Local Search & SEO Glossary

This refers to the overall visibility of a brand, website, individual page or resource in search engines. High search visibility means you're turning up in the top positions, while low visibility can mean anything from not appearing on page one to being dozens, hundreds or millions of pages behind, depending on the keyword in question.

Schema.org is a joint effort, in the spirit of sitemaps.org, to improve the web by creating a structured data markup schema supported by major search engines. On-page markup helps search engines understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results.As of early 2018, the absolutely dominant vocabulary for mainstream search engines is schema.org.

As Google puts it, search operators are "symbols or words" users can include in their search queries to get more specific results. Here are the advanced Google search commands and operators you need to know. CacheUsing the cache operator, you can find out what the most recent cache of a specified webpage is. This is useful for identifying when a page was last crawled. Example use: cache:websitename.comAllintextThis operator will help you find whether all the terms that you are looking for shows up in the text of that page. This operator, however, isn't pin-accurate because it won't look for text on the page that appears close together. Example use: allintext:content social linksIntextThis operator is a more global operator that allows you to find any terms showing up on a webpage in any area like the title, the page itself, the URL, and elsewhere. This is useful if you want to perform research into how others' on-page SEO footprints are being categorized by Google. Example use: word one intext: other termInposttitleIf you are performing blog research, this operator is useful for finding blogs with certain search terms in the blog title. Example use: inposttitle:weight loss goalsAllintitleThis search operator is a great way to find blogs that match the content you are writing about. For example, you could use allintitle to research what others are doing for that particular topic. Then, you could write your post to be better than theirs. Example use: allintitle:how to write content for seoIntitle. This is a narrower operator that will help you find more targeted results for specific search phrases. If you wanted to find pages that are all about ?drawing with micron pens? for example, the following is how you would use it: Example use: intitle:drawing with micron pensAllinurlThis one allows you to find pages with your requested search terms within the URL in internal search pages. For example, say you wanted to perform research on pages on a site that had the terms ?drawing tablet?. You would use the following: Example use: allinurl:amazon drawing tabletThis will bring up all internal URLs on Amazon.com that have the terms ?drawing tablet?.InurlIf you wanted to find pages on a site that has your targeted search term in the URL, and the second term in content on a website, you could use this operator. This is useful for finding sites with strong on-page optimization for the topics you are researching.Example use: inurl:drawing portraitsAllinanchorThis operator is useful for performing research on pages that have all terms after ?inanchor:? in anchor text linking back to the page. Using this operator can help you findExample use: allinanchor:?how to draw anime?InanchorIt is possible to identify pages with inbound links that contain the anchor text specified. However, data is only sampled and doesn?t provide accurate global results.Example use: inanchor:?digital painting?FiletypeDo you want to find images that only fall under a specific file type (e.g., .jpg, .png, or .gif)? This is a great way to narrow research on infographics or memes. But, it can also help you identify stray images and other files (like PDFs) that may have been picked up by Google.Example use: site:domainname.com filetype:txt ? inurl:robots.txtThis will help you find files on your site that were indexed by Google but will exclude robots.txt from appearing in the search results.Around()Do you want to narrow the focus of your results to be super narrow? This is a great way to identify search results where two or more terms appear on the page, and also appear very close to each other (denoted by the number in the parentheses). Example use: digital drawing AROUND(2) tools

A technique used to copy website content or information using a computer program or script. Search engines, such as Google, scrape data in order to build a searchable index of websites. Also known as: Web scraping.

The search queries (i.e., keywords or phrases) that lead people to discover your client�s business. Now updated monthly instead of quarterly from Google.

Search Engine Marketing is an umbrella term for improving the presence of a business and increasing its number of customers via all forms of search, including PPC, organic, local, and universal.

