Topic
AI Visibility
Article
Glossary
Grounding
Grounding refers to the process of linking an AI response to specific information from external sources or provided data. Instead of relying solely on the knowledge stored in the model, an AI system can, for example, draw on current websites or documents. This is intended to make responses more transparent and factually reliable. However, grounding does not automatically prevent errors or fabricated statements.
Entities
Entities are uniquely identifiable things or concepts, such as companies, people, places, products, or organizations. Search engines and AI systems can link information about such entities and thereby better understand relationships between them. For example, this makes it possible to distinguish whether a name refers to a company, a person, or a place. Unique company information helps prevent confusion.
AI Crawler
AI crawlers are automated programs that visit websites and capture their content for AI-related applications. Depending on the operator, the data can be used, for example, to train AI models or to search for up-to-date information. Website operators can control access by certain crawlers through the robots.txt file, among other methods. However, this does not guarantee that an AI system will actually use or cite the content.
AI Citation
An AI citation occurs when an AI system cites a website or other source as evidence for information in its response. This can be done, for example, through a clickable source link. A citation is not the same as a brand mention: ChatGPT can name a company without citing its website as a source. Furthermore, citing a source does not automatically mean that the AI system is recommending the company.
AI Overviews
Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google displays directly in the search results for certain search queries. They answer questions by compiling information and may include links to supporting websites. This allows users to get answers without necessarily having to open a website. A mention or link in AI Overviews cannot be guaranteed.
AI Visibility
AI visibility refers to whether and how a company, brand, or website appears in the responses provided by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews. It makes a difference whether a brand is merely mentioned, explicitly recommended, or has its website cited as a source. Unlike traditional search results, there is no fixed ranking. Which companies appear can vary depending on the question and the time.