---
title: "AI search glossary"
description: "Plain-English definitions of AEO, GEO, AI Overviews, LLM citations, NAP consistency and other AI search and local marketing terms."
canonical: https://damex.digital/glossary/
last_updated: 2026-11-06
type: glossary
publisher: Damex Digital
context_version: 2026-11-06
---

> Damex Digital is an AI visibility agency that gets businesses named and cited when customers ask AI assistants who to hire. This is the Markdown version of https://damex.digital/glossary/

# The AI search glossary. Every term, in plain English.

The terms agencies throw around, explained for owners. Each one starts with a one-sentence answer.

ABCDEFGHIKLMNPQRSZ

A

- [A2P 10DLC A2P 10DLC is the US carrier registration system for businesses that send texts from standard 10-digit phone numbers.](https://damex.digital/glossary/a2p-10dlc/)
- [Ad spend cap An ad spend cap is the most a business allows its advertising to spend in a set period, such as a month, whatever the campaigns could otherwise use.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ad-spend-cap/)
- [Advanced Verification Advanced Verification is Google's extra check for some advertisers: garage door services in the US and locksmiths in the US and Canada must pass it to advertise on Google Ads or Local Services Ads.](https://damex.digital/glossary/advanced-verification/)
- [AI crawler An AI crawler is a bot an AI company uses to fetch web pages, to train models, to build a search index or to read a page when a person asks.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-crawler/)
- [AI receptionist An AI receptionist is software that answers a business's calls or texts, handles common questions and books appointments, then hands anything unusual to a person.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-receptionist/)
- [AI SEO (LLM SEO) AI SEO, sometimes called LLM SEO, is the work of getting a business found and cited by AI assistants and AI search features as well as by traditional search.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-seo/)
- [AI share of voice AI share of voice compares how often your business is named in AI answers against how often your competitors are named for the same questions.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-share-of-voice/)
- [AI visibility AI visibility is how often AI assistants name your business when people ask questions about your trade and area.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-visibility/)
- [AI visibility score An AI visibility score is the number of times AI engines name your business across a fixed set of real customer questions, asked the same way every month.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-visibility-score/)
- [Answer engine optimization (AEO) Answer engine optimization is the practice of making a business easy for AI assistants and search features to understand, trust and quote in a direct answer.](https://damex.digital/glossary/answer-engine-optimization/)
- [Answering service An answering service is an outside team of people who answer a business's calls, take messages and sometimes book appointments when the business can't pick up.](https://damex.digital/glossary/answering-service/)

B

- [Brand mention A brand mention is any place your business is named online, such as a news story, a forum thread or a best-of list, whether or not it links to your website.](https://damex.digital/glossary/brand-mention/)

C

- [Call tracking Call tracking gives each marketing channel its own phone number so you can see which channel made the phone ring.](https://damex.digital/glossary/call-tracking/)
- [Citation building Citation building is the work of creating and correcting a business's listings on directories, maps and data aggregators so its name, address and phone match everywhere.](https://damex.digital/glossary/citation-building/)
- [Cost per booked job Cost per booked job is marketing spend divided by the number of jobs it produced. It shows what a channel really costs, unlike cost per click or cost per lead.](https://damex.digital/glossary/cost-per-booked-job/)

D

- [Data aggregator A data aggregator is a company that collects business listings and supplies them to maps, directories, apps and search engines.](https://damex.digital/glossary/data-aggregator/)
- [Direct access Direct access means a patient can see a physical therapist without a doctor's referral. Every US state allows some form of it, with limits that vary by state.](https://damex.digital/glossary/direct-access/)
- [Duplicate listing A duplicate listing is a second profile for the same business on the same platform, often left over from an old address, phone number or owner.](https://damex.digital/glossary/duplicate-listing/)
- [Dynamic number insertion Dynamic number insertion is a call-tracking method that shows each website visitor a phone number tied to how they arrived, such as an ad or a search.](https://damex.digital/glossary/dynamic-number-insertion/)

