Plain English.
The industry, translated. Every term you’ll hear from us, or from anyone pitching you, defined without the jargon.
Plain EnglishA–Z
A
A/B testingAn A/B test shows two versions of something to randomly split audiences and measures which performs better.Above the foldAbove the fold is what's visible on a page before any scrolling: the newspaper term, borrowed.AEOAnswer Engine OptimisationAEO is the practice of structuring your website so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews quote you when they answer a question.AI agentAn AI agent is an LLM given tools and a goal: instead of answering one prompt, it takes steps (searches, reads, writes to systems, checks results) until the task is done.AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-generated summaries Google shows above the traditional results, answering the query directly with links to the sources it drew on.AI policyAn AI policy is your business's written rules for using AI: which tools are approved, what data may never be pasted into them, what requires human review, and how AI-assisted work is disclosed.Algorithm updateAn algorithm update is Google changing how it ranks results: several times a year at scale, constantly in small ways.Answer engineAn answer engine is a system that responds to a question with a finished answer instead of a list of links: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews are the big ones.APIApplication Programming InterfaceAn API is the doorway software uses to talk to other software: a defined way to request data or trigger actions in a system without using its human interface.AttributionAttribution is working out which marketing caused a sale.AutomationAutomation is wiring your tools together so routine work happens without a human relay: the enquiry files itself, the invoice chases itself, the report assembles itself.
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BacklinkA backlink is a link from someone else's website to yours.BenchmarkA benchmark is the comparison point that gives a number meaning: your past performance, your competitors', or your industry's.Bounce rateBounce rate is the share of visits that end without meaningful interaction: arrived, looked, left.Brand architectureBrand architecture is how your brands, products and services relate and get named: one master brand over everything, separate brands per line, or something between.Brand auditA brand audit is a structured review of how your brand shows up everywhere (visuals, messages, experiences, and what customers and AI assistants say about you) versus what you intend.Brand awarenessBrand awareness is how many of your potential buyers know you exist, and whether you come to mind unprompted when your category does.Brand equityBrand equity is the commercial value stored in how people feel about your name: the premium they'll pay, the shortlist spots you get by default, the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong.Brand mentionA brand mention is your company being named anywhere on the web, with or without a link.
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Call to actionCTAA call to action is the prompt that asks the visitor to do the next thing: the "Book a call" button, the "Get the guide" form.Canonical URLA canonical URL is a page's declared "official address": a tag telling search engines which version to index when the same content is reachable at several URLs (tracking parameters, www vs non-www, near-duplicates).CDNContent Delivery NetworkA CDN is a worldwide network of servers that keeps copies of your site's files close to your visitors, so a customer in Perth isn't waiting on a server in Virginia.ChatbotA chatbot is a conversational interface: visitors ask, it answers.ChurnChurn is the rate at which customers stop buying from you: subscriptions cancelled, retainers ended, clients gone quiet.CitationIn AI search, a citation is when an answer engine names or links your site as a source for part of its answer.CMSContent Management SystemA CMS is the software your team uses to edit the website without touching code: writing pages, uploading images, publishing articles.Cohort analysisCohort analysis groups customers by when they joined and follows each group over time: how the January signups behaved by month three versus the April ones.Context windowThe context window is how much a model can consider at once: its working memory, measured in tokens.Conversion rateConversion rate is the share of visitors who do the thing you wanted: buy, enquire, book, subscribe.Cookie consentCookie consent is the banner asking visitors to allow tracking, required by privacy laws in many markets when sites use cookies for analytics or advertising.Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's three measurements of how a page feels to load: how fast the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to interaction, and how much the layout jumps around while loading.Crawling and indexingCrawling is search engines discovering and reading your pages; indexing is them storing those pages so they can appear in results.Customer acquisition costCACCustomer acquisition cost is what you spend, all-in, to win one new customer: media, tools, agency fees, and the time of the people selling.Customer lifetime valueLTV / CLVCustomer lifetime value is the total profit a customer brings across the whole relationship, not just the first sale.
