// Reference / Glossary

    The 2026 SEO & GEO glossary.

    Plain-English definitions for the terms that actually matter — written for operators, not search consultants showing off vocabulary.

    A

    AI Overview
    Google's generative answer block at the top of the SERP, drawing from multiple cited sources. Often suppresses traditional clicks by 40–60% on informational queries.
    Alt text
    Text describing an image. Used by screen readers, image search, and increasingly by multimodal LLMs to extract page meaning.
    Anchor text
    The visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Over-optimized exact-match anchors are a primary spam signal.

    C

    Canonical tag
    rel="canonical" HTML element telling search engines which version of a duplicate or near-duplicate URL is authoritative.
    Cannibalization
    Two or more pages on the same site competing for the same query, splitting authority and confusing the ranker.
    Citation (GEO)
    A direct quote, paraphrase, or named source reference inside an LLM-generated answer.
    Core Web Vitals
    LCP, INP, CLS — Google's user-experience benchmarks. A tiebreaker, not a primary ranker.
    Crawl budget
    The number of URLs a search engine will crawl on your site in a given period.

    E

    E-E-A-T
    Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. Google's quality framework, especially heavily weighted post-March 2026 update.
    Entity
    A distinct concept, person, place, product, or organization that search engines understand as a node in the knowledge graph.
    Extractability
    How easily an LLM can pull a clean, quotable claim from your content. The single biggest GEO leverage point.

    G

    GEO
    Generative Engine Optimization. The discipline of being cited inside LLM answers (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Mode).
    GSC
    Google Search Console. Free Google tool for monitoring index status, queries, impressions, clicks, and Core Web Vitals.

    I

    Indexability
    Whether a page is eligible to appear in search results (not blocked by robots, noindex, or canonicalization).
    INP
    Interaction to Next Paint. The 2024 replacement for First Input Delay; measures real interactivity.

    L

    LCP
    Largest Contentful Paint. The render time of the largest visible element above the fold. Target: under 2.5s on mobile.

    P

    PAA
    People Also Ask. The expandable question block on Google SERPs. A goldmine for FAQ content.
    PDP
    Product Detail Page.
    PLP
    Product Listing Page (collection / category page).

    R

    Rich result
    A SERP feature enhanced by structured data — review stars, FAQ accordions, product info, breadcrumbs.

    S

    Schema markup
    Structured data using vocabulary from schema.org. The single biggest GEO leverage point — it's how machines extract meaning from your pages.
    SERP
    Search Engine Results Page.
    Sitemap
    XML file listing your indexable URLs for search engines.

    T

    Topical authority
    Cumulative depth and breadth of content on a single subject area. The compounding asset of modern SEO.