Glossary

The service-business tech glossary.

252 terms you'll meet when buying leads, building a website, setting up phones or choosing a CRM, explained in plain English.

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1099-NEC: The IRS form a business uses to report payments to independent contractors above a threshold set by the IRS. It goes to the contractor and the IRS by January 31.
10DLC: A standard 10-digit local phone number used to send business text messages from software. US carriers require businesses to register their brand and messaging campaign before texting from one, and unregistered traffic can be blocked or charged extra carrier fees. See 10DLC registration explained.
301 redirect: A permanent redirect that sends visitors and search engines from an old web address to a new one. Setting them up when you rebuild a site keeps old links and search history pointing at the right pages.

A

A/B test: Sending two versions of an email, ad or page to similar groups to see which performs better. Change one thing at a time, such as the subject line, so you know what made the difference.
A2P messaging: Short for application-to-person: texts sent by software, such as appointment reminders or marketing, rather than typed by one person to another. US carriers apply registration and consent rules to A2P traffic.
Accounts receivable: Money customers owe you for work already invoiced. Watching it closely, and following up on old invoices, keeps cash coming in.
Accrual accounting: Recording income when you earn it and expenses when you incur them, regardless of when money changes hands. It gives a truer picture of profit on larger jobs than cash-basis books.
ACH: The US bank-to-bank network used for electronic transfers and direct debits. ACH payments usually cost a business less to accept than cards but take longer to settle. See online payments for contractors.
Additional insured: A person or company added to your liability policy by endorsement so it is also covered for claims arising from your work. General contractors and property managers often require it before you start.
Aging report: A list of unpaid invoices grouped by how long they have been outstanding, such as 0 to 30, 31 to 60 and over 60 days. It shows which customers to chase first.
AI agent: AI software that can take steps on its own toward a goal, such as checking a calendar, booking a slot and sending a confirmation, instead of only answering questions.
AI crawler: A bot run by an AI company, such as OpenAI's GPTBot, that reads web pages. You can allow or block known AI crawlers in robots.txt. See what is llms.txt.
AI Overviews: AI-written summaries that Google shows above some search results. They draw on web pages, so clear, well-structured content can be cited in them.
AI receptionist: Software that answers your business phone with a natural-sounding voice, asks the caller your questions, answers common ones and can book the job on your calendar. See our AI receptionist service.
Alt text: A short written description of an image in a page's code. Screen readers read it aloud to visitors who can't see the image, and search engines use it to understand the picture. See how to take photos for your website.
Anchor text: The clickable words in a link. Search engines read it as a clue about the page being linked to, so "drain cleaning in Toledo" says more than "click here".
Answer engine optimization (AEO): Writing and structuring pages so AI assistants and search features can lift a clear, direct answer from them. It overlaps heavily with GEO and good SEO. See how to show up in ChatGPT answers.
Answering service: A company whose human agents answer calls for many businesses, following a script you provide. Depending on the plan, they take messages, transfer urgent calls or book appointments.
API: Short for application programming interface: a defined way for two pieces of software to exchange data, such as a CRM sending paid invoices to accounting software.
Arrival window: The time range you give a customer for when the crew will show up, such as 8 to 10 a.m. Shorter windows and an on-my-way text reduce no-shows. See ways to reduce no-shows.
Attribution: Working out which marketing channel produced a lead or a job. Good attribution lets you compare channels on cost per booked job instead of on gut feel. See how to track lead sources.
Auto attendant: A recorded phone menu that greets callers and routes them by key press, such as "press 1 for service". It is a simple form of IVR.
Average ticket: Average revenue per completed job or invoice. Raising it through options and add-ons often grows profit faster than chasing more leads. See upsell ideas.

