AI search optimisation glossary

A

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)

When a customer asks ChatGPT or Google a question, the AI gives one answer and names its sources. AEO is the work of making your website the source it names. For your business, that means being the recommendation itself, not one of ten links below it.

Also called: GEO, LLMO, AI SEO, AI Search Optimisation

AI crawlers

The readers AI companies send to visit your website, the way Google has always sent its own. There are two kinds. Answer readers fetch your pages while AI writes an answer; training readers collect pages to train a model. Turn away an answer reader and AI can't quote you or confirm your details, so it recommends someone it can read instead.

AI Overviews

Google's AI answer box: the AI-written answer that now sits at the top of the results page for many searches. When it appears, most people never click a result below it. If it names your business as a source, you hold the new number-one spot. If it names a competitor, they do.

Answer-first content

Opening with the answer. A page that answers the customer's question in its first lines, before the company history or the scenic introduction. AI quotes pages that get to the point, so the pages that answer fastest get recommended most.

Authority signals

Your reputation, as AI reads it. Before AI recommends a business it double-checks: who you are, who vouches for you, what qualifications you hold, and whether your details match everywhere you're listed. The more of that proof you show, the safer AI feels naming you.

C

Citation (AI search)

Being named as the source. When AI answers a customer's question and credits your website (usually as a clickable link), that's a citation. It puts your business in front of someone at the exact moment they're deciding, which is why we treat it as the new number-one result.

Content extraction

How AI lifts the useful bits from your pages. It doesn't read your website the way a person does. It pulls out the exact lines that answer the question. Short paragraphs, clear headings and plain answers get lifted. Long, dense pages get passed over.

F

FAQPage schema

Your questions-and-answers section, written a second time in the format machines read. It is optional. AI assistants read the visible questions and answers on the page, and that is what they quote. So write the visible questions and answers well first. Add the markup if it is cheap, but don't expect citations from it.

G

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)

Another name for the same job: making your business the one AI recommends. The "generative" bit simply means the AI writes a full answer rather than handing back a list of links, so the work is about getting your business into that written answer.

Also called: AEO, LLMO, AI SEO, AI Search Optimisation

Google-Extended

A switch on your AI welcome sign rather than a separate reader. Google's familiar reader does all the crawling; this setting only decides whether Google may use your content to train and ground its Gemini AI. Google's AI answer box in Search is a different door: it draws on your ordinary Google listing, so blocking Google-Extended does not remove you from it. It does remove you from Gemini's own answers, though, so blocking it is a trade, not a free choice. Nearly every business should leave Google-Extended allowed.

GPTBot

OpenAI's training reader. It collects pages to train OpenAI's models; it does not decide whether ChatGPT search can cite you. That is the job of its sibling OAI-SearchBot, which since September 2026 builds ChatGPT's own search index. Blocking GPTBot is a policy choice about training. Blocking OAI-SearchBot takes you out of ChatGPT's search answers.

I

IndexNow

An instant "we've updated" alert to the search engines that have joined it. Instead of waiting for them to wander back and notice your new page or new prices, your website rings ahead. It helps Bing, and so Copilot, notice changes sooner. Google does not take part, and since September 2026 ChatGPT searches its own index rather than Bing's. So IndexNow is cheap upkeep, not a way into AI answers.

J

JSON-LD

The format your machine-readable business card is written in. Your customers never see it. It sits behind the page and restates who you are, where you are and what you do. Keep it accurate and matching the visible page, but treat it as upkeep: it is not what gets you cited.

L

LocalBusiness schema

Your machine-readable business card for a physical premises: name, address, phone, opening hours and what you do, written the way machines read. Keep it accurate, but it is not how AI confirms you fit when someone asks for "a solicitor near me". Your Google Business Profile does that job: it receives 28.6% of local AI citations, second only to business websites (BrightLocal, September 2026).

LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation)

The most technical name for the same job again: making your business the one AI recommends. The "large language models" are the engines behind ChatGPT, Google's AI answers and Bing. LLMO is making sure they can read you, trust you and quote you.

Also called: AEO, GEO, AI SEO, AI Search Optimisation

Q

Query fan-out

How Google's AI handles a big question: it quietly breaks it into smaller ones, finds the best answer to each, then stitches the results into one answer box. For your business, that means the follow-up questions need clear answers too, not only the main one. Each answer should be easy to find on the page that covers it.

R

robots.txt

Your AI welcome sign. It's a short notice on the door of your website that tells each visiting reader whether it's allowed in. Many were written years ago, before AI readers existed, and some security tools now turn AI readers away by default, so plenty of businesses are closing the door on ChatGPT without knowing it. Our guide to fixing your AI welcome sign has a complete working example you can hand to whoever looks after your website.

S

Schema markup

Your machine-readable business card. The page your customers see stays exactly the same. Behind it, the same facts are written again in the precise format machines read: who you are, where you are, your hours, your services. Keep it accurate and matching the page, but treat it as upkeep: a controlled test found no measurable effect on AI citations from adding it.