A handful of terms recur across the platform. Here are the definitions, no fluff.
SEO — Search Engine Optimization
The set of techniques for ranking higher in the links of search engines (mainly Google). Goal: get the user to click your result.
AEO — Answer Engine Optimization
The set of techniques for being cited as a source in AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overview). This isn't about link position — it's about being the name the AI mentions. It's the heart of CiteProof.
GEO — Generative Engine Optimization
A synonym for AEO, more common in the US market. It refers to the same thing: optimizing for generative engines.
Answer engine
An AI system that responds to a question with a synthesized answer instead of a list of links. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overview are answer engines.
Citation
When an answer engine names your brand or links your site inside its answer. It's the unit of measure for AEO: more citations = more visibility.
Structured data (Schema)
Invisible markers in the page's code that tell the AI what it contains (a business, an FAQ, an article). They help engines understand — and therefore cite — your content.
Verify Bot
CiteProof's check that confirms a fix is actually live before the score goes up.
AEO score (of a page)
The 0–100 number the WordPress plugin gives every page: how easy it is for an AI engine to lift an answer from it and cite it. Sixteen checks (short answer at the top, questions with answers, concrete numbers, author, links, structured data…). Different from the visibility score, which measures real citations.
Short answer
One or two sentences at the top of the page that answer the page's question right away. It is the block AI engines extract most readily; the plugin has a dedicated field for it.
Fact sheet
The truth about the business in one place: name, type, address, phone, founding year, people, services, numbers. The site is checked against it, the schema aligns to it, /ai-info (optional) can publish it and the dashboard uses it to catch wrong facts in AI answers.
AI crawlers (AI bots)
The programs AI engines use to read sites. Some are there to cite (OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot), others only to train models (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot). Blocking the latter costs no citations; blocking the former does.
IndexNow
A protocol through which the site tells Bing, Yandex and other engines about every new or changed page. Google does not read it; it still matters, because Bing's index feeds ChatGPT search and Copilot.
llms.txt
A text file at the site root that describes the content to AI engines. No engine has announced it reads it: the plugin serves it because it costs nothing, and says so.
What's the difference between AEO and GEO?
No real difference: they describe the same activity, optimizing to be cited by generative engines. 'AEO' is more common in Europe, 'GEO' in the US.