100+ SEO terms.
Plain English definitions.

The complex, constantly evolving system Google uses to evaluate and rank pages. Google makes thousands of changes per year, from minor tweaks to major Core Updates that significantly shift rankings across categories.

The visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. A natural anchor text profile mixes branded ("Seobeni"), generic ("read more"), partial-match and exact-match keyword anchors. Over-optimised anchor text (too many exact-match keyword anchors) is a spam signal.

A measure of how much trust and ranking power a website or individual page has accumulated — primarily through the quality and quantity of backlinks. Not an official Google metric, but closely approximated by third-party tools like Ahrefs (DR) and Moz (DA).

A text description added to an image in HTML (alt attribute). Used by screen readers for accessibility and by Google to understand image content. Descriptive, natural alt text helps images appear in Google Image Search and provides a minor on-page content signal.

Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results for many queries (formerly SGE — Search Generative Experience). Synthesise information from multiple sources. Being cited within an AI Overview drives brand authority and some CTR.

A link from an external website pointing to your site. One of the strongest ranking signals in SEO. Quality matters vastly more than quantity — one editorial link from a high-authority, topically relevant site outweighs hundreds of low-quality links.

The percentage of sessions where a user visited only one page before leaving. High bounce rate isn't inherently negative (a user who finds the exact answer they need and leaves has been well-served), but for pages intended to drive engagement or conversion, a high bounce rate may indicate intent mismatch or poor UX.

SEO tactics that violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines — buying links, keyword stuffing, cloaking, PBNs, content scraping. These tactics may show short-term gains but risk manual penalties or algorithmic demotions that can wipe out all organic rankings.

A reference to your brand name online, with or without a link (also called "implied link" or "unlinked mention"). Brand mentions are an entity authority signal — especially valuable for building presence in AI training data and Knowledge Graph associations.

An HTML tag (<link rel="canonical">) that tells Google which version of a URL is the preferred master page. Prevents duplicate content issues when the same or similar content is accessible via multiple URLs (parameter variants, multiple category paths, paginated pages).

The percentage of impressions (times your page appeared in search results) that resulted in a click. Affected by position, title tag, meta description and presence of rich results. Higher CTR at the same position is a positive engagement signal.

One of Google's Core Web Vitals. Measures how much page elements shift visually while loading. A CLS of 0.1 or below is Good. Caused by images without specified dimensions, late-loading ads or banners, and dynamically injected content.

A systematic review of all existing content on a website to assess performance, quality and relevance. Used to identify pages to improve, consolidate, redirect or remove. A content audit is typically the highest-ROI starting point for content SEO work on established sites.

The gradual decline in organic traffic and rankings for pages that were once performing well, as competitors publish better content and the page becomes outdated. Identified via GSC (declining impressions/clicks YoY) and fixed by refreshing, expanding or consolidating content.

The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (purchase, form submission, phone call, booking). Organic traffic typically converts at 2–5× the rate of paid traffic because organic visitors have higher intent and trust.

A significant, broadly impactful Google algorithm update that reassesses the quality and relevance of content across the web. Core updates can cause substantial ranking changes. Sites affected negatively should review E-E-A-T, content quality and intent-matching — not look for technical quick fixes.

Google's user experience metrics: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint — load speed), INP (Interaction to Next Paint — responsiveness) and CLS (layout stability). A confirmed ranking factor via Page Experience signal. Poor CWV can suppress rankings in competitive queries.

The number of pages Googlebot will crawl on a site within a given period. Rarely a concern for small sites but critical for large e-commerce or news sites with thousands of URLs. Managed via robots.txt, noindex, canonical tags, sitemap and URL parameter configuration.

The practice of creating newsworthy content (data studies, tools, expert commentary) and pitching it to journalists and publications to earn editorial coverage and backlinks. The gold standard of link acquisition — links earned are genuinely editorial and come from high-authority domains.

