SEO and AI search terms, defined in plain English
This glossary defines 48 SEO and AI search terms in plain English, from long-standing ones like backlinks and canonical tags to newer ones like GEO, AEO, AI Overviews and query fan-out. It's for business owners and marketers, in New Zealand and anywhere else, who want to follow what an SEO provider or an AI assistant is telling them. Jump to a letter or a category below. Where I've written a full guide on a term, the entry links to it.
A
AEO (answer engine optimisation)
AI search
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is structuring content so a search engine or AI assistant can lift it as the direct answer to a question: a featured snippet, a voice assistant reply, an AI Overview or a chatbot response. It grew out of SEO for featured snippets and voice search, before generative AI. The work overlaps almost completely with GEO, and Google treats both as part of SEO.
AI crawler
AI search
An AI crawler is a bot that fetches web pages for an AI company, either to answer questions live or to train models. OpenAI uses OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search and GPTBot for training; Anthropic uses Claude-SearchBot and ClaudeBot; Perplexity uses PerplexityBot. Google-Extended is a robots.txt token rather than a crawler: it controls whether Gemini models may use your content, and doesn't affect Google Search.
AI Mode
AI search
AI Mode is Google's conversational search mode, where an AI-written answer fills the results page and you can ask follow-up questions. Like AI Overviews, it is grounded in Google's search index and uses query fan-out to research subtopics. Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in it beyond being indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.
AI Overviews
AI search
AI Overviews are the AI-written summaries Google shows above many search results, with links to the pages they draw on. In my study of 1,000 New Zealand commercial searches, they appeared on 73.9%, including 96.5% of advice searches but only 16.5% of searches for a local provider. Google says no special schema is needed: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet.
AI SEO (AI search optimisation)
AI search
AI SEO usually means AI search optimisation: making a business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews to find, understand and cite. It is sometimes used for something else, using AI tools to do SEO work faster. No standards body defines AI SEO or its cousins LLMO and AIO, so judge a provider by what they do and how they measure it.
AI visibility
AI search
AI visibility is how often, and how, a business appears in AI-generated answers: whether it is mentioned, cited with a link and described accurately, and who is recommended instead. Because AI answers vary between asks, it is measured by testing the same buying questions repeatedly across assistants over several weeks, plus Search Console's generative AI performance report for Google's side.
Anchor text
SEO fundamentals
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. It tells people and search engines what the linked page is about, so a descriptive anchor such as "technical SEO audit checklist" works better than "click here". It matters for your internal links and for links from other sites, though Google's spam policies list keyword-optimised anchors in guest posts and press releases as a link scheme.
B
Backlink
SEO fundamentals
A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat relevant links from trusted sites as a sign that a page deserves to rank, and Google counts them towards prominence in local results too. Quality beats quantity: one link from a respected industry site is worth more than dozens from directories, and buying links that pass ranking credit breaks Google's spam policies.
C
Canonical tag
Technical SEO
A canonical tag is a line of HTML, rel="canonical", that tells search engines which URL is the preferred one when the same or very similar content exists at several addresses, such as with and without tracking parameters. Google treats it as a strong signal, like a redirect, rather than a command, while listing a URL in a sitemap is only a weak one.
Citation (in AI answers)
AI search
In AI search, a citation is a link or named source that an AI answer shows as the basis for what it says, such as the source links in an AI Overview or a Perplexity answer. Being cited is stronger than being mentioned, because the reader can click through to you. It is a different thing from a local citation, which is a business listing on another website.
Citation (local SEO)
Local SEO
In local SEO, a citation is a mention of your business name, address and phone number on another website, such as a directory, industry body, local news site or review site. Citations help Google and AI assistants confirm your details are real and consistent, and accuracy matters more than volume. It is a different thing from an AI citation, a source linked in an AI-written answer.
Core Web Vitals
Technical SEO
Core Web Vitals are Google's three measures of real-visitor page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) for loading, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) for responsiveness and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) for visual stability. Google's "good" thresholds are LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024. Good scores help, but won't outrank a more useful page on their own.
