GLOSSARY
AI search and GEO, terms defined in plain English.
Every term a service business owner needs to understand when reading about AI search readiness, schema markup, and generative engine optimization.
~4 min read
The Key Terms
Schema markup -- structured data that declares what a business is.
llms.txt -- a file that gives AI crawlers a direct business summary.
GEO -- Generative Engine Optimization, optimizing for AI answers.
AI Overview -- the AI-generated box at the top of Google results.
Entity -- how AI systems represent a real-world business across the web.
NAP -- Name, Address, Phone, must match exactly across platforms.
A
aggregateRating
A schema property that declares a business's average rating and total review count in a format AI systems can read. Must match live review data.
AI Overview
Google's AI-generated summary box that can appear above standard search results. In BrightEdge's February 2026 tracked-query dataset, it appeared in about 48% of the queries they monitored.
Answer extraction
The process by which AI systems lift specific facts and descriptions from a page to use in AI-generated answers.
B
BreadcrumbList
A schema type that declares the navigation path to a specific page and helps AI systems understand site structure.
C
Citation (AI context)
A reference to a specific business, page, or source within an AI-generated response. Citation frequency is a key measure of AI visibility.
ClaudeBot
One of Anthropic's published crawlers. Anthropic also documents Claude-User and Claude-SearchBot for user-triggered and search-related access patterns.
Core Web Vitals
Google's performance metrics: LCP, CLS, and INP. Affect crawl priority and are a proxy for site quality.
E
Entity
How AI systems represent a real-world business as a discrete, identifiable object with consistent properties across the web.
Entity alignment
The process of ensuring a business's name, address, phone, category, and links are consistent across all platforms.
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. A quality framework used by Google and AI systems.
F
FAQPage schema
A schema type that marks up question-and-answer content in a structured format AI systems can read directly.
G
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
The practice of optimizing a business's digital presence for AI-generated search answers rather than traditional ranked results.
Google-Extended
Google's product token for controlling whether content may be used for certain Gemini and Vertex AI generative uses. It is separate from Googlebot and does not replace normal Google Search crawling.
GPTBot
OpenAI's training crawler. It is distinct from OAI-SearchBot, which OpenAI documents for search discovery.
J
JSON-LD
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data. The preferred format for schema markup, placed in a script tag in the page head.
K
Knowledge Panel
The information box that appears on the right side of Google search results for a specific entity.
L
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
The time until the largest visible element on the page loads. A Core Web Vital. Should be under 2.5 seconds.
llms.txt
A plain-text markdown file at the root of a domain that gives AI language models a structured, authoritative summary of the business.
llms-full.txt
The companion file to llms.txt containing full operational content such as hours, prices, and policies.
LLM (Large Language Model)
An AI system trained on large text datasets that generates human-like text. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini are all LLMs.
N
NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
The three data points that must match exactly across all platforms where a business appears.
O
OAI-SearchBot
OpenAI's published search crawler for discovery in ChatGPT search experiences. It is the robot to check first when you are validating OpenAI search access.
P
PerplexityBot
Perplexity AI's web crawler. Must be explicitly allowed in robots.txt.
R
robots.txt
A plain text file that tells web crawlers which parts of the site they can access. AI crawlers must be explicitly allowed here.
S
sameAs
A schema property that links a business's website entity to profiles on authoritative platforms such as Google Maps and Yelp.
Schema markup
Structured data embedded in a web page's HTML that explicitly declares what a business is, using the schema.org vocabulary.
SpeakableSpecification
A niche schema property Google documents mainly for certain news and voice-assistant contexts. It is not a core local-business schema requirement.
U
USP (Unique Selling Proposition - AI context)
The differentiating characteristic attached to a business in AI-generated recommendations. Clear USPs improve recommendation specificity.
FAQ
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is not yet formally standardized. The term is used broadly to describe work that improves visibility in AI-generated answers. VERIS focuses on the technical infrastructure layer rather than broader content or PR work.
Meta descriptions summarize individual pages for search snippets. llms.txt describes the entire business for AI crawlers, covering services, policies, location, and operational detail across the whole domain.