Let’s talk Learn / Glossary
What does this glossary cover? A plain-English glossary of marketing, martech and AI terms: AEO and GEO, AI search, SEO fundamentals, local search, AI and automation, analytics, advertising, CRM and the web. Each definition is short enough to quote and links to the page that goes deeper.
Where a term ties to something we measured, the definition includes the number from our Houston AI Visibility Index.
01 / Terms
Grouped by topic. Each definition links to the page that goes deeper.
Structuring the visible content of a page so answer engines, voice assistants, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and similar tools can lift a clear, direct answer from it. It builds on SEO: a page has to be crawlable and trusted before its answer can be used.
Improving how generative AI systems understand, summarize and cite a business as a whole: consistent facts, linked profiles, entity data and mentions on trusted sites, not just one page.
An umbrella term for SEO work aimed at both classic search results and AI-generated answers. It covers AEO and GEO on top of the usual technical, content and local SEO foundation.
AI-generated summaries that Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to the pages they draw on. Google says there is no special markup or separate submission for them; a page has to be indexed and eligible for normal search.
A conversational mode in Google Search that answers questions with AI and follow-up questions, citing web pages as sources. Like AI Overviews, it draws on pages that are already indexed.
When an AI answer names or links to a page as one of its sources. Citations vary by question, user and day, so they are best tracked over time in a dated log rather than judged from a single screenshot.
A system that responds to a question with a direct answer instead of a list of links, such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews or a voice assistant.
A bot that fetches pages so an AI tool can find and cite them in answers, such as OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Training crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot are different: they collect content for model training, and blocking them does not remove a site from AI search answers.
An optional Markdown file at the root of a site that lists its key pages and facts for large language models. It is an emerging convention, not a Google requirement. In our Houston data, 30% of local business sites already publish one, many of them generated by an SEO plugin.
A search where the person gets what they need on the results page itself, from a snippet, a map listing or an AI answer, without clicking through to a website. It is why being named in the answer now matters alongside ranking.
A short answer Google lifts from a web page and shows above or beside the normal results, with a link to the source. Pages that answer the question directly near the top are the usual candidates.
The expandable box of related questions in Google results. Each answer is lifted from a web page, which makes the questions a practical list of what to answer on your own pages.
A distinct, identifiable thing such as a business, person or place that search engines and AI tools keep facts about in a knowledge graph. Consistent names, schema with sameAs links, and profiles on sites like Wikidata help them recognize a business as one entity.
Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: the qualities Google’s search quality rater guidelines use to judge content. Named authors, real evidence and accurate claims are the practical ways to show them.
A Schema.org property that marks the parts of a page best suited to being read aloud by voice assistants. Google suggests sections of about 20 to 30 seconds read aloud.
Improving a website so search engines can find, understand and rank its pages for the searches its customers make. It spans technical work, content and links, and for local businesses, local SEO.
Work that makes a site easy for search engines to crawl, render and index: status codes, redirects, canonical tags, sitemaps, page speed and structured data.
What a person actually wants from a search: to learn something, compare options, find a place or buy. A page ranks and converts best when it matches that intent instead of just repeating the keyword.
A plain-text file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which paths they may fetch, standardized as RFC 9309. It is a request, not access control: well-behaved crawlers follow it. In our Houston data, only 1.6% of local business sites block an AI search crawler there.
A file that lists the pages on a site, with the date each last changed, so search engines can find and recrawl them. It helps discovery; it does not guarantee indexing.
A link element that tells search engines which URL is the main version of a page when the same content is reachable at several addresses, so ranking signals are not split between duplicates.
An open protocol that lets a site notify participating search engines, including Bing, the moment a page is added or changed, instead of waiting to be recrawled.
Machine-readable labels, usually written with the Schema.org vocabulary, that tell search engines and AI tools what a page is about: a business, a product, an article, a question and its answer. It should only describe what is visible on the page.
The format Google recommends for structured data: a script block in the page that holds Schema.org data as JSON, separate from the visible HTML.
Text that is present in a page’s HTML before any script runs. Most AI crawlers, including GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot, do not run JavaScript, so text added by scripts can be invisible to them. In our Houston data, 19% of local business homepages show under 120 words this way.
Google’s three page-experience measures: Largest Contentful Paint (loading, good under 2.5 seconds), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness, good under 200 milliseconds; it replaced First Input Delay in 2024) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability, good under 0.1).
A link to your site from another website. Links from relevant, trusted sites help search engines judge a page’s importance; paid or manipulative links can do the opposite.
Links between pages on the same site. Clear, descriptive internal links help visitors and crawlers find related pages and show which pages matter most.
Google’s free tool for site owners. It shows which searches bring impressions and clicks, which pages are indexed, and any crawling or structured data problems. Visits from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in its normal web report.
Microsoft’s free tool for site owners. Besides search performance and indexing, it includes AI performance reporting that shows when Microsoft Copilot cites your pages.
Improving how a business shows up in nearby map and search results, including Google Business Profile, reviews, location pages and local answer readiness.
The free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and in the local results on Google Search: name, category, hours, photos, reviews and services.
The group of business listings with a map that Google shows for local searches such as “plumber near me”. Placement depends mainly on relevance, distance and prominence.
