Answer Engine Optimization Glossary
AEO glossary definitions explain the terms modern search teams use to earn visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews, and other answer engines. Start here for clear, practical definitions with examples, measurement guidance, and related internal links.
Last updated: · 20 terms published in the first release.
Foundations
Core AEO, GEO, entity, citation, and brand visibility concepts.
Retrieval & Ranking
How AI systems find, score, retrieve, and synthesize sources.
Measurement
Metrics for tracking answer-engine visibility and competitive presence.
Technical AEO
Crawl, schema, and structured-data work that helps AI systems understand pages.
Foundations Terms
Core AEO, GEO, entity, citation, and brand visibility concepts.
Citations
References, links, or named sources an AI answer uses to support a recommendation or factual claim.
Read definition →Grounding
Anchoring an AI answer in external evidence, verified data, retrieved sources, or trusted context instead of model memory alone.
Read definition →Entity
A distinct thing, brand, person, product, concept, or organization that search and AI systems can identify and connect to facts.
Read definition →Generative Engine Optimization
Optimizing content, entities, and authority signals so generative AI systems include a brand in answers.
Read definition →Answer Engine Optimization
Optimizing a brand to be found, cited, and recommended by AI answer engines and AI-assisted search results.
Read definition →Brand Mention
Any reference to a brand, product, person, or domain across the web, whether linked or unlinked.
Read definition →AI Overview
A Google AI-generated search result summary that answers a query and may include cited source links.
Read definition →Retrieval & Ranking Terms
How AI systems find, score, retrieve, and synthesize sources.
Retrieval
The process an AI system uses to find candidate documents, passages, entities, or memories before generating an answer.
Read definition →RAG
Retrieval-augmented generation: an AI pattern that retrieves relevant information before generating an answer.
Read definition →Vector Relevance
How closely a page, passage, or entity embedding matches the meaning of a query or prompt.
Read definition →Passage Ranking
Evaluating specific sections or passages of a page for relevance rather than judging only the whole page.
Read definition →Source Authority
The trust, relevance, freshness, and citation-worthiness of a source used by search and AI systems.
Read definition →Measurement Terms
Metrics for tracking answer-engine visibility and competitive presence.
Share of Voice
The percentage of relevant AI answers, citations, mentions, or recommendations your brand owns versus competitors.
Read definition →Answer Share
The portion of tracked AI answers where a brand, product, or page appears as part of the response.
Read definition →Citation Gap
The difference between sources AI systems cite for competitors and sources that cite or mention your brand.
Read definition →Prompt-Market Fit
Alignment between the prompts buyers actually ask AI systems and the pages, proof, and positioning your brand provides.
Read definition →LLM Visibility
How often and how favorably a brand appears inside responses generated by large language models.
Read definition →Technical AEO Terms
Crawl, schema, and structured-data work that helps AI systems understand pages.
AI Crawl Pathway
The crawlable route AI bots and search systems can follow to discover, render, understand, and revisit important content.
Read definition →Semantic Triples
Structured statements that connect a subject, predicate, and object so machines can understand relationships.
Read definition →Schema Markup
Structured data added to web pages so search and AI systems can interpret entities, content types, and relationships.
Read definition →Need your brand to appear in AI answers?
AEO Engine maps your buyer prompts, finds citation gaps, and builds the content and authority system that makes your brand easier for answer engines to recommend.
Book Your Free Strategy Call