GEO & AI Search Glossary

The engineering discipline of structuring data to become the authoritative source of truth for AI Large Language Models (LLMs), focusing on being cited as the answer rather than just ranking in links.

A synonym for GEO, emphasizing the goal of optimizing for "answer engines" (like ChatGPT, Perplexity) instead of traditional "search engines."

A distinct, machine-readable concept (e.g., a person, brand, or location) that AI can understand and verify within its Knowledge Graph. The core unit of GEO.

The massive, interconnected database of entities and their relationships that AI models use to reason. The goal of GEO is to ensure your business is a trusted node in this graph.

A standardized data vocabulary (code) added to a website to explicitly tell AI and search engines what the content is about, removing ambiguity.

An AI model (like GPT-4 or Gemini) trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate human-like language. The "engine" in Generative Engine Optimization.

An AI framework where an LLM retrieves factual information from an external knowledge base (like your website) to ground its response in truth, preventing hallucination.

A concise, self-contained block of text that directly defines a key concept, designed to be easily quoted by an AI in its answer.

The modern search paradigm where engines prioritize indexing verified facts about entities over simply crawling and ranking web pages.

A GEO metric that measures how often a brand is cited as the authoritative source in AI-generated answers for a set of relevant queries.

A proposed standard text file, similar to robots.txt, that provides instructions and context to AI crawlers about the content and purpose of a website.

A method used by AI to find information based on conceptual similarity (the "vibe") rather than exact keyword matches, crucial for understanding user intent.

A Google rating for topics that can significantly impact a person's health, happiness, or financial stability. YMYL content is held to the highest standards of trust and authority.