Glossary
Hard definitions first — optimized for search snippets and AI citation.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
AEO is the practice of measuring and improving how often AI answer engines cite or mention a brand in generated responses.
AEO Score
The SearchDock AEO Score is a 0–100 composite of citation frequency, passage extractability, entity clarity, and content freshness.
Citation Rate
Citation rate is the percentage of AI prompt runs where a specific URL from your domain is quoted as a source.
Mention Rate
Mention rate is how often an AI answer references your brand by name, with or without a hyperlink.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
GEO is optimizing visibility in outputs from generative AI systems, including chat answers and AI-generated summaries.
AI Overview
Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summary blocks at the top of select search results with inline source citations.
Multi-Pass Sampling
Multi-pass sampling runs the same AI prompt multiple times and averages results to account for probabilistic answer variation.
Answer-First Content
Answer-first content places a direct 40–55 word response immediately below a question heading before expanding.
Passage Extractability
Extractability measures how easily an AI system can lift a self-contained passage from a page without surrounding context.
Entity Clarity
Entity clarity is how unambiguously a page names brands, products, and people for machine readers.
llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed root-level text file listing priority URLs and descriptions for AI crawlers.
GPTBot
GPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler used to retrieve pages for ChatGPT browsing and training pipelines.
PerplexityBot
PerplexityBot crawls the web to retrieve sources cited in Perplexity AI answers.
ClaudeBot
ClaudeBot is Anthropic's crawler for retrieving web content used in Claude responses.
Google-Extended
Google-Extended is a robots.txt token controlling whether Google may use content for AI model training and grounding.
Zero-Click Search
A zero-click search ends on the SERP or AI answer without the user visiting an organic result.
Share of Voice
Share of voice is the percentage of tracked keywords or prompts where your brand appears versus competitors.
SERP Feature
SERP features are non-standard result elements like featured snippets, local packs, and AI Overviews.
Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is an extracted answer box Google displays above organic results for some queries.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google quality rater guidelines.
YMYL
YMYL (Your Money Your Life) topics can significantly impact health, finances, or safety — held to higher quality standards.
Google Search Console (GSC)
GSC is Google's free tool reporting search impressions, clicks, rankings, and index coverage for your site.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google's page experience metrics: LCP, INP, and CLS.
Schema Markup
Schema markup is structured data (usually JSON-LD) describing entities on a page for machines.
FAQ Schema
FAQPage schema marks up question-answer pairs for search engines and AI extractors.
Organization Schema
Organization JSON-LD identifies a company's name, logo, URL, and sameAs social profiles.
JSON-LD
JSON-LD is the recommended format for embedding schema markup in a script tag.
Canonical URL
A canonical URL is the preferred version of a page when duplicates exist.
Hreflang
Hreflang annotations tell search engines which language/region URL to show users.
Indexation
Indexation is whether search engines include a URL in their searchable index.
Crawl Budget
Crawl budget is how many pages search engines fetch on your site within a given period.
robots.txt
robots.txt is a root file instructing crawlers which paths they may or may not fetch.
Agentic SEO
Agentic SEO uses autonomous AI agents to perform research, gap analysis, and planning with human approval.
AI SEO Agent
An AI SEO agent autonomously executes SEO research tasks using live site and search data.
Content Brief
A content brief is a writer-ready outline with angle, headings, keywords, and entities to cover.
Topic Cluster
A topic cluster groups related keywords around a pillar page and supporting content.
Search Intent
Search intent classifies whether a query is informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.
Long-Tail Keyword
Long-tail keywords are specific, lower-volume phrases often with higher conversion intent.
Branded Search
Branded search queries include your brand or product name.
Competitor Gap
A competitor gap is a keyword, topic, or citation where rivals outperform you.
Paid Search Intelligence
Paid search intelligence tracks competitor ad creatives, keywords, and landing pages.
BYO Model
BYO (Bring Your Own) model means connecting your own AI API keys to a platform.
Autopilot Agent
An Autopilot Agent is a SearchDock agent that runs scheduled SEO tasks with approval gates.
GapFinder
GapFinder is a SearchDock agent that surfaces keyword, content, and citation gaps versus competitors.
CompetitorScout
CompetitorScout is a SearchDock agent that discovers competitors across organic, paid, and AI channels.
Watchdog
Watchdog is a SearchDock monitoring agent alerting on ranking, citation, and crawl regressions.
White-Label Reporting
White-label reports display your agency brand instead of the software vendor.
SAML SSO
SAML SSO enables enterprise single sign-on using your identity provider.
SOC 2 Type II
SOC 2 Type II is an audited security certification for service organizations.
Freshness Signal
Freshness signals include visible update dates and recent content revisions AI models prefer for commercial queries.