In AI use, a prompt is the text input a user gives an AI model to get a response. The word has other meanings in everyday English, such as acting without delay, or the symbol on a command line that shows the computer is ready for input. In SEO and GEO, a prompt is the request sent to an AI assistant.
What does a prompt consist of?
Google Cloud’s documentation defines a prompt as a natural language request submitted to a language model to receive a response. It lists these components:
- Task (required) is the question or instruction the model should respond to.
- System instructions (optional) are passed to the model before any user input.
- Few-shot examples (optional) show what input and desired output look like.
- Contextual information (optional) supplies background for the request.
Shaping such inputs is called prompt design or prompt engineering. Google’s documentation recommends, among other things, clear and specific instructions, examples and splitting complex tasks into parts.
Prompt and search query
A classic search query is often a few keywords. Prompts are often full sentences or paragraphs with context and requirements. This comparison is an assessment and not a defined standard. According to reports, prompts are collected the way keywords are when visibility in AI answers is measured. See the entries on prompt tracking and prompt volume.
Besides the prompt a user types, there is the system prompt. This is an instruction set by the provider or developer that defines how the model behaves.
Example
You are a technical SEO consultant. Explain in three sentences
what a canonical tag is and give one HTML code example.
This prompt contains a task (explain what a canonical tag is), background information (a role and a topic) and a format requirement (three sentences, one code example).
Sources
- Introduction to prompting – Google Cloud, Vertex AI docsdocs.cloud.google.com
- Prompt – YourDictionary (everyday meanings)yourdictionary.com
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