed and eligible for a Search snippet. It states that no additional technical requirements or special AI files or markup are needed. Meeting the conditions still does not guarantee crawling, indexing, or serving. Its Search Console discussion places AI-feature traffic within the Web search reporting category.

Scope and sample

The source concerns Google Search features described in that documentation. There is no experimental sample or treatment group in this note. We did not measure how many eligible pages appear, evaluate a website, or test another provider’s controls. The review date records when we checked the source, not a claim that the platform never changes.

Interpretation

Eligibility and selection are different questions. A checklist can inspect whether a known condition is satisfied, but it cannot turn an eligible page into a guaranteed source. A vendor recommendation for a proprietary “AI file” should therefore be evaluated on its own evidence rather than presented as a documented Google requirement.

Likewise, helpful editorial structure is a recommendation about clarity. Do not market a preferred heading pattern as a platform rule merely because it is sensible for readers.

Limitations and unknowns

Documentation is not a full description of private selection systems. It does not reveal the cause of an individual missing citation. Aggregated traffic reporting does not answer every question about a particular generated answer. We cannot infer requirements for unrelated platforms from this page.

Editorial recommendation

Maintain two separate review lists: documented platform requirements and optional improvements justified by reader needs. Attach the source and review date to the former. For the latter, state your reasoning and avoid fabricated platform authority. Recheck the documentation before making a technical policy change.