What is Information Gain (in Search and GEO)?
Information gain is what your page adds that the rest of the web has not already said: a new number, a firsthand test, an original dataset, a real example. Pages that only restate existing consensus add zero gain, and both search ranking and AI citation increasingly discount them.
Why it decides citations
An AI answer needs evidence. If your page says what five other retrieved pages already say, citing you is optional. If your page is the only source of a specific statistic or firsthand finding, citing you is necessary. Original information is the strongest citation magnet there is.
Cheap ways to add gain
- Publish numbers from your own data, even small ones
- Add real examples and screenshots from actual use
- State an opinion with reasoning instead of neutral summary
- Document what changed over time; longitudinal beats snapshot