We noticed Claude quotes our lesson transcripts and grammar guides in answers about learning Spanish, but skips our structured course pages. What page format actually gets cited?

Claude appears to prioritize dense, reference-style content over marketing-oriented course landing pages. Transcripts, glossaries, and detailed how-to guides get cited more reliably because they read as authoritative reference material rather than sales pages.

The structural difference matters. Your course pages likely use marketing language, CTAs, and conversion-focused layouts. Claude's citation behaviour suggests it weights content that answers a user's question directly without persuasion scaffolding. Grammar guides formatted as clean reference tables, lesson transcripts with timestamps, and explanatory articles written in instructional tone get treated as citable sources.

Test this hypothesis this week by auditing three of your most-cited pages in Claude answers. Compare their structure to three course landing pages that never appear. Look for these patterns: paragraph density, absence of CTAs above the fold, use of definition lists or structured data markup, and whether the page answers a standalone question or pushes users toward signup.

Then create one new reference-style page—a comprehensive Spanish verb conjugation guide or a breakdown of common learner mistakes—formatted as pure reference content with schema.org/FAQPage or schema.org/HowTo markup. Publish it on a clean URL path like /reference/ rather than /courses/. Check Claude answers about that grammar topic in two weeks.

If citation increases, your brand should invest in reference-tier content alongside course pages. This doesn't cannibalize signups; it builds authority that drives Claude mentions, which funnel to course discovery.