SEO & AI-Search Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the search and AI terms in your report — from classic SEO to the newer AI-search disciplines (AEO, AIO, GEO, LLMO). Each is one of the areas SEO Rank Report scores out of 10.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the practice of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engines like Google and earns more organic (unpaid) traffic. It spans three areas: technical health, on-page content, and off-page authority.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO makes a site easy for search engines to crawl, render, and index. It covers site speed, Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, structured data, sitemaps, and crawlability.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is optimizing individual pages so each clearly targets a topic and can rank for it. It includes title tags, headings, content quality, internal links, and structured data.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO is the set of signals from outside your site that build authority and trust — chiefly backlinks, brand mentions, and reviews.

Local SEO

Local SEO is optimizing to appear in location-based searches and Google Maps. It is driven largely by your Google Business Profile, consistent NAP (name, address, phone), and local citations.

Google Business Profile (GBP)

Google Business Profile is the free Google listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and local search — hours, reviews, photos, and services. It was formerly called Google My Business.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are Google's user-experience metrics that factor into rankings: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).

Schema / Structured Data

Schema (structured data) is standardized code that labels the meaning of your content so search and AI engines can understand it. It is usually written as JSON-LD from schema.org and powers rich results.

E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T is Google's quality framework — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — used to judge how much to trust a site's content, especially on important topics.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

A SERP is the page of results a search engine returns for a query. It can include organic links, ads, featured snippets, AI Overviews, maps, and images.

A featured snippet is the boxed, direct answer Google shows at the top of some results, pulled from a page that answers the question concisely. Winning one is a core goal of AEO.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

AEO is optimizing content to be selected as the direct answer by answer engines — featured snippets, People Also Ask, and voice search — using clear question headings, concise answers, and FAQ schema.

AIO (AI Optimization)

AIO is making a site fully accessible and understandable to AI systems — allowing AI crawlers, providing an llms.txt file, and ensuring content renders without JavaScript. The term is also used as shorthand for Google's AI Overviews.

Google AI Overviews

Google AI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries shown at the top of many results, synthesized from multiple sources. Being cited in one requires strong content, authority, and clear structure.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

GEO is optimizing to be cited as a source by generative engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. It is driven by E-E-A-T, citations, original data, and machine-readable content.

LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization)

LLMO is shaping how large language models understand and recommend your business. It relies on consistent facts across the web, clear entity signals, and machine-readable content like llms.txt.

llms.txt

llms.txt is a plain-text or markdown file at a site's root that gives AI assistants a clean, authoritative summary of the site and its key pages. It is an emerging convention for AI discoverability.

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. High-quality backlinks are one of the strongest off-page signals of authority.

Canonical URL

A canonical URL is the official version of a page you tell search engines to index, using a rel=canonical tag, to prevent duplicate-content confusion.

Crawlability & Indexability

Crawlability is whether search engines can reach your pages; indexability is whether they are allowed to store them. Both are prerequisites for ranking.

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