SEO and AI search terms, explained
Plate Lunch Collective is an AI SEO agency that gets brands named when buyers ask, in search, on social, and in AI. Look up any term for a plain definition, where it comes from, and how AI answers it today.
328 terms in 7 groups. Search below, or jump to a group.
Entities and the knowledge graph
How search engines and AI tools work out which business you are, and keep you apart from everyone with a similar name.
Entity SEO49 terms
- Apple Business ConnectApple Business Connect was Apple's free tool for claiming your business on Apple Maps and setting how your name, logo, hours and photos showed up across Apple apps like Maps, Safari and Spotlight.
- Bing Places for BusinessBing Places for Business is Microsoft's free tool for adding or claiming your business listing so it shows up in Bing search results and on Bing Maps, with your hours, phone number, website and photos.
- Brand Disambiguation
- Brand EntityA brand entity is SEO shorthand for your business as search engines understand it: one specific thing with its own name, facts and connections to other things.
- Brand SERPA brand SERP is the page of results a search engine shows when someone types in your business's exact name.
- Co-CitationCo-citation is how often two documents get cited together by other documents.
- Disambiguation PageA disambiguation page is a Wikipedia page that lists the different things a name can mean and links to each one.
- Entity AttributeAn entity attribute is a fact that describes a thing, like a person's date of birth or a business's address, phone number or line of work.
- Entity ConsistencyEntity consistency, in search, means the facts about your business match everywhere they appear: the same name, address, phone number, hours and description on your website, Google Business Profile, social profiles and listings.
- Entity Disambiguation
- Entity HomeAn entity home is the one page on your own website that says plainly who your business is, and that search engines and AI tools can trust most for the facts about you.
- Entity IDAn entity ID is the code a knowledge base uses to label one person, place, business or thing.
- Entity LinkingEntity linking is the step where software finds a name in a piece of text and matches it to the right entry in a knowledge base, such as a Wikipedia page.
- Entity SalienceEntity salience is a score for how central a person, place, company or thing is to a piece of text.
- Entity SEO
- Entity TypeAn entity type is the kind of thing an entity is, such as a person, an organization, a local business, a place or an event.
- Google Business ProfileA Google Business Profile is a free listing that lets a business manage how it shows up on Google Search and Google Maps, with its hours, phone number, website, location, photos and reviews.
- Google ReviewsGoogle reviews are the star ratings and written reviews people post about a business or place on Google Maps, sometimes with photos or videos.
- Google Shopping GraphThe Google Shopping Graph is Google's live collection of product information: names, descriptions, prices, images and reviews.
- JSON-LDJSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a way to write facts as data that software can read, using JSON, a common web format.
- Knowledge BaseA knowledge base is a collection of information about a particular subject.
- Knowledge GraphThe Knowledge Graph is Google's database of billions of facts about people, places and things, drawn from public sources, licensed data and content owners.
- Knowledge PanelA knowledge panel is the information box that shows up on Google when you search for a person, place, organization or thing that's in Google's Knowledge Graph.
- Linked DataLinked data is a way of putting data on the web so people and software can follow links from one fact to the next.
- Local Business SchemaLocal business schema is code on a website that describes a physical business, or one branch of it, using the LocalBusiness type from Schema.org, the shared vocabulary for structured data.
- Local CitationA local citation is any mention of a business's name, address and phone number online, often shortened to NAP.
- Local PackThe local pack is the SEO trade name for the local search results Google shows when someone searches for a kind of business nearby.
- Local SEOLocal SEO (local search engine optimization) is the work of helping a business show up when people nearby search for what it offers, on Google Maps and in Google Search's local results.
- MicrodataMicrodata is a way to label facts inside a web page's own HTML so software can read them.
- Named Entity RecognitionNamed entity recognition, or NER, is the job of finding the words in a text that are names of things, such as people and companies, and labeling what kind of name each one is.
- Near-Me SearchA near-me search is a search for something close to where the searcher is, like "salons near me".
- OntologyAn ontology, in computing, is a set of precise statements about one subject that fixes what its words mean and how things relate.
- Organization SchemaOrganization schema is structured data, code on your website, that tells search engines the basic facts about your business: its name, website, logo, address, phone number and official profiles on other sites.
- Person EntityA person entity is a real person, like a business owner, author or expert, whom Google treats as one thing with its own facts in its Knowledge Graph.
- Person SchemaPerson schema is code on a web page that describes a person in a standard format, using the Person type from the Schema.org vocabulary.
- RDFaRDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes) is a way of adding structured data to a web page through extra attributes on the HTML tags around the words people already see.
