The vocabulary used across this site's research, defined once. Definitions
describe how the terms are used here; where a term is also a product name, the owner is
credited on the leaderboard's disclaimers.
AEO — answer engine optimization
The practice of earning visibility in the answers AI systems generate: being cited as a
source, named as a recommendation, or both. The counterpart to SEO for a world where the
result is an answer, not a list of links.
GEO — generative engine optimization
The same discipline as AEO under a different name. The industry has not settled on one
term; this site uses both so that both audiences find the work. Academic usage leans GEO,
practitioner usage leans AEO.
AI citation
A link to a website that an AI platform displays as a source for a generated answer.
Citations are countable at scale by SEO data vendors, which makes them the most available
visibility metric — and a proxy: a citation proves the platform read the
site, not that it recommends the business.
AI mention
The business named in the answer text itself, with or without a link. Mentions are what a
buyer actually sees, and they cannot be bought from a data vendor — measuring them requires
asking the platform real questions and counting the answers.
Mention rate
The share of sampled answers in which an entity is named: ask a fixed question set
repeatedly, count the answers that name the firm, divide. The core metric of measured
visibility work, and a percentage — never comparable to a citation count.
Vendor-reported vs. measured
Two sources of visibility numbers. Vendor-reported: a data company
(here, Ahrefs) crawls AI answers at scale and reports citation counts — broad, cheap,
third-party, but a sample you don't control. Measured: you ask the
platforms your own frozen question set on a schedule and record every answer — narrow,
costly, and the only way to know what a specific buyer question returns.
Frozen query set
A fixed list of buyer questions that never changes between measurement runs. Freezing the
questions is what makes movement meaningful: if the questions are constant, a change in the
answers is a change in the market.
AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated summary shown above standard search results, with source links.
AI Mode
Google's conversational search tab — a full chat-style answer experience inside Google
Search, distinct from AI Overviews.
DR — Domain Rating
Ahrefs' 0–100 score for the strength of a website's backlink profile. A traditional SEO
metric, shown on the leaderboard for context: it measures link authority, not AI
visibility.
Organic traffic
Ahrefs' estimate of a website's monthly visits from unpaid Google search results. An
estimate built from ranking data, not the site's own analytics.
Am Law 100
The annual ranking of the 100 highest-grossing US law firms published by The American
Lawyer. "Am Law 100" and "The American Lawyer" are trademarks of ALM Global, LLC, used here
descriptively.
Leaderboard segments
The four groups on the BigLaw AEO Leaderboard:
Big Law (US firms of Am Law 100 scale), Global
(internationally headquartered firms with major US practices), Mid-Law
(selected mid-size and regional firms), and Boutique (elite litigation
boutiques).