Glossary of AI Search terms

AI search uses generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews, to answer queries by synthesizing information from multiple sources instead of listing links.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of improving how a brand and its content are used as inputs by AI engines to generate Responses. It is often used interchangeably with GEO.

Anthropic Claude Results are the answers generated by Anthropic’s Claude model in response to user queries.

Bing Copilot is Microsoft’s AI-powered search assistant that generates conversational answers using web data and OpenAI’s models.

Brand mentions in AI search are the instances where a brand’s name is included in AI-generated answers, showing how discoverable it is.

Brand Perception is how a brand is described and characterized within AI-generated Responses.

Brand Placement measures how early in an AI-generated Response a brand is first mentioned, typically expressed as a decile of the text.

Brand Position is the relative ranking of a brand within an AI-generated Response compared to other brands mentioned.

Brand presence measures the percentage of AI search responses in which a brand appears, such as appearing in 30% of responses in a given period.

Brand Visibility is the overall measure of how often and how prominently a brand appears in AI search Responses.

ChatGPT Responses are the answers generated by OpenAI’s ChatGPT when users ask questions or submit prompts.

Cited domains are website domains listed in the citation section of an AI response.

Cited Sources are references that AI engines list separately from the main text to show where the information in an answer came from.

Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results, offering quick answers without requiring users to click through to websites.

Inline domains are website domains linked directly within the body text of an AI response.

Inline sources are links embedded directly in the text of an AI response, often next to brand names or claims, without a formal citation.

Perplexity AI Search is an AI-powered search engine that generates natural language Responses with transparent sourcing.

Responses are the complete answers generated by AI search engines in reply to a user’s query.

Share of sources measures the percentage of all sources in AI responses that come from a specific domain or website. It shows how much influence different sources have in shaping brand visibility and mentions.

Share of Voice is the percentage of mentions a brand receives in AI search Responses compared to competitors in the same category.

A source domain is the root domain of an external source included in an AI response, such as example.com.

Source Presence measures how often a specific source or domain appears in AI-generated responses over a given period.

Sources are the external URLs, such as articles or websites, that AI models use to generate answers and include in responses.

A visibility score is a composite measure that combines presence, position, and prominence to reflect how visible a brand is across AI search.