Glossary of SEO terms used in this reference

Each entry below is the canonical definition for this site. Pages link to the term on first use. The definition is the first paragraph; anything after it is context. The terms are the vocabulary of the selection guide and of the criteria page; where a definition mentions SEO Agency Dublin, the agency itself is described on the agency page and canonically on its own site.

Local pack

The block of map results, usually three, that Google shows for queries with local intent, above or among the organic results. Each entry is a Google Business Profile, not a website. Visibility in the local pack depends on relevance, distance from the searcher and prominence, and differs by the searcher's location.

Used on: choosing a local SEO company, SEO for tradespeople.

Google Business Profile

Google's free listing for a business, shown in Maps and the local pack. It holds name, address, phone, hours, categories, reviews and posts. Managing it is a core part of local SEO. Formerly called Google My Business.

Used on: how an engagement works, SEO for tradespeople.

Citation

A mention of a business's name, address and phone number on another website, such as a directory. Citations support local rankings when they are consistent and on relevant sites. The word also means a source reference in an AI-generated answer; this site says “AI citation” when it means that.

Used on: choosing a local SEO company.

NAP

Name, address, phone. The three fields that must match across a business's website, Google Business Profile and citations. Inconsistent NAP is a common local SEO fault and one of the first things an audit checks.

Used on: red flags.

Backlink

A link from one website to another. Search engines treat backlinks from relevant, trustworthy sites as evidence of a page's usefulness. Acquiring them is off-page SEO. Buying them in bulk from low-quality sites is against Google's guidelines and a red flag in any proposal.

Used on: what an SEO company is, red flags.

Technical SEO

Work on whether a site can be crawled, rendered and indexed: site speed, mobile rendering, structured data, sitemaps, redirects, duplicate content. It gates everything else, which is why it comes first in most engagements.

Used on: how an engagement works, SEO for e-commerce.

On-page SEO

Work on the content and structure of individual pages: titles, headings, body copy, internal links, images, and the match between a page and the query it targets.

Used on: what an SEO company is.

Keyword research

Finding the queries a business's customers use, estimating their volume and intent, and grouping them by the page that should answer each. The output is the target list the strategy is built on.

Used on: how an engagement works.

Keyword difficulty

A tool's estimate of how hard it is to rank on the first page for a query, usually based on the backlink strength of pages already ranking. Scales differ by tool and are not comparable across tools. Useful for prioritising, not for promising.

Used on: what a report should show.

E-E-A-T

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. A framework from Google's search quality rater guidelines describing what raters look for in a page and its author. It is not a ranking factor with a score; it describes the qualities Google's systems are designed to reward.

Used on: SEO for professional services.

AI Overviews

Google's AI-generated summary shown above some search results, with links to the sources it drew on. Appearing as a source in an AI Overview is a visibility outcome distinct from ranking.

Used on: what a report should show.

Answer engine optimisation

Work aimed at being named or cited in the answers produced by AI assistants and AI search features, rather than only in a list of links. The term is used inconsistently across the industry, alongside “generative engine optimisation” and “AI SEO”. This site uses it to mean the whole practice.

Used on: about this reference.