B
Evidence Grade B
Graded
accuracy verified by the review judge
Safe to Cite
Current
44.9%
44.9% -- headings share of citation improvement from structural changes for AI search citations (2026)
Headings account for 44.9% of the 17.3% average citation improvement resulting from structural changes in AI search.
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Lighthouse Research Team
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Source verified
Evidence graded
Value
44.9%
Unit
Percentage
Data Vintage
2026
Entity
Evidence Quality
B
Strong, reliable evidence
Sourced from a well-regarded research firm or industry leader with transparent methodology and a reasonably large sample.
Single source - not yet corroborated
Score breakdown
Extraction
75
Source Trust
60
Citation Chain
20
Independence
30
Methodology
45
Freshness
95
Source
arXiv
Primary
Tier B
https://betteraisearch.com/tactics/direct-answer-format-geo ↗
Source Article
Featured Snippet Optimization for AI Search
Original Research
arXiv
· Original study ↗
Methodology
arXiv study testing document structure across 6 AI engines
Methodology documented
Segmentation
Industrymarketing
Cite this stat
Plain Text
AI search citations: 44.9% headings share of citation improvement from structural changes. Source: arXiv (2026). Via Lighthouse Intelligence -- https://lighthousedata.io/data/headings-share-structural-citation-improvement
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<blockquote cite="https://lighthousedata.io/data/headings-share-structural-citation-improvement" style="border-left:3px solid #2563eb;padding:12px 16px;margin:16px 0;font-family:system-ui,sans-serif;background:#f0f4ff;"><strong>44.9%</strong> -- headings share of citation improvement from structural changes for AI search citations<br><small>Source: arXiv (2026) · <a href="https://lighthousedata.io/data/headings-share-structural-citation-improvement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lighthouse Intelligence</a></small></blockquote>
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