Glossary for AI visibility and AI search

A

• ACP

  Agentic Commerce Protocol

  OpenAI and Stripe's standard that powers Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, letting users buy directly in the conversation. Distinct from Google's UCP.

• AEO

  Answer Engine Optimization

  Optimizing content to be cited in AI-generated answers

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• AI Mode

  Google AI Mode

  Google's conversational search model where the entire experience is AI-driven, not just a box at the top. Users can ask follow-up questions.

• AI Overviews

  Google's AI-generated summaries displayed above traditional search results

• AI Visibility Score

  Overall score for visibility across AI engines

• AI-agent

  Agentic AI

  An AI that plans and takes multi-step actions toward a goal — searching, comparing, even buying — with little human input. The next layer beyond chat.

• AI-crawler

  Automated program that fetches content from websites for use in AI models

• AI-hallusinasjon

  AI Hallucination

  When AI generates incorrect or fabricated information presented as fact

• AI-handelsagent

  AI Shopping Agent

  An AI that discovers, compares and buys products on a user's behalf via standards like UCP or ACP. Requires machine-readable product data to act.

• AI-omtale

  AI Mention

  When an AI model mentions your brand without linking to your website

• AI-referert trafikk

  AI Referral Traffic

  Visitors who come to your website via links in AI-generated answers

• AI-sitering

  AI Citation

  When an AI model uses your content as a source and links to it in its answer

• AI-synlighet

  AI Visibility

  The degree to which your brand is mentioned, recommended and cited in AI-powered search tools

  Read more

• Answer Engine

  A tool that answers questions directly instead of returning a list of links — ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews. The target of AEO.

• Answer-first

  Content format where the direct answer comes first (40–60 words), before elaboration. The format AI models cite best.

B

• Backlink

  A link from an external website to yours. One of the strongest ranking signals in Google and an authority signal for AI models.

• Bing

  Microsoft's search engine and the web index behind Copilot and, in part, ChatGPT search. Bing Webmaster Tools controls how it crawls you.

• Brand Authority

  The overall trust and recognition a brand has across the web. AI models weigh it when deciding whom to recommend.

C

• Canonical URL

  The tag that tells search engines which version of a page is the original. Prevents duplicate-content confusion for crawlers and AI.

• CAVIS

  Conversational AI Visibility Simulation

  CitationLab's framework for measuring visibility in multi-step AI conversations

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• ChatGPT

  OpenAI's AI assistant and the most-used AI platform in the world. Recommends businesses and services on direct request.

• ChatGPT Shopping

  ChatGPT's product discovery and shopping experience. Shopify and Etsy catalogs connect automatically; others apply via the ChatGPT Merchant portal and a product feed.

• Chunk

  Text segment that AI uses as context window when generating answers

• Chunk-optimalisering

  Structuring content into segments that AI can extract and cite effectively

• Chunkalyzer

  Analysis tool that shows how AI models break down and process your content

• Citation

  Reference to a specific URL in an AI-generated answer

• Claude

  Anthropic Claude

  Anthropic's AI assistant, known for long-context reasoning and increasingly used for research and work. Cites web sources when it browses.

• ClaudeBot

  Anthropic's web crawler for Claude. Control its access in robots.txt to decide whether Claude can use your content.

• Co-citation

  When your brand is mentioned alongside known authorities in the same context. Signals to AI that you belong in that set.

• Core Web Vitals

  Google's three core user-experience metrics: LCP (load time), INP (responsiveness) and CLS (visual stability). Direct ranking factors.

• Crawlbarhet

  Crawlability

  How easily bots and AI crawlers can access and read your pages. Blocked or JS-heavy pages are invisible to AI.

• CTR

  Click Through Rate

  The share of users who click a link compared to those who see it. Measured in Google Search Console.

D

• DeepSeek

  Chinese AI model launched in 2025, known for high performance at low cost. Should be included in AI visibility monitoring.

• Digital PR

  Earning brand mentions and links on authoritative third-party sites. One of the strongest off-site levers for entity authority and AI citations.

E

• E-E-A-T

  Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness

  Google's quality signals for content and publisher trust

• Embeddings

  Vector Embeddings

  Numeric representations of text meaning that let AI compare content by semantic similarity. The basis for retrieval in RAG and AI search.

• Entitet

  Entity

  A uniquely identifiable thing (person, company, concept) that AI can recognize and discuss

• Entitetsautoritet

  Entity Authority

  The weight your brand carries in AI models, built through structured data and credible sources

• Entity Linking

  Entity Disambiguation

  Connecting a mention to the correct entity in a knowledge base (e.g. the right "Apple"). Clean, consistent data helps AI link to you correctly.

F

• Fact Density

  The density of verifiable facts in your content — higher fact density increases the chance of AI citation

• Fanalyzer

  Fan-out Analysis

  Analysis tool in CitationLab for discovering topic expansions and content opportunities

• Featured Snippet

  A highlighted text box Google shows at the top of search results that answers a question directly. Predecessor to AI Overviews citations.

