In short: This page defines every SerpDad term in one or two plain sentences. Terms are in alphabetical order. Where a term has another name in the app, both names are listed.
A
Actual vs estimate. An actual is the cost a provider reported for a call. An estimate is SerpDad's figure from published prices and usage, used when the provider reports no cost. Estimates are always marked as estimates.
Adjustment. A manual change to a workspace's usage record, made by SerpDad staff with a stated reason.
Admin. A workspace role that manages provider keys, members, runs, briefs and sign-offs, but not billing.
AI Mode check. A scheduled check of chosen focus keywords in Google AI Mode, on your DataForSEO key. It records which sources each answer cites and whether your site is among them.
AI Overview. The AI-written summary Google shows above some results. SerpDad reads, from results it already fetched, whether one appears and which URLs it cites.
Allowance. A monthly count of a per-use meter: drafted sections, voice passes, crawl pages and AI visibility checks. The plan sets no cap. Use is counted and shown.
Answer to beat. The featured snippet or AI Overview shown in a brief as the bar to clear. Its label in the brief is "The answer Google shows now".
Assembly drafting. How SerpDad drafts: the AI turns each brief section into sentences using only brief items, never facts from its own memory.
Audit log. SerpDad's internal record of every staff action, with who did it, what, to whom and when. It cannot be edited.
B
Block. One step in a workflow, with typed inputs, outputs and settings. Blocks come from a fixed catalogue.
Bonus keyword. See secondary keyword.
Branch. A path out of a workflow block, such as "Is true" and "Is false".
Brief. The writing plan for one standalone page: angle, outline with word budgets, terms, questions, and claims with sources.
Business-value read. The presence of ads and shopping results in a keyword's results, read as a sign of commercial intent.
C
Cannibalization. Two of your pages chasing the same search phrase. SerpDad's plans give each keyword one owner page so planned pages never do this.
Claim. A factual statement in a brief or draft, stored with a source link and a box a person ticks after checking it. Shown as F#.
Client. In the Jobs hub, a project in your workspace that a job runs on.
Clustering anchor. The keyword a page's group formed around. It equals the focus keyword unless a person changed the focus keyword.
Connection. An outside service linked to your workspace or project, such as Slack, Search Console or a draft target.
Content audit. The Improve page that sorts your site's pages into buckets from Search Console data: Quick win, Striking distance, Rework, Decay, Prune, Monitor and Keep.
Content score. An advisory score from 0 to 100 for one draft version, made of eight sub-scores. It never blocks sign-off and does not predict rankings.
Contested keyword. A keyword that ties exactly between two pages. It waits on the suggested page and goes to Review.
Cost gate. The screen before a run that shows the dollar estimate on your own accounts, your balance and your cap. Nothing runs until someone approves.
Coverage. The share of a brief's subtopics that are planned or dismissed. A brief exports only at 100%.
Credit, credit rate, credit policy. Older billing units counted in keywords. They are retired. SerpDad now sells one monthly plan, and runs no longer use credits.
Customer. A buying organisation. In the app, a customer is a workspace.
D
Decay. A page whose clicks fell more than 25% from at least 100 clicks, against the 28 days before.
Decision. A stored call SerpDad made, such as a keyword's owner page or a page's format, with its receipt.
Dedicated page. A search result whose whole page is about the phrase. The opposite of a section.
Differentiator. An outline item in your brief that no ranking page has. It is left out of the coverage count.
Draft. An article version written only from brief items. Every sentence has a type and cites its items. Versions never change.
Draft target. A system where SerpDad can create drafts of signed articles: WordPress, Webflow, Shopify or Google Docs. SerpDad never publishes there.
Drift re-open. A pinned keyword sent back to Review because a new run's results turned against the pin.
E
Editor. A workspace role that edits and verifies briefs, drafts and signs articles, and stages signed drafts.
Engine group. The fixed set of workflow blocks that fetch results, group keywords, score pages, route around your pages, park weak pages and add secondary keywords, ending with the plan check.
Existing pages. Your site's live URLs, from the results SerpDad fetched and from Search Console. The plan routes around them.