B

Backlink: A link to your website from another website. Links from real local organizations, suppliers and press tell search engines your business is known. See backlinks for local businesses.
Balance sheet: A financial statement showing what the business owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities) and the owner's equity on a given date.
BIMI: Short for Brand Indicators for Message Identification: a standard that lets your logo appear next to your emails in supporting inboxes. It requires a DMARC policy set to quarantine or reject, and Gmail also requires a paid mark certificate.
Blocklist: A list of domains or sending servers flagged for spam, which mail providers check before accepting messages. Landing on one can send all your mail to spam or block it.
BOI report: Short for beneficial ownership information: a federal report about who owns and controls a company, created by the Corporate Transparency Act. In March 2025 FinCEN exempted companies created in the US and their US owners from filing; check FinCEN's site for the current rules.
Booking rate: The share of inbound calls or inquiries that turn into a scheduled job or appointment. It measures how well the phones and office convert demand. See phone answering tips.
Bounce rate (email): The share of emails sent that could not be delivered. A rising rate usually means an old or purchased list, and it hurts deliverability.
Bounce rate (website): In Google Analytics 4, the share of visits that were not engaged, meaning the visitor left quickly, viewed one page and took no tracked action. A high rate on a quote page is worth a look; on a contact page it may just mean people called.
Break-even point: The revenue at which income exactly covers all costs, so you make neither profit nor loss. Every dollar of gross profit above it is profit.
Bulk sender: Google's term for anyone sending close to 5,000 or more messages to personal Gmail accounts in a day. Bulk senders must meet stricter rules, including authentication and one-click unsubscribe. See Google and Yahoo sender requirements.
Burden rate: The full hourly cost of an employee beyond wages, including payroll taxes, workers' compensation, insurance and benefits. Price from the burdened rate, not the wage. See hourly rate calculator.
Business email: Email on your own domain, such as office@yourcompany.com, instead of a free address. It looks more professional and stays with the business. See business email.
Business hours routing: Phone rules that send calls to different places by time and day, such as the office during the day, an answering service at night and on-call staff on weekends.
Business owner's policy: A package of insurance for small businesses, usually combining general liability and commercial property coverage at a lower price than buying them separately. See business insurance for contractors.

C

Call forwarding: Sending calls from one number to another, such as from the office line to a cell phone or answering service.
Call queue: A line that holds callers in order until someone is free, often with music or messages, instead of sending them to voicemail.
Call recording: Saving a recording of a phone call. Consent rules differ by state: some require only one party to consent and others require everyone on the call to agree. See can you record business calls.
Call to action: The specific next step a page or message asks for, such as "Call now", "Book online" or "Get a free quote". Each page should have one clear call to action.
Call tracking: Using a separate phone number for each marketing channel, all forwarding to your main line, so you can see which channel made the phone ring.
Callback: A return trip to fix or finish work you already did, usually unpaid. Tracking callbacks by tech and job type shows where training or process needs work.
CAN-SPAM Act: The US federal law for commercial email. It requires honest sender and subject lines, a valid physical postal address and a working way to opt out, and opt-out requests must be honored within 10 business days. See email marketing for contractors.
Canonical tag: A line of code that tells search engines which version of a page is the main one when similar or duplicate versions exist. Google treats it as a strong hint, not a command.
Card on file: A customer's card saved securely with your payment processor, with their permission, so you can charge it for future visits without asking for the number again.
Cash-basis accounting: Recording income when you receive it and expenses when you pay them. Most small businesses can use it, and it is simpler to keep.
Certificate of insurance: A one-page document from your insurer showing your coverage types, limits and dates. Customers, property managers and general contractors often ask for one before you start work. See business insurance for contractors.
Change order: A written, signed change to the scope or price of a job after the original quote was approved. It prevents arguments at invoice time.
Chargeback: A reversal of a card payment that the customer disputes with their bank. You can respond with evidence such as a signed quote and photos, and processors usually charge a fee for each one.
ChatGPT: OpenAI's AI assistant, which can draft text, answer questions and search the web. See AI tools for contractors.
Churn rate: The share of recurring customers who cancel in a period. For weekly or monthly services, small changes in churn make a big difference to revenue.
Citation: Any online listing of your business name, address and phone number, such as a directory, map app or industry site. Consistent citations help search engines confirm your business details.
Click rate: The share of email recipients who click a link in the message. Mailchimp's benchmarks, last updated in December 2023, put the all-user average at 2.62%.
Close rate: The share of quotes or leads that turn into paid jobs. It is the number that turns a cost per lead into a cost per job.
CMS: Short for content management system: software such as WordPress that lets you edit website pages through an admin screen instead of code.
CNAM: Short for caller name: the name shown alongside a phone number on some phones. Providers let you register the name for your numbers, though whether it displays depends on the receiving carrier and device.
CNAME record: A DNS record that points one domain name at another, often used to connect a subdomain like www or book to a service provider.
Commercial auto insurance: Insurance for vehicles used for business. Personal auto policies may not cover work use, so check before putting a truck on the road. See business insurance for contractors.
Conversion rate: The share of visitors or leads that take the action you want, such as submitting a quote request or booking a job.
Conversion tracking: Recording when a visitor takes a valuable action, such as a call, form submission or booking, so you can see which pages, ads and channels produce leads. See how to track lead sources.
Cooling-Off Rule: An FTC rule that generally lets customers cancel certain sales made at their home within three business days, and requires the seller to give written notice of that right. There are exceptions, including some emergency repairs the customer requests.
Core Web Vitals: Google's measures of real-world page experience: how fast the main content loads, how quickly the page responds to taps, and how much the layout shifts while loading.
Cost of goods sold: The direct costs of delivering the work you sold, such as job labor, materials and subcontractors. Revenue minus cost of goods sold is gross profit. See job costing.
Cost per acquisition: What you spend on marketing to win one paying customer. Divide total spend on a channel by the jobs it produced.
Cost per click: What you pay each time someone clicks a pay-per-click ad. Prices are set by auction and vary by trade, area and season.
Cost per lead: What you pay, on average, for each inquiry from a channel. It ignores how many leads you actually close, so compare channels on cost per job as well. See cost per lead vs cost per job.
Crawl budget: How many pages a search engine is willing and able to crawl on a site in a given period. Google says it mainly matters for very large sites, so most small business sites do not need to worry about it.
Crawler: A program that search engines and AI companies use to visit web pages and read their content. Googlebot is Google's main crawler.
CRM: Short for customer relationship management: the system that holds your customers, leads, quotes, jobs, invoices and history in one place. See what a CRM is for a service business.
CSV file: A plain text spreadsheet file with values separated by commas. It is the usual format for exporting customers and jobs from one system and importing them into another. See how to switch CRM without losing data.
CTR (click-through rate): The share of people who saw a link, ad or search result and clicked it. Search Console shows CTR for each search query and page.
Customer lifetime value: The total gross profit you expect from a customer over the whole relationship, including repeat visits and referrals. It tells you how much you can sensibly spend to win one.

