AI SEO & GEO Glossary

AI SEO & GEO Glossary:
Essential Terms for Search Marketers

Expert definitions, real-world examples, and practical insights for SEO professionals, marketers, and business owners working with AI-powered search optimization.

Generative Engine Optimization

AI Brand Mentions

Instances where AI systems reference, cite, or recommend specific brands in their generated responses to user queries.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Content Ranking

How AI systems prioritize and order content when generating responses, determining which sources get cited or referenced.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Response Optimization

Strategies for optimizing content to appear prominently and accurately in AI-generated responses across different platforms.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Search Performance

Comprehensive measurement of how content and brands perform across AI-powered search engines and platforms.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Visibility Score

Metric measuring how often a brand or content appears in AI-generated responses across different platforms and queries.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

AI-First Content Strategy

Content creation approach that prioritizes optimization for AI systems and platforms from the outset.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

ChatGPT Optimization

Specific strategies and techniques for optimizing content to appear in ChatGPT responses and recommendations.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Citation Probability

The likelihood that an AI system will cite or reference specific content when generating responses to relevant queries.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Content Authority

The perceived credibility and expertise of specific content pieces or creators, crucial for AI model citation preferences.

GEOUpdated 6/26/2025

Content Clusters

Strategic content organization framework grouping related content around central themes to establish topical authority.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

Digital marketing strategy focused on optimizing content to maximize visibility and citations in AI-generated responses from large language models.

GEOUpdated 6/25/2025

Generative Search Optimization

Alternative term for GEO, focusing on optimizing content for AI systems that generate rather than retrieve search results.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

LLM Content Optimization

Techniques for optimizing content specifically for large language models to improve citation and reference likelihood.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

Web applications using modern technologies to provide app-like experiences through browsers with offline functionality.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Reference Rate

The percentage of AI-generated responses that cite or mention a specific source, replacing click-through rate as a key GEO metric.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Search Everywhere Optimization

Comprehensive strategy for optimizing content across all search platforms including traditional search engines and AI systems.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Source Citation

How AI systems reference and link back to original sources of information in their responses, crucial for credibility.

GEOUpdated 6/5/2025

Topical Authority

The level of expertise and credibility a website demonstrates on a specific subject, crucial for AI citations and search rankings.

GEOUpdated 6/19/2025

Training Data Optimization

Strategic content creation designed to influence how AI models learn about and represent brands during their training processes.

GEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Search Engine Optimization

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

Google's open-source framework for creating fast-loading mobile web pages with optimal user experience.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Backlinks

Hyperlinks from other websites that serve as votes of confidence and authority in search engine algorithms.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Bounce Rate

Web analytics metric measuring the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Canonical URLs

Preferred webpage versions that search engines should index and rank when multiple URLs contain similar content.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Metric measuring the percentage of users who click on a link after seeing it, indicating content relevance and appeal.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Core Web Vitals

Google's essential performance metrics measuring loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability for web pages.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Crawling and Indexing

Fundamental search engine processes for discovering, analyzing, and storing web content for retrieval in search results.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Domain Authority

Moz's scoring system predicting how well a website will rank in search engine results, scaled from 1 to 100.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Dwell Time

Duration users spend on a web page after clicking from search results, indicating content quality and user satisfaction.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

Google's quality framework evaluating content based on expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, especially for YMYL content.

SEOUpdated 7/3/2025

Entity SEO

SEO approach focusing on optimizing for specific entities (people, places, things, concepts) rather than just keywords.

SEOUpdated 5/1/2025

Featured Snippets

Selected search results appearing in a special box at the top of Google's search results, designed to answer questions directly.

SEOUpdated 5/10/2025

Google Search Console

Free Google service helping website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site's search presence.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Image Optimization

Process of reducing image file sizes while maintaining quality and implementing proper technical specifications for SEO.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Internal Linking

Practice of creating hyperlinks between pages within the same website to improve navigation and SEO authority distribution.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Knowledge Graph

Database storing information in a graph structure, connecting entities, facts, and relationships to power SERP features.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Knowledge Panel

Information box appearing in Google search results providing factual information about entities like people, places, and organizations.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Local SEO

SEO branch focused on optimizing business presence for local and geo-specific searches to attract nearby customers.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Long-tail Keywords

Longer, specific keyword phrases with lower search volume but higher conversion intent, crucial for voice search and AI queries.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Mobile-First Indexing

Google's approach using mobile versions of websites as the primary source for crawling, indexing, and ranking.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Page Experience

Google ranking factor evaluating overall user experience through loading, interactivity, visual stability, and safety metrics.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Page Speed

How quickly web pages load and become interactive, critical for user experience and search engine rankings.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Robots.txt

Text file providing instructions to web crawlers about which website pages should or should not be crawled and indexed.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Schema Markup

Structured data vocabulary helping search engines understand and display web page content in enhanced search features.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Digital marketing discipline focused on improving website visibility and ranking in search engine results through technical and content-based strategies.