A Google Search Console tool that allows you to tell Google to ignore specific backlinks pointing to your site. Should only be used if you've received a manual action for unnatural links or have an abnormally high volume of clearly spammy links. Using it unnecessarily can accidentally disavow legitimate links.

Do-follow links pass link equity (PageRank) to the target page and are the default. No-follow links include rel="nofollow" — they don't pass equity but Google may still use them as a discovery signal. Sponsored links use rel="sponsored"; user-generated content uses rel="ugc".

Ahrefs' proprietary metric (0–100 scale) measuring a website's backlink authority. Not an official Google metric but a useful proxy for comparing site authority. A domain with DR 60+ is generally considered strong; DR 30–60 is mid-range; below DR 30 is relatively weak.

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's quality evaluation framework. The extra "E" (Experience) was added in 2022 to reward first-hand, lived experience alongside formal expertise. Critical for YMYL content (health, finance, legal). Also the primary signal AI answer engines use to decide whether to cite a source.

The practice of establishing your brand, person or organisation as a clearly defined entity in Google's Knowledge Graph and AI training data. Involves structured data (Organization/Person schema), consistent brand mentions, Wikipedia/Wikidata presence and entity disambiguation. Critical for AI citation.

Content that remains relevant and valuable over time, rather than being tied to a specific news event or date. The best SEO investment for most businesses — a well-written evergreen guide continues to attract traffic for years with minimal maintenance.

A direct answer box appearing at the top of Google's search results (Position 0), pulling content from a web page. Formats include paragraph, list, table and video. To target featured snippets: directly answer a specific question, use the target question as a heading (H2/H3), and follow with a concise, structured answer.

Internal links placed in the site footer. They pass link equity and help discovery of important pages, but carry less weight than contextual in-content links. Site-wide footer links to commercial pages (not navigation pages) can look manipulative if used excessively.

The discipline of optimising websites and brand signals to be cited by AI answer engines (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Gemini). Builds on traditional SEO with additional focus on entity strength, structured data, E-E-A-T and answer-format content. The emerging counterpart to classic SEO.

Google's free business listing tool. Controls your presence in Google Maps and local search results. A fully optimised GBP (complete categories, services, photos, posts and review management) is the highest-ROI starting point for any local SEO programme.

Google's free tool for monitoring site performance in search. Shows: impressions, clicks, average position, crawl errors, indexation status, Core Web Vitals scores and manual action notices. Essential for every SEO programme — a site without GSC set up is flying blind.

HTML elements that define content hierarchy. H1 is the page's main topic (one per page); H2–H6 are subheadings. Include keywords naturally in headings. H1 and H2 carry the most on-page SEO weight. Clear heading structure also improves accessibility and is often used by AI systems to understand content structure.

An HTML attribute that tells Google which language and regional version of a page to show to users in specific countries and languages. Essential for multilingual and multi-country sites. Incorrect hreflang is one of the most common and costly international SEO mistakes — it causes wrong-language pages to rank in wrong markets.

HTTPS encrypts the connection between a user's browser and your server. It's a confirmed (minor) Google ranking factor and a trust signal that browsers highlight via the padlock icon. All sites should be on HTTPS. HTTP sites are marked "Not Secure" in Chrome, which reduces user confidence and conversions.

Each time a URL from your site appears in a search result (whether clicked or not). Tracked in Google Search Console. Impressions before clicks represent awareness; the gap between high impressions and low CTR usually indicates a title/meta description optimisation opportunity.

Google's database of crawled web pages. A page must be indexed to appear in search results. A page can be de-indexed via noindex tag, blocked by robots.txt, or removed via the URL removal tool. Check indexation status via the site: operator or URL inspection in GSC.

Links from one page on your site to another. Internal links distribute PageRank across your site, help Google discover and understand the relationship between pages, and guide users to related content. Strategic internal linking — pointing to important pages with descriptive anchor text — is one of the highest-ROI on-page activities.

