SEO, GEO and AEO glossary

SEO

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the work of improving a website so it shows up in the top organic results on Google and Bing when someone searches for what you offer. It combines three fronts: technical health, content that matches search intent and the authority other sites give you.

Example: your service page showing up among the top results when someone searches for “web design in Medellín.”

GEO

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of getting AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to mention and cite your company. It's measured in mentions and cited URLs, not rankings.

Example: ChatGPT including your clinic when someone asks “which orthodontic clinic do you recommend in Medellín?”

AEO

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) aims for one of your pages to be the direct answer to a specific question, whether in a featured snippet, a voice answer or an AI summary. It's achieved with the answer up front, clear definitions and well-structured FAQs.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO is the part of optimization that makes sure search engines can crawl, process and index your site without errors. It covers speed, URL structure, redirects, sitemaps, robots.txt, canonical URLs and structured data.

Language model (LLM)

A large language model (LLM) is an artificial intelligence system trained on huge amounts of text to understand and generate language. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot run on models like these; some answer only from what they learned and others search the web in real time before answering.

Google AI Overviews

AI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries Google shows above the results for some searches. They combine information from several pages and link to the sources they used, so being one of those sources is a new form of visibility.

SERP

The SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is the page of results a search engine shows after a query. Today it mixes ads, organic results, a local map, related questions, videos and AI summaries, and each element is a different place where your company can show up.

Search intent

Search intent is what a person actually wants to achieve when they type a query: learn, compare, reach a specific site or buy. A page ranks when it meets that intent better than the others, not just when it repeats the keyword.

Example: “what is an SEO audit” is looking for an explanation; “SEO audit quote” is looking for a provider.

Keyword

A keyword is the term or phrase people type into a search engine and that you want to be found for. It's chosen by search volume, intent and competition, and every page should have one main keyword.

Long-tail keyword

A long-tail keyword is a more specific, lower-volume search. It has less competition and clearer intent, which is why it usually converts better than generic terms.

Example: “labor lawyer for businesses in Medellín” vs. “lawyer.”

E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. It's the framework Google uses in its guidelines to evaluate content quality, and it carries more weight on topics that affect people's health, money or safety.

Entity

An entity is a unique, well-defined thing that search engines and AI models can identify: a company, a person, a place or a product. The more consistent the information about your entity is across sources, the easier it is for them to recognize and recommend you.

Schema (structured data)

Schema is a standard vocabulary (schema.org) for describing a page's content in a format machines understand: who the company is, what service it offers, what questions it answers. It helps Google and Bing understand who you are and can enable rich results.

sameAs

sameAs is a schema.org property that connects your site with your official profiles elsewhere, such as LinkedIn, Google Business, Wikipedia or your social networks. It tells search engines and AI models that all those pages are about the same entity.

Knowledge Graph

The Knowledge Graph is the database of entities and relationships Google uses to understand the world: which company is which, who runs it and where it is. Being in it with accurate data feeds knowledge panels and answers.

Crawling

Crawling is the process search engines and AI crawlers use to move through the web by following links to discover new or updated pages. If a crawler can't reach a page, that page doesn't exist for it.

Indexing

Indexing is the step where the search engine analyzes a crawled page and stores it in its index so it can show it in results. A page can be crawled and still not be indexed, for example if it has a noindex tag or the search engine considers it a duplicate.

robots.txt

robots.txt is a file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which parts they can access and which they can't. Today it also lets you decide which AI crawlers you let in, separating search crawlers from training crawlers.

llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed file at the root of a site that summarizes its content for language models. Publishing one is cheap, but Google said in June 2025 that no AI system was using it, so it's not a priority.

XML sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that lists a site's important URLs so search engines can find them faster. It doesn't guarantee indexing, but it helps on large or new sites and on pages with few links.

Canonical URL

The canonical URL is the version you tell the search engine is the main one when several addresses show the same or very similar content. It's declared with the rel="canonical" tag and keeps those versions from competing with each other.

301 redirect

A 301 redirect tells the browser and the search engine that a URL has moved permanently to another one. It's the key tool in any website migration, because it carries most of the old address's ranking over to the new one.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are three Google metrics that measure the real experience of a visit: LCP (how long the main content takes to appear), INP (how fast the page responds to interactions) and CLS (how much the layout shifts while loading).

Internal linking

Internal linking is the set of links from one page on your site to another page on the same site. It helps search engines discover pages, understand the hierarchy and distribute authority, and it guides visitors to the next action.

Backlink

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines read it as a recommendation, and it carries more weight when it comes from a trusted site related to your topic than from just anywhere.

Brand mention

A brand mention is any reference to your company in another source, with or without a link: a press article, a review, a directory or a forum. For AI models they count even without a link, because they learn from what other sources say about you.

Keyword cannibalization

Cannibalization happens when two or more pages on your site compete for the same search. The search engine doesn't know which one to show, and none of them ranks as well as a single strong page would.

Featured snippet

A featured snippet is the box with a direct answer that Google shows above the results for some questions. You win it with a short, clear answer at the top of the page, followed by the details.

Citation in AI engines

A citation is the link or reference to a source that an AI engine includes in its answer, as Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Overviews do. Being cited with a URL is the form of AI visibility that most resembles a click.

Local SEO

Local SEO is the work of showing up in searches with geographic intent, such as “near me” or with a city name, and on Google Maps. It depends mostly on your Google Business Profile, your reviews and keeping your contact details identical everywhere.

Example: showing up on the map when someone searches for “dentist in El Poblado.”