Short answer
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
- 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?
You now know more about AI visibility than most agencies charging four figures for it. Do it yourself with the free tools, learn it properly in a masterclass, or hand it over. All three are genuinely fine with us.
- Free tools and a free AI visibility audit. See exactly what the assistants say about you, and what's broken. Start here. Costs nothing. tools.aeo-rex.com
- 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
- Or just have us do it. Fix It Yourself Pack £29, Fix It Together £99, one page AI ready website £249, Watchdog £49 a month. Bigger jobs are priced after a 15 minute call. Published prices.
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This chapter is part of Get Seen by the Robots, also available as a free PDF: Download the PDF version.
