Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring content so AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can extract, attribute, and cite it directly in their answers.
Read definitionThe AI search glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms behind AI visibility and modern SEO — from AEO and GEO to llms.txt and citation share.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Generative Engine Optimization is the broader practice of making a brand and its content visible, accurate, and frequently cited across generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity.
Read definitionAI Visibility
AI visibility is the degree to which AI systems can find, read, understand, and cite a website — the AI-era equivalent of search visibility.
Read definitionllms.txt
llms.txt is a plain-markdown file at a website's root that tells AI systems what the site is, what it offers, and which pages matter most.
Read definitionAI Crawlers
AI crawlers are bots operated by AI companies — such as GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), and PerplexityBot — that fetch web content to power AI answers and citations.
Read definitionAnswer Engine
An answer engine is a system that responds to queries with a composed answer citing a few sources, rather than a ranked list of links — for example Perplexity, ChatGPT with search, and Google AI Overviews.
Read definitionAI Citation Share
AI citation share is the percentage of AI-generated answers on a set of relevant prompts that cite a given brand or domain — the AI-era analogue of keyword rankings.
Read definitionStructured Data
Structured data is machine-readable markup — typically JSON-LD using schema.org vocabulary — that states facts about a page so search and AI engines can interpret them without guessing.
Read definitionJSON-LD
JSON-LD (JSON for Linked Data) is Google's recommended format for structured data: a script tag containing schema.org facts about the page, separate from the visible HTML.
Read definitionFAQ Schema (FAQPage)
FAQ schema is FAQPage structured data that marks up question-and-answer pairs so search engines can show them in results and AI engines can extract them as ready-made answers.
Read definitionEntity SEO
Entity SEO is the practice of making a brand resolvable as a single, unambiguous entity — consistent name, description, and facts across a site, its schema, and the wider web.
Read definitionCrawl Budget
Crawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine will fetch from a site in a given period, determined by the site's authority, health, and demand for its content.
Read definitionIndexation
Indexation is a search engine's decision to store a page in its index and make it eligible to appear in results — crawling alone does not guarantee it.
Read definitionCanonical URL
A canonical URL is the single authoritative address a page declares for itself via the rel=canonical link tag, consolidating duplicates and signaling which URL should rank.
Read definitionCore Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google's user-experience metrics — LCP (loading), INP (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability) — measured on real users and used as a ranking tiebreaker.
Read definitionZero-Click Search
A zero-click search is a query resolved entirely on the results page — by a featured snippet, knowledge panel, or AI overview — without the user visiting any website.
Read definitionInternal Linking
Internal linking is the practice of connecting a site's pages with descriptive links so authority flows to important pages and crawlers can discover and prioritize them.
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