Every web designer, SEO vendor, and AI consultant has a vocabulary they use to sound smart. Most of it is real. Some of it is noise. None of it should make you feel like you're not allowed to ask a question. Below: the words you hear, what they actually mean, and whether you need to worry about them this year.
Every entry is written so a 9th grader could read it. Every one tells you not just what the word means, but whether you need to do anything about it right now. If a vendor uses a term that is not on this page, ask them to explain it the way we do here. If they cannot, that tells you something.
The words your web designer uses when explaining why your site will or will not work the way you want it to.
The dashboard you log into to change words and photos on your website without calling anyone. WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow are all examples.
A site that automatically rearranges itself to look good on a phone, a tablet, or a laptop. Same site, different layout depending on the screen.
The site is designed on a phone screen first, then expanded for desktop. The opposite of building for desktop and "shrinking it down" for phones.
A computer somewhere in the world that runs 24/7 and serves your website to every visitor. You pay a monthly fee for it the same way you pay rent for a studio space.
The yourbusiness.com part. You rent it for $10–$20/year from a registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare). Nobody owns a domain forever — everyone rents.
The thing that makes your URL start with https:// instead of http://. It encrypts data between your customer and your site so nobody can read it in between.
How long your site takes to load and become usable. Measured in seconds. Google has specific scores called LCP, FID, and CLS — together they are "Core Web Vitals."
A short way of saying "how easy is it for someone to do what they came to do." Good UX = parent finds the class schedule in 5 seconds. Bad UX = parent gives up.
A small piece of software you bolt onto your site to add a feature. A booking calendar, a contact form, a newsletter signup. Most CMSes have thousands of them.
These are the four most common platforms a small business website is built on. They each have evangelists who will argue for hours about which is best. They are all fine.
What every "SEO expert" is really selling you. Most of this is fixable in a weekend. Some of it takes months. Some of it does not apply to you yet.
The work of making your website show up when someone searches Google. There is no magic button. There IS a checklist (page titles, fast loading, good content, links from other sites).
A specific flavor of SEO for businesses with a physical location. It is what gets you into the "map of 3 places" Google shows when someone searches "dance studio near me."
Your free profile on Google. The thing that shows up on the right side of the search page when someone Googles your business name. Hours, phone, photos, reviews, posts, all live here.
The actual phrases your customers type into a search engine. "Dance studio Plymouth MA," "jazz classes for 7 year olds," "ballet near me" — these are keywords.
The 60-character headline and 150-character paragraph Google shows when your site appears in search results. Most websites have terrible defaults nobody ever rewrote.
Making your site show up when someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, or Google's AI Overview a question about your kind of business. The new version of SEO for the AI search era.
A cousin of AEO. Same general idea: optimizing your site to be quoted, cited, and referenced by AI-generated answers. The line between AEO and GEO is fuzzy and vendors fight about it.
When another website mentions you and links to your page, Google treats that as a vote of confidence. The more high-quality votes, the higher your site ranks.
Invisible code on your website that tells search engines exactly what each piece is — "this is the address," "this is the phone number," "these are the class times." Helps Google show rich info in search results.
Organic = someone found you by Googling and clicking a regular result (free). Paid = someone clicked an ad you ran (cost per click). Most sites mix both.
The buzziest section of the dictionary. Most of these words are 18 months old. Some are useful. Some are vendors trying to sell you yesterday's tool under a new name.
Setting up a system so that one thing happens automatically when another thing happens. "When a parent submits the contact form, send them a welcome email and add them to my CRM." That is automation. No AI required.
A system that sends a personalized text or email to every new inquiry within 5 minutes, even at midnight on a Sunday. Done with AI now; used to be done with templates.
The software where you keep track of every prospect, customer, and conversation. Like a contact list with notes and a memory. HubSpot, GoHighLevel, Pipedrive, Salesforce are CRMs.
A small chat window that pops up on your website. The first generation answered pre-written questions only. The new generation uses AI to answer in plain language.
A chatbot plus the ability to take actions on your behalf. Instead of just answering, an AI agent can also book the trial class, send the welcome packet, and add the parent to your email list — all in one conversation.
The technology that powers ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. A computer model trained on huge amounts of text that can answer questions, write content, and follow instructions in plain language.
The text you type into ChatGPT or Claude to get a response. "Write an Instagram caption for our recital" is a prompt. There is a whole job called "prompt engineering" — it is more art than science.
When two different programs share data automatically. Your booking system "integrating" with your email tool means new bookings appear in your email list without copy-pasting. APIs are the technical pipes that let this happen.