What do local SEO and GEO words actually mean?

A

AI crawler

The program an AI company sends to read web pages. A site that blocks it in robots.txt cannot be read directly by that company's assistant. Measured by the free check, at once.

AI Mode

Google's conversational search mode, where a question gets a written answer and follow-up questions instead of a list of links.

AI Overview

The AI-written summary Google shows above the ordinary results for some searches, with links to the pages it drew on. It mostly draws on pages that already rank for the question.

AI visibility

Whether an assistant names your business when a customer asks it the kind of question that should lead to you, such as "who is a good plumber in Penrith". It changes from one asking to the next, so it is read as a series, never from one answer. Measured by Appear's monthly AI read.

Alt text

A short description of an image in the page's code. Screen readers speak it, and search engines read it to know what the picture shows. Measured by the free check, at once.

B

Backlink

A link to your site from someone else's. Links from relevant local and industry sites count for more than many from unrelated ones.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Microsoft's version of Search Console, for Bing's index. Several assistants search the web through indexes like Bing's, so it is worth having.

C

Canonical address

A tag that says which address is the real one for a page, so copies at other addresses do not compete with it. Measured by the free check, at once.

Citation

A mention of your business name with your phone or address on another site, usually a directory. Citations are how search engines confirm the details on your listing. Measured by Appear's directory read.

Cited source

A page an assistant links to as where it read its answer. Being named and being cited are different: an assistant can cite a directory page and name the businesses on it. Measured by Appear's monthly AI read.

Claimed listing

A Google listing whose owner has verified it and can manage it. An unclaimed one carries an "Own this business?" link, and its owner cannot answer reviews or post. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

ClaudeBot

Anthropic's crawler that collects pages for training Claude. Anthropic names separate agents for search (Claude-SearchBot) and for fetching a page a user asked about (Claude-User).

D

Directory

A site that lists businesses by trade and place: Localsearch, Yellow, True Local, hipages and Oneflare for trades; Easy Weddings, ABIA and Word of Mouth for weddings. Measured by Appear's directory read.

E

E-E-A-T

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust: the qualities Google asks its human raters to look for in a page. In practice: a real named person, real work shown, facts that can be checked.

F

FAQ structured data

Structured data that marks up questions and answers on a page. It only helps when the same questions are visible on the page itself.

G

GEO (generative engine optimisation)

Making a business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to find, read and name in an answer. Most of it is the same groundwork as local SEO, aimed at pages the assistants read when they search. Measured by Appear's monthly AI read.

Google Business Profile

The free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and in Google's local results: name, category, hours, phone, website, photos, posts and reviews. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

Google posts

Short updates on your Google listing: a recent job, an offer, news. A listing that keeps getting them reads as active.

Google reviews

Ratings and comments customers leave on your listing. The count, the rating and how recent they are all show to the searcher, and the assistants read them too. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

Google-Extended

A robots.txt name that controls whether Google may use your pages for its Gemini models. It does not change how you appear in Google Search.

GPTBot

OpenAI's crawler for collecting pages to train its models. It is named separately from OpenAI's search crawler, so a site can allow one and not the other.

Grounding

When an assistant searches the web before it answers and bases the answer on the pages it found. A grounded answer can only name businesses whose pages it could find and read.

H

HTTPS

The padlock: the page is served over an encrypted connection. Browsers warn visitors away from sites without it. Measured by the free check, at once.

I

Impressions

How many times your site appeared in Google's results, clicked or not. The first number to move after a change, before clicks follow. Measured by Search Console, read with you.

Indexed

A page Google or Bing has stored and can show in results. A page that is not indexed cannot rank for anything, however good it is. Measured by Search Console, read with you.

IndexNow

A way to tell Bing and the other search engines that use it that a page is new or changed, instead of waiting for them to notice.

J

JSON-LD

The format Google recommends for structured data: a script block in the page that does not change what a visitor sees. Measured by the free check, at once.

L

Listing photos

The photos on your Google listing. Real photos of your work, added over time, do better than none or a single logo.

llms.txt

A plain-text summary of a site written for language models, proposed in 2024. Few assistants have said they read it; it costs little to publish.

