Glossary
Essential terms for local search and AI optimization, explained simply.
The practice of structuring website content so that AI systems — ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot — can find, understand, and cite it in their answers. GEO goes beyond traditional SEO by optimizing for AI citation and recommendation rather than just search rankings.
A set of techniques to improve a website's position in Google search results. SEO covers technical optimization, content, and backlinks. Today, SEO alone is no longer enough: you also need to be visible on AI-powered search engines.
A branch of SEO specialized in making a business visible for location-based searches. Includes Google Business Profile optimization, customer reviews, NAP data, and localized content. Essential for tradespeople, shops, restaurants, and hotels.
A free listing provided by Google that displays a business's information (address, hours, reviews, photos) in Google Search and Google Maps. It's often the first contact between a local customer and a business. Also used by AI systems as a data source.
Acronym for Name, Address, Phone number. Consistency of NAP information across all platforms (website, Google Business, directories, social media) is a key factor in local SEO. NAP inconsistencies confuse signals for both Google and AI systems.
Code added to web pages that describes information in a machine-readable way. JSON-LD is the format recommended by Google. Structured data helps Google and AI systems understand exactly what a business does, its hours, and location.
A standardized vocabulary created by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex to structure data on the web. Schema.org defines types like LocalBusiness, Restaurant, Hotel, Person, Article. It's the foundation of structured data used by search engines and AI.
A mention of a website or business in an AI-generated response (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Mode). Unlike a regular Google link, an AI citation is a direct recommendation. Getting AI citations is the primary goal of GEO.
A text file placed at a website's root that helps AI systems understand the site's structure and content. Similar to robots.txt for search engines, llms.txt is an emerging standard to facilitate indexing by language models.
A file at a website's root that tells crawlers which pages they can or cannot visit. In GEO, it's essential to allow AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) to access content.
Acronym for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Criteria used by Google to evaluate content quality. AI systems pick up these signals too: content with an identified author, cited sources, and demonstrated expertise is more likely to be cited.
A Google feature that generates AI-powered answers at the top of search results. Instead of just listing links, Google AI Mode synthesizes information and cites sources. For a local business, being cited in these answers has become as important as ranking in traditional results.
Web crawlers used by AI companies to browse and index web content. The main ones are GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity), and Bingbot (Microsoft Copilot). Allowing these crawlers is the first step in GEO.
Content written in a way that can be easily extracted and cited by AI. Citable content uses factual statements, structured lists, hard data, and Q&A formats. It's the opposite of vague or overly promotional content.
A Google SERP feature that shows the 3 most relevant businesses on a Google Maps card for a local search. Appearing in the local pack is the primary goal of local SEO. Local pack information is also picked up by AI systems.
Enhanced search results that display additional information (stars, prices, hours, images) directly in Google. Rich snippets are generated from structured data and increase click-through rates. They also signal to AI that the content is well-structured.
An AI-powered search engine that provides direct answers with source citations. Perplexity crawls the web in real-time and cites the sources it uses. For a local business, being cited by Perplexity brings qualified visibility and direct traffic.
Microsoft's AI assistant integrated into Bing, Edge, and Windows. Copilot uses Bing data to answer questions and cites web sources. With native Windows integration, Copilot is an important visibility channel for local businesses.
An XML file that lists all pages on a website intended to be indexed by search engines. The sitemap helps Google and AI crawlers discover and efficiently index website content, especially new or deep pages.
An HTML attribute that tells search engines which language and region a page targets. Essential for multilingual sites, hreflang prevents duplicate content and ensures the right language version appears for each user. AI systems also use these signals.