Every Proposal Uses These Words.
Here's What They Actually Mean.

Search terms

• Search engine optimization (SEO) — The work of earning higher, more relevant positions in unpaid search results: technical health, pages, content, local signals and links.
• SERP — The search engine results page: everything Google shows for a query — ads, AI answers, the map pack, organic results, questions.
• Keyword / search term — What people actually type or say when they search. The searches you target are the foundation of any digital marketing strategy.
• Long tail keywords — Longer, more specific searches ("emergency AC repair Brandon FL") with lower volume, higher intent and less competition than short head terms.
• Search intent — What the searcher wants: to learn, to compare, to buy, to find a place. Pages that match intent rank; pages that don't, don't.
• Organic traffic — Website traffic from unpaid search results, as opposed to ads, social or direct visits. The asset SEO builds.
• Map pack / local pack — The three business listings with a map that appear for local searches. Won through the Google Business Profile, reviews and local signals.
• Google Business Profile — Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps — categories, hours, photos, reviews. The single most important local search asset.
• Backlink — A link from another website to yours. Earned links from reputable sites are a major ranking signal; bought ones are a liability.
• Domain authority (DA) — A third-party score estimating a site's link strength. Useful for comparing sites, not a Google metric.
• Crawling and indexing — How search engines discover a web page (crawl) and store it for ranking (index). A page that isn't indexed can't rank.
• Core Web Vitals — Google's page-experience metrics: loading speed, interactivity and visual stability. A ranking factor at the margin and a conversion factor everywhere.
• Title tag / meta description — The page title and summary shown in search results. The title influences rankings; both influence whether people click.
• Structured data (schema) — Code that tells search engines and AI systems what a page is: a business, a product, an article, a FAQ. Earns richer listings.
• AI Overviews / answer engines — AI-generated summaries at the top of results that name a few sources. Earned by clear, corroborated, well-structured pages.

Paid advertising terms

• Pay per click (PPC) — Paid advertising where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Google Ads search campaigns are the most common form.
• Cost per click (CPC) — What one click costs. Set by auction; ranges from under a dollar to over fifty in competitive categories.
• Impression — One display of your ad or listing to one person. The number of people who saw it, not who acted on it.
• Click-through rate (CTR) — Clicks divided by impressions. Measures how compelling an ad or search listing is.
• Cost per lead (CPL) / cost per acquisition (CPA) — Spend divided by leads, or by customers. The numbers a paid campaign should actually be judged on.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS) — Revenue from ads divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means four dollars back per dollar spent — before your costs.
• Quality Score — Google's rating of an ad's relevance and landing page experience. Higher scores lower your cost per click.
• Display advertising — Image and banner ads shown on other websites and apps. Better for awareness than for direct response.
• Retargeting / remarketing — Digital advertising shown to people who already visited your site. Effective, subject to platform and privacy rules.
• Local Services Ads — Google's pay-per-lead ads for licensed, screened local service providers, shown above the map for certain categories.

Owned-channel terms

• Landing page — A page built for one purpose — usually to receive ad or email traffic and convert it — with one clear action and no distractions.
• Conversion — A visitor doing the thing you wanted: a call, a form, a booking, a purchase. Defined by you, tracked by your analytics.
• Conversion rate — Conversions divided by visitors. A two percent rate means two of every hundred visitors acted.
• Lead — A potential customer who gave you a way to follow up. Qualified leads match what you sell and can afford it.
• Funnel — The stages from stranger to customer — awareness, consideration, decision — and the marketing aimed at each.
• Email marketing — Messages to a list you own: newsletters, offers, reminders. Measured by open rate, click rate and revenue per send.
• Content marketing — Publishing useful material — guides, comparisons, answers — to earn search visibility and trust before the sale.
• Social media marketing — Organic posting and paid promotion on social platforms. Strong for familiarity and retention; weaker for new-customer acquisition in most local businesses.
• Customer relationship management (CRM) — Software that stores leads and customers, their history and their source — how you connect marketing to revenue.

Measurement terms

• Key performance indicator (KPI) — The metric a marketing effort is judged on. Should be a business outcome — leads, revenue — not an activity count.
• Attribution — Crediting a conversion to the channel or campaign that produced it. Imperfect everywhere; ignored at your peril.
• UTM parameters — Tags added to links so analytics can tell which campaign, channel or email sent the visitor.
• A/B test — Showing two versions of a page or ad to see which converts better. Needs enough traffic to be meaningful.
• Engagement rate / bounce rate — Whether visitors interacted with a page or left immediately. Context matters: a quick call from a page is a success, not a bounce.
• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) / lifetime value (LTV) — What a customer costs to win, and what they're worth over time. The ratio decides whether any of the above is worth doing.