Why does the first sentence matter so much?
Because that’s the sentence an assistant lifts. When someone asks a question, an assistant looks for a page that asks the same question and answers it plainly, and it takes the answer from right under the heading. If the first sentence is a warm-up, a history of the topic, or a pitch, there’s nothing to take, and it moves on to a page that answers.
Most pages don’t. Of the 99,109 sites with guides or articles that mttr read, 99.2% have at least one that doesn’t answer right under its first question.12 It’s the same in every line of work we measure, from law firms to restaurants.
Does the heading need to be a question?
It helps a lot. A heading phrased the way a person asks it, “How much does a new roof cost?”, tells an assistant exactly which question the next sentence answers. A heading like “Pricing” or “Our approach” leaves it guessing. 90% of sites with content pages never phrase a heading as a question.
What counts as answering?
A paragraph right under the question that answers it in 25 to 90 words, with the answer in its first sentence: the number, the name, the yes or no, the range. Then the detail, the caveats and the story, after. That’s the rule mttr checks, and whether the paragraph truly answers is left to a reader or a judge model, never to a word count.3
| Under “How much does a new roof cost?” | |
|---|---|
| Doesn’t answer | Your roof is one of the most important parts of your home, and choosing the right contractor matters. In this guide we look at the many factors involved. |
| Answers | Most asphalt roofs on a typical home cost between $9,000 and $16,000 to replace, depending on the size, the pitch and how many layers come off. Metal costs about twice that. |
The figures in that example are illustrative, not a quote. The shape is the point: the answer first, in plain words, with the specifics a person came for.
Can you game it?
Not for long, and it isn’t worth trying. We learned that the hard way. An early version of our own rule looked for a digit in the answer, as a sign it was specific. Writers met it by turning “three ways” into “3 ways”. The check passed and nothing got better for the reader. We took that part out. If a check can be met without helping the person reading, it measures nothing, and assistants are getting better at telling the difference.
How do you rewrite a page?
- Find the question. The one people actually ask before they come to the page. Your own inbox and calls are the best source.
- Make it the heading. In their words, not yours.
- Answer it in the first sentence. Then add what helps: the range, the conditions, the exceptions.
- Keep it to one question per section. Then the next question, the next answer.
- Check it. Read only the first sentence under each heading. If those sentences alone answer the page’s questions, it’s done.
We wrote this post that way. Every heading here is a question, and every first sentence under it is the answer.
References
- subinternal Research, “How 316,711 websites do with AI search,” October 2026. subinternal.com
- mttr, the rulebook: every rule, its stage, its weight and its fix. mttr.si/rulebook
- mttr, the answer-first rule: the question heading, and the 25 to 90 word answer under it. mttr.si/rulebook