Reference

AI visibility glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms behind AI visibility and generative engine optimization. No jargon for its own sake.

Generative engine optimization (GEO)
The work of getting your business named and cited by AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews when someone asks about your industry.
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Another name for the same goal as GEO: becoming the answer an AI or search engine hands back, rather than just a link in a list.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
The work of ranking high in a list of search results so people click your link. GEO builds on top of SEO for the world of AI answers.
AI Overviews
Google's AI-written answer that appears above the classic list of links, citing a handful of sources rather than listing ten.
Answer engine
Any system that returns a direct answer instead of a list of links, including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and voice assistants.
llms.txt
A plain-text file at the root of a website that gives AI tools a clean source of truth about the business: who it is, what it sells, pricing, location, and key facts.
Structured data (schema)
Machine-readable markup (JSON-LD) in a page that tells search and AI exactly what the page is about, such as the business, its services, and its FAQs.
AI crawler
A bot that reads the web for an AI company, such as GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended. A site can allow or block them in robots.txt.
Citation
When an AI answer names or links a source. Getting cited is the goal of GEO: it is how your business shows up inside an AI response.
Zero-click search
A search that is answered on the results page or inside an AI response, so the person never clicks through to a website. It is why being named in the answer matters.
Markdown mirror
A plain-text version of a web page, served so AI crawlers can read the content cleanly without navigation, ads, or other page chrome.
Discovery Protocol
Altaway's ten-rule standard for making a site readable to AI and trusted by search. The same audit Altaway runs on client sites, and on its own.

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