Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Improving a site so search engines can index, understand, and rank it.
Industry Term
Full explanation
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the practice of improving a website so that traditional search engines can index, understand, and rank it. It remains the technical foundation that generative and answer engines build on.
Why this matters
AI features sit on top of the same index as ordinary search. A page that cannot be crawled or understood is not eligible for either, which is why the fundamentals have not gone away.
Where this sits
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) belongs to Search, SEO & Generative Optimization, one of the seven layers of the Aingworth Glossary. The established disciplines brands use to improve discoverability. Useful, and often necessary, but tactics that sit on top of a brand's underlying authority infrastructure rather than replace it.
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