Glossary
Browse48 terms
Every entry is one screen, with sources.
Plain definitions for the words we use with clients. Search, automation, the workflows that save the hours, and the Australian regulators that set the rules. If a word costs a business owner ten minutes on a call, it belongs here.
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Disciplines
20 terms- Agentic Search
- Search where an AI agent acts for the user, monitoring options, calling businesses and completing the task, instead of returning a list of links for a human to read.
- AI Automation
- Software that uses an AI model to run repetitive business work, lead replies, scheduling, invoice chasing, that would otherwise need a person.
- AI Search Optimisation
- The discipline of getting your business found and cited across AI-powered search, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and the AI agents that browse for users.
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)
- Structuring your content so an answer engine (Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, voice assistants) extracts a direct answer from your page and presents it as the answer.
- Business Process Automation (BPA)
- Using software to run a defined business process end-to-end, invoicing, onboarding, ticket triage, without a person performing each step manually.
- E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
- Google's four-pillar framework for judging content quality, weighted heaviest on YMYL queries, and now one of the signals AI Mode trains on for citation selection.
- Entity SEO
- Optimising for how search engines and AI models recognise your business as a distinct entity (a known thing with verified attributes), rather than just matching keywords on a page.
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
- Getting your business named and cited inside AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, instead of ranked as a blue link.
- Google Ads vs SEO
- Google Ads buys visibility at the top of search instantly and stops when you stop paying. SEO earns visibility slowly and keeps it. Same goal, different timelines and economics.
- Hyperautomation
- Gartner's term for combining RPA, AI, process mining and orchestration tools to automate as many business processes as possible across an organisation.
- LLM Optimisation (LLMO)
- Optimising web content so large language models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity cite your page when generating answers. A relabel of AEO and GEO, same job.
- Local SEO
- The discipline that wins the Google local pack, nearby organic results, and AI answer citations for geographic-intent queries like "buyers agent Camberwell".
- Marketing Automation
- Software that runs marketing tasks, email sequences, lead scoring, retargeting, social posting, on triggers rather than a person sending each one manually.
- Multimodal Search
- Search that accepts images, voice, video, files and browser tabs as input, not just text. Google I/O 2026 called it the biggest Search Box upgrade in 25 years.
- PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
- PPC, or pay-per-click, is an online advertising model where you bid for ad placement and pay only when someone clicks your ad, not when it is shown.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
- Making your site understandable to search engines and worth visiting to users, now spanning Google's blue links, AI Overviews and ChatGPT citations.
- Structured Data
- Machine-readable markup that gives explicit meaning to page content. In 2026 the format question is solved, ship JSON-LD schema.org for search and AI engines, ship OpenGraph for social.
- Topical Authority
- The depth and breadth of a site's coverage of one subject area, as opposed to domain authority, which is a generic site-wide score. Depth wins long-tail.
- Workflow Automation
- Software that runs a trigger-action chain across tools, the smallest unit of automation, one event fires a defined sequence with no person in the middle.
- Zero-Click Search
- A search query resolved on the results page itself, with the answer shown in a snippet, AI Overview, or knowledge panel, so no click to a website happens.
Workflows & techniques
8 terms- eInvoicing (Peppol)
- Direct system-to-system exchange of invoices in a structured digital format over the Peppol network, no PDF, no email, no manual entry on the buyer's side.
- FAQ Schema (FAQPage)
- The structured-data type that marks up question-and-answer content so search and AI engines can extract Q&A pairs directly, even after Google deprecated the FAQ rich result in May 2026.
- Google Core Update
- A broad recalibration of Google's ranking systems shipped 2-4 times a year, re-weighing how the algorithm reads quality, expertise and answer extractability.
- NAP Consistency
- A business's Name, Address and Phone appearing in identical format across the web, so search engines confirm every listing belongs to the same business.
- Negative Keywords
- Negative keywords are terms you add to a Google Ads campaign to stop your ads showing for searches that contain them, so budget goes to queries that can actually convert.
- Performance Max (PMax)
- A Google Ads campaign type where you supply goals, assets and audience signals; Google's AI runs targeting, bidding and placement across every surface.
- Schema Markup (Structured Data)
- A shared vocabulary that tells search engines and AI tools what each element on a page is, enabling rich results, entity recognition, and clean AI citations.
- Service Area Business (SAB)
- A service area business travels to its customers rather than serving them at its own premises. On Google it lists the suburbs it covers instead of a public street address.
Tools & platforms
9 terms- Agentic Booking
- AI agents that book local services on a user's behalf by calling businesses, checking online availability, and confirming appointments without human follow-up.
- AI Agent
- An AI system that picks its own next step and runs a multi-step task on your behalf, like booking a meeting or chasing an invoice, unscripted.
- ChatGPT Search
- OpenAI's built-in web search inside ChatGPT, launched 31 October 2024, which answers a query from current online sources and cites publishers in-line.
- Google AI Mode
- Google's standalone Gemini-powered conversational search destination. Separate from AI Overviews, with persistent context and multimodal input.
- Google AI Overviews
- Google AI Overviews are AI-generated answers shown above the regular search results, summarising information from across the web and linking to a small set of cited sources.
- Google Business Profile (GBP)
- Google's free listing that controls how a local business appears in Google Search, Google Maps and the local 3-pack, including name, address, hours, photos and reviews.
- Information Agent
- A Google AI Pro and Ultra feature, launching summer 2026, that monitors the web 24/7 for updates matching a user's criteria and reports back when something qualifies.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Software bots that perform rules-based tasks by clicking through user interfaces the way a person would, used to automate legacy systems with no API access.
- Webhook
- An HTTP request an app sends to a URL you control when something happens. No-code defaults ship unsigned and non-idempotent, where automation breaks.
Metrics
4 terms- Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
- Cost-per-click (CPC) is the amount an advertiser pays for one click on a paid ad. It is set by auction, so the price moves with competition rather than being fixed.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
- A Core Web Vital measuring responsiveness across every user interaction on a page. Good is 200ms or less at the 75th percentile in real-user data.
- Local 3-Pack (Google Map Pack)
- The Local 3-Pack is the block of three business listings shown with a map at the top of Google results for a local search, above the regular organic links.
- Quality Score
- Quality Score is Google Ads' 1-to-10 diagnostic rating of how relevant and useful your keywords, ads and landing pages are, compared with other advertisers bidding on the same terms.
Regulators & compliance
5 terms- AFCA (Australian Financial Complaints Authority)
- Australia's single external dispute resolution scheme for financial services and credit complaints, established 1 November 2018, with binding authority.
- AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency)
- Australia's national agency registering and regulating 16 health professions under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (959,838 registered).
- ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission)
- Australia's corporate, markets, financial services and credit regulator; grants the licences mortgage brokers and financial planners operate under.
- Australian Credit Licence (ACL)
- The ASIC-issued authorisation under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 that lets a business provide credit, finance broking or credit assistance to consumers in Australia.
- Best Interests Duty (BID)
- ASIC duty on mortgage brokers and credit assistance providers, since 1 January 2021, to act in the consumer's best interests under the NCCP Act 2009.
Buyer language
2 terms- AI Citation
- An AI citation is when an AI engine names your business or links your page inside its generated answer, instead of in a list of links below it.
- AI Overviews vs AI Mode
- AI Overviews are an AI summary above classic Google results on a normal search. AI Mode is a separate chat destination for follow-up questions. Same engine, different surfaces.