SEO Glossary
100+ digital marketing terms explained in simple language. Your complete guide to understanding SEO terminology.
Algorithm
A set of rules used by search engines to determine the relevance and ranking of web pages in search results. Google's algorithm considers 200+ ranking factors.
Alt Text
Alternative text describing an image for screen readers and search engines. Important for accessibility and image SEO.
Anchor Text
The clickable text in a hyperlink. Using relevant anchor text helps search engines understand the linked page's content.
Authority
A measure of a website's trustworthiness and expertise in its niche, determined by factors like backlink quality, content depth, and user engagement.
Backlink
A link from another website to your website. High-quality backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in SEO.
Black Hat SEO
Unethical SEO practices that violate search engine guidelines, such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and link schemes. Can result in penalties.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate may indicate poor user experience.
Breadcrumbs
Navigation aids showing users their location within a website hierarchy. Also helps search engines understand site structure.
Canonical URL
The preferred URL for a page when multiple URLs have similar content. Prevents duplicate content issues.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of users who click on your search result after seeing it. Higher CTR indicates better relevance and appeal.
Content Marketing
Creating and distributing valuable content to attract and engage a target audience. A key component of modern SEO strategy.
Core Web Vitals
Google's metrics for measuring user experience: LCP (loading), FID (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability). A ranking factor since 2021.
Crawling
The process by which search engine bots discover and read pages on your website by following links.
Domain Authority (DA)
A metric by Moz predicting how likely a website is to rank. Scores range from 1-100, with higher scores indicating better ranking potential.
Duplicate Content
Content that appears on multiple URLs, either within a site or across different domains. Can confuse search engines and dilute rankings.
Dwell Time
The amount of time a user spends on a page before returning to search results. Longer dwell time often indicates content relevance.
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness - Google's quality guidelines for evaluating content, especially important for YMYL topics.
External Link
A link that points to a page on a different domain. Also called outbound links.
Featured Snippet
A highlighted answer box that appears at the top of Google search results, pulled from a ranking page. Also called "position zero."
Google Business Profile
Free tool to manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. Essential for local SEO.
Google Search Console
Free tool from Google that helps website owners monitor and maintain their site's presence in Google Search results.
Guest Posting
Writing and publishing articles on other websites to build backlinks and brand awareness.
Header Tags (H1-H6)
HTML tags that define headings on a page. H1 is the most important and should contain the primary keyword.
HTTPS
Secure version of HTTP that encrypts data transfer. A ranking factor since 2014.
Indexing
The process by which search engines store and organize web pages in their database to be retrieved for relevant queries.
Internal Link
A link from one page to another on the same website. Important for site structure and distributing page authority.
Keyword
A word or phrase that users type into search engines. SEO involves optimizing content for relevant keywords.
Keyword Cannibalization
When multiple pages on a website compete for the same keyword, potentially hurting rankings for all of them.
Keyword Density
The percentage of times a keyword appears on a page relative to total word count. Over-optimization can be penalized.
Keyword Research
The process of finding and analyzing search terms people enter into search engines to use for SEO and content strategy.
Landing Page
A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign, designed to convert visitors.
Link Building
The practice of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. A fundamental off-page SEO strategy.
Local SEO
Optimization strategies focused on improving visibility for local search queries, particularly important for businesses with physical locations.
Long-Tail Keywords
Longer, more specific keyword phrases with lower search volume but typically higher conversion rates.
LSI Keywords
Latent Semantic Indexing keywords - terms semantically related to your main keyword that help search engines understand content context.
Meta Description
An HTML attribute providing a brief summary of a page's content. Displays in search results below the title.
Meta Tags
HTML tags that provide metadata about a web page, including title, description, and keywords.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google's approach of using the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking.
NAP
Name, Address, Phone number - the core business information that should be consistent across all online listings for local SEO.
Nofollow
A link attribute that tells search engines not to pass authority to the linked page. Often used for sponsored or user-generated content.
On-Page SEO
Optimization techniques applied directly on web pages, including content, HTML source code, images, and internal linking.
Off-Page SEO
SEO activities performed outside your website, primarily link building and brand mentions.
Organic Traffic
Visitors who come to your website through unpaid search results, as opposed to paid advertising.
PageRank
Google's original algorithm for ranking web pages based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to them.
Page Speed
How quickly a web page loads. A ranking factor and crucial for user experience.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
An advertising model where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their ad. Google Ads is the most popular platform.
Ranking Factor
Any element that search engines consider when determining where to position a page in search results.
Redirect (301/302)
301 is a permanent redirect that passes SEO value; 302 is temporary. Used when URLs change.
Robots.txt
A file that tells search engine crawlers which pages or sections of your site should not be crawled.
Schema Markup
Structured data code that helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich snippets in search results.
Search Intent
The purpose behind a user's search query - informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial investigation.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page - the page displayed by search engines in response to a query.
Sitemap
A file listing all important pages on a website, helping search engines discover and index content.
Technical SEO
Optimizing website infrastructure for crawling and indexing, including site speed, mobile-friendliness, and structured data.
Title Tag
An HTML element specifying the title of a web page. Displays in search results and browser tabs.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator - the web address of a page. SEO-friendly URLs are short, descriptive, and include keywords.
User Experience (UX)
The overall experience of users interacting with a website. Good UX is increasingly important for SEO.
White Hat SEO
Ethical SEO practices that follow search engine guidelines and focus on providing value to users.
XML Sitemap
A file in XML format that lists all URLs on a website, submitted to search engines to aid crawling and indexing.
YMYL
Your Money or Your Life - Google's category for pages that could impact a person's health, finances, or safety. Subject to stricter quality standards.
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