Glossary
The terms, in plain words.
Growth work for software is full of new labels: AEO, GEO, AI visibility, llms.txt. This glossary says what each one means, what the work involves, and where the evidence is thin. Each term links to the page where Propel does that work for you.
- Answer engine optimisation (AEO)Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the work of getting your product named, and described correctly, when people ask an AI assistant a question.
- Generative engine optimisation (GEO)Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is another name for getting your product into the answers AI models write.
- AI visibilityAI visibility is how often AI assistants name your product when people ask the questions your buyers ask.
- AI crawlersAI crawlers are the programs AI companies send to read web pages.
- llms.txtllms.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that gives language models a short guide to the site: what it is and which pages matter, with links.
- Cold-email warm-upCold-email warm-up means starting a new mailbox or domain on a small number of emails a day and raising it slowly, so mail providers learn to trust it.
- One-click unsubscribeOne-click unsubscribe lets someone stop your emails with a single click in their mail app, without visiting a page or typing anything.
- Show HNShow HN is the part of Hacker News where people share something they made that others can try.
- Product-led contentProduct-led content is writing that teaches something by using your product to do it: a tutorial, comparison or launch post built around a real feature.
- Earned autonomyEarned autonomy is Propel's name for how much it may do on its own.
- Cold emailCold email is a first email to someone who has never heard from you, sent because you have good reason to think they have the problem you solve.
- SPF, DKIM and DMARCSPF, DKIM and DMARC are three records in your domain's DNS that let mail providers check an email really comes from you.
- Bounce rateIn email, the bounce rate is the share of messages that could not be delivered, usually because the address does not exist.
- Do-not-contact listA do-not-contact list, also called a suppression list, holds the people and addresses you must never write to again: those who unsubscribed, asked you to stop, or whose address bounced.
- Email sequenceAn email sequence is a planned run of messages to one person: a first email, then a follow-up or two a few days apart if there is no answer.
- Daily sending limitA daily sending limit is the most emails one mailbox may send in a day.
- Reply rateReply rate is the share of people you wrote to who wrote back.
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)An ideal customer profile (ICP) describes the kind of company and person most likely to buy and keep paying for your product: their role, the size and kind of company, and the problem they have now.
- robots.txtrobots.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may read.
- Citations in AI answersCitations in AI answers are the pages an assistant names as its sources when it answers a question.
- Prompt injectionPrompt injection is an attack on an AI assistant through the text it reads: a web page, an email or a document that contains instructions, hoping the assistant will follow them as if they came from its user.
- Human in the loop (HITL)Human in the loop means a person checks and approves an AI system's work before it takes effect.
- Hold windowA hold window is the set time a piece of work waits, ready to go, before it goes out on its own.
- GroundingGrounding means every claim an AI system writes is tied to a source it can point to: a page, a document, a line of code.
- Product Hunt launchA Product Hunt launch is a one-day listing of a new product on Product Hunt, where people browse, try and vote for what was launched that day.