Google Business Profile
A business-managed profile that can appear across Google Search and Maps with approved details, categories, hours, photos, reviews, links, and updates.
SEO Glossary
Search terminology explained in the language of real website decisions.
Use these definitions to understand technical findings, content recommendations, local-search work, reporting, and the limits behind common performance claims.
Crawling and indexing
How a search engine discovers, interprets, and stores pages.
Crawl
The process a search engine uses to request pages and follow links. A page can exist publicly without being crawled often or at all.
Index
The collection of content a search engine has processed and may consider for search results. Crawling does not guarantee indexing, and indexing does not guarantee ranking.
XML sitemap
A machine-readable list of preferred URLs and related metadata that helps search engines discover important site content. It does not replace clear navigation or internal links.
Robots.txt
A file that gives crawl instructions to supported bots. It is not an access-control system and should not be used to protect sensitive information.
Noindex
An instruction requesting that a page not appear in a search index. It must be implemented and accessible in a way the search engine can process.
Canonical URL
The preferred address for substantially similar or duplicate content. A canonical is a signal, not an absolute command, and it should agree with the wider site architecture.
Status code
The server response associated with a request. Common examples include 200 for a successful page, 301 for a permanent redirect, and 404 for a missing resource.
Pages and content
How a page communicates purpose, relevance, and relationships.
Search intent
The underlying task or need suggested by a query, such as learning, comparing, finding a local provider, navigating to a known site, or completing a transaction.
Title tag
The HTML title used by browsers and often considered by search systems when understanding and presenting a page. Search engines may display different wording in results.
Meta description
A short page summary that may be used as search-result text. It can influence clarity and clicks, but it is not a direct ranking guarantee and may be rewritten.
Heading structure
The hierarchy of page headings that organizes content for readers and assistive technologies. Headings should describe sections, not serve as decoration alone.
Internal link
A link from one page on a site to another page on the same site. Useful internal links support navigation, discovery, architecture, and contextual understanding.
Pillar page
A substantial page covering a core capability or topic and linking to more focused supporting pages. The term describes an architecture role, not a guaranteed ranking tactic.
Cluster page
A focused supporting page that addresses a meaningful subtopic, service, problem, or decision and links back into the wider architecture.
Duplicate content
Substantially similar content available at multiple URLs or across multiple pages. Duplication can confuse ownership and weaken usefulness even when it does not create a formal penalty.
Local discovery
Signals that help a business appear in geographically relevant search experiences.
Local pack
A map-centered group of local results shown for some geographically relevant queries. Inclusion and position vary by query, location, competition, and other signals.
NAP consistency
The consistency of a business name, address, and phone number across important profiles and citations. Real-world accuracy matters more than mechanical repetition.
Citation
An online reference to a business, often in a directory, platform, association, publication, or partner site. Quality and relevance vary widely.
Service area
The real geography a business serves. A service area should reflect operations and useful customer context, not a collection of thin doorway pages.
Review velocity
The pattern and frequency of new customer reviews over time. Review acquisition should be genuine, policy-compliant, and connected to a consistent customer process.
Measurement and authority
Terms used to describe visibility, traffic, links, and observed behavior.
Impression
A recorded appearance of a result or item under a platform’s measurement rules. It does not mean the person noticed, visited, or acted on it.
Organic click
A visit attributed by a platform to an unpaid search result. Attribution definitions, privacy controls, tracking setup, and data thresholds affect reporting.
Conversion
A defined action considered useful, such as a form submission, call, booking step, purchase, download, or qualified workflow event. The definition should match a real business question.
Backlink
A link from another website to a page on your site. Links vary in relevance, context, trust, traffic, placement, and editorial value.
Domain authority
A third-party comparative metric created by an SEO tool, not a score used publicly by Google. It can support analysis but should not be treated as a guarantee of ranking ability.
Core Web Vitals
A group of user-experience measurements associated with loading, responsiveness, and visual stability. They are one part of technical quality, not a complete performance or ranking verdict.
Attribution
The method used to assign credit for a conversion or outcome across visits and channels. Different models can tell different stories about the same customer path.
AI and answer systems
Search visibility now includes systems that summarize, cite, and generate responses.
Clear entities, original information, usable structure, consistent facts, sourceable evidence, and accessible pages can support machine understanding. No provider can guarantee inclusion or citation in an AI-generated answer.
Related terms
- Entity: a distinct person, organization, place, product, or concept a system can identify.
- Structured data: machine-readable markup describing page entities and relationships.
- AI Overview: a generated search summary that may appear for some Google queries.
- Answer engine: a system that produces a direct synthesized response from model knowledge, retrieval, sources, or tools.
Apply the terms
Move from a definition to the relevant service or diagnostic path.
Request an SEO review
Share the site and the search question behind the terminology.
The audit form helps us understand visibility, technical concerns, local priorities, content needs, and the pages that matter most.