Glossary
53 terms, explained without the sales pitch
A plain-English glossary of the terms that come up when building websites, apps, AI automation and search visibility. 53 entries, each with a short definition, how it actually works, and why it matters to a business rather than to an engineer.
AI Automation & Agents
The vocabulary behind automating work with AI — agents, workflows, the models underneath and the parts that break.
AI Automation from $499 →AI AgentAn AI agent is a program that uses a language model to decide what steps to take toward a goal, then carries them out by calling real tools — sending email, querying…Workflow AutomationWorkflow automation connects the tools a business already uses so that an event in one triggers actions in the others without anyone re-typing data — a form submissi…Large Language Model (LLM)A large language model is a system trained on very large amounts of text to predict likely continuations. That single ability underlies writing, summarising, classif…RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)RAG is the technique of searching your own documents for passages relevant to a question, then giving those passages to a language model along with the question, so …EmbeddingAn embedding is a list of numbers representing a piece of text's meaning, positioned so that texts with similar meanings sit close together. It lets software find re…Vector DatabaseA vector database stores embeddings and finds the closest matches to a query quickly. It's the storage layer behind semantic search and most RAG systems.HallucinationA hallucination is output that is fluent, confident and false — an invented citation, a policy that doesn't exist, a fabricated order number. It's a direct consequen…Human in the LoopHuman in the loop means an automated process pauses for a person to approve, correct or reject before it continues — typically before anything irreversible, like sen…GuardrailsGuardrails are the constraints around an AI system that stop it doing things it shouldn't — restricting which tools it can call, validating its output against a sche…Tool Use (Function Calling)Tool use is a model's ability to call external functions — look up an order, send an email, query stock — by returning a structured request that your code executes, …Model Context Protocol (MCP)MCP is an open standard for connecting AI applications to external tools and data sources, so a single integration works across any AI client that supports it rather…PromptA prompt is the input given to a language model — the instructions, context and data it uses to produce output. In production, prompts are versioned assets that get …TokenA token is the unit language models read and generate — roughly three-quarters of a word in English. Model pricing is per token, so tokens are the unit AI features a…EvalsEvals are a fixed set of test cases with known-good answers, run against an AI system to measure whether a change made it better or worse. They're the equivalent of …IdempotencyAn operation is idempotent if running it twice has the same effect as running it once. It's what stops a retried automation from creating duplicate records, sending …WebhookA webhook is an HTTP request one system sends to another the moment something happens — an order placed, a form submitted — so the receiving system reacts immediatel…API IntegrationAn API integration is a connection between two software systems that lets them exchange data automatically — a website sending orders to an accounting system, a CRM …AI Voice AgentAn AI voice agent answers phone calls, understands what the caller wants and takes action — booking an appointment, answering a question, routing to a person. It com…
Web & Performance
How websites are built and why they're slow — rendering, Core Web Vitals and the architecture terms that decide both.
Website Development from $169 →Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's three measures of page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout …Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)LCP measures how long until the largest visible element — usually a hero image or headline — has rendered. Google considers 2.5 seconds or less good, measured at the…Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)CLS measures how much page content moves around unexpectedly while loading — the effect of tapping a button just as an advert loads above it and pushes it away. Goog…Time to First Byte (TTFB)TTFB measures how long from requesting a page until the first byte of response arrives. It captures server processing, database queries and network distance — everyt…SSR, SSG and ISRThree ways of producing a web page: server-side rendering builds it per request, static site generation builds it once at deploy time, and incremental static regener…CDN (Content Delivery Network)A CDN is a network of servers distributed worldwide that cache copies of a site's files and serve each visitor from the location nearest them, cutting the distance d…Headless CMSA headless CMS stores and edits content but doesn't render the website. Content is delivered over an API to whatever front end you build, so the same content can fee…Progressive EnhancementProgressive enhancement means building so the core content and functions work with minimal technology, then layering on improvements for capable browsers — rather th…Web ApplicationA web application is software that runs in a browser and does work — dashboards, booking systems, internal tools, SaaS products — as distinct from a website, which m…Technical DebtTechnical debt is the accumulated cost of shortcuts taken to ship faster — code, structure or dependencies that work now but make future changes slower and riskier u…
Mobile Apps
Native, cross-platform, MVPs and the decisions that set what an app costs to build and to keep running.
