Local SEO Glossary

Aggregator: A company that maintains and supplies the underlying business database for local search directories. Major U.S. aggregators are Foursquare, Neustar Localeze, and Data Axle. These companies compile data about businesses from multiple online and offline sources including phone bills, business registration records, chamber of commerce membership rosters, and many other sources. An aggregator is also known as a "data aggregator" or "data provider."

Amazon Home & Business Services: Amazon's lead generation program which acts as a middleman between service-oriented businesses, like handymen, and homeowners who need to hire a contractor.

Analytics: Any tool or program that tracks user behavior, such as traffic to a website, duration of visits, and conversions. Google Analytics is a popular product. Within the Google Business Profile dashboard, the latest iteration of analytics data is called Insights.

Angi (formerly Angie's List): A prominent user review website. An important citation source for many businesses, especially home services. See also: citation, review

Apple Maps: A developing mapping power in the local business arena. Owned by Apple.

Attribute: In the Google Business Profile context, attributes can be labels added by business owners or the public to highlight aspects of a business. They can also be pulled by Google from review text and added to a GBP.

Audit: In local SEO, the term "audit" is often used to describe a thorough analysis of an aspect of a company's marketing. This could include a citation audit, a content audit, or a competitive audit.

Authoritative OneBox: An historic term for a single Google listing displayed by a large map embedded in a traditional search result page. In the past, it was considered the "holy grail" of local search optimization, but not as common today. See also: OneBox, Google Places

Authority: A general term used to describe the influential power of a domain, a website, a citation source, a review, or other entities. Search engines are said to view some resources as being more authoritative than others, meaning that authoritative sources have an enhanced ability to influence rankings.

Best Of The Web: One of the oldest local business directories for U.S. businesses. See also: citation

Better Business Bureau (BBB): Founded in 1912, the BBB publishes reviews of the reliability of businesses in the U.S. and Canada. BBB listings can act as a citation for local businesses. See also: citation

Bing Places for Business: Bing's local business component where users can create listings for their businesses.

Blended search or blended results: An historic term for search engine results that combine both organic and local factors

Brand: The name of a business; even the smallest local business is a brand

Branded search: Searching for a business online by its name; this can yield substantially different local and organic results than searching via other types of search terms.

Brick-and-mortar: In the local search arena, the term brick-and-mortar is used to indicate a business model operating within a physical building. Examples of brick-and-mortar business models include dental clinics, restaurants, and retail shops.

Bulk upload: Typically refers to the act of creating multiple local business listings for multi-location business models at once, typically via a spreadsheet or other type of form, on a given platform. For example, a business might bulk upload 1,000 of its locations to Google Business Profile all at once, instead of manually creating 1,000 individual listings one-at-a-time.

Business description: Sometimes simply called "description." Describes a field provided for a text description of a business on a local business listing. Length and rules about the types of content one can include in the business description field vary from platform to platform.

Business title or business name: The name of a business—specifically the name of a business as registered on a local business listing. Combined with physical address and phone number, the business title represents a third of a business's core online identity See also: phone number, physical address, NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website)

Call tracking number: A phone number used to measure the success of specific marketing efforts and to determine the source of leads. For local businesses, call tracking numbers must be implemented carefully to ensure they don't cloud the clarity of the company's basic business data, thereby harming its ability to rank well. Good solutions for safe call tracking now exist. See also: NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website)

Category: A term used to describe a system of industry classification. In creating local business listings, companies are prompted to categorize themselves as being associated with a specific industry (e.g. dentist, HVAC, Italian restaurant). Although each search engine and data aggregator has its own taxonomy, many categories are based on the North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS. The current iteration of Google Business Profile allows business owners to choose up to ten categories, all of which must stem from Google's pre-chosen category choices. Proper category choices are essential local search results influencers. See also: custom category, NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)

Centroid: A concept in the local search industry used to define a central point of geography or activity. Understanding of the centroid has evolved significantly over the years as Google's weighting of specific ranking factors has changed. The centroid was initially defined as the geographic center of a city, with ranking benefits being perceived for businesses physically located near that point on the map. The concept of the centroid then broadened to include the concept of "industry centroids" as a ranking factor, as it was perceived that there could be one centroid located in a city's auto dealer row and another centroid in an area hosting multiple medical centers. At present, the most common understanding of the centroid is that it has been transformed into a descriptor of human users in relation to points on the map. Wherever a user is physically located at the time they search for something local, Google's results will be customized to display the businesses nearest to the user's device. This may be referred to as "proximity to the point of search" or the "user-as-centroid phenomenon".