- Review SchemaReview schema is code that marks up a review or a rating on a web page so Google can read it, using the Review and AggregateRating types.
- sameAs ArrayA sameAs array is a list of web addresses inside a page's schema markup, each pointing to another page about the same person or business.
- Schema MarkupSchema markup is code on a web page that tells search engines, in a standard format, what the page is about.
- Schema TypeA schema type is the label in structured data that says what kind of thing a page describes, such as an Organization, a Person, a Product or an Event.
- Schema.orgSchema.org is a shared vocabulary for structured data, the code that labels the facts on a web page so software can read them.
- Semantic TripleA semantic triple is a single fact written in three parts: a subject, a predicate and an object, like a bakery (subject), sells (predicate), sourdough bread (object).
- Semantic WebThe Semantic Web is the W3C's name for a web of data, where facts are published in common formats so apps, companies and communities can share and reuse them.
- Service-Area BusinessA service-area business is a business that visits or delivers to customers where they are and doesn't serve them at its own address.
- Site NameA site name is the name Google shows in search results to say which website a page comes from, separate from the page's own title.
- TaxonomyA taxonomy is a list of terms arranged from general to specific, where each term is linked to a broader parent, narrower children, or both.
- WikidataWikidata is a free database of facts hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia.
- Wikidata QIDA Wikidata QID is the ID number Wikidata gives each item in its free database of facts: the letter Q followed by digits, like Q42 for the writer Douglas Adams.
- Wikipedia PresenceWikipedia presence means whether a business has its own Wikipedia article, or shows up in other articles, and what they say.
Answers and how content gets used
How a page becomes the answer, the quote or the source when someone asks a question.
Answer engine optimization91 terms
- AEO
- AI HallucinationAn AI hallucination is an answer from an AI tool that sounds sure of itself but isn't true.
- AI-Generated AnswerAn AI-generated answer is a reply that an AI tool writes in its own words when someone asks a question.
- Article SchemaArticle schema, which Google calls Article structured data, is code that tells Google a page is a news story, blog post or sports article, along with its headline, author, dates and image.
- Chunking
- Commercial QueryA commercial query is a search from someone weighing a purchase: comparing options, reading reviews or looking for the right business before they buy.
- Comparative QueryA comparative query is a search that asks how two or more options stack up, such as whether to rent or buy a house or whether a cat or a dog makes a better pet.
- Content DecayContent decay is the slow drop in how often people find and click a page over time.
- Content ExtractabilityContent extractability is how easily an AI tool can lift a passage from your page and use it in an answer without the rest of the page around it.
- Content FreshnessContent freshness is how current a page's information is: whether its facts, prices and advice still hold today.
- Content Gap AnalysisContent gap analysis is the work of finding the topics and questions your buyers search for that your site doesn't answer yet, often by checking what competing sites rank for.
- Content ProvenanceContent provenance is the record of where a piece of digital content came from and what happened to it since: who made it, how, when, and what edits followed.
- Content PruningContent pruning is going through the pages on your website and deciding which to keep, update, merge into another page, or take down.
- Content VelocityContent velocity is how quickly a business can create and publish content.
- Context PoisoningContext poisoning is when a wrong idea gets into the notes and goals an AI tool works from, and the tool keeps acting on it.
- Context RotContext rot is the drop in an AI tool's accuracy as the text it's given to work from gets longer.
- Context SufficiencyContext sufficiency is whether the text handed to an AI tool holds everything it needs to give a definite answer to a question.
- Conversational QueryA conversational query is a search typed or spoken the way you'd ask a person, as a full question instead of a few keywords.
- Direct AnswerA direct answer is a short, complete reply to a question, placed where readers see it first: at the top of the search results or at the start of a page.
- Expert QuoteAn expert quote is a quote from a credible source, such as a person who knows the subject, added to a page to back up what it says.
- Factual DensityFactual density is how many facts a piece of writing holds for its length.
- FAQ SchemaFAQ schema is code added to a web page that labels its frequently asked questions and the answer to each one.
- Featured SnippetA featured snippet is a box in Google's search results that shows a short piece of a website answering your question.
- GEO
- Google autocompleteGoogle autocomplete is the feature in Google Search that suggests ways to finish a search while you're typing it.
- GroundingGrounding, in AI, means tying an AI tool's answer to an outside source of facts, such as live search results, so the answer doesn't rest only on what the tool learned in training.
- Head TermA head term is a search phrase that lots of people type, at the popular end of all searches.
- Heading Tags (H1 to H6)Heading tags are the labels in a web page's code, written h1 through h6, that mark its titles and subtitles.
