Local Search & SEO Glossary

See: Editorial Link

A rare but malicious practice where webspam techniques are used to harm the search rankings of another website, usually a competitor.

After search engines moved to secure search in 2011, keyword data was removed from Google Analytics, replaced with (not provided), thus making it impossible to know which queries were responsible for visitors finding a website.

Niche describes the primary topic that a website focuses on, whether it be sports, cars or anything else. However, a niche can usually be broken down into smaller sub-categories, including search marketing, privacy, legal issues and other things of the like.

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes are the identifying numbers used by the federal government to identify and classify companies by industry. When you fill out a business tax return, the Schedule C form requests your company's NAICS code, and when you apply for small business loans, credit accounts, and other services, you may be asked to provide your NAICS code as well.

The "thumbprint" of a business online. Local search engines use NAP information found by crawling the web or received from data providers to judge the accuracy of the data in their own indexes. Consistent NAP information is essential to getting more citations and improving search engine rankings and is critical to local customer acquisition.

An alert in the Google Places for Business dashboard signaling that the business owner must take further steps to achieve active status on the business listing. Actions might include entering a verification PIN or resolving violations of the Google Local Business Information Quality Guidelines.

Name spam refers specifically to any manipulation of the business name in Google Business Profile, such as keyword stuffing.

This is the name Google gave to the new (at the time, in 2022) way of editing your Google Business Profile within the SERP rather than via a dedicated dashboard. The change included a number of popular features around data insights and photos being removed.

A meta tag that tells search engines not to index a specific webpage in its index.

A meta tag that tells search engines not to show a description with your listing.

This meta tag can be added in a document's head to tell the search engine that the page should not be allowed to appear in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

At times, it may be considered necessary or even helpful to link out to a resource which is of questionable veracity or dubious quality. Adding a nofollow attribute to a hypertext link essentially tells the search engines that you don't vouch for the target page.

A personalized AI collaborator that is designed to help users better organize data. NotebookLM leverages language models to improve on the traditional method of notetaking by by allowing users to ask questions about their documents uploaded, generate summaries, or brainstorm ideas based on the data  collected. This is a useful tool for those who are handing large volumes of textual information and require help organizing all of it. This tool moved into prominence in September 2024 with the release of their audio blog output.

A type of nonstandard search result embedded within the more familiar ten blue link default results. OneBoxes sometimes show local results, image results, video results, or news results. OneBoxes first appeared at Google when they announced the advent of universal search, which returns all kinds of content relevant to a particular keyword, rather than just web or text content.

Adjectives that describe criteria the search engines use in their local algorithm that are not directly associated with a local business listing or with the website specified in that local listing. See also: citation, inbound link, MyMaps, KML (Keyhole Markup Language)

The practice of responding to a consumer review as the owner of a business. Most of the top review platforms support owner responses, facilitating a vital form of reputation management.

Any webpage that is not linked to by any other pages on that website.

A link pointing from a page on your own website to a page on another website. Although a webpage loses some link juice by linking out, search engines view outbound links to quality websites as a natural occurrence on the web. See also: link juice, anchor text, inbound link, internal link

Adjective used to describe criteria that you can control and adjust on your own website to improve search engine rankings. See also: title tag, internal link, site architecture, header tags

The mathematical formula traditionally used by search engines to rank websites in order of importance and relevance. Distinct from universal or OneBox algorithms, including local.

Software or technology that is made freely available to the public, allowing anyone to view, modify, and distribute its source code. In the context of AI, open source projects often involve AI algorithms, libraries, or frameworks that are developed collaboratively by a community of researchers, developers, and enthusiasts. Recently, there has been a noticeable uptick in the emergence of open source models, reflecting a growing trend toward openness and collaboration in the AI community. However, the industry holds mixed views on open source. While it promotes openness and transparency, providing opportunities for small companies to develop, there are also concerns about the associated risks. Open source is challenging to regulate and control, raising questions about how it is used and by whom.

A webpage is loaded in a browser.

A page rank basically measures the importance of different websites pages. This is an internal process with Google. The old Page Rank toolbar that Google used to display for sites has been depreciated and no longer exists.

The amount of time it takes for a webpage to completely load. Page speed is ranking factor.

