Reference
Marketing Glossary
108 search marketing terms in plain English, across SEO, paid search, analytics, and AI search. Each entry covers what it means, why it matters, and the mistake people make most.
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A/B TestingA/B testing compares two versions of a page or element by splitting live traffic between them and measuring which produces more conversions.…Above the FoldAbove the fold is the portion of a web page visible without scrolling, the first thing a visitor sees when the page loads. The term comes fr…Ad Assets (Extensions)Ad assets, formerly called ad extensions, are extra pieces of information attached to a search ad, such as sitelinks, callouts, structured s…Ad RankAd Rank determines whether your ad shows and in what position on the search results page. Google calculates it at each auction using your bi…AI OverviewsAI Overviews are Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of many search results, synthesizing information from multiple web p…Alt TextThe alternative text attribute on an image element that describes the image in words. Screen readers announce it to visually impaired users,…Anchor TextThe visible, clickable words in a hyperlink. Anchor text tells both users and search engines what the linked page is about, so it passes top…Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring content so answer engines like Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, Perplexity, and …Attribution ModelAn attribution model is the set of rules that decides how credit for a conversion gets assigned across the marketing touchpoints a customer …Audience TargetingAudience targeting reaches people based on who they are and what they do rather than only the keyword they typed. Segments include in-market…
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BacklinkAn inbound link from another website to yours. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of confidence, so links from authoritative, topically…Bid AdjustmentsBid adjustments raise or lower your bid by a percentage based on context such as device, location, time of day, audience, or demographics. A…Bounce RateBounce rate traditionally measures the share of visits where someone lands on a page and leaves without further interaction. In GA4 the conc…Broad MatchBroad match is the most expansive keyword match type in Google Ads. It lets your ad show on searches related to your keyword's meaning, incl…
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Call to Action (CTA)A call to action is the prompt that tells a visitor exactly what to do next, such as a button or link reading Get a Quote, Start Free Trial,…Canonical TagA canonical tag (rel=canonical) is an HTML link element that tells search engines which URL is the preferred version among duplicate or near…Channel GroupingA set of rules that buckets traffic sources into readable categories like Organic Search, Paid Search, Email, and Referral. GA4 ships defaul…Click-Through RateClick-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who clicked your ad after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions. In pa…Consent ModeA Google framework that adjusts how tags behave based on a user's consent choices for analytics and advertising cookies. When consent is den…Content DecayContent decay is the gradual decline in a page's traffic, rankings, or citations over time as information becomes outdated, competitors publ…Conversion RateConversion rate is the percentage of visitors or sessions that complete a desired action, such as submitting a form, making a purchase, or b…Conversion TrackingConversion tracking is the setup that records when a user completes a valuable action after clicking your ad, such as a purchase, form submi…Conversion WindowThe time period after an ad interaction during which a resulting conversion will be credited to that interaction. Windows differ for clicks …Cookieless TrackingCookieless tracking refers to methods of measuring user behavior and attributing conversions without relying on third-party cookies. Approac…Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's set of user-experience metrics measuring loading, interactivity, and visual stability: Largest Contentful Paint…Cost Per AcquisitionCost per acquisition (CPA) is the average amount you spend to generate one conversion, such as a sale, lead, or signup. It is calculated as …Cost Per Click (CPC)Cost per click is the amount an advertiser pays each time someone clicks a paid ad. In an auction-based platform like Google Ads, the actual…Cost Per Mille (CPM)CPM, or cost per mille, is the price an advertiser pays for one thousand ad impressions, regardless of whether anyone clicks. It is the stan…Crawl BudgetCrawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine crawler will fetch on a site within a given period, shaped by crawl rate limit and crawl …Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)A Core Web Vitals metric that measures how much a page's visible content unexpectedly shifts position while loading. It is scored as the sum…Customer Lifetime ValueCustomer lifetime value, or CLV, is the total revenue or profit a business can expect from a single customer across the entire relationship.…
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Data LayerA data layer is a structured JavaScript object on a web page that holds information about the page, user, and interactions in a consistent f…Dayparting (Ad Scheduling)Dayparting, also called ad scheduling, controls the days and hours your ads run and lets you adjust bids by time. You can concentrate budget…Direct TrafficVisits where analytics cannot determine a referring source, so it attributes them to Direct. This includes users typing your URL, using book…Domain AuthorityA third-party score, popularized by Moz, that predicts how well a website will rank on a 1 to 100 scale based largely on its backlink profil…Duplicate ContentSubstantially identical or very similar content appearing at more than one URL, whether within a single site or across domains. Search engin…
