Plain-English reference · 100+ terms
Look up the SEO, AI search, advertising, analytics, and software terms that show up in reports and sales calls. Each answer is short, practical, and written for a local business owner.
Start here
The words nearly every report assumes you already know.
Improving a website and its reputation so it can be found in unpaid search results. For a local business, that includes useful service pages, technical health, local facts, links, and trust.
SEO focused on customers in a real service area. It connects your website, Google Business Profile, reviews, business listings, and local relevance.
A search listing that was not purchased as an ad. “Organic” does not mean free to earn; it usually requires useful work, maintenance, and credibility.
The page a search engine shows after someone searches. It can contain ads, map results, ordinary website links, videos, snippets, and AI answers.
A word or phrase marketers use to describe a search topic. Real customers often search with longer, messier questions rather than one perfect keyword.
The actual words a person typed or spoke. A keyword is a planning label; a query is what a real searcher used.
The job behind a search: learn, compare, find a specific business, or take action. A page performs better when it solves the same job the searcher has.
Where a result appears for a search. Rankings change by location, device, time, wording, personalization, and result type, so one screenshot is not a complete report.
How often and how prominently a business appears across relevant searches. It is broader than ranking for one favorite phrase.
Visits to a website. More traffic is useful only when the visitors are relevant and can take a meaningful next step.
A person or company that has shown possible buying interest, usually through a call, form, message, booking, or estimate request. Not every click is a lead.
A valuable action you want someone to take, such as calling, booking, submitting a form, or buying. Define it before judging a campaign.
A simplified view of the path from first awareness to purchase. Local customers rarely move in a perfectly straight line, so treat it as a planning model.
The next step a page or ad asks someone to take: call now, request an estimate, book online, or read the guide. Clear beats clever.
Maps and nearby customers
The pieces that help a real local business show up, look trustworthy, and get contacted.
The business listing that can appear in Google Search and Maps with hours, reviews, photos, services, and contact actions. It was formerly called Google My Business or GMB.
Official site ↗The prominent group of local results and map that Google may show for a nearby or location-based search. It often appears above ordinary organic links.
The expanded list of local businesses someone sees after opening more local results from Google Search. It provides more options than the small Map Pack.
A business that travels to customers rather than serving them at a public storefront, such as many plumbers or electricians. Google has specific profile rules for these businesses.
The core identity details used across a website and business listings. Consistency helps customers and platforms connect records to the same real business.
An online mention of a business, often with its name, address, and phone number. Examples include Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, and industry directories.
The main Google Business Profile category describing what the business is. It is a strong relevance signal, so choose the most accurate specific option.
An additional accurate GBP category for another meaningful part of the business. More categories are not automatically better.
How close the business is to the searcher or searched location. It strongly affects local results and cannot be fixed by repeating city names on a page.
How well the profile and website match what the person is seeking. Accurate categories, services, and clear pages help establish relevance.
How established and well-known a business appears. Reviews, links, mentions, offline reputation, and other signals can contribute.
The pace at which a business receives new reviews. A steady, genuine pattern is usually more believable than a sudden campaign-driven spike.
Screening customers and asking only the happy ones to post publicly. Google prohibits selectively soliciting positive reviews, so ask eligible customers consistently.
A website page explaining where a business genuinely works. It should help customers understand coverage, not pretend the company has offices everywhere.
A page about a real office or a genuinely distinct market. Useful pages contain local proof and information; thin pages only swap city names.
A map showing how a business ranks from many points around an area. It reveals the geographic pattern that one search from one device cannot show.
What the website is doing
Enough technical language to understand a report without becoming a developer.
When a search engine or other bot visits pages and follows links to discover content. A page generally must be discoverable before it can be indexed.
When a search engine processes a page and may store it for possible use in results. Indexed does not mean guaranteed to rank.
A machine-readable list of important site URLs that helps search engines discover and revisit pages. It is a map for crawlers, not a ranking guarantee.
A file that gives crawler access instructions. It controls crawling, not reliable removal from search results.
The preferred version of a page when similar URLs exist. A canonical tag is a hint that helps search engines consolidate duplicates.