Stands for Portable Document Format file. PDFs can contain text, images, links, videos, and other elements.

A fictionalized representation of an ideal website visitor or customer, their demographics, behavior, needs, motivations, and goals all based on actual data. Also known as: Buyer Persona, Marketing Persona

An update to Google's organic algorithm released in April 2012, primarily targeting link acquisition practices not approved by Google. See also: penalty

A key component of making sure your business's location-based online identity is easily understandable by end users. Your phone number is one-third of what needs to be available to consumers, alongside your business address and your business name.

Released in February 2011, Panda is an update to Google's organic ranking algorithm, primarily targeting websites judged by Google to be of poor quality.

Launched on June 11, 2013 the Payday Update was a new algorithm targeted at cleaning up search results for traditionally spammy queries such as [payday loan], pornographic and other heavily spammed queries.

Stands for Private Blog Network. See: Link Farm

A photo sharing site formerly owned by Google but closed down in 2016. Local business owners used Panoramio to geotag images as an enhanced form of local data. Google announced on October 5, 2016 that they had decided to close Panoramio on November 4, 2016. See also: geotagged

Any type of negative action taken by a search engine against a website or profile as a result of violations of published or unpublished policies. In local SEO, violation of any of the Guidelines for representing your business on Google can result in a penalty that can lead to a drop in rankings. See also: Guidelines for representing your business on Google

When search engines use search history, web browsing history, location, and relationships to create a set of search results tailored to a specific user.

A status notation in the Google Places for Business dashboard indicating that a listing has yet to be approved. There have been numerous reported instances of listings sitting in "Pending" status for extended periods of time, sometimes due to technical problems on Google's part. It is also common for new listings to be marked as pending for several weeks.

Small graphic icons utilized in the Google Maps interface to indicate restaurants, retail shops, and other features. Local businesses must be selected by Google to be awarded a place label. See also: Google Maps

Hypertext Preprocessor is a scripting language used to create dynamic content on webpages.

Pay-per-click advertisements that appear above (and often below) the organic results on search engines.

Place IDs uniquely identify a place in the Google Places database and on Google Maps. They are available for most locations and businesses, and it is possible for the same place or location to have multiple different place IDs. Place IDs may change over time.

A remote mailing address, the use of which can adversely affect your local search rankings. PO Boxes are expressly forbidden by the Guidelines for representing your business on Google.

An update from Google, that was released in August 2012 as an effort to prevent sites that had too many copyright infringement reports from showing up through searches. This is filed through Google's DMCA system and has been updated periodically to release sites that had made significant changes by removing their copywritten material and catching new ones that had gone undetected. In addition, it helps release any "false positives" that may have been captured in the previous round.

A key component of making sure your business's location-based online identity is easily understandable by end users. Your physical address is one-third of what needs to be available to consumers, alongside your phone number and your business name.

A feature in Google Maps that looks at data from customer reviews, and highlights relevant information to a searcher. Note that topics will only be created once there is a sufficient amount of customer reviews for the business.

One of several methods for claiming a local business listing on a location data platform like Google or Bing. Postal and email verification are other common claiming options. See also: Google+ Local, Bing Places for Business, claim

Search engines aim to reduce the organic search rankings of content that infringes on copyright. Google introduced a filter in 2012 that reduces the visibility of sites reported for numerous DMCA-related takedown requests.

Launched on July 24, 2014 for U.S. English results, the Pigeon Update is a new algorithm to provide more useful, relevant and accurate local search results that are tied more closely to traditional web search ranking signals. Google stated that this new algorithm improves their distance and location ranking parameters.

Google's former branded version of a local business listing. Google Place pages have now been replaced by the term Google+ Local pages, but continue to be controlled via the Google Places for Business dashboard. Includes owner-submitted information about a business, including categories, location, and hours of operation, as well as information Google pulls from around the web, such as ratings, and nearby businesses' competitors.

Online photo sharing technology owned by Google that was shut down in 2016. See also: geotagged

A Google Business Profile add-on that helps brick-and-mortar retailers list products online and appear in search engine results.

One of two methods of claiming a local business listing on Google+ Local and Bing Local, proving you own the business. The other method is via phone, which is much faster and easier.