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E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)E-E-A-T is the framework in Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines used to assess content quality across Experience, Expertise, Authoritat…Engagement RateIn GA4, the percentage of sessions that were engaged, meaning they lasted longer than ten seconds, triggered a key event, or included at lea…Enhanced ConversionsA Google Ads feature that improves conversion measurement by sending hashed first-party data, such as email or phone, captured at conversion…Entity SEOEntity SEO optimizes content around distinct entities, people, places, brands, and concepts, rather than around keyword strings alone. It us…
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Featured SnippetA featured snippet is a highlighted answer box that appears at the top of some Google results, pulling a paragraph, list, or table from a ra…First-Party DataFirst-party data is information you collect directly from your own audience through your website, app, email list, CRM, or purchases. Becaus…
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GA4 EventIn Google Analytics 4, an event is the core unit of measurement. Every interaction, from a page view to a click, form submission, or purchas…GBP Primary CategoryThe primary category is the single most important classification you choose for your Google Business Profile, describing what the business m…Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of increasing how often, and how favorably, a brand or page is surfaced inside responses from…Geo-ModifierA geo-modifier is the location word added to a search query, such as the city, neighborhood, or region in a phrase like plumber Las Vegas or…GeotargetingGeotargeting limits where your ads can appear, from whole countries down to cities, ZIP codes, or a radius around a point. You can target lo…Google Business ProfileA Google Business Profile is the free business listing that appears in Google Search and Google Maps, showing your name, address, phone, hou…Google GuaranteedGoogle Guaranteed is a badge program tied to Local Services Ads, where Google screens and verifies a business through background and license…Google Tag ManagerA free tag management system that lets you deploy and update marketing and analytics tags through a web interface instead of editing site co…
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HeatmapA heatmap is a visual report that uses color to show where visitors click, move, and scroll on a page. Warm colors mark high-engagement zone…How-To SchemaHow-To schema is structured data markup that labels the steps, tools, and materials in a set of instructions so search engines can read them…HreflangHreflang is an annotation that tells search engines the language and optional regional targeting of a page, so the correct version is served…
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Impression ShareImpression share is the percentage of impressions your ads received divided by the total impressions they were eligible for. Google also rep…IncrementalityIncrementality measures the additional conversions that happened because of a marketing effort, versus what would have occurred anyway witho…Index CoverageIndex coverage refers to which of a site's URLs a search engine has crawled and included in its index, and the reasons others are excluded. …IndexNowIndexNow is an open protocol that lets a website instantly notify participating search engines when pages are added, updated, or deleted, in…Interaction to Next Paint (INP)A Core Web Vitals metric that measures responsiveness by timing how long a page takes to visually respond to user interactions like clicks, …
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Key EventsGA4's term for the events you have marked as most important to your business, such as form submissions, purchases, or calls. Formerly called…Keyword CannibalizationWhen multiple pages on the same site target the same keyword or search intent, forcing them to compete against each other in results. Search…Keyword Match TypesMatch types control how closely a search query must relate to your keyword before your ad can show. Broad match reaches the widest range of …Knowledge GraphA knowledge graph is a structured network of entities, people, places, brands, concepts, and the relationships connecting them. Search engin…
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Landing Page ExperienceLanding page experience is the platform's assessment of how relevant, useful, and easy to navigate your page is for people who click the ad.…Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)Largest Contentful Paint measures the time from when a page starts loading until the largest visible content element, often a hero image, vi…llms.txtllms.txt is a proposed plain-text file placed at a site's root that offers large language models a curated, Markdown-formatted map of the si…Local CitationsA local citation is any online mention of your business name, address, and phone number, whether on a directory like Yelp, an industry site,…Local Landing PageA local landing page is a dedicated web page built to rank for and convert visitors from one specific city, neighborhood, or service area. I…Local PackThe local pack is the block of local business listings Google shows near the top of search results for location-based queries, typically a m…Local Services AdsLocal Services Ads (LSAs) are a Google ad format for local businesses like plumbers, lawyers, and HVAC companies that appears at the very to…Log File AnalysisLog file analysis is the practice of examining a server's raw access logs to see exactly how search engine crawlers request URLs, including …
