SEO Glossary
245+ SEO Terms Decoded Just for You
Muiz Thomas
Founder & Creator
25 min read
Published: 19th October 2023
New to SEO? Hired an expert, maybe? This SEO glossary contains over 200 common terms, explained in plain language. No more confusion!
#
.htaccess – A file that helps set up website rules like redirects and password protection.
2xx Status Codes – Messages from the server saying everything worked fine.
200 Status Code – Status OK. The page or image loaded successfully.
301 Redirect – Permanently moving a webpage to a new address.
302 Redirect – Temporarily moving a webpage to a new address.
404 Status Code: – “Not Found” message from the server. Custom 404 pages can make the website easier to use.
4xx Status Codes – Messages from the server saying it couldn’t find what was requested.
5xx Status Codes – Messages from the server saying it had a problem.
A
A/B Testing – Trying out two versions of a website or ad to see which one works better.
Above the Fold – The part of a website you see without scrolling down.
Absolute Link – A full web address. For example: http://growup.com/folder/file.html
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) – A Google project to make webpages load faster on mobile devices.
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) – A way to get data from the server without refreshing the page.
Algorithm – A program that search engines use to find and rank webpages.
ALT Text/Alt Attribute – A text description of an image that helps search engines understand what the image is about.
Anchor Text – The clickable text in a hyperlink. It helps search engines know what the linked page is about.
Authority – How much a search engine trusts a website.
Author Authority – The reputation of the person who writes online content. It can influence how well the content ranks in search results.
B
Backlinks – Links from other websites to yours. They help people and search engines find your website.
Backlink Analysis – Checking who links to your website and identifying any bad links.
Bait and Switch – Making a website for one purpose and then changing it after it becomes popular.
Black Hat – Tactics that break Google’s rules.
Blog – A webpage with posts about specific topics.
Boolean Search – Using special words like “AND”, “NOT”, and quotes to refine your search.
Bookmark – Saving a website link for later.
Bot – A program that does specific tasks.
Bounce Rate – A percentage of people who leave after viewing only one page on your website.
Branded Keyword – A search term that includes a brand name, like “Nike shoes”.
Breadcrumb- A trail of links that shows where you are on a website.
Broken Link – A link that doesn’t work anymore.
Browser – Software you use to go on the internet, like Chrome or Safari.
C
Cache – Temporary data storage that helps websites and apps load faster.
Canonical URL – Helps search engines understand which address for a piece of content is the best one, even if the same content can be found at other addresses.
Country-code Top-level Domain (ccTLD) – A domain that specifies a country or region, like .co.uk for the UK.
Citation – Any online mention of a brand’s name, address, or phone number. It’s key for local SEO.
Click Bait – Content designed to get people to click, often by overpromising or misleading in headlines.
Click Depth – How many clicks it takes to get from the homepage to a specific page. Fewer clicks usually means better ranking.
Cloaking – Showing different content than what was expected, which is against Google’s rules.
Comment Spam – Off-topic comments posted by spambots, usually self-promotional.
Conceptual Searching – Used by search engines to understand a query’s meaning rather than just matching words.
Content Management System (CMS) – Software used to control what appears on a website, like WordPress or Joomla!.
Conversion Form – A form that collects visitor information and turns traffic into leads.
Conversion Rate – The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) – Testing a website to find ways to increase the conversion rate..
Cookie – A data file saved in your browser that tracks your activity and personalises your experience.
Core Update – Broad updates Google makes to its search algorithm several times a year.
Core Web Vitals – Metrics that measure how well a webpage performs in terms of user experience. They include loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability.
Crawl Budget – How many pages a search engine will look at on a website in a certain time.
Crawl Error – Pages that a search engine can’t crawl at or that give an error message.
Crawler – A program that search engines use to find information on websites.
Crawling – Using a crawler to find and organise information from webpages.
Customer Journey – All the times someone interacts with a brand, from first hearing about it to becoming a customer.
It usually involves four stages: Awareness, Consideration, Decision, and Retention.
D
Data – The numbers that represent real customers and help make decisions about SEO strategies.
Dead-End Page – A webpage that doesn’t link to any other pages.
