Backlink
A link from another website to yours. Still one of the strongest ranking signals, and one of the few a site cannot create for itself. Not the same as a local citation, which usually carries no link.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft’s equivalent of Search Console. Worth connecting because it now reports AI performance, including the queries Copilot wrote to retrieve your pages.
Black Hat SEO
Techniques that break search engine guidelines to gain rankings. They work until they do not, and the recovery usually costs more than the gain.
BOFU
Bottom of funnel. The choosing stage, where the decision is being confirmed. Product and service pages, proof, and how to start. The part most sites are heavy in and the part that converts least traffic.
We work on this: Independent SEO Consultant
Bounce Rate
The share of visits that end without a second interaction. Often misread: a high rate on a page that answered the question completely is not a failure.
Brand Mention
Your name appearing in an AI answer or on a third-party page, with or without a link. In AI search it matters more than the link, because many answers cite nothing. Being mentioned and being cited are different things.
Breadcrumb
The trail of links showing where a page sits in a site’s hierarchy. Useful to people, and one of the clearest structural signals a site can give a crawler.
Buyer Journey
The path from recognizing a problem to choosing a supplier, usually across many sessions and several people. Longer in B2B, and rarely visible in analytics, which is why last-click reporting misreads it.
We work on this: Analytics and Reporting
Buyer Persona
A sketch of one decision-maker inside a target account: their role, what they are measured on, and what would make them say no. Useful when it changes the writing, and decorative when it does not.
Back to the full glossary, or read how we build them in From Zero to Hero.