AI and local marketing glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms we use with clients: AI receptionists, chatbots, AEO, local SEO, automation and more.
Updated 10 November 2026
AI receptionist
An AI receptionist is a voice agent that answers a business's phone calls, responds to common questions, collects caller details and books appointments, at any hour. It hands urgent or complex calls to a person and sends a summary of each call.
AI chatbot
An AI chatbot is a chat assistant on a website or messaging app that answers customer questions from the business's own information, captures leads and can book appointments, without a person typing each reply.
Answer engine optimization (AEO)
Answer engine optimization is the practice of making a website's content easy for AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews to understand, trust and quote. It relies on clear direct answers, structured data, consistent business information and mentions on trusted sites.
Local SEO
Local SEO is the work of helping a business appear in Google Search and Google Maps results for searches in its area, through an accurate Google Business Profile, location and service pages, reviews and consistent listings.
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is Google's free listing that shows a business on Google Maps and in local search, with its hours, services, photos, posts and reviews. Google requires the owner to verify it.
Schema markup
Schema markup is structured data added to a web page's code that tells search engines and AI tools exactly what the page is about, such as a business, a service, an article or a list of FAQs.
llms.txt
llms.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that gives AI tools a short, structured summary of the site and links to its most important pages.
Business process automation
Business process automation connects the tools a business already uses so routine tasks, such as follow-ups, invoices, CRM updates and reports, run automatically instead of by hand.
CRM
A CRM (customer relationship management system) is software that keeps every lead and customer, their conversations and their next step in one place.
Lead qualification
Lead qualification is the process of asking a new enquiry the right questions to decide whether it is a good fit and how urgently to follow up.
Online booking system
An online booking system lets customers see available times and book appointments themselves, at any hour, with automatic confirmations and reminders.
Missed-call text back
Missed-call text back is an automation that sends a text message to anyone whose call was not answered, so the conversation continues instead of the caller moving on.
Review gating
Review gating means asking only happy customers for reviews, or filtering who is asked. Google's review policies do not allow it, so a compliant review process asks every customer.
Questions about any of this?
Tell us about your business and we will send a clear quotation on WhatsApp.