A trait of a website or business that can be quantitatively measured in a number of ways. For websites, search engines typically measure popularity by the number and quality of inbound links to that website. For businesses, things like the number and quality of citations, reviews, LBS check-ins, or MyMaps might be used.

Terms typed into a search engine by users seeking products

Generic term for paid advertising programs at major search engines in which businesses are charged a fee when a searcher clicks on their advertisements, as opposed to a fee based on the number of times their ad is shown or a flat monthly fee regardless of visibility.

The distance between two points. In local search, proximity may describe the distance of a user to a business, of one business to another business in the same industry, or a business to the geographic center of a city. See also: centroid

Private blog network. Interlinked websites owned by the same entity. Some PBN's are considered manipulative because they exist to host content and links as a way to influence the SERPs. Once a highly effective technique, it has become increasingly difficult for such networks to avoid detection.

One of the three pillars of local search, along with relevance and proximity. These pillars drive Google's local algorithm and help determine the local pack and rankings. For prominence, the algorithm is asking, Which businesses are the most popular and the most well regarded in their local market area?

When, after entering a query, a searcher bounces back and forth between a SERP and the pages listed in those search results.

AI systems and technologies that are owned, developed, and managed by specific organizations or individuals and are protected by intellectual property rights. Unlike open-source AI, where the source code, algorithms, and data are freely available for use, modification, and distribution, proprietary AI is restricted in access and use.

The art and science of crafting input prompts to effectively communicate with AI models like GPT. This involves designing the input text in such a way that it maximizes the quality and relevance of the AI's responses. Prompt engineering is critical for achieving specific outcomes and improving interaction quality with language models.

Perplexity AI is an AI-powered search and answer engine that combines natural language processing with up-to-date information retrieval. It offers concise, reliable answers to user queries by drawing on a range of sources, making it a key player in the space of AI-driven search assistants. Positioned as a competitor to tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI models, Perplexity focuses on accuracy, transparency, and quick knowledge discovery.

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When it comes to SEO, or search engine optimization, high-quality links count significantly more than low-quality ones. In general, a link is considered of high quality if it's trustworthy, hard to obtain, aged, related and has good content.

Stands for query deserves freshness, where a search engine might decide to show newer webpages in search results (rather than older pages) if a particular search term is trending, perhaps because a news event has resulted in a surge in searches on that topic.

The word, words, or phrase that a user enters into a search engine.

Content that helps you successfully achieve business or marketing goals (e.g., driving organic traffic or social shares, earning top search rankings, generating leads/sales).

A form of markup language added to individual web pages to identify their author. Use of rel="author" associates a profile photo with a web page and displays it in Google's search results next to the web page's entry.

An individual component which contributes to a complex series of algorithms that determine where webpages should appear with the organic search results for a specific query. For years, Google has said that its algorithms rely on more than 200 unique signals to help users find the most relevant webpage or answer. Also known as: Ranking Signal.

URL data that identifies the source of a user's webpage request.

A highly active volunteer reviewer of Google MapMaker data. Google MapMaker RERs have direct contact with Google's staff and can often escalate or resolve data issues.

A supposed gray area between techniques that adhere to Google's Webmaster Guidelines, but then add an element that bends the rules a little.

A technique that sends a user (or search engine) who requested one webpage to a different (but equally relevant) webpage. There are two types of redirects: 301: Permanent 302: Temporary

Where a webpage appears within the organic search results for a specific query

When two websites agree to exchange links to one another.

The process of asking a search engine to return a website or webpage(s) to its search index after de-indexing.

The degree to which a certain business or certain website matches the intent of a searcher's keyword. In local search, a particular business must be considered by the search engines to be relevant for a particular keyword in order to rank for that term - but typically cannot rank for terms for which it is not considered relevant. For instance, a popular restaurant may rank first in local results for "restaurants" or "fine dining," but would not necessarily be considered relevant for search terms like "bars" or "pubs" - even though they are related terms. See also: algorithm, local algorithm / local results

A relative link is essentially a substitute for the absolute. Although both do pretty much the same thing, relative links are much harder to corrupt and hijack. Therefore, most websites and links used today are relative links. Relative Link: /seo/; /seo/local-seo/ ; Click Me

The practice of crafting a positive online perception of a brand or person, including in search results and on social media, by minimizing the visibility of negative mentions. Also known as: Online Reputation Management, Public Relations

A website designed to automatically adapt to a users screen size, whether it is being viewed on a desktop or mobile device.

