The Tasadr glossary: GEO terms in plain words

GEO is the work of getting your site cited inside the answer an AI engine writes, rather than ranked in a list of links.

It stands for Generative Engine Optimization, and we call it optimising for AI answers. Its measurable result is a citation inside the answer, not a position on a results page, so it is measured by question rather than by keyword. The full definition, and why it matters now, is in what GEO is.

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization, another name for the same work with the emphasis on direct answers.

AEO is usually said of the direct answer that comes before the links, GEO of the answer an AI engine writes in its own words. The goal behind both names is the same: your page as the source the answer is built on. So we do not separate them when we measure, and ask one question either way: was your site cited, and who was cited instead? The three names are compared, with Arabic examples, in SEO vs GEO vs AEO.

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of raising your page's rank among the links on a results page; its result is a position in a list, not a citation inside an answer.

It is the foundation of GEO, not its replacement. An AI engine reads the same web that search engines index, so a slow page, or one blocked to crawlers, is cited by nobody. The difference between the two results, a rank and a citation, is set out in how GEO differs from SEO.

An AI engine is software that reads pages from the web, then writes an answer in its own words and credits the sources it relied on, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

We sort the eight engines we measure into two kinds, and the difference is how your customer reaches them. What sets each one apart is in the AI engines we measure.

• Chat engines, which are ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok: your customer opens one and asks it directly, and its answer changes from one run to the next.
• Search surfaces, which are Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Copilot: they reach your customer while they search, inside the results page itself.

Google AI Overviews is a summary Google writes above the search results, with links to the sources it was built from.

Your customer does not choose this surface: they type a question into Google and find the summary waiting above the links. It is not the old featured snippet either. A snippet quoted one page word for word; an overview is new text Google writes after reading several pages. How it picks its references in the Saudi market is in the guide to Google AI Overviews in Saudi Arabia.

Google AI Mode is a conversation inside Google Search, behind a tab of its own, that writes a longer answer with its own references.

One question can draw a different answer and different sources in AI Mode than in AI Overviews, although both surfaces are Google's. So we measure them separately, and write each one's full name whenever the two appear together. The full difference is in AI Overviews compared with AI Mode.

A citation is a link an engine places beside a sentence in its answer to say the information came from that page.

It is the only route a reader has from the answer to your site, which is why GEO is built around it. One answer usually credits two or three sources, so your site is one of them or it is not. What the pages that earn one have in common is in how ChatGPT picks which businesses to recommend.

Cited means the engine wrote your site's name and put its link inside the answer, the best of the four outcomes we record for every answer.

It is the possible visit, and a sign that the engine treated your page as a source it read rather than a name it remembered. That is why a citation with a link counts for more in the Tasadr score than a mention without one.

Mentioned means the engine wrote your brand's name in the answer with no link to your site.

The reader learns you exist but finds no route to you in the answer, and goes back to searching. It is better than being absent and short of being cited, and it can mean the engine knows your name but found no page on your site that answers the same question.

Absent means the engine wrote an answer and did not name you in it.

It may have named a rival, or nobody at all. When it names someone else, we record who was cited instead of you and in what words, then put their page beside yours to show what theirs answers and yours does not.

No answer means the engine wrote no answer to that question on that run, and it is never counted against your site.

The difference from absent is the difference between an engine that chose someone else and an engine that chose nobody. Confusing the two makes the score lie, because charging you for the engine's silence lowers your number over an answer that was never written. All four outcomes together are in the four outcomes per answer.

Tasaddur is being the source an AI engine builds its answer on, not a name passing in a line.

It is the result GEO works towards and the word we measure by. The Arabic word means taking the lead, and it gives Tasadr its name. A site that leads a question is the site cited in its answer; a site mentioned without a link has not led it yet, even though its name was written.

The Tasadr score is a number out of 100 that says where your site stands inside AI engines' answers to your customers' questions.

It is built from every answer to every question on every engine. A citation with a link counts for more than a mention without one, and no answer is never counted against you. When a measurement spans a range, we show the range beside the score, so you know how settled the number you are reading is.

Under every verdict in it sit the answer as the engine wrote it, its sources and its date, so you can check it yourself. What the number says and does not say is in what the score out of 100 tells you.

A confirmed change is a movement that passes our fixed rule rather than one odd answer, and it is the only thing that reaches you as an alert inside the product.

The rule is written in advance and is the same for every account, so headlines and alerts do not flicker with every answer; what does not pass it stays in your measurement history to read whenever you like. It is strict about announcing a loss and quick about counting a gain, as set out in when we say something has changed:

• A new rival: we do not call it new on a single answer; the change has to hold.
• A lost citation: we do not report it lost on a single answer without it; the absence has to hold.
• A new gain: counts at once, because a citation that happened has happened.

A buying question is a question that comes before a decision to pay: it names a service, and usually a city and a condition such as price or timing.

For example: which florist in Riyadh delivers the same day? That question, not a keyword, is the unit Tasadr measures, because an engine answers a question and does not rank words. It is written in your customer's words and dialect, not in the language of your internal deck. How to gather ten worth measuring is in how to choose the questions you measure on.

A rival in the answer is a site the engine cited for your question instead of you, and it may not be your rival in the market or in the search rankings.

It may be a directory, a comparison site, or a small business that wrote one precise page. We put its page beside yours to show what it answers and yours does not, and the recurring gaps become an action plan ranked by priority. How many of these analyses you get a month follows your plan, as set out in Tasadr plans and prices. How to find and follow one is in which competitor ChatGPT recommends instead of you.

An on-demand run is a measurement you start yourself whenever you choose, after editing a page for example, alongside the scheduled measurement that runs on its own at your plan's pace.

The scheduled measurement runs monthly, weekly or daily depending on the plan, without you pressing anything. An on-demand run gives you a reading at the moment you choose, and has a monthly allowance that follows your plan, listed for every plan on pricing in Saudi riyal.