Glossary
65 terms that come up when a team runs more than one Google Business Profile. Each entry is a definition sentence, one reason it matters, and the page where the idea is used.
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This glossary defines the terms Locationes uses, one at a time. The definitions describe established industry meaning rather than a product claim, and each entry links to the place where the concept is used on this site.
The free Google listing for a location’s name, address, hours, phone, photos, services and reviews, shown in Maps and the local pack.
Why it matters: If the profile is wrong, every downstream surface — Maps, Search, voice assistants — repeats the same wrong answer.
See profile audits and alertsGoogle’s process for confirming that a person or business is authorised to manage a location’s profile.
Why it matters: An unverified profile cannot be edited, so every other fix waits behind it.
Read what a profile isThe Google account or group of accounts that holds management rights over a business profile.
Why it matters: When ownership sits with a former agency or employee, the team loses control of the listing.
See ownership checksThe three identity fields that must match exactly across a business’s website, Google profile and every directory listing.
Why it matters: Mismatched NAP data splits the signals Google uses to decide which listing belongs to which physical location.
See profile auditsA set of business profiles grouped in the Google Business Profile dashboard so they can be managed together.
Why it matters: Groups are the unit for bulk edits, permissions and reporting across a multi-location estate.
See multi-location managementThe single category Google uses as the main description of what a business is.
Why it matters: It decides which searches the profile is eligible to appear for, so a wrong one hides the location.
See profile auditsExtra categories that describe secondary aspects of a business beyond its primary category.
Why it matters: They widen relevance for adjacent queries but cannot replace a correct primary category.
See category auditsThe named services or products a business lists on its profile, optionally with a description and price.
Why it matters: They turn a generic category into specific answers customers can compare before they call.
See services managementThe geographic area a business serves when it travels to customers instead of welcoming them at an address.
Why it matters: It defines where the profile is eligible to rank, and an inflated area reads as spam.
See service-area setupThe regular opening hours shown on a profile, plus dated special hours for holidays and one-off changes.
Why it matters: Wrong hours produce wasted trips and calls, and the error is repeated by Maps and voice search.
See hours checksThe internal identifier a business already uses for a location in finance, logistics or its point-of-sale system.
Why it matters: Keeping it next to the Google profile removes the translation step between “store 1042” and a Maps listing.
See multi-location managementA second Google profile that describes the same location as an existing profile.
Why it matters: Duplicates split reviews and photos, and Google may merge or suspend the wrong record.
See duplicate alertsMoving a business to a new address while keeping the same profile and Google history.
Why it matters: Google requires the address to be updated, not a new profile created, or reviews stay behind.
See relocation updatesThe marker that tells Google a location is temporarily closed or permanently closed.
Why it matters: A temporary flag hides normal hours, while a permanent one changes how the listing behaves.
See closure alertsOne physical location of a business that operates under the same brand as other locations.
Why it matters: Each branch needs its own profile, address and hours; one shared listing cannot represent several.
See multi-location managementShort updates — offers, events, announcements — published to a Google Business Profile and shown on the listing for a limited time.
Why it matters: A post carries a date and a call to action, so stale posts read as a closed business.
See the feature setThe question-and-answer section on a Google Business Profile where anyone, not only the owner, can post or answer.
Why it matters: An unanswered or wrong public answer stays visible even after the website has been corrected.
See profile auditsThe rate at which a location receives new reviews over a period, usually read as reviews per month.
Why it matters: A sudden burst looks unnatural to Google and to customers, while a steady rate keeps the profile current.
See review analyticsAsking only happy customers for a review and filtering out unhappy ones before they can post.
Why it matters: It distorts the rating, breaches Google’s review policies and is the kind of pattern Google removes in batches.
See review managementA review that expresses dissatisfaction, usually one or two stars, and often names a specific failure.
Why it matters: It is read by future customers and is the review most worth answering quickly and publicly.
Read the negative-review playbookA review posted without a real customer experience, often in batches to lift or damage a rating.
Why it matters: Google removes policy-breaking reviews, and a cluster of identical five-star posts attracts scrutiny.
