Glossary - Cited Docs

A reference glossary of the terms, metrics, and concepts used across Cited’s documentation and platform. Each term links to a short definitional entry with context on why it matters and how Cited uses it.

A

AI Overview — Google’s AI-generated answer box at the top of some search results
AI Shelf — the set of brands an AI mentions in response to a category query
Answer Engine — an AI platform that generates synthesized answers rather than link lists
Authority Signal — indicators that a source is trustworthy and expert on a topic
Average Position — mean rank at which a brand appears in AI citation lists

B

Brand Mention — any appearance of a brand name in an AI-generated response

C

Citation — a clickable link to a source URL in an AI-generated answer
Citation Rate — percentage of AI responses linking to a brand’s domain
Citation Source — the specific web page or domain an AI links to as a source
Competitor Gap — a query where competitors appear but your brand does not
Content Freshness — how recently a page’s content was published or updated
Crawl Budget — the number of pages a crawler will fetch from a site in a given period

E

E-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness
Editorial Citation — a citation to an editorial publication rather than a brand’s own domain

G

GEO — Generative Engine Optimization
GEO Confidence Score — how statistically reliable a brand’s AI visibility metrics are
GEO Score — composite assessment of a website’s technical readiness for AI discoverability
Grounding — connecting LLM-generated text to specific factual sources

H

Hallucination — when an LLM generates factually incorrect or fabricated information

I

Intent Type — the category of purpose behind a user’s query

L

LLM — Large Language Model
llms.txt — a plain-text file that tells AI crawlers which pages to prioritize

M

Mention Rate — percentage of prompts where an AI mentions a brand
Model Deprecation — when an AI provider retires or replaces a model version

N

Non-Branded Query — a prompt that asks about a category without naming a brand
Non-Determinism — the property causing LLMs to produce different responses to the same prompt

P

Perplexity Sonar — Perplexity’s API model for programmatic search queries
Position Bias — disproportionate attention given to items listed first
Prompt Engineering — crafting inputs to LLMs that reflect real customer language

Q

Query Archetype — structural categories of queries (problem-first, comparison, etc.)
Query Intent — the underlying purpose of a user’s query

R

RAG — Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Recency Bias — LLMs’ tendency to favor recently published content

S

Schema Markup — structured data that helps LLMs understand content
Sentiment — how an AI characterizes a brand (positive, neutral, negative, mixed)
SERP — Search Engine Results Page
Share of Voice — a brand’s share of total AI mentions in its category
Source Affinity — a platform’s observed preference for certain source types
Structured Data — machine-readable information embedded in web pages

T

Topic Taxonomy — hierarchical classification of topics for visibility analysis

Close competitor gaps in AI search AI Overview