Concepts and metrics

Separate mentions, citations and recommendations, understand VGO and GEO 2.0, and recognize insufficient evidence.

Analysts and content owners who need to explain result definitions and method boundaries. Metric definitions help read results. They do not guarantee rankings or recommendations.

How mentions, citations and recommendations differA mention is the brand appearing in an answer. A citation is a verifiable source. A recommendation is an explicit suggestion among relevant options. The three are not the same, and one does not imply the others.
How VGO, SEO, AEO, GEO, SMO and GEO 2.0 relateVGO is the overarching open method. It covers SEO, AEO, GEO, SMO and emerging discovery surfaces. GEO 2.0 names the GEO approach inside VGO. It is not a VGO upgrade and not an industry-wide standard.
Data sources, freshness and insufficient evidenceZero means a completed observation counted 0. Unavailable means no data was obtained. Stale means the validity window expired. Insufficient sample means a stable rate cannot be computed. None of these is a health score.