Keeping a business’s name, address and phone number identical on its website, Google Business Profile and directory listings. Mismatches make it harder for search engines and AI tools to tell that the listings describe the same business.
A mention of a business’s name, address and phone number on another site, such as a directory, review site or chamber listing. Consistent citations support local rankings and help AI tools confirm business details.
Structured data that states a business’s name, type, address, phone, hours and website so search engines and AI tools can identify it. In our Houston data, 45% of independent business sites have no business schema at all.
A business that travels to customers, such as a roofer or plumber, rather than serving them at a storefront. On Google Business Profile it can hide its address and list the areas it serves instead.
Customer ratings and comments on Google, Yelp and similar sites. Their number, recency and the services they mention all feed local rankings, and AI tools often quote them when recommending a business.
AI that creates new text, images, audio or code from a prompt, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. Useful for drafts and structure; its output still needs checking against real sources.
The kind of AI model behind chat assistants and AI search. It predicts text from patterns learned during training and, in search tools, from pages it retrieves when answering.
Writing and testing instructions for an AI model so it gives reliable, useful output: clear context, examples, constraints and a defined format.
When an AI model states something false with confidence, such as an invented statistic, citation or business detail. It is the main reason AI-written marketing copy needs a human fact check before publishing.
A technique where an AI system first retrieves relevant documents, such as web pages or a company’s own files, and then writes its answer from them. AI search works this way, which is why clear, crawlable pages get cited.
An AI system that takes a series of actions toward a goal, such as reading a lead form, looking up a record and drafting a reply, rather than answering one prompt. For business use it needs clear limits and a human checkpoint.
Small custom tools that remove repeat marketing work, such as lead capture, follow-up, reporting and content routing.
Connecting the tools a team already uses so routine steps happen on their own, for example sending a new web lead to the CRM, notifying the right person and logging the follow-up.
A workflow automation tool that connects apps and services through visual workflows and can be self-hosted, which keeps data on infrastructure you control.
An automatic message one app sends to another the moment something happens, such as a form submission, so the next step can start without anyone copying data.
An application programming interface: the defined way one piece of software requests data or actions from another. Most marketing tools connect to each other through APIs.
Software built for one team, using AI where it helps and plain code where reliability matters, instead of off-the-shelf apps.
Google’s current web analytics product, which replaced Universal Analytics in 2023. It records events such as page views, form submissions and calls, and can show visits referred by AI tools like chatgpt.com.
Tags added to the end of a link, such as utm_source and utm_campaign, so analytics can tell which campaign, email or post brought a visitor.
An action that matters to the business, such as a call, a form submission, a booking or a purchase. Conversion rate is the share of visits that end in one.
Deciding which channels and touchpoints get credit for a conversion. No model is perfect, so it is best read as a guide alongside real lead and sales records.
The share of people who click after seeing a result or ad: clicks divided by impressions. In Search Console it shows how well titles and descriptions earn the click.
Information a business collects directly from its own customers and website, such as form leads, purchases and analytics, as opposed to data bought or borrowed from third parties.
A free tool for adding and managing tracking tags, such as analytics and ad pixels, from one place without editing the site’s code for each change.
A small piece of code from an ad platform, such as the Meta Pixel, that reports visits and conversions back to that platform so it can measure and target ads.
Advertising where you pay each time someone clicks your ad, such as Google Ads search campaigns. It buys visibility immediately, while SEO builds it over time.
What an advertiser pays, on average, for each click on an ad. It is set by an auction and varies by keyword, location and competition.
Total ad or campaign spend divided by the number of leads it produced. For most local businesses it is a more useful measure than cost per click.
Revenue from ads divided by what the ads cost. A ROAS of 4 means $4 in revenue for every $1 spent; profit depends on margins, so it is not the same as return on investment.
Showing ads to people who already visited your site or engaged with your business, using a tracking pixel or a customer list.
Google ads for service businesses that appear at the very top of local searches. They charge per lead rather than per click and require the business to pass Google’s screening.
The software a business uses to run its marketing: website and CMS, analytics, CRM, email, ads and automation. A martech stack is how those tools fit together.
Software that keeps every lead and customer in one record: contact details, conversations, deals and follow-ups. It is where web leads should land so none are lost.
Ranking leads by how likely they are to buy, using details such as service requested, location, budget or behavior, so the team calls the best ones first.
Something useful offered in exchange for contact details, such as a checklist, a free audit or a free tool, to start a relationship with a potential customer.
A series of emails sent automatically on a schedule or after an action, such as a welcome sequence after someone downloads a guide.
Splitting customers or leads into groups, such as by service, location or stage, so each group gets messages that fit it.
A page built for one goal, usually the destination of an ad or campaign link, with a single clear action such as calling or requesting a quote.
Improving a site so more visitors take the action you want, through clearer offers, simpler forms, faster pages and testing changes against each other.
Showing two versions of a page, email or ad to similar audiences and comparing results, so changes are judged by data instead of opinion.
Software for editing a website’s content without code, such as WordPress or Webflow. A headless CMS stores content separately and sends it to any front end through an API.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the standard for making sites usable by people with disabilities: keyboard access, contrast, labels, captions and more. Level AA is the common target.
A chat window on a site or app that answers questions automatically. AI chatbots can handle open questions, but they need limits, accurate source material and a handoff to a person.
Next / Review
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