Glossary

Use this quick reference to understand the language in a marketing report, choose the right measurement and ask better questions. For a wider set of definitions and deeper guides, open the complete AI and digital marketing glossary.

Search and AI visibility terms

SEO — search engine optimization. Work that helps search engines discover and understand useful pages, and helps people decide whether to visit. Example: a clear service page with a descriptive title and relevant internal links.

AEO — answer engine optimization. A label for making information useful to systems that answer questions directly. Start by answering a real customer question clearly; an FAQ format alone does not ensure selection.

GEO — generative engine optimization. A label for improving how a business and its information are represented in generative answers. It overlaps with SEO, content quality and accurate business information rather than replacing them.

AI or LLM visibility. Whether and how a brand appears in answers generated by a large language model. A result depends on the question, platform and testing conditions; one answer is not a universal visibility score.

Citation. In an AI answer, a linked source supporting the response. In local marketing, a citation may instead mean a business-name, address and phone listing. A brand mention, a source link and a visit are different things.

Schema markup or structured data. Machine-readable information describing a page or entity. It should agree with the visible page. It is not a guarantee of rankings, rich results or AI citations.

GBP — Google Business Profile. The business listing managed for Google Search and Maps. Accurate name, location or service area, categories and contact details matter; the listing is separate from your website.

Measurement terms you can act on

Impression. A recorded appearance under a platform’s counting rules. In Search Console this concerns search-result visibility. It does not prove that someone read the page or became a customer.

Click and click-through rate (CTR). A click records someone following a link. CTR is clicks divided by impressions for the same report and period. Check the context before comparing rates across platforms.

Conversion or key event. An action important to your business, such as an enquiry or purchase. Google Analytics calls important marked events “key events.” A booking-button click is not the same evidence as a confirmed booking.

Topical authority. Marketing shorthand for being a credible, useful resource on a subject. Treat it as a content-planning idea, not a published Google score or a promise that more articles will improve rankings.

Read a report without confusing the numbers

Imagine a salon sees more search impressions but no additional appointments. First check whether clicks and relevant visits changed; then check whether bookings were measured correctly. Do not assume a visibility increase caused sales, or that low sales alone prove an SEO problem.

Quick checklist: name the platform, define the metric, record the date range, distinguish observation from interpretation, and connect the finding to one action. Explore marketing analytics for the measurement framework and AI visibility for deeper context.

First-party references: Google’s SEO Starter Guide, structured data introduction, Business Profile guidelines and key event definitions.