The qualitative component of a customer review. Google has experimented over the years with extracting and analyzing reviews for quality of experience, and for some business types often excerpts phrases like "expensive" or "good service" and displays them prominently on that business's Google Business Profile listing. See also: review, rating, Google+ Local

A SERP feature is any result on a Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that is not a traditional organic result (the old "10 blue links").The 15 main Google SERP features (as of March 2023) include:Featured SnippetsPeople Also Ask (PAA)Image PackVideo CarouselLocal Map PackRich SnippetsSitelinksPopular ProductsApp InstallKnowledge PanelsKnowledge Panel ReviewPeople Also SearchRelated SearchesRelated ProductsShops

A page containing a list of websites and any of the following: paid advertisements, business listings, knowledge panels, images, videos, news, or other media that best match a keyword. See also: universal algorithm / universal results, organic algorithm / organic results, PPC (pay-per-click), local algorithm / local results

Search engines track every search users conduct (text and voice), every webpage visited, and every ad clicked on. Search engines may use this data to personalize the results for signed in users. Also known as: Web Browsing History.

Search Engine Optimization copy writing is copy writing with an understanding of correct structure that benefits SEO and a search engines understanding of the page.

Typically used to describe specific neighborhoods, towns, or radii served by go-to-client business models. Some local business listings allow business owners to list cities served in text or to draw a radius of service with a tool.

A sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content. Search engine web crawlers like Googlebot read this file to more intelligently crawl your site. Also, your sitemap can provide valuable metadata associated with the pages you list in that sitemap: Metadata is information about a webpage, such as when the page was last updated, how often the page is changed, and the importance of the page relative to other URLs in the site. You can use a sitemap to provide Google with metadata about specific types of content on your pages, including video and image content. For example, you can give Google the information about video and image content. Sitemaps also help to define the canonical page when addressing the issues of duplicate content. If you have a single page accessible by multiple URLs, or different pages with similar content (for example, a page with both a mobile and a desktop version), you should explicitly tell Google which URL is authoritative (canonical) for that page. If you do not do this explicitly, Google will make the choice for you, or might consider them both of equal weight, which might lead to unwanted behavior, as explained in the next section.

See head keywords.

Up to six algorithmically-chosen links that appear below the listing for the same website of a top-ranked organic search result. Pages can be blocked from appearing as sitelinks within the Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. Also known as: Deep Links (Bing).

General term for the organization or hierarchy of a particular website; can also refer to the programming language or content management system that the site is built in. Site architecture, especially a site's internal linking strategy, is extremely important to consider in organic SEO. See also: internal link, organic algorithm / organic results, CMS (content management system)

Common term denoting positive actions or affirmations made by users of a social media site. People can 'like' or 'share' data to express approval of the content. See also: Facebook, social media (SM)

Generic term for the set of specific local business listings within a page of organic results. Over the years, Google and other search engines have experimented with variable numbers of results within the pack, from one to ten results.

A term frequently used to describe go-to-client businesses that travel to customers' locations to render services, such as plumbers, electricians, and carpet cleaners. See also: go-to-client, brick-and-mortar

A link that appears on every page of a website, typically in a sidebar or footer of blogs or websites that use templates.

In the United States, small-to-medium business designation is defined by the size standards found in Title 13 of the Code of Federal Regulations. In the online marketing world, SMB is loosely used to describe both small and local businesses.

Different from the Google 3-pack, the "Snack Pack" refers to the local layout that that is missing the links to the business website or driving directions; instead of seeing these (useful) buttons, you get an image.

Any factors that demonstrate authority and influence on popular social networking websites. For example, the social authority of a user on Twitter. Although many correlation studies have indicated that socials signals impact rankings (e.g., number of Likes/shares a piece of content receives), Google has publicly stated that social signals are not a direct ranking factor. Popular sites that have a lot of social media engagement tend to rank well for other reasons.

Occurs when a non-existent page (a page that has been deleted/removed) displays a "page not found" message or page to anyone trying to access it but fails to return an HTTP 404 status code. In other words, the content of a web page displayed is entirely unrelated to the HTTP response returned by the server.

Media utilized for social interaction on the Internet. This can include blogs; sharing sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, and review sites like Yelp and other interactive platforms. In the local business arena, social media factors are playing an increasingly important role in online visibility. See also: blog, Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Local Search

Novermber 30, 2017 Note: After testing longer search snippets for over two years, Google increased them across a large number of results. This led us to adopt a new Meta Description limit -- up to 300 characters from the previous 155 (almost doubling). Google confirmed an update to how snippets are handled, but didn't provide details.

A controlled experiment used to compare at least two webpages to measure the effects of a different variable on conversions. After the pages are shown for a long enough period of time to site visitors to gather an adequate amount of performance data, a �winner� can be declared. Also known as: A/B Testing.