SEOUpdated 7/2/2025

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

The page displayed by search engines in response to user queries, featuring organic results, ads, featured snippets, and AI overviews.

SEOUpdated 6/18/2025

Search Intent

The underlying purpose or goal behind a user's search query, fundamental to modern SEO and AI optimization.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Semantic Search

Search approach focusing on understanding meaning and intent behind queries rather than just matching keywords.

SEOUpdated 5/22/2025

SERP Features

Enhanced search result elements beyond traditional blue links, including featured snippets, knowledge panels, and AI overviews.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

User Experience (UX)

All aspects of how users interact with and perceive websites, applications, or digital products.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Video SEO

Strategies and techniques for optimizing video content for search engine discovery, ranking, and user engagement.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Voice Search

Search method enabling users to search by speaking rather than typing, crucial for SEO and GEO strategies.

SEOUpdated 4/22/2025

Voice Search Optimization

SEO practice optimizing content for voice-activated search queries through smart speakers and virtual assistants.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

XML Sitemaps

Structured files providing search engines with a roadmap of important website pages for efficient crawling and indexing.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)

Google's classification for content that could impact users' health, financial stability, safety, or well-being.

SEOUpdated 7/9/2025

Zero-Click Search

Search queries where users get answers directly from the results page without clicking through to any website.

SEOUpdated 5/5/2025

Artificial Intelligence

AI Content Detection

Technologies identifying whether content has been generated by AI systems rather than created by humans.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Hallucination

When AI systems generate plausible but false information, highlighting the importance of fact-checking and verification.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Overview

AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results, providing comprehensive answers by synthesizing information from multiple sources.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

AI Search

Search engines and systems using artificial intelligence to understand queries and provide conversational, contextual results.

AIUpdated 5/15/2025

AI Training Data

Vast amounts of text, images, and content used to train large language models and AI systems for GEO strategies.

AIUpdated 5/8/2025

Anthropic

AI safety company founded by former OpenAI researchers, known for creating Claude with constitutional AI principles.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

BERT Algorithm

Google's NLP algorithm revolutionizing search understanding of context and nuances in human language queries.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

ChatGPT

AI chatbot developed by OpenAI based on large language models, popular for answering questions and generating content.

AIUpdated 6/8/2025

Claude

AI assistant developed by Anthropic, designed to be helpful, harmless, and honest with strong reasoning capabilities.

AIUpdated 5/28/2025

Context Window

The maximum amount of text an AI model can process and remember during a single conversation or interaction.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

Conversational Search

Search interaction using natural language, follow-up questions, and context from previous queries, powered by AI.

AIUpdated 4/15/2025

Embeddings

Numerical vector representations of content that capture semantic meaning and relationships for AI processing.

AIUpdated 5/12/2025

Google Gemini

Google's advanced multimodal AI model powering AI Overviews and various Google services, capable of understanding text, images, and code.

AIUpdated 6/12/2025

Large Language Model (LLM)

AI systems trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language, powering chatbots and search engines.

AIUpdated 6/12/2025

Machine Learning

AI subset enabling systems to learn and improve from experience, powering search algorithms and content understanding.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

AI branch enabling computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language for search engines and content systems.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

OpenAI

Leading AI research company founded in 2015, known for creating GPT models, ChatGPT, and advancing artificial general intelligence.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

Perplexity AI

AI-powered search engine providing direct answers by searching the web in real-time and synthesizing information from multiple sources.

AIUpdated 5/22/2025

Prompt Engineering

Practice of designing and optimizing input prompts to achieve desired outputs from AI language models and systems.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

AI architecture combining language models with real-time information retrieval to provide current, cited information.

AIUpdated 4/28/2025

RankBrain

Google's machine learning AI system processing search results and understanding query meaning, especially for new or ambiguous queries.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

Real-Time Search

Search providing up-to-date information by accessing current web content, news, and data sources beyond training data.

AIUpdated 5/29/2025

Tokens

Fundamental units of text that AI models process, representing pieces of words, whole words, or special characters.

AIUpdated 7/9/2025

Vector Search

Semantic search method finding information based on meaning and context rather than exact keyword matches.

AIUpdated 5/5/2025

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