Definitions
The terms on this page, explained
Plain definitions of the concepts this service works with — so you can evaluate the work rather than take the vocabulary on trust.
- AI Overview
- The synthesised answer Google displays above the organic results, built by reading across multiple sources and citing the pages it drew from. The successor to the featured snippet, with copying replaced by generation.
- AI Mode
- A conversational search surface where follow-up questions carry the context of previous ones, so a business competes to stay relevant across a chain of queries rather than a single one.
- Citation
- Being named as a source inside an AI answer. Distinct from ranking: citation is decided by relevance to the specific question, which is why pages deep in the results get cited and top-ranking pages get skipped.
- Brand mention
- Your business name appearing in crawlable text, with or without a link. Google associates the name with the subject, and this association is one of the strongest inputs into whether you get recommended.
- Zero-click search
- A search that ends without a visit to any website because the answer appeared on the results page. Now the majority outcome for informational queries, which is why visibility replaced clicks as the metric.