Definition
Retrieval-Augmented Generation is a technique in which an AI model fetches external documents or search results and uses them while writing its answer, rather than relying only on what it learned in training.
This is why current web pages can appear in AI answers at all. When an engine retrieves your page, the exact wording on it can be quoted and the page can be cited. Not every answer is produced this way; some come from the model alone.
Why it matters
Retrieval is the door through which your content enters an answer. A page that is easy to retrieve and easy to quote is a page that gets cited.
How it works
A query is turned into one or more searches, matching passages are pulled from an index, and the model composes the answer from those passages plus its own knowledge. Clear headings, direct answers and plain-text facts make a page easier to retrieve.
