Glossary

AI Visibility Glossary

Key terms and concepts for understanding AI visibility, LLM optimization, and the future of search.

AI & LLM

Terms related to AI systems and language models

AI Overviews

Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, powered by their Gemini AI model.

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AI SEO

Search engine optimization strategies specifically designed for AI-powered search engines and assistants.

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AI Visibility

The degree to which a website or brand is discoverable, understood, and cited by AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.

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Citation Authority

A measure of how frequently and reliably AI systems cite your content as a source when generating responses.

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Context Window

The maximum amount of text (measured in tokens) that an AI model can process in a single interaction.

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Conversational Search

Search interactions that use natural language queries and follow-up questions, common in AI assistants.

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Embeddings (Vector Embeddings)

Numerical representations of text that capture semantic meaning, enabling AI systems to understand content similarity and relationships.

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GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

The practice of optimizing content specifically for AI-powered generative search engines and chatbots.

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LLM Optimization

The practice of optimizing content and website structure specifically for large language models to better understand, index, and cite.

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Perplexity AI

An AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers with cited sources, combining search and LLM capabilities.

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Prompt Injection

A security vulnerability where malicious instructions are inserted into AI prompts to manipulate model behavior or extract sensitive information.

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RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)

A technique where AI systems retrieve real-time information from the web to generate more accurate, up-to-date responses.

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Temperature (AI Parameter)

A setting that controls randomness in AI-generated text, with lower values producing more predictable, factual outputs.

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Token (LLM)

The basic unit of text that large language models process, typically representing parts of words, whole words, or characters.

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Zero-Click Search

Search queries answered directly on the results page without requiring users to click through to a website.

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SEO & Content

Search optimization and content strategy terms

Content Clusters

A content organization strategy using pillar pages and related cluster content linked together to build topical authority.

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Crawl Budget

The number of pages a search engine or AI crawler will crawl on your site within a given timeframe.

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Disavow Tool

A Google Search Console feature that lets you tell Google to ignore specific backlinks that might harm your site's ranking.

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E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness - quality signals that both search engines and AI systems use to evaluate content.

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Featured Snippets

Selected search results displayed prominently at the top of Google, often called 'position zero'.

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Internal Linking

Hyperlinks between pages on the same website, used to establish site structure and content relationships.

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Knowledge Graph

Google's database of entities and their relationships, used to understand and connect information across the web.

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Long-Tail Keywords

Longer, more specific search phrases that typically have lower search volume but higher conversion rates.

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Noindex

A robots meta tag or HTTP header directive that prevents search engines and AI crawlers from indexing specific pages.

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Programmatic SEO

The practice of creating large numbers of SEO-optimized pages automatically using templates and data.

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Rich Snippets

Enhanced search results that display additional information like ratings, prices, or images beyond title and description.

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Search Intent

The underlying goal or purpose behind a search query - informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.

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Topical Authority

The perceived expertise a website has on a specific subject, built through comprehensive, high-quality content coverage.

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Technical

Technical implementation terminology

301 Redirect

A permanent redirect that sends users and crawlers from one URL to another, preserving SEO value and authority.

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AI Crawlers

Automated bots used by AI companies to index web content for training and retrieval in AI systems.

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Canonical URL

The preferred URL for duplicate or similar content, indicated via canonical link tag to prevent confusion.

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CDN (Content Delivery Network)

A distributed network of servers that delivers web content to users based on their geographic location for faster loading.

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Core Web Vitals

Google's metrics for measuring user experience: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

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Edge Computing

Processing data and serving content from servers geographically close to users, reducing latency and improving performance.

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Hreflang

HTML attribute that indicates language and regional targeting of webpages for multilingual and multi-regional sites.

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JSON-LD

JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data - the preferred format for implementing structured data on websites.

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Meta Tags

HTML elements in the head section that provide metadata about a webpage to browsers, search engines, and AI systems.

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Open Graph Protocol

A protocol for controlling how content appears when shared on social media and messaging platforms.

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Robots Meta Tag

HTML meta tags that provide page-level instructions to search engine and AI crawler bots.

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Robots.txt

A file that tells web crawlers and AI bots which pages they can and cannot access on your website.

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Schema.org

A collaborative vocabulary for structured data markup, supported by major search engines and AI systems.

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Semantic HTML

HTML markup that uses meaningful tags to describe the structure and content of a webpage, helping AI systems understand context.

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Server-Side Rendering (SSR)

Rendering web pages on the server before sending HTML to the client, ensuring content is immediately available to crawlers.

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Static Site Generation (SSG)

Pre-building HTML pages at build time rather than on each request, resulting in fast, crawler-friendly sites.

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Structured Data

A standardized format (typically JSON-LD) for providing explicit information about page content to search engines and AI systems.

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User Agent

A string identifying the browser, bot, or application accessing a website, used to detect AI crawlers.

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XML Sitemap

A file listing all important pages on a website to help search engines and AI crawlers discover content.

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