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The most complete expert glossary for AI visibility, AEO and answer engine optimization.

Featured terms

AI Visibility

AI visibility is a brand's or organization's ability to be mentioned, recommended, or cited by AI search systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews when users ask relevant questions.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the discipline of optimizing content and digital presence to be selected as the answer — or cited as a source — by AI-driven answer engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. It stands in contrast to traditional SEO, which optimizes for click-through ranking in search result lists.

Citation Rate

Citation rate is the share of relevant AI search queries in which a specific brand, website, or source is mentioned or cited in the AI model's answer. It is a core KPI for AI visibility and is calculated as: (number of answers with a mention) / (total prompts run) × 100.

Zero-Click Search

Zero-click search is a search where the user gets the answer directly on the search result page — via featured snippets, AI Overviews, knowledge panels, or AI answer engines — without clicking through to any website. The share of zero-click searches in the AI search era is rising sharply.

AI Search

AI search is a search technology in which artificial intelligence models — typically large language models (LLMs) — generate natural-language answers to questions rather than presenting a list of links. Examples include ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot.

LLM Citation

An LLM citation occurs when a large language model (LLM) explicitly mentions, references, or recommends a specific source, brand, or website in an answer generated for a user — whether as an attributed source, a recommendation, or part of a factual claim.

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