GLOSSARY
Search terms, in plain English.
The words you will hear from us, and what they mean for your business.
- SEO (search engine optimization)
- The work of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engines like Google for the searches your clients make.
- AEO (answer engine optimization)
- Making your business show up in direct answers: Google’s answer boxes, voice assistants and AI tools that respond to a question instead of listing links.
- GEO (generative engine optimization)
- Making your business a source that generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews cite and recommend.
- AI Overview
- The AI-generated summary Google shows above some search results, with links to the sources it used.
- AI Mode
- Google’s conversational search experience, where users ask follow-up questions and get AI-generated answers with sources.
- AI citation
- A link or mention of your business inside an AI-generated answer. Citations send traffic and build trust.
- Entity
- How search engines and AI tools understand your business as a distinct thing: its name, location, services and the facts connected to it.
- Schema markup
- Structured data added to a page’s code that tells search engines exactly what the page describes, such as a law firm, a service or an FAQ.
- llms.txt
- A plain text file at the root of a website that summarizes the business and points AI tools to its most important pages.
- Google Business Profile
- Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps. It drives most local visibility for law firms and dental practices.
- Local pack
- The map and three business listings Google shows for local searches like “dentist near me”.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google’s measures of page loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability. They affect rankings and conversions.
- Search impressions
- The number of times your site appeared in search results, whether or not someone clicked.
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- The share of impressions that became clicks. A higher CTR usually means a more relevant result.
- Organic traffic
- Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.
- Backlink
- A link from another website to yours. Links from trusted, relevant sites are one of the strongest ranking signals.
- Referring domain
- A unique website that links to yours. Fifty links from one site count as one referring domain.
- Conversion rate
- The share of visitors or clicks that take the action you want, such as calling or submitting a form.
- Cost per lead
- Total ad spend divided by the number of qualified leads it produced.
- Lead-to-client rate
- The share of leads that became signed clients or booked patients.
- ROAS (return on ad spend)
- Revenue generated divided by ad spend. A 10x ROAS means $10 in revenue for every $1 spent.
Next step
Want to see these numbers for your business?
An audit shows your rankings, AI visibility and conversion data in plain terms.