Citation anchors: give people a stable way to refer to a page

Offer a reference that matches the page

On cornerstone guides, a short ‘cite this’ line can include the page title, the year, the publisher, and the canonical URL. Keep it identical to the H1 and the canonical.

Do not offer a citation for a campaign URL full of parameters. Cite the clean document.

Use fragment links for the passage, not a new article

If a section is the thing people quote, give the heading a stable id and link to it. Changing ids every redesign breaks the references you asked for.

The fragment does not replace a good heading. It only makes the heading addressable.

• Canonical URL in the suggested citation.
• Stable heading ids.
• Title matching the H1.

Keep the cited page alive

The value of a citation anchor is the URL still resolving to the same work. Redirect carefully when you merge guides, and do not recycle slugs for a new topic.

When the advice materially changes, add an update note so old citations are not quoting a silent rewrite.

Will a cite-this box increase AI mentions?

It helps humans refer to you accurately. Models cite the passage, not the box. Still use the box on pages you expect journalists or students to reference.

Should every URL have a citation widget?

No. Use it on the guides and data pages that are worth quoting. A widget on thin pages looks like decoration.