A/B Test
A controlled comparison of two versions of a page or ad, where traffic is split and the difference in outcome is measured rather than assumed.
Above the Fold
The part of a page visible without scrolling. The term comes from newspapers and survives because the first screen still carries most of the decision.
AEO vs SEO
Not a choice between two things. SEO decides whether a page can be found at all; AEO decides whether its content can be extracted and reused in an answer. Full definition, examples and application
We work on this: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Agentic AI
AI that pursues a goal by planning, using tools and checking its own output. The word describes how a system behaves, not how large the model is or who built it.
Agentic Commerce
Buying carried out by an AI agent on a person’s behalf, from comparison through to checkout. It shifts the audience for product data from a shopper to a machine.
We work on this: eCommerce Platform and Experience Consulting
AggregateRating Schema
The Schema.org type giving an average rating, the number of ratings behind it and the scale used. The count is what separates a credible average from a single opinion dressed as one.
We work on this: eCommerce SEO Services
AI Agent
Software that uses a language model to choose its own steps and call tools toward a goal, rather than following a fixed script. The deciding, not the language, is what makes it an agent.
AI Bot Blocking
Using robots.txt, server rules or a CDN to stop AI company crawlers from fetching pages. It keeps content out of training data, and also out of the answers those same tools write.
We work on this: Technical SEO Services
AI Crawler
A bot that fetches pages for an AI company rather than a search engine. Each is separately named and can be allowed or blocked independently of Googlebot.
AI Mode
Google’s fully conversational search experience, where the result is a dialogue rather than a page of links. A different surface from AI Overviews, with different sourcing.
AI Referral Traffic
Visits arriving from an AI assistant rather than a search results page. Usually small, usually under-attributed, and not the main point of AI visibility work.
AI Search
A search interaction where a model retrieves pages, writes an answer from them, and links some of them as sources. The answer, not the list of results, is what the user is given.
We work on this: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
AI SEO
An informal umbrella term for preparing a site so AI search tools can find, read and cite it. Buyers often use it interchangeably with AEO and GEO, which are narrower and better defined.
We work on this: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
AI Visibility
How present a brand is across AI-generated answers: whether it is cited, whether it is named, and how often, against a fixed set of questions.
We work on this: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Alt Text
The written description of an image, read by screen readers and used by search engines. Required for accessibility, and still the most reliable way an image’s meaning reaches a crawler.
We work on this: Web Accessibility Compliance Solution
Anchor Text
The visible, clickable words of a link. It tells both people and search engines what the destination is about, which is why generic wording wastes the signal.
Answer Engine
A search system that returns a direct answer instead of a list of links. Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity all behave this way, though each one retrieves its sources differently.
We work on this: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Structuring content so an AI answer engine can extract it and reuse it when responding to a question. Measured in citations and mentions rather than clicks. Full definition, examples and application
We work on this: Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Answer-First Formatting
Putting the answer immediately under the question, then the detail. The opposite of building up to a conclusion, and the format answer engines extract most reliably. Full definition, examples and application
We work on this: On-Page SEO Services
Attribution
Assigning credit for a sale or lead to the marketing that produced it. Always incomplete, and increasingly so as more discovery happens inside AI answers.
We work on this: Analytics and Reporting
Average Order Value (AOV)
Revenue divided by number of orders. The quietest lever in ecommerce, because raising it needs no additional traffic.
Back to the full glossary, or read how we build them in From Zero to Hero.