Dark Search – Search queries that Google Analytics can’t report on.
Deep Link – A link to content within a mobile app or a webpage other than the homepage.
De-Index – When a search engine removes a webpage from search results, but it still exists on the website.
Direct Traffic – Visitors who type the website’s URL into their browser or click on a bookmark.
Directory – A list of websites, usually organised by category.
Disavow – Telling Google to ignore certain links because they’re low-quality or spammy.
Do-follow – A link that tells search engines to follow it.
Domain – Your website’s main web address (like www.yoursite.com).
Domain Age – How long a domain has been registered. It used to be thought that older domains ranked better, but this isn’t necessarily true anymore.
Domain Authority – A score from 0 to 100 that predicts how well a website will rank in search results.
Domain History – Any activity on a domain in the past, including backlinks and previous websites.
Dooorway Page – A webpage created just to rank for specific keywords and redirect users to another website.
Duplicate Content – Content that’s very similar or identical to content elsewhere on the same website or a different website.
Dwell Time – The time between when a user clicks on a search result and when they return to the search results page. Short dwell times can indicate low-quality content.
Dynamic Content – Content that changes over time. Search engines can have trouble indexing this type of content.
E
E-E-A-T – Stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It’s used by Google’s “Quality Raters” to assess the expertise of content creators.
Earned Media – Content created by third parties about your business that you didn’t pay for. Examples include social media posts, articles, and reviews.
Editorial Link – A link to your website that you didn’t pay for or ask for. You get these links by having great content and marketing.
Engagement Metrics – Measurements of how users interact with a website, like click-through rate, time on page, and repeat visits.
Everflux – Google’s term for the constant changes to its search algorithms and indexes.
Exit Rate – The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing a page. It’s different from bounce rate.
External Link – A link from your website to a different website. Also known as a backlink.
F
Favicon – The small picture next to a URL in web browsers.
Featured Snippet – A special block at the top of Google search results that provides a summary of an answer to a user’s question.
Findability – How easily the content on a website can be found by users and search engines.
The Fold – The point on your website where the page gets cut off by the bottom of a user’s monitor or browser window. Anything below the fold can be scrolled to but isn’t seen right away.
Fresh Content – New, dynamic content that can result in more frequent search engine crawling and higher levels of engagement.
G
Geo-targeting – Showing users ads or content based on their geographical locations.
Google Algorithm – Google’s complex program designed to connect search queries with relevant search results.
Google Analytics – A free program that tracks audience behavior, traffic sources, content performance, and more.
Google Bomb – A practice intended to make a website rank number one for a surprising or controversial search phrase..
Google Keyword Tool – Google’s free tool for keyword research.
Google Partner – A Google program for advertising agencies and digital marketers.
Google Penalties – Negative consequences for websites that break Google’s rules.
Google SEO – The steps you take to optimise your website for higher rankings in Google search results.
Google My Business – A local business directory from Google.
Google Search Console – A free Google tool that monitors a website’s performance.
Google Trends – A tool from Google that compares keyword search volumes over time.
Google Webmaster Guidelines – Google’s rules for ranking well in its search results.
Google Webmaster Tools – A suite of tools from Google for technical SEO control.
Googlebot – The name of Google’s web crawler.
Gray Hat – Techniques that mostly follow Google’s rules but bend them a little.
Guest Blogging – Writing content for other websites in exchange for a backlink to your own pages.
H
Header Tags – Code used to mark headings and subheadings.
Headings – Section titles on your website that are placed inside of a header tag.
Hidden Text – Text meant for search engines, not humans. Google penalises sites that use this.
Hijacking – Tricking a search engine into thinking a different website exists at a certain URL.
Homepage – The main page of a website.
.htaccess File – A server configuration file that can be used to rewrite and redirect URLs.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) – The code part of your website that search engines read.
Hummingbird – A Google algorithm update that improved understanding of semantics and synonyms in search.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) – The protocol used for communication between servers and web browsers.
Hub Page – An authoritative page dedicated to a specific topic that is continually updated and linked to.
I
Image Compression – Reducing an image’s file size to speed up a webpage.
Impressions – The number of times an ad has been served.