The HTML title of a page. Search engines often use it as the blue result headline, but may rewrite it when another title better fits the query.
A short page summary that search engines may show under a result. It can improve clarity and clicks, but is not a simple direct ranking switch.
The readable part of a page address after the domain, such as
/services/roof-repair. Short, descriptive URLs are
easier to understand and share.
A text alternative that explains an image when it cannot be seen. Write it for accessibility and meaning, not as a place to stuff keywords.
A link from one page on your site to another. It helps people continue their task and helps crawlers understand page relationships.
A link to your website from another website. Relevant, earned links can support discovery and credibility; purchased spam links can create risk.
An automatic move from one URL to another. A 301 is normally used for a permanent move; a 302 or 307 usually signals a temporary one.
The server cannot find the requested page. Some 404s are normal, but broken important links should be repaired or redirected appropriately.
The secure version of web communication, shown by the lock icon in most browsers. It protects data in transit and is a basic requirement for a trustworthy site.
Google’s user-experience measurements for loading, responsiveness, and visual stability. They matter, but perfect scores do not replace useful content or a clear offer.
Machine-readable labels that identify things such as an organization, service, article, or FAQ. Schema clarifies content; it does not create facts or guarantee special results.
Schema.org ↗A page that works comfortably on a phone without tiny text, side-scrolling, hidden actions, or hard-to-tap controls. Most local searches happen in a mobile context.
A page with little original value for its intended reader. Word count alone does not decide quality; usefulness, specificity, and first-hand substance matter.
ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and AI results
Emerging language for how businesses are understood and cited in AI-assisted search.
Making content easy to understand and use when a system answers a question directly. The term is not governed by one universal standard.
Improving the clarity, evidence, and identity signals that may help generative systems understand and cite an organization or source. GEO is an evolving industry term.
A Google-generated summary that may appear for some searches, often with supporting links. Availability and presentation vary by query and user.
A model trained to work with language and generate responses. It predicts useful text patterns; it is not automatically a verified database of facts.
A distinct thing a system can identify, such as a business, person, service, or place. Consistent names, profiles, links, and facts help connect mentions to the right entity.
A structured network of entities and their relationships. For example: Zach Bailey is the owner of SEO Littleton, which serves Littleton, Colorado.
A source link or reference attached to an AI-generated answer. A mention without a visible link may still create awareness, but it is harder to measure.
A process that retrieves outside information and gives it to a model before the answer is generated. It can improve grounding but does not guarantee correctness.
Connecting an AI answer to supplied or retrieved evidence. A grounded response should stay closer to sources than an answer generated from model memory alone.
A confident-sounding AI statement that is unsupported or false. Business facts, prices, credentials, locations, and customer stories must be checked before publishing.
The instruction and context given to an AI system. Better source material and clear constraints usually matter more than a clever one-line command.
A quality framework used in Google’s evaluator guidance. It is not a public score you can buy or a single markup field, and trust is central.
Content that states a direct answer, then provides the context, limits, evidence, and next step a person needs. It helps humans first and is easier for machines to parse.
A Schema.org property identifying page sections suited to spoken playback. It is not a general guarantee that an AI assistant will cite or read the page.
Paying for attention and leads
The acronyms that determine whether an ad report describes growth or expensive activity.
An advertising model where the advertiser pays when someone clicks. Google Search Ads are a common example, though not every campaign uses click-based billing.
The average amount paid for a click. Divide click cost by the number of clicks. A cheap click can still be wasteful if it never becomes a qualified lead.
The price of one thousand ad views. It is common in awareness and social campaigns where exposure matters more than immediate clicks.
Ad cost divided by the number of desired results. Confirm what “acquisition” means in the report: a form, a qualified lead, a booked job, or a paying customer.
Total sales and marketing cost divided by new customers. CAC is broader than ad-platform CPA because it may include people, software, creative work, and sales effort.
The percentage of impressions that produced a click. Divide clicks by impressions. A strong CTR suggests relevance, but says nothing by itself about lead quality.