A mention of a business name and address and/or phone number on an IYP or directory website. Structured citations may or may not be coded in hCard microformat or schema, but typically appear in a pattern that is easy for search engine spiders to read. Differs from an unstructured citation, which may appear as a one-off reference on a blog or other hyperlocal website.

A traditional review left on a major local search portal or IYP, accompanied by a numerical rating. Structured reviews may or may not be coded in hReview microformat, but typically appear in a kind of pattern that is easy for search engine spiders to read. Differs from an unstructured review, which may appear as a one-off reference on a blog or other hyperlocal website.

Another term for a custom field associated with a local business listing. Often used by owners to list their business' specialties.

An application within Google Maps which provides 360-degree photographic imagery of an area specified by the user.

Can refer either to the robotic script created by a search engine to "read" webpages See also: robot, crawl, algorithm

See: Webspam

A major Internet Yellow Pages website. Local business owners can create a listing at SuperPages. See also: citation, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages)

A digital certificate used for website identity authentication and to encrypt information sent to the server using Secure Sockets Layer technology.

The response codes sent by a server whenever a link is clicked, a webpage or file is requested, or a form is submitted. Common HTTP status codes important to SEO: 200 (OK) 404 (Not Found) 410 (Gone) 500 (Internal Service Error) 503 (Service Unavailable)

A frequently used word. For example: a, at, for, is, of, on, the. Search engines have, in the past, ignored these words to save time/resources when indexing. Search engines have evolved greatly since the early days, and stop words sometimes are meaningful, so this isn�t something to worry much about for SEO purposes.

A separate section that exists within a main domain.

Also known as SSI. A way to retrieve portions of a page from another web page.

One or more automatically generated logs of all actions performed by the server, often helpful in determining what caused a problem to occur.

These appear in some results in the SERPs, where numerous internal links are provided, making it easier for users to navigate directly to the portion of the site that interests them.

Previously called Google Webmaster tools, Search Console is a suite of free services from Google to check indexing status and optimize a site's visibility.

Abbreviation for Secure Sockets Layer. This is the standard technology for establishing an encrypted pipeline between the client (browser or email client) and the server.

Refers to linking and navigational structure that is employed on every page of the website, such as in the sidebar or footer.

An internet domain which is part of a primary domain. For example, in the URL�https://blog.localclarity.com/, �blog��would be a subdomain of the primary domain�localclarity.com.

Numeric responses given by web servers in response to a call from a browser. Each different numeric code signifies something different.

Improving the presence of a business and increasing its number of customers via all non-paid forms of search, such as organic, local, universal, and mobile.

A status notation in the Google Places for Business dashboard indicating that a business owner has marked a listing as "Suspended" in an attempt to prevent its display. An account may also be suspended by Google due to violations of the Google Local Business Information Quality Guidelines or due to bugs.

The hypothetical form of AI that possesses the ability to experience subjective perceptions, emotions, or consciousness. This concept goes beyond current AI capabilities, which include learning, decision-making, and problem-solving, to encompass self-awareness and the capacity to feel, understand, and experience the world in the same way as humans or animals. The term experienced a notable increase in usage in 2022, likely driven by discussions related to the emergence of ChatGPT and other LLMs. However, experts clarified that despite its advanced capabilities, they do not possess true sentience, and achieving genuine Sentient AI remains a distant goal. This clarification may have contributed to a significant decline in the term’s usage thereafter.

Semantic search is a search engine technology that interprets the meaning of words and phrases. The results of a semantic search will return content matching the meaning of a query, as opposed to content that literally matches words in the query.

Organizing and categorizing a website to maximize content findability and help users complete desired on-site tasks.

Currently Google's dominant form of local search results, consisting of three businesses. Note that as Google increases its revenue opportunity from paid search, many formerly-free 3-packs are becoming partially or fully-paid packs of results. See also: seven-pack (7-pack), universal algorithm / universal results, local algorithm / local results, OneBox, ten-pack (10-Pack)

A piece of web page code that the search engines pay special attention to when deciding that webpage's relevance. On a traditional SERP, the text of a webpage's title tag is contained in the link to that web page. If you're on a Windows computer, the title tag of a web page appears in the blue bar at the top lefthand corner of your screen when you are browsing the internet. On a Macintosh, the title tag usually appears at the top middle of the browser screen, in a silver bar. Including keywords in your website's title tags is very important for organic rankings; many experts feel that including geographic keywords in your website's title tags is important for local rankings. See also: organic algorithm / organic results, meta tags, meta description, keyword, SERP (search engine result page)

An inexact estimation of how long a user spent looking at a particular webpage. Pages with high exit rates can greatly skew this data.