Inbound Link – A link from another website to yours.
Inbound Marketing – Marketing that attracts potential customers to a company instead of reaching out to them.
Indexability – How easily a search engine bot can understand and add a webpage to its index.
Indexing – The process used by search engines to analyze the content of a website and catalog files.
Indexed Pages – The pages of your website that are stored by search engines.
Information Architecture – How a website is organized and where various content and navigational elements are located on webpages.
Information Retrieval – Searching for information from a large database and presenting the most relevant information to an end user.
Internal Link – A link from one page to another on the same website..
Invisible Web – Parts of the Internet that haven’t been crawled by search engines and don’t appear in search results.
J
Javascript – A programming language that adds dynamic content to websites. It can make it harder for search engines to crawl and index webpages.
K
Keywords – Words and phrases in your website’s content that help people find your site through search results.
Keyword Cannibalisation – When multiple pages on the same website target the same keywords. This can confuse Google and lower all of those pages’ rankings
Keyword Density – How often a specific keyword appears on a page. It’s no longer important to monitor this, but keywords should appear naturally on pages.
Keyword Difficulty – How competitive a keyword is and how hard it’ll be to rank for it.
Knowledge Graph – Information related to a search query that Google displays at the top of the results page.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) – A specific metric that shows whether a marketing initiative is successful.
Keyword Not Provided – When Google doesn’t provide specific keyword information from organic referrals.
Keyword Prominence – Placing a keyword as high as possible on a webpage to influence ranking for a search term.
Keyword Research – The process of searching for keywords to target in your content based on volume, keyword difficulty, and other factors.
Keyword Stemming – Using variations of a word on a page. Google considers all variations of the word as the same stem keyword.
Keyword Stuffing – Overusing keywords in your content in an attempt to rank higher.
L
Landing Page – Any webpage that a visitor can arrive at. It’s often designed to capture leads or generate conversions.
Lazy Loading – A method that improves page speed by only loading an object when it’s needed.
Lead – A person who might be interested in your product or service. They share their email address in exchange for something valuable from your website.
Link – A connection between two websites. Links help users navigate and are important for how search engines rank websites.
Link Bait – Content that’s meant to grab attention and attract links from other websites.
Link Building – The process of getting other trusted and relevant websites to link to your website.
Link Farm – A group of websites that all link to each other to artificially increase search rankings (Spam).
Link Juice – The value a website gains when it gets a backlink from a high-authority website.
Link Profile – All the different types of links that point to a particular website.
Link Stability – When a link stays on a page consistently without being changed or updated.
Lazy Velocity – How quickly a website accumulates links. A sudden increase could be a sign of spamming.
Links, Internal – Links that go from one page to another on the same website..
Links, NoFollow – A link attribute that tells search engines not to follow the link or pass any credit to the page it’s linking to.
Links, Outbound or External – A link from your website to a different website.
Local Search – A search that allows users to find businesses in a specific geographic area.
Log File – A file that records user information like IP addresses, browser type, and number of clicks.
Log File Analysis – The process of exploring the data in a log file to identify trends and understand how search bots are crawling the website.
Long-Tail Keyword – Highly specific multiple-word terms that often show higher purchase intent. They’re usually easier to rank for because they have low search volume. For example: (leather watches for men under £350)
M
Machine Learning – A type of Artificial Intelligence where a system learns and adjusts a process on its own using data.
Manual Action – A penalty from Google when a website fails to comply with Google’s Webmaster guidelines. This can result in the website being demoted or removed from search results.
Manual Review – A review of a website by a search engine engineer to determine if it’s legitimate.
Meta Description – A tag that describes a webpage’s content. It doesn’t affect ranking, but is often displayed in search results.
Meta Keywords – A tag for adding keywords. It’s been ignored by search engines for years due to keyword stuffing.
Meta Tags – Information in the HTML code of a webpage that describes its contents to search engines.
Metric – A way to measure activity and performance in SEO.
Minification – Removing unnecessary characters in the source code to help a page load faster.
Mobile-first Indexing – Google primarily using the mobile version of a webpage for indexing and ranking.
Multivariate Testing – Testing multiple variables at once to find the best combination.
