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GLOSSARY
SEO and AI Search Glossary: Key Terms Explained
Plain-English definitions of the SEO, local SEO and AI search terms you are most likely to hear, from Google Business Profile to generative engine optimization.
- 30 essential terms
- Clear, jargon-free explanations
- Updated as search evolves
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GLOSSARY
SEO and AI Search Terms A to Z
AI Overviews
AI-generated summaries that Google can show at the top of some search results, drawing on information from multiple web pages.
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Structuring content so search engines and AI assistants can extract a clear, direct answer to a question.
Anchor text
The clickable words in a link. Descriptive anchor text helps users and search engines understand what the linked page is about.
Backlink
A link from another website to yours. Relevant links from trusted sites are a major ranking signal.
Canonical URL
The preferred version of a page when similar or duplicate versions exist, set to avoid duplicate-content confusion.
Citation
A mention of your business name, address and phone number on another website, such as a directory.
Core Web Vitals
Google’s measures of real-world page experience, covering loading speed, interactivity and visual stability.
Crawling
The process where search engine bots discover and read pages on the web.
E-E-A-T
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: qualities Google’s quality guidelines use to assess content.
Entity
A clearly identifiable thing, such as a business, person or place, that search engines and AI systems can recognize and relate to other information.
Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Improving your visibility and citation in answers produced by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
Google Business Profile
Google’s free business listing that appears in Maps and local search results.
Indexing
When a search engine stores a page so it can appear in results.
Keyword
A word or phrase people type into a search engine.
Keyword intent
The goal behind a search, such as learning something, comparing options or buying.
Large language model (LLM)
The type of AI system behind tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, trained to understand and generate text.
Link building
The process of earning backlinks from other relevant websites.
Local pack
The group of map-based business results Google shows for local searches, also called the Map Pack.
Local SEO
Optimizing a business to appear in searches that have local intent, such as ‘dentist near me’.
Long-tail keyword
A longer, more specific search phrase that is usually less competitive and more targeted.
Meta description
A short summary of a page that can appear under its title in search results.
NAP
Name, address and phone number: the core business details that should be consistent across the web.
On-page SEO
Optimizing the content and HTML of individual pages, including titles, headings, copy and internal links.
Organic traffic
Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.
Robots.txt
A file that tells search engine crawlers which parts of a site they may or may not crawl.
Schema markup
Code that describes your content to search engines in a standard format, also called structured data.
SERP
Search engine results page: the page of results shown after a search.
Sitemap
A file listing a site’s important pages to help search engines find them.
Technical SEO
Improving a site’s infrastructure, such as speed, crawlability, indexing and structured data, so search engines can access and understand it.
Title tag
The HTML title of a page, shown as the clickable headline in search results.
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