From NAP to geo-grid, citation to local pack, local SEO has its own language. This plain-English glossary covers 80 key terms so you always know what your SEO tool or agency is talking about.
Local SEO has a lot of jargon. If you've ever nodded along while an agency explained "citation velocity" or "local pack prominence" without being entirely sure what they meant, this glossary is for you.
Here are 80 key local SEO terms, explained in plain English.
NAP, Name, Address, Phone number. The three pieces of business information that must be consistent across all your online listings. Inconsistent NAP is one of the most common local SEO problems.
Citations, Any online mention of your business's NAP data. Citations appear on directories (Yelp, YellowPages), social platforms, and niche sites. More consistent, high-quality citations = stronger local rankings.
Google Business Profile (GBP), The free Google tool that controls your business listing on Google Search and Google Maps. Formerly called Google My Business (GMB).
Local Pack, The section of Google search results that shows 3 local businesses on a map. Also called the "3-pack" or "map pack." Appearing here drives the most local traffic.
Organic Local Results, The non-map search results below the local pack. Ranked by traditional SEO factors.
Local SEO, The practice of optimizing your online presence to rank higher in local search results, especially Google Maps and the local pack.
Service Area Business (SAB), A business that serves customers at their location (plumbers, HVAC, delivery) rather than at a storefront. SABs can hide their address on GBP.
Proximity, How close your business is to the person searching. One of Google's three local ranking factors (along with relevance and prominence).
Relevance, How well your GBP matches what the searcher is looking for. Influenced by your categories, description, and content.
Prominence, How well-known and trusted your business is online. Influenced by reviews, citations, links, and GBP activity.
Primary Category, The main business category on your GBP. The most important category selection for ranking purposes.
Secondary Categories, Additional categories that describe what you offer. You can have up to 9 total.
GBP Attributes, Specific characteristics of your business (wheelchair accessible, women-owned, outdoor seating, etc.). Help match your profile to specific searcher filters.
GBP Posts, Updates, offers, events, and product announcements you publish on your GBP. Active posting signals to Google that your business is current.
Q&A, The question and answer section on your GBP. Anyone can ask or answer, including you. Seed it with common customer questions.
GBP Insights, The analytics dashboard inside your GBP. Shows searches, views, calls, direction requests, and website clicks.
Business Description, A 750-character description of your business on GBP. Use your primary keywords naturally.
Short Name, A custom URL shortcut for your GBP (g.page/your-business-name). Makes your review link shareable.
Services, A section on GBP where you list specific services you offer. Each service can have a name, description, and price.
Products, A section to showcase products with photos, descriptions, and prices. Important for retail businesses.
Booking Button, A GBP feature that allows customers to book appointments directly from your listing via integrated scheduling tools.
Review Velocity, The rate at which you're receiving new reviews. Google favors businesses with a steady stream of recent reviews over those with old, stagnant review counts.
Review Recency, How recent your reviews are. Fresh reviews are weighted more heavily than old ones.
Sentiment Analysis, AI analysis of review text to determine whether reviews are positive, negative, or neutral. Used in reputation management tools.
Review Gating, The practice of filtering customers before asking for reviews, only asking happy customers. This violates Google's policies.
Star Rating, Your average review score (1-5 stars). Stars below 4.0 significantly reduce click-through rates.
Review Response Rate, The percentage of reviews you respond to. Higher response rates signal active management to Google.
Data Aggregators, Companies that collect and distribute business data to hundreds of directories. The big four: Acxiom, Neustar Localeze, Data Axle, and Foursquare.
Structured Citations, Business mentions in directory listings with defined NAP fields.
Unstructured Citations, Mentions of your business in news articles, blog posts, or social content without a formal listing format.
Citation Audit, A review of all your business citations to find inconsistencies and errors.
Duplicate Listing, Two or more GBP or directory listings for the same business. Can split your rankings and confuse customers.
Claiming a Listing, Taking ownership of a business listing that already exists in a directory or on Google.
Geo-Grid Tracking, Tracking your Google Maps ranking from multiple GPS points around your business, not just one. Shows where you're visible and invisible in your city.
Geo-Grid / Heatmap, A visual grid showing your ranking position at each tracked point. High positions (1-3) are typically shown in green; low positions in red.
SERP, Search Engine Results Page. The page Google shows in response to a search query.
Local Pack Position, Your ranking within the local pack (1, 2, or 3). Position 1 gets roughly 3x the clicks of position 3.
Rank Tracking, Monitoring your search ranking positions over time to measure SEO progress.
City-Level Rank Tracking, Tracking rankings across a city rather than from a single address point. More accurate than single-point tracking.
Schema Markup, Structured data code added to your website that helps Google understand your business information. LocalBusiness schema is the most important type.
Local Pack Schema, Structured data that explicitly identifies your business name, address, phone, and hours for search engines.
NAP Schema, Schema markup that embeds your NAP data in machine-readable format on your website.
Core Web Vitals, Google's page experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Affect organic rankings.
Mobile-First Indexing, Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for ranking. Your site must work well on mobile.
Google Search Console, A free Google tool that shows how your website performs in search, including clicks, impressions, and technical errors.
Local Backlinks, Links from other local websites (local news, chamber of commerce, local bloggers) pointing to your website. Strong local authority signals.
Domain Authority (DA), A score (1-100) estimating how likely a website is to rank in search results. Higher DA sites pass more value when they link to you.
Anchor Text, The clickable text in a hyperlink. Keyword-rich anchor text from local sites helps establish local relevance.
AI Overviews, Google's AI-generated answer boxes that appear above traditional search results. Can incorporate local business information.
Ask Maps, Google's Gemini AI chat interface inside Google Maps, replacing the traditional Q&A feature.
Immersive Navigation, Google Maps 3D navigation feature that shows real-world visuals for turn-by-turn directions.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), Optimizing your content to appear in AI-generated answers, not just traditional blue links.
Local AI Pack, An emerging SERP feature where AI recommends specific local businesses in response to conversational queries.
Action Step: Pick 5 terms from this glossary that you weren't familiar with before reading. Look at your current GBP and local SEO strategy, are you taking advantage of each concept?
Understanding the language of local SEO puts you in control of your own strategy, whether you're working with an agency, using software, or doing it yourself.
Start free →, Flento brings all of these concepts together in one dashboard: geo-rank tracking, citation management, review tools, and GBP optimization.