N
Negative SEO – A malicious practice where webspam techniques are used to harm another website’s search rankings
Niche – A specific subset of a broader category.
Noarchive Tag – A meta tag that tells search engines not to store a cached copy of your page.
Nofollow Attribute – A meta tag that tells search engines not to follow one specific outbound link.
Noindex Tag – A meta tag that tells search engines not to index a specific webpage.
O
Off-page SEO – SEO techniques that don’t involve changing your website, like attracting links from other websites and promoting your website on social media.
On-page SEO – Optimising the pages on your website to improve searchability and traffic.
Open Source – Software that comes with its source code so programmers can modify it as needed.
Opt-in – Marketing initiatives where a user chooses to participate, like an opt-in newsletter.
Opt-out – Marketing initiatives where a user chooses not to participate.
Organic SEO – A strategy that helps pages from your website rank at the top of the unpaid search results.
Organic Search Results – The unpaid listings of search engines. The goal of SEO is to increase one’s rank in these results.
Organic Traffic – Visitors who find your website through the search results instead of a paid ad.
Orphan Page – A webpage that isn’t linked to by any other pages on the website.
Outbound Link – A link that directs users from your website to another website.
Outbound Marketing – Marketing that reaches out to broad audiences in hopes of turning them into customers. It typically includes ads and direct mail.
P
PageRank – The first algorithm used by Google to order search results, based on the number and quality of inbound links.
Page Speed – How quickly a webpage loads. Influencing factors include file sizes, the source code, and the web server.
Page Title – The name you give your web page, which is seen at the top of your browser window. Page titles should contain keywords related to your business.
Pagination – When a series of content is broken up into a multi-page list, like category pages on e-commerce sites.
Panda – A Google algorithm update that’s now part of Google’s core algorithm.
Penguin – A Google algorithm that penalises sites that participate in link schemes that manipulate the number of links pointing to a page.
People Also Ask – A feature on the SERP that shows related questions and answers to a query.
Persona – A fictional representation of an ideal website visitor or customer based on actual data.
Pigeon – A Google algorithm update that strengthened the tie between local search and regular web search signals.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) – An advertising method where an advertiser pays each time a visitor clicks on their ad. Google Ads is a classic example of this.
Q
QDF (Query Deserves Freshness) – When a search engine shows newer webpages in search results if a particular search term is trending.
Quality Link – A link that counts more than others in SEO, usually from a universally trusted source or high authority domains.
Query – The words or phrases a user enters into a search engine.
R
Rank Brain – A part of Google’s algorithm that uses machine learning to understand search queries and provide the best results.
Ranking Factor – A component that determines where webpages should appear in search results for a specific query.
Reciprocal Links – When two or more websites link to each other. This can happen naturally, but using strategies to create these links can result in penalties.
Redirect – When a page or piece of content has moved to a new location. There are permanent and temporary redirects.
Referrer String – Information sent by a user’s browser when they move from page to page on the web. It includes information on where they came from previously.
Registrar – A company that handles the purchase and registration of domain names.
Reinclusion – The process of adding a website back into the search index after fixing any issues that caused it to be penalized.
Rel=canonical – An HTML tag that tells search engines which version of a webpage is the original when there are multiple pages with similar content.
Repeat Visits – When the same user visits a website more than once.
Reputation Management – Managing brand keywords so that search results only show positive news for the brand.
Retargeting or Remarketing – A marketing strategy that involves showing ads for previously viewed websites or products to a user. These are the ads that seem to “follow” users across the Internet.
Return on Investment (ROI) – A measure of the benefit or profit gained from an investment. The formula for ROI is (cost / revenue).
Responsive Design – A design practice that allows a website to adapt to any device it’s viewed on, improving the user experience.
Rich Media – Any ad that uses advanced features like video, audio, or other non-text elements.
Robots.txt – A text file that tells search engine crawlers which parts of your website they can access and which parts they should ignore.
RSS Feed (Really Simple Syndication) – A subscription-based way to get updates on new content from a web source. You can set up an RSS feed for your website or blog to help your followers stay updated when you release new content.
S
Schema – A type of microdata that creates an enhanced description (a rich snippet) in search results.
