Reference

SEO & AI Glossary

Plain-English definitions for every term you'll encounter in SEO, AI search, and content strategy.

A C D E F G I K L R S T

A

AI Overviews Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, pulling from multiple sources to answer a query directly on the page. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) The practice of structuring content to directly answer specific questions, making it more likely to be surfaced by voice assistants, featured snippets, and AI answer engines.

C

Canonical URL An HTML tag that tells search engines which version of a page is the "master" copy when duplicate or near-duplicate content exists at multiple URLs. Click-Through Rate (CTR) The percentage of people who click on your search result after seeing it in Google — calculated as clicks divided by impressions. Content Cluster A group of interlinked content pieces — a broad pillar page and multiple supporting articles — that together build topical authority on a subject. Core Web Vitals A set of three page experience signals — loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability — that Google uses as a ranking factor. Crawl Budget The number of pages Googlebot will crawl and index on your site within a given timeframe, determined by crawl rate and crawl demand.

D

Domain Authority A score from 0–100 that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results, based on the strength of its backlink profile.

E

E-E-A-T Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the framework Google's quality raters use to evaluate the credibility of web content.

F

Featured Snippet A highlighted search result box that appears at the top of Google's results page (position zero), showing a direct answer extracted from a web page.

G

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) The practice of optimising content so that AI-powered search engines and generative tools cite, reference, or recommend it in their responses.

I

Index Coverage A Google Search Console report that shows which pages on your site are indexed, which are excluded, and why — helping you diagnose crawling and indexing issues.

K

Keyword Difficulty A score that estimates how hard it would be to rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword, based on the strength of competing pages.

L

Link Equity The value or "authority" passed from one page to another through a hyperlink, influencing how well the linked page can rank in search results. LLM Monitoring The practice of tracking how often and how accurately your brand, products, or content are referenced by large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

R

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) An AI architecture where a language model retrieves relevant documents from an external source at query time before generating its response, improving accuracy and recency.

S

Search Intent The underlying goal or motivation behind a search query — what the user actually wants to find, do, or know. Semantic SEO An approach to SEO that focuses on the meaning and relationships between concepts, rather than targeting isolated keywords, to better align with how search engines understand language. SERP Volatility The degree of fluctuation in search engine rankings across a period of time, often used to detect Google algorithm updates or index refreshes.

T

Topical Authority The degree to which a website is recognised by search engines as a trusted, comprehensive source on a specific subject area.