(Because “just Google it” is so 2022)
A plain-English guide to the words your marketing agency is about to start throwing around — translated by Therese, who lives on Johns Island and has strong opinions about both schema markup and sweet tea.
ARO™ (AI Recommendation Optimization)
The practice of optimizing a business’s online presence so that AI platforms, including ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google Gemini understand, trust, and recommend it in response to relevant queries. ARO™ is the emerging standard for search optimization in the age of AI. Methodology created by Therese Grittner, TaG Makes.
ARO Score™
A proprietary numeric score developed by Therese Grittner, based on countless hours of research measuring how well an AI platform understands and recommends a business. Scores are calculated across seven signals and reflect real audit data, not projections or estimates. A higher ARO Score™ means AI platforms are more likely to recommend that business to someone searching for what it offers.
ARO Index™
A live, continuously updated, becoming national database of AI recommendation rankings built from real audit data across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. The ARO Index™ ranks businesses by category and market, showing which ones AI recommends most, and why. The first index of its kind. Created and maintained by Therese Grittner, TaG Makes.
AEO – Answer Engine Optimization
What it means: Optimizing your website so AI assistants pick YOUR answer when someone asks a question.
Analogy: Remember in school when you’d wave your hand so hard you nearly fell out of your chair? AEO is teaching your website to do that — but for robots.
Why you care: ChatGPT doesn’t show ten results. It picks one. Be the one.
GEO – Generative Engine Optimization
What it means: Making your content so clear, structured, and trustworthy that AI platforms generate answers using YOUR website as the source. You know that one person at a dinner party who always has the best stories AND the receipts to back them up? That’s what GEO does for your website.
Why you care: If ChatGPT is writing an answer about “best plastic surgeons in Charleston,” you want your name in that paragraph.
Schema Markup
What it means: Hidden code on your website that acts like a cheat sheet for AI systems. It tells them exactly what your business is, what you offer, where you are, and how much things cost, in a language machines actually understand. Imagine if every item in your grocery store had a label that said not just “chicken” but “free-range, 3.2 lbs, $12.99, pairs well with lemon and garlic, allergic to nothing.” Schema is that label, for your entire website.
Why you care: Without it, AI has to guess what your business does. AI is bad at guessing. Schema removes the guesswork.
Entity Signals
What it means: The breadcrumbs across the internet that prove your business is real, legitimate, and worth recommending. Your Google Business Profile, your LinkedIn, your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency, all of it. It’s your business’s reputation in the eyes of a robot that has never met you and doesn’t care about your charming personality. It only cares about evidence.
Why you care: AI won’t recommend businesses it can’t verify. Entity signals are your verification.
AI Overviews (formerly SGE)
What it means: The AI-generated summary that now appears at the top of Google search results — ABOVE the regular links. Google writes it. You either appear in it or you don’t. It’s the TL;DR at the top of the page that half your potential clients read instead of scrolling. If your competitor is in it and you’re not, they win. Simple math.
Why you care: It’s eating traditional search traffic for breakfast and it’s not slowing down.
FAQPage Schema
What it means: A specific type of schema markup that structures your FAQ content so AI platforms can pull your exact answers into their responses. It’s like handing the AI a flash card with the question on one side and your answer on the other. They love flash cards.
Why you care: Perplexity and Claude in particular love structured Q&A content. If someone asks “does [your service] work in Charleston?” — your FAQ is the answer they get.
LLM – Large Language Model
What it means: The technology behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. It’s a type of AI trained on massive amounts of text to understand and generate human language. Imagine if someone read the entire internet, took very detailed notes, and is now available 24/7 to answer questions based on those notes. That’s an LLM. Except it doesn’t sleep and it won’t judge you for asking the same question three different ways.
Why you care: These are the systems deciding whether your business gets recommended. Knowing what they are helps you stop being afraid of them.
Crawlability
What it means: How easily an AI or search engine can read, navigate, and understand your website’s content.
Imagine trying to read a book that’s been glued shut, printed in invisible ink, and organized by someone who hates you. That’s a low-crawlability website. A well-crawlable site is the opposite — clean pages, clear structure, no dead ends.
Why you care: If AI can’t read it, AI can’t recommend it. Full stop.
Topical Authority
What it means: How much AI systems trust your website as an expert source on a specific topic. Built through consistent, deep, genuinely useful content in your niche. There’s a difference between someone who googled a recipe once and someone who’s been cooking Lowcountry food for twenty years. AI can tell the difference. Topical authority is the twenty years of credibility.
Why you care: AI platforms recommend sources they trust. Trust is earned through content, not claimed through vibes.
NAP Consistency
What it means: Your business Name, Address, and Phone number appearing identically everywhere online — your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, directories, social media. Every. Single. Place. If your driver’s license says “Therese” and your credit card says “T. Grittner” and your lease says “Terry G.” — that’s a confusing paper trail. Same deal for your business. Inconsistency = distrust.
Why you care: AI systems cross-reference your information. Discrepancies lower your trust score. “843-608-8724” and “(843) 608-8724” look different to a machine.
Structured Data
What it means: Any content on your site organized in a way that machines can easily parse and categorize. Schema markup is the most common form, but it also includes things like clear headers, organized service pages, and consistent formatting. A spreadsheet versus a paragraph. Both contain the same information. One is dramatically easier to process. Be the spreadsheet.
Why you care: AI doesn’t read your website the way humans do. It scans for patterns. Structured data creates those patterns intentionally.
Zero-Click Search
What it means: When someone gets their answer directly from an AI or search result without ever clicking through to a website. You ask Siri what time it is. You don’t visit a website to find out. Zero-click.
Why you care: This is the new normal. The goal isn’t just to get clicks — it’s to be the source AI cites, even when there’s no click. Being cited = being trusted = more business over time.
Perplexity
What it means: An AI search engine that answers questions by pulling from current web sources and citing them directly. Think Google meets ChatGPT, with footnotes. That one friend who always backs up their opinions with actual sources. Perplexity does that, except it’s pulling from your website (or your competitor’s).
Why you care: Perplexity users are typically researchers, professionals, and high-intent buyers. Getting cited there puts you in front of people who are ready to hire.
Claude (the AI, not the person)
What it means: Anthropic’s AI assistant. Known for being particularly good at nuanced, careful responses — and for being the AI your clients are starting to use to find service providers. The thoughtful friend who actually reads the whole article before forming an opinion. Claude tends to cite sources carefully, which means well-structured websites with clear entity signals have an advantage.
Why you care: “Hey Claude, who does AI search optimization in Charleston?” is a real question real people are asking right now. TaG Makes shows up. Does your business?
Still confused? Good news — that’s exactly what I’m here for.
Or just email Therese at [email protected] and she’ll explain it over a metaphor involving horses or tea, or both, depending on the day.