Scrape – Using a computer program or script to copy website content or information. Search engines do this to build a searchable index of websites.
Search Engine – The tool used to look for information online.
Search Intent – The reason why a user conducts a search.
Search Volume – The number of times a keyword is searched in a given period, usually a month.
Seasonal Trends – Natural increase and decrease of keywords during specific times of the year.
Seed Keyword – The primary keyword you want to rank for.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Increasing a website’s visibility in search engine results pages, including both paid and organic activities.
Semantic Search – The process search engines use to understand the intent and contextual meaning of a search query.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – The tactics used to optimise your website page to reach and maintain a high ranking on search engines for particular keywords.
SEO Copywriting – Writing copy that follows SEO best practices to rank well on search engines and provide a positive user experience.
SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page) – The page you’re sent to after you run a query in a search engine. It typically has 10 results on it, but this may vary depending on the query and search engine in question.
Sitelinks – Links that appear below the listing for the same website of a top-ranked organic search result. Pages can be blocked from appearing as sitelinks within the Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
Sitemap – A document that provides a map of all the pages on a website to make it easier for a search engine to index that website.
Spider – Also known as a web crawler, it’s a computer program that browses the internet and collects information about websites.
Split Testing – A controlled experiment used to compare at least two webpages to measure the effects of a different variable on conversions.
SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer) – Used to encrypt data that passes between a web server and the browser. A website without an SSL certificate is vulnerable to hackers who may gain access to confidential information.
Status Code – The response code sent by a server following a request.
Structured Data – Organised and tagged data to help search engines understand the information.
Subdomain – A subsection of a primary domain used to better organize your website and allow easier navigation.
T
Taxonomy – Organising and categorising a website to make it easier for users to find content and complete tasks.
Text Link Ads – Ads that appear as normal text links.
Thin Content – Website content that offers very little value or information to the user. This can negatively impact SEO.
Title Tag – An HTML meta tag that acts as the title of a webpage. It should include relevant keywords for that specific page and be written in a way that makes sense to people and attracts clicks.
Time on Page – An estimate of how long a user spent looking at a webpage.
Top Level Domain (TLD) – The name of the root space in a URL, like .com, .org, or .gov.
Tracking Code – A piece of JavaScript that provides Google Analytics with detailed traffic data from a website.
Traffic – The number of visits to your website.
Traffic Rank – How much traffic your site gets compared to all other sites on the internet.
U
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – The unique address that points to any given web content.
Universal Search – Google’s technique of blending search results from different search verticals like images, news, videos, etc.
Unnatural Links – Links that a site owner doesn’t vouch for or place for editorial reasons.
Usability – How people find your site easy to use. This involves site design, browser compatibility, and other factors.
Usage Data – Metrics and dimensions like number of repeat visits, time on site, CTR, etc. that all indicate who’s visiting a website.
User Experience (UX) – How easy and satisfying it is to use a website. This is related to bounce rate, cart abandon rate, and many other metrics.
V
Vertical Search – Links from other websites to yours. They help people and search engines find your website.
Viral Marketing – Checking who links to your website and identifying any bad links.
Virtual Server – Making a website for one purpose and then changing it after it becomes popular.
Visibility – Tactics that break Google’s rules.
Voice Search – A webpage with posts about specific topics.
W
Webspam – Methods that exist only to deceive or manipulate search engine algorithms and/or users.
Website Navigation – The elements and components on a page that let you easily access the various webpages on a website.
White Hat SEO – SEO practices that follow the best-practice guidelines set by Google and other search engines.
Word Count – The total number of words in the content. Too little content can signal low-quality to search engines.
X
XML (Extensible Markup Language) – Used by search engines to understand website data.
XML Sitemap – A file that lists a website’s important pages so that search engines can easily find and crawl them.
Y
Yahoo – A popular search engine and portal in the ’90s. Yahoo’s organic search results have been powered by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, since 2010.
Yandex – The most popular search engine in Russia, founded in 1997 by Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich.
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About the Author
Muiz Thomas
Professionally, I’ve got over 6 years of SEO, copywriting, and design experience. My job in a nutshell? Make your customers sit up, pay attention, and click (in that order).
