Local Search & SEO Glossary

This is the standard HTTP status response, a code that says your web page has loaded successfully.

A server response code that represents a permanently moved page. In these instances, you should use a 301 redirect.

Status Code – Represents a temporarily moved page. In these instances, you should use a 302 redirect.

A server response code that represents a page that can’t be found. These aren’t problematic in themselves but (broken) links pointing to 404 pages can hurt your search ranking. These links should be removed or amended.

Status Code - Forbidden. The server refuses action even though the request is valid.

Status Code - A server is down for maintenance or because of too many requests, usually a temporary state.

"Above the fold" in web design refers to the visible part of a webpage when it first loads, without scrolling. Factors like device size, browser, and OS affect this area. Google penalizes excessive ads here. Key content should be prioritized above the fold, and designers should consider audience screen sizes or use responsive design for optimal layout.

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An absolute link is any link that shows the full URL address. Relative links, on the other hand, use shorter versions of the URL address. Because relative links are more prone to being hacked, using an absolute link is the preferred method.

Accelerated Mobile Pages is an Open Source framework designed to speed up load times for mobile internet users. This article explains what AMP is, looks at why and how it developed, explores its benefits for different stakeholder groups and runs you through how to bring your website up to speed for AMP.

Status notation on the Google Places for Business dashboard if the listing is live

Activity bias is the act of advertising in certain areas, or websites, where people are more likely to be drawn. One example of activity bias would be advertising vitamin supplements on a health website. All in all, advertising primarily relies on location.

Google AdWords app, which is essentially an advertising platform designed to match advertisers’ products to users’ online search terms. AdWords, which uses a pay-per-click (PPC) pricing model, matches keywords or phrases relevant to your products with your prospects’ online search behaviors. See also: PPC (pay-per-click)

Affiliate marketing allows a company or business to expand their growth by paying agents a commission for every member conversion. In other words, the agent gets paid every time they refer someone to the company. Most of those in affiliate marketing make very little. However, there are a few who are extremely successful in this field.

When it comes to the SEO world, age refers to how long a particular website, website page, user account page or any other document has been around. This allows one to make a more informed decision on whether or not they can trust that particular website.

One of four primary data sources of local business data for all major search engines in the United States. See also: Infogroup, Localeze, Factual

AdCenter, now called Bing Ads, is a pay-per-click service with a bunch of different cool features, including dayparting and demographic based bidding. Compared to Google Adwords, adCenter is actually pretty new and recent. As a result, most of adCenter’s prices are relatively low.

The alt attribute provides alternative information for an image if a user for some reason cannot view it (because of slow connection, an error in the src attribute, or if the user uses a screen reader).

Alt text is optional phrasing you can add to an HTML element. The most common use is for images, where providing search engines with context proves your images are relevant to the content on your page. Eg:

Every image on your site should have alt text, preferably including your main keyword for that page.

Amazon’s lead generation program via which is acts as a middleman between service-oriented businesses, like handymen, and homeowners who need to hire a contractor.

Any tool or program that tracks user behavior, such as traffic to a website, duration of visits, and conversions. Google Analytics is a popular product. Within the Google My Business dashboard, the latest iteration of analytics data is called Insights.

Anchor links are hyperlinks that send users to a specific place on the page – either the same page or a separate one. We’re using anchor links in this article to help you navigate from A-Z.

The text contained in a web link. Descriptive words in link text can be used to improve the relevancy of the page to which the link points. For instance, “Minneapolis plumber” is more descriptive than “click here”

A prominent user review website. An important citation source for many businesses, especially home services. Name updated to simply "Angi's" in 2022.

Apple’s mobile mapping application.

Arbitrage is the practice of buying and reselling a product or service for profit gain. In fact, ad services, including AdSense, buy traffic from main search engines such as Google then sell it to lower level marketers.

In local SEO, the term “audit” if often used to describe a thorough analysis of an aspect of a company’s marketing. This could include a citation audit, a content audit, or a competitive audit.

An historic term for a single Google Places listing displayed by a large map embedded in a traditional search result page. In the past, considered the “holy grail” of local search optimization, but not as common today. See also: universal algorithm / universal results, OneBox, Google Places

A general term used to describe the influential power of a domain, a website, a citation source, a review, or other entities. Search engines are said to view some resources as being more authoritative than others, meaning that authoritative sources have an enhanced ability to influence rankings.

For starters, most advertising services are paid in bids. In order to help larger companies with their business growth, advertising companies have created programs that help one spend their advertising budget more efficiently and effectively, which is primarily done by analyzing one’s analytics.

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a type of programming that allows a webpage to send and receive information from a server to change that page dynamically without reloading.

An absolute link is any link that shows the full URL address. Relative links, on the other hand, use shorter versions of the URL address. Because relative links are more prone to being hacked, using an absolute link is the preferred method.

