AI search refers to search engines that use large language models to generate answers rather than just return links — Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, SearchGPT, and similar. For marketers, this changes the game: instead of ranking 10 blue links, you're trying to be the source that AI models cite in generated answers. This requires authoritative, factual, well-structured content that AI can quote and attribute.
For example, if someone asks Perplexity 'best B2B demand gen agencies for startups' and your site is cited in the answer, you're generating brand impressions and potential clicks without traditional search ranking — a new form of zero-click visibility.
We help clients optimize for AI search citation — structuring content to be machine-readable, citeable, and authoritative in the categories AI engines use as sources.
Related Terms
Relevant Cactus Services
We implement AI Search strategies for B2B tech startups every day. Book a free 30-minute call to get a concrete plan for your situation.
Book a free strategy call →Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the practice of improving your website's visibility in organic (unpaid) search results.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM typically refers to paid search advertising — Google Ads and Bing Ads — where you bid on keywords to appear in search results immediately, without waiting for organic rankings.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is visitors who arrive at your site from unpaid search results, social posts, and direct/dark social channels — not from ads.
Backlink
A backlink is a link from another website to yours — one of the strongest ranking signals in Google's algorithm.
Domain Authority (DA)
Domain Authority is Moz's proprietary metric (0–100) estimating how likely your domain is to rank in search results, based primarily on the quality and quantity of backlinks.
Keyword Difficulty (KD)
Keyword difficulty is a score (0–100) estimating how hard it is to rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword, based primarily on the strength of competing pages.