• Fine-tuning

  Further training of a foundation model on specific data to specialize its behavior. Distinct from prompting or retrieval.

• Foundation Model

  A large model trained on broad data that serves as the base for many applications (e.g. GPT, Gemini, Claude). Fine-tuned or prompted for specific tasks.

G

• Gemini

  Google Gemini

  Google's AI assistant and model family, built into Search (AI Mode and AI Overviews), Android and Workspace. A key surface to monitor for AI visibility.

• Generativ AI

  Generative AI

  AI that creates new text, images or code from training data, rather than just classifying. The technology behind ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews.

• GEO

  Generative Engine Optimization

  Strategies for visibility in generative AI systems

• Google Business Profile

  Google's free business profile in Search and Maps. One of the most important verification sources AI models use to confirm a business is real.

• Google-Extended

  A robots.txt token that controls whether Google may use your content for Gemini and AI training, separate from normal Search indexing.

• GPTBot

  OpenAI's crawler that gathers web content for training and ChatGPT. Allowing it in robots.txt is required to be eligible for citation.

• Grok

  xAI Grok

  xAI's AI assistant built into X (Twitter), with real-time access to posts. Relevant for brands with an active social presence.

• Grounding

  Tying an AI model's answer to verifiable external sources instead of relying on parametric memory. Reduces hallucinations and produces citations.

H

• Hreflang

  Markup that tells search engines which language and region a page targets. Helps AI serve the right localized version of your content.

• Hybrid søk

  Hybrid Search

  Combining keyword search (BM25) with semantic vector search for better retrieval. Common in modern AI search pipelines.

I

• Indeksering

  Indexing

  The process where search engines store and categorize content from websites. A basic prerequisite for any AI visibility.

• Inferens

  Inference

  The moment an AI model generates an answer from a prompt, as opposed to training. Each inference draws on parametric memory plus any retrieved sources.

• Information Gain

  How much new, unique information a page adds beyond what already exists. High information gain increases the chance of being cited.

• Innholdsferskhet

  Content Freshness

  How recent and up-to-date content is. AI engines like Perplexity weight fresh sources heavily (recency bias).

J

• JSON-LD

  The recommended format for schema markup. Placed in the head tag of a page and gives AI structured context about the content.

K

• Kildeattribusjon

  Source Attribution

  How an AI engine credits and links the sources behind an answer. Strong attribution is what turns visibility into traffic.

• Kildemangfold

  Source Diversity

  Spread of brand mentions across various credible sources — strengthens AI's trust in you

• Knowledge Graph

  Structured database of entities and relationships that AI uses to understand the world

• Knowledge Panel

  The info box Google shows about an entity, drawn from its Knowledge Graph. A strong public signal that AI recognizes your brand as a real entity.

• Kontekstvindu

  Context Window

  The maximum amount of text (in tokens) an AI model can consider at once. Determines how much of your content fits into a single answer.

• Konversasjonelt AI-søk

  Conversational AI Search

  Multi-step search where the user has a conversation with AI, as opposed to single queries

L

• LLM

  Large Language Model

  Large language model like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude

• LLM SEO

  Optimizing content so large language models retrieve, understand and cite it. Overlaps with GEO and LLMO; focuses on entities, chunks and authority.

• LLMO

  Large Language Model Optimization

  Adapting content and data for LLM visibility

• llms-full.txt

  An extended llms.txt that includes the full text of key pages so AI can ingest them directly. Companion to llms.txt.

• llms.txt

  A proposed standard file that gives AI models a curated, markdown overview of your most important content. An emerging lever for AI visibility.

• Lokal SEO

  Local SEO

  Search engine optimization for geographically specific searches. Important for AI visibility because AI uses GBP and local directories as verification sources.

M

• MCP

  Model Context Protocol

  An open standard for connecting AI assistants to external tools and data sources. Lets agents act on live information.

• Mention Rate

  The share of AI responses where your brand is mentioned — without necessarily being cited as a source. Broader than Citation Rate.

• Metabeskrivelse

  Meta Description

  A short description (140–155 characters) shown beneath the page title in search results. Affects CTR.

• Microsoft Copilot

  Microsoft's AI assistant across Bing, Windows and Microsoft 365. Built on OpenAI models and surfaces cited web sources.

• Multimodal AI

  AI that understands and generates across text, images, audio and video. Means your images and video can also be read and cited by AI.

N

• NER

  Named Entity Recognition

  AI technique that detects and classifies entities (people, brands, places) in text. The first step toward linking your brand to a knowledge graph.

• Null-klikk-søk

  Zero-Click Search

  Search where the user gets the answer directly without clicking to a website

O

• Organisk søk

  Organic Search

  Search results shown in Google without payment. The starting point for SEO and AEO strategy.

P

• Parametrisk hukommelse

  Parametric Memory

  Knowledge baked into a language model's weights during training, as opposed to real-time retrieval

• Passage Ranking

  When search engines rank and surface a single relevant passage from a page rather than the whole page. Rewards well-structured, self-contained sections.