Check-in: A digital announcement of a customer's presence at a specific physical location, often a business. Check-ins are the key component of many location-based services including Swarm by Foursquare, Facebook, and Yelp. Check-ins can be used as a vehicle for both tracking customers and rewarding them with special offers.

Citation: A complete or partial web-based reference to a business's name, address, phone number and other core data. Structured citations can occur in the form of formal local business listings on local business data platforms, or can be of an unstructured nature, occurring as simple mentions of a business on a blog, news site, website, or other online publication. For a complete understanding of the role of citations in local SEO, read Local Listings and SEO. See also: directory, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), unstructured citation

Citation campaign: The marketing practice of auditing, cleaning up, and building citations for a local business on a variety of local business data platforms. The fundamental impacts of proper citation management have led to the development of citation management software products that reduce manual work while minimizing error. See also: citation, service area business

Claim: The act of verifying one's business information with a local search engine and taking ownership of the business listing at that search engine. Reduces risk of hijacking by spammers or competitors. Often involves a PIN setup process with the search engine, platform, or app.

Cluster: A search engine's collection of information about a particular business location from all of its data sources. In some cases, a search engine's attempt to create a cluster is too "aggressive," causing distinct business listings to merge in its index. In other cases, its attempts to create a cluster may not be strong enough, causing multiple listings to appear for the same business.

Consistency: The publication of consistent business contact information across the web safeguards against consumer misdirection and loss. Consistency also helps search engines build a cluster of valid, trustworthy information about a local business. See also: NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website)

Conversion: The process of convincing an Internet user to call, email, visit, transact with, or otherwise connect with a business —i.e., convert to a lead or customer.

Coupon: In local SEO, a special offer made to customers via online listings, website or apps.

Curbside: The activity of fulfilling a customer’s order outside a place of business, for example, grocery store staff placing purchases in a customer’s car trunk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Google debuted specific listing attributes denoting the availability of curbside service.

Custom category: As of April 2, 2013, the Google Places for Business dashboard ceased to accept custom-written categories. Business owners must select pre-set categories only. Other local business indexes, however, may still allow the business owner to custom-create categories that describe what their business is. See also: category

Custom field: A field in a local business listing set aside for adding information not covered by the standard fields, for example, brands carried, years in business, or the availability of on-site parking.

Data Axle (formerly Infogroup): One of three primary data aggregators of local business data for all major search engines.

Data provider: A company with an explicit contract to supply local search engines with underlying business information. In the U.S., the major data providers are Infogroup, Localeze, and Factual. See also: aggregator, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages)

Directory: Any website which lists business names and contact information in an organized fashion by a system of categorization or rankings. Directory information is frequently assimilated by the local search engines. See also: IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), citation

Driving directions: It is speculated that requests for driving directions on applications like Google Maps count as user behavior, and may indicate the popularity of a local business and thus, have some effect on rankings. See also: user behavior

Duplicate listing: A problematic scenario in which more than one listing exists on a given platform for a single entity. In particular, Google allows only one claimed listing per discrete entity, though some business models may be eligible for multiple listings for practitioners, departments, or other entities at a single location. Intentional or accidental violation of this policy can lead to penalties and ranking issues. Steps must be taken to resolve duplicate listing issues. Automated solutions like Moz Local can help you discover and permanently close duplicate listings. See also: Guidelines for representing your business on Google

Editorial summary: A summary of a business written by Google and displayed on some listings.

Facebook: A major social sharing platform. Local businesses can create a Facebook business page, complete with location and contact information, and utilize this profile to interact with customers and potential customers.

Factual: A primary data aggregator of local business data for all major search engines.

