AEO Glossary

A shared language for the era of AI search. Each term below is also published as structured DefinedTerm data so answer engines can lift the definitions directly.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Optimizing a brand and its content so AI answer engines mention, rank, and cite it in generated answers.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

A near-synonym for AEO, emphasizing optimization for generative AI search experiences.

Answer engine

An AI system that returns a single synthesized answer instead of a list of links — e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity.

Entity

A distinct thing (company, product, person) that a knowledge graph or language model can recognize and attribute facts to.

Share of AI Voice

The share of relevant AI answers in which your brand is mentioned, versus competitors.

Mention rate

The percentage of tracked prompts where an engine names your brand in its answer.

Citation rate

The percentage of answers that link to or explicitly source your domain.

Liftable content

Content structured (e.g. as FAQ pairs) so a model can quote it directly into an answer.

Structured data (JSON-LD)

Machine-readable schema markup (Organization, FAQPage, Article) that helps engines understand and trust your content.

llms.txt

An emerging plain-text file that tells AI crawlers what a site is about and which pages matter most.

Knowledge hub

A cluster of FAQ, guide, glossary and comparison pages that signals topical authority and gives engines surfaces to cite.