Answered on camera by Dan Milikow, CEO of iShoot.direct · 1:10 · transcript and sources below
AI cites other CPAs because the citation goes to the page best structured for citability — not to the best accountant. A citable page opens with a question and its answer, names a CPA as author, links to authorities like the IRS, uses tables where they help, and is corroborated by other sources.
Citations go to the page best structured for citability — not to the best CPA[1].
Somewhere out there right now, an AI is walking a business owner through a tax question your partners answer all the time. State and local tax credits. Entity structure. AI is answering questions smack in the domain your firm is known for, and its answers cite a CPA from a rival firm, or maybe even someone you've never heard of. Because the citation doesn't always go to the best CPA. Most often it goes to the page best structured for citability[1].
Because tax alerts, webinars, and newsletters are formats bots struggle to pull answers out of.
All that expertise you've published the traditional way — tax alerts, the busy season webinars, the quarterly newsletters — the bots struggle to pull answers out of any of it.
Open with the question and its answer, name a CPA as author, link to authorities like the IRS, add tables and key takeaways, and be corroborated by other sources[2].
So what does structured for citation actually mean? Well, it starts with a question and an answer. The author is a named CPA, not the firm. It links back to authorities like the IRS or state tax bureau. There's tables and comparisons where tables and comparisons are helpful. If the content is dense, there are key takeaways at the top. There's corroboration from other sources. That's what trust looks like to a bot[2].
Try it yourself. Ask AI a question you get every day and see which firm gets named. Then open the cited page and count how many structural boxes it checks.