Glossary

AI Overview

An AI Overview is a generated summary shown in a search result, often with citations, rather than only the classic list of links.

Named NorthUpdated 29 September 2026

An overview is an answer engine surface attached to a search engine. A page can rank in the links and be absent from the summary. A page can also be cited in the summary without earning the click. Those are different outcomes, and AEO is concerned with the summary.

The passages that get quoted tend to be the ones that answer a sub-question directly: a definition, a short list of criteria, a comparison. A page written only as a brand manifesto rarely supplies them.

Named North covers the difference between ranking and being named on AEO versus SEO.

Answer engine
An answer engine is a system that returns a written answer, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity, or a Google AI Overview, rather than only a list of links.
Answer engine optimization
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring a company's public facts so answer engines can retrieve them, trust them, and name the company in an answer.
LLM citation
An LLM citation is a case where a large language model names a source, or points to it, for a claim in its answer.