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SEO, GEO & marketing glossary – explained in plain language.

91 terms from SEO, GEO, local visibility, web design and marketing automation – explained in practical terms, with examples and data. Updated for 2026, including AI Overview, INP, Share of Model and LLM visibility.

Why an SEO, GEO and marketing glossary?

This glossary explains 91 key terms around visibility in Google, in local search and in AI answers – concise, factually precise and with the context you need to size up offers, reports and discussions with confidence. We bring together classic SEO fundamentals, technical performance metrics (Core Web Vitals), local SEO terms (Local Pack, NAP, citations) and the new world of AI Visibility (GEO, LLMO, AEO, Share of Model, AI Overview).

Thematic focus areas

  • SEO fundamentals: title tag, meta description, search intent, on-page and off-page SEO, internal linking, keyword strategy.
  • Technical SEO & performance: Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), indexing, canonical, hreflang, schema, crawlability.
  • Local SEO: GBP, Local Pack, NAP, citations, review pipeline and velocity, multi-location SEO.
  • GEO & AI Visibility: GEO, LLMO, AEO, Share of Model, AI Overview, AI Mode, brand mention, earned media, llms.txt.
  • Content & E-E-A-T: pillar content, topic clusters, Helpful Content System, Person schema, YMYL, content refresh.
  • Conversion & reporting: conversion rate, CRO, featured snippet, zero-click search, impressions.

Tip: use the A–Z bar below to jump straight to a letter. Linked service pages go deeper on the most important terms.

A

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
The discipline of optimising content for featured snippets, “People Also Ask” boxes and Google AI Overviews. The goal: appear as the direct answer, not just in the results list.
AI Mode
A standalone AI answer mode in Google Search (a separate tab). It delivers complete answers instead of link lists and reached over 100 million monthly users in 2026, with a zero-click rate of around 93 %.
AI Overview
A generative summary above the classic search results on Google. It typically cites 1–3 sources with links. In 2026 it appears on around 50 % of all Google searches.
Algorithm update
A change to the ranking rules of a search engine or an AI model. It can shift rankings and visibility significantly.
Anchor text
The clickable text of a link. Descriptive anchors (“Local SEO guide”) work better than generic ones (“click here”).
Article schema
Structured data per schema.org for editorial articles (headline, author, datePublished, dateModified). An important freshness and E-E-A-T signal.
audience (schema)
A property in Service schema that names the audience for a service – important for industry pages, so AI can recognise the fit.
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B

An external link from another website to yours. It acts as a trust signal – quality beats quantity. For GEO, brand mentions are often more important than links alone.
Review pipeline
An automated process that triggers a friendly review request after a service is delivered (email/SMS/QR). It typically lifts review conversion by a factor of 4–8.
Review velocity
The pace at which a business gains new reviews. In 2026 it matters more than the total count: 4 fresh reviews a month beat 50 old ones with no new inflow.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft's counterpart to Google Search Console. Important because ChatGPT search and Copilot build on the Bing index – no Bing indexing, no ChatGPT citation.
Brand mention
A mention of your brand in an external source – with or without a backlink. It works for both classic SEO and GEO. Studies show it correlates around 3× more strongly with AI Visibility than backlinks.
BreadcrumbList
A schema type that maps a page's hierarchy (home → hub → detail) in a machine-readable way. It produces the breadcrumb-path display in search results.
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C

Canonical tag
An HTML markup that tells Google which URL is the “master” version of a piece of content. Essential for avoiding duplicate content.
Citation
A mention of your business with NAP data in an online directory. It acts as an external confirmation signal for local SEO.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
A Core Web Vitals metric. It measures how much the layout “jumps” while loading. Target value: < 0.1.
Content cluster
A group of thematically related content around a pillar page, strongly interlinked. It signals topic authority to Google and strengthens every page in the group.
Content refresh
A targeted update of existing top content (data, examples, sources). AI systems prefer fresh content – a “3-month citation cliff” has been observed for outdated articles.
Conversion rate
The share of visitors who complete a desired action (inquiry, purchase, sign-up). The single most important ROI indicator.
Core Web Vitals (CWV)
Three Google metrics for the user experience: LCP (load time), INP (responsiveness), CLS (stability). A confirmed ranking factor – only around 47 % of pages pass all three “good” thresholds in 2026.
Crawlability
How well search-engine bots can find and traverse your pages. Controlled via robots.txt, sitemap and internal links.
Crawl budget
The number of URLs Googlebot crawls on a domain per unit of time. Critical on large sites.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
Data-driven optimisation of the conversion rate through analysis, hypotheses, A/B tests and only evidence-backed changes.
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D

dateModified
A schema property that gives the last update date of a piece of content. A direct freshness signal for Google and AI systems.
GDPR-compliant marketing automation
Marketing automation with double opt-in, data-processing agreements, data minimisation and a transparent way to opt out – a must on the German market.
Duplicate content
Identical or near-identical content on multiple URLs. Search engines generally don't penalise it, but they pick only one version – the others disappear.
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E

