The language of AI visibility
A practical reference library for AI search and visibility: definitions, mechanics, formulas, worked examples, measurement guidance and next steps. Built to answer the question behind the term, not merely define the word.
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AI brand mention
An appearance of a brand name in an AI answer, with or without a source link.
MeasurementAI citation
When an AI answer links your URL as one of its sources.
MeasurementAI citation position
Where a cited source appears within an AI answer or its source list.
MeasurementAI citation rate
The percentage of tracked answer opportunities in which your domain is cited.
CrawlingAI crawler
A bot that fetches your pages on behalf of an AI company.
MonitoringAI prompt monitoring
Repeatedly testing important questions to measure how AI answers change over time.
AttributionAI referral attribution
Tying AI-sourced visits to the leads and revenue they produce.
AttributionAI referral traffic
Website visits originating from AI assistants, answer engines and AI search features.
OptimizationAI search optimization
Improving a brand’s discoverability, citability and accuracy in AI answers.
Brand & reputationAI sentiment analysis
Classifying how AI answers frame a brand, product or topic.
MeasurementAI visibility
How often and how prominently a brand or source appears in AI-generated answers.
ReportingAI visibility report
A recurring report that explains where a brand appears in AI answers and what changed.
OptimizationAnswer capsule
A concise, liftable summary near the top of a page.
AI systemsAnswer engine
A system that returns a synthesized answer instead of a list of links.
OptimizationAnswer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Optimizing content so an AI lifts it directly into an answer.
MeasurementCitability score
How quotable and trustworthy a page is to an answer engine.
MeasurementCited vs mentioned
A linked source versus an unlinked name-drop.
CrawlingCrawl budget
The finite effort a bot spends on your site.
AttributionDark traffic (AI referral)
AI-sourced visits that analytics mislabels as “direct.”
Entities & authorityEntity
A distinct thing (brand, person, product) an engine can recognize.
OptimizationGenerative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Earning the trust generative engines need before they cite you.
AI search surfacesGoogle AI Overviews
Google’s AI-generated answer at the top of search results.
AI systemsGrounding
Tying an AI answer to real, citable sources to reduce errors.
Brand & reputationHallucination
When an AI states something false with confidence.
Crawlingllms.txt
A curated text file that maps your key content for AI.
AI systemsModel Context Protocol (MCP)
An open standard that lets AI assistants call external tools.
Brand & reputationNarrative control
Shaping the sources AI relies on to describe your category.
RetrievalQuery fan-out
The background sub-queries an engine runs to answer one question.
AI systemsRetrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
Fetch relevant sources first, then generate an answer grounded in them.
CrawlingReverse-DNS verification
Confirming a bot is who it claims to be.
MeasurementShare of voice (AI)
Your slice of the citations for a topic versus competitors.
AuthoritySource authority in AI search
The topic-specific trust an answer engine assigns to a potential source.
Technical optimizationStructured data (schema)
Machine-readable JSON-LD that describes your content to engines.
AI search surfacesZero-click search
When the answer is delivered without a click to your site.
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