Glossary
SEO and AI search glossary
Plain-English definitions of 44 terms you will run into when you work on search today, from entities and topic clusters to answer engines and AI Overviews. Every definition links to the page that goes deeper, and every claim about Google or an AI company links to its source.
Start here
These eight terms explain most of what has changed in search.
Entity
An entity is a single, well-defined thing a search engine can recognize and tell apart from everything else: a person, place, organization, product, or idea.
Entity-based SEO
Entity-based SEO is organizing a website around clearly defined entities, so search engines and AI systems understand exactly what, and who, each page is about.
Topic cluster
A topic cluster is a group of pages covering one subject: a pillar page on the broad topic, supporting pages on its parts, and internal links connecting them.
Topical authority
Topical authority is the trust a site earns for a subject by covering it thoroughly and accurately, so engines treat it as a reliable source on that topic.
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is structuring content so answer engines, from featured snippets to AI chat, can pull a direct answer from it and credit you.
Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is improving content so generative AI systems, like ChatGPT and Google's AI features, use and cite it in their answers.
AI Overviews
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries Google shows at the top of some search results, answering the query directly with links to the pages they draw on.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, the qualities Google's raters assess in content. Trust matters most.
Every term, A to Z
A
- AI citation
- An AI citation is when an AI answer engine names or links your page as a source for its answer. It is the AI-search equivalent of ranking.
- AI content humanization
- AI content humanization is editing AI-generated drafts into accurate, on-brand content with real expertise, so it reads as if an experienced writer produced it.
- AI Mode
- AI Mode is Google Search's conversational AI experience: people ask follow-up questions and get generated answers with links, separate from standard results.
- AI Overviews
- AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries Google shows at the top of some search results, answering the query directly with links to the pages they draw on.
- AI tells
- AI tells are patterns that make writing read as unedited AI output: overused words, formulaic openers, heavy hedging, uniform sentences, and habitual triads.
- Answer capsule
- An answer capsule is a short, self-contained answer placed directly under a heading, written so an AI engine can quote it without the text around it.
- Answer engine optimization (AEO)
- Answer engine optimization (AEO) is structuring content so answer engines, from featured snippets to AI chat, can pull a direct answer from it and credit you.
C
- Canonical URL
- A canonical URL is the one version of a page you want search engines to treat as the original, when the same content loads at several addresses.
- Content audit
- A content audit is a page-by-page review of a website that decides what to keep, improve, merge, or remove, based on performance, accuracy, and purpose.
- Content silo
- A content silo is a rigid site structure that walls pages into separate sections and limits links between them. It is an older alternative to topic clusters.
- Core update
- A core update is a significant, broad change Google makes to its ranking systems several times a year, which can shift rankings across many sites at once.
- Crawl budget
- Crawl budget is the set of URLs Google can and wants to crawl on a site. For most small and medium business sites, it is not worth worrying about.
E
- E-E-A-T
- E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, the qualities Google's raters assess in content. Trust matters most.
- Entity
- An entity is a single, well-defined thing a search engine can recognize and tell apart from everything else: a person, place, organization, product, or idea.
- Entity-based SEO
- Entity-based SEO is organizing a website around clearly defined entities, so search engines and AI systems understand exactly what, and who, each page is about.
- Entity-First Method
- The Entity-First Method is JNAbear's three-layer process: research the entities a topic is made of, draft with AI for speed, then edit every page by hand.
F
- FAQPage schema
- FAQPage schema is structured data that marks up a page's questions and answers. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search on May 7, 2026.
- Featured snippet
- A featured snippet is a highlighted answer Google shows among its results, quoting a page directly and linking to it. It is sometimes called position zero.
G
- Generative engine optimization (GEO)
- Generative engine optimization (GEO) is improving content so generative AI systems, like ChatGPT and Google's AI features, use and cite it in their answers.
- Google Business Profile
- A Google Business Profile is the free listing showing a business's name, location or service area, hours, reviews, and contact details in Search and Maps.
H
- Helpful content
- Helpful content is Google's term for pages made primarily to help people rather than to rank. It is the standard Google says its ranking systems reward.
I
- IndexNow
- IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a site instantly tell participating search engines, including Microsoft Bing, when pages are added, changed, or deleted.
- Internal linking
- Internal linking is linking from one page of your site to another, which helps visitors and search engines find pages and understand how they relate.
J
- JSON-LD
- JSON-LD is a way of writing structured data as a small block of JSON in a page's code, separate from the visible content. It is the format Google recommends.
K
- Keyword density
- Keyword density is the share of a page's words taken up by one keyword or phrase. Google publishes no ideal percentage and has never recommended one.
- Keyword stuffing
- Keyword stuffing is filling a page with keywords or numbers to manipulate rankings. Google lists it as spam, and it can cost a page its rankings.
- Knowledge Graph
- Google's Knowledge Graph is its database of real-world entities and the relationships between them, used to understand searches and power knowledge panels.
L
- llms.txt
- llms.txt is a proposed plain-Markdown file at a site's root that gives AI systems a curated summary of the site and links to its most important pages.
M
- Map pack
- The map pack is the short list of local businesses, usually three, that Google shows with a map for searches with local intent, such as "plumber near me".
N
- NAP consistency
- NAP consistency means your business name, address, and phone number appear exactly the same on your website, Business Profile, directories, and social profiles.
O
- OAI-SearchBot
- OAI-SearchBot is OpenAI's crawler for ChatGPT search. OpenAI says sites that block it will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers.
- Orphan page
- An orphan page is a page no other page on your site links to, so visitors and search engines can reach it only from a sitemap or an outside link.
P
- Pillar page
- A pillar page is the central page of a topic cluster: a broad overview of a subject that links to every supporting page covering its parts in depth.
R
- robots.txt
- robots.txt is a plain-text file at a site's root that tells search engine and AI crawlers which parts of the site they may and may not crawl.
S
- sameAs
- sameAs is a schema.org property linking an entity to other pages that unambiguously identify it, such as its official profiles or its Wikidata entry.
- Schema markup
- Schema markup is code added to a page, using the schema.org vocabulary, that labels what the page is about, such as a business, an article, or a product.
- Search intent
- Search intent is the goal behind a search: what the person actually wants to find, learn, compare, or do when they type or ask it.
- Semantic SEO
- Semantic SEO is optimizing content for meaning, not exact phrases: covering a topic's entities and questions so engines understand what a page is about.
- Semantic triple
- A semantic triple is one fact stated as subject, predicate, and object, like "JNAbear offers content audits": the basic unit of machine-readable knowledge.
- Structured data
- Structured data is information on a page in a standardized format that search engines can read directly, most often schema.org vocabulary written as JSON-LD.
T
- Topic cluster
- A topic cluster is a group of pages covering one subject: a pillar page on the broad topic, supporting pages on its parts, and internal links connecting them.
- Topical authority
- Topical authority is the trust a site earns for a subject by covering it thoroughly and accurately, so engines treat it as a reliable source on that topic.
- Topical map
- A topical map is a plan of every page a site should publish on a subject: the pillars, the supporting pages, the question each answers, and how they link.
Z
- Zero-click search
- A zero-click search is a search that ends on the results page, because the person got what they needed there without clicking through to any website.
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