Search Marketing Glossary

A Google Ads metric that includes standard conversions plus additional modelled and cross-device conversions: view-through conversions, cross-device conversions, store visits, and certain actions from Google Analytics. The standard "Conversions" column only counts conversion actions you have explicitly marked as primary. "All Conversions" gives a broader picture of total impact but includes estimated data. Understanding the difference matters because Smart Bidding optimises toward primary conversions only, and ROAS calculations change depending on which column you use.

Running two variants simultaneously to measure which performs better against a defined metric. In paid search, A/B testing typically applies to ad copy, landing pages, and bid strategies. In organic, it covers title tags, meta descriptions, and content layouts. Landing page tests are inherently cross-channel because a winning variant improves both paid conversion rates and organic engagement signals.

Additional pieces of information attached to a search ad, such as sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, or phone numbers. Google rebranded these from "extensions" to "assets" in 2022, though both terms remain in common use.

A container within a campaign that holds one or more ads and a set of related keywords or audience signals. Ad groups let you organise ads by theme so the right message shows for the right searches.

The value Google uses to determine where your ad appears on the page and whether it shows at all. Calculated from your bid, ad quality (expected CTR, relevance, landing page experience), auction competitiveness, search context, and the expected impact of assets.

Google's rating of an ad's creative quality, from "Poor" to "Excellent". Based on the quantity, diversity, and relevance of headlines and descriptions. A directional signal, not a performance guarantee.

Optimising content to appear as direct answers in AI-powered search results and chatbots. Core tactics include answer-first formatting, structured data, and conversational headings.

AEO shares significant overlap with quality-focused SEO. Google's September 2025 quality rater guidelines update applies the same evaluation criteria to AI Overviews as to traditional results (Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines, Sept 2025). Liz Reid (VP, Google Search) has said content showing "time, craft, expertise, and perspective" is what gets surfaced, while "surface-level, AI-generated content" gets filtered out (Search Engine Land, October 2025). Some AEO-specific tactics (statistics addition, quotation addition) have shown measurable citation lifts in controlled studies (Aggarwal et al., arXiv 2311.09735), suggesting the disciplines aren't identical but share a common foundation.

How frequently and prominently a brand appears in AI-generated responses across surfaces like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Unlike traditional organic visibility (based on link positions), AI brand visibility reflects how often models cite or reference a brand.

No standard measurement methodology exists yet. Different AI surfaces select different sources: 89% of citations come from different domains depending on whether the query goes to ChatGPT or Perplexity (eMarketer, 2026). Seer Interactive found that brands cited in AI Overviews earn 35% higher organic CTR compared to uncited brands on the same queries (eMarketer/Seer Interactive, 2025). This suggests AI visibility has measurable downstream value, but the mechanisms for earning it vary by platform.

A Google Ads feature that uses AI to automatically expand Search campaigns to broader audiences by generating keyword variations, ad copy, and landing page recommendations. Reported 14% average conversion lift in early testing.

Introduced in 2025. Part of Google's "Power Pack" framework alongside Performance Max and Demand Gen.

Google's conversational search interface where users ask follow-up questions and receive AI-generated answers with inline citations. Distinct from AI Overviews, which appear within traditional search results.

Google began testing shopping ads within AI Mode in early 2026. Liz Reid (VP, Google Search) called AI Overviews and AI Mode "the most significant upgrade of the Google Search experience ever" (Access podcast, March 2026).

AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of Google search results, aggregating information from multiple web pages into a concise answer with source links. Sometimes abbreviated AIO. Formerly known as Search Generative Experience (SGE).

Live in 120+ countries. In an interview with Semafor (June 2025), Liz Reid, VP and head of Google Search, stated that total organic click volume from Google Search has remained "relatively stable year-over-year" despite AI Overviews, while click quality has improved. SparkToro/Datos clickstream data (January 2025) found Google search volume grew 21.64% in 2024, though where those clicks go is shifting.

A text attribute on an HTML image element that describes the image's content. Serves two purposes: accessibility for screen readers and visually impaired users, and helping search engines understand and index images. Appears in place of the image if it fails to load. In organic search, descriptive alt text contributes to image search rankings. AI search surfaces also use alt text as context when processing page content for citation.

Total revenue divided by the number of active users over a given period. Common in subscription and app businesses for tracking monetisation efficiency. Helpful for benchmarking trends, though changes in ARPU often reflect pricing, product mix, or user composition rather than any single marketing initiative.

The annualised value of recurring subscription revenue, calculated as MRR multiplied by twelve. A standard metric in subscription businesses and investor reporting. Useful for tracking overall business trajectory, though it reflects pricing, retention, and expansion revenue alongside marketing, so it rarely points to a specific campaign action.

A collection of creative assets (headlines, descriptions, images, videos, logos) within a Performance Max campaign. Each asset group is tied to a landing page and optionally an audience signal. Google's AI mixes and matches assets across formats and surfaces.

The rule or algorithm that determines how credit for a conversion is distributed across the touchpoints a user interacted with before converting. Google Ads now defaults to data-driven attribution, which uses machine learning rather than fixed rules.

A Google Ads report showing how your ads compare to competitors in the same auctions. Includes overlap rate, outranking share, and impression share by competitor domain.

Per-competitor data requires API allowlist access. Publicly available: impression share, top/absolute top IS, and budget/rank lost metrics.

Hints you provide to Google's AI about who your ideal customer is. Used in Performance Max and Demand Gen campaigns. Unlike traditional targeting, audience signals are suggestions, not restrictions. The AI can serve ads outside your signals if it predicts conversions.

