GEO & SEO Glossary
Clear definitions for every key term in Generative Engine Optimization and Search Engine Optimization. Use this as your reference for understanding AI search visibility, schema markup, and modern SEO strategy.
AI Overview
AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience, or SGE) are Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results pages for many queries. They synthesize content from multiple web sources into a single answer, with citations. Being cited in an AI Overview provides visibility equivalent to ranking in the top result — and the optimization pathway is GEO: structured content, schema markup, clear definitions, and E-E-A-T signals.
CTR gap
A CTR (click-through rate) gap is a situation where a page ranks for a keyword in Google's top 10 results but receives fewer clicks than its position would predict. A page ranking position 3 for a query that normally generates 10% CTR but only receiving 3% CTR has a CTR gap of 7%. CTR gaps indicate that the page's title tag or meta description is underperforming relative to user intent — often fixable without any content changes. They Will Know Me identifies CTR gaps from Search Console data and prioritizes them as quick wins.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality. Experience means the author has first-hand experience with the topic. Expertise means they have relevant knowledge or credentials. Authoritativeness means the site and author are recognized as a reliable source in the field. Trustworthiness means the site is transparent, secure, and accurate. E-E-A-T is not a direct algorithmic signal but influences how Google's quality raters evaluate pages and indirectly affects ranking. For GEO, authoritativeness signals (bylines, about pages, external citations) also increase LLM citation probability.
FAQPage schema
FAQPage is a Schema.org structured data type that marks a page's question-and-answer content for search engines and AI crawlers. Implemented as JSON-LD, it explicitly tells crawlers: 'this page answers these specific questions with these answers.' Google uses FAQPage schema to generate rich results in SERPs. LLMs use it during RAG retrieval because Q/A pairs are easy to extract verbatim. Adding FAQPage schema to content-heavy pages is one of the most effective single GEO changes a site can make.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
GEO is the practice of structuring web content so that AI-powered search assistants — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot — cite your site as a source when answering user questions. GEO optimizes for LLM retrieval rather than Google's crawler: it prioritizes direct definitions, FAQPage and HowTo schema markup, explicit headings, and authoritative expert signals. A site optimized for GEO is more likely to be quoted verbatim or referenced in AI-generated answers.
GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
GA4 is Google's current web analytics platform (replacing Universal Analytics in 2023). It tracks sessions, users, events, conversions, traffic sources, and user behavior on your site. They Will Know Me connects to your GA4 property via read-only OAuth to extract traffic patterns, landing page performance, bounce rates, and funnel data — cross-referenced with Search Console data to identify SEO and GEO opportunities.
HowTo schema
HowTo is a Schema.org type that marks step-by-step instructional content. When implemented as JSON-LD, it tells crawlers the exact sequence of steps, the time required, and the result of following the instructions. Google displays HowTo-marked content in rich results. For GEO, HowTo schema helps AI systems extract and cite procedural content accurately — when a user asks 'how do I do X,' a page with HowTo markup is more likely to be retrieved and cited than one without.
Impression
In Search Console, an impression is counted each time one of your pages appears in a Google search result — whether or not the user clicks on it. High impressions with low clicks indicate a CTR gap. Impressions are a leading indicator of topical authority: ranking for many queries even at low positions means Google sees your site as relevant to those topics. They Will Know Me uses impression data to find content opportunities worth optimizing for GEO.
Internal linking
Internal linking is the practice of linking from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Strong internal linking distributes PageRank (link authority) across the site, helps crawlers discover all pages, and signals topical relevance. Orphan pages — pages with no internal links pointing to them — are poorly indexed and rarely cited by AI systems. They Will Know Me identifies orphan pages and missing internal link opportunities from your site structure.
LLM (Large Language Model)
A Large Language Model is an AI system trained on vast text corpora to understand and generate human language. GPT-4 (OpenAI), Gemini (Google), Claude (Anthropic), and Llama (Meta) are examples. LLMs power AI search assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity. When these assistants answer questions, they draw on both training data and, increasingly, real-time web retrieval (RAG). GEO targets the retrieval step of LLM-powered systems.
llms.txt
llms.txt is an emerging web standard (analogous to robots.txt) that tells AI crawlers what a site is, who runs it, what content is most relevant, and how it should be understood by large language models. Placed at the domain root as /llms.txt, it provides a concise, AI-readable summary of the site's purpose, capabilities, and key content. It is not yet universally supported but is increasingly recognized by AI systems as a trust and context signal.
Organic traffic
Organic traffic is website visits from unpaid search engine results — the clicks a page earns from ranking in Google, Bing, or other search engines without buying ads. Organic traffic is measured in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) as a traffic source. It is the primary metric that traditional SEO optimizes for. As AI-generated answers reduce click rates from search (zero-click searches), organic traffic growth increasingly depends on GEO — being cited as a source rather than just ranked as a result.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
RAG is the technical process by which AI assistants like Perplexity and ChatGPT with web browsing fetch current web pages to augment their training data before generating an answer. The AI first retrieves relevant documents from the web, then synthesizes them into a response. For GEO, RAG is the critical pathway: if your page is not retrieved during this step, it cannot be cited. Structuring content for clear retrieval — direct answers, schema markup, allowed crawler access — is the core of GEO.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO is the discipline of improving a website's visibility in traditional search engine results pages (SERPs), primarily Google. It encompasses technical optimization (page speed, crawlability, mobile-friendliness), on-page signals (title tags, headings, keyword relevance), and off-page authority signals (backlinks from other websites). SEO's primary metric is organic click-through rate from search results. SEO and GEO share a technical foundation but diverge in their optimization layer.
Schema markup
Schema markup is structured data added to web pages (typically in JSON-LD format) that tells search engines and AI crawlers exactly what a page contains and how to interpret it. Schema.org is the shared vocabulary. Common types include Organization, SoftwareApplication, BlogPosting, FAQPage, HowTo, BreadcrumbList, and Product. Schema markup helps both Google's featured snippets and LLM retrieval systems identify and use page content accurately. It is one of the highest-ROI GEO investments because it directly feeds the structured data layer that AI systems prefer.
Search Console
Google Search Console is Google's free tool for monitoring how your site performs in Google Search. It shows which queries drive impressions and clicks to your pages, your average position for each query, CTR, and technical issues like crawl errors or mobile usability problems. They Will Know Me pulls Search Console data to identify CTR gaps, missing content opportunities, and pages with GEO potential that are not yet structured for AI citation.
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