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Webfluence

Web terms explained plainly

Search, AI, advertising, website design: every term we use with you, defined in two or three sentences, without jargon.

301 redirect

A 301 redirect permanently sends an old address to a new one. It prevents broken pages and passes the ranking earned on Google to the new page.

AEO

AEO, for Answer Engine Optimization, means optimising for engines that give an answer rather than a list of links. The term is almost a synonym of GEO.

AI crawler

A crawler is a program that reads web pages. OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT, Claude-SearchBot for Claude or PerplexityBot for Perplexity read the pages they may cite. The robots.txt file tells them what they are allowed to read.

Backlink

A backlink is a link to your website published on another website. Links from recognised sites in your industry or region strengthen search engines' trust.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is the Bing equivalent of Search Console. It also offers a report on how often your website is cited in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries.

Canonical URL

The canonical URL tells search engines which address is the official version of a page when several addresses show the same content. It prevents duplicates.

Citation rate

The citation rate measures, over a fixed list of questions asked to AI assistants, the share of answers that cite your business or your website. It is the key metric for GEO.

CMS

A CMS, such as WordPress or Webflow, is a tool for editing a website's text and images without writing code. A custom-built website can have one too.

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Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the share of visitors who take the desired action: call, request a quote, buy. It depends as much on the landing page as on the ad.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are three Google measures of page experience: how fast the main content appears (LCP), how quickly the page reacts to clicks (INP) and how stable the layout is (CLS).

CPA (cost per acquisition)

CPA is the average cost of getting a result: a quote request, a call or a sale. It is a better benchmark than CPC because it measures what actually pays.

CPC (cost per click)

CPC is the price paid each time someone clicks your ad. It depends on competition for the keyword, the quality of the ad and the landing page.

E-commerce website

An e-commerce website sells online: catalogue, basket, payment and order tracking. It takes more work than a showcase site, especially on payment, stock and security.

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GDPR and cookies

The GDPR governs the use of personal data in Europe. On a website, it notably requires asking the visitor's consent before setting analytics or advertising cookies.

GEO (AI search optimisation)

GEO, for Generative Engine Optimization, aims to get a business cited in the answers of AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity. It builds on SEO and adds clear, factual content that is easy to quote.

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Google AI Mode

AI Mode is a Google Search tab where you talk with the AI as in a conversation. Its answers cite websites chosen from Google's index.

Google AI Overview

An AI Overview is the summary written by Google's AI at the top of some search results, with links to its sources. It launched in France in July 2026.

Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is a business's free listing on Google and Google Maps: address, opening hours, phone, photos and reviews. It is often the first result seen in a local search.

Google Search Console

Search Console is Google's free tool that shows how your website appears in its results: indexed pages, searches typed, views and clicks. It is the basis of any SEO follow-up.

hreflang

The hreflang tag tells search engines that a page exists in several languages, and which one to show each visitor. It is essential for a site in French and English.

HTTPS

HTTPS encrypts exchanges between the visitor and the website, shown by a padlock in the browser. Without it, browsers display a "not secure" warning.

Indexing

An indexed page is a page the search engine has read and stored in its database. A page that is not indexed cannot appear in results, nor in AI answers that rely on that index.

IndexNow

IndexNow is a protocol that instantly tells Bing and other search engines that a page was published or updated. Google does not use it, but Bing feeds Copilot among others.

Keyword

A keyword is the phrase your customers type into a search engine, such as "plumber Nice" or "website price". Search optimisation always starts from those words.

Landing page

The landing page is where visitors arrive after clicking an ad. It must match the ad's promise exactly and push towards a single action.

Lead

A lead is a contact interested in your offer: a completed form, a call, a message. A qualified lead is a verified contact who really matches your target.

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LLM (large language model)

An LLM is the kind of AI model behind ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It learned from very large amounts of text and writes answers word by word.

llms.txt

llms.txt is a text file placed at the root of a website that summarises the site for AI. Google has said it does not use it, and no study shows it gets a site cited.

Local SEO

Local SEO targets searches that include an area, such as "hairdresser in Antibes" or "near me". It relies on the Google Business Profile, pages per town or per service, and customer reviews.

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Meta Ads

Meta Ads is the advertising platform of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. It targets people by profile and interests rather than by what they search for.

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Meta description

The meta description is the short text under the blue title in search results. It does not directly change rankings, but it makes people want to click, or not.

Performance Max

Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that runs one campaign across all of Google's placements at once. The algorithm chooses where and to whom ads are shown, based on the goal you set.

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Pixel and tracking tag

A pixel is a small piece of code on the website that tells the ad platform a visitor took an action, such as requesting a quote. Without it, there is no way to know which ads pay off.

Remarketing

Remarketing shows new ads to people who already visited your website without contacting you. It requires the visitor's cookie consent.

Responsive website

A responsive website adapts to every screen size, from phone to large desktop screen. A large share of visits now comes from phones.

ROAS

ROAS, for Return On Ad Spend, compares the revenue generated by advertising with its cost. A ROAS of 4 means 4 euros of sales for every euro spent on ads.

robots.txt

robots.txt is a small file at the root of a website that tells search and AI crawlers which pages they may read. A mistake in this file can make a whole site invisible.

SEO (search engine optimisation)

SEO covers everything that helps a website appear in the free results of search engines such as Google or Bing. It includes the site's technical setup, its content and its reputation across the web.

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Showcase website

A showcase website presents a business, its services and its contact details, without online sales. Its goal is to be found and to bring in contact or quote requests.

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Sitemap

A sitemap is the list of a website's pages, in a file read by search engines. It helps them discover every page and know which ones have changed.

Structured data

Structured data is information written in the code, in schema.org format, that describes the business: name, address, services, reviews, frequent questions. It helps search engines identify who you are.

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Title tag

The title tag is the page title, the one shown in blue in Google results. It is one of the first things a search engine reads to understand what a page is about.

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Website redesign

A redesign replaces an existing website with a new version: new design, new structure or new technology. Done well, it keeps the addresses Google already knows through redirects.

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