D

DBA: Short for "doing business as": a registered trade name that lets a person or company operate under a name other than its legal one. Registration rules vary by state and county.
Deliverability: How reliably your emails reach the inbox instead of spam or nowhere. It depends on authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), list quality, complaint rates and content.
Deposit: A payment collected before work starts, often to cover materials or hold a date. State the amount and refund terms in the quote.
Depreciation: Spreading the cost of a long-lasting asset, such as a truck or mower, over several years for tax and accounting purposes. Federal rules such as Section 179 can let you deduct more in the first year.
Dispatch: Assigning jobs to techs or crews and sending them out, often adjusting through the day as calls come in.
Dispatch board: A screen showing every tech or crew and their assigned jobs on a timeline or map, used to schedule and reassign work through the day. See custom CRMs.
DKIM: An email authentication method that adds a digital signature to outgoing mail, letting receiving servers confirm the message came from your domain and was not altered. See SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained.
DMARC: A DNS record that tells receiving mail servers what to do with messages that fail SPF or DKIM checks for your domain, and where to send reports.
DNS: The Domain Name System: the internet's directory that connects your domain name to your website, email and other services through records such as A, CNAME, MX and TXT.
Do Not Call Registry: The national list, run by the FTC, of phone numbers whose owners have opted out of telemarketing calls. Sales calls to registered numbers are restricted, with limited exceptions such as an established business relationship. See SMS marketing rules.
Domain Authority: A 1 to 100 score created by the SEO company Moz to estimate how well a site might rank. Google does not use it; similar scores from other tools are also third-party estimates.
Domain registrar: The company you register and renew your domain name with. Keep the account in your company's name; you have the right to transfer a domain to a different registrar.
Double opt-in: A sign-up process where a person confirms their subscription, usually by clicking a link in a confirmation email, before you add them to your list.
Drip campaign: A series of automated emails or texts sent on a schedule after a trigger, such as a quote being sent or a job being completed.
Duplicate content: The same or nearly the same text appearing on several pages. Town pages that only swap the city name are a common example, and search engines tend to show just one version.

