SEO Glossary
A complete dictionary of SEO terms — 150 entries, from fundamentals to AI search. Plain-English definitions, real examples, and why each one actually matters. Jump to a letter or scroll through from A to Z.
0-9
301 Redirect SEO term
A 301 redirect is a permanent instruction sending visitors and search engines from one URL to another.
302 Redirect SEO term
A 302 redirect is a temporary instruction sending visitors and search engines from one URL to another.
404 Error SEO term
A 404 error is the status code returned when a requested page cannot be found.
A
Above the Fold SEO term
Above the fold is the part of a page visible before any scrolling, on whatever device the visitor is using.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) SEO term
AEO is structuring content so it’s more likely to be surfaced as a direct answer by search and AI.
AI Overview SEO term
An AI Overview is an AI-generated summary appearing at the top of some search results.
Alt Text SEO term
Alt text is a written description attached to an image for accessibility and search engines.
Anchor Text Ratio SEO term
Anchor text ratio is the distribution of anchor types across the links pointing at a page or domain.
Answer Box SEO term
An answer box is a highlighted section on a results page directly displaying a factual answer.
Assisted Conversion SEO term
An assisted conversion is one where a channel appeared somewhere in the path but was not the final click.
Attribution Model SEO term
An attribution model determines which marketing touchpoint gets credit for a conversion.
B
Backlink SEO term
A backlink is a link from another website pointing to yours, treated as a signal of trust.
Bounce Rate SEO term
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a page without taking further action.
Breadcrumbs SEO term
Breadcrumbs are a navigation trail showing a visitor’s location within a site’s hierarchy.
Broken Link Building SEO term
Broken link building means finding dead links on other sites and suggesting your content as a replacement.
C
Cannibalization SEO term
Cannibalization happens when two or more pages on the same site compete for the same keyword.
Canonical Tag SEO term
A canonical tag tells search engines which page version is the master copy among duplicates.
ccTLD SEO term
A ccTLD is a two-letter country domain such as .de or .fr, used as an explicit geotargeting signal.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) SEO term
CLS measures how much visible content unexpectedly moves while a page is loading.
Co-Citation SEO term
Co-citation is when two entities are mentioned together on a page without a hyperlink connecting them.
Content Audit SEO term
A content audit is a systematic review of a website’s content to evaluate performance and relevance.
Content Cluster SEO term
A content cluster is a group of related articles linking back to one central pillar page.
Content Decay SEO term
Content decay is the gradual decline in a page’s organic traffic and rankings over time.
Content Gap SEO term
A content gap is a topic a competitor ranks for that your site currently has no content covering.
Content Pruning SEO term
Content pruning is the deliberate removal, merging, or redirection of pages that no longer earn their place.
Conversion Rate SEO term
Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action on a website.
Core Web Vitals SEO term
Core Web Vitals are metrics measuring loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.
Crawl Budget SEO term
Crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine will crawl on a site within a given timeframe.
Crawl Trap SEO term
A crawl trap is a URL pattern that generates effectively unlimited pages for a crawler to request.
Crawlability SEO term
Crawlability is how easily a search engine can access and navigate a site’s pages.
Crawled – Currently Not Indexed SEO term
A Search Console status meaning Google fetched the page and chose not to index it.
Crawling SEO term
Crawling is how search engines discover pages by following links.
CTR (Click-Through Rate) SEO term
CTR is the percentage of people who see your listing and click it.
D
Digital PR SEO term
Digital PR combines public relations with link building, earning coverage and backlinks through newsworthy stories.
Disavow SEO term
Disavow lets site owners ask a search engine to ignore specific backlinks when evaluating their site.
Dofollow Link SEO term
A dofollow link is a default hyperlink that passes ranking credit to the page it points to.
Domain Authority SEO term
Domain Authority is a third-party metric scoring a site’s ranking strength from 1 to 100.
Duplicate Content SEO term
Duplicate content is identical or near-identical text appearing on more than one URL.
Dynamic Rendering SEO term
Dynamic rendering serves a pre-rendered version to crawlers and the normal version to browsers.
E
E-E-A-T SEO term
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Entity SEO SEO term
Entity SEO is optimizing a brand or person to be clearly recognized as a distinct entity by search engines.
Evergreen Content SEO term
Evergreen content stays relevant and useful over a long period of time without frequent updates.
Exit Rate SEO term
Exit rate is the percentage of visits to a page that were the last page viewed in a session.
F
Faceted Navigation SEO term
Faceted navigation is the filter and sort system that lets visitors narrow a product listing by attributes.
Featured Answer SEO term
A featured answer is the specific content a search engine or AI selects to directly display as a response.
Featured Snippet SEO term
A featured snippet is a highlighted answer box above organic results, pulled from a webpage.
G
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) SEO term
GEO is optimizing content to be cited or summarized by generative AI tools like chatbots.
Goal Tracking SEO term
Goal tracking is setting up analytics to measure when visitors complete desired actions.