• People Also Ask

  PAA

  A box in Google search results with related questions. Optimizing for PAA gives extra visibility and builds topical authority.

• Perception Match

  Degree of alignment between desired brand position and how AI actually describes you

• Periodesammenligning

  Period Comparison

  Comparison of AI visibility metrics between two time periods

• Perplexity

  AI-driven search engine with over 100 million weekly searches. The second most important AI search platform after ChatGPT, with a strong recency bias.

• PerplexityBot

  Perplexity's crawler that indexes pages for its answer engine. Blocking it removes you from Perplexity's citations.

• Prompt

  Question or instruction sent to an AI engine

• Prompt Engineering

  The technique of formulating questions to AI for optimal answers — important for testing AI visibility

• Prompt Injection

  An attack that hides instructions in content to manipulate an AI model's behavior. A security concern for AI-facing pages and agents.

• Prompt-optimalisering

  Prompt Optimization

  Identifying and optimizing content for the specific questions users ask AI models. AEO's answer to keyword research.

• Prompt-styring

  Prompt Management

  Systematic management of search queries to monitor AI visibility over time

Q

• Query Fan-out

  When an AI search splits one question into several sub-queries, retrieves sources for each, and synthesizes one answer. Being cited means covering the sub-questions.

R

• RAG

  Retrieval-Augmented Generation

  AI technique that retrieves external source data before answering

• Reranking

  A second-pass step that reorders retrieved results by relevance before the AI writes its answer. Strong content can win the rerank and get cited.

• Retrieval

  The step where an AI system fetches relevant external documents before answering. The "R" in RAG and the gateway to being cited.

• RLHF

  Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

  Training technique that aligns model answers with human preferences. Shapes which sources and phrasings a model favors.

• Robots.txt

  A text file that tells search engines and AI crawlers what they may fetch. Misconfiguration is a common cause of invisibility in AI search.

S

• Schema.org

  Standardized vocabulary for structured data that helps AI understand your content

• Semantisk søk

  Semantic Search

  Search that matches on meaning and intent rather than exact keywords, using embeddings. The retrieval model AI engines rely on.

• Sentimentanalyse

  Sentiment Analysis

  Measuring whether AI mentions are positive, negative or neutral

• SEO

  Search Engine Optimization

  The process of improving a website's visibility in organic search results. The foundation all AEO is built on.

• SERP

  Search Engine Results Page

  The page Google shows after a search. Contains organic links, AI Overviews, featured snippets, PAA, and knowledge panels.

• SGE

  Search Generative Experience

  Google's original name for AI answers in Search, now rolled into AI Overviews and AI Mode. Still seen in older documentation.

• Share of Model

  SoM

  Brand's share of AI recommendations compared to competitors — the AI equivalent of market share

• Share of Voice

  Your share of AI answers compared to competitors

• Sitemap

  An XML file that lists important pages on the site and helps search engines discover and index content. Should be submitted to Google Search Console.

• Siteringsrate

  Citation Rate

  The share of AI answers where your content is used as a source — key metric for AI visibility

• Siteringsverdighet

  Citability

  How easy your content is for AI to quote — clear claims, facts, structure and authority. The core objective of GEO.

• System Prompt

  The hidden instructions that set an AI assistant's role and rules before the user's prompt. Shapes tone, guardrails and source preferences.

• Søkeintensjon

  Search Intent

  What the user actually wants to achieve with a search. Four types: informational, navigational, commercial investigation, and transactional.

T

• Teknisk SEO

  Technical SEO

  Optimization of the site's technical infrastructure: speed, indexing, mobile, schema, and Core Web Vitals. Includes robots.txt access for AI crawlers.

• Temperature

  A setting that controls how random or deterministic an AI's output is. Lower values give more consistent, repeatable answers.

• Token

  The smallest unit of text an LLM processes — roughly three-quarters of a word. Models have token limits that cap how much context they can read.

• Topical Authority

  The degree of subject-matter authority a site has within a particular topic. One of the strongest drivers of AI citations.

• Topical Map

  A structured plan covering every subtopic of a theme to build topical authority. Helps AI see you as a comprehensive source.

• Treningsdata

  Training Data

  Data used to train an AI model — your content must exist here for parametric visibility

U

• UCP

  Universal Commerce Protocol

  Open standard, led by Google, that lets AI agents discover, buy and manage orders across stores with one integration. Powers Universal Cart and checkout in Google AI Mode and Gemini.

V

• Vektordatabase

  Vector Database

  A database that stores embeddings and finds the most relevant content by meaning rather than keywords. Powers retrieval in AI search and RAG.

W

• Wikidata

  An open, machine-readable knowledge database used by Google Knowledge Graph and many AI models as a verification source.

• Wikipedia

  The single most important source for AI models' knowledge about entities. An article about your company or industry is one of the strongest authority signals available.

Z

• Zero-shot / Few-shot

  Prompting an AI with no examples (zero-shot) or a handful (few-shot) to guide its answer. Affects how reliably it represents your brand.