Plain-language definitions of the terms used throughout this course, grouped so related ideas sit together.
Identity and data
- NAP. Name, address, phone. The identifier systems use to recognise that scattered records describe one practice.
- Canonical record. The one authoritative version of your practice details that every listing should be generated from.
- Single source of truth. The document or system holding that canonical record.
- Citation. Any mention of your practice details on another website, with or without a link.
- Entity. How a machine represents your practice: a thing in the world with attributes, assembled from many records.
- Entity resolution. The process of deciding which records describe the same practice. Where AI visibility is won or lost.
- Data aggregator. A broker compiling business data and distributing it to hundreds of downstream directories.
- Duplicate listing. Two or more profiles for one office, which split reviews and prominence.
- NPI. National Provider Identifier. A public, bulk-downloadable registry of healthcare providers, and a major source of auto-generated directory listings.
- Taxonomy code. The specialty classification in your NPI record, which affects how directories categorise you.
Search and ranking
- Local pack. The map plus short list of businesses appearing in local search results.
- Relevance, distance, prominence. The three inputs to local ranking. You control relevance most, distance not at all.
- Prominence. How well known and established your practice appears, fed by reviews, mentions, and consistency.
- Impressions. How often you appeared. Exposure, not interest.
- Click-through rate. Clicks divided by impressions.
- SERP. Search engine results page.
- Geo-grid tracking. Checking your map rank from many coordinates around an office, producing a heat map.
- Index. A search engine store of pages. A page not indexed cannot rank.
- Canonical tag. Markup telling engines which version of a page is authoritative.
- Redirect. Sending an old URL to a new one. Permanent redirects preserve accumulated value.
Profiles and platforms
- Google Business Profile. The listing powering your presence on Google Maps and the panel beside search results.
- Apple Business Connect. The equivalent for Apple Maps, Siri, and Spotlight.
- Bing Places. The Microsoft equivalent, and the main lever for Copilot visibility.
- Primary category. Your fundamental business classification, and the strongest relevance signal you control.
- Attributes. Structured facts on a profile, such as wheelchair access or online care.
- Service area business. A business that travels to customers, with a hidden address. A clinic is not one.
- Suspension. Loss of a profile for a guideline breach, most often a name or address violation.
- Vertical directory. A directory specific to one field, such as mental health.
- Payer directory. An insurer list of in-network providers. High trust, high intent, frequently wrong.
- Ghost network. A payer directory full of providers who cannot actually be reached.
- Modality finder. A locator listing providers of one specific treatment.
AI visibility
- GEO. Generative engine optimisation. Being named in AI-generated answers.
- AEO. Answer engine optimisation. Effectively the same goal.
- AI Overview. A generated summary appearing above traditional Google results.
- Retrieval. An assistant gathering live sources before composing an answer.
- Citation-first engine. An assistant showing its sources, which makes it a useful diagnostic.
- Presence rate. The share of repeated runs in which an assistant names you. The honest way to measure AI visibility.
- Prompt set. A fixed list of questions reused unchanged so measurements are comparable.
Website and markup
- Structured data. Machine-readable markup stating facts about a page, usually as JSON-LD.
- JSON-LD. The preferred format for structured data.
- MedicalClinic, Physician, FAQPage. Schema types describing a clinic, a clinician, and a question-and-answer page.
- sameAs. A property listing your other profiles, stating rather than implying that records describe you.
- E-E-A-T. Experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness. The lens applied to health content.
- Core Web Vitals. Metrics for loading, responsiveness, and visual stability.
- Internal linking. Links between your own pages, which distribute authority and connect treatments to places.
- Orphan page. A page nothing links to, which struggles regardless of quality.
Reviews and compliance
- Review gating. Screening for sentiment and only inviting happy patients to post publicly. Prohibited and risky.
- HIPAA authorisation. Specific written permission required before using patient information in marketing. Intake consent is not sufficient.
- Protected health information. Identifiable health information, which includes the mere fact that someone is a patient.
- REMS. A restricted distribution and safety programme limiting how certain products may be dispensed and administered.
- Off-label use. Use of a product for an indication it is not approved for. Not to be presented as approved.
- Call tracking. Using unique phone numbers to attribute calls. Safe only where it cannot reach your entity record.
- Dynamic number insertion. Swapping a displayed number by traffic source while the markup stays canonical.
- Attestation. Periodic confirmation that your credentialing data is current. Lapses degrade payer listings.
The remaining lessons in this chapter expand on three of these in more depth.