Quotations make content easier to consume. They break up long stretches of prose, giving the eye a place to rest and signalling "this part matters". And they hand AI answer engines something they love: a clean, self-contained, attributable statement they can lift and cite - with your page as the source.
Reach for a quotation when it comes from someone or something worth quoting:
Avoid quoting anonymous opinions or unnamed "industry sources" - they carry none of the authority that makes a quotation worth including.
For example, Google is explicit about what earns trust:
Of these aspects, trust is most important. The others contribute to trust, but content doesn't necessarily have to demonstrate all of them.— Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
That is a quotation done right: someone else's exact words, named, and linked back to the primary source.
Use a real <blockquote> element, not italics or a coloured <div>. The element tells browsers, screen readers, and crawlers "this is a quotation from elsewhere". Follow it with clear attribution: the person's name, their role, and a link to the original source.
A pull-quote repeats a sentence from your own page in large text for visual emphasis - it is decoration, and it points to no external authority. A quotation is someone else's words, attributed and sourced. This rule is about the latter. If you style a pull-quote as a <blockquote>, you send readers and crawlers a signal you cannot back up. Keep the two separate.