Glossary · 112 terms
112 SEO, AEO and AI search terms, explained
Every term you'll meet when working on Google rankings and AI answers, defined in plain English, with how it works, examples, common mistakes and the next concept to learn.
112 terms
0–9
- Technical SEO
301 redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect: the server tells browsers and search engines a page has moved for good, and search engines move the page's ranking signals to the new URL.Read the definition - Technical SEO
302 redirect
A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect: visitors are sent to another URL, but search engines are told the original will come back, so they generally keep the original URL indexed.Read the definition - Technical SEO
404 error
A 404 error is the status a server returns when a page doesn't exist. Occasional 404s are normal, but broken links to them waste visitors and the value of links, and important pages should never return one.Read the definition
A
- AI search
AI citation
An AI citation is a link to a source that an AI answer shows alongside or inside its response. Being cited sends visitors to your site and signals that the system treats your page as a trusted source.Read the definition - AI search
AI crawler
An AI crawler is a bot run by an AI company to fetch web pages, either to train models, to build a search index for AI answers, or to open a page when a user asks. Examples include GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot.Read the definition - AI search
AI hallucination
An AI hallucination is when an AI model states something false with confidence, such as a wrong price or a feature a product doesn't have. Clear, consistent facts across the web reduce the chance of it happening about your brand.Read the definition - AI search
AI Mode
AI Mode is a conversational search experience in Google Search where the whole result is an AI-written answer that users can refine with follow-up questions, with links to the sources it used.Read the definition - AI search
AI Overviews
AI Overviews are Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some search results. They draw on several web pages and link to them as sources, which makes being cited in them a core goal of GEO.Read the definition - AI search
AI referral traffic
AI referral traffic is visits that arrive from links in AI assistants' answers, identified in analytics by referrers such as chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com.Read the definition - AI search
AI visibility
AI visibility is how often, and how accurately, a brand appears in answers from AI assistants and AI search features such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Overviews.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Algorithm update
An algorithm update is a change to how a search engine ranks pages. Google makes changes constantly and announces the larger ones, such as core updates, which can move rankings across many sites.Read the definition - On-page SEO
Alt text
Alt text is a short written description of an image in its HTML alt attribute. Screen readers read it aloud, search engines use it to understand the image, and browsers show it if the image fails to load.Read the definition - On-page SEO
Anchor text
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. It tells readers and search engines what the linked page is about, so descriptive anchors like "trail running shoes" are more useful than "click here".Read the definition - AI search
Answer engine
An answer engine is any system that responds to a question with a written answer rather than a list of links. AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude, and AI search features like Google AI Overviews and Perplexity, are answer engines.Read the definition - AI search
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the work of getting a brand named, described correctly and cited when people ask AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude for answers or recommendations.Read the definition - Measurement
Attribution
Attribution is deciding which marketing channels and touchpoints get credit for a conversion. Different models, such as last click or data-driven, split the same sale differently.Read the definition
B
C
- Technical SEO
Canonical URL
A canonical URL is the preferred version of a page when the same content is available at more than one address. A canonical tag tells search engines which URL to index and credit.Read the definition - AI search
ChatGPT search
ChatGPT search is the feature that lets ChatGPT look up current information on the web and answer with links to its sources. Pages must be reachable by OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot to be shown and cited.Read the definition - Measurement
Click-through rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click a result after seeing it: clicks divided by impressions. In SEO, it shows how appealing your title and description are for a search.Read the definition - Content
Content decay
Content decay is the gradual loss of rankings and traffic a page suffers as its information ages, competitors publish better pages, or searcher needs change.Read the definition - Content
Content gap
A content gap is a topic, question or keyword your audience cares about that your site doesn't cover, or covers less well than competitors. Finding and filling gaps is one of the quickest ways to grow search visibility.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Conversational search
Conversational search is searching in natural, full-sentence questions and follow-ups, the way people talk to AI assistants and use AI Mode, rather than typing a few keywords.Read the definition - Measurement
Conversion rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a goal, such as a purchase, enquiry or sign-up. It links traffic to revenue, which is why SEO and AEO should be judged on conversions, not only visits.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google's metrics for real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).Read the definition - Technical SEO
Crawl budget
Crawl budget is how many pages a search engine is willing and able to crawl on a site in a given time. Google says it mainly matters for very large sites or sites whose content changes very often.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Crawler
A crawler is software that visits web pages to read and index them. Search engines and AI companies run their own, such as Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot. A site's robots.txt tells them what they may access.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Crawling
