Plain-English definitions for the terms that decide whether your business shows up in Google, Google Maps, or an AI-generated answer.
This page defines the terms that come up when Big River Digital talks about SEO, local search, and AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews — no jargon left unexplained. Each term below is defined in plain language, with its own heading, so you (or an AI answer engine) can find and cite the exact one you need. Looking for something more general, like what SEO or AEO means for your business day to day? Check our FAQs
Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring content so AI-powered search tools — like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and Perplexity — can find it and quote it directly in their answers. Unlike traditional SEO, which aims for a ranking position, AEO aims for the exact sentence that gets read back to the user.
Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of building authority and trust signals into content so large language models cite a business as a source when generating an answer. Where AEO focuses on getting exact wording extracted, GEO focuses on getting the brand referenced and recommended.
LLM search means searching through a large language model — the AI systems behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini — instead of typing a query into Google. Because LLMs generate a written answer instead of a list of links, businesses need their information structured clearly enough for the model to summarize accurately.
AI Overviews are the AI-generated summary answers Google displays at the top of search results, above the traditional list of links. They pull from multiple sources at once, so ranking #1 no longer guarantees a business gets seen — being cited inside the Overview does.
A Featured Snippet is the highlighted box that appears above regular search results, pulling a short answer, list, or table directly from a webpage. Content formatted with clear headings, short paragraphs, and direct answers is far more likely to get pulled into this spot.
Voice search is any search performed by speaking to a device — Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant — rather than typing. Voice queries tend to be longer and more conversational (“who’s open near me right now”), which is why FAQ-style content built around natural questions performs well here.
A zero-click search is any search where the user gets an answer directly on the results page — through a Featured Snippet, AI Overview, or Local Pack — without clicking through to a website. As AI-driven answers grow, being the cited source matters more than just ranking.
The Local Pack is the block of three local business listings, with a map, that appears at the top of Google results for location-based searches like “plumber near me.” Showing up here typically requires a complete, verified Google Business Profile and consistent NAP information across the web.
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number — the three core pieces of business information that must match exactly across a website, Google Business Profile, and every directory listing. Inconsistent NAP information is one of the most common reasons local businesses lose rankings in the Local Pack.
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Search and Google Maps — hours, photos, reviews, and location. It’s the single most important local SEO asset for any business that serves customers in a specific area.
A citation is any online mention of a business’s name, address, and phone number, whether or not it links back to the website — think Yelp, a Chamber of Commerce directory, or an industry listing site. Search engines use the volume and consistency of citations as a trust signal for local rankings.
A Service Area Business travels to customers rather than operating from a storefront customers visit — like a plumber, mobile detailer, or home cleaning service. Google Business Profile has specific setup rules for SABs, including hiding the exact address and defining a service radius instead.
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the framework Google’s quality raters use to judge whether content, and the business behind it, is credible. Strong E-E-A-T signals include author bios, real customer reviews, accurate business information, and content written by people with firsthand experience in the subject.
Schema markup is code added to a webpage that explicitly labels its content for search engines — this business is a “Restaurant,” this text is a “Review.” It’s how tools like RankMath help Google, and increasingly AI search tools, understand and correctly display page content.
A backlink is a link from another website pointing to yours, acting as a vote of confidence in the eyes of search engines. Sites with more backlinks from credible, relevant sources tend to rank — and get cited by AI tools — more consistently.
Domain Authority is a third-party score (from Moz) estimating how likely a website is to rank in search results, based largely on the quality and quantity of its backlinks. It’s a useful comparison metric, but Google itself doesn’t use DA directly as a ranking factor.
A SERP is the page of results that appears after someone runs a search. Modern SERPs include far more than a list of links — Local Packs, AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, and ads all compete for the same space.
A keyword is the specific word or phrase someone types or speaks into a search engine, like “SEO company Memphis” or “best pizza near me.” Keyword research is the process of identifying which of these phrases real customers actually search for, so content can be built around them.
A meta description is the short paragraph of text under a page’s title in search results, summarizing what the page is about. It doesn’t directly affect rankings, but a clear, compelling one improves the odds someone clicks through instead of scrolling past.
A title tag is the clickable headline that appears in search results and browser tabs for a given page. It’s one of the strongest on-page ranking signals, which is why it should include the primary keyword and stay under roughly 60 characters.
Core Web Vitals are Google’s official metrics for a page’s real-world speed and usability — how fast it loads, how quickly it responds to input, and whether elements jump around while loading. Poor scores here can hold back rankings even when the content itself is strong.
Crawling is the process search engines use to discover pages by following links across the web. A site that’s easy to crawl — with clean navigation and no broken links — gets new and updated content indexed faster.
Indexing is what happens after a page is crawled: the search engine stores and organizes it so it can be returned in relevant results. A page can be crawled but still excluded from the index if it’s low-quality, duplicate, or blocked by a technical error.
These are the terms — Big River Digital’s SEO and content team handles the execution. If your business isn’t showing up in the Local Pack, AI Overviews, or a plain Google search, that’s what we fix.