E

E-E-A-T: Short for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: qualities Google asks its search quality raters to look for in content. Real photos, named owners, licenses where they apply and honest detail all show it.
E911: Enhanced 911 service, which sends a caller's location to emergency dispatchers. Internet phone providers must support 911, so keep the registered address for each line current.
EIN: An Employer Identification Number: a nine-digit federal tax ID issued free by the IRS. Businesses use it for taxes, bank accounts and hiring. See how to get an EIN.
Email service provider: Software used to send marketing and bulk email, such as Mailchimp, with list management, templates, unsubscribes and reports. Often shortened to ESP. See email and SMS marketing.
Employee vs independent contractor: Whether a worker is your employee or an independent contractor depends on how much control you have over the work, not on what you call them. Getting it wrong can bring back taxes and penalties. See classifying workers.
Entity: A distinct thing a search engine or AI system recognizes, such as a business, person, place or service. Consistent names, addresses and structured data help them connect facts about your business to one entity.
Estimate: An approximate price for a job, which may change once the work is better understood. Many companies use "estimate" and "quote" interchangeably, so say clearly whether a price is firm.
Estimated taxes: Federal income and self-employment tax paid in quarterly installments by people whose income has no withholding, such as business owners. See how estimated taxes work.
Exclusive lead: A lead sold to only one business. Exclusive leads usually cost more than shared ones. See shared vs exclusive leads.

F

Featured snippet: A short answer Google sometimes pulls from a web page and shows above or within the results. Pages that answer one question clearly near the top are more likely to be picked.
FICA: The federal Social Security and Medicare taxes on wages. Employers withhold the employee's share from each paycheck and pay a matching employer share.
Field service management: Software for businesses that do work at customers' locations: scheduling, dispatch, quotes, invoices, payments and crew management.
First-time fix rate: The share of service calls resolved on the first visit with no return trip. Low rates usually point to missing parts, poor information at booking or training gaps.
Flat-rate pricing: Charging a set price per task, usually from a price book, instead of billing by the hour. Customers know the price before work begins.
Fleet tracking: GPS devices or apps that show where company vehicles are, with trip history and sometimes driving behavior. Tell employees about tracking and check your state's rules. See route optimization.
Form I-9: The federal form employers use to verify the identity and work authorization of every new hire. The employee completes their part by the first day, and the employer reviews documents within three business days.
FUTA: The federal unemployment tax, paid by employers only and not withheld from wages. It applies to the first $7,000 of each employee's yearly wages, and a credit for state unemployment taxes usually lowers the rate.

G

GA4: Google Analytics 4, Google's free website analytics tool. It reports visitors, traffic sources and the actions you mark as key events. See how to track lead sources.
General liability insurance: Business insurance that covers claims of injury to other people or damage to their property caused by your work. Requirements vary by state and by customer. See business insurance for contractors.
GEO (generative engine optimization): Making your business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to understand, trust and recommend. See how to show up in ChatGPT answers.
Good, better, best pricing: Offering three versions of a job at different prices, so the customer chooses how much to spend instead of deciding yes or no. See good, better, best quotes.
Google Ads: Google's auction-based advertising platform, where you pay when someone clicks a search ad. You choose keywords, areas and budgets. See lead sources compared.
Google Business Profile: Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps, with your services, hours, photos and reviews. For local service companies it is often the first thing customers see. See Google Business Profile for contractors.
Gross margin: Revenue minus the direct cost of doing the work (labor, materials, fuel), shown as a percentage of revenue.

H

Hallucination: When an AI model states something false with confidence, such as a made-up price, rule or policy. Check AI output before it reaches a customer. See AI tools for contractors.
Hard bounce: An email that failed permanently, usually because the address doesn't exist. Remove hard-bounced addresses right away.
Hosting: The service that stores your website files and serves them to visitors. With a website builder, hosting is part of the platform; with a custom site, you choose the host.
Human handoff: The point where an AI receptionist or chatbot passes a conversation to a person, such as for an emergency or an upset caller. Define these rules before going live. See questions to ask an AI receptionist provider.

I

Impression share: In Google Ads, the share of times your ad showed out of the times it was eligible to show. Low impression share usually means a budget that runs out or bids that lose the auction.
Indexing: A search engine storing a page in its database so it can appear in results. A page that is not indexed cannot rank; Search Console shows which pages are indexed.
Interchange fee: The fee a card network sets and the customer's bank collects on every card payment. It is usually the largest part of what you pay to accept cards.
Internal link: A link from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Good internal links help visitors find services and help search engines understand which pages matter.
IVR: Short for interactive voice response: a phone system that lets callers press keys or speak to reach the right department or information.

J

Job costing: Tracking the labor, materials and other costs of each job against its price, so you know which jobs actually make money.

K

Keyword: A word or phrase people type or say into a search engine, such as "gutter cleaning near me". Keyword research shows which phrasings real customers use.
Knowledge base: The set of facts an AI assistant is given about your business: services, areas, hours, policies and answers to common questions. Its answers are only as good as this information.

