Glossary
On this page
- Terms
- AEO and GEO
- AI model
- AI referral
- Average Position
- Branded prompt
- Bot type
- Chat
- Citation
- Competitive gap
- Content gap
- Domain Authority
- Fan-out query
- llms.txt
- MCP
- Mention
- Model gap
- Non-branded prompt
- Position
- Prompt
- Quick win
- Robots.txt
- Sentiment
- Share of Voice
- Shopping query
- Source type
- Tag
- Topic
- Tracking Insights
- UI scraping
- Visibility
- Win rate
- Frequently asked questions
This glossary defines the terms you'll come across in the Track My Visibility application and in AI search more generally. The terms are listed in alphabetical order. For the metrics and how they're calculated, see All metrics.
Terms#
AEO and GEO#
Answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization, two names for the work of improving how a brand appears in AI-generated answers.
AI model#
An AI platform that answers questions, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews. Track My Visibility runs your prompts on each model your plan includes.
AI referral#
A visit to your website that comes from an AI tool, such as a click on a link in a ChatGPT or Perplexity answer. AI Referrals shows these visits using your Google Analytics data.
Average Position#
Where your brand appears among the brands named in an answer, averaged across the answers that mention you. Lower is better.
Branded prompt#
A prompt that includes your brand name, such as a question about your product or a comparison with a competitor.
Bot type#
The job a crawler does. Search bots fetch pages for AI search products, training bots collect content for model training, and user-query bots fetch pages in real time to answer a live question.
Chat#
The full answer one AI model gave to one of your prompts on one run.
Citation#
A web page an AI model lists as a source for its answer.
Competitive gap#
A prompt where a competitor is mentioned in AI answers and your brand isn't.
Content gap#
A prompt where AI models don't mention you because nothing on your website properly answers the question.
Domain Authority#
A measure of how strong a website is, based on its overall reputation and links. It's shown in Sources and in Authority and trust signals.
Fan-out query#
One of the searches an AI model runs behind the scenes to build its answer. A single prompt usually produces several fan-out queries.
llms.txt#
A plain-text file on your website that lists your key pages and describes them for AI tools.
MCP#
Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT use outside data. TMV MCP connects those tools to your Track My Visibility data.
Mention#
When an AI model names your brand in the text of its answer.
Model gap#
A prompt where you're mentioned or ranked first on one AI model but missing on others.
Non-branded prompt#
A prompt that doesn't include your brand name, such as a general category or comparison question. These show whether AI models recommend you to people who don't know you yet.
Position#
Where your brand appears among the brands named in an answer.
Prompt#
A question Track My Visibility asks AI models on your behalf, written the way a customer would ask it.
Quick win#
A prompt where a small improvement could get you a better result, such as moving from second to first.
Robots.txt#
A file on your website that tells crawlers which pages they're allowed to visit.
Sentiment#
How positively or negatively an AI model describes your brand when it mentions it.
Share of Voice#
Your brand's mentions as a share of all brand mentions in AI answers, compared with the other brands in your category.
Shopping query#
A product search an AI model generates when it builds a shopping answer.
Source type#
Whether a cited page belongs to your site, a competitor's site or another site.
Tag#
A label you add to prompts to filter and group them. A prompt can have several tags.
Topic#
A theme that groups related prompts, usually matching a product line or service. Each prompt belongs to one topic.
Tracking Insights#
The Track My Visibility page that shows which AI crawlers visit your website, using your server or CDN logs.
UI scraping#
The method Track My Visibility uses to collect answers, by interacting with each AI platform's web interface the way a person would rather than through an API.
Visibility#
The percentage of AI responses to your tracked prompts that mention your brand.
Win rate#
The percentage of responses in which a product was ranked first among the product results.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
AEO, or answer engine optimization, and GEO, or generative engine optimization, are two names for the same work: improving how a brand appears in AI-generated answers from tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
What is the difference between a mention and a citation?
A mention is when an AI model names your brand in the text of its answer. A citation is when an AI model lists a web page as a source for its answer. Your brand can be mentioned without your website being cited, and the other way round.
What is a non-branded prompt?
A non-branded prompt is a question that doesn't include your brand name, such as a general category or comparison question. Your visibility on non-branded prompts shows whether AI models recommend your brand to people who don't know it yet.
What is UI scraping in AI visibility tracking?
UI scraping is the method Track My Visibility uses to collect AI answers. It interacts with each AI platform's web interface the way a person would, so the answers match what real users see, rather than calling an API.
What is a fan-out query?
A fan-out query is one of the searches an AI model runs behind the scenes to build its answer. A single prompt usually produces several fan-out queries, and the pages that rank for them are the pages the AI model is most likely to cite.
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Last updated 3 Nov 2026
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