Filter: Most commonly used in the online marketing arena to describe parameters used by search engines to limit the prominence of certain types of data. For example, a review platform might hide reviews deemed to be of low quality, or search engine results might filter out web pages associated with undesirable link acquisition patterns. Filtering is a common occurrence in Google’s local search results, limiting the visibility of businesses in close proximity to one another that share categories. See also: penalty

Geolocated vs. geomodified: Geolocated search terms are those in which the location of the user is implicit rather than stated. Geomodified search terms contain explicit geographic terms. A search engine may show moderately or dramatically different results to an Internet user in Chicago searching for “pizza” (a geolocated search) vs. that same searcher searching for “pizza chicago” (a geomodified term).

Geotagged: An adjective describing a piece of text content or other media content tagged with geographic attributes.

Go-to-client: A business, such as a plumbing or house painting company, that serves clients at their own locations, rather than at the business's location. See also: service area/service radius business, brick-and-mortar

Google Account: An email address and password combination that has been registered with Google. A Google Account is required to claim a Google Business Profile listing and to use many other Google products.

Google Ads: Formerly known as AdWords, this is Google's foundational pay-per-click advertising program.

Google AdWords Express: A paid advertising format offered by Google to local businesses.

Google Analytics: Google’s proprietary program which tracks website traffic and user behavior, generating reports.

Google Business Photos: Interior photography of local businesses taken by Google Trusted Photographers. This photography can be turned into a virtual tour intended to enhance local business data.

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business): The current common name for the Google listing most typically surfaced to the right of the organic search engine results when users conduct a branded search for a business. Google Business Profile is both a free tool and a suite of interfaces that encompasses a dashboard, local business profiles, and a volunteer-driven support forum with this branding. Google Business Profile and the associated Google Maps make up the core of Google’s free local search marketing options for eligible local businesses.

Google Business Profile Help Community: A section of the Google Advertiser Community dedicated to public questions and answers related to Google Business Profile. The forum is chiefly moderated by volunteers and is frequently visited by Google staff.

Google Business Profile Help Community Product Expert: Volunteers in the Google Business Profile Help Community who have earned a title for their contributions helping others in the forum. These product experts have direct contact with Google staff and can sometimes escalate issues toward resolution.

Google customer ID number (CID): A unique number Google assigns to each business and entity for the purposes of identification and clustering of information.

Google Data Studio (GDS): An application used to turn data into organized reports.

Google Local Service Ads (LSA): Previously known as Google Home Service Ads (HSA). Google's gradual rollout of a paid lead generation program in which Google acts as a middleman between Internet users and service-oriented businesses.

Google MapMaker: An historical term for a former Google application that allowed users to enhance Google Maps by adding and editing mapping information. Google MapMaker was closed down in 2017.

Google Maps: Google's proprietary mapping service.

Google Messaging: In local search, a function of the Google Business Profile dashboard which enables business owners to direct message with their customers.

Google Offers: An historic term for a program that allowed local businesses to promote daily deal specials to purchasing customers. Google Offers was closed down in 2014.

Google Places: An historic term. For many years the brand name of Google's local product, now named Google Business Profile.

Google Posts: A function of Google Business Profile which enables a business owner to instantly post micro-blog-style content to their Google Business Profile.

Google Questions and Answers: A function allowing local businesses to post FAQs to their Google Business Profile dashboard generating a display of this information on a limited number of platforms. Also allows the public to ask questions directly of the business and receive answers.

Google Shopping: The shopping interface controlled by Google; contains a “nearby” filter that enables searchers to discover local availability of products.

Google Tag Manager (GTM): An application used to manage website tags without needing to edit website code.

Google Trends: A tool that enables users to monitor consumer trends and the popularity of targeted keywords. Can be a useful supplementary keyword research tool for local SEO campaigns.

Guidelines for Representing Your Business on Google: These guidelines describe Google's rules and policies for businesses seeking inclusion in Google's local index. Violation of any element of the guidelines can result in penalties, including suspensions and removal from the index.

Highjacking: In the local SEO arena, the term highjacking typically relates to usurping control of a local business listing to edit its details with malicious intent. Listing highjacking has led to legal prosecution.

HotFrog: Founded in 2006, HotFrog maintains an index of local businesses. Business owners can create a free business listing at HotFrog.

hReview: A special kind of website code for marking up reviews.

Hyperlocal: An adjective used to describe a publication, content, business models, and a variety of other assets that are extremely specific to a particular neighborhood, district or area of a city.