Google Analytics (GA4) SEO term
Google Analytics (GA4) is a free platform tracking how visitors behave on a website.
Google Business Profile SEO term
A Google Business Profile is a free listing in Google Search and Maps showing hours, location, and reviews.
Google Search Console SEO term
Google Search Console lets site owners monitor how their website appears in Google Search.
GPTBot SEO term
GPTBot is OpenAI’s crawler for gathering training data, separate from the agents used for search and browsing.
Guest Posting SEO term
Guest posting is writing and publishing an article on someone else’s website, often for a backlink.
H
H1 Tag SEO term
An H1 tag is the main heading on a page itself, distinct from the title tag.
Heading Hierarchy SEO term
Heading hierarchy is the nested order of H1 to H6 elements describing a page’s structure.
Helpful Content SEO term
Helpful content is content created primarily to genuinely satisfy a searcher’s needs.
Hreflang SEO term
Hreflang is an annotation telling search engines which language and regional version of a page to show.
HTTPS SEO term
HTTPS is a secure protocol that encrypts data sent between a browser and a website’s server.
I
Impressions SEO term
Impressions are the number of times your page appeared in search results.
Index Bloat SEO term
Index bloat is the accumulation of low-value indexed URLs that produce no impressions and no clicks.
Indexability SEO term
Indexability is whether a crawled page is actually eligible to appear in search results.
Indexing SEO term
Indexing is when a search engine stores a crawled page in its database so it can appear in results.
Information Gain SEO term
Information gain is how much a page adds that competing results on the same query do not already contain.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint) SEO term
INP measures how quickly a page responds after a visitor interacts with it.
Internal Link SEO term
An internal link connects one page on your site to another page on the same site.
J
JavaScript Rendering SEO term
JavaScript rendering is the step where a search engine executes a page’s scripts to see the final content.
JSON-LD vs Microdata SEO term
Two formats for writing structured data: JSON-LD sits in a script block, microdata sits inline in HTML.
K
Keyword SEO term
A keyword is the word or phrase someone types into a search engine.
Keyword Clustering SEO term
Keyword clustering groups queries that should be answered by the same page rather than separate ones.
Keyword Density SEO term
Keyword density is how often a keyword appears relative to total word count.
Keyword Difficulty SEO term
Keyword difficulty estimates how hard it would be to rank for a keyword based on current competition.
Keyword Research SEO term
Keyword research is discovering and evaluating the words people use when searching.
Knowledge Graph SEO term
A knowledge graph is a search engine’s database of entities and relationships between them.
L
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) SEO term
LCP measures how long it takes the largest visible element on a page to render.
Link Building SEO term
Link building is acquiring hyperlinks from other websites that point back to your own.
Link Juice SEO term
Link juice is the ranking value or authority passed from one page to another through a hyperlink.
Link Reclamation SEO term
Link reclamation is recovering link value you already earned but broke through moves, deletions, or redirects.
Link Velocity SEO term
Link velocity is the rate at which a website acquires new backlinks over time.
LLM Citation SEO term
An LLM citation is a reference an AI chatbot includes when drawing on a specific website’s content.
llms.txt SEO term
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file describing a site’s key content for large language models.
Local Citation SEO term
A local citation is any online mention of your business name, address, and phone number.
Local Pack SEO term
The local pack is a group of three business listings with a map shown for local search queries.
Local SEO SEO term
Local SEO is optimizing a business’s online presence to attract customers from local searches.
Log File Analysis SEO term
Log file analysis reads raw server logs to see which URLs a crawler actually requested, and what it received.
Long-Tail Keyword SEO term
A long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase with lower volume but higher intent.
LSI Keywords SEO term
LSI keywords refers to words and phrases conceptually related to a main topic.
M
Manual Action SEO term
A manual action is a penalty applied by a human reviewer at Google and reported in Search Console.
Meta Description SEO term
A meta description is the short summary shown under a page’s title in search results.
Mobile-First Indexing SEO term
Mobile-first indexing means a search engine primarily uses the mobile version of a page.
N
NAP Consistency SEO term
NAP consistency means keeping a business’s Name, Address, and Phone number identical everywhere online.
Niche Edit SEO term
A niche edit is a link inserted into an existing, already-published article on another website.
Nofollow Link SEO term
A nofollow link tells search engines not to pass ranking credit to the linked page.
Nofollow Tag SEO term
A nofollow tag tells search engines not to pass ranking credit through a link.
Noindex Tag SEO term
A noindex tag tells search engines not to include a specific page in search results.
O
Organic Traffic SEO term
Organic traffic is visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.
Organization Schema SEO term
Organization schema is structured data describing a business as an entity to search engines.
Orphan Page SEO term
An orphan page has no internal links pointing to it from anywhere else on the site.
Out-of-Stock Page Handling SEO term
How you treat product URLs when stock runs out, and what that costs you in earned rankings.
P
Page Authority SEO term
Page Authority scores how strongly a single page is likely to rank, separate from the whole domain.