Earned media
External, unpaid mentions of your brand in industry media, communities (Reddit), Wikipedia or review portals. AI models systematically prefer earned media over brand-owned content.
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. Google's framework for assessing content quality. A must for medical, financial and legal topics – for YMYL, up to ~24 % correlation weight in rankings.
Entity
A clearly identifiable object in the digital world – brand, person, place, concept. AI models build their answers on entities. Pages with 15+ recognisable entities are cited around 4.8× more often by AI Overviews.
Entity consistency
An identical representation of a brand (name, services, address) across its entire web presence. A prerequisite for AI to assign the brand unambiguously.
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F

FAQ schema
Structured data per schema.org that makes question-and-answer blocks machine-readable. A prerequisite for “People Also Ask” boxes and AI Overviews.
A highlighted answer above the classic search results. Position 0. Its click-through rate is often 2× higher than position 1.
fetchpriority
An HTML attribute for prioritising the most important image (the LCP element). It ensures the main image loads first – one of the most effective LCP levers.
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G

GBP (Google Business Profile)
Formerly Google My Business. Your business profile on Google. The most important visibility channel for local providers – profiles with 100+ photos receive around 520 % more calls.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
The discipline of optimising content for visibility in generative AI models (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews).
Google Search Console
A free Google tool for indexing status, clicks, impressions, position and Core Web Vitals reports. An essential tool for every SEO project.
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H

hasOfferCatalog
A schema property that bundles a service hub's sub-services in a machine-readable way. It helps AI systems understand a provider's service structure.
Heading tag (H1–H6)
HTML markup for the heading hierarchy. H1 only once per page, with H2/H3 logically nested.
Helpful Content System
Google's framework for assessing helpful, trustworthy, people-first content. It frames content as “Who, How, Why”.
HowTo schema
Structured data for step-by-step instructions. It improves extractability by AI systems and makes content a clear citation candidate.
hreflang
HTML markup for multilingual websites. It tells Google which language version is intended for which market.
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I

Impressions
How often a page was shown in search results. With AI Overviews, impressions often rise while clicks fall at the same time – the old equation “more visibility = more traffic” no longer holds.
Indexing
The inclusion of a URL in the Google search index. Only indexed pages can appear in search results.
Internal linking
Links between pages on your own domain. Important for crawl paths, link-equity distribution and forming thematic clusters.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
A Core Web Vitals metric. It measures how quickly the page responds to clicks. Target value: < 200 ms. It replaced the older FID metric in March 2024. In 2026 it's the most frequently missed CWV metric (43 % of pages fail).
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J

JSON-LD
A format for structured data (Schema.org) in JSON, preferred by Google. It's embedded in the <head> or body as <script type="application/ld+json">.
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K

Keyword
A search term or search phrase you want to rank for. Modern practice thinks more in terms of search intent than individual keywords.
Keyword cannibalisation
When several URLs on a domain compete for the same keyword. It weakens all of them – the fix: consolidate, or define a master URL via a canonical tag.
AI Visibility
A synonym for GEO – the visibility of your brand in the answers of generative AI models.
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L

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
A Core Web Vitals metric. It measures when the main content becomes visible. Target value: < 2.5 s. Most effective levers: WebP/AVIF images, fetchpriority, CDN, inlining critical CSS.
LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization)
The technical side of GEO. Optimising for processing by large language models via schema, entities and structure.
llms.txt
A structured Markdown file in a domain's root that gives AI crawlers a machine-readable overview of all relevant pages and topics – the counterpart to sitemap.xml for LLMs.
LocalBusiness schema
A schema type for local businesses with address, opening hours, phone and reviews. The most important structured-data type for local SEO.
Local Pack
The three highlighted business results in Google with a map view. It absorbs 44–58 % of clicks on local searches – from position 4 down, effectively invisible.
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M

mainEntityOfPage
A schema property that marks the canonical page of an entity – e.g. the author's profile page as a person's official anchor.
Meta description
HTML markup that appears below the title tag in search results. It influences click-through rate, not ranking directly. Ideal: 120–160 characters with the main keyword.
Multi-Location SEO
The discipline for businesses with several branches. Each location needs its own optimised profile and a location page with local content.
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N

NAP
Name, Address, Phone. The three data points that must match character-for-character across all online sources (website, GBP, directories) – even “St.” vs. “Street” can weaken the signal.
noindex
A meta tag that instructs search engines not to add a page to the index. A common source of errors during relaunches, when it accidentally goes live.
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O