In Google Search Console, the average ranking position of your site across all queries where it appeared. Position 1 is the top result. Calculated as the mean position across all impressions, so a few high-ranking queries can mask poor performance elsewhere. Useful as a directional trend, less useful as an absolute number.

A link from one website to another. Backlinks are a core organic ranking signal, acting as votes of confidence that another site considers your content valuable enough to reference. Quality matters more than quantity: a single link from a high-authority, topically relevant site carries more weight than dozens from low-quality directories. AI search surfaces also favour content with strong backlink profiles when selecting sources to cite, since links correlate with the authority signals these systems use for source ranking.

A percentage adjustment applied to bids for specific criteria such as device type, location, time of day, or audience segment. Range: -100% (exclude) to +900%. Smart Bidding strategies increasingly handle these automatically.

The approach used to set bids in an auction. Manual CPC gives direct control; automated strategies (Smart Bidding) use machine learning to optimise toward goals like conversions, CPA, or ROAS.

The percentage of sessions where a user visits a single page and leaves without further interaction. In GA4, replaced by "engagement rate" as the primary metric, where an engaged session lasts 10+ seconds, has 2+ page views, or includes a conversion event.

A keyword match type that triggers ads for searches related to the keyword's meaning, including synonyms, related topics, and implied intent. The widest reach of any match type. Works best when paired with Smart Bidding and sufficient conversion data.

The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including ad spend, tools, salaries, and overhead divided by the number of new customers acquired. Distinct from CPA, which typically measures a single conversion event, not the full acquisition cost. CAC is useful as a business-level health indicator, but its breadth means it is influenced by factors well beyond marketing performance. For evaluating campaign efficiency, CPA at the channel level tends to be more directly actionable.

An HTML element (rel="canonical") that tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page when duplicate or near-duplicate content exists at multiple URLs. Common scenarios: HTTP vs HTTPS, www vs non-www, pages with query parameters, and paginated content. Without a canonical tag, search engines may split ranking signals across duplicate URLs or index the wrong version. In paid search, canonical issues can indirectly hurt performance: if Google indexes a non-preferred URL as the landing page, Quality Score may suffer from relevance mismatches.

The number of times users clicked on your ad (Google Ads) or search result (Search Console). In Google Ads, a click is counted when someone clicks your ad heading. In GSC, a click means the user selected your result and left the search page. The same metric name means slightly different things in each context.

A Core Web Vital measuring visual stability. Tracks how much visible content shifts unexpectedly during page load. Caused by images without dimensions, dynamically injected content, or late-loading fonts. Target: under 0.1.

Breaking content into logical, self-contained segments that AI systems can independently index, retrieve, and cite. Effective chunking improves the likelihood of content being surfaced in AI-generated answers.

The percentage of customers or subscribers who stop using a product or cancel within a given period. Commonly expressed as monthly or annual churn. Important for understanding whether a business retains the customers it acquires, though churn is influenced by product experience, pricing, and support far more than by acquisition channels. A persistently high churn rate does signal that spending more on acquisition may not be the highest-leverage investment.

The percentage of people who click after seeing your ad or search result. Calculated as clicks divided by impressions. In Google Ads, CTR reflects ad copy effectiveness and keyword relevance; benchmarks vary by industry but 3-5% is typical for Search. In Search Console, CTR measures how often users click your organic result after seeing it, influenced by title tags, meta descriptions, SERP features, and ranking position. Comparing paid and organic CTR on the same queries reveals whether users prefer the ad or the organic listing, which is a starting point for cannibalisation analysis and budget allocation.

A completed action that matters to your business. Could be a purchase, form submission, phone call, or app install. The definition varies by business; what counts as a "conversion" should reflect genuine business value, not just activity.

The delay between when a user clicks an ad and when they complete a conversion. Google Ads attributes conversions to the click date, not the date the conversion occurred. A click on January 15th that converts on January 22nd appears in January 15th's data. This means recent performance data is almost always incomplete, because conversions from recent clicks are still arriving. The Time Lag report in Google Ads shows how long conversions typically take for your account (Google Ads Help).

Conversion lag is the most common reason recent Google Ads data looks worse than older data. Wait at least 7-14 days (depending on your typical lag) before drawing conclusions about recent campaign performance. The "Conversions (by conversion time)" column shows conversions on the date they actually happened, which is useful for comparing with analytics tools that report on the conversion date.

The period of time after a click or impression during which a conversion is attributed to that interaction. Google Ads defaults to 30 days for clicks and 1 day for view-through conversions. Shorter windows attribute fewer conversions but with higher confidence; longer windows capture delayed purchase decisions.

The monetary value assigned to a conversion. Can be a fixed value (e.g., every lead is worth an estimated amount) or dynamic (e.g., the actual purchase amount passed from your site). Smart Bidding strategies like Maximise Conversion Value and Target ROAS optimise toward total value rather than conversion count.

The percentage of visitors or clicks that result in a conversion. Calculated as conversions divided by total clicks (Google Ads) or sessions (GA4). Conversion rates vary significantly by traffic source: paid search traffic is typically pre-qualified by ad copy and keyword targeting, while organic traffic mixes informational and transactional intent. Comparing conversion rates across channels for the same landing page can reveal whether poor performance is a traffic quality issue (wrong audience reaching the page) or a page issue (weak experience for all visitors).

Three metrics measuring real-world user experience: LCP (loading speed, target under 2.5s), INP (responsiveness, target under 200ms), and CLS (visual stability, target under 0.1). A confirmed Google ranking signal. To pass, a page must hit the "Good" threshold on all three metrics based on field data from real users at the 75th percentile, not lab scores from synthetic testing (web.dev).