See review analyticsA review that Google removed from a profile, either after a policy report or through automated detection.
Why it matters: Removal can erase the only record of a complaint, so an archive is needed to keep the history.
See the deleted reviews archiveA saved reply that gives the approved wording for a repeating review situation.
Why it matters: It keeps tone consistent across locations without sending an automatic reply nobody checked.
See response templatesRendering a review or a reply in another language while keeping the original visible.
Why it matters: Guests write in their own language, and a reply in the guest’s language is easier to trust.
See review managementThe share of reviews that received a public owner response, regardless of rating.
Why it matters: It is the clearest operational signal that someone is actually reading the queue.
See review managementThe elapsed time between a review being published and the owner’s reply, often reported as a median per rating band.
Why it matters: Negative reviews age badly: the longer the gap, the more future customers see an unanswered complaint.
See rating breakdownThe proportion of a location’s reviews that carry one or two stars.
Why it matters: It shows whether a rating problem is recent and local, which an average alone cannot.
See the 1–2★ reportThe block of three map-linked business results Google shows above organic results for queries with local intent.
Why it matters: Most local clicks happen inside that block, so a ranking on page one of organic results can still be invisible.
See local rank trackingThe full-screen Maps view where a user browses and filters local results after opening the map.
Why it matters: Local Finder rankings can differ from the local pack, so visibility in one does not guarantee the other.
See local rank trackingThe work of making a physical business visible for searches with a place intent: profile accuracy, reviews, local content and proximity signals.
Why it matters: It is measured location by location, not domain by domain, so one strong branch does not lift the rest.
See keyword performanceWhat the person typing a query is trying to do — find a place, compare options, get directions or check a fact.
Why it matters: A profile that answers the intent in the first line earns the click; one that only lists services does not.
See keyword trendsGoogle’s three local ranking factors: how close the business is, how well it matches the query and how prominent it is.
Why it matters: Only relevance and prominence are influenced by profile work; proximity is fixed by the address.
See rank trackingRecording where a location appears in Maps and the local pack for a defined set of queries over time.
Why it matters: Without a tracked baseline, a ranking change looks like noise and no one can tell whether an edit worked.
See local rank trackingThe search terms a set of locations appeared for, grouped by intent, with terms gained and lost.
Why it matters: It shows which demand the estate already reaches before anyone writes new content.
See keyword performanceThe number of times a location’s profile was shown in Search or Maps, split by surface and device.
Why it matters: Impressions show demand the profile already receives; they are not clicks, so they cannot be read as traffic.
See the impressions reportThe split between how often a profile appeared in Google Search results and how often it appeared in Maps.
Why it matters: The two surfaces attract different behaviour, so a single combined number hides where visibility moved.
See impressions by surfaceThe actions a profile produces: website clicks, direction requests and phone calls.
Why it matters: They convert impressions into evidence that someone found the listing useful enough to act.
See interactionsThe share of a location’s impressions that come from queries the business did not deliberately target.
Why it matters: It shows whether the profile is found for unexpected needs or only for its own brand name.
See discovery termsA grid of simulated search points around a location, used to show how rankings change with distance rather than reporting one city-level position.
Why it matters: A business can rank first at its own address and disappear two kilometres away; a single rank number hides that.
See the reviews heat mapAny mention of a business’s name and address on another site, whether or not it links back.
Why it matters: Consistent citations reinforce the location’s identity; contradictory ones compete with the Google profile.
See duplicate and change alertsAn HTML attribute that tells search engines which language and regional version of a page should be served to which audience.
Why it matters: Without reciprocal hreflang entries, translated pages compete with each other instead of serving the right language.
See the 15-language siteThe number of Google profile fields — description, hours, phone, website, cover photo, logo, services, opening date — that are filled in and consistent.
Why it matters: Every empty field is a question a customer has to answer somewhere else.
See the 0–100 profile scoreThe count of reviews at each star level, shown as a shape rather than a single average.
Why it matters: Two locations with the same average can have very different distributions and different risks.
See rating distributionA month-over-month view of a metric that shows direction and size of change, not just the current value.
