BizScoreAI Guide

AI Visibility Glossary: The Terms Behind How AI Finds a Business

AI assistants and search engines decide which local businesses to name using a handful of signals. These are the terms you will meet on BizScoreAI listings and in AI search, each explained in plain language.

What is AI visibility?

How easily AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI can find, read and trust a business website. It depends on whether AI crawlers are allowed in, whether the business is described in structured data, and whether the content answers real questions directly.

BizScoreAI measures it as the AI Visibility score on every listing. Run a free AI visibility scan.

What is Answer engine optimization (AEO)?

Shaping website content so an AI assistant or search feature can lift a direct answer from it: a clear question as the heading, a short factual answer right below it, and supporting detail after.

What is Generative engine optimization (GEO)?

Work that makes a business more likely to be named or cited when an AI system writes an answer. It covers the content itself, structured data, trust signals, and consistent information about the business across the web.

What is AI Overviews?

The AI-written summaries Google shows above or among regular search results. They cite a small number of source pages, so being one of those sources matters more than ranking tenth.

What is AI crawler access?

Whether a website allows the automated readers used by AI companies to fetch its pages. A site can block them in its robots.txt file or through a firewall, and a blocked site cannot be read or cited.

What is llms.txt?

A plain text file at the root of a website (for example /llms.txt) that gives AI systems a short, readable summary of the site and links to its most important pages. It is a recent, voluntary convention.

What is Structured data (schema markup)?

Code on a web page, written in the schema.org vocabulary, that states facts about the business in a form machines read without guessing: name, address, phone, hours, services, reviews and more.

What is FAQPage schema?

Structured data that marks a page's questions and answers as a list of question and answer pairs, so search engines and AI systems can match a user's question to the exact answer.

What is Organization schema?

Structured data that identifies the business itself: its official name, logo, website, contact details and the profiles that belong to it elsewhere on the web.

What is Question-format headings?

Section headings written as the question a customer would ask, such as "How much does a roof repair cost?" rather than "Pricing". They line up with how people phrase requests to AI assistants.

What is Google Business Profile?

The free business listing Google shows in Maps and in local search results, with the address, phone, hours, photos, category and reviews. It is often the first thing a customer sees.

What is Primary category?

The single category a business chooses on its Google Business Profile, such as "Plumber" or "Personal injury attorney". It strongly shapes which local searches the business appears for.

What is NAP?

Short for name, address and phone number, the three details that identify a local business across the web.

What is NAP consistency?

Whether the name, address and phone number match everywhere a business is listed. Mismatched details make search engines and AI systems less sure the business is real and current.

What is Local citation?

Any listing of a business's name, address and phone number on another website, most often a business directory. BizScoreAI's Local Citations score checks the major directories and reads the details off each listing to confirm the match.

What is Local search pack?

The short set of businesses Google shows with a map for a local search such as "dentist near me". Appearing in it depends on relevance, distance and how prominent the business is.

What is AI Agent Readiness?

How well an AI agent acting for a customer can complete everyday tasks on a website: find the phone number, the hours, the services, a way to make contact, the address and a price. BizScoreAI shows "Not audited yet" until a site has been checked.

What is Profile completeness?

How many of a listing's core fields are filled in: name, category, address, city, state, ZIP, phone, website, email and social profiles. Claiming a listing and completing it raises the number.

What is BizScore?

The 0 to 100 score on a BizScoreAI listing. It blends AI visibility (40%), SEO (30%), local search presence (10%), directory consistency (10%) and profile completeness (10%). A view not measured yet is left out rather than counted as zero, and the Google rating does not change it.

Full detail on How We Score.

What is Claimed listing?

A BizScoreAI listing whose owner has taken control of it. A claimed listing can be corrected and completed by the owner, and it carries the Claimed trust tier.

Claim your listing.