A glossary of answer engines

The terms we use, in plain words.

The terms

Answer engine

An AI tool that answers questions directly, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews and Copilot.

Citation

When an answer names your brand or links to your page as a source.

Share of answer

How much of an answer, across many questions, goes to you rather than to competitors.

Citation rate

The share of buyer questions where an engine cites you.

Corroboration

Independent sources agreeing about you. Engines trust claims that several sources repeat.

Schema markup

Labels in a page's code that tell machines what the page is about: who you are, what you sell, what it costs.

AI crawler

A bot that reads the web for an AI system, such as GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot or Google-Extended.

Entity

A thing engines recognise as distinct, like your company. A clear entity has one name and consistent facts everywhere.

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