The AI search & local SEO glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms that decide whether a local business gets found in 2026 — from AISO and AI Overviews to the Google Map 3-Pack, schema, and llms.txt. Each entry is written to be accurate, quotable, and useful whether you’re a business owner or an AI assistant looking for a straight answer.
Definitions, alphabetized
AIO / AI Overviews
AI Overviews (AIO) are Google’s AI-generated answer summaries that appear above traditional results, synthesizing information from multiple sources into a single response.
- AI Overviews sit at the very top of many Google searches, answering the question directly so users often never scroll to the classic links below. To be included, your content has to be crawlable, factually clear, and structured with schema so Google can lift and attribute it. For a local business, earning a mention or citation inside an AI Overview captures attention at the exact moment a buyer is deciding — real estate that increasingly matters more than ranking tenth on the page.
AISO (AI Search Optimization)
AI Search Optimization (AISO) is the practice of getting a business cited as a recommended answer inside AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
- AISO is the AI-era successor to SEO: instead of chasing a blue link on page one, you engineer the content, structure, and third-party signals that make an AI name your business when a buyer asks it for a recommendation. It combines clear, factual on-page copy, schema markup, consistent citations, and strong reviews so language models can confidently quote you. For a local business, winning AISO means showing up in the single answer a buyer now trusts most — before they ever open a traditional search results page.
Citation
A citation is any online mention of a business’s core details; in local SEO it means an NAP listing in a directory, and in AI search it means being referenced as a source in an AI’s answer.
- In the traditional local sense, citations are mentions of your name, address, and phone number on directories like Yelp, industry sites, and data aggregators — consistency and volume both build local authority. In the AI-search sense, a citation is when a language model attributes part of its answer to your website, effectively vouching for you to the buyer. For a local business, both kinds matter: directory citations lift map rankings, while AI citations put your name inside the recommendation itself.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google’s standardized metrics for real-world page experience, measuring loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.
- The three metrics — Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability) — quantify how fast and stable a page feels to actual visitors. They are a confirmed ranking factor and a strong proxy for whether a site keeps or loses impatient buyers. For a local business, passing Core Web Vitals means fewer visitors bounce before they convert, and it signals to Google that your site deserves to rank.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the qualities Google uses to judge how much to trust a website and its content.
- Drawn from Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, E-E-A-T rewards content that shows real first-hand experience, demonstrable expertise, recognized authority, and signals of trust like reviews, credentials, and accurate information. The same trust signals increasingly influence whether AI assistants are willing to cite you. For a local business, building E-E-A-T through genuine reviews, detailed service pages, and transparent credentials is what convinces both Google and AI models that you are a safe recommendation.
Entity
An entity is a distinct, real-world thing — such as a business, person, place, or product — that search engines and AI models recognize and connect within a knowledge graph.
- Modern search has shifted from matching keywords to understanding entities and the relationships between them, so being recognized as a well-defined entity helps engines associate your business with the right services, location, and reputation. Consistent naming, schema markup, and citations all reinforce your entity so machines describe you accurately. For a local business, establishing a strong entity is what lets Google and AI assistants confidently link a buyer’s question to your specific business rather than a generic result.
GBP (Google Business Profile)
A Google Business Profile (GBP) is the free business listing that controls how a company appears in Google Maps and local search, including hours, reviews, photos, and contact details.
- Formerly known as Google My Business, the GBP is the single most important asset for local visibility because it feeds the Map 3-Pack and “near me” results. Keeping it complete, accurate, and actively updated with posts, photos, categories, and review responses signals to Google that your business is legitimate and relevant. For a local business, an optimized GBP is the highest-leverage free tool available — it is often what decides whether you show up when a buyer searches nearby.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring content so generative AI engines surface and cite it in their synthesized answers.
- GEO is a close cousin of AISO, focused specifically on how generative engines assemble answers from multiple sources. Because these engines reward content that is well-organized, quotable, and backed by corroborating sources, GEO emphasizes clear definitions, direct question-and-answer formatting, statistics, and citations the model can lean on. For a local business, strong GEO means your pages become the raw material an AI uses to build its recommendation, putting your name in the response rather than a competitor’s.