Crawling is how search engines discover pages: their crawlers request URLs, read the content and follow links to find more. A page has to be crawled before it can be indexed and ranked.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures how much a page's content unexpectedly moves while it loads, like a button jumping as an image appears. It's the Core Web Vitals metric for visual stability; 0.1 or less is good.Read the definition
D
- Links and authority
Digital PR
Digital PR is earning coverage, mentions and links from online publications by giving journalists and creators stories, data and expert insight they want to publish.Read the definition - Links and authority
Domain authority
Domain authority is a third-party score, from 1 to 100, that estimates how strong a site's link profile is compared with others. It's a Moz metric, not a Google one; similar tools use names like Domain Rating or Authority Score.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Duplicate content
Duplicate content is the same or very similar content available at more than one URL. It isn't a penalty in itself, but it splits signals between URLs and leaves search engines to choose which to show.Read the definition
E
- Content
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness: the qualities Google's quality rater guidelines use to judge whether content is reliable. Named authors, real credentials and clear evidence all contribute.Read the definition - Structured data and entities
Entity
An entity is a distinct, identifiable thing, such as a company, person, product or place, that search engines and AI systems can recognize and connect facts to. Brands that are clearly defined as entities are easier for AI systems to recommend correctly.Read the definition
F
G
- AI search
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is optimizing content and brand signals so generative search features, such as Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, use your pages as sources and credit you in the answers they write.Read the definition - Measurement
Glass Box
Glass Box is Thryv Studio's reporting model: every client gets a live workspace showing each optimization, ranking change, AI citation and lead as it happens, instead of a monthly summary.Read the definition - Measurement
Google Analytics 4
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is Google's free web analytics platform. It records visits, where they came from and what visitors do, so you can measure which channels, including search and AI assistants, bring leads and sales.Read the definition - Local SEO
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is the free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and local search results: its name, category, hours, photos, reviews and contact details.Read the definition - Measurement
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners. It shows which searches your pages appear for, clicks and impressions, indexing status, errors and links, and lets you submit sitemaps.Read the definition - AI search
Google-Extended
Google-Extended is a robots.txt token that controls whether content Google crawls can be used to train and ground its Gemini models. It doesn't affect Google Search rankings or inclusion in AI Overviews.Read the definition - AI search
GPTBot
GPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler for collecting content that may be used to train its models. Blocking it keeps your content out of future training data but doesn't remove you from ChatGPT search answers, which use OAI-SearchBot.Read the definition - AI search
Grounding
Grounding is connecting an AI model's answer to specific sources, usually retrieved from the web or a database at the moment of answering, so the answer reflects current facts and can cite where they came from.Read the definition
H
- On-page SEO
Heading tags
Heading tags (H1 to H6) mark the headings on a page, from the main headline (H1) to sections (H2) and sub-sections (H3 and below). They give the page an outline that readers, screen readers and search engines use.Read the definition - Content
Helpful content
Helpful content is Google's term for content created primarily to benefit people rather than to rank. Google's ranking systems aim to reward it, and to demote content made mainly for search engines.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Hreflang
Hreflang is an attribute that tells search engines which language and regional versions of a page exist, so they can show searchers the right one, for example English for India and English for the UK.Read the definition - Technical SEO
HTTP status codes
HTTP status codes are three-digit numbers a server sends with every response: 2xx for success, 3xx for redirects, 4xx for client errors like 404, and 5xx for server errors. Search engines rely on them to understand each URL.Read the definition - Technical SEO
HTTPS
HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP: traffic between the browser and the site is encrypted with a TLS certificate. Browsers mark plain-HTTP pages as "Not secure", and Google uses HTTPS as a lightweight ranking signal.Read the definition
I
- Measurement
Impressions
In Search Console, an impression is counted when a link to your site appears in search results a user sees. Impressions show visibility even when nobody clicks.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Indexing
Indexing is when a search engine stores a crawled page in its index, the database it ranks results from. Only indexed pages can appear in search results and in AI answers built on them.Read the definition - Technical SEO
IndexNow
IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a website notify participating search engines, including Bing, the moment a page is added, changed or deleted, instead of waiting to be recrawled.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how quickly a page responds to clicks, taps and key presses, based on the slowest typical interaction in a visit. 200 milliseconds or less is good. It replaced First Input Delay in 2024.Read the definition - On-page SEO
Internal linking
Internal linking is linking from one page on your site to another. Internal links help visitors and crawlers find pages, show which pages matter, and pass authority from strong pages to others.Read the definition
J
- Technical SEO
JavaScript SEO
JavaScript SEO is making sure pages built with JavaScript can be crawled, rendered and indexed. Google can render JavaScript, but it takes extra time, and most AI crawlers don't run it at all.Read the definition - Structured data and entities
JSON-LD