OfferCatalog
A schema type that represents a structured group of service offerings – ideal for hub pages with several sub-services.
Off-page SEO
Measures outside your own website – backlinks, brand mentions, digital PR, citations.
On-page SEO
Measures directly on the page – title tags, meta tags, heading hierarchy, internal links, image alt text.
Orphan page
A page that receives no internal in-body links. It's crawled and ranked worse by Google – a common problem with poorly interlinked industry or service pages.
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P

People Also Ask (PAA)
Expandable question boxes in Google's search results. Reachable via FAQ schema.
Perplexity
An AI search engine with transparent source links. Seen as experiment-friendly and the fastest to react in GEO practice – first mentions often after just 4–6 weeks.
Person schema
A schema type for named authors or experts (name, jobTitle, image, sameAs). One of the strongest E-E-A-T signals for articles.
Pillar content
Long, comprehensive content that covers a topic completely. The anchor point for cluster articles. Top-ranking pillar pages typically run to 2,000–3,000+ words in 2026.
ProfilePage schema
A schema type for person or profile pages that bundles the associated Person entity as the mainEntity.
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Q

Quality Rater Guidelines
The internal assessment handbook Google's quality raters use to judge search results. It defines E-E-A-T and YMYL and indirectly shapes how Google's algorithms assess quality.
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R

Rich results
Enhanced search snippets (stars, prices, FAQs, how-to steps, images) based on structured data. They noticeably increase click-through rate.
Robots.txt
A file in a domain's root that gives search-engine bots instructions on crawlability. Misconfiguration can lock pages out of the index unintentionally.
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S

sameAs (schema)
A property that links an entity to its external profiles (LinkedIn, Xing, Wikipedia). Critical for the verifiability of Person and Organization entities.
Schema.org
A standardised vocabulary for structured data. A must for modern SEO and GEO. Schema markup improves LLM discoverability by around 67 %.
Search intent
The intent behind a query – informational, transactional, navigational, commercial. It determines the right content format.
SEA (Search Engine Advertising)
Paid advertising in search engines (above all Google Ads). It delivers instant visibility but ends with the budget – the counterpart to sustainable organic SEO.
Service schema
A schema type for services with properties like serviceType, provider, areaServed and hasOfferCatalog. Essential markup for every service page.
Service-area business
A Google profile variant for providers without a fixed storefront (e.g. mobile tradespeople). It appears in the Local Pack without showing a public address.
Share of Model
A GEO KPI. The share of all sources cited in an AI model that go to your brand. Measured systematically across typical search intents and multiple models.
SERP (Search Engine Result Page)
The search results page. Today it often contains an AI Overview, Local Pack, featured snippets, PAA boxes and classic results.
Sitemap (XML)
A machine-readable list of all URLs on a domain. Submitted in Google Search Console. lastmod values help crawlers find new versions faster.
speakable (schema)
A schema property that marks passages especially suited to voice answers. Important for voice search and AEO.
Suspension (GBP)
The blocking of a Google Business Profile by Google – usually for policy violations (keyword stuffing in the name, a false address, duplicates). Reinstatement often takes 3–14 days.
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T

Topic cluster
A model in which a pillar page covers a main topic broadly and several detail pages go deeper on sub-aspects, all interlinked. The strongest modern content-architecture approach.
Title tag
HTML markup for the clickable title in search results. The single most important on-page factor. Max. 60 characters – keyword up front, brand at the end.
Trust signal
A cue of trustworthiness on a page or across the web – e.g. reviews, an author bio, an imprint, source citations, certificates. Central to E-E-A-T and AI citation.
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U

URL mapping
A complete mapping of all old URLs to their new equivalents during a relaunch. The basis for 301 redirects – without clean mapping, sites typically lose 20–60 % of rankings in a relaunch.
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V

Voice-based search via assistants like Google Assistant, Siri or Alexa. Answers mostly come from featured snippets – AEO measures work for voice search at the same time.
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W

WebPage schema
A schema type for individual pages with properties like author, reviewedBy, dateModified and speakable. It bundles author and freshness signals in one place.
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X

x-default (hreflang)
A special hreflang value for users whose language or region has no dedicated version. A mandatory fallback on multilingual sites.
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Y

YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)
Topics where wrong content can cause real harm – health, finance, law, safety. Google checks E-E-A-T especially strictly here (~24 % ranking correlation).
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Z

Zero-click search
A search that ends without a click on an external result – because the answer is right there in the search results (AI Overview, featured snippet, knowledge panel). Around 65 % in 2026; with AI Overview the figure rises to 72 %.
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