INP replaced First Input Delay (FID) as the responsiveness metric in March 2024. Unlike FID, which only measured the first interaction, INP evaluates every interaction on the page and reports the slowest one. CLS tends to have the highest pass rate (explicit image dimensions are a straightforward fix). INP has the lowest pass rate because it often requires JavaScript architecture changes. Core Web Vitals also affect paid search indirectly: they feed into the landing page experience component of Quality Score, making page performance one of the few factors that influences both organic rankings and paid ad costs.

The total amount spent on ads in a given period. In Google Ads, cost is the sum of all CPCs (for click-based campaigns) or CPMs (for impression-based campaigns). Sometimes called "spend" in reporting tools. Distinct from budget, which is the maximum you're willing to spend per day or campaign.

The average cost to generate one conversion. Calculated as total cost divided by number of conversions. Target CPA is a Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to achieve a target CPA.

The amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Actual CPC is usually less than your maximum bid, as Google only charges enough to beat the next-highest ad rank.

The cost per thousand impressions. Common pricing model for display and video advertising where the goal is reach rather than direct response.

The average cost to acquire one app install through paid advertising. Calculated as total ad spend divided by the number of installs attributed to those ads. A standard metric in app marketing, though a low CPI is only meaningful if the users who install go on to engage and generate value. Post-install retention and in-app conversion metrics provide a fuller picture of acquisition quality.

The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Influenced by site size, server response time, internal linking, and perceived page value. Most small-to-medium sites don't need to worry about crawl budget.

Numbers rarely match exactly across Google Ads, GA4, and Search Console because each tool measures differently. Google Ads counts clicks (including multiple clicks per session); GA4 counts sessions (one per 30-minute window). Google Ads attributes conversions to the click date; GA4 attributes to the session date. Search Console counts an impression when a link to your site appears in results; Google Ads counts an impression when your ad is shown. Third-party tools add further divergence through their own data collection methods and sampling (Google Ads Help: "Data discrepancies: Factors and troubleshooting").

Common causes of discrepancies: conversion lag (GAds data backfills as conversions arrive), attribution model differences (DDA vs last-click), primary vs secondary conversion action settings, invalid traffic removal (Google removes invalid clicks/conversions retroactively), and timezone mismatches between accounts. When comparing API-pulled data with the dashboard, ensure both use the same date range, segments, and attribution window. API reports generated from previous days are not retroactively adjusted to match the UI (Google Ads API documentation).

How quickly Google Ads data becomes available after an event occurs. Most metrics (clicks, impressions, cost) are delayed by less than 3 hours. Conversions using last-click attribution are typically delayed up to 3 hours; conversions using other attribution models (data-driven, position-based) can be delayed 15-48 hours. Data continues to update for days or weeks as late-arriving conversions are attributed back to their original click dates (Google Ads Help: "About data freshness").

This means the same date range can show different numbers depending on when you pull the report. A report for last Tuesday pulled on Wednesday will show fewer conversions than the same report pulled the following Monday, because additional conversions from Tuesday's clicks arrived during the week.

Google Search Console performance data is typically delayed by 2-3 days. The data pipeline processes logs in batches, not in real time. Occasional delays of 5-10+ days have been documented, and Google backfills data once processing catches up. The dashboard distinguishes between "all" data (includes preliminary/incomplete data) and "final" data (fully processed). Third-party tools that connect via the API, including Looker Studio, often default to "final" data only, which adds further delay (Google Search Central Blog, October 2022).

GSC retains performance data for 16 months. After that, data is permanently deleted unless exported. The dashboard shows a maximum of 1,000 rows; the API returns up to 25,000 rows per request (50,000 per day via pagination). Low-volume queries (fewer than a few dozen users over 2-3 months) are anonymised and excluded from query-level data but still appear in chart totals (Google Search Central Blog: "Performance data deep dive", October 2022).

An attribution model that uses machine learning to assign credit for conversions based on actual user path data rather than fixed rules. The default model in Google Ads and GA4 since 2023. An important cross-channel distinction: Google Ads DDA only sees paid touchpoints, while GA4 DDA sees all channels including organic, social, and direct. The same conversion can receive different credit allocation depending on which platform you check.

The number of unique users who interact with a product within a day (DAU) or month (MAU). Standard engagement metrics for apps and platforms. The DAU/MAU ratio (sometimes called stickiness) indicates how frequently monthly users return daily. These metrics track overall product health, reflecting the combined effect of acquisition, onboarding, product quality, and retention. Movement in DAU/MAU rarely traces back to a specific campaign or channel.

A Google Ads campaign type designed for mid-funnel awareness and consideration. Serves visually rich ads across YouTube, YouTube Shorts, Discover, and Gmail. Expanded to desktop in 2025.

Part of Google's Power Pack framework. Now supports New Customer Acquisition (NCA) goals for prospecting-focused bidding.

A commerce model where product discovery, evaluation, purchase, and reputation happen within the same platform, rather than across separate search-to-website journeys. TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, and Pinterest buyable pins are primary examples.

U.S. social commerce sales are forecast to surpass $100 billion in 2026 and approach $119 billion by 2027 (eMarketer, 2026). Blake Chandlee, then President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok: "Our community has transformed shopping into an experience that's rooted in discovery, connection, and entertainment" (TikTok Newsroom, 2024).

Google's network of millions of websites, apps, and videos where display ads can appear. Ads are matched to content, audiences, or placements you specify.

