We've compiled the most common terms in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), along with our quick 5-cent definitions.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

Creating content that directly answers the questions your buyers ask, so it shows up in featured snippets, "People also ask" and AI Overviews. Start with a list of real buyer questions and build a page to answer each one.

AI Mode

Google's conversational search experience, which answers questions in a chat-like format and cites sources instead of showing a list of links.

AI Overviews

AI-generated summaries at the top of some Google results, with links to the pages they draw from. Being cited in one is a new kind of visibility.

Algorithm

The set of rules and systems search engines use to rank web pages in their results.

Alt Text

A short description of an image in a page's HTML. It helps screen readers and tells search engines what the image shows. Include your target keyword where it fits naturally.

Backlink

A link from one website to another. It's considered a vote of confidence in the content and can improve rankings.

Branded Keyword

A search that includes a company or product name. Filter competitors' branded keywords out of your research: ranking for someone else's name rarely converts.

Canonical URL

A way of telling search engines which URL is the primary copy of a page, used to avoid duplicate content issues.

Core Web Vitals

Google's page experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).

Domain Authority (DA)

A third-party score from Moz that predicts how well a site might rank, based largely on backlinks. Useful for comparison, but Google doesn't use it.

E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness: the qualities Google's quality guidelines use to describe helpful, reliable content.

Engagement Metrics

Data points like time on page or engaged sessions that show how users interact with a site. Great for judging your content, though Google doesn't confirm them as direct ranking factors.

Featured Snippet

A highlighted answer box near the top of Google's results, designed to answer a question quickly.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

Optimizing content so AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google's AI Mode cite and recommend you. It builds on SEO and AEO, and rewards original, well-structured content that answers a topic in sequence, including the follow-up questions.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

Google's free tool for tracking and reporting website traffic and conversions. It replaced Universal Analytics.

HTML

The standard language for building web pages. Search engines read it to understand your content.

Indexing

The process by which search engines store and organize pages so they can be shown in results.

Keyword

A word or phrase that describes your content and what people might search for to find it.

Keyword Difficulty (KD)

A third-party score, usually on a 1 to 100 scale, estimating how hard it is to rank for a keyword. We target 20 or under for most clients.

Lazy Loading

Loading images and video only when a visitor scrolls near them, so the page loads faster.

Link Building

The process of earning links from other websites to your own to build authority and referral traffic.

llms.txt

A proposed file for guiding AI crawlers. Google says you don't need it, or any special file or markup, to appear in its AI features.

Meta Description

A short summary of a page in its HTML, often shown under the title in search results.

Noindex

A tag that tells search engines not to include a page in their index. This, not robots.txt, is how you keep a page out of results.

Off-Page SEO

SEO work that happens outside your website, such as earning backlinks, mentions and reviews.

On-Page SEO

Optimizing the content and HTML of a page itself: titles, headings, copy, images and internal links.

Opportunity Keyword

A keyword that's relevant, searched often enough to matter and easy enough to win. Our filter: difficulty of 20 or under and 100+ searches a month.

Organic Traffic

Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results, as opposed to ads.

PageRank

One of Google's original algorithms for ranking pages based on the links pointing to them.

Quality Content

Content that provides real value to the reader, usually resulting in better engagement and higher rankings.

Query Fan-Out

When Google's AI breaks one question into several related searches to build a fuller answer. It's why covering a topic thoroughly matters.

Ranking

The position of a page in search results for a specific query.

Robots.txt

A file that tells search engine crawlers which parts of a site they shouldn't crawl. It controls crawling, not indexing: a blocked page can still show up in results.

Schema Markup

Code (structured data) that helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results like reviews or FAQs.

Search Engine

A program that searches an index of web pages to find results based on a query.

Search Intent

What a searcher actually wants: to learn, to compare or to buy. Your page should match it.

Search Volume

How many times a keyword is searched in a month. We usually skip keywords under 100 searches a month.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

The page a search engine shows in response to a query, now often including AI Overviews, ads and other features.

Technical SEO

Optimizing how a site is crawled, rendered and indexed, including site speed, mobile-friendliness and site structure.

User Experience (UX)

The overall experience a person has using your website, which affects engagement and conversions.

WebP

A modern image format that keeps quality at a much smaller file size than JPG or PNG, which helps page speed.

White Hat SEO

Ethical SEO practices that follow search engine guidelines.

XML Sitemap

A file that lists your site's important pages so search engines can find them.

Zero-Click Search

A search that ends without a click to any website, because the answer appeared on the results page itself.

Want to see these terms in action? Read SEO, AEO and GEO: The Organic Playbook I Use With Clients, or book a strategy call.