Coverage
Crawled, indexed, excluded and canonicalised pages, plus freshness of decisive content.
REFERENCE / DISCOVERY
AI and search ecosystem
A practical map of the interfaces that discover, rank, synthesise and cite information — and the disciplines needed to build a credible presence across them.
00 / FIELD MAP
Visibility no longer depends on one engine
The same question may start in conventional search, continue in an AI assistant, trigger a comparison and end on an evidence page. Strategy must treat indexing, experience, entities, sources and measurement as one chain.
8AI assistants8search engines6disciplines
PLATFORMS / 01
Major public AI assistants
These interfaces do not answer in the same way. Some favour conversation, others sourced research, reasoning, code or work-environment integration. Good practice is to observe several surfaces instead of optimising for a single brand.
AI01
General-purpose assistant
ChatGPT
Assisted research, writing, analysis, code and multimodal work in a conversational interface.
02Reasoning & production
Claude
Document analysis, reasoning, structured writing and software development with extended context.
03Multimodal assistant
Gemini
Google assistant for research and production across text, images and its service ecosystem.
C04
Assistant & search
Microsoft Copilot
Conversational interface connected to Bing search and, depending on the plan, Microsoft work environments.
05Answer engine
Perplexity
Conversational web research with synthetic answers, visible citations and source exploration.
06European assistant
Le Chat
Mistral AI multilingual assistant for research, writing, analysis and professional use.
07Reasoning & code
DeepSeek
Assistant focused on reasoning, programming and technical problem-solving through a web interface.
08Consumer assistant
Meta AI
Assistant integrated into the Meta ecosystem for questions, creation and multimodal interactions.
INDEX / 02
Major search engines
Search engines differ by index, providers, privacy policies, markets and answer formats. Robust visibility covers structural engines without ignoring alternatives relevant to the audience.
01General web index
General search engine with web, local, image, video and enriched answer surfaces across many markets.
B02
Index & Microsoft services
Microsoft Bing
Microsoft web search, also important through its data, webmaster tools and AI integrations.
03Privacy-focused search
DuckDuckGo
Search designed to limit profiling, with instant answers and optional AI features.
04Independent index
Brave Search
Private search based on its own index, also offering synthetic answers with supporting sources.
05European search engine
Qwant
French privacy-oriented search engine with web search and AI-assisted answers.
06Impact-led search
Ecosia
European search engine using revenue for climate action and combining several result providers.
07Private search
Startpage
Search intermediary designed to provide results without building a personal user profile.
Y!08
Portal & search
Yahoo Search
Long-standing search engine integrated with a content, news, finance and services portal.
METHODS / 03
SEO, SXO, AEO, GEO and LLMO
These acronyms are not silos. They describe stages of one journey: be discovered, understood, provide the right answer, earn citation and deliver a useful experience.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization
Make pages crawlable, indexable, understandable and useful enough to earn durable organic visibility.
Technical · content · authorityExplore the methodSXOSearch Experience Optimization
Connect the promise shown in search results to a fast, readable, reassuring page that supports the right action.
Intent · experience · conversionExplore the methodAEOAnswer Engine Optimization
Formulate clear answers to real questions while retaining the context and evidence needed for verification.
Questions · answers · snippetsExplore the methodGEOGenerative Engine Optimization
Structure information so generative engines can identify the entity, synthesise without distortion and cite the right sources.
Entities · sources · citationsExplore the methodLLMOLarge Language Model Optimization
Strengthen the public coherence of an entity, its relationships and corpus to improve retrieval, representation and attribution.
Corpus · graphs · coherenceExplore the methodMESUREVisibility observability
Track rankings, clicks, journeys, citations, reused sources, answer accuracy and share of presence across a stable panel.
SERP · analytics · AI answersExplore the methodCHAIN / 04
From crawling to citation
A durable presence follows a logical order. Each stage depends on the previous one and has its own controls.
- 01
Crawl
Robots and retrieval systems must reach pages, follow links and identify canonical versions.
- 02
Index
Important content must be technically eligible, distinctive, fast and associated with the correct index status.
- 03
Understand
Headings, structure, data, authors, dates, entities and relationships create a coherent representation.
- 04
Select & cite
A useful, original and evidenced answer is more likely to be retained as a source or recommendation.
- 05
Serve & measure
The page must fulfil its promise, guide the user and create observable signals without manipulating the journey.
OBSERVATORY / 05
What actually needs measuring
No single metric proves visibility. A useful dashboard connects exposure, understanding, experience and outcome.
Demand
Queries, questions, intents, seasonality and changes in audience language.
Organic presence
Rankings, impressions, clicks, click-through rate and visibility share by intent group.
Experience
Speed, accessibility, comprehension, reading depth, navigation and task success.
AI presence
Observed answers, mentioned brands, cited sources, accuracy and stability across models.
Impact
Qualified contacts, supported decisions, trust, conversion and reduced representation errors.
SOURCES / 06
Official tools and documentation
Interfaces and rules change. Technical decisions should return to engine documentation, webmaster tools and open standards.
01Open resource02Open resource03Open resource04Open resource05Open resource06Open resource
Google Search Central
Crawling, indexing, structured data and Google Search best practices.
Google Search Console
URL inspection, performance, coverage and technical site signals.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Search reports, inspection, backlinks and Bing indexing tools.
IndexNow
Protocol notifying participating engines of added, changed or deleted URLs.
Schema.org
Shared vocabulary for describing entities, content, organisations and relationships.
Web.dev
References for performance, accessibility, quality and web experience.
07 / FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Essential distinctions to avoid shortcuts and false promises.
Should every AI be optimised separately?
No. A shared base — original content, clear entities, strong sources, technical accessibility and coherent reputation — serves several systems. Differences are then measured by platform.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. Assistants and generative engines still rely on discoverable, retrievable and credible content. GEO extends SEO towards synthesis, attribution and citation.
Can an AI citation be guaranteed?
No. No markup or file guarantees citation. Quality, clarity, provenance and authority can only improve the available evidence.
Must a site appear in every search engine?
Cover the surfaces used by target audiences. Google and Bing often structure much of the field, while private, European or specialised engines may matter by market.
Do these logos imply a partnership?
No. They only identify platforms in this independent directory. No partnership or commercial recommendation is implied.
How is AI visibility tracked?
Use a stable question panel, dated observations, mentions, citations, errors, variations and comparison with organic and behavioural data.
08 / CONTACT
Turn this directory into an action plan
An audit connects the platforms that matter, priority intents, technical state, evidence corpus and measurement protocol.