L

Labor efficiency: Billable or productive hours divided by paid hours. Drive time, waiting on parts and trips back to the shop all lower it.
Landing page: A web page built for one purpose, such as one service in one area, where visitors from an ad, search result or email arrive.
Lead credit: A credit a lead marketplace applies to your account for a lead it agrees was invalid. On Angi, credits go toward future lead charges and expire after six months if unused.
Lead marketplace: A platform such as Angi or Thumbtack that collects requests from homeowners and charges pros to connect with them. See why we recommend owning your leads.
Lead source: Where a lead came from, such as Google, a referral, a yard sign or a marketplace. Record it on every customer so you can see what pays. See how to track lead sources.
Letter of authorization: The signed form, often called an LOA, that lets a new phone provider take over your numbers from the old one. The name and details must match the current account exactly. See how to port a business phone number.
Lien waiver: A signed document in which a contractor or supplier gives up lien rights for a payment. A conditional waiver takes effect once the payment clears; an unconditional one takes effect immediately, so only sign it after you are paid. See mechanic's liens explained.
List hygiene: Regularly cleaning an email list by removing bounced, inactive and unsubscribed addresses. A smaller, active list reaches the inbox more reliably than a large stale one.
LLC: A limited liability company: a state-registered business structure that can separate business debts and claims from your personal assets. Rules, fees and taxes vary by state. See LLC vs sole proprietor.
LLM: Short for large language model: an AI system trained on large amounts of text to understand and generate language. ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are built on LLMs.
llms.txt: A proposed convention: a plain text file at the root of a website that summarizes the site for AI tools in a simple format. Support from AI companies varies. See what is llms.txt.
Local pack: Another name for the map pack: the short list of nearby businesses Google shows with a map for local searches. See local SEO for contractors.
Local SEO: Work that helps a business appear in local search results and the map pack: a complete Business Profile, reviews, consistent citations, and service and area pages. See SEO and AI search.
LSA (Local Services Ads): Google's pay-per-lead ads for service businesses. Google charges for leads such as calls and messages, decides which leads to credit back, and in 2026 began moving these ads into Google Ads. See Local Services Ads vs SEO.

M

Maintenance agreement: A plan where a customer pays, often monthly or yearly, for scheduled service visits and sometimes priority or discounts. It turns one-off customers into recurring revenue.
Map pack: The group of local business listings shown with a map above the regular Google results for searches like "plumber near me".
Markup: The amount added to your cost to set a price, shown as a percentage of cost. A 50% markup is not the same as a 50% margin.
Mechanic's lien: A legal claim against a property by a contractor or supplier who was not paid for work or materials on it. Notice deadlines and steps vary by state and are strict. See how mechanic's liens work.
Merchant account: An account that lets a business accept card payments, provided by a payment processor or bank. Many small businesses use processors that bundle it in.
Meta description: The short page summary in a page's code that search engines may show under the title in results. It does not directly affect ranking, but a clear one can earn more clicks.
Missed-call text back: An automatic text sent from your business number to anyone whose call you miss, so they hear from you right away. See missed-call text back.
Mobile-first indexing: Google's practice of mainly using the mobile version of a page for ranking. A site that works poorly on phones is judged on that version.
MX record: A DNS record that tells the internet which servers receive email for your domain. Change it carefully, since a mistake can stop incoming mail.

N

NAP: Short for name, address and phone number. Keeping these identical across your website, Business Profile and directories helps search engines match your listings.
Negative keyword: A word you tell an ad platform not to show your ads for, such as "jobs" or "DIY". It stops you paying for clicks from people who will never hire you.
Net 30: Payment terms that make an invoice due 30 days after the invoice date. Net 15 and net 60 work the same way.
Net profit margin: Profit left after all costs, including overhead and owner pay, shown as a percentage of revenue.
No-show: A booked appointment where the customer isn't there or cancels at the door. Reminders and deposits reduce them.
Nofollow link: A link marked with rel="nofollow" (or the related "sponsored" and "ugc" labels), which tells search engines not to treat it as an endorsement. Google treats these labels as hints.
Noindex tag: A line of code that asks search engines to keep a page out of their results. Use it for thank-you pages and private pages; blocking a page in robots.txt alone does not reliably keep it out.