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Marketing Mix ModelingMarketing mix modeling, or MMM, is a statistical approach that uses historical data to estimate how different marketing channels and externa…Meta DescriptionThe HTML meta tag that summarizes a page's content in the search snippet beneath the title link. It is not a direct ranking factor, but it f…Mobile-First IndexingGoogle's practice of using the mobile version of a page as the primary basis for indexing and ranking, rather than the desktop version. Beca…Multivariate Testing (MVT)Multivariate testing tests multiple element variations at once to find the best-performing combination and reveal which elements drive the m…
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NAP ConsistencyNAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone number. NAP consistency means those three details are formatted identically everywhere your business…Near Me SearchA near me search is a query that includes phrases like near me or nearby, such as coffee shop near me, where the searcher wants results clos…Negative KeywordsNegative keywords are terms you add to a campaign or ad group to prevent your ads from showing on those searches. They filter out irrelevant…NoindexA directive, set via a meta robots tag or an HTTP header, that tells search engines to keep a specific page out of their index so it never a…North Star MetricThe single measure that best captures the core value your product or business delivers to customers, used to align teams around one shared g…
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People Also Ask (PAA)People Also Ask is a Google search feature that shows an expanding list of related questions with brief answers pulled from web pages. Click…Performance MaxPerformance Max is a goal-based Google Ads campaign type that serves across all Google inventory, Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Gmail,…ProximityProximity is how close a business is to the searcher when a location-based query is made. It is one of the core factors Google weighs for lo…
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Redirect ChainA redirect chain occurs when a URL redirects to a second URL that redirects again to a third or more before reaching the final destination. …Referral TrafficVisitors who arrive by clicking a link on another website that is not a search engine or tagged campaign. Analytics records the referring do…RemarketingRemarketing shows ads to people who have already visited your site or interacted with your brand. Using a tracking tag or customer list, the…Responsive Search Ads (RSA)Responsive search ads let you supply multiple headlines and descriptions, and the platform automatically tests different combinations to fin…Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)Retrieval-augmented generation is an AI technique that fetches relevant documents from an external knowledge source and feeds them to a lang…Review SignalsReview signals are the collection of ratings and reviews Google reads to gauge a business's reputation, including the average star rating, t…Robots.txtRobots.txt is a plain-text file at a site's root that tells compliant crawlers which paths they may or may not request, using Allow and Disa…
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Search IntentSearch intent is the underlying goal behind a query, commonly grouped as informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. It desc…Search Terms ReportThe search terms report shows the actual queries people typed before clicking your ads, as opposed to the keywords you bid on. It reveals wh…Semantic SearchSemantic search interprets the meaning and intent behind a query rather than matching exact keywords. Using vector embeddings, it represents…Server-Side TrackingServer-side tracking collects and sends analytics and conversion data through your own server rather than directly from the visitor's browse…Service Area BusinessA service area business, or SAB, serves customers at their location rather than at a storefront, such as a plumber, mobile detailer, or hous…Smart BiddingSmart Bidding is a set of automated bid strategies in Google Ads that use machine learning to set bids in real time for each auction. Strate…Social ProofSocial proof is the psychological tendency to trust what others already trust. On a website it appears as reviews, testimonials, client logo…Statistical SignificanceA measure of confidence that a difference between two variants in a test is real rather than random chance. Expressed through a confidence l…Structured DataStructured data is standardized markup, commonly Schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD format, that describes a page's content to search engines …
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Target ROASTarget ROAS (return on ad spend) is a Smart Bidding strategy where you set a desired revenue-to-spend ratio and Google bids to hit it. If yo…Title TagThe HTML element that specifies a web page's title, shown as the clickable headline in search results and on the browser tab. Search engines…Topic ClusterA topic cluster is a content structure where one broad pillar page covers a subject at a high level and links to multiple deeper cluster pag…
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Value PropositionA value proposition is a clear statement of the specific benefit a customer gets, for whom it is meant, and why it beats the alternatives. I…View-Through ConversionA conversion credited when a user sees an ad impression but does not click it, then converts later within a set window. It captures the assi…