- Helpful Content UpdateThe helpful content update was a Google Search system, announced in 2022, built to show more original, helpful content written by people, for people, and less content made mainly to pull in search traffic.
- HowTo SchemaHowTo schema is a block of code that tells search engines a page holds step-by-step instructions, along with the steps, the tools and supplies, and the time the job takes.
- Implicit QueryAn implicit query is a search that software runs for you, based on what you're doing, rather than words you typed.
- Information GainInformation gain is how much new information a page adds beyond what a reader has already seen on the same topic.
- Informational QueryAn informational query is a search made to learn something, like how a thing works or what a word means, rather than to reach a certain site or buy.
- Keyword CannibalizationKeyword cannibalization is when two or more pages on one website aim at the same search, so they compete with each other instead of one doing the job.
- Keyword DensityKeyword density is how often one word or phrase appears on a page, shown as a percentage of all the words on that page.
- Keyword ResearchKeyword research is finding the words and phrases people type into search engines when they look for what you sell, and checking roughly how often each one is searched.
- Keyword StuffingKeyword stuffing is filling a web page with keywords or numbers to try to rank higher in Google, often in lists or out of context.
- Knowledge ConflictA knowledge conflict is when the facts an AI tool has to work with disagree with each other.
- LLMO
- Long-Tail QueryA long-tail query is a specific search that few people type, like a question about one product or one place, as opposed to a broad term like "plumber".
- Lost in the MiddleLost in the middle is a pattern researchers found in AI language tools: they use information best when it sits at the start or end of a long text, and do much worse when it sits in the middle.
- Meta DescriptionA meta description is a short summary of a web page, written into the page's code, that search engines can show under the page's title in results.
- Multi-hop QueryA multi-hop query is a question that can't be answered from one fact or one page, because the answer depends on linking several pieces of information in steps.
- Multi-Modal SearchMulti-modal search is searching with more than one kind of input at once, like a photo plus typed words, instead of text alone.
- Navigational QueryA navigational query is a search for one particular website, like typing a company's name to get to its site.
- Neural MatchingNeural matching is an AI system Google uses in Search to understand the concepts behind a search and a page and match them to each other, even when the words differ.
- On-Page SEOOn-page SEO is the work done on a web page itself, its words and its code, to help it rank in search and earn the right visitors.
- Organic SearchOrganic search means the free listings in a search engine's results, the ones that show up because they match what someone searched, not because a business paid.
- Original ResearchOriginal research is new information gathered and reported by the people who did the work, published for the first time with a note on how it was done.
- Parametric KnowledgeParametric knowledge is what an AI tool learned during training and carries inside itself, with no lookup.
- Passage RankingPassage ranking is an AI system Google Search uses to look at single sections, or passages, of a web page, so it can better judge how relevant the whole page is to a search.
- People Also AskPeople Also Ask is a box in Google's search results that lists questions related to what someone searched.
- Pillar PageA pillar page is one page that covers a broad topic from end to end and links to narrower pages on the same site, which link back to it.
- Post-hoc CitationA post-hoc citation is a source an AI tool attaches after it has already written its answer, rather than citing as it writes.
- Primary SourceA primary source is the original record of something: a document or object made at the time being studied.
- Product SchemaProduct schema is code on a product page that spells out the price, whether it's in stock, review ratings and shipping in a format Google can read.
- Programmatic SEOProgrammatic SEO is the industry's name for building many web pages from one template and a table of data, each aimed at a slightly different search, like one page per town.
- QAPage SchemaQAPage schema is code that marks a web page as one question followed by answers from its users, like a forum thread or a support page where customers reply.
- Query Decomposition
- Query Deserves Freshness (QDF)Query deserves freshness, or QDF, is Google's name for the systems that favor newer pages when someone's search needs current information.
- Query ExpansionQuery expansion is a search engine adding related words to what someone typed, such as synonyms or other phrasings, so it can find pages that use different words for the same thing.
- Query Fan-Out
- Query UnderstandingQuery understanding is the work a search engine does to figure out what someone means before it picks results.
- QuotabilityQuotability is the quality of being quotable: how suitable a line or passage is for someone else to repeat.
- RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)RAG, short for retrieval-augmented generation, is a way of building AI tools so they look things up in an outside collection of text before they answer.
- Relevance SignalA relevance signal is a clue a search engine uses to judge whether a page matches what someone searched for.
- RerankingReranking is a second sorting step in search: a system quickly gathers a large set of possibly useful documents, then scores each one again with a slower, more careful method and puts the best on top.
- Retrieval Layer
- Rich ResultA rich result is a Google search listing that goes beyond the standard blue link, with extras like images, a carousel or other non-text elements.