A Google Maps service that allows for reservations and bookings of restaurants, tickets and appointments.

A numerical assessment, often on a scale of 1-5. In local search, most frequently refers to consumers' star ratings of a business' quality.

A customer's text summary of their experience at a particular business. Reviews can be left on search engines, via location-based services, or on blogs and are often simultaneously assigned numerical ratings.

A Google reviews feature, where consumers are prompted to leave a critical or a positive quality rating, and offered pre-set buttons (such as Good value / Not responsive) to click. Review attributes will show for almost all service based businesses, but the specific prompts will vary depending on the business primary category.

The process of proactively gathering customer reviews for a business. Techniques inlcude local signage reminding customers of review platforms, email invitations, text messges, personal reminders from employees, and notices on receipts.

The process of seeking feedback from customers to determine their general disposition towards the business. Customers with positive rankings are directed to review platforms where customers with negative sentiments are emailed directly to the company.

The act of soliciting feedback from a customer, and then deciding whether to ask them for a Google review based on their response. This is strictly against Google�s review guidelines and can come with heavy penalties.

Review guidelines and content policies are set by the review platforms to indicate the content that can and cannot be included in review content. The platforms have varying rules. For example, Yelp doesn't permit businesses to ask customers for a review, but Google is fine with that practice. vary from platform to platform.The rules within each platform are also subject to change. In December of 2017, Google began to allow appeals for removal of past employee reviews.

The practice of encouraging and responding to consumer reviews, either manually or with the help of software.

Research online, buy offline is a trend in buying behavior where consumers read online reviews to qualify their buying decisions for both products and services before they actually decide to purchase in-store.

Illegitimate sentiment published in the form of a review. This can include fictitious positive or negative statements made about a business for the purpose of helping or harming its reputation or rankings.

Sometimes referred to as a review kiosk, a review station is a computer or other device set up for public use in a brick-and-mortar business for the purpose of encouraging on-site user reviews. Google, in particular, has fluctuated in its policies regarding the use of review stations, both approving and discouraging their use at different points in time. Review stations are currently not permitted by Google, and reviews left via these devices may be removed. See also: review, Google Local Business Information Quality Guidelines

An automated script created by a search engine to "read" webpages. See also: spider, crawl, algorithm

This is where you communicate with search engines about indexing your site, pages and resources. You can allow or disallow search engines from indexing specific resources or even single out specific search engines in your robots.txt file.

A way to measure the performance of SEO activities. This is calculated by dividing how much revenue you earned via organic search by the cost of the total investment, then multiplying by 100.

Rich snippets are small amounts of data from markup such as microdata or microformats that appear as a component of a search engine result. Rich snippets might include text, star ratings, price ranges, and other factors. See also: schema, microformat, KML (Keyhole Markup Language)

Bare-bones computer code that many content management systems produce when content is created or updated. RSS feeds allow readers to subscribe to websites and receive a ping or an email when they are updated. You frequently see RSS subscription icons on blogs.

Your root domain is essentially the main URL of your website - e.g. yoursite.com. More specifically, a root domain is the highest level of a website that all subdomains and pages fall under.

One method of site design which resizes the displayed elements to suit the viewport of the device viewing the site. Thus, a site can be easily viewed and read from a desktop, tablet or phone.

A training methodology used by OpenAI to fine-tune models like ChatGPT. It involves training the AI on examples of high-quality human responses to encourage the model to replicate human-like decision-making and interaction patterns. This method aims to align the model's outputs with human values and preferences.

Schema markup is code (semantic vocabulary) that you put on your website to help the search engines return more informative results for users. Local business websites can utilize schema.org markup to ensure that core business data is easily and fully understood by search engines. See also: microformat

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is a practice in which webmasters and writers focus on increasing the quality and quantity of the traffic to their website through organic searches. This is the fundamental basis that influences how a website is designed as it will impact how attractive to search engines it will become.