in plain english
The words that show up in the quote.
Domain, hosting, local SEO, schema. Each one gets a short page here, with why it matters to your business and what to do about it this week.
Website basics
- DomainThe name of your site, what people type to get there: about $12 a year, and it has to be in your name.
- HostingRent for the space where your site lives. For a local business page it runs from nothing to $30 a month depending on who built it.
- Landing pageA single page built to get the visitor to do one specific thing, almost always call.
- ResponsiveThe page adapting to phone size instead of showing up shrunken. It matters because nearly everyone looking for you is on a phone.
- CTA (call to action)The button or line that tells the visitor exactly what to do. In a service business it is almost always calling.
- SSL and the padlockThe padlock next to your address. Without it the browser warns visitors your site is not secure, and it costs nothing to have today.
Showing up in Google
- Local SEOThe work of showing up when someone searches your trade next to their city or neighborhood. It rests mostly on your Google listing and your reviews.
- Google Business ProfileThe free listing that puts your business on the Google map. For a local business it is the first thing to open, before the website.
- Map packThe three businesses Google shows inside the map, above everything. It takes most of the calls from a local search.
- KeywordWhat your customer types into Google. It is almost never what you call your own service.
- IndexingGoogle having read your page and stored it. Without that it cannot appear in any search, however good it is.
- Schema (structured data)Invisible tags that tell Google what each thing on your page is: this is a phone number, that is your hours, that other one is a price.
- BacklinkA link from another site to yours. Google counts them as recommendations and they are among the heaviest factors for ranking.
- NAP (name, address, phone)Your three contact details. What matters is that they say exactly the same thing everywhere they appear.
Showing up in AI answers
- AI search (AI Overviews)The answer block Google writes at the very top without anyone opening a site. It changes what your page has to do to be worth anything.
- llms.txtA text file at the root of your site telling AI models what is on each page, one line per page.
- robots.txtThe file where your site says which crawlers may enter and which folders. Today it also decides whether AI can read you.
What gets measured and paid
- ConversionThe share of people landing on your page who end up doing what you wanted. In a service business, calling.
- Cost per customerWhat it costs you to get one new customer. It is the only number that says whether marketing spend makes sense.
- AnalyticsThe tools that count who visits your site and what they do. Without them you are deciding blind.
- Page speedHow long your page takes to appear and to become usable. It counts in Google and counts more with the person waiting, thumb hovering.
- Google AdsPaying to be at the top from day one. It works while you pay and switches off the moment you stop.
- ReviewsWhat your customers say about you on Google. For a local business it decides more than the website and more than the price.
If someone sent you a quote full of words you do not know, send it over and I will translate it.