Glossary
GEO and local SEO terms, defined.
67 terms across AI search, Google Business Profile, schema markup, and the technical SEO stack. Plain English, no agency-speak.
A
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) Optimization for engines that synthesize direct answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot) rather than for traditional ranked-list search.
- AggregateRating A schema.org type that summarizes the ratings for a business or product, displayed as gold stars in search results.
- AI Overview Google's AI-generated answer block that appears at the top of search results for many queries, summarizing across multiple sources.
- AI Search A search experience powered by a large language model that returns synthesized answers, often with one to three recommended sources, instead of a ranked list of links.
- Author Schema Person schema applied to the author of a piece of content, surfacing credentials and expertise to engines.
B
- Backlink Gap A list of websites that link to your competitors but do not link to you — the highest-priority backlink targets.
- Backlinks Links from other websites to your site. Still one of the strongest ranking signals for both Google and AI engines.
- BreadcrumbList A schema.org type marking up the breadcrumb navigation on a page, displayed in search results as the URL hierarchy.
- Buyer Intent A subset of search intent indicating the searcher is ready or near-ready to purchase or hire.
C
- Canonical URL The URL designated as the primary version of a page when multiple URLs return similar content. Set with a `rel="canonical"` link tag.
- Citability How likely an AI engine is to cite a specific page or business when answering a query — a function of structure, content specificity, and entity confidence.
- Citation Any mention of a business name, address, or phone on a third-party website, with or without a backlink. Citations build entity confidence for both Google and AI engines.
- Citation Density The number and distribution of independent third-party mentions of a business across the web. A primary signal AI engines use to decide whether to cite a business.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) A Core Web Vitals metric measuring how much page content visually shifts during loading.
- Core Web Vitals Google's user-experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
- Crawl Budget The number of pages a search engine will crawl on a site within a given period — a constraint for very large sites.
D
- Directory Listings Listings of a business on directory sites such as Yelp, BBB, Angi, HomeAdvisor, Justia, Avvo, Healthgrades, and industry-specific directories.
- Domain Authority A third-party metric (developed by Moz) estimating the overall ranking strength of a domain on a 0–100 scale.
- Duplicate Content Identical or near-identical content across multiple URLs, internally or across domains. Dilutes ranking signals and can be discounted by engines.
E
F
G
- GBP (Google Business Profile) Google's free business listing product that powers Maps results, the local pack, and a major portion of branded search results.
- GBP Categories The primary and secondary categories assigned to a Google Business Profile, controlling which queries the business is eligible to rank for.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) The discipline of optimizing for visibility in generative AI search results across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and similar tools.
H
I
- Indexability Whether a page is eligible to be added to a search engine index. A page can be crawlable but not indexable if it is blocked by meta directives.
- IndexNow A protocol for notifying search engines (Bing, Yandex, others) when content changes so they can re-crawl quickly.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint) A Core Web Vitals metric (replaced FID in 2024) measuring the time between user input and the next visual update.
- Internal Linking Links between pages on the same website. Distributes ranking signal, helps engines crawl and understand site structure.
L
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) The time from page navigation start until the largest visible content element finishes rendering.
- llms.txt A plain-text Markdown file at the root of a domain that gives AI crawlers a curated summary of the site, similar in spirit to robots.txt but for content rather than crawl rules.
- Local Citations Mentions of a local business on directory sites, industry sites, and local sites. The cornerstone of local SEO citation density.
- Local Pack Synonym for Maps 3-pack. The block of local business results shown above organic search results.
- LocalBusiness Schema A specialized version of Organization schema for local businesses, with properties like areaServed, openingHours, and geo coordinates.
- Long-Tail Keyword A more specific, less-searched query, typically three or more words. Lower volume but higher conversion intent and less competition.
M
- Maps 3-Pack The block of three local business results Google shows above organic results for queries with local intent.
- Meta Description The HTML meta tag describing a page, often shown as the snippet beneath the title in search results.
- Mobile-First Indexing Google primarily uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking, defaulting to the smartphone Googlebot.
N
P
- PAA (People Also Ask) The expandable list of related questions Google shows in search results, sourced from query co-occurrence and user behavior.
- Page Authority A page-level version of Domain Authority — predicting ranking strength of an individual URL.
- Page Speed How fast a page loads and becomes interactive. A composite ranking factor and a major conversion factor.
- Person Schema Schema markup describing an individual — useful for author bios, attorney profiles, doctor profiles, and team pages.
- Pillar Page A long-form, comprehensive page covering a topic in depth, typically anchoring a hub-and-spoke content structure.
- pSEO (Programmatic SEO) The practice of generating large numbers of pages from structured data and templates, typically for high-volume long-tail queries.
R
- Review Schema Schema markup that exposes individual reviews or aggregate ratings to engines, enabling rich snippets like the gold star display in search results.
- Review Velocity The rate at which a business accumulates new reviews — a more important ranking signal than total review count.
- Rich Snippet A search result enhanced with extra information from structured data — stars, prices, FAQs, recipe times, and similar.
- robots.txt A plain-text file at the root of a domain that tells search engine crawlers which paths they may or may not access.
S
- sameAs A schema.org property that connects an entity (Organization or Person) to its profiles on other authoritative sites.
- Schema Markup Structured data added to web pages (typically as JSON-LD) so search engines and AI engines can understand entity relationships, business categories, and content types.
- Search Intent The underlying goal a user has when typing a query — informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial investigation.
- Service Schema Schema markup describing an individual service offered by a business — useful for service-detail pages.
- Service-Area Page A page on a local business website dedicated to a specific city, neighborhood, or ZIP within the service area.
- Sitemap An XML file listing the URLs on a site to help search engines discover and prioritize them for crawling.
- Snippet Optimization The practice of structuring content to win featured snippets, AI Overviews, and PAA boxes — the zero-click and low-click search surfaces.
- Speakable Schema A schema.org property that marks specific page sections as suitable for voice-assistant reading aloud.
- Structured Data Any standardized format for providing information about a page so that engines can categorize and present it more accurately.
T
- Title Tag The HTML title element, displayed in browser tabs and as the headline of search-result listings. One of the strongest on-page ranking signals.
- Topical Authority A site's perceived expertise on a topic, built by publishing comprehensive, interlinked content covering the topic from multiple angles.
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