Glossary

Website development, SEO, AEO, and digital marketing terms—defined in plain language.

A

AEO

Answer Engine Optimization. The practice of structuring a website so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity) can find, understand, and recommend a business.

AI Crawler

A bot used by an AI company to read and index website content. Examples: GPTBot (OpenAI), ClaudeBot (Anthropic), PerplexityBot (Perplexity).

B

Breadcrumb

A navigational element showing the page hierarchy (Home > Services > SEO). BreadcrumbList schema enables breadcrumb rich results in Google.

C

Canonical URL

An HTML tag that tells search engines the preferred version of a page, preventing duplicate content issues and consolidating ranking signals.

CTA

Call to Action. A button, link, or form that prompts a visitor to take a specific action—get a quote, call, sign up, or purchase.

E

Edge Deployment

Hosting a website on servers distributed globally so content is served from the location closest to the visitor, reducing latency.

F

FAQPage Schema

A JSON-LD structured data type that marks up Q&A content. Google displays these as expandable FAQ rich results in search.

Full-Stack

A website with both a frontend (visitor-facing UI), backend (server logic), database, and admin panel—a complete application, not just static pages.

G

GEO

Generative Engine Optimization. Optimizing content so AI-powered search engines (Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) cite and feature your business.

J

JSON-LD

JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data. The recommended format for embedding structured data (schema markup) in web pages.

L

Lead Capture

The process of collecting visitor information (name, email, phone) through forms, quote requests, or interactive tools on a website.

llms.txt

A text file placed at the root of a website that provides AI language models with a structured summary of the business for instant comprehension.

LocalBusiness Schema

A JSON-LD structured data type that provides search engines with business name, address, phone, hours, service area, and ratings.

M

Meta Tags

HTML tags (title, description, Open Graph) that provide metadata about a page to search engines and social platforms.

O

OG Image

Open Graph image. The preview image displayed when a page URL is shared on social media or messaging platforms.

R

robots.txt

A file at the root of a website that tells search engine and AI crawlers which pages they are allowed or disallowed to access.

S

Schema Markup

Machine-readable code (typically JSON-LD) embedded in a website that tells search engines and AI exactly what the business offers.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization. The practice of improving a website to rank higher in Google and other search engine results.

Server-Side Rendering

Generating HTML on the server before sending it to the browser, improving load speed, SEO, and accessibility compared to client-side rendering.

Sitemap

An XML file listing all pages on a website with metadata (priority, change frequency) that helps search engines crawl and index efficiently.

SpeakableSpecification

A schema type that identifies sections of a page suitable for text-to-speech playback by voice assistants like Google Assistant and Siri.

SSL Certificate

A security protocol that encrypts data between a visitor's browser and the server. Indicated by HTTPS and the padlock icon.

Structured Data

Organized data embedded in a web page (via JSON-LD) that helps search engines and AI understand the content and display rich results.

X

XML Sitemap

See Sitemap. A machine-readable map of all website pages submitted to search engines for efficient crawling and indexing.

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