GEO glossary: Key terms in Generative Engine Optimization
By the GEO Pilot team · Updated
Short answer
This glossary defines the core terms of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI search in plain English, from GEO and AEO to AI visibility, share of voice, citations, llms.txt, schema markup and AI crawlers, so teams can use the same language when optimizing content for AI answer engines.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
The practice of structuring content so AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews understand it, trust it and cite it in their answers.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Optimizing content to be selected as the direct answer to a question, in AI assistants, voice assistants and featured snippets. Often used interchangeably with GEO.
AI visibility
How often, and how favorably, AI answer engines mention or cite a brand when people ask questions in its category.
Share of voice (AI)
A brand's share of all brand mentions across a set of AI answers, compared with competitors named in the same answers.
Citation
A link to a source that an AI engine shows alongside its answer. Being cited means your page was used as evidence.
Mention
An AI answer naming your brand, with or without a link. Mentions build awareness; citations also send traffic.
Answer-first writing
Opening a page or section with a short, complete answer to the question it targets, before any background or detail.
TL;DR block
A 40–60 word summary at the top of a page that fully answers the core question. AI engines often lift it nearly word for word.
Entity clarity
How explicitly content names the brand, product and other entities it discusses, so AI systems can connect statements to the right organization.
Citable fact
A specific, checkable detail such as a number, date, percentage or named example that an AI engine can quote with confidence.
llms.txt
A plain-text Markdown file at a site's root (yoursite.com/llms.txt) that summarizes what the site is and links to its most useful pages for large language models.
Schema markup (JSON-LD)
Structured data from Schema.org, embedded in a page as JSON-LD, that tells machines exactly what the page is: an article, an FAQ, a product, an organization and so on.
AI crawler
A bot that fetches web pages for AI companies, either to train models or to answer live questions. Examples include GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot.
Grounding
When an AI model searches the web or a document set before answering, and bases its answer on what it found.
Prompt tracking
Repeatedly asking AI engines the questions your buyers ask, and recording whether your brand is mentioned, cited and recommended.
Content repurposing
Turning one source, such as a webinar, article or report, into many formats: blog posts, newsletters, social posts, FAQs and video scripts.
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness: quality signals from Google's guidelines that also shape which sources AI engines trust.
Zero-click answer
When a person gets what they need from an AI answer or search snippet without visiting any website.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a mention and a citation?
A mention is an AI answer naming your brand. A citation is a link to your page shown as a source. Citations also send traffic and signal that your content was used as evidence.
What does share of voice mean in AI search?
Your brand's share of all brand mentions across a set of AI answers, compared with the competitors named in those same answers.
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