Crawl budget
Technical SEO
Crawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine can and wants to crawl on a site in a given period. Google says most sites don't need to worry about it: its guidance is aimed at very large or fast-changing sites. Where it does matter, duplicate URLs, filter and parameter pages, redirect chains and slow server responses waste crawls on the wrong pages.
Crawling
Technical SEO
Crawling is how search engines and AI systems discover pages: automated programs called crawlers, or bots, fetch a URL, read it and follow its links to find more. Googlebot crawls for Google Search. A page that can't be crawled, because robots.txt, a firewall or a CDN blocks it, can't be read for search results or AI answers. Crawling comes before indexing.
D
Domain authority
SEO fundamentals
Domain authority is a score from 1 to 100, created by the SEO software company Moz, that estimates how likely a website is to rank, based mainly on the links pointing to it. Other SEO tools publish similar scores under their own names. It is a third-party metric that Google doesn't use, so treat it as a rough way to compare sites, not as a target.
E
E-E-A-T
SEO fundamentals
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, the qualities Google's search quality rater guidelines ask human raters to judge, with trust the most important. Google added the first E, for experience, in December 2022. Google says E-E-A-T itself isn't a specific ranking factor, but its systems use a mix of signals that align with it.
Entity
SEO fundamentals
An entity is a uniquely identifiable thing, such as a business, person, place, product or idea, that search engines and AI systems can recognise along with its attributes and its relationships to other things. Google's Knowledge Graph is built from entities. For a business, entity clarity means the same name, description and details on your site, your Google Business Profile and the wider web.
F
Featured snippet
SEO fundamentals
A featured snippet is a highlighted excerpt from one web page that Google shows near the top of the results, answering the question directly, with a link to the source. It was the original target of answer engine optimisation. In my study of 1,000 New Zealand commercial searches, not one showed a classic featured snippet, although that was one sample captured on one day.
G
GEO (generative engine optimisation)
AI search
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making content more likely to be used and cited when an AI system writes an answer from several sources, rather than only ranking as a link. The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues, published at KDD 2024, which found that adding citations, quotations and statistics helped, while keyword stuffing did worse than no change.
Google Business Profile
Local SEO
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows a business on Google Maps and in the local pack, with its address or service area, hours, phone number, photos and reviews. It is the core of local SEO. Google chooses how you verify it, and its guidelines require your real business name, with no added keywords, suburbs or slogans, and no virtual offices or PO boxes.
Grounding
AI search
Grounding is Google's term for tying an AI model's answer to information retrieved at the time of the question, such as pages from its search index, rather than relying only on what the model learned in training. It works the same way as retrieval-augmented generation. Grounding is why a page has to be crawlable and indexed before it can support an AI answer.
I
Indexing
Technical SEO
Indexing is when a search engine stores and organises the pages it has crawled so it can show them in results. Only indexed pages can rank in Google or appear as a link in an AI Overview. Indexing isn't guaranteed, and a noindex tag keeps a page out on purpose. Search Console's Page indexing report shows which pages are indexed and why others aren't.
Internal linking
SEO fundamentals
Internal linking is linking from one page on your site to another. Internal links help people and crawlers find pages, show which pages matter most, and explain through their anchor text what each page is about. Pages with no internal links pointing at them, called orphan pages, are found late and crawled rarely. Important pages should sit a few clicks from the home page.
J
JavaScript SEO (rendering)
Technical SEO
Rendering is when a browser or crawler runs a page's code, including JavaScript, to build what the page shows. JavaScript SEO makes sure important content doesn't depend on that step. Google renders JavaScript, but it says not all bots can, and it recommends server-side rendering or pre-rendering. Headings, text, links and structured data should be in the HTML before any script runs.
K
Keyword research
SEO fundamentals
Keyword research is finding the words and questions people type into search engines about what you sell, and how often they search for them. It decides which pages a site needs and what each should target, one main topic per page. Good research groups searches by intent, not only volume, because in a thin market a search typed a few dozen times a month can still bring valuable customers.
