Glossary

SEO and AI search, defined without the jargon

22 terms your team will meet in audits, reports and strategy calls. Each links to the service where it matters.

A

AI Overview: A generated summary at the top of Google search results that synthesises information from multiple sources and cites them.; GEO AI SEO

B

Backlink: A hyperlink from one website to another. Backlinks from relevant, authoritative sites are a major ranking signal.; Link Building

C

Canonical tag: An HTML element that specifies the preferred URL when multiple pages have similar or duplicate content.; Technical SEO
Core Web Vitals: Google’s user experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift.; Technical SEO
Crawl budget: The number of pages a search engine will crawl on a site within a given timeframe.; Technical SEO Enterprise SEO

E

E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — the quality framework in Google’s rater guidelines.; Content SEO
Entity: A distinct, well-defined thing — a person, organisation, place or concept — that search engines and AI systems recognise and connect.; LLM Optimization

F

Faceted navigation: Filter systems on e-commerce sites that generate URL combinations for attributes like size, colour and brand.; E-commerce SEO

G

GEO: Generative Engine Optimization — optimising content to be selected and cited by AI answer engines.; GEO

H

Hreflang: An attribute that tells search engines which language and regional version of a page to serve to users.; International SEO

I

Indexation: The process of a search engine storing a page in its index so it can appear in results.; Technical SEO
Internal linking: Links between pages on the same website. They distribute authority and signal topical relationships.; On-Page SEO

J

JSON-LD: A JavaScript-based format for embedding structured data in web pages, recommended by Google.; Technical SEO

K

Keyword cannibalisation: When multiple pages on a site compete for the same query, diluting rankings.; On-Page SEO Keyword Research

L

LLM: Large Language Model — the AI technology behind ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and similar systems.; LLM Optimization

M

Map pack: The block of local business results with a map that appears for location-based searches.; Local SEO

R

Robots.txt: A file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which URLs they may access.; Technical SEO

S

Schema markup: Structured data vocabulary from schema.org used to describe page content to machines.; Technical SEO
SERP: Search Engine Results Page — the page displayed after a search query.; Keyword Research

T

Topical authority: Perceived expertise on a subject built through comprehensive, interlinked content coverage.; Content SEO

X

XML sitemap: A file listing a site’s URLs to help search engines discover and prioritise them.; Technical SEO

Z

Zero-click search: A search that ends without a click on any result, often because the answer appears on the results page.; AI SEO

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