AI search terms, defined for lawyers
AI search comes with a pile of new acronyms, and most explanations assume you already work in marketing. This glossary defines each term in one or two sentences, written for lawyers. Every definition links to a fuller page when you want the detail, and new terms are added as the vocabulary spreads through proposals and marketing pitches.
- Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
- Learn what answer engine optimization (AEO) means for law firms, how it differs from SEO, and whether schema markup or llms.txt actually help.
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
- Learn what generative engine optimization (GEO) means for law firms, how it differs from SEO, and which technical steps actually matter.
Why the vocabulary matters
You do not need this vocabulary to run a firm, but you do need it the moment you buy marketing help. Agencies pitch AEO, GEO, and AI visibility as if they were three different products, and the same monthly deliverable can show up under two different acronyms at two different prices, with nothing but the vocabulary to tell you. Knowing which words name the same work is often the difference between a fair engagement and an expensive one.
Here is the whole glossary in miniature: AEO and GEO name nearly the same work, making your firm easy for answer engines to find and cite. AI visibility is the measurement, whether the tools actually name you when it counts. Everything else on this page hangs off those three.
Where to start
If you only learn two terms, learn answer engine optimization and citation. The first is the work of getting your firm named in AI answers, and it is what most of this site is about. The second is how the tools show their sources, and it is where the practical opportunities hide: when you know which websites an answer engine cites for your practice area, you know exactly where your firm needs to appear. The definitions above cover both, and the full guide puts them to work. The rest of the vocabulary earns its place more slowly; pick terms up as they appear in proposals and articles, and check them here when a definition sounds too good to be true.