Glossary
GEO, AEO and SEO glossary
Terms that come up in AI search, with short, comparable and sourced definitions.
- AEO
- AI Mode
- AI Overviews
- Citation
- Citation share
- Entity
- GEO
- Knowledge graph
- llms.txt
- Mention
- Query fan-out
- Question set
- sameAs
- Search crawler vs training crawler
- SEO
- Structured data
- Zero-click
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)Optimization
- Preparing content to be selected on surfaces where search engines and assistants answer directly: featured snippets, voice assistants, AI summaries. In Türkiye, not to be confused with the customs “AEO / Authorised Economic Operator” certificate.
- AI ModeGoogle
- A Google Search mode that breaks a question into sub-questions to give a more thorough answer with a wider set of sourcesSource 2: AI features and your website.
- AI OverviewsGoogle
- AI-generated summaries shown for some queries in Google Search, together with links that support themSource 2: AI features and your website.
- CitationKaynaq metric
- An AI answer links to the brand’s site or page in its list of sources.
- EntityConcept
- A person, organisation, product or place that search engines and language models recognise as one specific thing. An entity is recognised more clearly when the brand’s name, address and profiles are consistent everywhere.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)Optimization
- Work that raises the odds of a brand being mentioned and cited in generative AI answers such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. The term spread with an academic paper published in 2023Source 1: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024). Unrelated to “geo” as in geography.
- Knowledge graphConcept
- A data structure that stores entities and the relationships between them. Search engines match your brand to its record in this structure.
- llms.txtFile
- A file placed at a site’s root that gives AI agents a short summary of the site and its key pages in Markdown. A proposed standard by Jeremy Howard from 2024Source 3: The /llms.txt file.
- MentionKaynaq metric
- The brand is named in the text of an AI answer.
- Query fan-outTechnique
- When AI features split one question into several related searches to build the answer, which is why answers can link to a more diverse set of sources than classic searchSource 2: AI features and your website.
- Question setKaynaq Method
- A fixed list of questions asked the same way every month, making results comparable month to month.
- sameAsSchema property
- A structured-data property listing an entity’s official external profiles (LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Wikidata, social media), showing that records in different places belong to the same brand.
- Search crawler vs training crawlerTechnical
- AI companies run separate bots to show pages in answers (e.g. OAI-SearchBot) and to train models (e.g. GPTBot); robots.txt can manage them separatelySource 4: Overview of OpenAI crawlers.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)Optimization
- Technical, content and link work that helps a site get crawled, indexed and ranked by search engines. Google states SEO fundamentals remain worthwhile for its AI features tooSource 2: AI features and your website.
- Structured data (schema.org)Technical
- Marking up the information on a page (organisation, service, article, Q&A…) with a standard, machine-readable vocabulary, usually written as JSON-LD.
- Zero-clickConcept
- When a user gets the answer on the search or AI page and leaves without clicking any site. Unrelated to “zero-click exploits” in security.
Sources
- [1]GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024)arXiv · accessed: 26 September 2026
- [2]AI features and your websiteGoogle Search Central · accessed: 26 September 2026
- [3]The /llms.txt filellmstxt.org · accessed: 26 September 2026
- [4]Overview of OpenAI crawlersOpenAI · accessed: 26 September 2026
How to cite this page
Kaynaq. (26 September 2026). GEO, AEO and SEO glossary. https://kaynaq.pages.dev/en/glossary
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