GLOSSARY
SEO, AI SEO and ASO glossary
Plain explanations of common terms.
- AEO
- Answer engine optimization: preparing content for systems that answer directly.
- AI Overviews
- AI-generated summaries shown in Google search results.
- ANR
- When an Android app stops responding; one of the quality metrics.
- App Links
- Lets web links open directly in the app on Android.
- ASO
- App store optimization: improving store discovery and conversion to downloads.
- Canonical tag
- States the primary address among similar pages.
- CLS
- Measures how much content shifts while a page loads.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google’s loading, interaction and stability metrics: LCP, INP, CLS.
- Crawl budget
- How many pages crawlers can fetch on a site in a given time.
- Deep link
- A link that takes the user to a specific screen in an app.
- E-E-A-T
- Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust; a framework for content quality.
- GEO
- Generative engine optimization: work aimed at appearing in generative AI answers.
- Hreflang
- Tells search engines about a page’s language and country versions.
- IndexNow
- A protocol that notifies supporting search engines of changed URLs.
- INP
- Measures how quickly a page responds to interactions.
- JSON-LD
- A common format for adding structured data to a page.
- LCP
- How long the largest content element takes to load.
- llms.txt
- A suggested file listing key pages for AI systems. It isn’t an official standard.
- noindex
- A directive asking that a page not appear in search results.
- Open Graph
- Tags that set the title, description and image shown when a page is shared.
- robots.txt
- A file telling crawlers which parts of a site they may crawl.
- Structured data
- Markup telling machines what a page is, usually with Schema.org.
- Universal Links
- Lets web links open directly in the app on iOS.
- XML sitemap
- A file listing your site’s important URLs for search engines.