Local pack

The map and the three businesses Google shows for a search with local intent, above or among the ordinary results. Many "near me" calls start here. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

Local SEO

The work of being found by people searching near you: your Google listing, your website, your details on other sites and your reviews. It is judged on the searches a nearby customer actually types, not on traffic in general.

LocalBusiness schema

The structured data type for a business that serves a place. It carries the name, phone, address or area served, hours and links to your profiles. Measured by the free check, at once.

Localsearch

An Australian business directory. Being listed with the same details as your Google listing is a cheap citation. Measured by Appear's directory read.

M

Main heading (H1)

The single main heading of a page. It should say plainly what the page is about. Measured by the free check, at once.

Maps position

Where your listing sits in Google Maps' results for one search from one place. It depends on where the searcher is, so it is only meaningful for a named search read from a fixed point, repeated over time. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

Meta description

The short summary a search result shows under the title. Google sometimes writes its own instead, but a clear one gives it something to use. Measured by the free check, at once.

Mobile-friendly

A page set up to fit a phone's screen without zooming. A lot of local searching happens on a phone. Measured by the free check, at once.

N

NAP consistency

Name, address and phone the same everywhere your business appears. Different numbers on different sites make it harder for Google and the assistants to be sure they are all you. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

Near me search

A search that names no place but means "close to where I am now". Google answers it from the searcher's location, which is why the listing matters more than the website for it. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

O

OAI-SearchBot

OpenAI's crawler for ChatGPT's search results. Blocking it keeps a site out of the pages ChatGPT can show when it searches.

Open Graph tags

Tags that set the title, text and picture shown when your page is shared in a message or on social media. Measured by the free check, at once.

Opening hours

The hours on your listing. Without them a searcher cannot tell whether you are open, and a search filtered to businesses open now may leave you out. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

P

Page speed

How quickly a page loads and becomes usable, measured by Google's PageSpeed tool. Slow pages lose visitors on a weak phone signal. Measured by Appear's full site check.

Page title

The title in a page's code, shown as the blue link in search results and on the browser tab. One clear title per page, naming what it is and where. Measured by the free check, at once.

PerplexityBot

Perplexity's crawler, which reads pages for its search answers.

Person schema

Structured data naming the real person behind a business or an article, with links to their profiles. It is one way a page shows who stands behind it.

Primary category

The one category on your Google listing that says what you are, such as "Marriage celebrant" or "Plumber". It weighs heavily in which searches the listing shows for. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

R

Review kit

Appear's saved message and card carrying your review link. You send it from your own phone, when it suits you; we never write reviews or offer anything for one.

Review link

A direct link that opens the box for writing a Google review of your business, so a customer does not have to search for you first.

Review velocity

How steadily new reviews arrive. A run of reviews years ago and nothing since reads differently from one or two a month. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

robots.txt

A small file at the root of your site that tells crawlers which parts they may read. One wrong line can shut out Google or an assistant's crawler. Measured by the free check, at once.

S

sameAs

The structured data field that links a business to its other profiles: Google listing, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, directories. It tells machines these are all one business.

Search Console

Google's free tool for site owners: which searches showed your site, how often it was clicked, and which pages are indexed. It is yours; we are added as a user, never the owner. Measured by Search Console, read with you.

Service-area business

A business that goes to its customers rather than receiving them at a shopfront. On Google it hides its street address and shows the areas it serves instead.

Sitemap

A file, usually sitemap.xml, listing every page you want found, with the date each changed. It is how a search engine learns about a new page without waiting to stumble on it. Measured by the free check, at once.

Structured data

A block of code that states facts about the page in a form machines read without guessing: what the business is, where, its phone and its prices. Measured by the free check, at once.

T

Tap-to-call link

A phone number marked so a tap on a phone starts the call. For a local business, the shortest path from a search to an enquiry. Measured by the free check, at once.

U

UTM tags

Labels added to the end of a link that say where a visitor came from, so a lead can be counted against the site that sent it.

V

Verification

Google's proof that you run the business on a listing, done by video, phone, email or post depending on what Google offers you. Until it is done the listing cannot be fully managed. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.

W

Website on the listing

The address attached to your Google listing. A listing without one sends nobody to your site, and the assistants lose the link between your listing and your pages. Measured by Appear's weekly Google Maps read.