Reference
The Definitive Glossary
Plain-English definitions of every term that matters in AI, SEO, content marketing, and digital publishing — built for marketers, founders, and technical teams.
20 terms · Updated 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The simulation of human intelligence in machines, enabling them to reason, learn, and solve problems autonomously.
Read definitionLarge Language Model (LLM)
A type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data, capable of generating, summarising, translating, and reasoning about language.
Read definitionRetrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
An AI architecture that enhances LLM responses by retrieving relevant information from a knowledge base before generating an answer.
Read definitionPrompt Engineering
The practice of designing and refining input instructions to elicit optimal outputs from AI language models.
Read definitionMachine Learning (ML)
A subset of AI in which systems learn from data to improve their performance without being explicitly programmed.
Read definitionAnswer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
The practice of optimising content to be cited as answers in AI-powered responses from tools like Google AI Overview, Perplexity, and ChatGPT.
Read definitionTopical Authority
The degree to which a website is considered an expert source on a specific subject by search engines, built through comprehensive, interconnected content coverage.
Read definitionCore Web Vitals
Google's set of user experience metrics — LCP, CLS, and INP — used as ranking signals measuring loading speed, visual stability, and interactivity.
Read definitionStructured Data (Schema Markup)
Standardised code (usually JSON-LD) added to web pages that helps search engines understand content context, enabling rich results in search.
Read definitionE-E-A-T
Google's quality framework — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — used by quality raters to assess content credibility.
Read definitionDomain Authority (DA)
A Moz-developed 1–100 score predicting a website's ability to rank in search engines, based primarily on the quality and quantity of backlinks.
Read definitionBacklinks
Hyperlinks from one website pointing to another, acting as votes of authority that signal trust and relevance to search engines.
Read definitionTechnical SEO
Optimisations to a website's technical infrastructure — crawlability, indexability, speed, and structure — that help search engines access and rank content.
Read definitionClick-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of users who click a link after seeing it — a key metric for search results, email campaigns, and display ads.
Read definitionConversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
The systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — sign up, purchase, book, or enquire.
Read definitionPay-Per-Click (PPC)
An online advertising model where advertisers pay each time a user clicks their ad, most commonly on Google Ads or Meta Ads.
Read definitionGuest Posting
The practice of publishing content on another website to build authority, earn backlinks, and reach a new audience.
Read definitionDo-Follow Link
A hyperlink that passes SEO authority (link equity) from the linking site to the destination site, improving the linked site's search rankings.
Read definitionEditorial Link
A backlink that is earned organically when another website links to your content because it is genuinely valuable — the gold standard in link building.
Read definitionPut the Knowledge to Work
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