App Development from $1,049 →Native vs Cross-PlatformNative apps are built separately for iOS and Android in each platform's own language. Cross-platform apps use one codebase — React Native or Flutter — for both. Cros…React NativeReact Native is a framework for building iOS and Android apps from a single JavaScript or TypeScript codebase, rendering real native interface components rather than…MVP (Minimum Viable Product)An MVP is the smallest version of a product that delivers real value to real users, built to test whether the idea works before investing in the full version.Over-the-Air (OTA) UpdatesOTA updates let a cross-platform app download changes directly rather than going through app store review, so fixes reach users in minutes instead of days.App Store Optimization (ASO)ASO is the practice of improving an app's visibility and conversion in the App Store and Play Store — title, subtitle, keywords, screenshots, ratings and description…Push NotificationA push notification is a message delivered to a device from your servers, appearing whether or not the app is open. On iOS it requires explicit permission; on Androi…
SEO & AI Search
Classic search vocabulary plus the newer set that matters now that answers are generated rather than listed.
SEO from $299 →GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)GEO is the practice of making a business likely to be named and cited in answers generated by AI systems — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot …AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)AEO is optimising content to be the source of a direct answer — in AI results, featured snippets or voice responses — rather than a link the user clicks. In practice…Entity SEOEntity SEO is the work of making search engines and AI systems confidently understand what your business is, distinct from similarly named things — through consisten…Knowledge GraphA knowledge graph is a structured database of entities and the relationships between them. Google's powers knowledge panels and much of its understanding of who a bu…sameAssameAs is a structured-data property listing the other web pages that represent the same entity — your LinkedIn page, Wikidata entry, GitHub organisation, directory …Schema Markup (Structured Data)Schema markup is machine-readable code, usually JSON-LD, that states explicitly what a page is about — a service, its price, an FAQ, a business's address and hours —…SpeakableSpeakable is a schema property marking which parts of a page are suited to being read aloud by voice assistants — typically a short summary or direct answer rather t…llms.txtllms.txt is a proposed standard: a plain-text file at your domain root giving language models a clean, structured summary of what your site offers and where the impo…Information GainInformation gain is how much a page adds that isn't already in the results covering the same topic. Content that only restates what's already ranking adds nothing an…E-E-A-TE-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust — the framework in Google's quality rater guidelines for judging content credibility. Trust is …Topical AuthorityTopical authority is the depth and breadth of a site's coverage of a subject. A site covering a topic thoroughly — the fundamentals, the comparisons, the costs, the …Internal LinkingInternal linking is how pages on the same site link to each other. It distributes ranking signals, tells search engines which pages matter most, and determines wheth…Crawl BudgetCrawl budget is how much crawling a search engine will do on your site in a given period. It becomes a real constraint on large sites, where wasted crawling on low-v…Canonical URLA canonical URL is the version of a page you designate as the definitive one when the same content is reachable at several addresses. The canonical tag tells search …Index BloatIndex bloat is having a large number of low-value pages indexed — thin, duplicate or auto-generated URLs that attract no traffic. It wastes crawl budget and can weig…NAP ConsistencyNAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. Consistency means those details are written identically everywhere they appear — your site, Google Business Profile, directories…Local PackThe local pack is the map and three business listings shown for searches with local intent. It appears above organic results and takes a large share of the clicks fo…Featured SnippetA featured snippet is the boxed answer at the top of some search results, extracted from a page that answers the query directly. It's the classic-search ancestor of …Keyword ResearchKeyword research is finding the terms people actually use when searching for what you offer, and judging which are realistically winnable given competition and your …