Page Speed SEO term
Page speed is how quickly a webpage’s content loads and becomes usable for a visitor.
Pagination SEO term
Pagination splits a long list of content across numbered pages rather than one continuous page.
Passage Ranking SEO term
Passage ranking lets Google surface a specific section of a page rather than judging the page as a whole.
Pillar Page SEO term
A pillar page is a broad overview of a core topic that links to detailed cluster content.
Private Blog Network (PBN) SEO term
A private blog network is a group of sites controlled by one owner purely to build links to a money site.
Product Feed SEO term
A product feed is the structured file of product data submitted to shopping and AI surfaces.
Product Schema SEO term
Product schema is structured data describing a product’s price, availability, and identifiers to search engines.
Product Variant URLs SEO term
Product variant URLs are the separate addresses generated for size, colour, or configuration options of one product.
R
Ranking SEO term
Ranking is the position a page holds in search results for a specific keyword.
Reconsideration Request SEO term
A reconsideration request asks Google to review a site after a manual action has been fixed.
Redirect Chain SEO term
A redirect chain is a sequence where one URL redirects to another, which redirects again before resolving.
Redirect Mapping SEO term
Redirect mapping is the old-URL to new-URL plan built before a migration, not repaired after one.
Referring Domain SEO term
A referring domain is a unique website that links to your site at least once.
Render-Blocking Resources SEO term
Render-blocking resources are CSS or JS files a browser must process before showing page content.
Retrieval-Augmented Generation SEO term
Retrieval-augmented generation is when a language model fetches source documents before writing its answer.
Review Velocity SEO term
Review velocity is the rate at which a business accumulates reviews over time, not the total.
Robots.txt SEO term
Robots.txt is a file telling search engine crawlers which parts of a site they can access.
S
sameAs Property SEO term
The sameAs property links an entity in your structured data to its authoritative profiles elsewhere.
Scaled Content Abuse SEO term
A Google spam policy covering content produced at scale primarily to manipulate rankings.
Schema Markup SEO term
Schema markup is code added to a page’s HTML that helps search engines understand its content.
Search Intent SEO term
Search intent is the real reason behind a search, not just the literal words typed.
Search Intent Match SEO term
Search intent match is how well a page’s content aligns with the actual reason behind a search query.
Search Volume SEO term
Search volume estimates how many times a keyword is searched for within a given period.
Semantic Chunking SEO term
Semantic chunking splits a document into self-contained passages a retrieval system can use alone.
SEO SEO term
SEO is the practice of improving a website to rank higher in unpaid search results.
SERP Feature SEO term
A SERP feature is any special result format on a search results page that isn’t a standard listing.
SERP Volatility SEO term
SERP volatility is the rate at which search results reorder across a tracked set of queries over time.
Service Area Business SEO term
A service area business serves customers at their location rather than at a storefront they visit.
Share of Voice SEO term
Share of voice is your estimated portion of total search visibility across a defined keyword set.
Site Architecture SEO term
Site architecture is how a website’s pages are organized and linked together.
Site Reputation Abuse SEO term
Site reputation abuse is publishing third-party content on a strong domain to exploit its ranking signals.
Sitewide Link SEO term
A sitewide link appears in a template area such as a footer, so it repeats across every page.
Social Proof SEO term
Social proof is evidence that other people have already chosen you, shown where a decision is made.
Soft 404 SEO term
A soft 404 is a page returning a success status that Google has judged to be effectively empty.
Staging Site Indexing SEO term
Staging site indexing is when a development copy of a site gets crawled and indexed by mistake.
Statement of Work SEO term
A statement of work defines the deliverables, counts, and boundaries of an engagement.
Structured Data SEO term
Structured data is information organized in a standardized format machines can read reliably.
Subdomain vs Subdirectory SEO term
Whether content sits at blog.example.com or example.com/blog, and what actually rides on the choice.
T
Thin Content SEO term
Thin content is a page with little substantive value, often too short or low-effort.
Title Tag SEO term
A title tag is the clickable headline shown in search results.
Topical Authority SEO term
Topical authority is how much search engines view a site as a trusted source on a subject.
Toxic Backlink SEO term
A toxic backlink is a link from a low-quality or spammy site that can harm rankings.
TTFB SEO term
TTFB, or time to first byte, is how long a browser waits before the server sends the first byte of a response.
U
Unlinked Brand Mention SEO term
An unlinked brand mention is a reference to your business that does not link back to your site.
URL Slug SEO term
A URL slug is the readable part of a web address identifying a specific page.
UTM Parameter SEO term
A UTM parameter is a tag appended to a URL so analytics can attribute the visit to a campaign.
V
Voice Search SEO term
Voice search is using spoken commands to a device or assistant to perform a search instead of typing.
X
XML Sitemap SEO term
An XML sitemap is a file listing a site’s important URLs to help search engines crawl it.
Z
Zero-Click Search SEO term
A zero-click search is a query fully answered on the results page without needing a click.