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Google's quality framework used by human raters to evaluate content quality. Not a direct ranking factor, but content that demonstrates E-E-A-T consistently correlates with better performance in both traditional rankings and AI-generated answers. The first "E" (Experience) was added in December 2022.

Google's September 2025 quality rater guidelines update introduced evaluation criteria for AI Overviews using the same E-E-A-T framework applied to traditional results (Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Sept 2025). Liz Reid (VP, Google Search) has described the priority as content showing "time, craft, expertise, and perspective" and noted that Google has "expanded beyond spam to low-value content that doesn't add very much" (Search Engine Land, October 2025). AI surfaces that cite authoritative sources tend to favour the same quality signals, though each platform weights them differently.

A feature that supplements your existing conversion tags by sending hashed first-party data (email, phone, address) to Google. Improves conversion measurement accuracy, especially as third-party cookies decline.

The percentage of people who interacted with a social media post (likes, comments, shares, saves, clicks) relative to those who saw it. The calculation varies by platform: some use reach as the denominator, others use impressions or follower count, which makes cross-platform comparisons unreliable. Useful for comparing content performance within a single platform, less useful as an absolute benchmark. Not to be confused with GA4's engagement rate, which measures website session quality based on time, page depth, and conversion events.

A keyword match type that triggers ads only for searches with the same meaning or intent as your keyword. Despite the name, exact match now includes close variants, implied intent, and synonyms. Tighter than phrase match but no longer literal.

A highlighted answer box that appears at the top of Google search results (sometimes called position zero), extracted from a web page and displayed with a link to the source. Formats include paragraphs, lists, tables, and videos. Featured snippets are selected algorithmically based on how well a page answers the specific query. Winning a featured snippet can significantly increase organic CTR, but also contributes to zero-click searches when users get their answer without clicking through.

Featured snippets and AI Overviews often draw from the same content sources. Optimising for featured snippets (clear answer formatting, concise definitions, structured lists) tends to improve AI Overview citation likelihood as well.

Data collected directly from your customers through your own properties, such as website analytics, CRM records, email lists, and purchase history. Increasingly valuable as third-party cookies phase out and privacy regulations tighten.

Optimising content to be cited in AI-generated answers from surfaces like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity. Where traditional SEO targets position in a ranked list of links, GEO targets inclusion in synthesised answers.

The relationship between GEO and SEO appears nuanced. Ahrefs (2025) analysed 15,000 prompts and found only 8-9% of ChatGPT and Gemini citations come from URLs in Google's top 10 organic results for the same query, suggesting significant divergence. However, Google applies the same quality rater evaluation criteria to AI Overviews as to traditional results (Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Sept 2025), and Seer Interactive found that brands cited in AI Overviews tend to earn higher organic CTR (eMarketer/Seer Interactive, 2025). The data suggests a shared foundation in content quality and authority, with divergence in how each AI surface selects and weights sources.

A Google ranking system designed to surface content created primarily for people rather than to manipulate search rankings. Originally launched as a standalone update in August 2022 with a sitewide classifier. Integrated into Google's core ranking systems in the March 2024 core update and no longer operates as a separate system. Helpfulness is now assessed at the page level using a combination of core ranking signals (Search Engine Roundtable, March 2024).

Google reported a 45% reduction in low-quality, unoriginal content following the integration. The principles remain relevant: content should demonstrate first-hand experience, serve a genuine audience need, and avoid being created primarily for search engine traffic. Google's "people-first content" self-assessment questions (Google Search Central documentation) remain the practical checklist for evaluating whether content aligns with these signals.

An HTML attribute or sitemap annotation that tells search engines which language and regional version of a page to serve to users. Uses ISO 639-1 language codes and optional ISO 3166-1 region codes. Requires bidirectional (reciprocal) links between all page variants.

A Core Web Vital measuring how quickly a page responds to user interactions (clicks, taps, key presses). Unlike its predecessor FID (which only measured the first interaction), INP evaluates every interaction on the page and reports the slowest one. Target: under 200ms. Replaced FID as a Core Web Vital in March 2024 (web.dev).

INP tends to have the lowest pass rate of the three Core Web Vitals because fixing it often requires reducing JavaScript execution time, breaking up long tasks, or restructuring event handlers. Common culprits: heavy third-party scripts, large DOM trees, and synchronous layout operations triggered by interactions.

A Google Search Console report showing which pages on your site Google has successfully indexed, which were excluded, and why. Common exclusion reasons include noindex tags, redirect chains, crawl errors, and duplicate content. The starting point for diagnosing why pages aren't appearing in search results.

Clicks that Google identifies as illegitimate, including accidental double-clicks, bot traffic, and click fraud by competitors or publishers. Google automatically filters invalid clicks in real time and does not charge for them. Filtered clicks and their refunded cost are visible in the Google Ads UI under "Invalid clicks" and "Invalid click rate". A second layer of offline detection runs post-click and can issue additional credits. If you suspect ongoing click fraud beyond what Google catches, the Invalid Clicks report and third-party click fraud tools can help quantify the impact.

Links between pages on the same website. Internal links help search engines discover and understand the structure of a site, distribute ranking authority (link equity) between pages, and guide users to related content. A strong internal linking structure ensures important pages receive more link equity and are crawled more frequently. Common patterns: hub-and-spoke (pillar page linking to cluster pages), breadcrumb navigation, and contextual links within body content.

A count of your ad or listing being shown, whether or not the user interacts with it. The definition varies by platform. In Google Ads, an impression means your ad was served in an auction. In Search Console, an impression means a link to your site appeared in search results, even if the user had to scroll to see it. Because each platform counts differently, impression totals for the same query will rarely match across paid and organic reporting.

