AEO and GEO glossary

The terms that come up in answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization, defined in one or two sentences each, in the order you are likely to meet them.

Search and answers

Featured snippet: the box above the first Google result that shows one passage lifted from a page.
People Also Ask: the expandable questions in Google results, each answered by a passage from one page.
AI Overview: the AI-written summary at the top of some Google results, with links to the pages it drew from.
Answer engine optimization (AEO): the work of being the passage Google lifts into those boxes, or the sentence a voice assistant reads aloud.
Answer-first paragraph: a paragraph whose first sentence is the answer, followed by the main condition, sized so Google can lift it whole.
Search Console: Google’s free report of the searches your site appears for, with positions and clicks. Where AEO is measured.

Assistants and generative search

Generative engine optimization (GEO): the work of being named inside the answers written by ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity.
Citation: a link an assistant shows next to its answer, pointing to a page it used. Perplexity shows them for every answer.
Entity: a business, person, or place that a search engine or assistant recognizes as one specific thing, with facts attached. Consistent listings make you a clear entity.
Mention: your business named on a page you do not own. Assistants treat mentions on trusted pages as evidence.
GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Bingbot: the named crawlers the assistants use to read websites. robots.txt controls whether they may.
llms.txt: an optional plain-text summary of a site, placed at the root for assistants to read.
AI referral traffic: visits to your site from links inside assistant answers, visible in Google Analytics by source.

Site and listings

Structured data, or schema: code on a page that states facts about the business in a form machines file: type, address, hours, services, credentials.
LocalBusiness schema: the structured data type for a business with a physical location, or its specific subtypes such as Dentist or AutoRepair.
FAQ schema: structured data listing the question and answer pairs on a page.
Google Business Profile: your listing on Google Search and Maps. The single most important source for local recommendations.
NAP: name, address, phone. The three facts that must match everywhere.
robots.txt: the file at the root of a site that tells crawlers what they may read.

Questions people ask

Where do I start with all this?

With the AI search readiness checklist, then the free SEO audit. Most of the terms above become concrete once you check your own site against them.

Are AEO and GEO the same thing?

No. AEO is measured in Google’s answer boxes; GEO is measured in what the assistants write. They share the same foundation of clear pages and consistent facts.

Is any of this different from good SEO?

It builds on it. Good SEO gets you found; AEO and GEO decide whether you are the answer and the name.

Want this done for you?

This is the work we do for every client: search, answer engines, and AI assistants, on one plan with one monthly report. Tell us about your business and we will tell you what we would do first.

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