Activity bias is the act of advertising in certain areas, or websites, where people are more likely to be drawn. One example of activity bias would be advertising vitamin supplements on a health website. All in all, advertising primarily relies on location.

Status notation on the Google Places for Business dashboard if the listing is live

An historic term for a single Google Places listing displayed by a large map embedded in a traditional search result page. In the past, considered the "holy grail" of local search optimization, but not as common today. See also: universal algorithm / universal results, OneBox, Google Places

A company that maintains and supplies the underlying business database for local search directories. The most important U.S. aggregators are Infogroup, Localeze, Acxiom, and Factual. These companies compile data about businesses from multiple online and offline sources including phone bills, business registration records, chamber of commerce membership rosters, and many other sources. An aggregator is also known as a data aggregator or data provider.

Formerly Angies List. A prominent user review website. An important citation source for many businesses, especially home services. See also: citation, review

Affiliate marketing allows a company or business to expand their growth by paying agents a commission for every member conversion. In other words, the agent gets paid every time they refer someone to the company. Most of those in affiliate marketing make very little. However, there are a few who are extremely successful in this field.

Authority is a concept of using the reputation and credentials of a person who writes content online as a ranking factor. Originally, Google tested this in combination with Google+ but despite several patents filed, no evidence supports author authority as a ranking factor. Google is placing emphasis on E-A-T to reduce disinformation online, especially in YMYL niches such as health and finance. In these spaces, building the authority of an author is recommended for a brand to show credibility, even if it currently doesn't influence ranking.

The science of making computers perform tasks that require human intelligence. Rather than following a set of programmed rules (like an algorithm), an AI computer system is basically a digital brain that learns. AI can also make and carry out decisions without human intervention.

AI Sentiment Analysis, also known as Opinion Mining, is a Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique that uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to determine the sentiment or emotion expressed in a piece of text. The goal of sentiment analysis is to automatically identify whether the expressed sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral. This is done by processing the texts provided then extracting features from the text data. From there the data is classified by the AI and is ultimately then predicted and read back to the user.

Launched in January 2022, Apple Business Connect allows businesses to manage their presence on Apple Maps. After signing up and verifying your business, you can add photos, post updates called showcases, and enable customer engagement.

A special formula used by search engines to rank webpages in order of importance or relevance for a particular keyword search. See also: crawl, spider, local algorithm / local results, organic algorithm / organic results, universal algorithm / universal results

Some algorithmic changes go completely unnoticed. However, the impact of a major algorithmic change can usually be seen quite quickly, though the change sometimes takes a few weeks to completely roll out. Algorithmic changes come in three forms: Algorithm Update: The search engine changes certain signals of an existing algorithm.Algorithm Refresh: The search engine re-runs an existing algorithm using the exact same signals as last time.New Algorithm: The search engine adds a new algorithm to improve search quality. For example: Google Panda, Google Penguin.

The rating that shows up next to a business listing on any directory that features business reviews, such as Yelp and Google. The review score is calculated from user ratings and a variety of other factors, and after someone leaves a new review, it may take up to two weeks to get an updated review score.

The alt attribute provides alternative information for an image if a user for some reason cannot view it (because of slow connection, an error in the src attribute, or if the user uses a screen reader).

The abbreviation for Artificial General Intelligence. It refers to the hypothetical development of AI capable of performing any intellectual task like a human. It is often viewed as the ultimate goal of AI research. As discussions about AI's future grow, AGI has gained prominence despite remaining a theoretical concept rather than a current reality.

The simulation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think and learn like humans

The software that acts autonomously or semi-autonomously on behalf of a user or another system to perform tasks, solve problems, or achieve specific goals.

Practices that ensure AI systems operate securely, ethically, and in alignment with human values. It involves mitigating risks like bias, malfunctions, and misuse. The term surged in 2022-2024 due to breakthroughs in text-to-image models like DALL-E and Stable Diffusion, raising security concerns and prompting companies to form dedicated AI safety teams.

Anthropic is an AI safety and research company focused on developing AI systems that are interpretable, reliable, and aligned with human values. Known for its Claude series of language models, Anthropic emphasizes building AI that is safe and ethical, standing out in the AI landscape for its commitment to mitigating the risks of advanced AI through careful system design and governance. It is a key player alongside OpenAI and DeepMind in advancing responsible AI development.

AI systems that can autonomously pursue actions to achieve goals without constant human supervision. These models focus on decision-making rather than just content creation and can carry out complex sequences of activities.

The strategic process of adapting content, and digital assets to ensure compatibility and visibility within AI-powered systems, such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and generative engines. Focuses on making content easily understood, retrieved, and referenced by artificial intelligence tools.