The percentage of eligible impressions your ads actually received. Calculated as impressions divided by estimated eligible impressions. Lost impression share breaks down into "lost to budget" (you ran out of daily budget) and "lost to rank" (your Ad Rank was too low), which points to different fixes. Google Ads also reports position-specific variants: Search Top IS (share of auctions where you appeared above organic results) and Search Absolute Top IS (share where you held the very first ad slot). Since average position was removed in 2019, these are the primary way to track ad placement.

Impression share values below 10% are reported as 0.0999 in the Google Ads API. Values are ratios (0.0-1.0) that must be weighted by impressions when aggregating, not summed or averaged directly. Related metrics: Search Click Share (your share of achievable clicks), Search Exact Match IS (impression share for exact-match queries only, which isolates match type expansion from competitiveness), and Top Impression Percentage (the proportion of your own impressions that appeared on top, as opposed to Top IS which measures your share of all eligible top-position auctions).

Categorising a search query by the user's underlying goal. Common categories: navigational (looking for a specific site), informational (seeking answers), commercial (researching options), transactional (ready to buy). Intent should shape channel strategy: transactional queries suit paid search (high conversion intent justifies ad spend), informational queries often convert better through organic content, and commercial queries benefit from both. Misaligned intent is a common source of wasted spend: paid ads on purely informational queries, or missing organic content on high-volume commercial queries.

When multiple pages, keywords, or campaigns from the same site or account compete against each other for the same search query. The term applies differently across channels. In organic search, it means two or more pages on your site rank for the same query, splitting clicks and diluting authority so Google may struggle to pick the right one. In paid search, it means overlapping keywords across ad groups or campaigns bid against each other in the same auction, inflating CPCs without increasing total coverage. In cross-channel analysis, it refers to paid ads capturing clicks on queries where organic already ranks well, meaning you may be paying for traffic you would have received organically.

Cross-channel cannibalisation is more nuanced than the other types. Research on incrementality suggests that roughly 50% of paid clicks are incremental when the organic result ranks first (rising to 96% at position 5+). Paid presence alongside organic can still add value through controlled messaging, competitor defence, and additional SERP coverage. The question is whether the incremental lift justifies the cost. Diagnosing it requires both Google Ads search terms data and Search Console query data for the same period, then matching overlapping queries and evaluating organic rank, CTR, competitor activity, and ad spend on each.

A keyword is what you bid on in Google Ads. A search term (or search query) is what the user actually typed. One keyword can trigger many different search terms depending on the match type. The Search Terms report shows which real queries triggered your ads, which is where you find negatives to add and new keywords to target. In Search Console, the equivalent concept is "queries", the actual phrases users searched before seeing your organic result. Comparing Google Ads search terms with GSC queries is the foundation of cross-channel keyword analysis.

Controls that determine which searches trigger your ads. Three types remain in 2026: broad match (widest reach, meaning-based), phrase match (must include the keyword's meaning in order), and exact match (same meaning or intent). Negative keywords exclude unwanted matches.

A Core Web Vital measuring how quickly the main content of a page loads. Specifically, the render time of the largest image or text block visible in the viewport. Target: under 2.5 seconds. Common causes of poor LCP: slow server response, render-blocking CSS/JS, unoptimised images, and client-side rendering delays (web.dev).

Optimising content to be surfaced and cited by LLM-powered search surfaces such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude. Where GEO targets AI features within traditional search engines (like Google AI Overviews), LLMO focuses on standalone AI chatbots that generate answers from their own retrieval pipelines. Tactics overlap heavily with GEO and AEO: entity authority, structured content, citation-worthy data, and clear source attribution all matter across the board.

The terminology has not settled. AEO, GEO, and LLMO describe substantially overlapping practices viewed through different lenses: AEO centres on answer engines, GEO on generative search features, LLMO on LLM chatbots. Ahrefs titled a 2025 piece "GEO, LLMO, AEO... It's All Just SEO," and Lily Ray (VP of SEO, Amsive) has noted the overlap with existing SEO is "very, very strong" (eMarketer, 2025). A practitioner will encounter all three terms; the underlying discipline is the same.

Google's assessment of how useful and relevant your landing page is to someone who clicks your ad or search result. Factors include relevance to the query, load speed (influenced by Core Web Vitals), mobile-friendliness, and ease of navigation. Affects Ad Rank and CPC in paid search, and acts as a quality signal in organic rankings. Because the same page often serves both paid and organic traffic, improving landing page quality is one of the few optimisations that benefits both channels simultaneously.

A specific, usually multi-word search phrase with lower volume but higher intent and lower competition. Example: "waterproof trail running shoes for wide feet" versus "running shoes". In paid search, long-tail keywords tend to have lower CPCs and higher conversion rates because competition is thinner and intent is clearer. In organic, they are typically easier to rank for and often match the natural language patterns of AI search queries, making them valuable for both traditional SEO and AI visibility.

The predicted total revenue a business expects from a single customer over the duration of the relationship. Also written as CLV or CLTV. In theory, LTV informs how much you can afford to spend on acquisition (if LTV is £300, a £50 CPA may be sustainable). In practice, the calculation relies on assumptions about retention, margin, and future behaviour that shift over time, so it works better as a directional range for setting acquisition guardrails than as a precise bid target.

The frequency with which a brand is referenced in AI-generated answers relative to competitors, across one or more AI search surfaces. An emerging metric for tracking AI brand visibility.

