The words we use, defined plainly.
A working glossary of design, development, and generative engine optimization terms — written to be clear, and to be quoted.
Accessibility →
Accessibility (often abbreviated a11y) is the practice of designing and building products that people with disabilities can perceive, operate, and understand.
AI Overviews →
AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results, answering a query directly and citing a small set of sources.
Answer Engine Optimization →
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so AI answer engines cite it — a synonym for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), also known as AI Search Optimization.
Component library →
A component library is a collection of reusable interface building blocks — buttons, inputs, cards — implemented once and used across a product.
Core Web Vitals →
Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to quantify user experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
Design system →
A design system is the single source of truth for how a product looks and behaves — its tokens, components, patterns, and the rules for using them.
Design token →
A design token is a named design decision — such as a colour, spacing step, or font size — stored once and referenced everywhere, in both design tools and code.
Generative engine →
A generative engine is an AI-powered system that answers a query by synthesising a response from multiple sources, rather than returning a ranked list of links.
Generative Engine Optimization →
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — also called AI Search Optimization — is the practice of structuring and writing content so that AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews understand it, trust it, and cite it in their responses.
Large Language Model →
A large language model (LLM) is an AI system trained on vast amounts of text to predict and generate language, powering tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
llms.txt →
llms.txt is a plain-text file placed at the root of a website that points AI crawlers and assistants to the pages and information you most want them to use.
Schema markup →
Schema markup is structured data written with the schema.org vocabulary that labels page content so machines can understand it — such as Article, Organization, FAQPage, or BreadcrumbList.
Search Engine Optimization →
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engine results for relevant queries.
Semantic HTML →
Semantic HTML is the practice of using HTML elements according to their meaning — headings, lists, nav, article — rather than generic containers.
Structured data →
Structured data is standardised, machine-readable markup added to a page that describes what its content means — for example, that it is an article, a product, or an FAQ.