The process of optimizing your website’s content to increase its visibility in AI-driven search engines, specifically targeting zero-click searches and AI overview results.

Business-to-business, when a business’s customers are other businesses.

Business-to-consumer, when a business’s customers are end-users.

Also called an "inbound link" or "incoming link," is created when one website links to another. The link between the two websites is the backlink - so named because it points back to the linked-to page.

Baidu is a Chinese website and search engine that enables individuals to obtain information and find what they need.Baidu offers functional online search, Tieba community search, industry-based vertical search, mp3 search, portal channels, and instant messaging services. Its products include Baidu Webpage, Baidu Video, Baidu Map, hao123.com, BaiduPedia, Baidu Input, Baidu Toolbar, TTPlayer, Iqiyi, and Sky Software.The company was formerly known as Baidu.com, Inc. and changed its name to Baidu, Inc. in December 2008. Baidu, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

A complex computer program that is poorly understood. Inputs and outputs can be observed, but there is no access to the process itself due to its confidential nature. For example, Google�s algorithm is a black box.

The name of Microsoft�s search engine. Bing launched in June 2009, replacing Microsoft Live Search (previously MSN Search and Windows Live Search). Since 2010, Bing has powered Yahoo�s organic search results as part of a search deal Microsoft and Yahoo struck in July 2009.

B2B local SEO is a digital marketing strategy that can help you optimize your website to rank higher in search results and reach more potential business customers in your local area.

Bad Neighborhood refers to websites that have been severely downgraded by search engines for violating search engine guidelines of for containing terms like "gambling", "casino", "pornography" or "Viagra".Bad Neighborhood websites typically appear far down in the search results or not at all.

Best of the Web (BOTW) is local business directory for U.S. businesses. Business owners can create a listing for free.

An historic term for search engine results that combine both organic factors See also: universal algorithm / universal results

A bot (otherwise called a spider or crawler) is a piece of software or an application that runs automated tasks. In the case of SEO, these tend to be search bots, which discover and rank new content and updated pages.

Comments on blogs or websites can be misused for link-building through spam comments, which can be posted manually or automatically using software. If you have a comment system on a local business website, it's recommended to disable or remove it to prevent spam.

Bold is simply the text format of a word or word phrase, which appears dark black, hence the name. This feature, or format, is most commonly used in subheadings. The main purpose is to grab the reader's attention.

A form of web-based publication that allows readers to interact with the publisher via commenting. One of the most popular blog platforms is WordPress. A blog can be a component of a website or act on its own as a complete website. See also: social media (SM)

The number of bookings completed by customers. Note: To track this metric, your client must have set up bookings with an online provider.

Bounce rate is the number of visitors who leave your site without viewing a second page. In most cases, a high bounce rate is considered bad, but there are times when higher bounce rates could be a good thing (e.g. a user converts right away and leaves).

Bait and switch is the act of attracting customers by advertising really low prices, then encouraging the person to buy more expensive items, goods or services. This is a very common practice throughout the entire business world. Another effective method is to link to information websites rather than commercial, as people are more attracted to them. Bait and switch can also be used with business pages, where a business page takes calles but then farms the service out to a different business.

When it comes to SEO terminology, bias refers to the behavior of search engines. For the most part, search engines are geared toward giving better content to people. Therefore, non commercial websites, such as informational websites, will typically receive better prominence. Search engines also prefer websites that have been around and are well sited.

Refers to practices which are specifically designed to fool search engines into seeing a website as having more value than it really does, almost always in violation of the search engines� webmaster guidelines.�It's important to note that the guidelines change rather frequently, so it's important to remain updated. The hands-down most effective, long terms business strategy is to stay away from tempting quick routes that will have only a short-term�impact.

Founded in 1912, the BBB publishes reviews of the reliability of businesses in the U.S. and Canada. BBB listings can act as a citation for local businesses.

This is a process that breaks down a web page into smaller segments, or blocks. Not only does this make it easier for search engines to analyze, but it helps the engines distinguish between content that's either page or navigational specific, along with many other things.

Blogger, owned by Google, is a free website that allows people to create their own sites and blogs. Although it's free, one who's serious about growing their business should consider that the domains offered by blogger still belong to the website.

Bing's local business component. Users can create listings for their businesses.

Brand pages are used, well by brands, that typically don't have a single bricks and mortar premises. They could have thousands or none. Brand pages are not connected to Google maps and they don't produce a knowledge panel in search like a business page would.

While people browse online, they're bombarded with tons of different advertisements from different companies. At first, these ads may attract some people's attention. However, a person eventually becomes blind and ignores the ads entirely. Banner blindness can also be applied to websites / business sites that have a scrolling banner above the fold, it may show several slides about the business, ultimately this is what users are becoming blind to.