Unlike reviews left on third-party platforms, testimonials are typically customer sentiments published by a business on its own website. Testimonials may be marked up with hReview microformatting or schema to enhance the ease with which search engines can understand testimonial content. See also: microformat, review

An historic term describing a once-dominant form of Google's local results, containing seven businesses. The 10-pack is no longer active, having been largely replaced by the 3-pack, and in some cases, by paid or partially-paid packs. See also: seven-pack (7-pack), universal algorithm / universal results, local algorithm / local results, OneBox, three-pack (3-Pack)

1) Can be used to describe any web-based data about a business that is not published by the business itself. 2) In reference to Google's local products, "third-party" is often used to refer to data stemming from any location other than a business' website or its Google Places/Google+ Local listing.

An important but hard-to-quantify ranking factor in both organic and local algorithms. Trust can be gained via the following: consistent NAP information, citations from high-authority websites

In the local SEO arena, Google provides a small number of troubleshooter wizards that walk users through a short survey in an attempt to identify and resolve data issues. See also: penalty

Topical Trust Flow is a Majestic trademark. This is a Majestic feature which provides website categorization. Majestic has now categorized the web so users can see in which industry sector the website has influence. The Topical Trust Flow helps users find influencers for specific categories and easily determine if a link clear up is required. Topical Trust Flow provides a series of numbers, on a log-based scale between 0-100. The number shows the relative influence of a web page, subdomain or root domain in any given topic or category.

Founded in 2000, TripAdvisor is a major review and citation source for restaurants and hotels on an international scale. See also: review

The highest level in the hierarchical domain name system of the Internet. For the URL https://www.localclarity.com the TLD is .com

The people (and sometimes bots) who visit your website.

Trust Flow, a trademark of Majestic, is a score based on quality, on a scale between 0-100. Majestic collated many trusted seed sites based on a manual review of the web. This process forms the foundation of Majestic Trust Flow. Sites closely linked to a trusted seed site can see higher scores, whereas sites that may have some questionable links would see a much lower score.

With search engines, topical relevance is mainly used in conjunction with backlinks (incoming links). Websites that carry similar content are said to have topical relevance. Backlinks from websites that are topically relevant have more impact on a website's position in search results than backlinks from sites that are not related. Search engines assume that topically relevant links are used to offer users additional information that could be helpful. With unrelated links there is a high probability that they have been paid for or included for the purpose of improving a site's position in search results.

A link analysis technique used to separate good �reputable seed pages� from web spam.

Refers to a system of classification and is particularly important in faceted navigation such as is normally present in an e-commerce site.

A social media network on which users share short text-based messages See also: social media (SM), Facebook, Facebook Local Search

The process of converting text into a series of tokens (words, subwords, or characters) that can be processed by AI models. In the context of models like GPT, tokenization is a fundamental step that precedes model training and inference, affecting how the model interprets and generates responses.

Term drift is the gradual change in the meaning or usage of terms or brand names over time, affecting SEO as content with outdated terminology may drop in search rankings, which can be mitigated by updating key phrases to reflect current language.

Unique Content, as it relates to search engine optimization (SEO), means content is original and not duplicated anywhere else. Unique content plays a key role in search rankings because search algorithms rate unique content highly and can penalize websites for posting duplicate content.

Where a listing for your business already exists on a business directory, but you do not have control over it.

Uniform Resource Locator. Sometimes called the web address. For this site�s home page, the URL is https://localclarity.com. However, that�s not the actual address. The URL is translated to our IP address by the domain name server.

A major paid local listing services. Distributes local business data to a large number of search engines and directories. Was Aquired by AdviceLocal in 2015

Any links Google identifies as suspicious, deceptive, or manipulative. An unnatural link can result in Google taking manual action on your website.

