Plain-English definitions for the search, AI, and performance concepts we use every day building websites for Hollister and San Benito County businesses.
Search is changing. Google still matters, but so do ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and voice assistants. This glossary covers the words we use when we talk about showing up everywhere your next customer might look.
Showing 22 of 22 terms.
The practice of structuring your website so AI assistants and answer engines can pull a direct answer from it.
Optimizing content so generative AI models recommend your business when they synthesize a response.
The page Google shows after you type a query. It includes ads, maps, snippets, images, videos, and the regular blue-link results.
The boxed answer Google places at the top of some results, pulled from a webpage it trusts.
Code that labels the parts of your page so search engines understand what they mean, not just what they say.
The recommended format for adding schema markup to a page. It lives in a script tag and does not change what visitors see.
A specific schema type that tells Google your business has a name, address, phone number, hours, and service area.
Schema that wraps a list of questions and answers so Google can display them as an expandable section in search results.
A set of three speed and usability metrics Google uses to judge how pleasant a page is to use: LCP, INP, and CLS.
Measures how long it takes for the biggest visible element on a page to load.
Measures how responsive a page feels when someone clicks, taps, or types.
Measures how much the layout shifts around while a page is loading.
A technique that waits to load images and videos until they are about to appear on screen.
The work that helps a business show up for searches tied to a place, like 'mechanic near Hollister.'
The core business information that must match everywhere it appears online.
The block of 3 local business listings Google shows on a map for local searches.
A business that travels to customers instead of serving them at a public storefront.
The short summary of a page that search engines often show under the title in results.
A signal that tells search engines which version of a page is the original one.
A written description of an image for screen readers and search engines.
Links from one page on your site to another page on your site.
Measuring the actions you care about — form submissions, calls, bookings — so you know what is working.
We build every site with schema, speed, local search, and AI-answer readiness built in. Tell us what you do and we'll reply with a starting spot.
Get a scoped priceThe glossary covers the terms. These answers cover how we put them to work for Hollister businesses.
SEO helps you rank in traditional search engines like Google. AEO helps AI assistants and answer engines pull a direct answer from your site. GEO helps generative AI models recommend your business when they write a response. They overlap, but GEO and AEO are becoming just as important as classic SEO.
Schema markup is a way of labeling your content so search engines understand what it means. For example, it tells Google that a string of numbers is a phone number, a block of text is a business description, or a list is a set of FAQs. We add it to every page we build.
Core Web Vitals measure speed and stability. A slow or jumpy site frustrates visitors and ranks lower. For local businesses, where someone might be searching on a phone with a weaker signal, a fast site can be the difference between a call and a bounce.
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. When search engines see the same business details on your website, your Google Business Profile, directories, and social profiles, they trust you more. Mismatched details make them unsure whether the listings are for the same business.
A service area business is one that travels to customers rather than welcoming walk-ins. We mark those sites correctly in schema so they can rank locally without needing to publish a storefront address they do not have.
No. We handle schema, Core Web Vitals, structured data, and conversion tracking for you. This glossary is here so you can understand what you are paying for and ask better questions if you want to.
Every site we ship includes clean semantic HTML, JSON-LD schema, optimized images, fast Core Web Vitals scores, consistent NAP data, internal linking, and conversion tracking. For Smart Sites, we also structure content for AI answer engines and generative recommendations.