GEO, AEO and AI Search glossary

A glossary of the core terms used in AI Search visibility, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). Each definition is written for marketing and brand teams — no jargon, no fluff.

AI Search visibility

How often, how accurately and how favorably AI engines mention and recommend your brand when users ask buying-related questions.

GEO — Generative Engine Optimization

The practice of optimizing your brand, content and digital footprint so generative AI engines cite, trust and recommend you.

AEO — Answer Engine Optimization

Writing and structuring content so AI answer engines (Perplexity, ChatGPT search, Copilot, Google AI Overviews) extract and cite it.

Share of AI Voice

The percentage of relevant AI answers in your category that mention or recommend your brand. The single best metric to compare AI visibility between brands.

Mention rate

The share of AI answers in which your brand name appears — independent of whether it is recommended.

Recommendation rate

The share of AI answers in which your brand is positively recommended as the answer or one of the answers.

Prompt-level visibility

Knowing exactly which buyer prompts trigger your brand and which do not — so you can prioritize the gaps that matter.

AI brand monitoring

Tracking how AI engines describe, mention and recommend your brand — including sentiment, factual claims and competitor framing.

Retrieval signals

Live signals AI engines fetch on demand: news, reviews, comparison pages and structured data — the levers AEO acts on.

Training signals

Signals baked into the model before its cutoff date: Wikipedia, authoritative media, well-structured product pages — the levers GEO acts on at the brand level.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between GEO and AEO?

GEO optimizes a brand for recommendation across generative engines; AEO optimizes a passage for extraction by answer engines. Most modern programs combine both.

Is AI Search visibility a real metric or marketing?

It is a real, measurable metric: mention rate, recommendation rate and Share of AI Voice are computed from logged AI answers across a defined prompt set.

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