The term for a SERP containing a non-standard search result, such as video or shopping results embedded within the more familiar "ten blue links" default results.Any kind of content relevant to a particular keyword may be returned, rather than just web/text content. In the context of local search, this usually means a 7-Pack, 3-Pack, or Authoritative Onebox.

A text summary of a customer experience on a website that is not a traditional directory of standardized review information alongside business listings. May not be accompanied by a numerical rating. Examples would be a newspaper or magazine article, hyperlocal blog, or social media profile. See also: review, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), directory, hyperlocal

A mention of a business name and address and/or phone number on a website that is not an IYP site or other traditional directory containing standardized listings for many other businesses. Examples would be a newspaper or magazine article, hyperlocal blog, or social media profile.

When search engines pull data from multiple speciality databases to display on the same SERP. Results can include images, videos, news, shopping, and other types of results. Also known as: Blended Search.

The number of unique visitors to your client�s GBP listing, broken down by device and platform. This metric is focused on unique visitors, so multiple visits in a day are only counted once. Also known as the �number of people who viewed your Business Profile.� This metric was launched in February 2021 and has not been changed since by Google.

Any form of content � videos, blog posts, comments, reviews, etc. � that is created by users or customers.

Every user on the internet has its own user agent, browsers, clients, crawlers, even feed readers and media players. The user agent identifies the user to the server, which, in turn, identifies itself back to the user via its own user agent.

The overall feeling users are left with after interacting with a brand, its online presence, and its product/services.

Specifically, content that users can take something valuable from. While a funny video counts as engaging content, it doesn't necessarily count as valuable content in the same way a product review might help users make better buying decisions.

Any online action taken by an user, including clicking on search engine results, time spent on a web page, leaving a review, using a check-in service, asking for driving directions, and many other factors. The extent of influence user behavior has on actual search engine rankings remains a matter of speculation and debate.

The values added to a URL in order to track where traffic comes from (i.e., which link someone clicked on to discover your website or webpage).

People (searchers) who have visited a web page once during a specific period of time.

User-generated content. Content on a web page which is created by users, rather than by the site owner or webmaster. Forums and blog comments are both forms of user-generated content.

The speed at which a local listing or a website accumulates outside references, such as links, citations, reviews, or check-ins. Most experts believe that a consistent velocity for each criterion - rather than a flood - indicates to the search engines that a business is vibrant without trying to be manipulative.

A generic term used to encompass the overall presence a business has established on the Internet. Local businesses seek visibility via search engine rankings, social media profiles, review profiles, and other platforms.

The process of confirming your online business listings.

A 2012 update to Google's algorithm that appeared to increase the number of local results being returned for generic queries, as well as altering the ratio of first page rankings given to distinct local businesses.

A vertical search engine is distinct from a general web search engine, in that it focuses on a specific segment of online content. They are also called specialty or topical search engines. Common verticals include shopping, the automotive industry, legal information, medical information, scholarly literature, job search and travel.In contrast to general web search engines, which attempt to index large portions of the World Wide Web using a web crawler, vertical search engines typically use a focused crawler which attempts to index only relevant web pages to a pre-defined topic or set of topics.

These can only made after a customer has made an online purchase from a business. Verified reviews offer a more reliable way for real customers to leave feedback on Google, and the option must be turned on from within the Merchant Centre area.

A type of voice-activated technology that allows users to speak into a device (usually a smartphone) to ask questions or conduct an online search.

A bot that uses natural language processing to perform tasks, such as conducting web searches. For instance, Apple�s Siri or Microsoft�s Cortana.

a novel approach to software development that relies heavily on AI tools to generate and manage code.

An error message signaling that Google lacks data about a local business or is choosing not to display it. There have been ongoing issues with this error message appearing due to technical issues on Google's part, but this message can also stem from violations of the Google Local Business Information Quality Guidelines.

See citation.

When a website is created, a structure is put into place which helps the end user find what they are looking for. For example, your homepage will likely have links to subpages that cover particular topics. This is especially important to search engine crawlers as they have an easier time with well-structured web pages. Ensure that your homepage is the landing page that has links to your most important subpages. Your sitemap.xml and robots.txt will help a crawler better understand your page, so don't forget to make sure those are well laid out.