Questions, answered.

GEO and AI visibility describe the broader category of work. RECORD provides a structured framework for the build: what needs to exist, where the gaps are, and what should be strengthened across the public record.

RECORD is the build layer. Before visibility can be measured, authority has to be built.

RECORD is a diagnostic framework.

Visibility engineering (and GEO, AEO, AI search optimization, whatever you want to call it) describes a category of work. RECORD tells you exactly where the gaps are in that work and what to build next, layer by layer: Record, Expertise, Corroboration, Owned, Recognition, Documentation. You don't just know AI visibility matters. You know which of the six layers is actually holding you back.

No. RECORD is a build methodology. It identifies the evidence, authority, corroboration, recognition, and documentation an organization needs to build so AI systems have credible sources to draw from. Measurement tells you what happened. RECORD helps determine what needs to be built.

PESO organizes media types: paid, earned, shared, owned. It's a channel framework. RECORD evaluates authority: whether AI systems and humans actually recognize you as credible in your category. They're not competing, they're answering different questions. PESO asks "where does this content live?" RECORD asks "does anyone, human or AI, actually trust you enough to cite you?" - quoted by a journalist, cited by an AI answer, recommended by a colleague without you in the room.

SEO optimizes for keywords and rankings. RECORD scores authority signals, the kind that make an AI system choose to cite you as a source instead of just crawling your page. You can rank on page one and still never get cited in an AI answer if you have no earned corroboration, no owned expertise, and nothing structured for AI to parse. RECORD catches that gap.

SEO tools don't.

Yes. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the industry's name for this category, now standardized by both AMEC (May 2026) and the IAB (August 2026). RECORD is my operational answer to it: a six-layer framework built specifically for PR practitioners, because earned media is what AI cites most. GEO is the category. RECORD is the specific, structured way the work gets done.

Visibility isn't the finish line. Being mentioned by AI doesn't pay your bills, but a click that turns into an inquiry does. I work with clients to track two layers: whether you're showing up at all (mentions, citations, recognition), and whether that showing up is actually moving something (referral traffic from AI platforms, inquiries, deals that mention you unprompted). If a report only shows you the first layer, ask where the second one is.

No, and be wary of anyone who says there is. Both AMEC and the IAB, the two bodies that have published standards on this, warn against single opaque scores for the same reason the industry warned against ad value equivalencies years ago: one number hides the work behind it. RECORD Audits report multiple signals together instead: what's published, what AI shows, and what that's actually changing for the business.

There are more than 20+ tools now that track brand mentions in AI answers. They're useful, and I use one myself. But a tool gives you a number. RECORD tells you what to do about it. A monitoring tool can tell you your citation rate dropped. RECORD tells you which of the six layers is thin enough to cause that, and what to build to fix it. Think of it as the difference between a thermometer and a doctor.

No. I'm not a member of either body: RECORD's structure independently lines up with what both organizations now define as best practice for measuring AI visibility, built before either standard existed. Aligned with, not certified by. That distinction matters to me, and it should matter to you too.