Glossary

0-9

• 10DLC registration

  The verification a business needs before it texts customers from an ordinary ten-digit number, who registers it, and the consent rules that come with it.

• 301 redirect

  A permanent move from an old page address to a new one, and why a site rebuild needs a map of them.

A

• AI hallucination

  When an AI tool states something false with confidence, why it happens, and what it means for a chatbot that speaks for your business.

• AI Overviews

  The AI-written summaries in some Google results, how a page comes to be linked from one, and what no one can control.

• AI search crawlers

  The bots OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity send to read sites, Google's Gemini token, and which of them feed AI search answers.

• Alt text

  The words that describe an image for people who cannot see it and for search engines, and how to write them for each kind of image.

B

• Business associate agreement (BAA)

  The HIPAA contract a covered health practice signs with a vendor that handles its patient information, such as the company behind a patient chatbot.

• Business Profile categories

  The primary and additional categories on a Business Profile, how to choose them, and why Google says they affect local ranking.

C

• Canonical tag

  How a page tells Google which address is the main copy when the same content lives at more than one.

• Chatbot disclosure

  Telling visitors they are talking to a bot, what some state laws require, and how to say it plainly.

• Core Web Vitals

  Google's three measures of loading, responsiveness and visual stability, and the thresholds for a good score.

• Cost per click (CPC)

  What you pay each time someone clicks a search ad, how the ad auction sets the price, and why it buys nothing in the organic results.

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

  How much a page jumps around while it loads, and the design choices that stop it.

D

• Duplicate content

  The same or very similar content at more than one address, when it is harmless, and when copied town pages become a problem.

G

• Google Business Profile

  The free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and in local results, and what keeping it accurate involves.

• Google Verified badge

  The badge on Local Services Ads that follows Google's screening, what the checks cover, and what became of the Money Back Guarantee.

H

• HTTPS

  The secure connection a site needs before Chrome stops marking it Not secure, what mixed content is, and what HTTPS does and does not do for search.

I

• Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

  How quickly a page reacts when a visitor taps, clicks or types, the scores that count as good, and what usually slows it down.

• Internal links

  Links from one page of your site to another, how they help people and Google find pages, and how to choose the words you link.

L

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

  How long the biggest thing on the screen takes to appear, and what usually slows it down.

• llms.txt

  A proposed file that points AI tools to the pages that matter on a site, and what it can and cannot do today.

• Local citations

  Mentions of your business name, address and phone on other websites, and which ones are worth your time.

• Local Services Ads

  Google's pay-per-lead ads for local trades and professionals, and the screening and badge that come with them.

• LocalBusiness schema

  Structured data that states a business name, address, phone and hours in a form search engines and AI tools read.

M

• Map pack

  The short list of local businesses Google shows with a map, and the three things Google says decide who appears.

• Meta description

  The short summary in a page's code that Google sometimes shows under a result, and how to write one for every page.

• Mobile-first indexing

  Google reading the phone version of your site to index and rank it, and what has to match between the phone and desktop versions.

N

• NAP consistency

  Keeping your business name, address and phone number the same on your site, your profile and everywhere else.

• noindex

  The rule that keeps a page out of search results, and how it ends up on pages that should be found.

O

• Orphan page

  A page on your site that no other page links to, why search engines and visitors struggle to find it, and how to give it a home.

R

• Rank grid

  A map of where a business shows in local results from points across its area, and how to read one without being misled.

• Review gating

  Asking only the customers you expect to be happy for a review, why the rules bar it, and what to do instead.

• Review replies

  Answering reviews on your Business Profile, what Google and the FTC say about replies, and what a health practice must never write.

• robots.txt

  The file that tells crawlers which parts of a site they may fetch, and the one line that can hide a whole site.

S

• Search Console

  Google's free reports on how your site shows in Search, who should own the account, and the access an agency should ask for.

• Search intent

  What a searcher wants from a query, how Google reads it, and why a page has to answer that want rather than repeat the words.

• Service-area business

  A business that travels to its customers, and how Google expects it to show a service area instead of an address.

• Structured data

  Labels in a page's code that state facts in a shared vocabulary, the format Google suggests, and why the labels must match the page.

T

• Title tag

  The page title Google often shows as the link in results, and how to write one for each page.

X

• XML sitemap

  A list of the pages you want search engines to find, and when a small business site needs one.