Glossary

Key terms and definitions you'll encounter when working with BrandViz.AI and AI visibility optimization.

AI Visibility

AI Visibility: How often and how prominently your brand appears when people ask AI platforms (like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity) questions related to your market. Unlike traditional SEO visibility, AI visibility measures presence in generated responses, not search result rankings.
Brand Mention: Any instance where an AI platform references your brand by name in a response. We track whether you're mentioned, where you appear in the response, and in what context (recommendation, comparison, example, etc.).
Visibility Rate: The percentage of relevant queries where your brand is mentioned. If we run 100 buying scenarios and your brand appears in 34 responses, your visibility rate is 34%.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): The practice of optimizing your content and online presence to appear in AI-generated responses. GEO focuses on platforms like ChatGPT and Claude that generate original text rather than returning links.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): Optimizing for platforms that provide direct answers to questions, including AI assistants and featured snippets. AEO emphasizes clear, authoritative content that AI can confidently cite.
LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization): A broader term covering optimization for any LLM-powered platform. LLMO encompasses both GEO and AEO, focusing on how large language models interpret and recommend brands.

Sentiment: How positively or negatively AI platforms talk about your brand. We analyze the language used when your brand is mentioned — whether it's recommended enthusiastically, mentioned neutrally, or discussed with caveats.
Position: Where your brand appears within an AI response. Being mentioned first typically indicates stronger association with the query than being listed fifth in a comparison.
Citation Rank: Where a source appears in the AI's list of citations or references. Sources cited first often had more influence on the generated response.
Action Priority: Our scoring system for recommendations, combining potential impact with estimated effort. High-priority actions offer the best return on your optimization investment.

Source: Any webpage, document, or content that AI platforms reference when generating responses. Sources are the foundation of AI recommendations — they're what AI learns from and cites.
Source Tier (Control Level): How much influence you have over a source. We categorize sources from “owned” (your website, blog) through “influenced” (press coverage, reviews) to “independent” (third-party mentions you can't control).
Source Type: The category of content a source represents: press coverage, developer documentation, community discussion, industry directory, review site, etc. Different source types carry different weight with AI platforms.
Domain Type: Whether a source belongs to your brand, a competitor, or a neutral third party. This helps you understand whose content is driving AI recommendations.

ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): A description of your ideal buyer — their company type, role, pain points, and buying context. We use your ICP to generate realistic buying scenarios that match how your actual customers research.
Buying Scenario: A realistic query that someone in your target market might ask an AI platform. Unlike generic keywords, buying scenarios reflect how real people phrase questions at different stages of their research.
Buyer Journey Stage: Where a potential customer is in their research process: problem-aware (just discovering the need), solution-aware (evaluating options), or decision-stage (ready to choose). Different stages produce different queries.