Glossary · plain English, no jargon tax
The AI Search Glossary
Every term an agency might use on a call with you, defined in one or two sentences. If a definition here needs a whole page to do properly, it links to one. If a term is not on this list, we probably do not use it.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The work of getting a page to rank in a search engine results list. Technical fixes, content, links and local signals. It decides whether you appear at all.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Structuring a page so an answer engine can lift a clean answer straight out of it: question headings, answers in the first 40 to 60 words, and schema matching the visible text.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
The work of getting an AI engine to name your business when someone asks it who to hire. It is about being recommended, not being ranked.
AI Overview
Google's AI-generated summary at the top of a results page. It answers the query directly and cites a handful of sources, often above every organic result.
Citation
A mention of your business inside an AI-generated answer, usually with a link or source tag. In AI search this is the unit of visibility, the way a ranking position is in classic SEO.
Share of voice
The share of a fixed set of prompts in which an engine names you rather than a competitor. Tracking it over time is how you tell movement from noise.
Schema / JSON-LD
Machine-readable markup in the page source that tells an engine what your business is, what it sells and where it operates, instead of making the engine guess from prose.
FAQPage schema
Markup that pairs each question on a page with its answer. The heaviest single AI citation signal, and only if the markup matches what a visitor actually sees.
Speakable
Markup naming the specific passages on a page that are citation-ready and safe to read aloud. It points an engine at your best sentence instead of your first one.
llms.txt
A plain-text file at the root of a site giving AI systems a curated map of it: what the business is, what it charges, and which pages answer what.
NAP consistency
Whether your name, address and phone number are written identically everywhere online. Engines cross-reference them, and a single mismatch lowers confidence in all of them.
Entity
A thing an engine can identify and keep facts about — a business, a person, a place. Entity work is making sure the engine knows which thing you are, and does not merge you with another.
Questions about the terms
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO earns the ranking, AEO earns the quote, GEO earns the recommendation. SEO gets your page into the results at all. AEO makes a passage on it quotable enough to become the answer. GEO makes the engine name your business when someone asks who to hire.
What is a citation in AI search?
A citation is a mention of your business inside an AI-generated answer, usually with a link or source tag. In AI search it is the unit of visibility, in the way a ranking position is the unit in classic SEO. No citation means the engine never named you.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
It costs nothing and it cannot hurt. An llms.txt is a plain-text file at the root of your site giving AI systems a curated map of it: what the business is, what it charges, and which pages answer what. No engine is required to read it, and several do.