No standard measurement tooling exists yet. Different AI surfaces cite different sources for the same query (89% of citations differ between ChatGPT and Perplexity, per eMarketer 2026), making cross-platform benchmarking difficult. Ahrefs found that only 8-9% of ChatGPT and Gemini citations come from URLs in Google's top 10 for the same query, suggesting traditional ranking position is one factor among several (Ahrefs, 2025).

An HTML meta tag that provides a brief summary of a page's content. Search engines often display the meta description as the snippet text below the title in search results, though Google may override it with content from the page if it better matches the query. Not a direct ranking factor, but a well-written meta description improves organic CTR because it functions as ad copy for your organic listing. Recommended length: 150-160 characters to avoid truncation in desktop results.

HTML meta tags or HTTP headers that instruct search engines how to handle a page. The two most common directives: noindex (do not include this page in search results) and nofollow (do not follow or pass ranking signals through links on this page). Used to control which pages appear in search, for example keeping internal search results pages, login pages, or staging environments out of the index. The X-Robots-Tag HTTP header provides the same functionality for non-HTML resources like PDFs.

Google's approach to crawling and indexing where the mobile version of a page is treated as the primary version. Rolled out across all sites since 2023. If your mobile version has less content, fewer internal links, or different structured data than your desktop version, the mobile version is what Google evaluates for ranking. Responsive design (single URL, same content, CSS adapts to screen size) avoids most mobile-first indexing issues.

The predictable monthly revenue from active subscriptions, normalised to a monthly figure. Broken into components: new MRR (new customers), expansion MRR (upgrades), contraction MRR (downgrades), and churned MRR (cancellations). A core metric for subscription businesses, primarily useful for tracking business trajectory. Marketing typically influences the new MRR component, but attributing MRR changes to specific channels or campaigns requires assumptions about trial-to-paid rates, conversion lag, and average contract value that may not hold.

A keyword that prevents your ad from showing for searches containing that term. Essential for reducing wasted spend on irrelevant traffic. Can be applied at campaign or ad group level. In cross-channel strategy, adding negatives for queries where organic already ranks well and converts is one approach to reducing paid/organic cannibalisation, though this should be tested incrementally rather than applied broadly.

A customer loyalty metric based on one question: "How likely are you to recommend this product/service to a friend or colleague?" Respondents score 0-10 and are grouped into detractors (0-6), passives (7-8), and promoters (9-10). NPS is calculated as the percentage of promoters minus detractors. Widely adopted as a benchmark for customer sentiment, though the methodology has drawn criticism for its arbitrary threshold groupings and weak correlation with actual referral behaviour. More useful for tracking sentiment trends over time than as a standalone measure of customer health.

HTML meta tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url) that control how a page appears when shared on social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and messaging apps. Without Open Graph tags, platforms auto-generate a preview from page content, which often looks broken or unintended. Twitter/X uses its own twitter:card tags but falls back to Open Graph. Not a direct search ranking factor, but well-configured social previews improve click-through from shared links and can indirectly drive traffic that benefits organic signals.

A set of signals Google uses to assess how users experience a web page beyond its content. Includes Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS), mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, and absence of intrusive interstitials. Visible as a report in Google Search Console.

The total number of pages viewed across all sessions. One of the oldest web analytics metrics and still frequently reported in dashboards, though a high pageview count can mean a user is deeply engaged or simply lost. In GA4, engagement metrics like engaged sessions, engagement rate, and key events give a clearer picture of whether traffic is doing something useful.

A search engine's ability to index and rank specific passages within a page independently of the page's overall topic. A single paragraph can rank for queries the broader page doesn't target. AI search surfaces take this further, extracting and citing specific sentences.

A Google Ads campaign type that uses AI to serve ads across all Google surfaces (Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps) from a single campaign. Advertisers provide goals, budget, creative assets, and audience signals; Google's AI handles targeting, bidding, and creative combinations.

Over 50% of Google Ads advertisers now use Performance Max campaigns, with early adopters reporting an average 13% increase in conversions at similar CPA (Google, 2025). Part of Google's Power Pack framework alongside AI Max for Search and Demand Gen. A common cross-channel concern: PMax frequently captures branded search traffic that existing Search campaigns or organic listings would have converted anyway. Excluding brand terms from PMax and monitoring branded impression share across channels helps isolate genuine incremental performance.

A keyword match type that triggers ads when the search includes the meaning of your keyword in the same order, with additional words before or after. Narrower than broad match, wider than exact match.

Google's recommended 2026 campaign framework: a coordinated architecture of AI Max for Search (capture demand), Performance Max (convert across surfaces), and Demand Gen (build awareness). Designed to cover the full customer journey.

A diagnostic metric (1-10) in Google Ads estimating the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Components: expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Quality Score influences Ad Rank and actual CPC.

Two of the three Quality Score components (expected CTR and landing page experience) overlap with organic ranking factors. Pages that rank well organically tend to have strong landing page experience scores, and high organic CTR on the same query suggests the page matches user intent. Improving the underlying page quality benefits both channels.

The number of unique users who saw a piece of content or ad at least once. Distinct from impressions, which count every view including repeat exposures to the same user. In social media, reach indicates the breadth of content distribution. In paid media, reach is a standard planning metric for awareness campaigns. A useful top-of-funnel indicator, though it measures exposure rather than engagement or action.