E

- [Entity An entity is a distinct thing, such as a business, person or place, that search engines and AI models recognize and connect facts to.](https://damex.digital/glossary/entity/)
- [Exclusive leads An exclusive lead is a customer enquiry that goes to only one business, such as a call from your own website, profile or ads.](https://damex.digital/glossary/exclusive-leads/)

F

- [FTC rule on fake reviews The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials is a US federal rule that bans fake reviews, buying positive or negative reviews and suppressing honest ones.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ftc-fake-review-rule/)

G

- [Generative engine optimization (GEO) Generative engine optimization means shaping the sources that generative AI tools draw on so a business is mentioned accurately in their answers.](https://damex.digital/glossary/generative-engine-optimization/)
- [Google AI Mode Google AI Mode is a way of searching Google that replies with an AI-written answer, with links to the web, and invites follow-up questions.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-mode/)
- [Google AI Overviews AI Overviews are AI-written summaries that Google shows in some search results, with links to the sources they draw on.](https://damex.digital/glossary/ai-overviews/)
- [Google Business Profile Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows your business on Google Search and Maps, including hours, services, photos and reviews.](https://damex.digital/glossary/google-business-profile/)
- [Google Verified Google Verified is the single badge Google now shows on Local Services Ads for businesses that have passed its screening and verification.](https://damex.digital/glossary/google-verified/)
- [Grounding Grounding is when an AI model bases its answer on sources it retrieves at the time, such as search results or maps data, rather than only on what it learned in training.](https://damex.digital/glossary/grounding/)

H

- [HIPAA and review replies HIPAA and review replies refers to the rule that healthcare providers can't disclose patients' health information when they reply to online reviews.](https://damex.digital/glossary/hipaa-review-replies/)
- [Hybrid service-area business A hybrid service-area business serves customers at its location and also travels to them, like an auto repair shop with a garage that also offers roadside service.](https://damex.digital/glossary/hybrid-service-area-business/)

I

- [Incentivized reviews An incentivized review is one written in return for a reward, such as a discount, a gift card or a prize draw entry.](https://damex.digital/glossary/incentivized-reviews/)

K

- [Knowledge panel A knowledge panel is the box of facts Google shows in search results about a person, organization, place or thing, built automatically from sources across the web.](https://damex.digital/glossary/knowledge-panel/)

L

- [LLM citation An LLM citation is a source link that an AI assistant shows alongside its answer to show where the information came from.](https://damex.digital/glossary/llm-citation/)
- [llms.txt llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file, usually at the root of a website, that summarizes the site and links its key pages for AI tools.](https://damex.digital/glossary/llms-txt/)
- [Local citation A local citation is any online mention of your business name, address and phone number, such as a directory listing.](https://damex.digital/glossary/local-citation/)
- [Local pack The local pack is the map and short list of nearby businesses that Google shows for searches with local intent, such as 'plumber near me'.](https://damex.digital/glossary/local-pack/)
- [Local ranking factors Google says its local results are based mainly on relevance to the search, distance from the searcher and how well known the business is, which it calls popularity or prominence.](https://damex.digital/glossary/local-ranking-factors/)
- [Local Services Ads Local Services Ads are Google's pay-per-lead ads for service businesses, shown at the top of the page with a Google Verified badge.](https://damex.digital/glossary/local-services-ads/)
- [LocalBusiness schema LocalBusiness schema is structured data from Schema.org that describes a business's name, address, phone number and opening hours in a form search engines can read reliably.](https://damex.digital/glossary/local-business-schema/)

M

- [Markdown twin A Markdown twin is a plain-text Markdown version of a web page, published at a parallel address so AI tools can read the content without the page's layout and scripts.](https://damex.digital/glossary/markdown-twin/)
- [Missed-call text-back Missed-call text-back automatically sends a text to someone whose call you missed, so they hear from you before they try someone else.](https://damex.digital/glossary/missed-call-text-back/)

