Answer-capsule checker

What this tool checks

An answer capsule is a self-contained 40-75 word paragraph placed directly under a heading that fully answers that heading's question without leaning on the surrounding text. This checker scans your article and flags every H2/H3 whose opening paragraph fails that test. It matters because AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — lift these capsules almost verbatim and cite them, so headings without one get skipped in favor of a competitor's.

What it looks at

Self-contained opener

The first paragraph under a heading answers that heading's question on its own, without pronouns that point back to earlier sections — because AI engines extract passages in isolation, not the whole page.

40-75 word length

The capsule fits the passage window AI engines quote: much shorter usually omits the full answer, much longer gets truncated mid-thought before the point lands.

Answer-first sentence

The opening sentence states the answer directly instead of a lead-in or background, so the extractable value is in the first line an engine reads.

Heading-to-answer match

The capsule actually resolves the specific question the heading poses, rather than drifting into a related sub-topic that the heading never asked about.

No orphan references

Bare pronouns like 'it', 'this', or 'they' that require the previous section break the passage when it is lifted alone, so the subject must be named in place.

Standalone definition

A named subject defined in the first sentence lets the passage read correctly out of context, which is exactly how a citation surfaces inside an AI answer.

How to use it

1. Paste your article's full text into the checker.
2. Review each flagged H2/H3 where the opener is missing, out of the 40-75 word band, or not self-contained.
3. Rewrite the flagged openers into answer-first 40-75 word capsules and re-run the check.

Frequently asked questions