- Scaled Content AbuseScaled content abuse is Google's name for publishing many pages mainly to push up search rankings instead of helping the people who read them.
- Search Experience Optimization (SXO)Search experience optimization (SXO) is working on SEO and user experience, meaning how easy a site is to use, together, so a page shows up in search and works for the person who clicks it.
- Search IntentSearch intent is what a person wants when they search: to learn something, get something done, reach a certain website, or visit a place in person.
- Search Quality Rater GuidelinesThe Search Quality Rater Guidelines are the public handbook for the outside raters Google works with to check its search results.
- Search QueryA search query is what a person types or speaks into a search engine to find something, from a single word to a full question.
- Self-Contained ParagraphA self-contained paragraph is a paragraph that still makes sense when it's the only part of a page someone reads.
- Semantic ChunkingSemantic chunking is a way of splitting documents into pieces for AI apps by meaning, cutting where the topic shifts instead of every set number of words.
- Semantic SearchSemantic search is search that tries to work out what a person means, not just match the words they typed.
- Semantic SEOSemantic SEO is an industry name for building pages around a topic and the questions people ask about it, so search engines can match them by meaning, not only by exact phrases.
- SEO KeywordsSEO keywords are the searches a website wants its pages to be found for, written the way people type them.
- SERPA SERP, short for search engine results page, is the page a search engine shows after you type a search.
- SERP FeatureA SERP feature is anything on a search results page beyond the plain list of links, like a local map, a row of videos or a box of related questions.
- SitelinksSitelinks are extra links that Google shows under one search result, pointing to other pages or sections of the same website, like a shortcut to a services or contact page.
- Structured SnippetA structured snippet is an add-on to a Google search ad that lists a few things a business offers under a set heading, like Service catalog followed by a short list of services.
- Sub-query
- Title TagA title tag is the bit of a web page's code, written as <title>, that names the page.
- Topic ClusterA topic cluster is a group of web pages on one subject: a broad main page, often called a pillar page, and smaller pages that each cover one part of it.
- Topical AuthorityTopical authority is how much of an expert a website is seen to be on one subject.
- Topical MapA topical map is a plan of every question a website needs to answer on one topic, and how those pages connect, drawn up before the writing starts.
- Transactional QueryA transactional query is a search from someone who wants to do something online, like buy, book, download or sign up, rather than just read.
- Voice SearchVoice search is searching by speaking instead of typing, like asking the Google app for the closest coffee shop.
- YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)YMYL, short for Your Money or Your Life, is Google's name for topics where bad information could cause harm.
Crawlers and technical access
What lets search engines and AI tools reach, read and index your site in the first place.
AI SEO82 terms
- 301 redirectA 301 redirect is a permanent redirect: when a browser or search engine asks for an old address, the server sends it to a new one for good.
- Agentic SearchAgentic search is search where an AI tool takes several steps for you instead of handing back one list of links.
- Agentic SEO
- AI CrawlerAn AI crawler is a bot that visits websites and downloads their pages for an AI company.
- AI Search EngineAn AI search engine is a search tool that answers your question in plain sentences and shows links to web sources.
- AI Search Optimization
- AI SEO
- ApplebotApplebot is Apple's web crawler, the bot that collects web pages for search in Siri, Spotlight and Safari.
- BERT (Google Search)BERT, short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, is an AI system Google uses to understand how the words in a search work together to mean something.
- BingbotBingbot is Microsoft's main web crawler, the bot that visits pages so they can show up in Bing search.
- Black hat SEOBlack hat SEO is the name for tricks meant to fool search engines into ranking a page higher, by breaking their rules.
- Breadcrumbs (BreadcrumbList)Breadcrumbs are the row of links near the top of a web page that shows where the page sits on the site, like Home > Services > Roof Repair.
- CanonicalizationCanonicalization is how a search engine picks one main web address when the same page, or nearly the same page, can be reached at more than one address.
- ChatGPT-UserChatGPT-User is the name OpenAI's software uses when it opens a web page for someone using ChatGPT or a Custom GPT.
- ClaudeBotClaudeBot is the web crawler Anthropic, the company behind Claude, uses to collect web content that could help train its AI.
- CloakingCloaking is showing search engines one version of a page and people another, to game rankings and mislead visitors.
- Common Crawl (CCBot)Common Crawl is a nonprofit that crawls the web and gives away copies of what it collects, free for researchers, companies and anyone else to download and study.
- Context WindowA context window is all the text an AI language model can look at while it writes a reply, including the reply itself.
- Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are three measures from Google of how a page feels to real visitors.
