GEO glossary: the terms explained simply
We have gathered here the terms you come across when working on your business's visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI-generated summaries (AI Overviews). GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) means optimization for AI assistants. Each definition is two or three sentences long and links to the page where the topic is covered in depth.
- Terms
- 27 key terms, with short definitions
- Updated
- October 2026
- Who it's for
- Business owners, marketers and the teams who look after a website
- Coverage by question type
- Shows which types of questions your business appears for and which ones it is missing from. The presence rate is calculated separately for each intent, for example recommendation, comparison, price and local. The formula is set out in our methodology.
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
- Optimizing content so that search engines, voice assistants and AI assistants use it as a direct answer. It largely overlaps with GEO: the difference is more about emphasis than methods.
- AI Mode
- The conversational mode in Google Search: you get a generated answer and can carry on with follow-up questions. Like AI Overviews, it runs several searches on subtopics in parallel. It is not available in every country or every language.
- AI Overviews
- The AI-generated summary Google shows above the traditional results for some searches. It includes links to the sources it used. Google says no special optimization is needed to appear there: the page simply has to be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet.
- AI presence rate
- The percentage of questions in a fixed set for which your business appears in the answer, through a mention or a citation. The formula: the number of questions where the business appears, divided by the total number of questions and multiplied by 100. Details in our methodology.
- Citation
- When an AI assistant shows a link to your website as a source for its answer. This is different from a mention, where only the business name appears in the text. A citation shows that the model is using your page as evidence.
- AI crawler
- A bot that visits websites on behalf of an AI company. Examples from the official documentation: GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot (Anthropic). Google-Extended is not a separate bot but a robots.txt token. Details in the GEO guide.
- Structured data
- Information about a page and a business, written in a standard format that software can read without guessing. On the web, this uses the schema.org vocabulary, usually in JSON-LD format. The data must match the visible text on the page.
- E-E-A-T
- An abbreviation from Google's guidelines for its quality raters: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. It is not a technical score but a standard for judging whether content is credible. It matters a lot in sensitive fields such as healthcare.
- Entity
- Something a search engine or an AI model can identify without ambiguity: a business, a person, a place, a product. For a business, the entity is built through structured data, consistent profiles and the same information everywhere. It is the first pillar of GEO, explained in the guide.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
- Optimization for AI assistants: everything a business does to become the source AI assistants mention or cite in their answers. It rests on a clear business identity, content that is easy to quote, and monthly measurement on a fixed set of questions. More in our article what is GEO.
- Google Business Profile
- A business's free profile in Google Search and Google Maps, with address, opening hours, services, photos and reviews. For local businesses, it is one of the most important sources of information about the business. Optimizing it is one of our fixed-price services.
- JSON-LD
- The format Google recommends for structured data. The code sits in a separate block on the page and changes nothing that visitors see. It is easier to maintain than formats inserted directly into the HTML.
- Knowledge graph
- A database of entities and the relationships between them, for example "business X is based in Iași and offers service Y". Google uses its own Knowledge Graph for the information panels on its results page. Structured data and consistent profiles help connect information correctly to your business.
- LLM (Large Language Model)
- A language model trained on huge amounts of text to understand and generate language. ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude run on models like these. For up-to-date information, they are usually combined with web search.
- llms.txt
- A Markdown file proposed in 2024 by Jeremy Howard, placed at the root of a website, that gives AI models a summary and links to the important pages. It is a proposal, not a standard, and its use by the major providers is not confirmed. Details in our article on llms.txt.
- Mention
- When the business name appears in the text of an AI answer, with or without a link. It shows that the model knows the business. We report it separately from citations.
- NAP
- Short for name, address, phone: the business's name, address and phone number. They must be written identically on the website, in Google Business Profile, in directories and on social media. Even small differences make it harder to connect the information to the business.
- Answer page
- A page that deals with a single real customer question: the direct answer in the first lines, then details, FAQs and structured data. It is the content format AI assistants cite most easily. We offer it as a fixed-price service.
- Prompt
- The question or instruction you type to an AI assistant. In GEO measurement, we use questions worded exactly as a real customer would write them, for example "which gym with a sauna would you recommend in Iași?".
- RAG (retrieval-augmented generation)
- A method in which the model first looks up information in an outside source, such as the web, and only then writes its answer. The lookup stage is called retrieval. If your page cannot be found or accessed at this stage, it cannot be cited either.
- sameAs
- A schema.org property that links the business described on your website to its official profiles on other sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, directories. Google recommends it for the Organization type. It helps systems understand that all these profiles belong to the same business.
- Schema.org
- The shared vocabulary for structured data, supported by the major search engines. It defines types such as Organization, LocalBusiness, Dentist or FAQPage, along with their properties. You will find examples for clinics in our article on structured data for clinics.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Optimizing a website to rank as high as possible in the traditional results of search engines. It remains the foundation for GEO: a fast, indexable, useful website helps in both cases. The differences are explained in the GEO guide.
- Test question set
- The fixed list of real questions from your field that is run through AI assistants every month. It stays the same from month to month so the results can be compared. It is usually grouped by intent: recommendation, comparison, price, local.
- Zero-click
- A search that ends without a single click on the results, because the user got the answer directly on the search page or in the AI assistant. More and more searches end this way. That is why it matters to be named in the answer itself, not just listed below it.
From terms to results
Free GEO audit: we check 10 real questions from your field to see whether your business is mentioned or cited, and tell you where to start.