What is Information Gain?
Information Gain measures how much new, unique information your content provides compared to existing sources. It's the single most important factor in whether AI systems cite your content—weighted at 40% according to Princeton GEO research.
AI systems have a 'comprehension budget.' They can only cite a limited number of sources per response. To earn a citation, your content must offer something they can't get elsewhere: unique data, original research, expert quotes, or specific statistics. This is the core driver of the Citation Economy.
The 40% Weight Factor
Princeton's Generative Engine Optimization study found that AI citation decisions are influenced by:
- Information Gain: 40% - Unique data, statistics, expert quotes
- Fluency: 20% - Clear, well-structured writing
- Citing Sources: 15% - Referencing authoritative sources
- Quotation Addition: 12% - Expert quotes and testimonials
- Statistics Addition: 13% - Specific numbers and data points
This means 40% of your citation potential comes from offering information AI can't find elsewhere. Generic content, no matter how well-written, struggles to earn citations in the GEO landscape.
Types of High-Gain Content
Content with high Information Gain includes:
- Original Research: First-party data, surveys, experiments
- Specific Statistics: 'Our analysis of 10,000 customers found...'
- Expert Quotes: Named experts with credentials (critical for AEO as well)
- Unique Case Studies: Detailed, specific examples with results
- Proprietary Methodology: Your unique framework or approach
- Contrarian Insights: Well-supported views that differ from consensus
- Current Data: Information less than 2 years old (93% of citations)
Information Gain for Press Releases
Press releases are uniquely positioned for high Information Gain because they announce news—inherently new information. Maximize PR citability by including:
- Specific metrics: '43% increase in conversion rates' not 'significant improvement'
- Named executives: 'According to CEO Jane Smith' not 'company leadership'
- Concrete dates: 'Launching March 15, 2026' not 'launching soon'
- Customer impact: 'Serving 50,000 active users' not 'thousands of customers'
- Industry context: 'In a market projected to reach $4.2B by 2028'
Learn more about optimizing PRs in our AI Press Releases guide.
Measuring Information Gain
Evaluate your content's Information Gain by asking:
- Could AI find this elsewhere? If yes, your gain is low.
- Are statistics specific? '47%' beats 'nearly half.'
- Are sources named? 'Dr. Sarah Chen, MIT' beats 'researchers.'
- Is data current? Content older than 2 years rarely gets cited.
- Is there a unique angle? Differentiation matters.
Pressonify's AI-optimized press releases are designed to maximize Information Gain through structured data entry that prompts users for specific, citable details. Combined with Schema.org markup and llms.txt, your content becomes highly citable.