O

One-click unsubscribe: An unsubscribe that works with a single click, with no login or form. Gmail and Yahoo require it in marketing email from bulk senders and expect requests to be honored within two days.
Open rate: The share of email recipients recorded as opening a message. Mailchimp's benchmarks (December 2023) show a 35.63% average across users, and privacy features in Apple Mail can inflate opens.
Opt-in: A person's permission to receive your marketing messages. For marketing texts sent with automated systems, federal rules require prior express written consent. See SMS marketing rules.
Organic traffic: Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results instead of ads. It keeps coming without a per-click charge, which is why owning your search presence matters. See SEO and AI search.
Overhead: Business costs that don't belong to a single job, such as rent, office wages, software, insurance and vehicles. Every job's price has to carry a share of it.
Overtime: Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, nonexempt employees must be paid at least one and a half times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek. Some states add stricter rules. See timesheets and payroll for field crews.
Owner's draw: Money an owner of a sole proprietorship or LLC takes out of the business for personal use. It is not a business expense and is not payroll.

P

Pay per click: An ad model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad, whether or not they contact you. Yelp Ads and most Google search ads work this way.
Pay per lead: A model where you pay for each inquiry or customer connection, whether or not you win the job. Angi, Thumbtack and Google Local Services Ads use forms of it. See how much Angi leads cost.
Payment processor: The company that handles card and bank payments between your customer, the card networks and your bank account, such as Stripe or Square. See online payments for contractors.
PBX: Short for private branch exchange: the system that runs a business's internal phone network, with extensions, transfers, voicemail and call routing. Most small businesses now use a cloud-hosted PBX instead of a box in a closet. See business phone systems.
PCI DSS: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard: security rules for any business that accepts, stores or sends card data. Using a processor that keeps card numbers off your systems makes compliance much simpler.
Performance bond: A surety bond that guarantees a contractor will complete a job according to the contract. Public projects and some commercial work require them.
Pipeline: All open leads and quotes, grouped by stage, such as new, quoted, follow-up and won. Reviewing it weekly keeps quotes from going cold. See quote follow-up.
Port-out PIN: A PIN or passcode your phone carrier requires before your number can be moved to another provider. It blocks unauthorized transfers, and you will need it when you port a number yourself.
Porting: Moving a phone number from one carrier or provider to another while keeping the number. Keep your business numbers in your company's name so you can port them.
Postmaster Tools: Google's free dashboard for senders that shows spam complaint rate, domain reputation and authentication results for mail sent to Gmail users. See how to check if your emails go to spam.
Price book: A standard list of tasks and prices that techs use to quote in the field, often paired with flat-rate pricing.
Profit and loss statement: A report of revenue, costs and profit over a period, also called a P&L or income statement. See numbers every service business should track.
Progress billing: Invoicing a larger job in stages as work is completed, instead of all at the end.
Progress payment: A payment received as a stage of a larger job is completed, under a progress billing schedule written into the contract.
Prompt: The instructions or question you give an AI tool. Specific prompts with context, such as your trade, area and audience, get better results. See AI tools for contractors.
Punch list: A list of small items to finish or correct before a job is considered complete, usually made during a final walk-through with the customer.

Q

Quality Score: A 1 to 10 rating Google Ads gives each keyword, based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Higher scores can lower what you pay per click. See Google Ads for contractors.
Quote: A firm price for a defined scope of work. Online quotes that customers can approve and sign speed up the yes. See quote follow-up.

R

Recurring job: A job that repeats on a schedule, such as weekly mowing or quarterly pest control, set up once in the CRM so each visit is created and billed automatically.
Recurring revenue: Income from customers who pay on a schedule, such as weekly service or yearly maintenance plans. It makes cash flow and crew planning more predictable. See recurring service billing.
Referral program: A system for asking happy customers to recommend you, often with a thank-you reward. See referral programs for service businesses.
Registered agent: The person or company designated to receive legal papers and official state mail for an LLC or corporation. States require one for these entities.
Relevance, distance and prominence: The three main factors Google says decide local search results: how well a listing matches the search, how far the business is from the searcher or the searched location, and how well known the business is. See Google Business Profile for contractors.
Remarketing: Showing ads to people who already visited your website or are on your customer list. Also called retargeting; rules on data and consent apply.
Retainage: A percentage of each payment held back by the customer or general contractor until the whole job is finished and accepted. It is common in commercial construction and ties up your cash, so price it in.
Review gating: Asking only customers you expect to be happy for public reviews, or screening them first. Google's content policy bars businesses from selectively soliciting positive reviews. See how to get more Google reviews.
Rich result: A search result with extra features, such as star ratings, FAQs or prices, that structured data can make eligible. Google decides whether to show one and does not guarantee it.
Ring group: A set of phones that ring together or in order when your business number is called, such as the office line and the owner's cell.
ROAS: Short for return on ad spend: revenue from ads divided by what the ads cost. Look at gross profit as well, since revenue alone can make a losing campaign look fine.
Robocall: A call that uses an automated dialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice. In 2024 the FCC ruled that AI-generated voices count as artificial voices under the TCPA, so the same consent rules apply.
robots.txt: A text file at the root of a website that tells search engine crawlers which parts of the site they may or may not crawl.
Route density: How many stops a crew can serve close together. Higher density means less drive time and more billable work per day.
Route optimization: Ordering a day's stops to cut driving time and mileage, usually with mapping software.