A Bayesian average is a method of estimating the mean of a population consistent with Bayesian interpretation, where instead of estimating the mean strictly from any or all available data set, other existing information related to that data set may also be incorporated into the calculation in order to minimize the impact of large deviations, or to assert a default value when the data set is small.This was relevant to local SEO and reviews management due to the statement by Google relating to how they determine an average star rating."Your score is calculated from user ratings and a variety of other signals to ensure that the overall score best reflects the quality of the establishment."Many SEO consultants and people who work with programming algorithms feel that the part about a variety of other signals means that Google uses what is called a Bayesian average to look not just at the raw numbers, but incorporating other factors that may cause deviation in the formula.******In early 2017, Google switched from a minimum of five reviews to Google is awarding stars for as little as one review. The also switched to using a more standard arithmetic mean calculation.

Behavioral targeting is an advertising strategy that monitors web surfers' online activity and even purchases. Once you have clicked onto a specific site that uses cookies with re-targeting engaged, their specific ads will follow you around online, popping up on other sites. They last for a set amount of time, before the targeting expires.

Like the old traditional bookmark, an online bookmark keeps tabs on certain websites or pages that one visits. A number of browsers, including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla and Firefox, have this bookmark feature. Bookmarks help people be more productive through better organization.

The number of clicks on a hotel�s free booking link. This metric only applies to hotels.

Adding, changing, or deleting data for more than one business/citation/location at the same time. This is usually done through a tool (such as LocalClarity) and is especially useful for agencies, as well as enterprise or multi-location businesses.

A branded link includes the name of a brand in the anchor text and normally points to their home page. For example, our own branded link would look like Vertical Leap.

A broken link is a URL that isn't working properly - normally because it's pointing to a page that has been moved or no longer exists. The main thing to remember is that broken links on your site can affect your page ranking. Run regular tests to pinpoint any broken links and get them fixed or, better yet, use an automated tool that alerts you as soon as any break.

In the local search arena, the term brick-and-mortar is used to indicate a business model operating within a physical building. Examples of brick-and-mortar business models include dental clinics, restaurants, and retail shops. By contrast, a service area business is one that serves customers at remote locations (like a plumber, electrician, or housekeeping service) instead of within the walls of a physical business. Different rules have historically governed these two types of business models in the local search arena.

Typically refers to the act of creating multiple local business listings for multi-location business models at once, typically via a spreadsheet or other type of form, on a given platform. For example, a business might bulk upload 1,000 of its locations to the Google Business Profile all at once, instead of manually creating 1,000 individual listings one-at-a-time.

A Google business page is used for a business with a physical address that customers can visit in person during the stated business hours. The business page will appear in Maps, local pack and provide a knowledge panel for the business name in search.

The name of a business - specifically the name of a business as registered at one of the major local search engines or online Yellow Pages directories. Combined with physical address and phone number, the business title represents a third of a business's online identity See also: phone number, physical address, NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website)

Business directories are listing of business and details, either by category, location or specialty. Local business directories are the easiest starting point for citations.

Sometimes simply called "description." Describes a field provided for a text description of a business on a local business listing. Length and rules about the types of content one can include in the business description field vary from platform to platform.

A navigation system that shows users the path they've taken through a website. This is particularly important for eCommerce sites and other website setups with a lot of categories. Here are some examples from Google:

A technical flaw in a digital medium. In local search, bugs may arise on major local business platforms like the Google Business Profile. It is then up to the affected platform to resolve the bug.

When a user�s query includes an exact match, or variation, of a specific company or brand name. For instance, �LocalClarity�, �LC�, �localclarity.com�, and �LocalClarity Glossary� are a few examples of branded keywords.

The name given to the collection of variables (e.g., proximity, categories, keyword in business title) that relate to the details of the "Business" that are used to determine local search rankings. See Link Signals, On-page Signals, Citation Signals, Review Signals, Behavioral Signals, Personalization, and Social Signals

Business-to-business, when a business�s customers are other businesses.

Business-to-consumer, when a business�s customers are end-users.

The buyer's journey is a three-step process where buyers become aware of a need, evaluate solutions, and make a purchase decision. It includes the Awareness stage (identifying a priority), the Consideration stage (exploring solutions), and the Decision stage (choosing the best option).

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional depiction of an ideal customer, based on market research and real data. It includes demographics, behavior, motivations, and goals. Detailed personas offer structure and insight, helping companies focus efforts, guide product development, and align internally to attract valuable visitors, leads, and customers.

When businesses in the UK are flagged for suspected fake reviews, they may face a 30-day review ban. In addition, a warning label stating, "Suspected fake reviews were recently removed from this place," may be displayed, potentially damaging the business's reputation. This process has now been nicknamed, The Badge of Shame by Local SEO users.