Experience interview. 3 to 5 questions only a practitioner can answer. Each saved answer becomes an E# item a draft can cite.
Experience item. A first-hand answer from the experience interview. Shown as E#.
F
Fact library. The list of every claim across your briefs and articles, with its source, last tick and where it is used.
Fair-use limit. The one size limit on the plan: up to 200,000 keywords per run.
Focus keyword. The keyword that names a page and leads its title, H1 and URL. Also called the founder keyword or leader.
Focus pin. A person's choice of focus keyword for a page, kept on later runs.
Format. The page type to build: list, how-to, comparison or landing.
Format vote. Choosing the format from the most common page type among the top 10 results.
Founder keyword. See focus keyword.
Free first plan. One run before you subscribe: up to 1,000 keywords, briefs for the top 5 pages, secondary keywords off, once per verified user.
Freshness window. How recent a stored result must be to reuse it. The default is 30 days.
G
GSC avg. A position taken from your Search Console average, shown when your page is past the top 10 or not in the fetched results.
GSC verdict. The comparison of a planned page with your live pages: build a new page, optimize an existing one, or consolidate pages that compete.
H
H2 section. A small group of keywords folded into a related page as a heading, because it did not earn its own page.
Hub. A top-level page in the plan, together with the sections folded into it. Hubs have names you can change.
I
Impersonation. SerpDad staff viewing the app as a customer sees it, view-only, with every change blocked and the session recorded.
In the lists. The AI visibility view that finds list articles in your keywords' top 10 results, split into "Already listed" and "Not listed".
J
Job. A pre-built workflow you turn on for many clients by answering three questions.
Junk keyword. A keyword you marked as worthless for a project. It leaves the plan and is never imported, fetched or billed again in that project.
Junk list. A project's list of junked phrases. You can restore any of them.
K
Keys pill. The top bar status of your required keys, for example "2 of 2 valid".
Keyword. One unique search phrase in a project, after removing exact duplicates.
Keyword inbox. Search Console queries that no keyword in the project covers yet. They cost nothing until you route them.
Keywords stored. The count of unique keywords across your workspace's live projects. It is a count, not a limit.
L
Landlord panel. SerpDad's internal admin area, used only by SerpDad staff.
Living plan. A plan whose pages, briefs and human work are kept and matched up across re-runs instead of rebuilt.
Low-balance pause. A run pauses when your DataForSEO balance drops below $2.00 and asks you to top up.
M
Manager. A workspace role that approves runs, settles reviews, generates briefs, invites members and signs articles.
Mixed-vintage plan. A plan built from results read on different dates. The cost gate and receipts say so.
Monthly spend cap. The most provider spend your workspace allows through SerpDad in a month. The suggested default is $50.
N
Next actions. The feed of what to do next across projects, each with a reason, a source, a receipt and one button.
Normalized phrase. A keyword lowercased and trimmed, used only to find exact duplicates.
O
Optimize, Optimize #N. A verdict that says to improve a page your site already has. "#N" is its Search Console average position.
Outline approval. Approving a page's outline on the Outlines page. In that path, it is the human approval of the article.
Owner. The one workspace role that can do everything, including billing and deleting the workspace.
Owner approval line. The per-run estimate above which an Owner or Admin must approve. Labelled "Owner approval above". The default is $25.00.
Owner page. The one page a keyword belongs to.
Owner pin. A person's choice of owner page for a keyword, made by moving it. SerpDad never moves a pinned keyword on its own.
P
Page. A group of keywords that one web page should serve. It is either standalone or an H2 section.
Pages compete. On the plan tiles, the count of keywords two planned pages both target, always 0. As a verdict chip, two or more of your existing pages earn impressions for one planned page.
Parked. A keyword kept in the plan sum without a page, because it has no search volume or nothing to join.
Plan. The page plan a run builds. Also the one monthly SerpDad subscription.
Plan sum. Keywords on new pages, plus keywords on existing pages, plus parked keywords, equals keywords routed.
Price band. The monthly price a workspace pays, set by when it first pays: $15, $25 or $35.
Price lock. A workspace keeps the band price it first paid for as long as it keeps paying.
Price sheet. SerpDad's internal table of provider prices, used to estimate costs.