S

S corporation: A federal tax election that an LLC or corporation can make with the IRS. Owners who work in the business must pay themselves a reasonable salary through payroll, and the rest of the profit can pass through as distributions.
Sales tax: A state and sometimes local tax on certain sales. Whether services are taxable varies widely by state, so check your state's revenue department or a tax professional.
Sales tax nexus: A connection with a state that requires you to collect and remit its sales tax, such as physical presence or, since the 2018 Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, enough sales into the state. See sales tax on services.
SBA loan: A loan made by a bank or other lender and partly guaranteed by the US Small Business Administration, such as the 7(a) program. The guarantee makes lenders more willing to lend to small businesses.
Schema markup: Structured data added to a web page's code that tells search engines and AI tools exactly what the business is, what it offers and where. See what a contractor website needs.
Scope of work: The written description of exactly what a job includes and excludes. A clear scope is the basis for the quote, any change orders and the final invoice.
Search Console: Google's free tool that shows which searches bring people to your site, which pages are indexed and what problems Google found. Keep it under your own account.
Search intent: The goal behind a search. "Emergency plumber" signals someone ready to hire now, while "why is my water heater making noise" signals someone researching.
Section 179: A federal tax rule that lets a business deduct the cost of qualifying equipment and vehicles in the year it starts using them, up to annual limits, instead of depreciating them over years. See buying a work truck.
Segmentation: Splitting a customer list into groups, such as by service bought, area or last visit date, so each group gets messages that fit.
Self-employment tax: The Social Security and Medicare tax owed by self-employed people, at 15.3% on most net earnings, with the Social Security part capped each year. It applies once net self-employment earnings reach $400 in a year.
Sender reputation: How mailbox providers rate a sending domain or server based on its history of complaints, bounces, spam traps and engagement. A poor reputation sends mail to spam.
Service area page: A website page for one town or area you serve, with content specific to that place. See service area pages that rank.
Service-area business: In Google Business Profile terms, a business that visits or delivers to customers instead of serving them at its address. Google asks these businesses to hide their street address and list their service areas instead. See how to add service areas.
Shared lead: A lead sold to, or able to reach, more than one business. Angi's 2025 annual report says a single request can result in multiple leads, and Thumbtack lets a customer contact up to five pros in the first four hours.
Short code: A five- or six-digit number used to send high-volume business texts. Short codes are leased and each one needs carrier approval, so they cost more and take longer to set up than a 10DLC number.
SIP: Short for Session Initiation Protocol: the standard most internet phone systems use to set up and end calls.
SIP trunk: An internet connection between a phone system and the public phone network, replacing traditional phone lines. Businesses with their own PBX buy SIP trunks to make and receive outside calls.
Soft bounce: A temporary delivery failure, such as a full mailbox or a server that is down. Providers usually retry, but an address that soft-bounces repeatedly should come off the list.
Softphone: A phone app on a computer or cell phone that works as an extension of your business phone system, so you can call and text from the business number anywhere.
Sole proprietorship: The default structure for one person in business without forming an entity. It is simple, but there is no legal separation between business and personal liability. See LLC vs sole proprietor.
Spam complaint rate: The share of recipients who mark your email as spam. Google tells bulk senders to keep it below 0.1% and never let it reach 0.3%.
Spam likely label: A warning such as "Spam Likely" that carriers and phone apps may show for numbers their analytics flag. Registering your numbers and keeping call volume patterns normal helps avoid it.
Spam trap: An email address used by mailbox providers and blocklist operators to catch senders with poor list practices. Hitting one usually means a list was bought, scraped or never cleaned.
Speech-to-text: Software that turns spoken words into written text. AI receptionists use it to understand callers, and phone systems use it for transcripts and voicemail.
Speed to lead: How fast you respond to a new inquiry. A 2011 Harvard Business Review study found firms that followed up within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify a lead. See speed to lead for contractors.
SPF: A DNS record listing which servers may send email for your domain. It is one of the checks receiving servers use to decide whether mail is genuine.
SSL/TLS: The encryption that protects data traveling between a website and its visitors, shown by "https" in the address bar. Every business site should use it.
Standard operating procedure: A written, step-by-step way to do a recurring task, such as answering a new lead or closing out a job, so everyone does it the same way. See how to write SOPs.
Static site: A website delivered as ready-made files, with no database or admin login on the public site. Static sites tend to be fast, secure and easy to move between hosts. See our websites.
STIR/SHAKEN: The caller ID authentication framework US carriers use to sign calls and verify that the caller is allowed to use the number shown. The FCC requires most voice providers to implement it to fight spoofed robocalls.
Structured data: Information added to a page's code in a standard format, usually JSON-LD using the Schema.org vocabulary, that labels facts like business name, services, hours and reviews. See what a contractor website needs.
Subcontractor: A business or person hired by another contractor to do part of a job. Get a certificate of insurance from every sub before they start.
Suppression list: A list of addresses or numbers your system must never message, such as unsubscribes, bounces and complaints. It should carry over whenever you change software.
Surcharge: An extra fee added when a customer pays by credit card to offset processing costs. Card network rules and some state laws restrict surcharges, including on debit cards, so check the rules before adding one. See online payments for contractors.
Surety bond: A three-party guarantee in which a surety company promises a customer or government agency that a contractor will meet its obligations. If the surety pays a claim, the contractor must repay it. See business insurance for contractors.
SUTA: State unemployment tax, paid mostly by employers to fund state unemployment benefits. Rates, wage bases and rules vary by state, and new employers usually start at a standard rate.

