A reference glossary covering search optimization, paid media, analytics, AI-driven search, and Canadian privacy law. Definitions are written for both practitioners and the businesses that work with them.
Practice of optimizing content to be selected as the answer in AI-powered search and assistant experiences.
Google's AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional search results for some queries.
Methodology used to assign credit to marketing touchpoints that contribute to a conversion.
A link from another website pointing to yours. Quality backlinks are a major factor in organic search ranking.
Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation. Federal law governing electronic marketing communications to Canadian recipients.
Google's set of metrics measuring real-world page experience: loading, interactivity, and visual stability.
The cost of acquiring one paying customer through a marketing channel.
The amount paid for each click on a paid advertisement.
The discipline of improving the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action.
The percentage of impressions that result in a click.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's quality framework for evaluating content.
Google's current analytics platform, replacing Universal Analytics.
The free business listing that appears in Google Search and Maps.
Practice of optimizing for visibility inside AI-powered search experiences like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews.
Google's free tool for monitoring a site's organic search performance and indexing status.
Type of AI model behind generative search and chat assistants.
Optimization focused on visibility in geographic searches, including the Map Pack and local listings.
Search results that appear from a search engine's natural ranking algorithm, not paid placements.
Advertising in search engine results, distinct from organic listings.
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Canada's federal privacy law for private-sector data handling.
Advertising model where advertisers pay each time their ad is clicked.
Automated, real-time buying of digital advertising inventory through auction-based systems.
Advertising shown to people who have previously visited a website or interacted with a brand.
Revenue generated per dollar of advertising spend.
Structured data added to a website to help search engines understand the content. Used for rich results.
Often used to refer to paid search advertising specifically.
The practice of improving a website's visibility in organic search results.
The page returned in response to a search query.