In-store: In the local SEO context, any effort taking place within the physical walls of a business.

Insights: Branding of the analytics component of the Google Business Profile dashboard.

IYP (Internet Yellow Pages): The online version of a traditional Yellow Pages directory. The local search engines can crawl these pages to find business information, then use it to form clusters or associate citations with a business.

Justifications: A local justification is an extra snippet of text Google can display on business listings in the local packs, local finders, and Google Maps to signal to searchers that a feature of the business specifically matches their perceived intent.

Landing page: The page that a searcher first encounters when clicking through from a search engine result or online advertising. In local search, local landing pages (a.k.a city landing pages or location landing pages) seek to deliver a fully customized experience to a particular user, such as a customer in Boston vs. a customer in Dallas. It is a best practice to build a unique and powerful landing page for each location of a multi-location business. See also: conversion, local algorithm / local results, PPC (pay-per-click)

LBC (Local Business Center): An historic term once used as the branding of Google's Local product. The Google LBC was rebranded as Google Places in April 2010, then as Google+ Local in May 2012, then rebrandec again to be rebranded again as Google My Business in 2014, and finally rebranded once more in 2021 as Google Business Profile.

LBS (location-based service): A form of geotagging that facilitates or is facilitated by social interaction. The key action of a location-based service is a check-in. Popular location-based services are offered by Twitter, Foursquare, and Yelp. See also: check-in

Local algorithm (or local results): Refers to the specific formula and the results returned by that formula used by search engines for ranking business listings' relevance for a particular geographic area. This algorithm is distinct from the search engines' traditional organic algorithm.

Local search ranking factors: 1) The components that contribute to the rankings of a local business. 2) Created by David Mihm in 2008, Local Search Ranking Factors is an annual survey of expert local SEOs. From the survey, an annual report is generated identifying factors deemed by experts to play a major role in local search engine rankings.

Local SEO (local search engine optimization): Local SEO is a customer service component which ensures nearby online searchers can find, like, connect with and choose your local business. It includes the optimization of websites, local business listings and other assets by adhering to known and speculative local algorithmic factors with the goal of being found by local searchers.

Local University: A local search marketing seminar with events in numerous U.S. cities. Speakers include recognized experts in the field of local SEO.

Location landing page: Also called a “city landing page”. Most commonly refers to a page on a website providing information about a specific location of a business or a city which the business serves, most typically in the multi-location business scenario. City/location landing pages can be useful in helping a local business achieve search engine visibility in multiple cities, while also offering content that has been carefully customized to a specific geographic audience. City landing pages may also be used by service area businesses, like plumbers or house painters, to showcase their work in a variety of cities where they offer services, despite lacking a physical location there. See also: landing page

Location prominence: Technical term used by Google in its local search patent to identify some of the criteria behind its local algorithm. Location prominence is analogous to PageRank in organic search.

Manta: A local business directory with an international presence. Business owners can create free profiles at Manta.com. See also: citation

MapQuest: An AOL mapping platform with significant early adoption due to its early online rollout. See also: citation

maps algorithm / maps results: See local algorithm / local results.

Menu: In the context of Google Business Profile, a feature allowing different business models to publish or link to lists of goods and services offered.

MerchantCircle: A local business directory where business owners can create free business profiles. See also: citation

Merge: 1) The accidental merging of the details of two distinct business listings. 2) The intentional merging of duplicate business listings so that only a single listing exists on a given platform. See also: cluster, LBL (local business listing)

Moz Local: A location data and reputation management software offering from the company, Moz.

My Places: A Google application that enables users to organize content such as maps, ratings, and check-ins that have unique importance to them. See also: local algorithm / local results

MyMaps: A free Google Maps product offering that allows registered users to save particular physical locations and/or include a comment about each location.

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System): A standardized taxonomy of business types upon which many search engines, IYPs, and data providers base their own category systems. See also: category, data provider, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages)

NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website): The "thumbprint" of a business online. Local search engines use NAP information found by crawling the web or received from data providers to judge the accuracy of the data in their own indexes. Consistency of NAP information prevents misdirection of human customers and may influence search engine trust in the validity of a business’ information.

Near me/Nearby: A common modifier searchers include in their searches to prompt search engines to generate local results.