Project. One site and one market inside a workspace. The market is United States, English, desktop, fixed at creation.
Provenance map. The per-sentence record on a draft: its type and the item it cites.
Provider fetch. A paid call to a data provider on your key.
Provider key. Your own credential for DataForSEO, an AI provider, Spiral or Ahrefs, stored encrypted and shown only as its last 4 characters.
Q
Question network. The set of questions a page should answer, grouped by the kind of answer each needs.
Quote. Exact words from a named person, with a source. Shown as Q#.
R
Ranks #N. A verdict that says your page appears at position N in the fetched top 10.
Read the published answer, never guess. SerpDad's rule that every decision comes from counting Google's actual results, never from what the words seem to mean.
Receipt. The saved evidence behind one decision: the top 10, the overlap, the fetch dates, the provider, the key and the model.
Receipts log. The Write page that lists the receipts behind your content.
Reconciliation. Matching each page of a new run to last run's page, first by focus keyword, then by its keywords.
Red flag. A drafted sentence that asserts something checkable with no brief item behind it. It blocks sign-off.
Refresh toggle. The choice on the cost gate to fetch results again for keywords that already have fresh ones. Off by default.
Related page. Another standalone page whose results share one or two results with this page's, so they should link but stay separate.
Report a wrong call. The link on every receipt and review card to tell SerpDad a decision looks wrong.
Re-run. A new run on a project's stored keywords. It is free on SerpDad.
Review queue. The list of calls that need a person. Only real ties and changes reach it.
Run. One pass over a project: import, estimate, approval, fetch, grouping, checks and review.
Run trace. SerpDad's internal timing record for each run step.
S
Secondary keyword. A keyword a page should also target, found from what the top pages also rank for. It is only ever on its own owner page. Also called a bonus keyword.
Section. A search result that covers the phrase as one part of a bigger page. Also, see H2 section.
SERP. Google's top 10 organic results for one keyword, in the project's market, stored with its fetch date.
SERP results. The ten rows of a SERP: URL, rank, title, format and dedicated or section.
Settled call. A small call SerpDad answers itself with its own pick, kept in history with a receipt.
Shared cache. Stored search results and volumes reused to save provider cost. Each workspace's stored data serves only that workspace.
Signal 1: SERP overlap. How many of two keywords' top 10 results are the same URL. At least the project's line (default 3) puts them on one page.
Signal 2: ranking-page footprint. What else the top-ranking pages rank for. It finds a page's secondary keywords.
Signal 3: standalone scope. How many of the top 10 are dedicated pages. It decides whether a page stands alone or becomes a section.
Sign-off. A named person approving one exact draft version. Any edit removes it.
Spend ledger. SerpDad's internal record of provider spend on each activity.
Stakes. The pill on a review card: Low stakes, Worth a look, or Changes traffic, set by the searches a month the call moves.
Standing approval. An Owner or Admin's approval for runs that start without a person, up to a per-run ceiling.
Superadmin. A SerpDad staff role for the internal admin area. It is not a workspace role.
Suspension. A staff action. A suspended user cannot sign in. A suspended workspace cannot start runs or make purchases.
T
Template. A ready-made workflow you copy into your workspace as a draft.
Topical map. The view of the plan as hubs and sections, with Hub map, Tree and Radial modes.
Top-up pack. An older one-off credit bundle. It is retired and cannot be bought.
Trigger. The block that starts a workflow run, such as Manual, Schedule or Webhook.
U
Unsourced sentence. A sentence whose numbers, names, dates or quotes do not appear in its own cited items. It blocks sign-off.
V
Verdict. What the plan says to do with a page: New page, Optimize, Ranks #N, Pages compete or Parked.
Version. A frozen copy of a workflow or a draft. Old versions never change.
Voice pass. An optional rewrite of a checked draft in your voice, on your own Spiral key. Facts and quotes never change.
W
Workflow. A chain of blocks a trigger starts, run against one project per run.
Workspace. Your team's space in SerpDad. It holds projects, members, provider keys, billing and the data bought with its keys.
Writer. A workspace role that edits, verifies and exports briefs and drafts articles, but does not sign.