Watermarking
Marking AI-generated content so it can be identified later, often invisibly. Part of the same effort as provenance, and equally early.
Related terms
Markdown
A plain-text way of writing formatted documents using symbols like # for a heading. AI systems read it easily because the structure is unambiguous, which is why some sites now offer it alongside HTML.
Product Schema
Markup for an item you sell: name, price, currency, availability, condition. Without it an assistant reading your shop has to guess the price from the page, and sometimes guesses wrong.
Inference
The moment an AI actually answers, as opposed to when it was trained. Training happens once and costs a fortune; inference happens every time somebody asks, and is what you pay for per use.
Content Signals
An extension to robots.txt that states not just who may crawl, but what they may do with what they find: appear in search, be quoted in answers, be used as training data. It lets you permit citation while refusing training.
Topical Authority
Being recognised as a reliable source on a subject rather than on a single keyword, usually by covering it thoroughly and consistently. It is what makes a small site beat a bigger one in a narrow field.
Review Schema
Markup for ratings and reviews, including who wrote them. It feeds the star ratings in search results, and gives an assistant something concrete to cite about your reputation.