If you’ve ever read a marketing report or an email from an agency and hit a wall of acronyms, this page is for you. These are the terms we actually use across this site, defined in plain English, with a link under each one to where we cover it in more depth. No jargon for its own sake — just what each term means and why it matters to your business.
SEO & Search
SERP — Search Engine Results Page
The page you see after typing a search into Google. It’s more than ten blue links now: it includes maps, ads, images, and answer boxes, all competing for attention. When we talk about “ranking,” we mean where you land on the SERP for a given search. More on how search results work →
E-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust
Google’s framework for judging content quality. It favors content that shows real experience and expertise, comes from a credible source, and can be trusted. For a local business, it’s less about gaming a score and more about genuinely being — and looking like — a legitimate, knowledgeable operator. More on content that earns trust →
GBP — Google Business Profile
Your free business listing on Google, the thing that shows up in Maps and the local results with your hours, photos, and reviews. It was called Google My Business (GMB) until Google renamed it, so you’ll still see the old term around. For most local businesses it’s the single most important local asset. More on optimizing your profile →
NAP — Name, Address, Phone
Your business’s core contact details as they appear online. The point is consistency: when your NAP matches everywhere — your site, your profile, directories — Google and customers can both trust it. Mismatches cause confusion and can quietly hurt your local visibility. More on local search fundamentals →
UGC — User-Generated Content
Content your customers create about you rather than content you make yourself — most commonly reviews, but also photos and mentions. It carries weight precisely because it doesn’t come from you, which is why genuine reviews matter so much for trust and visibility. More on earning reviews →
CTA — Call To Action
The prompt that tells a visitor what to do next — “call now,” “get a quote,” “book online.” A page without a clear CTA leaves people to figure out the next step themselves, and many won’t. It’s a small element that has an outsized effect on whether interest turns into a customer. More on turning visitors into customers →
GEO / AEO — Generative / Answer Engine Optimization
The newer practice of making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT to find, understand, and cite when they answer a question. The industry hasn’t settled on one name yet, but the goal is the same: be the kind of source an AI is comfortable recommending. More on showing up in AI answers →
Analytics & Data
GA4 — Google Analytics 4
The current version of Google’s free website analytics tool. It replaced the older Universal Analytics and measures visitor behavior differently — which is why numbers that look familiar, like bounce rate, don’t always mean what they used to. More on tracking and reporting →
UA — Universal Analytics
The previous version of Google Analytics, now retired. It’s worth knowing because comparisons between old UA numbers and current GA4 numbers are a common source of confusion — the two measure key things differently and often don’t line up. More on why the metrics changed →
GSC — Google Search Console
A free Google tool that shows how your site performs in search — what people searched to find you, which pages appear, and any technical issues Google runs into. Where GA4 tells you what visitors do on your site, GSC tells you how they found it in the first place. More on tracking and reporting →
KPI — Key Performance Indicator
A metric you’ve chosen to measure what actually matters to the business — leads, calls, sales — rather than a vanity number that looks nice but changes nothing. Good KPIs keep marketing honest by tying it to real outcomes. More on the metrics that matter →
UTM — Urchin Tracking Module
The little tags added to the end of a link so analytics can tell where a visitor came from — which email, ad, or post sent them. They’re how you know a campaign actually drove traffic instead of guessing. More on tracking your traffic →
CTR — Click-Through Rate
The percentage of people who see something and actually click it — a search result, an ad, a link. A low CTR often means what’s shown isn’t compelling or relevant enough to earn the click, which makes it a useful signal for what to improve. More on reading your numbers →
Paid Ads
PPC — Pay-Per-Click
An advertising model where you pay only when someone clicks your ad, not just to have it shown. Google Ads is the best-known example. It’s the umbrella term for most of the paid search advertising a local business runs. More on paid search →
CPC — Cost Per Click
What you pay for a single click on a PPC ad. It varies a lot by industry and competition — a click in a high-value field can cost many times more than one in a low-competition niche — which is why “what do ads cost” never has one answer. More on what ads actually cost →
CPM — Cost Per Thousand Impressions
What you pay for a thousand views of an ad (the “M” is the Roman numeral for thousand). Unlike CPC, you’re paying for the ad being seen rather than clicked, which suits awareness campaigns more than direct-response ones. More on ad pricing models →
CPA — Cost Per Acquisition
What it costs you, in ad spend, to win one actual customer or lead — not just a click. It’s a more honest measure of whether advertising is working, because it ties spend to results rather than activity. More on measuring ad results →
ROAS — Return On Ad Spend
How much revenue you get back for every dollar spent on ads. It’s the bottom-line question for any paid campaign: is the money coming back with more attached, or not? A campaign can have cheap clicks and still fail on ROAS. More on paid campaigns →
LSA — Local Services Ads
A specific Google ad format for local service businesses, shown at the very top of results with a “Google Guaranteed” badge. They work on a pay-per-lead basis rather than pay-per-click, and they sit separately from the regular organic map results. More on local ad options →
Still Have a Term We Didn’t Cover?
Marketing has more acronyms than anyone needs, and we’ve kept this list to the ones we actually use with clients. If you’ve run into one that isn’t here — in a report, an email, or somewhere on this site — ask us and we’ll explain it in plain English. No jargon, no upsell.