Reference

Glossary

Every jargon term used on this site, defined in plain language. Hover, focus, or tap a term anywhere on the site to see its short definition; this page holds the full entry.

AI citation #: An AI citation is an instance where a generative answer engine names, links to, or otherwise attributes a claim to a specific source while generating a response to a user's question. Citation patterns vary by tool: some show numbered footnotes, others name a publication in the running text, and some recommend a business by name without a visible link at all. Tracking which sources get cited most often, and how, is the empirical basis for GEO strategy: a brand cannot influence what it cannot measure.
AI Overview #: An AI Overview is the short, AI-generated summary Google shows at the top of many search results, answering the question right there instead of just listing links. Because people often read the summary and never click through, whether a brand's information appears inside that summary matters as much as, or more than, where it ranks below it. Studies of 2025 and 2026 search behavior have found that click-through rates drop sharply whenever an AI Overview appears.
AI Visibility #: AI visibility is the AI-era version of search visibility: whether a business gets mentioned, cited, or recommended when someone asks an AI tool a question it could answer, like which restaurant to try downtown. It depends less on a business's own website and more on what the AI finds said about it elsewhere, in reviews, articles, and other trusted sources. Building AI visibility is a core goal of digital PR work, since earned coverage is exactly the kind of third-party material these tools draw from.
Answer engine #: An answer engine is a search or chat tool, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, or Claude, that responds to a user's question with a synthesized, direct answer rather than (or in addition to) a ranked list of links. Because the user often never clicks through to a source, the competitive prize shifts from ranking position to being the source the answer engine chooses to draw from and cite in the first place.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) #: Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO, is the practice of structuring information, clear headings, direct answers to common questions, well-organized facts, so it is easy for a search feature or AI tool to lift straight into its answer. It overlaps with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), which focuses specifically on AI chat tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity; AEO is the broader, older term that also covers things like Google's featured snippets. Neither replaces strong PR, since AI tools and search features still favor citing information that other credible, independent sites have already verified.
Backlink #: A backlink is a link from another website pointing to a business's own site. Search engines treat backlinks as a vote of confidence: the more credible sites that link to a page, the more trustworthy that page tends to look in search rankings. Earning backlinks from real, relevant publications, rather than buying or faking them, is one of the main outcomes digital PR work is measured on.
Best-of List #: A best-of list is a roundup article, something like a city's best brunch spots or a region's top boutique hotels, that ranks or gathers recommended options in a category. These lists are a common target for digital PR because they drive real customer decisions and are also a favorite source for AI tools generating their own recommendations. Earning a spot usually means being genuinely well-reviewed and pitching the right local publications and bloggers who maintain these guides.
Brand Mention #: A brand mention is any reference to a business by name on another website, publication, or platform, including ones that do not link back to it. Search engines and AI tools both read unlinked mentions as a real signal of a brand's presence and credibility, not just formal links, so a mention without a link still has value even though it will not send direct traffic. Tracking mentions is one way a business can see how often it is coming up in coverage and conversation.
Branded Search #: Branded search is a search that includes a business's own name, like a restaurant's name plus its city, rather than a generic category term. A rise in branded search is one of the clearest signs that awareness is growing, since it means people already know about a business and are actively looking it up. Media coverage and word of mouth are common drivers of branded search, which makes it a useful way to gauge whether PR efforts are working even before it shows up in direct sales.
Data-Led PR #: Data-led PR is a digital PR approach built around original research, such as a survey of customers, an analysis of a business's own numbers, or a study of a trend in its industry. Journalists gravitate toward stories backed by real numbers because they are more concrete and more citable than opinion alone, which tends to earn stronger coverage and more links. It is also one of the more durable ways to earn AI citations, since AI tools often lean on sources that cite specific figures.
Digital PR #: Digital PR is public relations built for the web: pitching journalists real data, original research, or expert commentary so they write about a brand and link back to it. Unlike a traditional press release blast, digital PR treats each placement as a trackable asset, measuring the links, referral traffic, and even AI citations it produces. It sits at the crossing point of PR and SEO, since the same earned coverage that builds a brand's reputation also builds its search and AI visibility.
Domain authority #: Domain authority is a third-party metric (popularized by Moz, with comparable scores from other SEO tools) that estimates a website's likelihood of ranking well in search results, largely as a function of its backlink profile: how many other credible sites link to it, and how authoritative those linking sites are themselves. It is not an official Google ranking factor, but it correlates with real search performance and is a common shorthand in the digital PR industry for judging whether a placement on a given publication is worth pursuing.
E-E-A-T #: E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, a framework Google uses to describe what makes content and its source worth trusting. A business builds E-E-A-T through real signals like a named, credentialed author, credible third-party coverage, and a track record other sites vouch for, not through keywords alone. AI tools lean on similar signals when deciding which sources to cite, which is part of why earned media and a named expert voice matter for AI visibility, not just traditional search.
