Glossary
Search marketing, in plain English
28 terms we use with clients, explained the way we'd explain them over coffee. If we've used a word in a report and you weren't sure what it meant, it should be here.
A
- AEO (answer engine optimisation)AI search
- Making your business the one AI assistants and voice search name when someone asks a question. Overlaps with SEO, but cares more about mentions and clear answers than rankings.
- AI OverviewsAI search
- The AI-written summary Google shows above the normal results for some searches. It cites a handful of sources, and being one of them is the goal.
- Alt text
- A short description of an image in your page's code. Screen readers read it out, and Google uses it to understand the image.
- Anchor text
- The clickable words in a link. "Best dentist in JLT" tells Google more about the page it points to than "click here" does.
B
- Backlink
- A link from another website to yours. Still one of the strongest signals Google uses. One link from a newspaper your customers read outweighs a hundred from directories nobody reads.
- Brand mentionAI search
- Your business named on another site, with or without a link. AI answers lean on these heavily.
C
- Canonical tag
- A line of code telling Google which version of a page is the main one when several look alike, like the same product in three colours.
- Citation (AI)AI search
- When an AI answer links to or names your site as a source. We track these monthly for every client.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google's three measures of how fast and stable a page feels: loading speed, responsiveness and layout shift.
- CPC (cost per click)Paid
- What you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Legal and insurance keywords in the US and UK often run past US$20 a click, and Dubai real estate isn't far behind.
D
- Digital PR
- Getting coverage and links from news sites and blogs by giving journalists something worth writing about, usually data or a strong opinion.
E
- E-E-A-T
- Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust. Google's shorthand for whether a page comes from someone who knows the subject.
G
- GEO (generative engine optimisation)AI search
- Another name for AEO, used more in academic papers. In practice the work is the same.
- Google Business ProfileLocal
- Your free listing on Google Maps and the local pack. For clinics, restaurants and shops, it often brings more customers than the website.
H
- Hreflang
- A tag that tells Google which page is for which language and region, so French speakers in Canada get your French page and Arabic searchers in Saudi get the Arabic one.
I
- Indexing
- Google storing a page so it can show up in results. A page that isn't indexed can't rank, however good it is.
K
- Keyword intent
- What the person searching actually wants: to learn, to compare, or to buy. "Dentist JLT" and "how much do veneers cost" need very different pages.
L
- llms.txtAI search
- A proposed file that tells AI tools which pages on your site matter. Not widely used by the big AI engines yet.
- Local packLocal
- The map with three businesses Google shows for searches with local intent. Also called the map pack.
N
- NAP consistencyLocal
- Having the same name, address and phone number everywhere your business is listed. Small differences confuse Google and cost you local rankings.
- Noindex
- A tag that tells Google not to show a page in results. Useful for thank-you pages. Disastrous when a plugin adds it to your whole Arabic site.
R
- ROAS (return on ad spend)Paid
- Revenue from ads divided by what you spent on them. A ROAS of 4 means US$4 back for every US$1 spent.
S
- Schema markup
- Code that labels what's on a page, like prices, reviews or opening hours, so search engines can read it reliably.
- Search Console
- Google's free tool showing which searches bring people to your site and which pages have problems. Every site should have it set up.
- SERP
- Search engine results page. Everything Google shows after you search: ads, maps, AI Overviews and the ten blue links.
T
- Technical SEO
- Making sure search engines can find, read and index your site. Speed, structure, redirects, mobile and the like.
Z
- Zero-click searchAI search
- A search that ends without a click, because Google or an AI answer already gave the answer. By most estimates, over half of Google searches now end this way.
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