SEO & Digital Marketing Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms we use every day — no jargon, no fluff.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The practice of improving a website so it ranks higher in organic (unpaid) search engine results, increasing visibility and traffic.

Local SEO

A branch of SEO focused on ranking a business in geographically-relevant searches, especially the Google Map Pack, for terms like "[service] near me" or "[service] in [city]".

Google Business Profile (GBP)

A free Google listing that controls how a business appears on Google Maps and in local search results — including hours, reviews, photos, and posts.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

An advertising model where you pay a fee each time someone clicks your ad, most commonly used on Google Ads and Meta Ads.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The percentage of people who click your link or ad after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.

Backlink

A link from another website pointing to yours. Backlinks from reputable sites are one of the strongest ranking signals in SEO.

Meta Description

The short summary shown under a page's title in search results, meant to describe the page and encourage clicks.

Schema Markup

Structured code added to a webpage that helps search engines understand its content, enabling rich results like star ratings or FAQ dropdowns.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, such as submitting a form or making a call.

ROI (Return on Investment)

A measure of profitability — the return generated compared to the amount spent, usually expressed as a percentage.

Bounce Rate

The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page.

Domain Authority

A third-party score (popularized by Moz) that predicts how well a website will rank, based largely on the quantity and quality of its backlinks.

Hreflang

An HTML tag that tells search engines which language and regional version of a page to show users, essential for bilingual or multilingual websites.

NAP Consistency

Keeping a business's Name, Address, and Phone number identical across the website, Google Business Profile, and all online directories — a key local SEO ranking factor.

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