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Design systemA design system is the reusable kit a digital product is assembled from: the colours, type, spacing, and the library of ready-made components (buttons, cards, forms) plus the rules for using them.DifferentiationDifferentiation is the meaningful way you're unlike the alternatives: the reason to pick you that a competitor can't credibly claim.DNSDomain Name SystemDNS is the internet's address book: it translates your domain name into the servers that hold your website and email.Domain authorityDomain authority is a third-party estimate (Moz's term; Ahrefs calls theirs Domain Rating) of how strong a site's link profile is, on a 0-100 scale.
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E-E-A-TExperience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, TrustworthinessE-E-A-T is Google's shorthand for the qualities it wants in the sources it surfaces: first-hand experience, subject expertise, recognised authority, and basic trustworthiness.EmbeddingsEmbeddings turn text into lists of numbers that capture meaning, so similar ideas land near each other mathematically: "invoice overdue" close to "payment reminder", regardless of shared words.
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Featured snippetA featured snippet is the boxed answer Google lifts from a webpage and shows at the top of the results: the definition, list or table that answers the query without a click.Fine-tuningFine-tuning is additional training that adjusts an existing AI model on your own examples, teaching it a style, format or behaviour so it performs that specific job without lengthy instructions.First-party dataFirst-party data is what customers give you directly: purchases, enquiries, email signups, survey answers, behaviour on your own site.Front end and back endThe front end is everything the visitor sees and touches: pages, styles, interactions.
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GA4Google Analytics 4GA4 is Google's free analytics platform: the default way websites measure visits, sources and conversions.Generative AIGenerative AI is the branch of machine learning that creates new content (text, images, code, audio) rather than just classifying or predicting.GEOGenerative Engine OptimisationGEO is another name for optimising your visibility in AI-generated answers: the same discipline we call AEO.Google Business ProfileYour Google Business Profile is the free listing that powers how your business appears in Google Maps and local results: hours, reviews, photos, services, posts.GuardrailsGuardrails are the constraints wrapped around an AI system: what it may discuss, what it must refuse, what it can't do without approval, and what gets checked before output ships.
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HallucinationA hallucination is an AI model stating something false with complete fluency: an invented statistic, citation, or policy delivered in the same confident tone as facts.Headless CMSA headless CMS stores your content but doesn't render your website: it hands the content over an API to whatever front end you build.HeatmapA heatmap is a visual overlay showing where visitors click, move and how far they scroll on a page: warm colours where attention concentrates, cold where it never reaches.HTTPSHTTPS is the secure version of the web's protocol: traffic between visitor and site is encrypted, and the padlock in the browser confirms it.Human in the loopHuman in the loop means AI does the heavy lifting and a person approves before anything counts: the draft reviewed, the action confirmed.
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Keyword researchKeyword research is finding out what your buyers type and ask (which phrases, how often, and how hard they are to win) so content gets built for demand that exists rather than demand you imagine.Knowledge panelA knowledge panel is the information box Google shows about an entity (a company, person or place) assembled from sources it trusts.KPIKey Performance IndicatorA KPI is a number a business steers by: chosen because it reflects real progress, watched on a schedule, and owned by someone.
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Landing pageA landing page is a standalone page built for one campaign and one action (sign up, book, buy) stripped of the distractions a normal website page carries.LLMLarge Language ModelAn LLM is the engine behind tools like ChatGPT and Claude: a model trained on vast amounts of text that predicts language well enough to draft, summarise, translate, answer and reason.llms.txtllms.txt is a proposed convention: a plain-text file at your site's root that gives AI systems a curated summary of what your site contains and where its key content lives, a welcome mat for language models, as robots.txt is a rulebook for crawlers.Local SEOLocal SEO is optimising to win searches with local intent: "web design agency Melbourne", "near me" queries, and the map results that come with them.LogoA logo is your brand's signature mark: the compact symbol that identifies you at a glance.Long-tail keywordLong-tail keywords are the longer, more specific searches: "webflow agency for professional services melbourne" rather than "web design".
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Machine learningMachine learning is software that learns patterns from examples instead of following hand-written rules: shown enough data, it works out how to predict, classify or rank on its own.Marketing funnelThe marketing funnel is the path from stranger to customer (aware, interested, considering, buying) drawn as a funnel because each stage loses people.Meta descriptionA meta description is the short summary a page suggests for its search listing: the grey text under the blue link.
