AEO and SEO glossary
Plain-English definitions for the search and AI terminology we reference across our services and blog — no jargon left unexplained.
Search Fundamentals
- Search Engine OptimizationSEO
- The practice of structuring a website and its content so search engines like Google can find, index, and rank it for relevant queries. Covers technical site health, on-page content, and off-page authority signals like backlinks.
- Search Engine Results PageSERP
- The page a search engine returns after a query — organic listings, paid ads, and increasingly, an AI-generated answer at the top before any traditional links appear.
- Domain Authority
- A composite signal of how much a search engine trusts a website, built up over time through consistent technical health, quality content, and inbound links from other trusted sites.
- Expertise, Authoritativeness, TrustworthinessE-E-A-T
- Google’s framework for judging content quality — whether it demonstrates first-hand experience, subject-matter expertise, recognized authority, and trustworthiness. AI answer engines weigh the same signals when deciding what to cite.
AI Search & AEO
- Answer Engine OptimizationAEO
- The practice of structuring content so AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews — can extract it, summarize it, and cite the source as the definitive answer, rather than just ranking a link.
- Generative Engine OptimizationGEO
- A closely related discipline to AEO: optimizing content specifically for how generative AI models synthesize answers from multiple sources, not just how a single answer engine cites one source.
- Answer Engine
- Any AI system a user asks a direct question and gets a synthesized answer from, instead of a list of links — ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews are the three referenced most often across our AEO services.
- AI Overview
- Google’s AI-generated summary shown above traditional organic results for many searches, built from multiple sources and displayed with citations back to them — read more on how we optimize for it.
- Large Language ModelLLM
- The underlying AI model — like the ones behind ChatGPT or Gemini — that generates answer-engine responses. LLMs build an internal map of entities and their relationships, which is what AEO-structured content feeds.
- Conversational Search
- A search query phrased the way someone would actually ask a question out loud — "who is the top SEO agency in West Michigan" rather than "SEO agency West Michigan" — increasingly common with AI answer engines.
- Zero-Click Search
- A search where the user gets their answer directly on the results page — from an AI Overview, a featured snippet, or a knowledge panel — without ever clicking through to a website. See our SEO vs. AEO framework for how to still win visibility here.
- AI Citation
- When an answer engine names a specific brand or source as the origin of the information in its response. The end goal of AEO: not just ranking, but being the source cited by name — see real client results.
Technical Implementation
- Structured Data
- Data marked up in a standardized format so machines — search crawlers and AI models alike — can read a page’s meaning directly, instead of inferring it from unstructured text. A core part of our web development process.
- Schema MarkupJSON-LD
- The specific code format (JSON-LD is the most common) used to add structured data to a page — telling a crawler explicitly "this is an Organization," "this is a Product," "this is a Question and its Answer." Built into every custom site we ship.
- FAQPage Schema
- A schema type that marks up a page’s question-and-answer content explicitly, so search engines and AI answer engines can extract individual Q&As directly for rich results and citations.
- Entity
- A distinct, identifiable thing — a business, a person, a place, a product — that a search engine or AI model tracks and builds a knowledge graph around. AEO is largely about making sure your brand is a clearly defined entity, not an ambiguous one.
Local Search
- Local 3-Pack
- The block of three local business listings Google shows at the top of results for location-based searches, pulled directly from Google Business Profile data. See the markets we serve.
- Google Business ProfileGBP
- A business’s free listing on Google — the source of the Local 3-Pack, map results, hours, reviews, and posts. Kept active and current, it’s one of the strongest local-relevance signals a business controls directly. Read more on why GBP consistency matters for AI citations.
How We Work
- Handoff Gap
- The loss of context, speed, or quality that happens every time a project moves between disconnected teams — strategy to design, design to development, development to SEO. Each handoff is a place decisions get made without the full picture. See how a boutique studio avoids this.
- Boutique Agency
- A smaller, founder-led studio where the people setting strategy are the same people executing it — as opposed to a large agency, where an account manager sits between the client and the specialists actually doing the work. See our full boutique vs. large agency comparison.
- Cross-Channel Consistency
- Keeping a brand’s messaging, offers, and information aligned across its website, Google Business Profile, and social channels — so AI models cross-referencing multiple sources find matching signals instead of conflicting ones. Read our deep dive on the cross-channel multiplier.