GlossaryThe terms, defined.
The words this site uses about AI search and media buying, each in a sentence or two.
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)
- Generative engine optimization is the practice of shaping what AI answer engines say about a business, so that systems like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mention, quote and recommend it in their answers. It covers the technical foundation, the content, the reviews and the press coverage those systems draw on when they decide who to cite.
- What is GEO? The plain-English guide →
- AI visibility
- AI visibility is how often, and how accurately, a business appears in answers generated by AI assistants and AI search engines. A business with strong AI visibility is named when customers ask an assistant who to hire or where to buy; one with weak AI visibility is left out of the answer.
- Free AI visibility audit →
- Answer engine
- An answer engine is a system that responds to a question with a generated answer instead of a list of links, such as ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity or Microsoft Copilot. Answer engines read sources they trust, summarise them, and cite a small number of businesses or publications in each response.
- AI citation
- An AI citation is an answer engine naming, quoting or linking to a business as a source in a generated answer. It is the closest thing AI search has to ranking on page one: it puts the business in front of someone who asked a question and is ready to act.
- Paid editorial placement
- A paid editorial placement is an article about a business in a real publication, booked at a published price, where the business approves the content before it runs. Unlike pitched PR, which may or may not produce coverage, the outlet is chosen and paid for up front; through The Profound Agency, an article not published within 90 days can be refunded, less processing, administrative and writing fees.
- Publication directory →
- Sponsored label
- A sponsored label is a disclosure on a published article saying the placement was paid for, shown with words like "sponsored" or "paid content". Labelled placements are a normal, transparent part of media buying; every publication page on this site says before you buy whether its placements carry one.
- Do-follow link
- A do-follow link is a hyperlink that passes ranking credit from the site that links to the site it links to, which makes it one of the most valuable things a press placement can include. Whether a placement carries a do-follow link affects both its search value and its price.
- llms.txt
- llms.txt is a plain markdown file at a website's root, at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, that summarises what the site contains and points AI systems to its most important pages. It is an emerging convention that works like a sitemap written for language models rather than search crawlers.
- This site's llms.txt →
- Structured data (schema markup)
- Structured data, also called schema markup, is code added to a website that labels what each piece of content means, such as a business name, an address, a product or a question and its answer, in a format machines read without ambiguity. It is how a site speaks directly to answer engines instead of leaving them to interpret its pages.
- Geo-fencing
- Geo-fencing is drawing a virtual boundary on a map and serving mobile ads to the phones inside it, so people can be reached based on where they physically go. A contractor can target the neighbourhoods where its crews are working, or a retailer the shoppers near a competitor's store.
- Geo-targeted mobile →
- Connected TV (CTV)
- Connected TV is television advertising delivered through internet-connected devices such as smart TVs, Roku and Fire TV, rather than broadcast or cable. It combines the reach of a TV commercial with digital targeting, so a campaign can reach particular households rather than a whole viewing market.
- Connected TV advertising →