Knowledge Graph
SEO fundamentals
The Knowledge Graph is Google's database of entities, such as people, businesses, places and things, and the facts that connect them. Google announced it in May 2012. It powers knowledge panels, the information boxes shown for well-known entities, and helps Google understand what a search is about. Consistent facts about your business across the web make them easier to connect to one entity.
L
Large language model (LLM)
AI search
A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on vast amounts of text to predict and generate language. LLMs power ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and the answers in Google's AI features. On their own they only know what was in their training data, which is why AI search tools also retrieve live web pages. LLMs can also hallucinate, stating wrong things with confidence.
llms.txt
AI search
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file, placed at the root of a website, that gives AI systems a short, structured summary of the site and links to its key pages. It was proposed in 2024 and is unproven. Google says its search ignores it and that it isn't needed for its AI features. Some other AI systems may read one, and it costs little to maintain.
Local pack
Local SEO
The local pack is the box of three businesses with a map that Google shows at or near the top of results for local searches, such as "electrician near me". It is drawn from Google Business Profiles and ranked mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. In my NZ study, a local pack appeared on 91% of searches for a local provider, and an AI Overview on 16.5%.
Local SEO
Local SEO
Local SEO (local search engine optimisation) is the work of making a business show up when people search for something nearby: in the map pack, the organic results below it and AI answers. It covers your Google Business Profile, reviews, business listings and the location signals on your own website. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence.
Long-tail keyword
SEO fundamentals
A long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search, such as "office cleaning contract Hamilton" rather than "cleaning", that few people type individually. Long-tail searches are usually easier to rank for and closer to a decision, and together they can add up to more visits than the broad head term. They also resemble the detailed questions people now ask AI assistants.
M
Meta description
SEO fundamentals
A meta description is an HTML tag that summarises a page in a sentence or two. Google may show it as the snippet under your title in search results, but it often writes its own snippet from the page content instead, depending on the search. Google doesn't use meta descriptions for ranking, but a clear, specific one can earn more clicks. Each page should have its own.
N
NAP (name, address, phone)
Local SEO
NAP stands for name, address and phone number, the core details that identify a local business. Search engines and AI assistants compare them across your website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles, so they should read exactly the same everywhere. Old addresses, former phone numbers and duplicate listings create doubt about which details are right.
P
People Also Ask
SEO fundamentals
People Also Ask is the Google results box of related questions that expand, when clicked, to show a short answer taken from a web page, with a link. It is a good source of the real questions buyers ask. In my study of 1,000 New Zealand commercial searches, People Also Ask appeared on 92.1% of them, more often than AI Overviews did.
Q
Query fan-out
AI search
Query fan-out is when an AI search system splits one question into several related searches on its subtopics, runs them at the same time, and writes an answer from the combined results. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode use it. It means an answer can draw on a wider set of pages than a single search would return, including pages that don't rank for the original query.
R
Redirect (301)
Technical SEO
A 301 redirect is a server response that tells browsers and search engines a page has moved permanently to a new URL, and sends visitors there automatically. Google treats a permanent redirect as a strong signal that the new URL should replace the old one in results. Use 301s when you change URLs or merge pages, and avoid chains of several redirects in a row.
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
AI search
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a way of building AI answers in which a system first retrieves relevant documents, such as web pages from a search index, then has a large language model write the answer from them, usually with citations. The term comes from a 2020 research paper by Patrick Lewis and colleagues. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode use it, and calls it grounding.
Reviews (online reviews)
Local SEO
Online reviews are customers' public ratings and comments about a business, on its Google Business Profile and other sites. Google says review count and rating feed prominence, one of the three main factors in local results, and reviews also shape what AI assistants say. Ask every customer the same way, reply to every review, and never offer anything in return for one.