- Crawl BudgetCrawl budget is the set of web addresses (URLs) on a site that Google can and wants to crawl, meaning visit and download.
- Doorway pagesDoorway pages are pages or sites made to rank for many similar searches that send visitors on to another page before they reach what they want.
- Duplicate contentDuplicate content is the same or nearly the same content reachable at more than one web address.
- EmbeddingAn embedding is a list of numbers that stands for a piece of text, so a computer can measure how closely two pieces of text relate.
- Generative AIGenerative AI is AI that makes new content, like text, pictures, music or video.
- Google API leak (Content Warehouse)The Google API leak, also called the Content Warehouse leak, is a set of internal Google documents that were posted publicly in March 2024, apparently by accident, and reported that May.
- Google core updateA Google core update is a big, broad change Google makes to its search systems several times a year.
- Google spam policiesGoogle's spam policies are the list of practices Google Search treats as spam, the tactics that can push a page or a whole site down in results or out of them.
- Google-AgentGoogle-Agent is the name that agents running on Google's systems use when they visit websites to do something a person asked for.
- Google-ExtendedGoogle-Extended is a robots.txt setting that tells Google whether content it crawls from your site may be used for Gemini.
- GooglebotGooglebot is the name Google gives the two web crawlers it uses to visit pages for Google Search, one that acts like a phone and one like a desktop.
- GPTBotGPTBot is the web crawler OpenAI uses to collect pages that may be used to train its AI.
- HreflangHreflang is a tag in a page's code, server headers or sitemap that tells Google the page has other versions for different languages or regions.
- Image Alt TextImage alt text is a short written description of a picture, added to the image's code, that says what the picture shows.
- IndexabilityIndexability is whether a search engine can add a page to its index, the list of pages it can show in results.
- IndexNowIndexNow is a ping a website sends to tell search engines that a page was added, changed or deleted, instead of waiting for crawlers to notice.
- Information ArchitectureInformation architecture is how a website's content is organized, grouped and named so people can find what they need.
- Internal LinkingInternal linking means linking one page of your website to other pages on the same site.
- JavaScript SEOJavaScript SEO is the work of making sure search engines can find and read pages that are built or filled in by JavaScript, the code that makes web pages interactive.
- Knowledge CutoffA knowledge cutoff is the date after which an AI tool learned nothing new in training.
- Large Language Model (LLM)A large language model, or LLM, is a kind of AI that writes by predicting the next word or part of a word, again and again, until it has an answer.
- Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)Latent semantic indexing, or LSI, is a method for matching searches to documents that a team of researchers, most of them at Bellcore, a phone company research lab, described in 1990.
- llms.txtllms.txt is a text file a website can put at its root or in a folder, like example.com/llms.txt, to give AI tools a short summary of the site and links to the pages that matter.
- Log File AnalysisLog file analysis is reading your web server's access log, the record of every request the server handles, to see who and what asked for which pages.
- Machine ReadabilityMachine readability is how easily software can take in information and use it without a person reading it first.
- Markup ValidationMarkup validation is checking a web page's code against the rules of the language it's written in, usually HTML, to catch mistakes like tags that never close.
- Meta TagsMeta tags are lines of HTML in the head of a web page, the part visitors don't see, that pass information about the page to search engines, browsers and other software.
- Mobile-First IndexingMobile-first indexing is Google's practice of using the mobile version of a site's content, crawled with its smartphone crawler, to index and rank pages.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)The Model Context Protocol, or MCP, is an open-source standard that lets AI applications like Claude and ChatGPT connect to data sources, tools and workflows outside themselves.
- MUM (Multitask Unified Model)MUM, short for Multitask Unified Model, is an AI system Google built that can both understand language and write it.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)Natural language processing, or NLP, is the branch of AI that lets software read and make sense of human language, like the words in an email, a review or a search.
- NLWebNLWeb, short for Natural Language Web, is an open project from Microsoft that lets a website answer questions typed in everyday words from its own content.
- NoindexNoindex is a rule on a web page, set either as a robots meta tag in the page's code or as a header your server sends, that tells search engines not to list that page.
- nosnippet and data-nosnippetNosnippet is a robots meta tag rule that tells Google not to show a text snippet or video preview for a page in search results.
- OAI-SearchBotOAI-SearchBot is the web crawler OpenAI uses to find websites and show them in ChatGPT's search features.
- Open GraphOpen Graph is a set of tags in a web page's code that say what to show when someone shares the link, like a title and a picture.
- Orphan pageAn orphan page is a page on your site that no other page on the site links to.
