Your Guide to Search Engine Optimization and Website Terms
Clear definitions that help you understand what matters for your business growth.
SEO and digital marketing come with a lot of technical terms and acronyms that can feel overwhelming, especially with new AI-related terminology emerging constantly. This glossary defines the most common terms you'll encounter when working on your website's search visibility, from traditional SEO concepts to the latest developments in AI-powered search.
More importantly, we'll help you understand why each concept matters for your business growth and how they connect to real results.
New to SEO and website optimization? Start with these essential terms: Domain, SEO, Local SEO, and CTR—these form the foundation of understanding your online presence.
Find the term you're looking for below
Foundation Terms
The building blocks of your online presence
Domain
Your website's address on the internet (like yourbusiness.com). You purchase and renew this separately from your website builder or hosting.
Why this matters for your business: Your domain is your digital real estate. Owning it (rather than using a subdomain like yourbusiness.squarespace.com) builds credibility with both customers and search engines. It's also crucial for local SEO and building long-term authority.
Important: If you don't own your domain, you don't truly control your online presence. Always ensure you have direct control over your domain registration.
Need help understanding your current domain setup? Our discovery calls include a review of your technical foundation.
Website Builder
A platform like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress.com that provides templates and tools to create a website without coding knowledge.
Why this matters for your business: Different builders have different SEO capabilities. Some make optimization easy, others create technical barriers that can limit your growth potential.
What this looks like in practice: A contractor using a basic builder might struggle to appear in local searches, while the same business on an SEO-friendly platform could dominate local results.
Website Hosting
The service that stores your website files and makes them accessible on the internet. Some website builders include hosting, while others require you to purchase it separately.
Why this matters for your business: Poor hosting creates slow-loading sites that frustrate visitors and hurt search rankings. Fast, reliable hosting is essential for both user experience and SEO success.
Getting Found Online
How customers discover your business
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of improving your website to increase its visibility in search engine results when people search for products or services related to your business.
Why this matters for your business: Most customers start their search for services online. Without SEO, you're essentially invisible to potential customers who are actively looking for what you offer. Good SEO means more qualified leads finding you instead of your competitors.
What this looks like in practice: An accountant with strong SEO appears when locals search "tax preparation near me," while a competitor without SEO remains buried on page 3 where no one looks.
Common challenge: Many businesses try DIY SEO but lack the technical knowledge to implement changes correctly, sometimes making their visibility worse.
Ready to improve your search visibility? Our SEO & Digital Presence service builds the foundation that helps customers find you.
Local SEO
SEO strategies specifically focused on helping businesses appear in location-based searches (like "plumber near me").
Why this matters for your business: If you serve customers in specific geographic areas, local SEO is often more important than general SEO. It helps you show up when nearby customers are actively looking for your services, often with high purchase intent.
What this looks like in practice: When someone searches "dentist near me," local SEO helps your practice appear in the map results and local listings, complete with reviews, contact info, and directions.
Common challenge: Many businesses have incomplete or inconsistent local listings across directories, which confuses search engines and reduces visibility.
Struggling to show up in local searches? Our SEO & Digital Presence service includes comprehensive local optimization.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
A broader term that includes both SEO (organic search) and paid search advertising to increase visibility in search engine results.
Why this matters for your business: Understanding the difference helps you allocate budget effectively. SEO builds long-term, sustainable visibility, while paid ads provide immediate but temporary results.
Understanding Performance
How to measure what's working
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of people who click on your website link when it appears in search results.
Why this matters for your business: A low CTR means people see your listing but don't find it compelling enough to click. This signals to search engines that your result isn't relevant, which can hurt your rankings over time.
What this looks like in practice: Two plumbers might rank similarly, but the one with a 15% CTR gets significantly more website visitors than the one with a 3% CTR.
How to improve it: Better page titles and descriptions that clearly communicate your value proposition typically increase CTR.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page you see after typing a search query, showing both organic results and ads.
Why this matters for your business: Understanding SERP features (like featured snippets, local packs, and AI Overviews) helps you optimize for visibility beyond traditional rankings.
What's changing: AI-powered search results now pull content from anywhere in the results to answer questions, meaning a well-optimized page 3 result can appear in AI Overviews ahead of page 1 listings.
Advanced Optimization
Technical elements that boost performance
Featured Snippet
The highlighted answer box that sometimes appears at the top of Google search results.
Why this matters for your business: Featured snippets provide immediate authority and drive significant traffic. They're especially valuable for businesses that can answer common customer questions.
What this looks like in practice: When someone searches "how to choose a contractor," a well-optimized page might appear in the answer box, immediately establishing that business as an authority and driving traffic.
Want to optimize your content for featured snippets? Our Content Strategy service helps identify and target these opportunities.
Schema Markup
Code that helps search engines better understand your website content (like business hours, reviews, contact info).
Why this matters for your business: Schema markup helps your business information display more prominently in search results, including star ratings, business hours, and contact details.
Important: Don't attempt this without technical knowledge—incorrect schema can actually hurt your search performance.
AI and Future Search
Emerging technologies changing how people find businesses
AIO (AI Overview)
Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some search results, providing quick answers to user queries.
Why this matters for your business: AI Overviews are changing how people consume search results. Your content needs to be structured to work with AI systems, not just traditional search.
What this means: Well-optimized, authoritative content can appear in AI Overviews regardless of traditional ranking position, providing new opportunities for visibility.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
Optimizing content specifically for AI-powered search engines that generate answers rather than just providing links to websites.
Why this matters for your business: As AI search features become more prominent, businesses need to adapt their content strategy to work with generative AI systems.
The shift: Instead of optimizing just for keywords, you're optimizing to be the source AI systems reference when answering questions about your industry.
LLM (Large Language Models)
AI systems like ChatGPT or Google's Bard that understand and generate human-like text, increasingly used in search engines.
Why this matters for your business: These systems are becoming the "brain" behind search engines, changing how content gets discovered and presented to users.
Common Challenges
Emerging technologies changing how people find businesses
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Structuring content to provide direct answers to user questions, optimized for voice search and featured snippets.
Why this matters for your business: More people are asking questions instead of typing keywords. Your content needs to directly answer the questions your customers are asking.
Common mistake: Many businesses still write content for search engines instead of creating genuinely helpful resources that answer real customer questions.
Questions About SEO Terms?
This glossary covers the essentials, but every business faces unique challenges with their online presence. Understanding these concepts is just the first step—implementing them effectively requires strategy and expertise.
Ready to put these concepts to work for your business?
Whether you need help with the technical foundation, want to improve your search visibility, or need a strategy for creating content that actually helps your business grow, we're here to help you navigate the complexity and focus on what will make the biggest difference.
Get personalized answers to your SEO and website questions. Discover what's possible for your business.
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