GEO glossary
Short definitions of the terms we use.
GEO (generative engine optimization)
Making AI answer engines more likely to name and cite your product when people ask relevant questions.
AEO (answer engine optimization)
A near-synonym for GEO that emphasizes answer engines such as Perplexity and AI Overviews.
Mention
An AI answer that names your brand or product in its text, with or without a link.
Citation
An AI answer that links to or lists one of your pages as a source, with or without naming your brand in the text.
Named rate
The share of tested AI answers that mention your brand.
Cited rate
The share of tested AI answers that cite one of your pages.
Question bank
A fixed set of questions (brand, user intent, competitor comparison) sent to AI models on a regular schedule to measure visibility.
Zero-click
A search or AI answer that satisfies the user without a click to any site.
Answer-first
A writing format that puts a direct answer at the top of a page so it can be extracted and quoted.
llms.txt
A proposed plain-text file at the site root that points AI systems to a site’s most useful pages.