Reference
AEO Glossary.
Plain-English definitions for the terms behind getting recommended by AI — AEO, GEO, SEO, schema.org, AI Overviews and the rest.
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Structuring a business and its website so AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — understand, trust and recommend it in their generated answers.
AEO aims to make a business easier to find, understand and verify in AI-assisted search. The work includes accessible pages, useful answers, consistent business details and credible sources. It cannot guarantee a recommendation. Google says existing SEO best practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no additional technical requirements.
In the book: What actually happens in the eight seconds after someone asks →
Our AI SEO service → · Google: AI features and your website →
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
A near-synonym for AEO — structuring content so generative AI engines cite, reference or recommend it in generated answers.
The term was formalised in a 2024 Princeton paper (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024) that tested nine optimization methods across 10,000 queries; adding statistics, citing sources, and adding quotations produced the strongest visibility gains. In practice GEO and AEO describe the same goal: being the business the AI names.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The traditional discipline of structuring a website to rank in search engines like Google and Bing.
SEO covers crawling, indexing, technical performance, useful content and internal links. These fundamentals also support eligibility for Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. SEO and AEO overlap; neither guarantees a ranking or citation.
In the book: Passages, not pages: the shift that explains everything else →
- AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated answer that appears above the classic blue links, summarising and citing sources directly in the results page.
To be eligible as a supporting link in Google AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. There is no special AI schema requirement, and eligibility does not guarantee inclusion. The value of a citation depends on the query and the resulting visits or enquiries.
In the book: The new economics: fewer clicks, better clicks →
- Schema.org
A shared vocabulary of structured-data types (Organization, Service, Article, FAQPage, etc.) that search engines and AI systems use to understand website content.
Schema.org is jointly maintained by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex, and implemented on websites via JSON-LD. Every Acclaira site ships with the major schema types pre-configured: Organization, WebSite, Service, Offer, FAQPage, Article, BreadcrumbList — so answer engines can read exactly what you do and who you are.
- JSON-LD
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data — the recommended way to embed schema.org structured data in a webpage.
JSON-LD embeds structured data in a <script type='application/ld+json'> element in the page head or body. Google recommends JSON-LD for supported structured-data features. The markup must match visible content. It helps describe entities, but Google requires no special schema for AI features, and adding JSON-LD does not guarantee an AI citation.
- llms.txt
A proposed open standard for a brief, AI-readable Markdown summary of a website, served at /llms.txt at the site root.
llms.txt is an optional proposal, not a search-engine requirement or a replacement for crawlable HTML, robots.txt and a sitemap. Google says new AI text files are not needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Acclaira publishes a brief and a fuller file as supplementary reference material, without claiming a ranking benefit.
In the book: What does not work — and why it keeps being sold →
- Google Business Profile
A free Google listing (formerly Google My Business) that shows your business in Maps and local results — and feeds the trust signals AI engines use.
A complete, consistent Google Business Profile is one of the strongest off-page trust signals for both local search and AI answers. Consistent name, address, phone and categories across the web tell AI you're a real, established business worth recommending. Setting this up is part of the Acclaira AEO package.
- E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's framework for content quality, increasingly load-bearing for AI search citations.
Google's quality guidelines use E-E-A-T to assess content quality; E-E-A-T is not a single measurable score or a promise of AI visibility. Make expertise assessable with named authors, relevant experience, clear sources and accurate business information. A founder biography helps readers verify who is responsible for the content.
In the book: Be talked about somewhere other than your own website →
- Generative AI / LLM (Large Language Model)
AI systems trained on large text corpora that generate human-like answers to prompts — e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity.
Each engine cites sources differently — ChatGPT favours Wikipedia, Perplexity leans on Reddit and the open web, and Google AI Overviews mixes Reddit, YouTube and editorial sources. Understanding where each looks is part of building a business that gets recommended across all of them.
In the book: What actually happens in the eight seconds after someone asks →
- .com.my (Malaysian domain)
The Malaysian country-code commercial domain, managed by MYNIC.
.com.my requires a registered Malaysian business (SSM) to register, and is a positive trust signal for Malaysian buyers and for local AI answers. Annual renewal is modest through MY registrars. acclaira.com.my is one such domain.
- Acclaira
A Malaysian AI-era digital studio. We build your website and the AEO that gets your business understood, trusted and recommended by AI search.
Founded in 2026 by Dan Duar (Director, DNE Forwarding). Acclaira's flagship is the AEO Package — RM 3,000/month, free premium website included, with AEO setup, monthly AI-friendly content, off-page profiles and visibility monitoring, month-to-month with 30 days’ cancellation notice. Tagline: Be the answer.
A fuller glossary — every term in one line, including the ones above — is Appendix A of the book.