Reference

Local SEO glossary

The terms that come up on every assessment call, defined the way we would define them to a client rather than to another agency.

Quick answer

The core local SEO vocabulary: the Map Pack is the three-business block at the top of local results; proximity, relevance and prominence are Google's three documented local ranking factors; a geo-grid or heat map measures ranking from many points across an area rather than one; NAP consistency means your name, address and phone match across every directory; and GEO and AEO are the practices of structuring content so AI assistants and answer engines can cite you.

Definitions written the way we would explain them to a client rather than to another agency. Where a term is contested or commonly misused in sales calls, the definition says so. Each group below maps to a section of the 12-point checklist, and the measured weights behind them are on the 2026 ranking factors page.

Ranking and the Map Pack

Google Map Pack: The block of three local business listings shown with a map at the top of Google results for searches with local intent. Also called the Local Pack.
Google Business Profile (GBP): The free business listing that powers your presence in Google Search and Google Maps. Formerly Google My Business. It is the single largest controllable input to local ranking.
Geo-grid / heat map scan: A measurement method that checks your ranking from many points across a defined area and colours each one, showing coverage as geography rather than as a single number.
Proximity: How close the searcher is to your business or service area. Estimated to be the single largest factor in local pack ranking, and the one nobody controls.
Relevance: How well your profile matches what was searched: categories, services, description and the website behind it.
Prominence: How well known Google believes your business is: reviews, citations and links.
Primary category: The main category on your Business Profile. The strongest single relevance field available, and the one most often set incorrectly.
Predefined services: Google's own list of standard services you can attach to a profile, as distinct from free-text ones. Their measured importance rose sharply in 2026.

Measurement and data hygiene

NAP consistency: Whether your Name, Address and Phone number match exactly across every directory you appear on. Conflicting data caps how far a profile can rise.
Citation: A mention of your business name, address and phone on another website, typically a directory. More influential for AI search visibility than for the traditional Local Pack.
Review velocity: The rate at which new reviews arrive. Steady flow now outweighs total count, and bursts can look manipulated to Google's filters.
Review recency: How recently your most recent reviews were written. Now considered a top-tier local ranking factor; most consumers specifically look for reviews from the last three months.
Service-area business (SAB): A business that travels to customers rather than serving them at a storefront. Requires a specific profile configuration; misconfiguring it is a common cause of suspension.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): Structuring content so answer engines can extract and present a direct answer from it.

AI and answer engines

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): Structuring content and off-site presence so generative AI systems cite or recommend your business in the answers they produce.
AI Overviews: Google's AI-generated summaries at the top of some search results, drawing on multiple sources.
Schema / structured data: Machine-readable markup that tells search engines and AI systems what a page and a business actually are. Usually implemented as JSON-LD.

Risk and technical terms

Core update: A broad change to Google's ranking systems, released several times a year, capable of reshuffling results across whole industries.
Suspension: Removal of a Business Profile from Google, usually triggered by policy violations or risky edits to name, address, phone or category.
EXIF / geotagging: Metadata embedded in a photo, including GPS coordinates. Google strips it on upload, and controlled testing has found no ranking benefit from geotagging.

Why the vocabulary matters more than it should

Local search has an unusually large gap between how practitioners talk and how business owners hear it, and a lot of bad selling lives in that gap. “Optimisation” can mean correcting a category or it can mean nothing at all. “Citations” sounds academic and means directory listings. “Authority” is used to describe a real phenomenon and also as a word that fills a slide.

The practical defence is to ask what a term would look like as a completed task. If a provider cannot describe what they would actually do, in what tool, and what would visibly change afterwards, the term is doing sales work rather than technical work. Every entry on this page passes that test, and where one does not translate into a concrete action we have said so in the definition.

Three terms worth being sceptical about

“Guaranteed rankings.” Not a technique, a sales device. Nobody outside Google controls the ranking, proximity alone can decide an outcome before any work starts, and Google's own documentation warns businesses about providers who promise positions. The long version is here.

“Geotagging.” Still sold as a ranking service. Google strips EXIF location data from images on upload, and controlled testing across 27 locations found no ranking effect. If a provider lists it, ask them for the test data.

“Google Business Profile posts” as a ranking tactic. A nine-week controlled study across 441 keywords found zero ranking movement. Posts are a useful customer communication surface. They are not a lever, and you should not be billed as though they were.

If a term you have been quoted is not on this page and cannot be explained plainly, that is itself informative. Ask on the assessment call and you will get a straight answer, or read the twelve questions to put to any provider.

Next step

Have a term we haven't defined?

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