Grounding (in AI)

Grounding is the process of tying an AI's generated answer to real, retrievable evidence instead of letting it rely on memory alone. Google's Gemini, for example, grounds many answers in live Google Search results, which is why strong traditional rankings feed directly into whether Gemini recommends you.

Grounding reduces hallucination and is what makes a citation possible: an ungrounded model can name a brand from fuzzy memory, but a grounded one pulls from sources it can point to. Clear, consistent facts across your site and the wider web make you a reliable grounding target.