Marketing Tracking & Attribution Glossary | TrustData
What Is AI Visibility? The Metric That Replaces Rankings
AI visibility measures how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other engines. This guide covers what it is, why it matters for e-commerce, and how to measure it.
How to Appear in AI Answers: A Practical Playbook
A step-by-step guide to getting your brand cited in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI engines. Covers the content changes that actually move the needle, with before/after examples.
Best AI Visibility Monitoring Tools (2026 Comparison)
A side-by-side comparison of the tools that track your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI engines. Covers TrustData, Otterly.ai, Profound, Semrush, and BrightEdge with pricing, features, and engine coverage.
ChatGPT SEO: How to Get Your Brand Cited in ChatGPT
ChatGPT processes over 1 billion queries per week. Whether your brand appears in those answers depends on specific content signals, not your Google rankings. This guide covers what ChatGPT looks for and how to optimize for it.
What Is GEO? Generative Engine Optimization Explained
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of structuring content so AI engines cite it. This guide covers the 23 signals, how they differ from SEO, and how to audit your pages.
AI Bot Access via robots.txt
Allowing AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) to index and cite your content.
Author Attribution
A visible author byline with name, credentials, and schema markup identifying who wrote the content.
Authority References
Outbound links to high-authority domains (.gov, .edu, Wikipedia, major publishers) that anchor your claims.
Case Studies
Real-world examples showing measurable results that AI engines use to answer "does X work?" queries.
Clear Takeaway / Key Summary
An explicit summary section that surfaces the page's conclusion for AI extraction.
Comparison Content
A section comparing your product to alternatives, addressing "what is the best X" queries directly.
Content Freshness
A visible publication or last-modified date that lets AI engines assess whether the information is current.
Specific Data & Statistics
Concrete numbers, percentages, and measurable claims that give AI engines verifiable facts to cite.
External References
Outbound links to credible external sources that support your claims.
FAQ Blocks for AI Citability
A dedicated question-and-answer section that AI engines can extract and surface directly.
Heading Hierarchy
Using H1 → H2 → H3 to structure content into scannable, topic-segmented sections.
Images with Descriptive Alt Text
Relevant images with alt text that reinforces the page's topic and entities.
Intro Summary
A concise opening paragraph (under 80 words) that states what the page is about and who it's for.
List Formatting
Bullet or numbered lists that present information in a structure AI engines can extract cleanly.
llms.txt
A plain-text file at /llms.txt that tells AI crawlers what your site is about and what they may use.
On-Page Reviews & Ratings
Customer reviews and aggregate ratings directly embedded on the product page.
Pricing Visibility
Clear, machine-readable pricing on the page that AI shopping assistants can extract.
Product Schema
schema.org/Product markup that makes product details machine-readable for AI shopping assistants.
Schema Markup for AI Engines
JSON-LD structured data that tells AI crawlers what type of content a page contains.
Social Proof
Quantified indicators of adoption — customer count, logos, industry recognition — that establish credibility.
Structured Comparison Tables
HTML tables that present comparative or structured data AI engines can extract as facts.
Testimonials
Named client quotes with attribution that provide social proof and human credibility signals.
Use Cases
Explicit statements of who the product is for and what problems it solves.
What Is First-Party Tracking?
First-party tracking collects data through your own domain instead of third-party scripts. Every major ad platform switched to first-party cookies between 2017 and 2019 — but first-party cookies alone don't solve the data loss problem.
Marketing Attribution: The Complete Guide for E-Commerce Brands
Marketing attribution determines which ads actually drive revenue — and which ones just take credit. This guide covers every major attribution model, why ad platforms systematically over-count conversions, and how to fix it.
What Is Marketing Observability?
Marketing Observability is the ability to know, in real time, whether your marketing data is complete, reliable, and actionable. If analytics tells you what happened, observability tells you whether you can trust the answer.
Why Is GA4 Missing So Much Traffic? (And How to Get It Back)
GA4 typically captures only 60–70% of your actual website traffic. The other 30–40% is invisible due to ad blockers, browser privacy restrictions, consent refusals, and technical failures. Here is what causes it and how to fix it.