Local SEO & AI glossary
The terms behind getting found on Google and recommended by AI — defined in plain English, for business owners rather than marketers.
AI & answer engines
- AEOAnswer Engine Optimisation
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of making your content easy for AI answer engines — like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity — to understand, trust and quote. In practice it means clear, self-contained answers, accurate facts, and structured, well-organised pages.Check your AI visibility
- GEOGenerative Engine Optimisation
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is optimising for AI systems that generate answers rather than list links. It overlaps heavily with AEO: the goal is to be the source an AI draws on when it writes a recommendation or explanation. Original data, clear structure and citable facts help most.
- AI visibility
- AI visibility is how likely an AI assistant is to mention your business when a customer asks it for a recommendation. For a local business it depends on the same trust signals as local search — a complete, well-reviewed Google Business Profile and consistent information across the web.Check your AI visibility
- Google AI Overviews
- Google AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some Google search results, answering the query directly and citing sources. They can push traditional links further down the page, which makes being one of the cited, trusted sources more valuable.
- Answer engine
- An answer engine is a tool that responds to a question with a direct answer instead of a list of links — for example ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overviews. For businesses, being named or cited by an answer engine is becoming as important as ranking in traditional search.
- llms.txt
- An llms.txt file is a simple text file on a website that points AI crawlers to the site's most useful content. It's an emerging convention, not a guarantee of being cited — and it can't get a customer's business into an AI assistant. It's a small, sensible hedge for content sites.
- Google AI Mode
- Google AI Mode is a conversational, AI-first way of searching Google — you ask a question and get a generated answer with follow-ups, rather than a list of links. Like AI Overviews, it makes being a trusted, clearly-structured source more valuable than ever.
- Zero-click search
- A zero-click search is one where the person gets their answer on the results page itself — from a featured snippet, an AI Overview, or a business's own listing — without clicking through to a website. For local businesses, it means your Google Business Profile often is the result.
- Structured dataschema markup
- Structured data (or schema markup) is code added to a web page that describes its content in a machine-readable way — what's an article, an FAQ, a business, a review. It helps Google and AI engines understand a page accurately, and can make it eligible for richer results.
Google Business Profile
- Google Business Profileformerly Google My Business
- A Google Business Profile (GBP) is the free listing that puts your business on Google Maps and in local Search, showing your details, reviews, photos and hours. It's the single most important free marketing asset for a local business, and what most local ranking depends on.How to list your business on Google
- Profile suspension
- A Google Business Profile suspension is when Google removes or restricts your profile for breaking its guidelines — often a keyword-stuffed name, a non-compliant address, or the wrong category. A suspended profile disappears from Maps until you fix the cause and are reinstated.Fix a suspended profile
- Primary category
- Your primary category is the single most important label on your Google Business Profile — it tells Google what your business mainly is (e.g. 'Plumber', 'Dentist'). It's one of the strongest signals for which searches you show up in, so choosing the most accurate one matters a lot.
- Service-area businessSAB
- A service-area business (SAB) serves customers at their location rather than at its own premises — like a plumber or roofer. SABs should hide their address on Google and set the areas they cover instead. Showing an unverifiable address is a common cause of suspension.
- Google Posts
- Google Posts are short updates you publish on your Google Business Profile — offers, events, news or seasonal menus. They appear on your profile and keep it looking active and current, which helps both customers and your visibility.
- Verification
- Verification is how Google confirms you're entitled to manage a business profile, usually by postcard, phone, email or video. Until a profile is verified, it doesn't show to customers on Maps or Search — so it's a required first step.How to verify your profile
- Duplicate listing
- A duplicate listing is a second Google Business Profile for the same business. Duplicates confuse Google, split your reviews, and can get filtered or suspended. If one exists, claim and merge or remove it rather than managing two.
- Attributes
- Attributes are the extra details on a Google Business Profile that describe your business — like 'wheelchair accessible', 'free Wi-Fi', 'women-led', or 'accepts card'. They help you match specific searches and show customers what to expect before they visit.
Local SEO
- Local SEO
- Local SEO is the practice of getting a business found in local search results — the Google map pack, Maps, and 'near me' searches. For most local businesses it centres on the Google Business Profile, reviews, and consistent information across the web.
- Local packmap pack / 3-pack
- The local pack (also called the map pack or 3-pack) is the group of business listings with a map that Google shows for local searches. Appearing in it is prime visibility, because it sits above the normal results and is where many customers click first.How to rank in the local pack
- Local ranking factors
- Google states three factors decide local ranking: relevance (how well your profile matches the search), distance (how close you are to the searcher), and prominence (how well-known and established you are). You can strongly influence relevance and prominence; distance you can't.The ranking factors explained
- Prominence
- Prominence is how well-known and established Google judges your business to be — shaped by your reviews (count, rating, recency), how complete and active your profile is, and your presence and consistency across the wider web. It's one of the three local ranking factors.
- NAPName, Address, Phone
- NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone number — the core details of your business. Keeping your NAP identical everywhere it appears (your website, Google, directories, social profiles) is a basic but important trust signal for both local search and AI.
- Citation
- A citation is any online mention of your business's name, address and phone number — for example in a directory or listing. Consistent citations across trusted sites reinforce that your business is real and help your local visibility.
- E-E-A-TExperience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust
- E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust — the qualities Google's guidelines say make content and businesses trustworthy. For a local business it shows up as real reviews, accurate information, a genuine identity, and content that's actually helpful.
- Geo-grid
- A geo-grid is a way of checking how a business ranks on Google Maps from lots of different points across an area, shown as a grid of results. It reveals how your visibility changes with distance — strong near your location, weaker further out — which pure single-point checks miss.
- SERPSearch Engine Results Page
- A SERP is the page of results Google shows for a search. For local searches it usually includes the map pack, AI Overviews, ads and normal (organic) links. Understanding what fills the SERP for your key searches tells you where you actually need to appear.
- Review velocity
- Review velocity is the rate at which a business earns new reviews over time. A steady, natural flow of genuine reviews is a healthy trust signal; a sudden burst of many reviews at once can look unnatural to Google and even trigger a review. Consistency beats spikes.
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