# SEO & AI Glossary

Plain-English definitions for every term you'll encounter in SEO, AI search, and content strategy.

## A

[AI Overviews](/content/glossary/ai-overviews/index.html) Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, pulling from multiple sources to answer a query directly on the page.  
[Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)](/content/glossary/answer-engine-optimization/index.html) The practice of structuring content to directly answer specific questions, making it more likely to be surfaced by voice assistants, featured snippets, and AI answer engines.

## C

[Canonical URL](/content/glossary/canonical-url/index.html) An HTML tag that tells search engines which version of a page is the "master" copy when duplicate or near-duplicate content exists at multiple URLs.  
[Click-Through Rate (CTR)](/content/glossary/click-through-rate/index.html) The percentage of people who click on your search result after seeing it in Google — calculated as clicks divided by impressions.  
[Content Cluster](/content/glossary/content-cluster/index.html) A group of interlinked content pieces — a broad pillar page and multiple supporting articles — that together build topical authority on a subject.  
[Core Web Vitals](/content/glossary/core-web-vitals/index.html) A set of three page experience signals — loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability — that Google uses as a ranking factor.  
[Crawl Budget](/content/glossary/crawl-budget/index.html) The number of pages Googlebot will crawl and index on your site within a given timeframe, determined by crawl rate and crawl demand.

## D

[Domain Authority](/content/glossary/domain-authority/index.html) A score from 0–100 that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results, based on the strength of its backlink profile.

## E

[E-E-A-T](/content/glossary/e-e-a-t/index.html) Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the framework Google's quality raters use to evaluate the credibility of web content.

## F

[Featured Snippet](/content/glossary/featured-snippet/index.html) A highlighted search result box that appears at the top of Google's results page (position zero), showing a direct answer extracted from a web page.

## G

[Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)](/content/glossary/generative-engine-optimization/index.html) The practice of optimising content so that AI-powered search engines and generative tools cite, reference, or recommend it in their responses.

## I

[Index Coverage](/content/glossary/index-coverage/index.html) A Google Search Console report that shows which pages on your site are indexed, which are excluded, and why — helping you diagnose crawling and indexing issues.

## K

[Keyword Difficulty](/content/glossary/keyword-difficulty/index.html) A score that estimates how hard it would be to rank on the first page of Google for a given keyword, based on the strength of competing pages.

## L

[Link Equity](/content/glossary/link-equity/index.html) The value or "authority" passed from one page to another through a hyperlink, influencing how well the linked page can rank in search results.  
[LLM Monitoring](/content/glossary/llm-monitoring/index.html) The practice of tracking how often and how accurately your brand, products, or content are referenced by large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

## R

[Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)](/content/glossary/retrieval-augmented-generation/index.html) An AI architecture where a language model retrieves relevant documents from an external source at query time before generating its response, improving accuracy and recency.

## S

[Search Intent](/content/glossary/search-intent/index.html) The underlying goal or motivation behind a search query — what the user actually wants to find, do, or know.  
[Semantic SEO](/content/glossary/semantic-seo/index.html) An approach to SEO that focuses on the meaning and relationships between concepts, rather than targeting isolated keywords, to better align with how search engines understand language.  
[SERP Volatility](/content/glossary/serp-volatility/index.html) The degree of fluctuation in search engine rankings across a period of time, often used to detect Google algorithm updates or index refreshes.

## T

[Topical Authority](/content/glossary/topical-authority/index.html) The degree to which a website is recognised by search engines as a trusted, comprehensive source on a specific subject area.