The percentage of visitors or ad interactions that complete the defined conversion. Always ask which starting number and which conversion are being used.
Revenue attributed to ads divided by ad spend. A 4:1 ROAS means four dollars of attributed revenue per ad dollar. It is not profit and is sometimes mistyped “ROASS.”
The expected value of a customer across the relationship, not just the first invoice. Repeat work and referrals can change what an affordable CAC looks like.
One counted appearance of an ad or result. It does not prove the person noticed, read, or remembered it.
The top-level container for an advertising objective, budget, location, and other settings. It usually contains one or more ad groups or asset groups.
A grouping of related ads and targeting inside a campaign. Tight themes make it easier to match the search, ad message, and landing page.
A Google or Microsoft Ads setting controlling how closely a search must relate to a keyword. Broad, phrase, and exact are not literal guarantees, so review actual search terms.
A word or phrase used to prevent ads from appearing for unwanted searches. It is one of the simplest ways to reduce irrelevant paid-search clicks.
A Google Ads diagnostic from 1 to 10 comparing expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing-page experience. It is a guide for improvement, not the ad auction’s direct score.
The values Google uses to decide whether an ad can show and where it appears. Bid, ad and landing-page quality, competition, context, and assets can contribute.
The page someone reaches after clicking an ad. A focused page usually converts better when its promise matches the ad and removes unrelated choices.
Advertising to people who previously visited or interacted with the business, subject to platform rules and consent requirements. It reaches warmer audiences, not guaranteed buyers.
The percentage of eligible impressions an ad received. Lost share can point to budget or rank limitations, but more share is not automatically more profit.
Google’s lead-focused local ad format for eligible categories and areas. Placement, screening, badges, pricing, and dispute rules differ from ordinary Google Search Ads.
Official site ↗Reading the results
What the numbers can tell you, and the mistakes they cannot prevent for you.
The collection and interpretation of activity data. Analytics helps answer what happened; it still needs business context to explain why.
A recorded interaction such as a page view, click, form submission, or phone-link tap. In GA4, most measurement is organized around events.
An event marked as especially important to the business. Google Analytics renamed its former “conversion” marking to key events; ad platforms still use conversion language.
A group of interactions from one user during a period of activity. One person can create multiple sessions.
In GA4, a session lasting more than 10 seconds, producing a key event, or containing at least two page or screen views. Configuration and reporting context still matter.
An analytics estimate of a distinct visitor. Device changes, cookie limits, consent, and identity settings mean it is not a perfect headcount.
Labels describing where traffic came from and how it arrived,
such as google / organic or
google / cpc. Bad campaign tagging creates
misleading reports.
Tags added to a link so analytics can identify its source, medium, and campaign. Use a consistent naming system or the report becomes fragmented.
The rule used to assign credit for a conversion across marketing interactions. Different tools and models can credit different channels for the same customer.
In Search Console, a count that the site’s link appeared or was available in a search result under Google’s reporting rules. It is not the same as a website visit.
Search Console’s average of the topmost position from your site for reported impressions. It is useful directionally, not a fixed rank every customer sees.
In GA4, the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. A high or low number needs page-purpose context; a quick phone call can still be a successful visit.
Using trackable phone numbers to connect calls to campaigns or pages. Configure number display carefully so the public business identity remains consistent.
Information collected directly through your customer relationships and owned systems, such as CRM records and booked-job data. Handle it with appropriate consent and privacy controls.
A summarized view of chosen metrics. A useful local dashboard connects marketing activity to qualified calls, estimates, booked work, and revenue.
A metric selected because it reflects progress toward a business goal. If everything is a KPI, nothing is prioritized.
What the software actually does
Direct links and the simplest useful explanation of each platform.
Manage the business information, reviews, photos, services, and updates that may appear in Google Search and Maps.
Open Google Business Profile ↗Shows how Google crawls, indexes, and reports your site in search, including queries, clicks, impressions, pages, and technical issues.
Open Search Console ↗Google’s event-based website and app analytics platform. Use it to study visits and actions, with the right consent and configuration.
Open Google Analytics ↗Google’s advertising platform for Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping, Performance Max, and other campaign types.
