Search and AI marketing terms, in plain words
The words I use on my service pages, explained for anyone who does not work in search. If a term is missing, email me and I will add it.
- AEO (answer engine optimization)
- Shaping a page so a search engine or an AI assistant can lift a clear answer from it and cite the page as the source.
- AI agent
- An AI system that carries out a task in several steps, such as researching, drafting or checking, using the tools and data it is given.
- AI citation
- A link to a page, or a named source, inside an AI assistant's answer. An AI crawler reading a page is a different thing, and does not mean the page was cited.
- AI crawler
- A bot an AI company sends to read web pages. Some collect pages to train a model. Others fetch a page at the moment a person asks a question, to answer it.
- AI Mode
- Google's conversational search, where an AI answers a question in depth and links to its sources.
- AI Overview
- The AI-written summary Google shows above some search results, with links to the pages it drew on.
- Branded and non-branded search
- A branded search includes the brand's name. A non-branded search describes a need, such as the best fiber supplement for women, and reaches people who do not know the brand yet.
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- The share of people who saw a page in search results and clicked it.
- Conversion tracking
- Recording the actions that matter, such as a signup or a purchase, so ads and reports count them correctly.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google's measures of how fast and stable a page feels to real visitors: how quickly it loads, how quickly it responds, and how much the layout shifts.
- Data sync
- A scheduled job that copies data from one tool into another, so reports stay up to date.
- Entity
- Something search engines and AI can identify on its own, such as a business, a person, a product or a place. Clear, consistent facts about an entity help engines trust it.
- GEO (generative engine optimization)
- The work that helps a brand get read, mentioned and recommended by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, including what other websites say about it.
- Google Search Console
- Google's free tool that shows which searches a site appears for, its clicks and positions, and the problems Google finds while crawling it.
- Grounded content
- AI-written content that uses only the facts it was given, so every claim can be traced to a source.
- Hreflang
- A tag that tells search engines which language or country each version of a page is for, so readers land on the version in their own language.
- Human in the loop
- A step where a person reviews or approves an AI system's work before it goes further.
- Internal link
- A link from one page of a site to another page on the same site. It helps readers and search engines find pages and see how they relate.
- Lead routing
- Sending each new lead to the right person or team, based on what they need.
- Lifecycle email
- Emails sent automatically at key moments, such as a welcome, a reminder or a win-back.
- llms.txt
- A proposed text file that points AI tools to a site's key pages. It is optional, and Google says its search does not use it.
- Marketing automation
- Software that runs repeat marketing tasks on its own, such as sending emails, routing leads or publishing posts, based on rules or triggers.
- Marketing dashboard
- One screen that shows the numbers that matter, updated automatically.
- NAP (name, address and phone)
- A business's name, address and phone number. Search engines and AI compare them across listings to confirm a local business is real and where it is.
- Runbook
- A short guide that explains how a system works, how to run it and what to do when it fails.
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- The work that helps a website's pages appear, rank and earn clicks in search engines such as Google and Bing.
- Structured data (schema)
- Code in a page, usually in the JSON-LD format from schema.org, that tells search engines and AI what the page describes: a business, a product, an article, a question and its answer.
- Topical map
- A plan of the topics and subtopics a site covers to be trusted on a subject, and of how those pages link to each other.
- Workflow
- A set of steps that turns an input into an output, such as a form entry into a CRM record and a Slack alert.