- Page experiencePage experience is Google's name for how using a web page feels to a visitor: how it loads and behaves, whether it's secure, whether it works on a phone, and whether ads or pop-ups get in the way of the main content.
- Page SpeedPage speed is how quickly a web page loads and responds for the people who visit it.
- Pay per crawlPay per crawl is a Cloudflare feature that lets website owners charge AI crawlers a fee each time they fetch a page.
- PerplexityBotPerplexityBot is the web crawler Perplexity uses to find websites and link to them in its search results.
- PrerenderingPrerendering is building a web page's HTML ahead of time, when the site is built, instead of in the visitor's browser with JavaScript.
- RankBrainRankBrain is the part of Google Search that works out how the words in a search relate to real-world ideas, so Google can return useful pages even when they don't contain every word someone typed.
- Ranking factorsRanking factors are the things a search engine weighs when it decides which pages to show first.
- Rich Results TestThe Rich Results Test is a free Google tool that checks a public web page, or a pasted piece of code, for structured data, the labels in a page's code that tell Google what's on it.
- Robots meta tagA robots meta tag is a line of code in a web page's head section that tells search engine crawlers how to handle that page, such as whether to list it or show a preview.
- Robots.txtRobots.txt is a plain text file at the top of a website, at yoursite.com/robots.txt, that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may visit.
- Search engine indexingSearch engine indexing is the step where a search engine reads a page it has crawled, works out what it's about, and stores it in its index, the database it pulls results from.
- Semantic HTMLSemantic HTML means using the HTML element that matches what a piece of content is, like a heading tag for a heading or a nav element for a menu, rather than plain boxes styled to look the part.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)SEO, short for search engine optimization, is the work of helping search engines understand your website and helping people find it when they search.
- Server-Side RenderingServer-side rendering (SSR) is building a web page's HTML on the server each time someone asks for it, so the browser gets a finished page instead of code it has to run first.
- Site migrationA site migration is a change that moves a website's pages to new web addresses, such as a new domain, a switch from http to https, or renamed pages.
- Site reputation abuse (parasite SEO)Site reputation abuse is publishing another party's pages on a well-known site mainly to borrow the ranking strength that site earned with its own content.
- Soft 404A soft 404 is a page that tells visitors it doesn't exist, or shows little or nothing, while the server reports it as a normal working page with a 200 success code.
- Subdomain vs subfolderA subdomain and a subfolder are two ways to give part of a website its own address.
- Synthetic ContentSynthetic content is text, images, audio or video that has been made or heavily changed by computer programs, including AI.
- Technical SEOTechnical SEO is the work on a website's code and setup that lets search engines find, read and store its pages.
- Training CorpusA training corpus is the collection of text, images and other material an AI system learns from during training.
- URL StructureURL structure is the way a website's page addresses are built, from the domain name to the folders and words after it.
- User agentA user agent is any program that asks a website for a page, like a web browser, a search engine's crawler or an app.
- Web Bot AuthWeb Bot Auth is a draft web standard that lets a bot or AI agent sign each request it sends to a website, so the site can check the bot is who it claims to be.
- Web crawlerA web crawler is a program that visits websites on its own and downloads their pages.
- XML SitemapAn XML sitemap is a file that lists a website's pages, and can include its videos and images, so search engines can find them.
Links and authority
The links, mentions and trust signals that tell search engines and AI tools other people vouch for you.
AI SEO18 terms
- Anchor TextAnchor text is the words you click on in a link, which Google also calls link text.
- BacklinkA backlink is a link on a page from another website that points to a page on your website.
- Brand MentionA brand mention is any time your business's name shows up on a page you don't own, like a news story, a review, a blog post or a forum thread, with or without a link to you.
- Digital PRDigital PR is public relations work aimed at the web: getting a business written about on news sites, blogs, podcasts, trade sites and other places people read online.
- Disavow linksDisavowing links means asking Google to ignore certain links that point to your website, through a tool in Google Search Console.
- Domain AuthorityDomain Authority is a score from 1 to 100 made by Moz, an SEO software company, that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results compared with other sites.
- Domain RatingDomain Rating, or DR, is Ahrefs' 100-point score for how strong a website's backlinks are next to the other sites in Ahrefs' database.
- E-E-A-TE-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, the qualities Google says its search systems try to reward in helpful, reliable pages.
- Link buildingLink building is the work of getting other websites to link to yours.
- Link EquityLink equity is an SEO name for the value a link passes to the page it points to.
- Link spamLink spam is Google's name for creating links to or from a site mainly to push up its search rankings.
- Negative SEONegative SEO is the industry's name for trying to hurt another site's search rankings, for example by pointing spammy links at it.
