Glossary
Web terms, in plain English
SEO, AI search, schema markup, agent readiness. The words that decide whether people find you, defined without the jargon, with sources for every number.
22 terms
Search and SEO
Backlink
A backlink is a link on another website that points to yours, which search engines read as a vote of confidence in your site.
Bounce rate
Bounce rate is the share of visitors who leave without clicking or acting, and a high number is not always a bad sign.
Domain authority
Domain authority is a third-party score from 0 to 100 estimating how strong your whole site looks to search engines. Google does not use it.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust, the qualities Google's raters look for, especially in health, money, and advice.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free Google tool that shows how many people visit your site, where they come from, and what they do once they arrive.
Google Business Profile
Your free Google listing with map pin, hours, photos, and reviews, often the first thing a customer sees about you.
Google reviews
Google reviews are the star ratings on your business listing that sway customers deciding whether to call and feed your local search ranking.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free Google tool showing how your site appears in search: which pages Google found, what ranks, and what is broken.
Keyword
A keyword is the word or phrase a customer types into Google, and the language your pages need to match to show up for that search.
Keyword research
Keyword research is finding the exact phrases your customers search, so you build pages around real demand instead of guessing.
Link building
Link building is the ongoing work of earning links from other sites to yours, which search engines count as votes of confidence in your site.
Local pack (map pack)
The local pack, or map pack, is the boxed group of three nearby businesses shown with a small map at the top of most local Google searches.
Local SEO
Local SEO is the work of helping your business show up when nearby customers search for what you do, by city name or with a 'near me' search.
Meta description
A meta description is the short summary shown under your page's title in a Google result, telling searchers what the page is about.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is the work you do on a page itself, its title, headings, content, and links, so people and search engines understand it.
robots.txt
robots.txt is a small file at the root of your website that tells automated bots, including search and AI crawlers, which parts of your site they may visit.
Schema markup (structured data)
Schema markup is a hidden layer of labels on your web pages that spells out your facts, like services, hours, and location, in a form machines read directly.
SEO (search engine optimization)
SEO is the work of making your website easy for search engines to find, read, and rank, so more of the right people land on it.
SEO audit
An SEO audit is a health check of your website that finds what is holding it back in search and lays out the fixes in order.
Sitemap
A sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website, so search engines can find and index every one without missing any.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the behind-the-scenes work that lets search engines reach, read, and index your pages at all: speed, mobile, structure, indexing.
Title tag
A title tag is the clickable headline that represents your page in Google results and in the browser tab, telling people and search engines what it is.
15 terms
AI search
Agent readiness
Agent readiness is how easily AI assistants and agents can read, understand, and act on your website, measured by Cloudflare on a five-level scale.
AI agent
An AI agent is a tool that does things for a person, like booking or buying, rather than just chatting, and it may soon visit your site to do so.
AI citations
AI citations are the named sources an AI credits in its answer, and being one of them is roughly the AI-era version of ranking.
AI crawler
An AI crawler is an automated bot that visits your website to read and collect its text, so an AI company can use it to answer questions or train a model.
AI Overviews
AI Overviews are the AI-written answers Google places at the very top of its results, above the usual list of links, built from websites.
AI search
AI search is when someone asks an AI assistant a question and it replies in its own words, built from websites it has read, instead of a list of links.
Answer engine
An answer engine is a search tool that hands back a written answer instead of a list of links, the category AI Overviews and Perplexity belong to.
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Answer engine optimization is the work of shaping your website so AI assistants and answer engines can read it, understand it, and quote it accurately.
Content freshness
Content freshness is how recently your pages were updated, a signal Google and AI use to prefer current, actively maintained sites.
Content Signals
Content Signals are a plain way, added to your robots.txt file, to tell AI crawlers what they may and may not do with your content after they read it.
Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is shaping your website so your business appears inside the answers AI tools write for people.
