GEO & AEO glossary

Plain-English definitions of the vocabulary around getting cited by AI: GEO, AEO, AI citations, AI visibility, Google AI Overview, MCP and more. Each term is written to be quotable.

1. Generative engine optimization (GEO): Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of getting a brand cited in the answers AI engines provide.
2. Answer engine optimization (AEO): Answer engine optimization (AEO) is optimizing content to be surfaced and cited by answer engines.
3. AI visibility: AI visibility is how often and how prominently a brand appears, is mentioned, or is cited across AI platforms.
4. AI citations: An AI citation is a source (URL or domain) an AI engine references to support an answer.
5. AI citation API: An AI citation API returns, programmatically, the sources AI engines cite for a given query.
6. Google AI Overview: Google AI Overview (formerly SGE) is the AI-generated summary shown at the top of Google results.
7. Model Context Protocol (MCP): The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI agents connect to external tools.
8. AI share of voice: AI share of voice is your brand's proportion of mentions or citations across AI answers for a set of queries.
9. Hotspot source: A hotspot source is a page or domain cited by multiple AI engines for the same query.
10. AI search: AI search is search powered by large language models that returns a synthesized answer with citations.
11. LLM SEO: LLM SEO is an informal synonym for GEO/AEO: optimizing to be cited by large language models.