A server instruction that sends users and search engines from one URL to another. A 301 redirect is permanent: search engines transfer ranking signals to the new URL and stop indexing the old one. A 302 redirect is temporary, so ranking signals stay with the original URL. Using the wrong type is a common technical SEO mistake: 302s on permanently moved pages prevent link equity transfer, while 301s on genuinely temporary moves can cause the original URL to lose its index position. Redirect chains (A → B → C) slow crawling and dilute ranking signals with each hop.

The percentage of users who return to a product after their first interaction, typically measured at day 1, day 7, and day 30 intervals for apps. The inverse of churn at the user level. High early retention suggests onboarding works; longer-term retention reflects ongoing value. For marketing, retention rate is a useful filter for evaluating acquisition quality: a campaign that drives installs or sign-ups with poor retention is more expensive than its CPA or CPI suggests.

Enhanced search result formats that display additional information beyond the standard title, URL, and snippet. Examples include FAQ accordions, review stars, recipe cards, event details, how-to steps, and product prices. Triggered by structured data (Schema Markup) on the page. Rich results increase visual prominence and organic CTR. Google's Rich Results Test tool validates whether a page's structured data qualifies for enhanced display.

A text file at the root of a website (example.com/robots.txt) that instructs search engine crawlers which parts of the site they are allowed or disallowed from crawling. Does not prevent indexing: a page blocked by robots.txt can still appear in search results if other pages link to it. To prevent indexing, use a noindex meta tag instead. Robots.txt is primarily a crawl budget management tool: it keeps crawlers from wasting time on low-value areas like internal search results, admin pages, or duplicate filtered views.

Revenue generated per unit of ad spend. A ROAS of 4:1 means every pound spent generates four pounds in revenue. Target ROAS is a Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to achieve a target return.

The standard text ad format in Google Ads. You provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions; Google's AI tests combinations and serves the best-performing mix for each auction. The only text ad format available for new ads since June 2022.

Code (usually JSON-LD) added to web pages that helps search engines understand the content. In organic search, it enables rich results like FAQs, reviews, events, and product information. In paid search, structured data feeds into automated extensions and merchant listings. AI search surfaces also use structured data when selecting and attributing sources. Uses the schema.org vocabulary.

Google's free tool for monitoring your site's presence in Google Search. Shows which queries drive traffic, indexing status, Core Web Vitals, and technical issues. Data includes clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position.

Any platform or interface where users search for information, products, or services. In 2026, search surfaces extend beyond Google and Bing to include ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest, Instagram, and AI assistants embedded in operating systems and apps.

Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google) described search evolving toward an "agent manager" where "a lot of what are just information-seeking queries will be agentic. You'll be completing tasks. You'll have many threads running" (The Verge, March 2026). Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas disclosed the platform was processing 780 million queries per month with "more than 20% month-over-month growth" (Bloomberg Tech Summit, May 2025).

Marketing through search engines, traditionally encompassing both paid search (PPC) and organic search (SEO). In common usage, SEM often refers specifically to paid search advertising.

The practice of improving a website's visibility in organic (unpaid) search results. Covers technical optimisation (crawling, indexing, site speed), content quality, backlink acquisition, and user experience.

The page displayed by a search engine in response to a query. Modern SERPs include organic results, paid ads, featured snippets, AI Overviews, knowledge panels, image packs, video carousels, People Also Ask, and local results.

An XML file that lists the URLs on a site that you want search engines to crawl and index. Sitemaps include optional metadata like last modification date, change frequency, and priority. Particularly useful for large sites, new sites with few backlinks, sites with complex JavaScript rendering, or sites where some pages are not easily discoverable through internal linking. Submitted to search engines via Google Search Console or by referencing the sitemap URL in robots.txt.

A subset of automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimise for conversions or conversion value in every auction. Includes Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximise Conversions, and Maximise Conversion Value. Processes 70+ real-time signals per auction.

Using social platforms as search engines. Users search TikTok for restaurant recommendations, YouTube for tutorials, Reddit for honest opinions, and Pinterest for visual inspiration. Each platform serves distinct discovery purposes.

49% of consumers have used TikTok as a search engine (Adobe, 2026), though the behaviour is additive to Google rather than substitutive (exclusive TikTok-over-Google preference among Gen Z dropped from 8% to 4% between 2024 and 2026). Social search remains under-optimised compared to Google SEO. Adam Mosseri (Head of Instagram): "Unless you are under 25, you probably think of Instagram as a feed of square photos. That feed is dead" (year-end memo, December 2025). Discovery now leans on content quality, watch time, and social SEO.

A Google Ads report showing the actual queries that triggered your ads. Different from the keywords you bid on: the Search Terms report reveals what users actually typed. Essential for finding irrelevant queries to add as negative keywords and discovering high-performing queries to add as new keywords. In cross-channel analysis, matching search terms against Search Console queries for the same period reveals where paid and organic compete on the same traffic, which is the starting point for cannibalisation detection.

A Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to get as many conversions as possible at or below a target cost per acquisition. For standard Search campaigns, configured as maximizeConversions with a targetCpaMicros value.

A Smart Bidding strategy that automatically sets bids to maximise conversion value while targeting a specific return on ad spend. For standard Search campaigns, configured as maximizeConversionValue with a targetRoas value.

The HTML <title> element that defines the page's title. Displayed as the clickable blue link in search results and in the browser tab. The single most influential on-page SEO element, telling both search engines and users what the page is about. In organic search, a well-optimised title tag improves rankings and CTR. In paid search, the title tag of a landing page contributes to relevance assessment for Quality Score. Recommended length: under 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results. Google may rewrite title tags in search results if it considers the original unhelpful or mismatched to the query.