JSON-LD is the format Google recommends for structured data. It sits in a script tag in the page, separate from the visible content, which makes it easy to add and maintain.Read the definition
K
- Search and keywords
Keyword
A keyword is a word or phrase people type or speak into a search engine. In SEO, it means a search a page is built to rank for, chosen by relevance, intent, demand and difficulty.Read the definition - On-page SEO
Keyword cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization is when several pages on the same site target the same search, so they compete with each other and none ranks as well as one strong page would.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Keyword difficulty
Keyword difficulty is a third-party estimate, usually on a 0 to 100 scale, of how hard it would be to rank on the first page for a keyword, mostly based on the authority of the pages already ranking.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Keyword research
Keyword research is finding and choosing the searches a site should target, by understanding what buyers search, what they want, how much demand there is and how hard each search is to win.Read the definition - Structured data and entities
Knowledge Graph
A knowledge graph is a database of entities and the relationships between them. Google's Knowledge Graph powers the information panels in search results and helps its systems understand what a brand is and how it relates to other things.Read the definition - Structured data and entities
Knowledge panel
A knowledge panel is the box of facts Google shows beside or above search results for an entity, such as a company, person or place, drawn from its Knowledge Graph.Read the definition
L
- AI search
Large language model (LLM)
A large language model (LLM) is the type of AI model behind assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok. It is trained on large amounts of text to predict and generate language, and can be connected to search to answer with current information.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the largest image or text block in view to appear. It's the Core Web Vitals metric for loading; 2.5 seconds or less is good.Read the definition - Links and authority
Link building
Link building is the work of earning links from other websites to yours, through content worth citing, digital PR, partnerships and outreach, to grow authority and rankings.Read the definition - Links and authority
Link equity
Link equity is the ranking value a link passes from one page to another. Links from important, relevant pages pass more; it's the idea behind Google's original PageRank algorithm.Read the definition - AI search
llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file at a site's root that gives language models a short, curated map of the site's most useful pages. It's a community proposal, not an official standard, so treat it as a small extra.Read the definition - Local SEO
Local citation
A local citation is any online mention of a business's name, address and phone number, such as in a directory, map app, review site or local news. Consistent citations support local rankings.Read the definition - Local SEO
Local pack
The local pack is the map and short list of nearby businesses Google shows for searches with local intent, such as "plumber near me". Being in it is often worth more than ranking first in the organic results below.Read the definition - Local SEO
Local SEO
Local SEO is optimizing a business to appear when people search for products or services nearby, in Google Maps, the local pack and location-based AI answers.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Long-tail keyword
A long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search, like "payroll software for a 10-person startup in India". Each one has fewer searches, but together they make up much of search demand and often convert better.Read the definition
M
- On-page SEO
Meta description
A meta description is a short summary of a page in its HTML. Search engines often show it under the title in results. It doesn't directly affect rankings, but a good one earns more clicks.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Mobile-first indexing
Mobile-first indexing means Google uses the mobile version of a page's content for indexing and ranking. If content, links or structured data are missing on mobile, Google may not see them.Read the definition
N
- Local SEO
NAP consistency
NAP consistency means your business Name, Address and Phone number are identical everywhere they appear: your website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles.Read the definition - Links and authority
Nofollow link
A nofollow link has a rel attribute (nofollow, sponsored or ugc) telling search engines not to treat it as an endorsement. Google treats these as hints about whether to count the link.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Noindex
Noindex is a rule, set in a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header, that tells search engines not to include a page in their index. The page must be crawlable for the rule to be seen.Read the definition
O
- AI search
OAI-SearchBot
OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler for finding pages to show and cite in ChatGPT search answers. Allowing it in robots.txt is a prerequisite for appearing in ChatGPT's search results.Read the definition - On-page SEO
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is optimizing the content and HTML of individual pages, such as titles, headings, text, images, internal links and structured data, so they match what searchers want and are easy for search engines to understand.Read the definition - Local SEO
Online reviews
Online reviews are customer ratings and comments on platforms like Google, industry sites and marketplaces. They influence local rankings, what AI assistants say about a business, and whether buyers choose it.Read the definition - On-page SEO
Open Graph tags
Open Graph tags are meta tags that control how a page looks when shared on social media and messaging apps: the title, description and image shown in the preview card.Read the definition - Measurement
Organic traffic
Organic traffic is visits that come from unpaid search results, as opposed to ads, social media or direct visits. It's the most common measure of SEO performance.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Orphan page
An orphan page is a page with no internal links pointing to it. Search engines and visitors struggle to find it, and it receives none of the authority internal links pass.Read the definition
P
- Content
Pillar page
