AI Search Glossary
A simple glossary of the key terms used in AI search, AI visibility, citations, brand mentions and GetMentions AI.
AI Search Basics
AI Search
AI search is a search experience where an AI platform answers a user's question directly instead of only showing a list of links.
AI Response
An AI response is the answer generated by an AI platform after a user enters a prompt.
AI Overview
An AI Overview is Google's AI-generated summary shown for some search queries.
AI Mode
AI Mode is Google's conversational AI search experience for deeper, follow-up style searches.
ChatGPT Search
ChatGPT Search is ChatGPT's web-connected search experience, where responses may include sources from the web.
Perplexity
Perplexity is an AI answer engine that searches the web and provides cited responses.
Gemini
Gemini is Google's AI assistant and model family.
AI Search Optimization
AI search optimization means improving how a brand appears in AI-generated responses.
AI Visibility
AI visibility is how often and how prominently a brand appears in AI-generated responses.
Zero-Click Visibility
Zero-click visibility means a brand is seen or considered inside an AI response without the user clicking through to the brand's website.
Prompts and Tracking
Prompt
A prompt is the question or instruction given to an AI platform.
Prompt Library
A prompt library is a collection of prompts used to track how a brand appears across AI platforms.
Prompt Execution
A prompt execution is one recorded run of a prompt on an AI platform.
Platform
A platform is the AI system where prompts are tracked, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google AI Mode.
Funnel Stage
Funnel stage classifies prompts by buyer journey stage. Common stages are TOFU for early research, MOFU for comparison and evaluation, and BOFU for the vendor or buying decision.
Persona
A persona is the type of user being represented in a prompt, such as a founder, CMO, SEO manager or agency owner.
Market
Market refers to the country, region or audience segment being tracked.
Language
Language is the language used for prompt and response tracking.
Tag
A tag is a custom label used to organize prompts, topics, campaigns or reports.
Retrieval and Content Structure
Grounding
Grounding is when an AI system uses external information, such as web sources or supplied documents, to support its response.
RAG
RAG stands for Retrieval-Augmented Generation. It is a method where an AI system retrieves external information before generating a response.
Query Fan-Out
Query fan-out is when an AI search system expands one user prompt into multiple related searches to gather better information.
Semantic Search
Semantic search is search based on meaning and intent rather than exact keyword matching.
Passage
A passage is a specific section of text from a page that may be retrieved, used or cited by an AI system.
Chunking
Chunking is the process of breaking a page or document into smaller sections so an AI or retrieval system can process and retrieve the most relevant part.
Passage Retrieval
Passage retrieval is when an AI or search system retrieves a specific section of a page instead of relying only on the full page.
Extractable Answer
An extractable answer is a clear, self-contained passage that can be understood or reused without needing the full page context.
Entity Recognition
Entity recognition is how systems identify brands, products, people, companies and other named things inside text.
Knowledge Graph
A knowledge graph is a structured map of entities and their relationships. In AI search, knowledge graphs can help systems understand brands, products, competitors, categories and how they are connected.
Answer Volatility
Answer volatility is when the same or similar prompt produces different AI responses across runs, dates or platforms.
AI Visibility Metrics
Visibility Score
How often your brand is mentioned in tracked AI responses.
Brand Mention
A brand mention is any reference to a brand, product or company inside an AI response or source page.
Mention Frequency
Mention frequency is the total number of times a brand appears across tracked AI responses.
Average Rank
Average rank shows the average position where a brand appears when an AI response lists multiple options.
Sentiment
Sentiment describes whether an AI response talks about a brand in a positive, neutral or negative way. In GetMentions AI, sentiment may also be shown as a score to summarize the overall tone of brand mentions across tracked AI responses.
Competitor Mention
A competitor mention is when a competing brand appears in an AI response.
Competitor Gap
A competitor gap exists when competitors appear in relevant AI responses but your brand does not.
Visibility Trend
Visibility trend shows how a brand's AI visibility changes over time.
Citations and Source Intelligence
Citation
A citation is a source linked or referenced inside an AI response.
Source
A source is a page, domain, video, forum thread or other resource that supports or influences an AI response.
Source Domain
A source domain is the root website cited by an AI response, for example example.com.
Source URL
A source URL is the exact page cited by an AI response, for example example.com/best-ai-tools.
Citation Intelligence
Citation intelligence is the analysis of which sources AI platforms use, cite or rely on when generating responses.
Brand Coverage
Brand coverage shows how often your brand appears across relevant cited sources.
