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AEO Canon · the reference for answer-engine optimization
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Lesson 6 of 6

Page Speed and Citations

SE Ranking found fast pages earn far more AI citations. This lesson measures and improves server response time.

Learning objectives

  • ▸Cite the speed-to-citation finding.
  • ▸Measure TTFB and FCP with curl and Lighthouse.
  • ▸Cut server response time.

The lesson

Read the full lesson →Does Page Speed Affect AI Citations?Yes — page speed affects AI citations. SE Ranking found pages with a First Contentful Paint under 0.4 seconds earned roughly three times more AI citations than slower pages. Crawlers have budgets and timeouts, so slow pages get fetched less. Here's how to measure and fix it.3 min read

Key takeaways

  • ▸SE Ranking found FCP under 0.4s earned about 3x more citations.
  • ▸Crawlers have budgets and timeouts — slow pages get fetched less.
  • ▸Serve fast, cached, server-rendered HTML from a CDN.

Knowledge check

Knowledge check

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  1. 1. Does speed affect AI citations?

  2. 2. What is the biggest speed lever for crawlers?