A pillar page is a comprehensive page covering a broad topic, which links to detailed pages on each subtopic. It's the hub of a topic cluster.Read the definition - AI search
Prompt tracking
Prompt tracking is running the same set of questions (prompts) through AI assistants on a schedule and recording the answers, to measure how a brand's visibility changes over time.Read the definition
Q
R
- Search and keywords
Ranking factors
Ranking factors are the signals search engines use to decide which pages to show and in what order, such as relevance to the query, content quality, links, page experience and context like location.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Redirect chain
A redirect chain is a series of redirects between the requested URL and the final page, such as A → B → C. Each hop slows visitors and crawlers, and long chains can stop crawlers reaching the page.Read the definition - Links and authority
Referring domain
A referring domain is a unique website linking to yours. Ten links from one site count as one referring domain, which is why SEO tools track referring domains alongside total backlinks.Read the definition - AI search
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a method where an AI system first retrieves relevant documents, then writes its answer using them. AI search features work this way, which is why being retrievable and quotable matters.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Rich results
Rich results are search results enhanced with extra information, such as review stars, prices, availability, event dates or breadcrumbs, usually generated from structured data on the page.Read the definition - Technical SEO
robots.txt
robots.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may or may not visit. It can allow or block AI crawlers individually.Read the definition
S
- Structured data and entities
sameAs
sameAs is a schema.org property that lists the official profiles and pages that represent the same entity, such as your LinkedIn, X and Instagram accounts or Wikipedia page, so search engines tie them together.Read the definition - Structured data and entities
Schema markup
Schema markup is structured data that uses the schema.org vocabulary, a shared set of types (Organization, Product, Article, Event…) and properties supported by Google, Bing and other search engines.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is improving a website so it ranks higher in search engines' results, through technical health, relevant content and authority earned from other sites. It remains the foundation that AEO and GEO build on.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Search intent
Search intent is the goal behind a search: to learn something (informational), find a site (navigational), research options (commercial) or buy (transactional). Pages rank best when they match it.Read the definition - Search and keywords
Search volume
Search volume is the estimated number of times a keyword is searched in a period, usually per month. It's an estimate from keyword tools, useful for comparing demand rather than predicting traffic.Read the definition - Measurement
SEO ROI
SEO ROI is the return from SEO compared with what it costs: the revenue it generates, minus the investment, divided by the investment. It's best measured over months, because search results compound.Read the definition - Search and keywords
SERP
A SERP (search engine results page) is the page a search engine shows after a search: organic results, ads and features such as AI Overviews, featured snippets, local packs and "People also ask".Read the definition - Search and keywords
SERP features
SERP features are the special result types on a search results page beyond standard links, such as AI Overviews, featured snippets, local packs, knowledge panels, image and video results, and "People also ask" boxes.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Server-side rendering
Server-side rendering (SSR) means the server builds each page's full HTML before sending it, instead of leaving the browser to assemble it with JavaScript. Crawlers and AI bots see the complete content immediately.Read the definition - AI search
Share of Model
Share of Model is the percentage of AI answers to a fixed set of buyer questions that mention your brand, often compared with competitors. It's the AI-search equivalent of share of voice.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Site migration
A site migration is any major change to a website's URLs, domain, platform or structure. Done without a redirect plan, it's one of the fastest ways to lose search traffic.Read the definition - Technical SEO
Soft 404
A soft 404 is a page that tells visitors it doesn't exist, or has no real content, while returning a 200 OK status. Search engines treat it as missing and may drop it from the index.Read the definition - Structured data and entities
Structured data
Structured data is code added to a page, usually as JSON-LD using the schema.org vocabulary, that states facts about the page in a machine-readable way: who the organization is, what a product costs, who wrote an article.Read the definition
T
- Content
Thin content
Thin content is a page with little or no useful value for visitors, such as very short pages, auto-generated text, doorway pages or copies of content found elsewhere. It rarely ranks and can drag down how a site is judged.Read the definition - On-page SEO
Title tag
The title tag is the HTML element that names a page. Search engines usually show it as the clickable headline of the result, which makes it one of the most important on-page signals and a big factor in who clicks.Read the definition - Content
Topic cluster
A topic cluster is a group of pages on related subtopics that link to a central pillar page. Clusters show search engines and AI systems that a site covers a subject thoroughly.Read the definition - Content
Topical authority
Topical authority is the degree to which a site is seen as a reliable, thorough source on a subject, built by covering the subject in depth and earning references from others.Read the definition
U
- Links and authority
Unlinked brand mention
An unlinked brand mention is when another website names your brand without linking to you. Mentions build recognition for search engines and AI assistants, and many can be turned into links by asking.Read the definition - On-page SEO
URL slug
A URL slug is the readable part of a web address that identifies a page, like "trail-running-shoes" in example.com/shoes/trail-running-shoes. Short, descriptive slugs help people and search engines understand the page.Read the definition
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