Glossary

GEO glossary

The AI search terms you'll hear, explained in plain English for people who run a trade business.

By Joseph, founder of Own Your GEO · Updated October 13, 2026

GEO (generative engine optimization)

The work of getting your business named in answers written by AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI, Gemini, Perplexity, Meta AI and Grok.

AEO (answer engine optimization)

Another name for GEO. Some people also say AI SEO or LLM SEO.

AI Overviews

The AI-written summary Google shows at the top of some search results.

AI Mode

Google's chat-style search, where the whole result is an AI answer.

LLM (large language model)

The type of AI behind ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and similar tools.

Query fan-out

When an AI tool turns one question into several web searches before it answers. It's why directories, reviews and your website all matter.

Citation

A website an AI answer links to or draws from. Being cited, and being named on cited sites, both help.

Mention rate

The share of AI answers that name your company for the questions you track.

Share of voice

Your mentions as a share of all company mentions in the answers you track.

Tracked question (prompt)

A fixed question asked to AI engines on a schedule so results can be compared over time.

Like-for-like comparison

Comparing only the same questions on the same engines between two dates, so new questions don't inflate the result.

Schema markup

Code on a web page that labels facts like your business name, services and FAQs so machines can read them.

llms.txt

A plain-text file at the root of a website that summarizes it for AI tools.

AI crawler

The bot an AI company uses to read websites, such as OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, PerplexityBot or ClaudeBot.

Google Business Profile

Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps, one of the sources AI cites most for local contractors.

Ready to put it to work? Start with the GEO guide for contractors.