Glossary

AEO & SEO Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms behind answer engine optimization and modern SEO. Short, direct, and written for marketers, founders, and teams working with an agency.

All glossary terms

36 terms

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)

Getting your business cited and recommended when customers ask AI tools about your industry. If SEO is ranking in a list, AEO is being the named source in the answer.

AI citation / AI mention

When an answer engine names your business or links your site as a source. Being cited builds trust; being left out means AI customers never hear about you.

AI Overview (AIO)

Google's AI answer box at the top of some search results. It summarizes sources - including possibly your website - before the regular link list.

AI-referred traffic

Visits to your website that started with an AI answer. You can see this in analytics as a traffic source, alongside Google and social.

Answer box (featured snippet)

The box at the top of some Google results that answers the question directly with a short paragraph, list, table, or video pulled from a webpage - usually with a link crediting your site. It solves the searcher's problem on the spot and can boost your click-through rate, which is why getting featured in it is worth optimizing for.

Answer engine

A tool that answers your question directly with a written, cited answer instead of a list of links. The main ones: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews.

Authority / E-E-A-T

How trustworthy search engines and AI judge your site: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust. Show who writes your content and why they know the topic.

Citation rate

The percentage of AI answers about your industry that cite your website as a source. Most companies today are cited in well under 10% of answers - the bar is low and the opportunity is real.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The share of people who see your business in results and actually click. Low CTR usually means your listing doesn't match what people searched for.

Core Web Vitals

Google's speed and usability scores for your pages. Slow, awkward pages get buried in both search and AI citations.
No terms found.

Learn more about AEO

Failed your AEO audit? Don't fix blind. Research first: SWOT your own site with a tool like Ahrefs, check what competitors get cited for, and mine Reddit and Quora for real questions. Then fix in priority order.

The AEO Audit Checklist: What to Fix First

William Lee — Coherent Agency founder and author
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To prepare for AEO or SEO optimization, provide five things: context (who you are and who you sell to), ground-truth customer data, access to your site and analytics, brand assets, and one internal owner. Everything else the agency can gather. These five it cannot.

How to Prepare for AEO/SEO Optimization: What to Provide Your SEO/AEO Expert

William Lee — Coherent Agency founder and author
William Lee
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Answer engine optimization (AEO) is not SEO with a new name, and it is not hype. The job changed: AI now does the searching, grading, and recommending that your customers used to do themselves, and it cites sources while it works.

AEO vs SEO: Hype, Rebrand, or a Completely Different Game?

William Lee — Coherent Agency founder and author
William Lee
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