Knowledge graph · 45 entities
The map behind the field notes.
Every essay on this site links its key ideas to one canonical page. Each page defines the entity in one quotable sentence, names its relationships, and lists every article that covers it. This is the same structure I recommend in AI pages vs. AI architecture.
Search disciplinesSite structureAI systemsLocal searchDistribution & growthAgentic commerceHover to trace relationships · click to open
Search disciplines
- Zero-click searchPhenomenonZero-click search is a search that ends on the results page — answered by a snippet, map, panel or AI summary — without a click to any website.
- Search Engine OptimizationDisciplineSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of making a website crawlable, relevant and trusted so it earns positions in organic search results.
- Answer Engine OptimizationDisciplineAnswer Engine Optimization (AEO) shapes content so a search engine or voice assistant can lift one passage from your page as the direct answer to a question.
- Generative Engine OptimizationDisciplineGenerative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the work of making a brand one of the sources a generative AI assistant names and cites when it composes an answer.
- E-E-A-TFrameworkE-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — is the framework Google's quality raters use to evaluate whether content deserves trust.
Site structure
- Digital accessibilityProduct practiceDigital accessibility is the design and implementation of digital experiences that people with disabilities can perceive, understand and operate.
- Content CredentialsProvenance technologyContent Credentials are provenance information associated with digital assets using the C2PA specification to record and verify aspects of their origin and history.
- C2PAStandards initiativeC2PA is the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, which develops a technical specification for associating verifiable provenance records with digital content.
- Answer-first writingPracticeAnswer-first writing opens every section with one sentence that fully answers the section's question and names its subject, before any context or caveat.
- EntityConceptAn entity is a uniquely identifiable thing — a person, organization, place, product or concept — that a search engine can recognize independently of the words used to describe it.
- Knowledge GraphSystemA knowledge graph stores facts as entities connected by typed relationships, so a machine can answer questions by traversing connections instead of matching text.
- Schema.orgVocabularySchema.org is a shared vocabulary, founded by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Yandex in 2011, for describing entities and their properties in machine-readable markup.
- JSON-LDFormatJSON-LD is a W3C standard for embedding linked data in a page as JSON, and it is the structured-data format Google recommends.
- Internal linkingPracticeInternal linking is the set of links between pages on the same site, and it is how crawlers discover pages, infer importance and understand which topics relate.
- Topical authorityConceptTopical authority is the degree to which a site demonstrably covers a subject in depth, with connected pages that answer the questions a subject actually raises.
- Entity hub pagePatternAn entity hub page is the single canonical page a site maintains for one entity, defining it, listing its relationships and linking to every article that discusses it.
- llms.txtProposed standardllms.txt is a proposed plain-text file at a site's root that gives language models a concise, curated map of what the site is and which pages matter.
AI systems
- Altitude, depth and rangePrompting frameworkAltitude, depth and range are Felix Rieseberg’s three directions beyond speed for AI work: pursue outcomes, use expert instruments and combine disciplinary methods.
- Claude DuetPersonal AI agentClaude Duet is Anthropic’s proactive personal AI agent for delegated work in connected apps, introduced as an invitation-only research preview in October 2026.
- Data minimizationPrivacy practiceData minimization limits the personal information collected, used and retained to what is necessary for a specified purpose.
- AI subscriptionsAccess modelAI subscriptions are recurring-fee access products whose usable capacity depends on the provider, plan, workload, and applicable usage limits.
- AI unit economicsMeasurement frameworkAI unit economics measures the total cost of delivering an accepted outcome, including inference, orchestration, human review, and relevant failure costs.
- Claude CodeProductClaude Code is Anthropic’s agentic development tool for inspecting projects, editing files, using tools, and verifying work under configurable permissions.
- AI evaluationsPracticeAI evaluations are repeatable tests of a model or agent workflow against defined tasks, acceptance criteria, and observable failure categories.
- AI crawlersSoftware agentsAI crawlers are the user agents AI companies use to fetch web pages — some for model training, some for live search and answers — each controllable separately in robots.txt.
- Google AI OverviewsProductAI Overviews are Google's generated summaries at the top of search results, composed by a Gemini model from retrieved web pages and shown with source links.
- Retrieval-augmented generationTechniqueRetrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a technique in which a language model retrieves relevant documents first and then writes its answer grounded in them.
- AI visibilityMetricAI visibility is the share of sampled AI-assistant answers, across a defined prompt set, that mention or cite a brand.
- ProfoundOrganizationProfound is an AI-visibility platform that monitors how brands appear in answers from assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews.
- Model Context ProtocolProtocolThe Model Context Protocol (MCP), introduced by Anthropic in November 2024, is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external tools and data sources.
- Maker-checker reviewPatternMaker-checker review is a control pattern in which one agent or person produces work and a separate one verifies it against a specification before it ships.
- Synthetic usersMethodSynthetic users are AI-simulated personas used to generate and rank hypotheses about how real customers might react, before real-user testing confirms them.
Local search
- Local PackSearch featureThe Local Pack is the map and set of three Business Profiles Google shows above organic results for searches with local intent.
- Google Business ProfileProductGoogle Business Profile is Google's free listing for local businesses, and it is the primary data source for the Local Pack and Google Maps.
- Geo-grid heatmapMethodA geo-grid heatmap simulates the same local search from a grid of map points and records a business's rank at each point, revealing where it wins and where it disappears.
Distribution & growth
- Product experimentationResearch practiceProduct experimentation uses bounded tests and predefined evidence to reduce uncertainty about customer behavior, outcomes or technical feasibility.
- Editorial operationsPracticeEditorial operations is the governed process connecting audience research, content, site architecture, verification, publication, and ongoing maintenance.
- YouTubePlatformYouTube is Google's video platform, used by 83% of U.S. adults, and in Ahrefs' 2025 data the strongest correlate of brand visibility in AI assistants.
- Online communitiesChannelOnline communities such as Reddit and niche forums are public discussion spaces whose candid, first-hand recommendations are licensed into and retrieved by AI systems.
- Brand mentionsSignalBrand mentions are references to a brand's name across the web — linked or not — and they are the strongest measured correlate of being named by AI assistants.
- Social media strategyPracticeA social media strategy is a documented choice of audience, platforms, formats, cadence and conversion path that turns attention on rented platforms into owned relationships.
- Content funnelModelA content funnel maps pieces of content to stages of a buyer's journey — discovery, trust, decision — and links each stage to the next with a specific call to action.
- Owned audienceConceptAn owned audience is a set of people you can reach directly without an algorithm's permission — typically an email list, SMS list or community you control.
Agentic commerce
- Agentic commerceConceptAgentic commerce is shopping in which an AI agent discovers, compares and purchases on a person's behalf within limits the person has authorized.
- Agent Payments ProtocolProtocolThe Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), announced by Google in September 2025, is an open protocol for agents to make payments using verifiable, user-signed mandates.
Looking for short definitions only? See the glossary.