Open Google Ads ↗A Google Ads planning tool for keyword ideas, estimated search ranges, and forecasts. Its numbers are estimates designed for advertising decisions.
Open Keyword Planner ↗Compares relative search interest over time and by location. It shows indexed interest, not exact search volume.
Open Google Trends ↗A system for managing analytics and marketing tags without editing every page for every change. It still requires careful testing and governance.
Open Tag Manager ↗Google’s dashboard and reporting tool for combining data sources and building shareable reports. It was formerly called Google Data Studio.
Open Looker Studio ↗Tests page performance with lab data and, when available, real-user Chrome data. Use the findings to diagnose, not chase a score without context.
Test a page ↗An automated Chrome audit for performance, accessibility, best practices, and basic SEO checks. It catches patterns, not every real-world problem.
Lighthouse overview ↗Google’s test for structured data types that may be eligible for supported rich search features. Valid markup does not guarantee a rich result.
Run the test ↗Checks Schema.org structured data syntax and vocabulary more broadly than Google’s product-specific rich-result test.
Open the validator ↗Microsoft’s site and search reporting platform for Bing, including indexing, performance, URL inspection, sitemaps, and IndexNow tools.
Open Bing Webmaster Tools ↗The ad platform serving Bing and Microsoft search experiences plus partner inventory. It was formerly known as Bing Ads.
Open Microsoft Ads ↗Microsoft’s platform for claiming and managing local business details shown across Bing’s local experiences.
Open Bing Places ↗A paid SEO platform for backlink research, keyword research, competitor analysis, rank tracking, and site auditing. Useful, but not required to do basic Local SEO.
Visit Ahrefs ↗A paid marketing platform covering SEO research, advertising research, content, competitive analysis, listings, and reporting.
Visit Semrush ↗A desktop crawler that audits site URLs, titles, links, redirects, canonicals, status codes, and other technical elements.
Visit Screaming Frog ↗A Local SEO platform for rank tracking, citation work, reputation management, audits, and reporting.
Visit BrightLocal ↗A local rank-grid tool that visualizes Google Maps visibility from many geographic points around an area.
Visit Local Falcon ↗A Local SEO software and service company offering citation, rank-tracking, reputation, and local-search tools.
Visit Whitespark ↗A listings and reputation platform for managing business information across supported directories and publishers.
Visit Moz Local ↗A behavior analytics tool with session recordings and heatmaps. Use appropriate consent and privacy settings for your visitors and jurisdiction.
Open Microsoft Clarity ↗A paid call-tracking and lead-intelligence platform used to connect phone and form inquiries to marketing sources.
Visit CallRail ↗OpenAI’s AI assistant for research support, drafting, analysis, and other tasks. Verify business facts and do not paste sensitive customer information without an approved data process.
Open ChatGPT ↗Google’s family of AI models and assistant experiences. Capabilities, sources, and integrations vary by product and account.
Open Gemini ↗An AI answer and research service that commonly presents source links alongside generated responses. Citations still need human checking.
Open Perplexity ↗A widely used content management system for websites. It is flexible, but performance and security depend heavily on hosting, themes, plugins, and upkeep.
Visit WordPress ↗A WordPress plugin for managing titles, metadata, sitemaps, schema features, and basic content checks. A green light is not proof a page will rank.
Visit Yoast ↗A WordPress SEO plugin with metadata, sitemap, schema, redirect, and analysis features. It helps manage settings, not replace strategy.
Visit Rank Math ↗Apple’s platform for managing how a business appears across Apple Maps and supported Apple experiences.
Open Apple Business Connect ↗The owner platform for managing a Yelp business page, messages, details, photos, review responses, and optional advertising.
Open Yelp for Business ↗Try fewer words, search the acronym, or ask in the Littleton SEO community. If it is useful, I will add it.
A useful next step
Use the 100-point Local SEO audit to find the weak area, the AI visibility checklist for AEO and GEO questions, or the prompt library to create a fact-safe first draft.
Still sounds like alphabet soup?
No giant audit and no pressure to buy the software mentioned on this page.