Get Seen by the Robots · Chapter 12 of 12
AI search glossary: AEO, GEO, entities and citations explained
Eight terms cover most AI visibility conversations: AEO, GEO, entity, NAP, citation, retrieval, schema (JSON-LD) and agentic commerce. This glossary defines each in one sentence, then lists every source used in the guide, with who said it and when.
Section 01
Mini glossary, for meetings
- AEO
- Answer Engine Optimisation. Being the answer, not the link.
- GEO
- Generative Engine Optimisation. Same idea, academic accent.
- Entity
- The bundle of facts machines think of as "you".
- NAP
- Name, address, phone. The consistency you keep ignoring.
- Citation
- When an AI answer links or credits a source. The new impression.
- Retrieval
- The assistant searching live, mid-answer. Your fast lane.
- Schema / JSON-LD
- Labels on your facts so nothing is guessed.
- Agentic commerce
- Software buying on a human's behalf. See chapter 8.
Section 02
Sources and receipts
Every figure quoted in this guide, with who said it and when. Go and check them — that's the point. Figures reflect published research available at the time of writing, August 2026; this field moves quickly, so treat dated snapshots as snapshots.
- OpenAI — weekly active users, February 2026
- Adobe Digital Insights — AI traffic surges across industries, January 2026 (data 1 November to 31 December 2025)
- Ahrefs — AI search citation overlap (Linehan & Guan), 15,000 prompts, August 2025
- Gartner — search volume forecast, February 2024
- Datos — zero-click search share, Q3 2025
- Google — AI Mode monthly users, I/O 2026
- Conductor — AI referral share of total traffic, 2026
- Triple Whale — AI citations across ecommerce queries, Q1 2026
- BrightLocal — consumer AI use and trust in local recommendations, 2026
- SOCi — business profile accuracy on AI platforms, 2026
- Peec AI — 30 million cited sources analysis, July 2026
- Semrush — 230,000 prompts / 100m citations, 2025–26
- Aggarwal et al. — GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, ACM SIGKDD 2024
- Google Search — guidance on llms.txt and AI features, May 2026
- Google — UCP announcement with Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, January 2026
- OpenAI & Stripe — Agentic Commerce Protocol
- Anthropic / Linux Foundation — Model Context Protocol
Section 03
Where do you want to spend your Tuesday?
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- Masterclasses. The chapters above, done live, with your own website on screen. For owners and in-house marketers who want to run this themselves. aeo-rex.com/learn
- Get agent-ready. Agentic commerce, product data and the protocols from chapter 8 — for anyone who sells online. agentrex.aeo-rex.com
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This chapter is part of Get Seen by the Robots, also available as a free PDF: Download the PDF version.