Marketing & SEO Glossary

Google's AI-generated summary shown at the top of search results, pulled from web content Google considers trustworthy and well-structured. Ranking on page one doesn't guarantee an AI Overview citation, clean schema and clear factual content matter more here.

A short text description attached to an image so screen readers and search engines can understand what it shows. Also helps images appear in Google Image search.

A link from another website pointing to yours. Backlinks from real, relevant, trustworthy sites are one of the strongest ranking signals in SEO, and one of the hardest to fake.

The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate often signals slow load times, confusing design, or content that didn't match what the visitor searched for.

Any online mention of your business name, address, and phone number, on directories, review sites, or elsewhere, even without a link. Consistent citations across the web reinforce local search trust.

Google's specific measurements of real-world page performance: loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. A confirmed ranking factor, and a common weak spot for slow, plugin-heavy websites.

The percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, calling, booking, filling out a form. Traffic without conversions doesn't grow a business.

The percentage of people who click your listing after seeing it in search results. A strong title, meta description, and star rating schema can all improve CTR even without a ranking change.

A third-party score (not an official Google metric) estimating how likely a website is to rank, based largely on backlink profile. Useful as a rough benchmark, not a precise ranking predictor.

The practice of structuring a website so AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity can accurately find, understand, and cite a business. Newer than traditional SEO, and still an early-mover advantage in most local markets.

The free business listing that controls how you appear in Google Maps and local search results. Often the very first thing a potential customer sees, and one of the most commonly neglected tools available to a small business.

The process of Google adding a page to its searchable database after crawling it. A page that isn't indexed can't rank, no matter how well it's built.

The map-based block of 3 local business listings Google shows at the top of results for local searches. Getting into the local pack often matters more for local businesses than a standard organic ranking.

The type of AI model behind tools like ChatGPT. LLMs generate answers by processing patterns in language and data, including structured content pulled from real websites, which is why clean, factual site content matters for AI search visibility.

The short summary text shown below a page's title in search results. Doesn't directly affect rankings, but a clear, compelling meta description improves click-through rate.

The core identity details of a business that need to stay exactly consistent across a website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings. Inconsistent NAP data actively hurts local search trust.

Website visitors who arrive through unpaid search results, as opposed to paid ads or social media. The long-term goal of most SEO work.

How quickly a webpage loads and becomes usable. A confirmed Google ranking factor and a direct driver of whether visitors stay or leave.

Structured code added to a website that explicitly tells search engines and AI tools what something is, a business, a service, a review, an FAQ, instead of making them guess from plain text. One of the most underused, highest-leverage SEO tools available to small businesses.

A business that serves customers at their location rather than a fixed storefront, common for home services, cleaning, and mobile businesses. Google Business Profile has specific settings for this, and getting it wrong can hurt local visibility.

The full page of results Google shows after a search, organic listings, ads, the local pack, and AI Overviews all included.

A file listing every page on a website, submitted to Google to help it discover and index content faster. Especially useful for larger sites with many service and location pages.

Another term for schema markup, data formatted in a standardized way so machines (search engines, AI models) can parse it reliably instead of interpreting unstructured text.