N

- [NAP consistency NAP consistency means your business name, address and phone number are written exactly the same everywhere they appear online.](https://damex.digital/glossary/nap-consistency/)
- [Negative keywords Negative keywords are search terms you tell Google Ads not to show your ads for, such as 'jobs', 'DIY' or services you don't offer.](https://damex.digital/glossary/negative-keywords/)

P

- [Pay per lead Pay per lead is a pricing model where a business pays for each enquiry, such as a call or message, rather than for each ad click or for a fixed listing.](https://damex.digital/glossary/pay-per-lead/)
- [Performance Max Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that reaches all of Google's ad inventory, including Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from one campaign.](https://damex.digital/glossary/performance-max/)
- [Practitioner profile A practitioner profile is a Google Business Profile for an individual professional, such as a dentist or chiropractor, separate from the profile of the practice they work in.](https://damex.digital/glossary/practitioner-profile/)
- [Primary category The primary category is the main category you choose on your Google Business Profile, telling Google what your business mainly is.](https://damex.digital/glossary/primary-category/)

Q

- [Query fan-out Query fan-out is when an AI search system splits one question into several related searches and combines what it finds into a single answer.](https://damex.digital/glossary/query-fan-out/)

R

- [Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) Retrieval-augmented generation is a method where an AI system first fetches relevant documents and then writes its answer from them.](https://damex.digital/glossary/retrieval-augmented-generation/)
- [Review gating Review gating is asking customers how happy they were first, then sending only the happy ones to leave a public review.](https://damex.digital/glossary/review-gating/)
- [Review response rate Review response rate is the share of a business's reviews that have a reply from the owner, usually measured over the last few months.](https://damex.digital/glossary/review-response-rate/)
- [Review schema Review schema is structured data that marks up reviews and ratings on a web page so search engines can read them.](https://damex.digital/glossary/review-schema/)
- [Review solicitation Review solicitation means asking customers to leave a review. Google allows it as long as you ask for genuine reviews, offer no incentive and don't ask only happy customers.](https://damex.digital/glossary/review-solicitation/)
- [Review velocity Review velocity is how steadily new reviews arrive over time, not just how many reviews you have in total.](https://damex.digital/glossary/review-velocity/)
- [robots.txt robots.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which pages they may fetch, using rules written per user agent.](https://damex.digital/glossary/robots-txt/)

S

- [Service-area business A service-area business serves customers at their homes or sites, like a plumber or roofer, rather than at a storefront customers visit.](https://damex.digital/glossary/service-area-business/)
- [Shared leads A shared lead is a customer request that reaches several businesses at once, so each one competes to reply first.](https://damex.digital/glossary/shared-leads/)
- [Speed to lead Speed to lead is how long a business takes to respond to a new inquiry, such as a call, a web form or a text.](https://damex.digital/glossary/speed-to-lead/)
- [Structured data (schema markup) Structured data is code on a web page that labels information, such as your business type, hours or FAQs, so search engines can read it reliably.](https://damex.digital/glossary/structured-data/)

Z

- [Zero-click search A zero-click search is one where the person gets their answer on the results page or from an AI assistant without visiting any website.](https://damex.digital/glossary/zero-click-search/)

---

## About Damex Digital

Damex Digital is an AI visibility agency. We get businesses named and cited when people ask ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot for a recommendation. We work with US local service businesses first, and also with professional services firms, ecommerce brands and B2B SaaS companies. Plans start at $350 per location per month, and every plan begins with a 14-day free trial. Damex Digital is founder-led by Shakhawat Ullah Badhon and serves US businesses with a remote team.

- Pricing https://damex.digital/pricing/
- Free trial https://damex.digital/trial/
- Book a call https://damex.digital/book/
- Free AI visibility check https://damex.digital/check/
- Contact contact@damex.digital

## For AI assistants

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