Neustar/Localeze: One of the primary data aggregators of local business data for all major search engines.

Off-listing / off page: Adjectives that describe criteria the search engines use in their local algorithm that are not directly associated with a local business listing or with the website specified in that local listing. See also: citation, MyMaps

OneBox: An historic term describing a type of nonstandard search result. OneBoxes sometimes show local results, image results, video results, or news results. OneBoxes first appeared at Google when they announced the advent of universal search, which returns all kinds of content relevant to a particular keyword, rather than just web or text content. See also: Authoritative OneBox

Owner response: The practice of responding to a consumer review as the owner of a business. Most of the top review platforms support owner responses, facilitating a vital form of customer service and reputation management.

Panoramio: A photo sharing site formerly owned by Google but closed down in 2016. Local business owners used Panoramio to geotag images as an enhanced form of local data. See also: geotagged

Penalty: Any type of negative action taken by a search engine against a website or profile as a result of violations of published or unpublished policies. In local SEO, violation of any of the Guidelines for representing your business on Google can result in a penalty that can lead to a drop in rankings. See also: Guidelines for representing your business on Google

Pending: A status notation in the Google Business Profile dashboard indicating that a listing has yet to be approved. There have been numerous reported instances of listings sitting in "Pending" status for extended periods of time, sometimes due to technical problems on Google's part. It is also common for new listings to be marked as pending for several weeks. See also: Guidelines for representing your business on Google, penalty

Phone number: Combined with business name and physical address, the phone number represents a third of a business's core online identity See also: business title, physical address, NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website), citation

Phone verification: One of several methods for claiming a local business listing on a location data platform like Google or Bing. Postal and email verification are other common claiming options. See also claim

Physical address: Combined with business name and phone number, the physical address represents a third of a business's core online identity. The physical address of a business can substantially impact its local ranking opportunities and its marketing strategy. See also: business title, phone number, NAP / NAP+W (Name Address Phone + Website), citation

Picasa: Online photo sharing technology owned by Google that was shut down in 2016. See also: geotagged

Pillars of Local Search: Prominence, relevance and proximity are widely considered to be the three pillars of local search.

Place label: Small graphic icons utilized in the Google Maps interface to indicate restaurants, retail shops, and other features. Local businesses must be selected by Google to be awarded a place label. See also: Google Maps

Place page: An historic term formerly describing a local business listing on Google, now called a Google Business Profile. See also: LBL (local business listing), claim

Place topics: Labels Google pulls from review text and affixes to their review display to summarize sentiment about a business.

PO Box: A remote mailing address, the use of which can adversely affect your local search rankings. PO Boxes are expressly forbidden by the Guidelines for representing your business on Google.

Possum: A 2016 Google update substantially impacting Google’s local search results. Possum appeared to strengthen filtering out of businesses in close proximity to one another which share the same categories. The effects of Possum appeared to diminish as a result of the later Hawk update, but this form of filtering continues to be a main cause of ranking dilemmas for local businesses.

Postcard verification: One of several methods for claiming a local business listing on a location data platform like Google or Bing. Phone verification is another common claiming option. See also: claim

Product/service keywords: Terms typed into a search engine by users seeking products or services. Website optimization and marketing should take these terms into account.

Proximity: The distance between two points. In local search, proximity may describe the distance of an Internet user to a business, of one business to another business in the same industry, or a business to the geographic center of a city. See also: centroid

Rating: A numerical assessment, often on a scale of 1-5. In local search, most frequently refers to consumers' star ratings of a business' quality.

Relevance: The degree to which a certain business, certain website, or other online asset matches the intent of a searcher's keyword. In local search, a particular business must be considered by the search engines to be relevant for a particular keyword in order to rank for that term—but typically cannot rank for terms for which it is not considered relevant. For instance, a popular restaurant may rank first in local results for "restaurants" or "fine dining," but would not necessarily be considered relevant for search terms like "bars" or "pubs"—even though they are related terms.

Review: A customer's text summary of their experience at a particular business. Reviews can be left on search engines, review platforms, via location-based services, apps, or websites — and are often simultaneously assigned numerical ratings. Google-based reviews are believed to impact Google's local rankings. See also: hReview, structured review, unstructured review

Review attributes: Sentiment aggregated by Google from consumers that summarizes characteristics of a business, according to the public. Google’s 2019 rollout of review attributes is of great assistance to local businesses who formerly could not parse meaning from textless, ratings-only reviews.