Why it matters: A single month cannot tell whether a rating slide is new or has been running for a year.
See monthly comparisonA map that colours each location by a chosen metric such as rating or review volume.
Why it matters: It shows whether a problem follows a store, a district or a whole region.
See the heat mapDownloading a report or location list into a spreadsheet for review outside the dashboard.
Why it matters: Finance and operations teams work in spreadsheets, and an export keeps the same numbers in both places.
See what every plan includesThe delay before Google finalises recent performance data, during which totals can still change.
Why it matters: Reading an unfinalised day as a drop leads to decisions based on incomplete numbers.
See the impressions reportChanging the same profile field — hours, description, services — across a selected set of locations in one action.
Why it matters: It is faster than editing each profile, but still needs a follow-up audit because a local manager can override it.
See multi-location managementThe roles that decide who can view, edit or manage a set of business profiles.
Why it matters: Local managers need edit rights for their own store without access to the whole estate.
See access managementA scheduled check of profile fields, permissions and changes against an expected standard.
Why it matters: Google and local managers both change profiles, so a one-time setup does not stay correct.
See profile auditsNotifications triggered when a profile changes in a way that needs attention, such as a closure or permission loss.
Why it matters: A silent edit can run for weeks before anyone notices it in a monthly report.
See Google alertsA prioritised queue of fixes generated from alerts, audits and unanswered reviews.
Why it matters: It turns a dashboard into an order of work, so the team starts with the costliest problem.
See the action listGoogle’s rules on what reviews and owner replies are allowed, including prohibitions on fake and incentivised content.
Why it matters: Reviews that break the policy can be removed, and repeated breaches can affect the profile.
Read the review policyA situation where a reviewer has a personal or business stake in the rating they leave.
Why it matters: Employees, owners and competitors reviewing their own or a rival location breaches Google’s policy.
See review managementReviews given in exchange for a discount, gift or other reward, which Google’s policies prohibit.
Why it matters: They bias the rating and put the profile at risk of review removal or suspension.
See compliant review workflowsThe legal rules that limit how customer data from reviews, replies and profiles is collected, published and stored.
Why it matters: A public reply that confirms a customer’s condition or visit can breach privacy law.
Read the privacy policyThe rule for how long review and profile data is kept, and when it must be deleted.
Why it matters: An archive is useful for disputes, but keeping personal data longer than allowed creates legal risk.
Read the data-retention termsA plain-text file at the site root that lists the pages, prices and facts an AI system should use when answering questions about the business.
Why it matters: It gives a language model a maintained summary instead of leaving it to infer the product from navigation.
Open llms.txtMachine-readable markup that names what a page describes — an organisation, a product, a question, a price — instead of leaving it to prose.
Why it matters: Search and AI engines use it to decide which entity a page is about and which facts can be quoted.
Open the machine-readable summaryThe JSON syntax Google recommends for structured data, placed in a script tag and independent of the visible HTML.
Why it matters: It can be validated without parsing the page layout, which makes schema errors cheap to catch before launch.
Open the full machine fileExperience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: the quality signals Google’s raters use when judging whether a page deserves to be trusted.
Why it matters: For a product site it means naming the author, dating the claim and showing the source, not adding a badge.
See the editorial blogGoogle’s AI-generated summary above search results, which answers the query and links to the sources it used.
Why it matters: A page that states and dates the answer in one paragraph is easier to cite than a sales flow.
See the AI-readable site mapThe practice of making a site easy for AI answer engines to retrieve, quote and attribute, alongside classic search optimisation.
Why it matters: Citations are decided at passage level, so optimise the paragraph and the fact, not only the page title.
Open llms.txtHow easily an AI answer engine can lift a self-contained passage from a page and cite it.
Why it matters: A clear claim with its own context is more quotable than a paragraph that depends on the page above it.
Open llms.txtThe distinct thing — a business, place or person — that a search engine or AI model recognises and connects facts to.
Why it matters: Consistent names, addresses and categories help an engine attach reviews and pages to the right entity.
See the machine-readable summaryRelated
Where these terms are used in the product and in the writing.
