Digital marketing glossary

Plain-English definitions for the SEO, Google Ads, paid social, web and analytics terms I use with clients, explained the way I would if you just asked me directly.

Search & AI Visibility

How you show up in Google and in AI answers: the terms behind modern SEO and the newer answer engines.

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)Getting your business cited in AI answers from Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity, not just ranked in the links.Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)Getting your content surfaced and cited inside generative AI results. The sibling term to AEO.AI OverviewsGoogle's AI-written answer summaries that sit above the traditional search links.E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust)Google's shorthand for the experience, expertise, authority and trust signals it rewards.Structured Data (Schema Markup)Code that tells search engines and AI exactly what your content means, not just what it says.Technical SEOThe foundational work that makes a site easy for search engines to crawl, index and trust.

Web Performance

The speed and build-quality signals that decide whether a page ranks and whether visitors stay.

Core Web VitalsGoogle's three headline measures of real-world page speed and stability.Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)How long the biggest visible element takes to load. Google's main 'does this feel fast' metric.LighthouseGoogle's free tool that scores a page out of 100 and tells you what to fix.

Google Ads

The auction mechanics and metrics that decide what you pay and what you get back from paid search.

Quality ScoreGoogle's 1-10 rating of ad and landing-page relevance. Higher score, lower cost per click.Cost Per Click (CPC)What you pay each time someone clicks your ad, set by a live auction rather than a fixed price.Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)What it costs in ad spend to win one lead or sale, not just a click.Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)The revenue you earn for every dollar of ad spend. The headline efficiency measure.Performance MaxGoogle's AI campaign that runs across every channel from one setup, with the algorithm steering.

Paid Social

How audiences are built and re-reached across Meta and the other social platforms.

Lookalike AudienceNew prospects the platform finds because they resemble your existing customers.Retargeting (Remarketing)Showing ads to people who already visited you, so you stay in front of a warm audience.

Analytics & Tracking

The tools and concepts behind knowing what is actually working.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4)Google's current, event-based analytics platform for how people find and use your site.Google Tag Manager (GTM)A free tool to manage all your tracking tags from one dashboard, without touching site code.Conversion TrackingRecording when a visitor does something that matters, and tying it to the channel that brought them.Attribution ModellingHow you decide which touchpoints get credit when a customer took several steps to convert.

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