Review management: The practice of encouraging, responding to, and analyzing consumer reviews, either manually or with the help of software.

Review spam: Illegitimate sentiment published in the form of a review. This can include fictitious positive or negative statements made about a business for the purpose of helping or harming its reputation or rankings.

Review station: Sometimes referred to as a review kiosk, a review station is a computer or other device set up for public use in a brick-and-mortar business for the purpose of encouraging on-site user reviews. Google, in particular, has fluctuated in its policies regarding the use of review stations, both approving and discouraging their use at different points in time. Review stations are currently not permitted by Google, and reviews left via these devices may be removed. See also: review, Google Local Business Information Quality Guidelines

Rich snippets: Rich snippets are small amounts of data from markup such as microdata or microformats that appear as a component of a search engine result. Rich snippets might include text, star ratings, price ranges, and other factors.

Sentiment / sentiment analysis: The qualitative component of a customer review. Google has experimented over the years with extracting and analyzing reviews for quality of experience, and for some business types often excerpts phrases like "expensive" or "good service" and displays them prominently on that business's Google Business Profile. Review sentiment analysis is also conducted by local businesses, manually or via software, to extract quality control themes. See also: review, rating

Service area: Typically used to describe specific neighborhoods, towns, or radii served by service area business models, like plumbers, housekeeping services, or landscapers. Some local business listings allow business owners to list cities served in text or to indicate a radius of service with a tool.

Service area business (or service radius business): A term frequently used to describe businesses that travel to customers' locations to render services, such as plumbers, electricians, and carpet cleaners. See also: go-to-client, brick-and-mortar

Seven-pack (7-pack): An historic term describing a once-dominant form of Google's local results, containing seven businesses. The 7-pack is no longer active, having been largely replaced by the 3-pack, and in some cases, by partially-paid packs. See also: local algorithm / local results, OneBox, three-pack (3-Pack), ten-pack (10-Pack)

SMB (small-to-medium business): In the United States, designation as a small business is defined by the size standards found in Title 13 of the Code of Federal Regulations. In the online marketing world, SMB is often loosely used to describe both small and local businesses.

Spam: Any online activity undertaken with the intent of deceiving the public or search engines; can include the creation of ineligible Google listings or deceptive reviews. Spam fighting is a core local SEO tactic, the goal of which is to rid the search engine results of false or forbidden content.

Street View: An application within Google Maps which provides 360-degree photographic imagery of an area specified by the user.

Structured citation: A mention of a business name and address and/or phone number on an IYP or directory website. Differs from an unstructured citation, which may appear as a one-off reference on a blog or other hyperlocal website. See also: citation, unstructured citation, hyperlocal

Structured review: A traditional review left on a major local search portal or IYP, accompanied by a numerical rating. Structured reviews may or may not be coded in schema or an hReview microformat, but typically appear in a kind of pattern that is easy for search engine spiders to read. Differs from an unstructured review, which may appear as a one-off reference on a blog or other hyperlocal website. See also: review, unstructured review, rating, hyperlocal

SuperPages: A major Internet Yellow Pages website. Local business owners can create a listing at SuperPages. See also: citation, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages)

Suspensions (or suspended): A status notation in Google Business Profile indicating that a listing has been suspended due to guideline violations, bugs, or other issues. See also: penalty

Ten-pack (10-Pack): An historic term describing a once-dominant form of Google's local results, containing seven businesses. The 10-pack is no longer active, having been largely replaced by the 3-pack, and in some cases, by partially-paid packs. See also: seven-pack (7-pack), local algorithm / local results, OneBox, three-pack (3-Pack)

Testimonials: Unlike reviews left on third-party platforms, testimonials are typically customer sentiments published by a business on its own website. Testimonials may be marked up with hReview microformatting or schema to enhance the ease with which search engines can understand testimonial content. See also: review

Third party: 1) Can be used to describe any web-based data about a business that is not published by the business itself. 2) In reference to Google's local products, "third-party" is often used to refer to data stemming from any location other than a business's website or its Google Business Profile.