An in-app tool for TikTok creator accounts that surfaces real search demand data on the platform. Shows which topics a creator's audience is searching for, identifies content gaps (keywords with high search demand but few videos addressing them), and categorises demand by content type. Filterable by content gap, follower searches, and time period. The content gap concept (surfacing queries where demand exceeds supply) is comparable to finding low-competition, high-volume keywords in traditional SEO, applied to a social search surface.

The most direct source of TikTok search demand data available. Where TikTok Keyword Insights focuses on paid ad creative, Creator Search Insights focuses on organic content opportunity, making the two tools roughly analogous to the Google Ads Search Terms Report and Search Console queries, respectively, but for TikTok as a search surface.

A free research tool within TikTok Creative Center that shows which keywords advertisers are using in TikTok ad creative. Exposes metrics distinct from traditional keyword research: Popularity (the number of ad creatives currently using that keyword, not search volume), CTR, CVR (conversion rate), CPA, and 6-Second View Rate (the percentage of viewers who watch at least six seconds). Filterable by region, industry, time period, and keyword category. An important distinction: this tool shows what advertisers are saying in ads, not what users are searching for. For actual TikTok search demand, see TikTok Search Ads (Keyword Planner) and Creator Search Insights.

Part of TikTok Creative Center (ads.tiktok.com/business/creativecenter), which also includes Trend Discovery (trending hashtags, songs, creators, and videos with view counts and momentum indicators) and a Top Ads Dashboard updated every 24-48 hours. All are free and accessible without a TikTok account. Available in table and word cloud views. Useful for ad copy research (discovering which language resonates in a given vertical) rather than for keyword targeting or demand estimation.

A keyword-targeted ad format that places video or image carousel ads on the TikTok Search Results Page. Supports broad, phrase, and exact match types, mirroring Google Ads keyword targeting. Advertisers bid on keywords and TikTok ranks ads based on relevance, user intent, and broader behaviour signals. TikTok Ads Manager includes its own Keyword Planner with monthly search volume estimates and competition indicators, the closest equivalent to Google Keyword Planner for TikTok search demand.

Available for traffic and web conversion objectives in 12 countries including the UK and US. TikTok reports that Search Ads campaigns drive 2x higher purchase lift versus campaigns without a search component (TikTok for Business, 2025). 49% of consumers have used TikTok as a search engine (Adobe, 2026), though the behaviour is additive to Google rather than substitutive. For brands where TikTok drives discovery, this creates a genuine keyword-targeting channel alongside Google and Microsoft Ads.

Tags added to URLs to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in analytics tools. Standard parameters: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content. Visible in the URL, so keep them clean and consistent.

The percentage of times a video ad was viewed, calculated as video views divided by impressions. A video view is counted when someone watches 30 seconds (or the full ad if shorter) or interacts with it. The video equivalent of CTR for search ads. Relevant for YouTube campaigns, Demand Gen, and Performance Max when video assets are included. Typical benchmarks vary by format: skippable in-stream ads tend to have lower view rates than in-feed or Shorts placements, since users can skip after 5 seconds.

A conversion that happens after a user sees your ad (an impression) but doesn't click it, then later converts through a different path. The default view-through conversion window in Google Ads is 1 day. Useful for measuring the impact of display and video campaigns where users don't click immediately.

Whether an ad was actually seen by a user, not just served. The industry standard (MRC): a display ad is viewable if 50% of its pixels are in-view for at least one continuous second. Video requires 50% of pixels in-view for two seconds.

A special hreflang value that tells search engines which URL to show when no specific language or region variant matches the user. Typically set to a language-neutral or primary-language page.

A classification from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines for topics that can significantly impact a person's health, financial stability, safety, or welfare. Categories include health and medical, financial and legal, civic and safety information, and major life decisions. Google holds YMYL pages to higher quality standards, and low-quality or inaccurate content on these topics is more likely to be rated as harmful. In organic search, YMYL pages require stronger E-E-A-T signals (author credentials, cited sources, transparent disclosures) to rank well. In paid search, YMYL categories face stricter Google Ads policies: healthcare and pharmaceuticals require advertiser verification or certification, financial services ads must include regulatory disclosures, and ad copy must avoid exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims. Landing pages for YMYL products and services need to meet higher quality thresholds across both channels.

YMYL is a spectrum, not a binary classification. A humorous blog post mentioning money is treated differently from a page giving specific tax advice. Google's September 2025 quality rater guidelines update applied the same E-E-A-T framework to AI Overviews, meaning YMYL content standards now extend to AI-generated answers as well (Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Sept 2025). For advertisers in YMYL verticals, the intersection is practical: the same landing page quality that satisfies Google's organic quality signals also improves Quality Score and reduces ad disapproval risk.

A search where the user gets their answer directly on the results page without clicking through to any website. Includes featured snippets, AI Overviews, knowledge panels, and direct answer boxes. Zero-click searches reduce organic traffic on affected queries, but paid ads still appear above or alongside these features on commercial queries, making paid search one of the few ways to maintain click-through visibility when organic clicks decline.

Gartner predicted in February 2024 that traditional search engine volume would drop 25% by end of 2026 due to AI chatbots and virtual agents (Gartner Newsroom, Feb 2024). The reality appears more nuanced: Google integrated AI Overviews directly into search rather than losing users to standalone chatbots. Liz Reid, VP and head of Google Search, described the shift as "behavioural, not AI", noting that AI features are generating new types of complex queries that didn't previously exist (Search Engine Land, October 2025). SparkToro/Datos clickstream data (January 2025) found Google search volume grew 21.64% in 2024, though the distribution of clicks is changing.