Master the
Language of AI.
The search landscape is changing fast. Stay ahead by mastering the definitions and concepts that define the Answer Engine age.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
The practice of optimizing content to be cited and recommended by AI-driven search engines and conversational assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
AI Overviews (SGE)
Google's search feature that uses AI to synthesize a direct answer at the top of the search results page, citing various web sources.
Ask Engine Optimization
A synonym for Answer Engine Optimization, focusing on a user's direct 'ask' rather than a search query.
Citation Intelligence
The analysis of which specific sources and pages an AI model chooses to reference when answering a query.
Conversational Search
A search experience where users interact with an AI in a dialogue format, using natural language instead of keyword strings.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
Similar to AEO, the technical and strategic process of improving visibility within generative AI models.
Hallucination
When an AI model generates factually incorrect information confidently. Monitoring hallucinations is critical for brand safety.
Intent Mapping
The process of aligning website content with the specific goals or questions of a user's conversational prompt.
Knowledge Graph
A network of entities and their relationships that AI models use to provide structured, factual answers.
LLM (Large Language Model)
A type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language (e.g., GPT-4, Claude 3).
LLM.txt
A proposed standard file (similar to robots.txt) that provides a Markdown-formatted map of a website for AI crawlers to consume efficiently.
Mention Frequency
A metric tracking how often a brand is mentioned in AI responses relative to atotal set of industry-relevant prompts.
Prompt Engineering
The practice of crafting specific inputs (prompts) to get the most accurate and useful output from an AI model.
Prompt Intelligence
The study of which user prompts most frequently trigger a brand recommendation or citation in AI responses.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
A technique that allows LLMs to pull in real-time information from external sources (like a website) before generating an answer.
Semantic Search
Search focused on the meaning and intent behind words rather than simple keyword matching.
Share of Voice (AI-SOV)
The percentage of AI responses in a given category that recommend a specific brand compared to its competitors.
Source Attestation
The process by which an AI model verifies the authority and truthfulness of a source before citing it in an answer.
Synthetic Traffic
Web traffic where the primary visitor is an AI agent or crawler acting on behalf of a user.
Zero-Click Search
A search where the user's query is answered directly on the results page (often by AI), resulting in no traffic to external websites.