Three-pack (3-Pack): Currently Google's dominant form of local search results, consisting of three businesses. Note that as Google increases its revenue opportunity from paid search, many formerly-free 3-packs are becoming partially-paid packs of results. See also: seven-pack (7-pack), local algorithm / local results, OneBox, ten-pack (10-Pack)

TripAdvisor: Founded in 2000, TripAdvisor is a major review and citation source for restaurants and hotels on an international scale. See also: review

Trust: An important but hard-to-quantify speculative ranking factor in both organic and local algorithms.

Twitter: A social media network on which users share short text-based messages

Universal algorithm / universal results: An historic term used to describe the type of results Google began to roll out to transform their original "ten blue link" default results pages into rich media sets, including local results, video results, news results, knowledge panels, answer boxes and more. See also: local algorithm / local results, OneBox, seven-pack (7-pack), three-pack (3-Pack), ten-pack (10-Pack)

Unstructured citation: A mention of a business name and address and/or phone number on a website that is not an IYP site or other traditional directory containing standardized listings for many other businesses. Examples would be a newspaper or magazine article, hyperlocal blog, or social media profile. See also: citation, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), directory, hyperlocal

Unstructured review: A text summary of a customer experience on a website that is not a traditional directory of standardized review information alongside business listings. May not be accompanied by a numerical rating. Examples would be a newspaper or magazine article, hyperlocal blog, or social media profile. See also: review, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), directory, hyperlocal

User behavior: Any online action taken by a user, including clicking on search engine results, time spent on a web page, leaving a review, using a check-in service, asking for driving directions, and many other factors. The extent of influence user behavior has on actual search engine rankings remains a matter of speculation and debate.

UTM (urchin tracking module): UTM code is code attached to URLs to enable the tracking of various actions. In local SEO, UTM codes are frequently used to track metrics surrounding Google Business Profile listings.

Velocity: The speed at which a local listing or a website accumulates outside references, such as links, citations, reviews, or check-ins. Most experts believe that a consistent velocity for each criterion—rather than a flood—indicates to the search engines that a business is vibrant without trying to be manipulative. See also: citation, review, check-in, LBS (location-based service)

Venice update: A 2012 update to Google's algorithm that appeared to increase the number of local results being returned for generic queries, as well as altering the ratio of first page rankings given to distinct local businesses.

Verify (or verification): The process of confirming your online business listings. See also: claim

Vicinity update: An unconfirmed Google update which occurred in 2021 and appeared to focus on keywords in business titles and proximity.

Virtual office: A purchased address not physically occupied by a business. The Guidelines for representing your business on Google forbid the use of unstaffed virtual offices for businesses seeking inclusion in Google's local index. See also: Guidelines for representing your business on Google

Visibility: A generic term used to encompass the overall presence a business has established on the Internet. Local businesses seek visibility via search engine rankings, social media profiles, review profiles, and other platforms.

Web reference: See citation.

Webmaster Central: An historic term used to describe the free service offered by Google for users with a Google account to claim ownership of a particular website. This terminology has now been replaced by "Google Search Console". See also: Google Account

WHOIS: The contact information kept on file by a domain registrar for the official owner of a domain name. Can be made private, but public WHOIS information may be viewed by the local search engines as a particularly trusted citation.

Yahoo! Local: The local business listing center of Yahoo.com. Formerly a major local search player, Yahoo has fallen out of prominence in this arena.

Yelp: Founded in 2004, Yelp has become a dominant player in the world of local business reviews. Most local business owners will wish to create a Yelp profile and actively respond to both positive and negative reviews as a core form of modern customer service. See also: review, rating

YouTube: A video sharing platform owned by Google and cited as the second largest search engine in the world. Local business owners may invest in the development of video content which can be published via YouTube as a social media tactic and form of advertising.

YP.com: An Internet Yellow Pages website to which local business listings can be added. See also: IYP (Internet Yellow Pages), citation

Zagat: A restaurant rating service founded in 1979 and acquired by Google in 2011. Google has made experimental use of Zagat ratings in a variety of ways following the acquisition. See also: review, rating.

To learn more about local SEO & local terminology, please see the Local SEO section of the Learning Center. For information on general SEO terminology, please refer to the Beginner’s Guide to SEO.