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PositioningPositioning is the specific place you claim in a buyer's mind: who you're for, what you're best at, and why you over the alternatives.PPCPay-Per-Click advertisingPPC is buying visits: your ad appears on searches or feeds you choose, and you pay each time someone clicks, Google Ads being the classic case.PromptA prompt is the instruction you give an AI model, and prompting is the craft of writing instructions that reliably produce the output you want: context, examples, constraints and format, not just a request.PrototypeA prototype is a clickable simulation of a design: screens linked together so you can walk the flows before anything is built.
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RAGRetrieval-Augmented GenerationRAG is the technique that lets an AI answer from your documents instead of its general training: the system first retrieves the relevant passages from your knowledge, then has the model answer using them, ideally with sources shown.RebrandA rebrand is changing what your company means: repositioning who you serve and what you claim, usually expressed through a new identity.Redirect301 redirectA redirect automatically forwards visitors, and search engines, from an old URL to a new one.Responsive designResponsive design is building one website that adapts its layout to every screen (phone, tablet, laptop) instead of maintaining separate versions.ROASReturn On Ad SpendROAS is revenue generated per dollar of advertising: spend $1,000, drive $4,000 in sales, that's a 4x ROAS.robots.txtrobots.txt is a small file at your site's root that tells crawlers which areas they may and may not visit.
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Search intentSearch intent is what the person wants when they type a query: to learn, to compare, to find a specific site, or to buy.SegmentationSegmentation is dividing customers into meaningfully different groups (by need, behaviour, value or industry) so you can serve and market to each deliberately instead of averaging everyone into no one.SEOSearch Engine OptimisationSEO is the work of making your website the result search engines choose to show: through content that answers what people search for, a site engines can read easily, and a reputation other sites corroborate.SERPSearch Engine Results PageThe SERP is the page you see after typing a search: the ads, the AI overview, the map pack, the organic links, the FAQs.Share of voiceShare of voice is how much of your market's attention you own versus competitors: across search results, media mentions, social conversation, and now AI answers.ShopifyShopify is the commerce platform: products, carts, payments, tax, shipping and fulfilment, solved and maintained for you.Site migrationA site migration is any change big enough to alter how your site is found: new platform, new domain, new URL structure, or a full redesign.Statistical significanceStatistical significance is a check on whether a result is too large to blame on luck.Structured dataStructured data is machine-readable labelling added to a page that tells search engines exactly what things are: this is a product, this is its price, this is an article and here's its author.Style guideA style guide is the rulebook for using your brand: how the logo, colours, type, imagery and writing get applied, with examples of right and wrong.
T
TaglineA tagline is the short phrase that travels with your name, compressing the brand's promise into a few memorable words.TokenA token is the unit AI models read and write text in: roughly three-quarters of a word in English.Tone of voiceTone of voice is how your brand's one personality flexes across situations: confident in the pitch, plain and calm in the outage email, warm in support.
U
UTM parametersUTM parameters are tags added to the links you share (?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=launch) so analytics can tell exactly which campaign, channel and message each visit came from.UX vs UIUser Experience vs User InterfaceUX is how the whole thing works for the person using it: the flow, the logic, the friction.
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Value propositionA value proposition is the clear statement of what a customer gets from you, why it matters to them, and why you over alternatives: the reason-to-buy, written down.Vector databaseA vector database stores embeddings and finds nearest matches fast: the specialised filing cabinet behind meaning-based search.Verbal identityVerbal identity is the designed version of how a brand writes and speaks: its vocabulary, cadence, stance and signature phrases, specified as a system anyone can apply.Visual identityVisual identity is the designed look of a brand (logo, colour, typography, imagery, layout habits) working as one recognisable system.
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Web accessibilityWeb accessibility means building sites that people with disabilities can use: readable by screen readers, navigable by keyboard, legible at low vision, understandable without sound.Web hostingWeb hosting is where your website physically runs: the computers that store your pages and serve them to visitors.WebflowWebflow is a visual website platform: designers build production sites in a browser canvas, and the marketing team edits and publishes without developers.WireframeA wireframe is the rough blueprint of a page: boxes and labels showing what goes where and in what order, deliberately unstyled.
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