Glossary

The AEO terms we use, and what they actually mean.

AEO glossary terms

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO): Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of getting a brand accurately cited and recommended inside AI-generated answers from Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Grok, rather than only ranked as a blue link.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of shaping content so generative AI models synthesize it accurately into their answers. Vsibl treats GEO and AEO as the same discipline in APAC.
Answer engines (AI search): Answer engines, also called AI search, are the AI systems that generate direct answers: Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, DeepSeek, and Grok. Vsibl uses the two terms interchangeably.
AI Overview: AI Overview is Google's AI-generated summary shown above traditional search results, built from multiple sources and often the first, only, answer a buyer sees.
Visibility Score: Visibility Score is Vsibl's headline metric: how often a brand is cited for its priority queries across all selected engines, per market.
Citation rate: Citation rate is how often an answer engine names or links a brand when responding to a relevant buyer question.
Share of voice: Share of voice is the percentage of relevant AI answers in which a brand appears, measured against named competitors.
Mention: A mention is when an answer engine names a brand without linking or crediting it as a source, distinct from a citation.
Sentiment: Sentiment is whether an AI answer describes a brand positively, neutrally, or negatively.
Answer accuracy: Answer accuracy is whether an AI answer describes a brand's products, pricing, or positioning correctly, independent of tone: a neutral-sounding answer can still be factually wrong.
Branded search volume lift: Branded search volume lift is the rise in direct Google searches for a brand's name after buyers encounter it in an AI answer, used as a proxy for zero-click AEO impact.
Source authority: Source authority is the strength of the local sources an answer engine draws on when it decides which brands to cite.
Local source ecosystem: Local source ecosystem is the set of region- and language-specific sources (local publications, forums, marketplaces, review sites) an answer engine trusts for a given market, Kaskus in Indonesia, Pantip in Thailand, Naver in Korea.
Chunking: Chunking is structuring content into self-contained sections so an answer engine can pull out and cite one part without needing the rest of the page.
Passage ranking: Passage ranking is when an answer engine surfaces one specific section of a page as the answer, regardless of how the page ranks overall.
Query fan-out: Query fan-out is when an answer engine expands a single question into several related searches behind the scenes to assemble a fuller answer.
Entity recognition: Entity recognition is an answer engine's ability to identify a specific brand, place, or concept in content, rather than matching on keywords alone.
Semantic search: Semantic search is an answer engine matching a buyer's underlying intent and meaning, not the exact words of their question.
Zero-click: Zero-click describes a search where the buyer gets their answer inside the AI response and never reaches a website.

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