- Nofollow link (rel nofollow, sponsored, ugc)A nofollow link is a link with rel="nofollow" in its code, which tells Google you'd rather it not connect your site to the page you're linking to, or crawl that page from your site.
- Off-page SEOOff-page SEO is the work done outside your own website to help it rank and help people find it.
- PageRankPageRank is the system Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, built at Stanford to rate how important a web page is from the links pointing to it.
- Referring domainsReferring domains are the separate websites that link to your site or page, each counted once no matter how many links it sends.
- Source CredibilitySource credibility is how much people believe a message because of who it comes from, mostly whether they think the source can be trusted.
- TrustRankTrustRank is a method for spotting web spam, described in a 2004 paper by researchers at Stanford University and Yahoo.
Measurement
How to tell whether buyers are finding you, in search and in AI answers, and what the numbers can and can't show.
How we measure39 terms
- AI Citation Audit
- AI Citation MonitoringAI citation monitoring is checking, again and again over time, whether AI answers name your business or link to your pages as a source.
- AI Search VisibilityAI search visibility is how often your business shows up in AI tools' answers, either named or cited as a source with a link to your page.
- AI Share of VoiceAI share of voice is the percentage of brand mentions in AI answers that go to your business, compared with the competitors in your market.
- AI Traffic
- Bing Webmaster ToolsBing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's free service for checking how your website does in Bing search.
- Bounce RateBounce rate is the share of visits to a website that don't count as engaged.
- Brand Presence Audit
- Brand SentimentBrand sentiment is the tone AI answers and other sources take when they mention your business, whether favorable or not.
- Branded SearchA branded search is a search that includes your business's name, a misspelling of it, or a product or service only you offer.
- Citation ConcentrationCitation concentration is how many of the sources AI answers link to come from a small group of websites.
- Citation DecayCitation decay is the drop in how often AI answers cite a page after it has been cited.
- Citation GapA citation gap is a question your buyers ask where AI answers cite your competitors as sources and leave you out.
- Clickstream DataClickstream data is a record of the pages people visit and the links they click as they move around the web.
- CrUX (Chrome UX Report)CrUX, short for the Chrome User Experience Report, is Google's public dataset of how real Chrome users experience websites, including how fast pages load, how quickly they respond and how much they jump around.
- Dwell TimeDwell time is how long a person stays on a page after clicking it in search results, before going back to the results.
- Ghost Citation
- Google Keyword PlannerGoogle Keyword Planner is a research tool inside Google Ads that gives you keyword ideas from words or a website you enter, with rough monthly searches and what an ad on each might cost.
- Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is a free service from Google that helps you watch, maintain and fix how your website shows up in Google Search.
- Google TrendsGoogle Trends is a Google tool that shows how interest in a search topic rises and falls over time and from place to place.
- Impressions (Search Console)Impressions in Google Search Console count how often someone saw, or could have seen, a link to your site in Google Search, Discover or News.
- Keyword DifficultyKeyword difficulty is a score SEO tool companies calculate to guess how hard it will be to reach Google's first page for a search.
- Keyword RankingA keyword ranking is the spot where your page shows up in Google's results for a given search, counting down from the top.
- LLM Brand Audit
- Local Rank Grid (Geogrid)A local rank grid, or geogrid, is a map report made by local SEO tools such as BrightLocal and Local Falcon.
- Manual actionA manual action is what Google takes against a website when a person at Google decides its pages break Google's spam policies.
- NavBoostNavBoost is a Google ranking system described in the U.S.
- Organic Click-Through RateOrganic click-through rate is how often people click through to your site when it shows up in Google's unpaid search results.
- Pogo-stickingPogo-sticking is when someone clicks a search result, comes back to the results page quickly, and picks a different one.
- Prompt ResearchPrompt research is finding the questions people ask AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's AI Mode about what you sell, and which brands the answers name.
- Prompt-to-PurchasePrompt-to-purchase is the path from a question someone types into an AI tool to a finished order, sometimes without leaving the chat.
- Question SetA question set is the fixed list of questions you ask AI tools again and again to see how often they name your business.
- Search volumeSearch volume is how many times people search for a word or phrase, usually shown as a monthly average.
- Sentiment AnalysisSentiment analysis is the use of software to judge whether a piece of text sounds positive, negative or neutral.
- SEO AuditAn SEO audit is a review of a website's content, structure and technical setup to find what's holding it back in search, and what fixing it would take.
- SERP VolatilitySERP volatility is how much Google's search results shuffle from one day to the next.
- Share of SearchShare of search is your brand's searches divided by the searches for every brand in your category, often taken from free Google Trends data.