Google Map 3-Pack
The Google Map 3-Pack is the block of three local business listings shown with a map at the top of Google’s local search results.
- The 3-Pack is the most valuable real estate in local search, capturing the lion’s share of clicks and calls because it appears above the organic links with ratings, hours, and directions built in. Placement is driven by relevance, distance, and prominence — meaning your Google Business Profile, reviews, and citations directly determine whether you make the cut. For a local business, breaking into the 3-Pack can mean the difference between a steady stream of inquiries and being invisible to nearby buyers.
Grid scan
A grid scan is a local-ranking diagnostic that checks how a business ranks in the map results across a grid of geographic points around its location.
- Because local rankings shift with the searcher’s exact position, a single check hides the truth; a grid scan samples many points across your service area to reveal where you dominate and where competitors outrank you. The result is a heat-map view of your true local visibility rather than one misleading data point. For a local business, a grid scan pinpoints the neighborhoods worth targeting and measures real progress as your Map 3-Pack presence expands.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how long it takes for the largest visible element on a page to load, and Google considers 2.5 seconds or faster to be good.
- LCP captures the moment a page feels usable to a visitor — typically when the main image, headline, or hero block finishes rendering. A slow LCP frustrates buyers and drags down both conversions and search rankings, while a fast one keeps people engaged. For a local business, tightening LCP through optimized images, efficient code, and fast hosting is one of the most tangible ways to turn site visitors into calls and bookings.
llms.txt
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file placed at a website’s root that gives AI models a curated, structured guide to the site’s most important content.
- Modeled loosely on robots.txt and sitemap.xml, llms.txt offers language models a clean, prioritized map of your key pages and facts so they can understand and cite you more accurately. It reduces the risk of an AI misrepresenting your business by pointing it to the canonical, up-to-date information you want represented. For a local business, publishing an llms.txt is a low-cost, forward-looking step that helps AI assistants describe your services correctly and recommend you with confidence.
Local SEO
Local SEO is the practice of optimizing a business to appear in geographically relevant searches, such as “near me” queries and the Google Map results.
- Local SEO focuses on the signals that drive map and location-based rankings: an optimized Google Business Profile, consistent name-address-phone data, local citations, reviews, and location-specific pages. Because most local buyers search with high intent and choose from the first few map results, small ranking gains translate directly into calls and visits. For a local business, Local SEO is often the fastest path to more customers because it targets people already looking for what you offer nearby.
NAP (Name, Address, Phone)
NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number — the core business identity data that must stay consistent everywhere it appears online.
- Search engines cross-reference your NAP across your website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings to confirm your business is real and trustworthy. Even small inconsistencies — an abbreviated street name or an old phone number — can dilute rankings and confuse both search engines and AI assistants. For a local business, keeping NAP identical across every listing is a simple, foundational fix that protects your local rankings and your citations.
Schema markup / JSON-LD
Schema markup is structured data code — usually written in the JSON-LD format — that labels the meaning of a page’s content so search engines and AI can understand it precisely.
- Using the shared Schema.org vocabulary, JSON-LD spells out that a page describes a local business, a service, a review, or an FAQ, removing the guesswork for machines reading it. This clarity powers rich results, star ratings, and inclusion in AI Overviews and assistant answers. For a local business, adding accurate schema is one of the highest-return technical steps available — it directly improves how confidently Google and AI models can surface and cite you.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving a website’s content, structure, and authority so it ranks higher in organic search results.
- SEO covers the on-page (content, titles, headings), technical (site speed, crawlability, schema), and off-page (backlinks, citations) work that helps search engines understand and trust your site. It remains the foundation of visibility, and the same signals that lift you in classic search now feed AI answers too. For a local business, solid SEO is what makes your website findable, fast, and credible enough to compete — and it is the base every AI-search strategy builds on.
Voice search
Voice search is the use of spoken queries through assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant to find information, products, or local businesses.
- Voice queries tend to be longer, conversational, and heavily local — think “who’s the best plumber open near me right now” — and they usually return a single spoken answer rather than a list. Winning them depends on the same signals that power AI search: clear content, strong reviews, an accurate Google Business Profile, and schema. For a local business, optimizing for voice means being the one name the assistant reads aloud, capturing high-intent buyers who never look at a screen.
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