Glossary
Marketing and tech terms, in plain words
From SEO and Google Business Profile to AEO, GEO and llms.txt. Anywhere on this site, a term with a dotted underline shows its meaning when you point at it, tab to it or tap it.
A
- A/B test
- Showing two versions of a page or ad to different visitors to see which one brings more requests.
- Landing pages
- AEOAnswer engine optimization
- Making your pages easy for answer engines to quote: AI assistants and search features that reply with an answer instead of a list of links.
- AI-search visibility
- AI citationsSources in AI answers
- The sources an AI answer shows or links to. A citation means the assistant used that page for its answer.
- AI-search visibility
- AI OverviewsGoogle’s AI summaries
- The AI-written summaries at the top of some Google results, with links to the pages they drew from. Google decides when one appears.
- AI-search visibility
- APIApplication programming interface
- A way for two programs to exchange data, such as your booking tool sending each new booking to your CRM.
- Integrations & data
C
- Call tracking
- Phone numbers that show which page, ad or listing a call came from. Calls still ring your usual line.
- Lead tracking & reports
- CMSContent management system
- The admin where your team edits pages without writing code. WordPress is the most widely used one.
- Websites
- Conversion tracking
- Recording when a visitor does what you want, such as a call, a form or a booking, and which page or ad brought them.
- Lead tracking & reports
- Crawlability
- How easily search engine and AI crawlers can reach and read your pages. A page they can’t reach can’t be shown.
- SEO & Local SEO
- CRMCustomer relationship management
- One place for every lead and client, with their history and the next step.
- AI agents & automation
D
- Digital PR
- Getting your business mentioned on news sites, in local media and in industry publications, usually with a story or useful data.
- Link building & Digital PR
- DKIMDomainKeys Identified Mail
- A signature added to each message that proves it came from your domain and wasn’t changed on the way.
- Email setup & migration
- DMARCDomain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance
- A DNS record that tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails the SPF and DKIM checks, and sends you reports about it.
- Email setup & migration
- DNSDomain Name System
- The settings for your domain that point it to your website and your email.
- Email setup & migration
E
- Email alias
- An extra address that delivers into an existing mailbox, such as info@ into your own inbox. It usually needs no extra licence.
- Email setup & migration
- Entity SEOYour business as an entity
- Making sure search engines and AI models connect the right facts to your business: its name, address, services, people and profiles.
- AI-search visibility
G
- GEOGenerative engine optimization
- Working to be one of the sources that AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity use when they write an answer, and to be described correctly there.
- AI-search visibility
- Google Business Profile
- Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps: address, hours, photos and reviews. It should be registered to you, not to your agency.
- SEO & Local SEO
- Google Search Console
- Google’s free tool that shows which searches bring people to your site, which pages are indexed and what errors Google found.
- SEO & Local SEO
I
- Indexing
- When a search engine stores a page so it can show it in results. A page that isn’t indexed can’t appear in search.
- SEO & Local SEO
L
- Landing page
- A page made for one offer, usually where an ad sends people. It asks for one action, such as a call or a form.
- Landing pages
- Lead source
- Where an enquiry came from: a search, a map listing, an ad, a referral or a social post.
- Lead tracking & reports
- Link building
- Earning links to your site from other relevant sites. Search engines read them as a sign that others trust you.
- Link building & Digital PR
- LLMLarge language model
- The kind of AI model behind assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. It writes text by predicting likely words from what it has learned.
- AI-search visibility
- LLMOLarge language model optimization
- Another name for AEO and GEO, aimed at the language models behind AI assistants.
- AI-search visibility
- llms.txtA file for AI tools
- A proposed plain-text file at the root of a site that points AI tools to its key pages. It isn’t a standard, and not every AI platform reads it.
- AI-search visibility
- Local citationsBusiness listings on other sites
- Mentions of your business name, address and phone number on other sites, such as directories and map apps. They should match everywhere.
- SEO & Local SEO
- Local SEO
- SEO for businesses that serve an area: your Google Business Profile, map results, reviews and pages for the places you really serve.
- SEO & Local SEO
- Local Services Ads
- Google’s pay-per-lead ads for local service businesses. They appear at the top of some searches after Google screens the business.
- Google, Meta & Local Services Ads
M
- Missed-call text-back
- An automatic text message to someone whose call you missed, so the enquiry doesn’t go cold.
- Lead tracking & reports
O
R
- Retargeting
- Ads shown to people who have already visited your site or engaged with your business.
- Google, Meta & Local Services Ads
S
- SEOSearch engine optimization
- Work on your site and listings so search engines can find, understand and show your pages for the searches your customers make.
- SEO & Local SEO
- SPFSender Policy Framework
- A DNS record that lists the servers allowed to send email for your domain.
- Email setup & migration
- Structured dataSchema markup
- Code on a page that labels facts, such as your name, address, hours and services, in a format search engines and AI tools read.
- SEO & Local SEO
T
- Technical SEO
- The site side of SEO: speed, mobile layout, indexing, redirects and structured data. Content and links are the other parts.
- SEO & Local SEO
U
- Uptime monitoring
- A service that checks your site every few minutes and alerts someone when it stops responding.
- Servers & DevOps
W
- Web analytics
- Tools such as Google Analytics that count visits and what visitors do on your site.
- Lead tracking & reports
- Written scope
- A short document agreed before work starts: the goal, what’s included and what isn’t, what we need from you, how we’ll measure it, and the estimate.
- Written Scope Checklist
Z
- Zero-click searchAnswers without a visit
- A search that ends on the results page or in an AI answer, with no click to any website.
- AI-search visibility