Robots.txt
Technical SEO
Robots.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which URLs they may fetch, with separate rules for each crawler if you want them. It is a request, not a lock, and it doesn't keep a page out of Google: a noindex tag does that. Check the live file, because CDNs such as Cloudflare can add their own rules above yours.
S
Search intent
SEO fundamentals
Search intent is the goal behind a search: to learn something, compare options, find a particular site, buy, or hire someone nearby. It decides what kind of page ranks, and now whether an AI answer appears at all. In my study of 1,000 New Zealand commercial searches, AI Overviews showed on 96.5% of advice searches but only 16.5% of searches for a local provider.
SEO (search engine optimisation)
SEO fundamentals
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the work of helping a website earn visibility in unpaid search results: making pages crawlable and indexable, answering what people search for, and earning the trust signals, such as links and reviews, that search engines rank on. Google says optimising for its AI features is still SEO, so the same foundations now decide who gets cited in AI answers too.
SERP (search engine results page)
SEO fundamentals
A SERP, or search engine results page, is the page a search engine shows in response to a query. A modern Google SERP mixes organic links with other features, such as ads, the local pack, AI Overviews, People Also Ask and videos, and the mix changes with the search. Ranking first in the organic results no longer means being the first thing a searcher sees.
Service-area business
Local SEO
A service-area business goes to its customers, like a plumber, electrician or cleaner, rather than serving them at its own premises. On Google Business Profile it hides its address and lists up to 20 service areas by suburb, town or postcode, keeping the whole area within about two hours' drive of its base. It ranks most easily near where it is based.
Structured data (schema markup)
SEO fundamentals
Structured data is code that describes a page's content in a standard format that search engines and AI systems can read, such as the business behind it, a product's price or an article's author. It usually uses the Schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD format, and it must match what visitors can see. Google says its AI features need no special schema, so treat it as clarity, not a citation switch.
T
Technical SEO
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the part of SEO that makes sure search engines and AI crawlers can reach, render and index your pages, and understand them once they do. It covers robots.txt and crawler access, sitemaps, status codes and redirects, canonical tags, JavaScript, structured data, Core Web Vitals and mobile. It is the foundation layer: content and links only count once pages can be read.
Title tag
SEO fundamentals
A title tag is the HTML title element that names a page. Google usually uses it for the clickable headline in search results, though it may rewrite it when the tag is missing, vague or stuffed with keywords. It is one of the clearest signals of what a page is about. Keep it specific and unique, and put the main topic early, because long titles get cut off.
X
XML sitemap
Technical SEO
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs on a site you want search engines to find, optionally with the date each last changed. It helps crawlers discover pages, but it is a weak signal: listing a URL doesn't make Google index it or treat it as canonical. It should contain only indexable pages that return a 200 status. Google says small, well-linked sites may not need one.
Z
Zero-click search
AI search
A zero-click search ends without the searcher clicking through to any website, because the results page answered the question itself, through an AI Overview, a featured answer, the local pack or a knowledge panel. A SparkToro study found that 68% of US Google searches in the first four months of 2026 ended without a click to a website. Being named in the answer now matters as well as being clicked.
SEO and AI search terms by category
The same 48 terms, grouped by the part of search they belong to. Some sit across two groups; each is listed once, where most people meet it.
AI search
SEO fundamentals
Local SEO
Sources
- Google Search Central: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search
- Google Search Central: Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
- Google Search Central: Influencing your title links and Control your snippets
- Google Search Central: How to specify a canonical URL and Learn about sitemaps
- Google Crawling Infrastructure: Google's common crawlers (Google-Extended) and crawl budget management
- Google Search Central Blog: E-A-T gets an extra E for Experience (December 2022)
- Google Business Profile Help: Tips to improve your local ranking on Google
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers; Perplexity: Perplexity crawlers; Anthropic: Anthropic's crawlers
- Aggarwal et al.: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv 2311.09735; KDD 2024)
- Lewis et al.: Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks (arXiv 2005.11401; NeurIPS 2020)
- The llms.txt proposal
- SparkToro: zero-click study, June 2026
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