Large language model (LLM)
A large language model (LLM) is the AI behind tools like ChatGPT, trained on huge amounts of text to predict and generate language.
llms.txt
llms.txt is a text file on your website that gives AI assistants a clean, plain summary of your pages, so they can read you without wading through code.
Markdown negotiation
Markdown negotiation is a website's ability to hand an AI assistant a clean, plain-text version of any page on request, instead of the full designed page.
Zero-click search
A zero-click search is one that ends without the person clicking any website, because the answer already appeared on the results page itself.
7 terms
Speed
Above the Fold
Above the fold is the part of a web page a visitor sees before scrolling. Loading it fast is what makes a site feel instant instead of slow.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are three measurements Google uses to score how a page feels: how fast it shows content, how quickly it responds, and how steady it stays.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP, measures how long it takes for the main content of a page to appear on screen after someone opens it.
Lighthouse
Lighthouse is a free tool built into Google Chrome that scores any web page on speed, accessibility, technical SEO, and best practices, from 0 to 100.
Mobile Page Speed
Mobile page speed is how fast your site loads and becomes usable on a phone over a cell connection, which is the version Google actually grades.
Page Load Time
Page load time is the number of seconds between someone clicking your link and the page becoming usable in front of them.
Page Speed
Page speed is how quickly your site appears and becomes usable, which decides whether visitors stay and whether Google ranks you.
6 terms
Design and accessibility
ADA Compliance
ADA compliance means building your website so people with disabilities can read and use it, the US disability-access standard owners follow.
Call to Action (CTA)
A call to action is the button or link that tells a visitor exactly what to do next, like Call Now or Get a Quote.
Landing Page
A landing page is a focused single page built around one offer, stripped of distractions so visitors take one clear action.
Mobile-Friendly
A mobile-friendly website is easy to read, navigate, and tap on a phone, with text large enough to read and buttons big enough to hit.
Responsive Design
Responsive design builds a site that reshapes to fit any screen, so it looks right on a phone, tablet, or laptop without a separate mobile site.
Web Accessibility
Web accessibility means building your site so people with disabilities in vision, hearing, or movement can use it. It is right, and increasingly expected.
6 terms
Domains, hosting, and security
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A content delivery network (CDN) is a worldwide network of servers that serves your site from the location nearest each visitor, cutting load time.
DNS (Domain Name System)
DNS is the internet's address book: it turns your domain name into the address of the server that holds your site, so a browser knows where to go.
Domain name
A domain name is the web address people type to reach your site, like yourbusiness.com. It should be registered in your name, not your web person's.
HTTPS
HTTPS is the secure, encrypted version of a web address, shown by the padlock in the browser. It protects visitors and is a small Google ranking factor.
SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate proves your site is really yours and encrypts the connection to every visitor, which is what turns on the padlock and https.
Web Hosting
Web hosting is the service that stores your website and serves it to visitors; its quality is one of the biggest hidden speed factors.
8 terms
Content and platforms
Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is the tool you log into to add or change your own website content, like your hours or a photo, without calling a developer.
FAQ Page
An FAQ page answers your customers' most common questions and also feeds the direct answers Google and AI assistants show searchers.
Newsletter
A newsletter is a recurring email you send to people who signed up to hear from you. It is the one audience channel you own outright instead of renting.
Page Builder
A page builder is a visual, drag-and-drop tool inside a platform for arranging blocks on a page without code. Handy to use, but it can weigh a site down.
Template vs. Custom
Template vs. custom is the choice between a ready-made design you fill in yourself and a site built from the ground up to fit your business exactly.
Website Builder
A website builder is a do-it-yourself platform like Wix or Squarespace that lets you assemble a site by dragging blocks in your browser.
Wix
Wix is a popular do-it-yourself website builder that puts a site online fast. Here is what it does well, plus the speed and lock-in tradeoffs to know.
WordPress
WordPress is the most widely used website platform in the world, an open-source system that is flexible but rewards steady maintenance.
1 term
Measurement and marketing
1 term
Store and legal
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