This glossary covers the terms that come up most often in B2B SEO, technical optimization, and AI search. Each definition is written from a practitioner's perspective, not a textbook. The list covers traditional search optimization, entity SEO, generative engine optimization (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO), and the technical concepts that sit underneath all of it. New terms are added regularly as the search environment changes.
AI Mode
Google's conversational AI search, which splits each question into sub-questions and searches them all. It personalises answers, which makes it hard to track.
AI Overviews
AI-generated answers Google shows above the organic results, written by its Gemini models from several web pages, with links to the sources used.
Alternative Page
A page built for buyers searching for options to a product they already use, targeting queries such as "[competitor] alternatives" at the moment they're ready to switch.
Anchor Text
The clickable text in a hyperlink, which tells search engines what the linked page covers. Google still scores it, including demotions for anchors that don't match the target page's topic.
Answer Engine Optimization
Structuring content so Google's answer features, such as featured snippets, People Also Ask and voice results, can lift a direct answer from it. The groundwork for GEO.
B2B Link Building
Earning links to a B2B site from trade publications, associations, review platforms and partners. Where the link sits, and how fast links arrive, matters as much as who gives it.
Backlink
A link from one website to another, treated by search engines as a signal of credibility that influences how pages rank in competitive search results.
Bottom of Funnel Content
Content for buyers comparing specific vendors: comparison, alternative, pricing, case study and use-case pages. Lower traffic than educational content, far higher conversion.
Canonical Tag
An HTML tag naming the main URL for content that appears at several addresses. Google treats it as a strong signal, not an instruction, and can choose a different URL.
Comparison Page
A page comparing products or vendors on the criteria buyers use to decide. Google's rater guidelines treat vendor-written reviews as a conflict of interest, so trust has to be earned.
Core Web Vitals
Google's three measures of real-world page experience: loading (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and visual stability (CLS). Google recommends good scores but stops short of calling them a direct ranking factor.
Crawl Budget
The URLs Google can and wants to crawl on a site. Google says most sites under a million pages don't need to manage it. On B2B sites, the real problem is usually crawl paths.
Domain Authority
Moz's 1 to 100 score predicting ranking potential from links. Moz says Google doesn't use it. Use it to compare link profiles and sort prospects, never as a goal.
Domain Rating
Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site's backlink profile. Google doesn't use it. It's useful for sorting link prospects, not for predicting who ranks.
Featured Snippet
A result where Google shows an excerpt from a page above its link. On B2B searches, AI Overviews are taking their place, and a low max-snippet setting quietly blocks them.
GA4
Google's analytics platform, measuring what visitors do after they arrive. Its default two-month data retention catches most teams out, and it can't separate AI Overview clicks.
Generative Engine Optimization
Shaping content so AI tools cite it in their answers. The original research found statistics, quotations and citations raise visibility by up to 40%. Google says GEO is still SEO.
Google Search Console
Google's free tool showing how it crawls, indexes and ranks your site. AI Overview and AI Mode traffic is counted in its normal Web data, with no separate filter.
Hreflang
An HTML attribute telling search engines which language and regional version of a page to show specific users, essential for multilingual and multi-region sites.
JavaScript SEO
Making sure crawlers can see content built with JavaScript. Google renders it, but a 2024 Vercel study found the major AI crawlers, including ChatGPT's and Claude's, don't.
Keyword Research
Finding the searches your buyers make and deciding which deserve a page. In B2B, the low-volume, industry-specific terms are often the least contested and the most likely to convert.
Knowledge Graph
Google's database of facts about people, places, organisations and things. No form adds you to it. Google builds it from public sources, licensed data and claimed panels.
Large Language Model
An AI system trained on large text datasets to generate human language, powering tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, with knowledge drawn from training data rather than real-time web access.
Lead Generation SEO
Optimizing a website to convert organic search traffic into qualified leads, combining SEO with conversion architecture to generate demo requests, form fills, and consultation bookings.
On-Page SEO
Optimizations made directly on a page, including title tags, headings, body copy, and internal links, to improve relevance for target keywords.
Organic Traffic
Visitors who arrive at your website by clicking unpaid search results, representing traffic earned through SEO rather than paid advertising.
Programmatic SEO
Generating large numbers of SEO pages automatically from structured data using templates, targeting keyword variations at scale such as location pages or integration pages.
Redirect Chain
A sequence of multiple redirects between URLs, which reduces link equity, slows crawling, and adds page load time that should be collapsed to a single hop.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation
An AI technique combining a language model's trained knowledge with real-time retrieval from external sources, used by systems like Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to cite current web content.
Robots.txt
A text file in your site's root directory that tells search engine crawlers which pages to access or skip, controlling crawling but not indexing.
SaaS SEO
SEO for software-as-a-service companies, covering product-led content, problem-aware content, and competitor comparison pages to generate organic trials and qualified pipeline.
Search Intent
The reason behind a search query: what the person actually wants, which determines what type of content Google will rank for that keyword.
Search Intent for B2B
The reason behind a B2B search query, mapped to the buying cycle stage of the searcher, which determines the content format, depth, and call to action required for that page.
SERP
The page Google displays in response to a query, including organic results, paid ads, and features like featured snippets, local packs, and AI Overviews.
Structured Data
Code added to a page that describes its content to search engines in a standardized format, enabling rich results like star ratings, FAQs, and breadcrumbs in search listings.
Topical Map
A structured plan documenting all the content a site needs to cover a subject comprehensively, mapping pillar pages, cluster pages, and internal linking to build topical authority.
XML Sitemap
A file listing the URLs you want search engines to crawl and index. Google ignores its priority and changefreq tags, and trusts lastmod only when it's accurate.
Zero-Click Search
A search that ends without a click, answered on the results page by a snippet, knowledge panel or AI Overview. Nearly half of Google searches now end this way.
