Matrix · Document architecture
TechnicalOn-Page Structure & Schemamedium effortmedium volatility
The myth
Semantic meaning is all LLMs care about when pulling citations.
The receipt says
Structural feature engineering — heading hierarchy, information chunking and visual formatting — independently raises citation rates by 17.3%.
Impact
8.0
How much this moves citations
Consensus
7.0
How much the industry agrees
Evidence
78%
Strength of underlying research
Engines
5
ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AIO
Nuance
Measured across six models. Macro architecture mattered most; micro formatting helped least but was never negative.
Primary source
Structural feature engineering raises citation rates 17.3%
Primary researchYu et al.
GEO-SFE evaluated six mainstream generative models and found hierarchical document architecture (macro), information chunking (meso) and visual formatting (micro) independently improve retrieval and citation probability by 17.3%.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.29979 ↗Published 2026-03-01 · Evidence 78%
Applies to
ChatGPTClaudePerplexityGeminiGoogle AIO