T

TCPA: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the federal law on marketing calls and texts. It allows $500 in damages per violation, up to $1,500 if willful, and rules require prior express written consent for automated marketing texts. See SMS marketing rules.
The Campaign Registry: The central database where US businesses register their brand and texting campaigns for 10DLC messaging, usually through their texting provider. See 10DLC registration explained.
Title tag: The page title in a page's code, often shown as the blue link in search results and in the browser tab. Put the main service and area near the start.
Toll-free number: A number with a prefix such as 800, 888 or 877 that callers can dial at no charge. Local numbers often feel more familiar to homeowners, and texting from a toll-free number requires verification.
Toll-free verification: The approval process required before business texts can be sent from a toll-free number in the US. Unverified toll-free messages are blocked by carriers.
Transactional email: A message triggered by something a customer did, such as a booking confirmation, invoice or receipt. It is mostly exempt from CAN-SPAM's marketing rules as long as it stays transactional.
Trip charge: A fee to cover sending a tech to the property, sometimes credited toward the repair if the customer goes ahead. State it before booking.
Two-way texting: Texting customers from your business number and reading their replies in a shared inbox, so the whole office sees the conversation. See two-way texting.
TXT record: A DNS record that holds text, used to prove domain ownership to services like Google and to publish email authentication records such as SPF and DMARC.

U

Unsubscribe rate: The share of recipients who opt out after an email. Mailchimp's benchmarks (December 2023) put the all-user average at 0.22%.
UTM parameters: Tags added to the end of a link, such as utm_source=newsletter, that tell your analytics where a visitor came from.

V

VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol: phone service that runs over the internet. Most modern business phone systems use it. See business phone systems.

W

W-2: The form an employer gives each employee, and files with the Social Security Administration, showing yearly wages and taxes withheld. It is due by January 31. See running payroll.
W-9: The IRS form you ask an independent contractor or vendor to fill out so you have their legal name and taxpayer ID for 1099 reporting.
Warm-up: Gradually increasing how much email a new domain or sending server sends, so mailbox providers learn to trust it. Sending a large blast from a brand-new domain is likely to land in spam.
Webhook: An automatic message one system sends to another the moment something happens, such as a new web form submission creating a lead in your CRM.
Win-back campaign: Messages to past customers who haven't booked in a while, inviting them back. See win back past customers.
Work order: The job instructions sent to the tech or crew: customer, address, scope, materials, notes and photos. It becomes the record of what was done.
Workers' compensation: Insurance that covers employees' medical costs and lost wages from on-the-job injuries. Requirements are set by each state and vary with business type and number of employees.

X

XML sitemap: A file that lists the pages on your website for search engines to find. Submit it in Google Search Console after launching or rebuilding a site. See setting up Search Console.

Z

Zero-click search: A search where the person gets their answer on the results page, from a snippet, map listing or AI summary, and never visits a website. For local businesses that often still produces a call from the listing.

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