- URL Inspection ToolThe URL Inspection tool is a part of Google Search Console that shows what Google knows about one page on your site: whether it can show up in Google, how Google found it, when Google last crawled it, and which version Google picked as the main one.
- Zero-Click SearchA zero-click search is a search that ends without the person clicking any of the results.
The platforms
The search engines, AI tools and crawlers themselves, and what each one is.
Our research32 terms
- Agentic commerceAgentic commerce is buying and selling where an AI agent does the shopping for a person, from finding products to paying for them.
- Agentic Commerce ProtocolThe Agentic Commerce Protocol, or ACP, is an open standard for how AI agents, buyers and businesses complete purchases together.
- AI agentAn AI agent is software that uses AI to work toward a goal and finish tasks for a person, with some freedom to decide the steps itself.
- AI browser (agentic browser)An AI browser is a web browser with an AI assistant built in that can read the pages you have open and, in some cases, do tasks on websites for you.
- AI OverviewsAI Overviews are short AI-written summaries that Google Search shows on some results pages, with links to web pages that back them up.
- Amazon SEOAmazon SEO is the work of helping your products show up higher when shoppers search inside the Amazon store.
- App store optimization (ASO)App store optimization, or ASO, is the work of helping people find and download your app when they search an app store like Apple's App Store or Google Play.
- Apple Intelligence and Siri answersApple Intelligence is the AI built into Apple's iPhone, iPad and Mac software that helps people write, edit photos, find things and get answers.
- ChatGPTChatGPT is an AI assistant made by OpenAI that you type or talk to in everyday words to get answers, writing help and more.
- ChatGPT agent modeChatGPT agent mode was a ChatGPT setting that used its own virtual browser to do tasks for you on websites, like clicking buttons and filling out forms.
- ChatGPT searchChatGPT search is the part of ChatGPT that looks things up on the web, so an answer can include current information and links to the pages it used.
- ChatGPT shoppingChatGPT shopping is the part of ChatGPT that shows product options, with pictures, details and links to stores, when a question sounds like someone wants to buy.
- Claude (Anthropic)Claude is an AI assistant built by Anthropic that you talk to in everyday language, from quick questions to bigger jobs like analysis, writing and code.
- CrunchbaseCrunchbase is an online database of company information focused on private companies, from funding rounds to acquisitions.
- Deep ResearchDeep research is an AI feature in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, each under the same name, that takes a hard question, makes a research plan, reads many sources and returns a long report with citations.
- DeepSeekDeepSeek is an AI research company that builds large language models, the technology behind AI chat tools, and releases many of them openly for others to use.
- GeminiGemini is Google's AI assistant, an app you can type or talk to for help with writing, planning, research and more, on the web and on phones.
- Google AI ModeGoogle AI Mode is a part of Google Search where you ask a question in your own words, get an AI-written answer with links to web pages, and keep going with follow-up questions.
- Google DiscoverGoogle Discover is a part of Google Search that shows people articles, videos and other content picked for their interests, based on their Web and App Activity, without them typing a search.
- Google LensGoogle Lens is Google's tool for searching with a picture instead of words.
- Google Merchant CenterGoogle Merchant Center is a free Google tool where stores upload and manage their product details, like names, prices, photos and stock, so the products can show up across Google Search, Maps, YouTube and more.
- GrokGrok is an AI assistant you can chat with on grok.com, in its phone apps and inside X, the social network once called Twitter.
- Meta AIMeta AI is the AI assistant Meta builds into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, and offers in its own app and on the web.
- Microsoft CopilotMicrosoft Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant.
- OpenAIOpenAI is the AI research and deployment company that makes ChatGPT.
- PerplexityPerplexity is an AI-powered search engine that answers questions in plain, conversational language.
- Preferred Sources (Google)Preferred Sources is a Google Search setting that lets you pick the news sites and other websites you want to see more of.
- Product FeedA product feed is a file or data connection that lists the products a store sells, one row per item, with details like title, description, price, stock, image and product ID.
- RedditReddit is a website and app made up of thousands of communities, each built around one interest, where people post stories, links, images and videos, then comment and vote on them.
- Rufus (Amazon)Rufus was Amazon's AI shopping assistant in the Amazon app and website, built to answer shopping questions, compare products and make recommendations.
- Search EngineA search engine is a tool that finds pages on the web and shows the ones that match what you typed.
- WikipediaWikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, written by human volunteers and hosted by the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation.
Find out where your brand stands.
Tell us what you're trying to figure out. We'll get back to you within one business day with a time to talk.
Social search
How people search on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit, and how those posts show up in Google and AI answers.
Social search optimization17 terms