Glossary
AI visibility glossary
Definitions for GEO, AEO, AI crawlers, citations, llms.txt, and 131 related terms—each on its own indexable page.
Jump to a term page for a fuller definition, FAQs, and related links. Also seeguides, industry playbooks, andAI bot guides.
AI visibilityHow discoverable and citable a website is to AI crawlers and answer engines.Generative engine optimization (GEO)Practices aimed at improving presence in AI-generated answers and summaries.Answer engine optimization (AEO)Optimization for answer engines that return synthesized responses rather than only blue links.LLM visibilityWhether large language models and AI assistants mention, cite, or recommend a brand.Crawl accessWhether AI bot user-agents are allowed and able to fetch your pages.Content readinessWhether a page exposes usable HTML and discovery signals for AI systems.Buyer-intent promptA neutral query written like a prospect looking for a solution category.Mention rateShare of evaluated prompts where the target brand or domain appears.Recommendation rateShare of prompts where the target is positioned as a suggested option.CitationA linked or attributed source an AI system associates with an answer.llms.txtA root-level plain-text file that summarizes a site for AI systems.llms-full.txtAn optional longer companion to llms.txt with deeper product documentation for AI systems.GPTBotOpenAI’s training crawler user-agent.OAI-SearchBotOpenAI’s search crawler associated with ChatGPT search retrieval.ChatGPT-UserUser-agent used when ChatGPT browses the live web on a user’s behalf.Common CrawlA public web crawl archive often used in training corpora and research.CCBotCommon Crawl’s crawler user-agent.ClaudeBotAnthropic’s training-oriented crawler user-agent.Claude-WebAnthropic user-agent associated with Claude web retrieval.PerplexityBotPerplexity’s crawler for its answer engine.Google-ExtendedGoogle user-agent related to Gemini / AI training opt-out controls.BytespiderByteDance crawler user-agent.AmazonbotAmazon crawler associated with Alexa and related surfaces.Applebot-ExtendedApple user-agent related to Apple Intelligence training controls.meta-externalagentMeta AI crawler user-agent.robots.txtA root file that tells crawlers which paths they may fetch.sitemap.xmlAn XML index of URLs you want discovered and crawled.JSON-LDA JSON-based format for embedding Schema.org structured data in pages.Schema.orgA shared vocabulary for structured data on the web.Open GraphMeta tags that describe a page’s title, description, and image for previews.Meta descriptionAn HTML meta tag summarizing the page for search and social contexts.SPA shellA mostly empty HTML document that relies on client JavaScript to render content.Crawlable HTMLHTML that contains meaningful content without requiring client-side rendering.Canonical URLThe preferred URL for a page when duplicates or variants exist.Training presenceEvidence that archives or training-related crawls have seen your domain.ChatGPT citationsSource attributions or links ChatGPT associates with an answer.AI share of voiceYour relative mention/recommendation rate versus competitors on shared prompts.Citation source mapA map of domains and URLs that appear as sources across evaluated answers.Four-pillar AI visibility scoreBatSignal’s composite score across crawl, content, ChatGPT, and training presence.Open-web coverageHow often your brand appears in open-web semantic search results for buyer prompts.Visibility ScanBatSignal’s one-time paid audit of crawlability and buyer-intent AI presence.Answer engineA system that returns synthesized answers rather than only ranked links.Generative engineAn AI system that generates natural-language answers using models and retrieval.Bot managementControls that allow, challenge, or block automated clients including AI crawlers.User-agentThe identifying string a client sends so servers can recognize the crawler or browser.noindexA robots directive telling search engines not to index a URL.Structured dataMachine-readable page annotations, commonly Schema.org via JSON-LD.Entity clarityHow clearly a site states who you are, what you sell, and how you differ.Citable factsSpecific, attributable statements on public pages that answers can quote.Comparison pageA public page that contrasts your product with alternatives on clear criteria.Alternatives pageA page listing alternative solutions in a category, often including yourself.Prompt briefA guided outline for creating content that answers a buyer-intent prompt.AI visibility dossierA narrative report summarizing strengths, gaps, and competitors for a scanned site.Re-verifyA follow-up measurement within 30 days of a Visibility Scan credit.Semantic searchRetrieval based on meaning rather than exact keyword matches.Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)Generating answers with retrieved documents as grounding context.AI overviewA synthesized summary shown above or within traditional search results.Brand mentionAn appearance of your brand name or domain in an AI answer.Domain attributionLinking an answer claim to a specific domain or URL.Crawl budgetHow much time and attention a crawler spends fetching your URLs.Allowlist (robots)Explicit Allow rules that carve exceptions inside broader Disallow policies.Disallow (robots)A robots.txt rule telling a crawler not to fetch matching paths.AI crawling policyAn intentional stance on which AI agents may train on or search your site.First-party evidenceFacts published on your own domain that AI systems can cite.Third-party sourcesReview sites, directories, and publishers that AI systems frequently cite.Query intentThe job a buyer is trying to get done with a prompt (discover, compare, trust, etc.).Discovery intentPrompts where buyers explore a category without a shortlist yet.Comparison intentPrompts that pit products or approaches against each other.Trust intentPrompts about security, compliance, reliability, or social proof.Problem/solution intentPrompts framed around a pain (“how do I fix…”) rather than a product name.Buyer-intent contentPublic pages written to answer how prospects ask AI assistants.GEO vs SEOHow generative-engine optimization relates to classic search optimization.IndexabilityWhether search engines are allowed and able to include a URL in their index.Programmatic SEO (PSEO)Generating many useful, templatized pages from structured data at scale.Internal linkingLinks between pages on the same site that help discovery and context.hreflangAnnotations that map language/region variants of a URL set.Core Web VitalsGoogle’s user-experience metrics for loading, interactivity, and stability.E-E-A-TExperience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness signals.Answer groundingConstraining generated answers with retrieved sources.Model training opt-outUsing robots rules or product settings to discourage training use of your content.Search retrieval botA crawler that fetches pages to ground live answers rather than train foundation models.Agentic browsingAI agents fetching the live web to complete a user task.Visibility benchmarkA repeatable prompt set used to compare AI presence over time or versus peers.Competitor insightsEvidence of which peer brands appear on the same AI prompts.AI visibility action planPrioritized fixes spanning robots, content, and measurement follow-ups.AI visibility deliverablesCopy-paste outputs such as llms.txt drafts, JSON-LD blocks, and prompt briefs.Soft 404A URL that returns 200 OK but shows “not found” or empty content.JavaScript renderingExecuting client JS to materialize page content for crawlers.HTML snapshotThe HTML document returned for a URL at fetch time.Link graphThe network of links connecting pages and sites.Topical authorityDepth and coherence of coverage on a subject across a site.Information gainHow much unique useful information a page adds versus existing sources.Content decayLoss of accuracy or competitiveness as pages go stale.SERPSearch engine results page.Zero-click answerWhen a user gets the answer in the AI/search UI without visiting a site.Branded queryA prompt that already includes your brand name.Unbranded queryA category prompt without your brand name.Hallucination riskChance an AI invents facts about your product when sources are weak.Knowledge cutoffThe date after which a model’s parametric training may lack newer facts.Web search tool (in LLMs)A model capability that queries the web while answering.Site summary for AIA concise description of what a site is, suitable for agents.Priority URLsThe small set of pages you most want AI systems to fetch and cite.Evidence-backed claimA public statement tied to a measurable method or source.Marketing site debtAccumulated SPA, metadata, and robots issues that block AI discovery.Product-led growth (and AI visibility)PLG motions still need public pages AI systems can cite beyond the app.Docs as citationsUsing public documentation as preferred AI citation targets.Pricing page (AI visibility)A public pricing URL that states plans and limits clearly enough to cite.Security page (AI visibility)A public trust/security URL answering compliance and data-handling questions.Changelog (AI visibility)A public history of product changes that keeps retrieval fresh.Status pageA public uptime/status URL that can be cited for reliability questions.OG imageThe social preview image referenced by Open Graph tags.Favicon (discovery)Brand mark files used in browsers and sometimes in search/AI UIs.security.txtA well-known file advertising security contact details..well-knownA standard path prefix for site-wide metadata files.Markdown content negotiationServing Markdown when clients send Accept: text/markdown.Link headersHTTP Link headers advertising related resources like llms.txt.Apex domainThe root host (example.com) without a www subdomain.www redirect301 redirect from www to apex (or the reverse) for a single canonical host.Trailing slash normalizationChoosing whether URLs end with / and redirecting the other form.Image sitemapSitemap extensions that list important images per URL.lastmodA sitemap field indicating when a URL last meaningfully changed.changefreqA sitemap hint about how often a URL is expected to change.Sitemap priorityA relative importance hint (0.0–1.0) inside a sitemap.FAQPage schemaSchema.org type marking FAQ question/answer pairs.BreadcrumbList schemaStructured data describing the page’s position in a hierarchy.SoftwareApplication schemaSchema.org type describing a software product.Organization schemaSchema.org type describing the company behind the site.Article schemaSchema.org type for article-like educational pages.CollectionPageA page type for indexes that list child pages.ItemList schemaStructured data listing ordered items such as guides.Measuring AI visibilityUsing repeatable crawl and prompt checks instead of anecdotes.