GEO & AI SEO Glossary
Key terms for Generative Engine Optimization and AI search visibility.
GEO
Generative Engine Optimization — the practice of optimizing content and brand presence so that AI-powered search engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, etc.) recommend, mention, or rank your brand when users ask relevant questions.
AEO
AI Engine Optimization — focuses on structured data, schema markup, and entity optimization so AI models can parse and recommend your brand accurately. Often used alongside GEO.
AI visibility
How often and how prominently AI assistants mention your brand in their responses. Measured by visibility scores, position in answers, and sentiment.
Answer gap
Responses where your brand is not mentioned despite the query being relevant. Identifying answer gaps helps prioritize content and citation improvements.
LLMs.txt
A text file (similar to robots.txt) that helps AI crawlers and language models discover and understand your brand. Hosted at yoursite.com/llms.txt.
Citation
A source (URL, article, review) that an AI model references when answering. Citations drive visibility — being cited by G2, Capterra, or news sites can boost AI recommendations.
Visibility score
A 0–100 metric indicating how prominently your brand appears in an AI response. Higher scores mean stronger mentions, better position, or explicit recommendations.
Share of voice
Your brand's percentage of mentions compared to competitors for a given set of prompts. Used in competitive GEO analysis.
Prompt
The question or query a user asks an AI assistant. GEO tracks which prompts mention your brand and which don't.
Schema markup
Structured data (JSON-LD, etc.) that helps search engines and AI models understand your content. Important for AEO.
Entity
A recognizable brand, product, or concept. AI models track entities when answering; entity optimization ensures they understand and cite your brand correctly.
GEO vs SEO
SEO optimizes for traditional search engines (Google, Bing). GEO optimizes for AI-generated answers. Both matter; AI search is growing as a discovery channel.
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