Earned media #: Earned media is any coverage a business receives without paying for it directly, such as a news story, a blog review, or a mention in a local guide. It carries more weight than an ad because an independent third party decided on their own that the story was worth telling. Earned media is the main output of public relations work, and it is also what AI tools lean on most when deciding what to recommend.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) #: Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, is the practice of shaping a brand's content, data, and third-party mentions so that AI answer engines cite and recommend it. Unlike classic SEO, where success means ranking on a results page, GEO success means being named inside the answer itself. Because these tools lean heavily on outside sources like reviews and press coverage rather than a brand's own marketing copy, GEO and digital PR are closely linked.
Ghost Citation #: A ghost citation happens when an AI answer engine describes or recommends a business in a way that shows it used information about that business, but the answer never names the source or links back to it. The business shaped the answer but gets none of the visibility, click, or credit a normal citation would bring. It is one of the harder challenges of AI visibility work, since there is usually no notification or report that shows it happened, unlike a tracked backlink or a mentioned brand name.
Large Language Model (LLM) #: A large language model, or LLM, is the technology behind AI chat tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. It was trained on enormous amounts of text so it can generate fluent, conversational answers rather than a plain list of links. When someone asks an LLM-powered tool for a recommendation, like a restaurant or a hotel, it draws on whatever it learned about that business from articles, reviews, and other public sources, which is why earned media and credible mentions shape how these tools describe a brand.
Media Pitch #: A media pitch is the email or message a PR person sends directly to a journalist or editor, proposing a specific story angle rather than a generic announcement. A good pitch is short, tailored to that reporter's beat, and gives them something their readers will care about, like new data, a timely angle, or access to an expert for quotes. Most digital PR coverage starts with a pitch, not a press release.
Press Release #: A press release is a formal, factual announcement written for journalists, covering news like an opening, a partnership, an award, or a new menu or service. On its own, a press release rarely earns much coverage today, since reporters are pitched dozens of them a day. It works best alongside a real, tailored pitch, and it earns far more attention when it is paired with something genuinely newsworthy, like original data or a strong story angle.
Public relations #: Public relations, or PR, is how a business earns coverage, trust, and word of mouth through other people's platforms instead of buying space on its own. That includes press coverage, expert commentary, reviews, and mentions on the sites people already trust. Because a third party chose to say it, PR carries a kind of credibility that advertising cannot buy.
Reactive PR (Newsjacking) #: Reactive PR, sometimes called newsjacking, means jumping into a story that is already getting media attention with a relevant comment, data point, or angle from a business or its owner. Because journalists are actively looking for sources on a breaking topic, reactive PR can earn coverage faster than pitching a brand-new idea from scratch. It requires being ready to respond within hours, not days, which is why many PR programs keep a few pre-approved talking points on hand for likely news moments.
Referral Traffic #: Referral traffic is the visitors a website gets from clicking a link on another site, as opposed to arriving from a search engine, social media, or typing the address directly. A media placement with a link is one of the most common sources of referral traffic, and it is one of the more direct, trackable ways to see the payoff of an earned media placement. It tends to be a smaller slice of total traffic than search, but it often includes visitors who arrive already trusting the source that sent them.
Reputation Management #: Reputation management is the practice of tracking what is being said about a business online and taking action to keep that picture accurate and fair, whether that means responding to reviews, correcting outdated information, or earning more positive coverage to balance out a bad moment. It matters for human customers researching a business before they buy, and increasingly for AI tools, which form their own summary of a brand's reputation from the same public sources.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) #: Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of improving a website so it shows up higher in search results for the terms a business's customers actually search. It covers technical health, on-page content, and off-page signals like backlinks. Digital PR is one of the most effective ways to build that off-page side of SEO, since credible mentions and links from other websites are a signal both search engines and AI tools use to judge trustworthiness.
Share of Voice #: Share of voice measures how much of the total coverage, mentions, or visibility in a category a business has relative to its competitors, whether that is counted across press coverage, search results, or AI answers. A business with a strong share of voice tends to be the one that comes to mind first, and increasingly the one an AI tool is most likely to recommend. Digital PR campaigns are often judged in part on whether they grow a brand's share of voice against a defined set of competitors.
Thought Leadership #: Thought leadership is content, commentary, or media appearances where a business owner or expert shares a real point of view on trends or challenges in their industry, rather than promoting a product directly. It builds credibility over time, since journalists, customers, and AI tools all tend to favor sources who demonstrate real expertise. In digital PR, thought leadership often takes the form of expert quotes given to journalists or bylined articles under an owner's name.
Zero-Click Search #: A zero-click search is a search where the person gets their answer directly on the results page, often from an AI Overview, a featured snippet, or a knowledge panel, and never clicks through to any website. These searches make it harder to earn website traffic from search alone, which is why being mentioned or cited inside the answer itself matters as much as ranking below it. For a local business, this shift is a big part of why digital PR and AI visibility work now sit alongside traditional SEO rather than behind it.