Mentioned?
Mentioned shows whether your brand already appears on a specific cited source URL.
Citation Gap
A citation gap exists when an AI-cited source mentions your competitors or category but does not mention your brand. It helps identify pages, domains, videos or community sources that may be influencing AI responses while leaving your brand out.
Domain Type
Domain type classifies what kind of website or platform a source is, such as editorial, business, directory, UGC, social, media or institutional.
Page Type
Page type classifies the format of a specific source URL, such as article, listicle, comparison, review, product page, category page or video.
Brand Mention Opportunities
Brand Mention Opportunity
A brand mention opportunity is a relevant source where your brand could be added or featured to improve AI visibility.
Insertion
Insertion is adding a brand link or mention to an existing published page.
Editorial Placement
An editorial placement is a new third-party article, page or media mention that includes the brand in a relevant context. Types of placements include listicles, comparison pages and reviews.
Priority Score
Priority score is a metric used to prioritize brand mention opportunities. It may consider citation frequency, competitor presence, topic relevance, funnel stage, access and influenceability.
Influenceability
Influenceability shows whether a source can realistically be influenced through outreach, editorial work, partnerships or placements.
Access
Access shows whether a source is available through GetMentions AI inventory or not. Common values include in inventory, not in inventory and not influenceable.
Managed Execution
Managed execution means GetMentions AI helps handle the placement process, including source selection, outreach, content, orders and delivery.
Order Status
Order status shows the progress of a placement order, such as requested, approved, in progress, submitted, live or rejected.
YouTube Placements
YouTube Mention
A YouTube mention is a brand reference in a YouTube video.
Channel Opportunity
A channel opportunity is a relevant YouTube channel where your brand could be featured.
Video Type
Video type classifies the format of a video, such as review, comparison, tutorial, listicle or explainer.
Technical AI Search Terms
AI Crawler
An AI crawler is a bot used by an AI company or search system to discover, retrieve or process web content.
OAI-SearchBot
OAI-SearchBot is an OpenAI crawler associated with surfacing websites in ChatGPT search.
GPTBot
GPTBot is an OpenAI crawler that may be used to collect content for improving AI models.
ChatGPT-User
ChatGPT-User is an OpenAI user agent triggered by user actions inside ChatGPT.
PerplexityBot
PerplexityBot is Perplexity's crawler used for discovering and indexing web content.
Perplexity-User
Perplexity-User is Perplexity's user-triggered fetcher.
Googlebot
Googlebot is Google's crawler for discovering and indexing web pages for Google Search.
Google-Extended
Google-Extended is a Google control that lets publishers manage whether their sites help improve certain Gemini and Vertex AI models. It is separate from normal Google Search crawling.
Crawlability
Crawlability is whether a crawler can access and read a page.
Indexability
Indexability is whether a page can be stored in a search engine's index.
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a file used to tell compliant crawlers which pages they can or cannot request.
Noindex
Noindex is a directive asking supported search engines not to index a page.
Schema Markup
Schema markup is structured data added to a page to help machines understand the content.
llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed file format for helping AI systems identify important website content. It should be treated as experimental, not as a confirmed AI ranking factor.
Accuracy and Risk
AI Hallucination
An AI hallucination is when an AI system produces information that is inaccurate, unsupported or fabricated.
Citation Mismatch
A citation mismatch happens when a cited source does not actually support the claim made in the AI response.
Citation Hallucination
A citation hallucination is when an AI system provides a fake, broken or incorrect citation.
Source Bias
Source bias is when an AI system repeatedly prefers certain sources, publishers or viewpoints.
Brand Safety in AI Responses
Brand safety in AI responses means avoiding inaccurate, negative or misleading associations with a brand.
Knowledge Cutoff
A knowledge cutoff is the latest point up to which a model's internal training data is expected to include information.
Business Measurement
AI Referral Traffic
AI referral traffic is website traffic that comes from links inside AI search or assistant platforms.
AI-Assisted Conversion
An AI-assisted conversion is a conversion where AI influenced the buyer’s decision, even if the final visit came from another channel.
Assisted Discovery
Assisted discovery happens when an AI response helps a user discover or evaluate a brand before they later visit or convert.
Zero-Click Influence
Zero-click influence is the effect an AI response has on awareness or buying decisions without generating a measurable website visit.
Turn these terms into action
See how your brand shows up across AI platforms, uncover the sources shaping the answers, and find the opportunities that improve your visibility.