SearchGPT

Structured data is machine-readable code — most commonly implemented as JSON-LD using the Schema.org vocabulary — that explicitly labels the entities, relationships, and facts on a webpage so search engines and AI engines can interpret them precisely instead of inferring them from text. Common types include Organization, Person, Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Product, Review, Event, and DefinedTerm. Why it matters for AEO and GEO: Structured data is the single most-leveraged technical SEO investment for AI search. AI engines use it to disambiguate entities, surface FAQ answers in AI Overviews, ground HowTo steps, and confirm authorship and credibility. A page with the right structured data is dramatically more likely to be cited verbatim by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Bing Copilot than the same content without it. Structured data is not optional infrastructure for any brand serious about being cited in AI answers.

Source attribution is the inline citation behavior of AI search engines — the linked sources that appear next to or beneath an AI-generated answer. Different engines attribute differently: Perplexity cites aggressively with numbered footnotes, ChatGPT Search shows source cards, Google AI Overviews surfaces a small carousel of sources, and Claude cites sparingly but reliably. Why it matters: Source attribution is the new SERP. A brand that gets attributed in an AI answer captures both clicks (for users who follow the citation) and trust signals (the brand becomes associated with that answer for every user who reads it). AEO is fundamentally about earning more, better-positioned source attributions.

AI search is the broad category of search experiences powered by artificial intelligence and large language models, where users receive synthesized, conversational answers instead of (or alongside) traditional lists of links. This includes Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and Gemini. Why it matters: AI search has shifted the SEO playing field. Ranking on page one of Google is no longer enough — brands must also be cited by AI models when users ask questions about their industry, products, or expertise. AI search systems prioritize sources with strong entity signals, consistent brand mentions across authoritative sites, structured data, and content that directly answers user intent. Optimizing for AI search means building digital authority through PR, earning media mentions, implementing schema markup, and creating content that AI models can easily understand, trust, and reference in their generated responses.

Google AI Mode is Google's dedicated conversational search experience that replaces the traditional ten-blue-links interface with a multi-turn, AI-generated answer surface powered by Gemini. Unlike AI Overviews — which appear above standard SERPs — AI Mode is a separate destination where users ask follow-up questions, refine queries, and receive synthesized responses with inline citations. Why it matters: AI Mode represents Google's commitment to AI-first search and is rapidly becoming the surface where high-intent commercial and research queries are answered. To be cited in AI Mode, brands need strong entity signals (Wikidata, Knowledge Graph), structured data, authoritative third-party mentions, and content written to answer questions in clear, extractable passages. Optimizing for AI Mode is core AEO and GEO practice.

Bing Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) is Microsoft's conversational AI search experience, powered by a combination of OpenAI GPT models and Microsoft's own retrieval stack. It surfaces in Bing.com, Microsoft Edge, Windows, and Microsoft 365, and shares its index with ChatGPT Search. Why it matters: Although Bing's market share is smaller than Google's, Copilot citations carry outsized weight: they appear inside enterprise workflows (Outlook, Word, Teams) where buying decisions happen. Optimization requires IndexNow submission, strong schema markup, and content that ranks for the underlying Bing query — because Copilot still draws heavily from the top organic results.

OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's real-time retrieval crawler, used by ChatGPT Search and SearchGPT to fetch live web pages when a user query requires fresh information. It is distinct from GPTBot (training crawler) and ChatGPT-User (URL-paste fetcher) — and unlike GPTBot, allowing OAI-SearchBot has no impact on training data, only on whether a page can appear as a citation in ChatGPT Search results. Why it matters: Blocking OAI-SearchBot makes a page invisible to ChatGPT Search answers regardless of how strong its authority signals are. For brands targeting ChatGPT visibility, allowing this bot is non-negotiable.