Hallucination
When an AI system states something confidently that is wrong or made up. Clear, specific, well-sourced pages reduce the chance a system guesses wrongly about your business.
Updated August 21, 2026
A hallucination is a confident but wrong statement a model invents when it lacks a solid source. When your own pages are vague or contradictory, a model is more likely to fill the gap with a guess about your business. Clear, specific, structured facts give it something real to rely on instead, which is one reason entity clarity and structured data matter.
Related terms
- Entity clarity. How obvious it is what your business is called, what it does and where it operates. Low entity clarity means AI systems leave you out of specific, local or branded answers.
- Structured data (schema). Hidden labels in your page's code that state facts in a machine-readable format, for example that a block of text is your business's name, address and phone number. It removes guesswork for machines.
- Trust signals. Checkable evidence that you are a real, accountable business. This includes an about page, contact and legal details, references or case studies, and claims backed by sources. AI systems favor accountable pages over anonymous ones.