AI decides whether to cite you in the first few lines. Intent Alignment guidelines tell you exactly how to write your intro to pass that check.
AI doesn't read your content from top to bottom before deciding to cite you. It scans the introduction — fast — to confirm your content matches the query intent. If it can't, it moves on to a source with a clearer opening.
Upfront intent alignment is a new set of guidelines in the AI Search guidelines panel in Content Editor that tells you exactly what to include in your introduction to pass that relevance check quickly and increase your chances of being selected as a citation source.
How to use upfront intent alignment guidelines?
- A dedicated set of intent alignment recommendations is now visible in the AI Search guidelines panel in Content Editor
- Apply recommendations manually, one by one, or use Surfy to rewrite your intro with all recommendations built in (in your tone of voice, of course)
What's coming next
Support for Intent Alignment in Auto-Optimize is already in progress.
How to access
Open any document in Content Editor → click AI Search guidelines → look for the Upfront Intent Alignment section.