# AI search and SEO glossary > Plain definitions of the terms used in AI search optimization, local SEO and technical SEO, written by the Sprout team. ## AI Overviews AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some Google search results, with links to the web pages they draw on. Pages must be indexed and eligible for snippets to be cited. ## AI Mode A conversational Google Search experience that answers longer, multi-part questions by running many related searches and summarizing the results with links. ## Answer engine optimization (AEO) Structuring content so an assistant can lift a correct, complete answer from it: a direct answer near the top, one question per section, and supporting facts. ## Generative engine optimization (GEO) The practice of getting a business named and cited in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot. ## AI visibility How often AI assistants mention, recommend or cite a business for the questions its customers ask, usually measured with a fixed set of prompts over time. ## Citation (AI) A source link shown in an AI answer. Being cited sends visitors and signals that the assistant relied on your page. ## Citation (local SEO) A listing of a business name, address and phone number on another website, such as a directory, map service or data aggregator. ## NAP Short for name, address and phone number. Keeping NAP identical everywhere helps search engines and AI tools trust business details. ## Map pack The group of local business results with a map that Google shows for many local searches, drawn largely from Google Business Profiles. ## Google Business Profile Google's free business listing, formerly called Google My Business (GMB), that appears in Maps and local results with hours, photos, reviews and services. ## Service-area business A business that serves customers at their location, such as a plumber, and may hide its address on Google while listing the areas it serves. ## Entity A clearly defined thing, such as a business, person or place, that search engines recognize and connect to facts across the web. ## Knowledge graph A search engine's database of entities and the relationships between them, used to power knowledge panels and to understand queries. ## Structured data Code that labels the facts on a page, such as a business address, product price or event date, in a format machines read directly. ## JSON-LD The format Google recommends for structured data: a block of JSON in the page that describes its content using schema.org vocabulary. ## schema.org The shared vocabulary of types and properties, such as LocalBusiness, Service and FAQPage, used in structured data. ## llms.txt A proposed standard file at the root of a website that lists its most important pages in markdown for AI systems. Support varies by company. ## Markdown twin A plain markdown version of a web page, linked from the HTML page as an alternate, that AI agents can read without parsing the layout. ## Crawler An automated program that fetches web pages for a search engine or AI system. Each crawler identifies itself with a user agent name. ## robots.txt A file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which paths they may fetch. It is a request that reputable crawlers follow, not a security control. ## GPTBot OpenAI's crawler for collecting training data. It is separate from OAI-SearchBot, which supports ChatGPT search. ## OAI-SearchBot OpenAI's crawler for ChatGPT search results. Allowing it makes pages eligible to appear as ChatGPT search sources. ## ClaudeBot and Claude-SearchBot Anthropic's crawlers. ClaudeBot relates to model training, Claude-SearchBot supports search results, and Claude-User fetches pages when a person asks Claude to. ## PerplexityBot Perplexity's crawler for indexing pages that can be cited in Perplexity answers. ## Google-Extended A robots.txt control that lets sites limit some uses of their content for Google's Gemini models. It does not affect Google Search or AI Overviews. ## IndexNow A protocol that notifies participating search engines, including Bing, when a URL is added, updated or removed. ## Query fan-out The technique Google describes for AI Mode, where one question is split into many related searches whose results are combined into an answer. ## Server-side rendering Building a page's HTML on the server, so crawlers receive the full content without running JavaScript. ## Prerendering Generating static HTML for pages of a JavaScript app ahead of time, so crawlers that do not run JavaScript still see the content. ## Core Web Vitals Google's user experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint for loading, Interaction to Next Paint for responsiveness, and Cumulative Layout Shift for visual stability. ## E-E-A-T Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: the qualities Google's quality rater guidelines use to describe helpful, reliable content. ## Canonical URL The preferred version of a page when several URLs show the same content, signaled with a rel="canonical" link. ## 301 redirect A permanent redirect that sends visitors and search engines from an old URL to a new one and passes along most of its value. ## hreflang An attribute that tells search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which users. ## Doorway pages Near-duplicate pages created only to rank for many similar searches, such as copies that swap a town name. Google's spam policies target them. ## Topic cluster A hub page on a broad topic linked to supporting pages on its subtopics, which helps search engines understand depth of coverage. ## Share of voice The share of visibility a brand holds compared with competitors for a set of searches or AI prompts. --- Sprout Growth Engine is the AI search and organic growth practice of Sprout for Business, LLC. 15 Cross Rd, Unit 4, Hooksett, NH 03106. Phone 603-227-5240. Contact form: https://sproutgrowthengine.com/contact/. Rated 4.8 out of 5 from 59 Google reviews (https://search.google.com/local/reviews?placeid=ChIJj9ZDxjZq4okRzO1Wn8jLTb0, checked 2026-09-29). HTML version: https://sproutgrowthengine.com/glossary/