A Core Web Vital measuring how quickly a page responds to user interactions (clicks, taps, keyboard input). Replaced FID in 2024. Target: under 200ms (Good), 200–500ms (Needs Improvement), over 500ms (Poor). Heavy JavaScript is the most common cause of poor INP scores.

The practice of ensuring JavaScript-rendered content is crawlable and indexable by search engines. Googlebot can render JavaScript but with delays due to crawl queues and budget limits. Critical SEO content — navigation, headings, product data, metadata — should be in the initial HTML response via server-side rendering (SSR) or static generation, not dependent on client-side JS execution. Sites built on React, Vue, Angular or Next.js require specific technical SEO attention to their rendering architecture.

JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data — Google's recommended format for implementing Schema.org structured data. Added as a <script type="application/ld+json"> block in the page head or body. Preferred over Microdata and RDFa for its ease of implementation and clean separation from page markup. The primary mechanism for enabling rich results in classic search and for signalling entity and content context to AI answer engines.

A word or phrase that users type into search engines. The foundation of SEO strategy — understanding which keywords represent real demand, high intent and realistic ranking opportunity. In 2026, keywords are mapped to search intent, not just stuffed into pages.

When two or more pages on your site compete for the same search query, splitting ranking signals and confusing Google about which page to rank. Fix by consolidating content, redirecting the weaker page, or restructuring to ensure each page targets a distinct intent.

The process of identifying what users search for, how often (search volume), how competitive the terms are, and what the commercial intent is. The foundation of a content strategy. Tools: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console.

Google's database of real-world entities and their relationships — people, places, organisations, concepts. If Google understands your brand as a Knowledge Graph entity, it can surface you in panels, featured snippets and AI answers with greater confidence. Building Knowledge Graph presence is a core part of entity SEO.

Measurable metrics tied to business outcomes. For SEO: organic sessions, organic revenue, target keyword rankings, organic conversion rate and organic share of total revenue. KPIs should be agreed before a project starts — not reverse-engineered from results.

A Core Web Vital measuring how quickly the largest visible element (usually a hero image or heading) loads. Target: under 2.5 seconds (Good), 2.5–4s (Needs Improvement), over 4s (Poor). Improved by optimising images (WebP, lazy loading, preloading), reducing server response time and removing render-blocking resources.

The practice of earning or acquiring links from external websites to improve authority and rankings. Best-practice approaches: digital PR, creating linkable assets, broken link building, resource page outreach and expert commentary. Avoid: paid links, PBNs, link exchanges at scale.

The ranking power passed from one page to another via a do-follow hyperlink. Higher-authority pages pass more equity. Internal links distribute equity across your site; external links bring equity in from outside. Link equity is finite — it's "diluted" when passed to many links at once.

The block of 3 local business listings (with a map) that appears at the top of Google for location-specific searches. Ranking in the local pack requires: a verified, fully optimised GBP, strong reviews, consistent citations and local content. Appears above organic results for most local queries.

A specific, often longer search phrase with lower search volume but higher intent and lower competition than head terms. E.g., "international SEO consultant for e-commerce" vs "SEO". Long-tail keywords convert better and are often easier to rank for. They collectively represent the majority of all search queries.

A penalty applied by a Google human reviewer when a site is found to violate Google's spam policies. Shown in Google Search Console. Can affect part or all of a site's rankings. Common causes: unnatural links (schemes), thin or duplicate content, cloaking. Recovery requires fixing the issue and submitting a reconsideration request.

An HTML tag summarising a page's content. Not a direct ranking factor but significantly affects CTR. Google often rewrites meta descriptions dynamically. Best practice: write a 150–160 character pitch that matches search intent and includes the primary keyword naturally. Focus on the user benefit.

The HTML element that defines the page title shown in SERP and browser tabs. One of the strongest on-page SEO signals. Best practice: 50–60 characters, primary keyword near the front, intent-matched, readable and descriptive. Google sometimes rewrites titles it considers unhelpful or misleading.

Google's default indexing mode since 2019 — it primarily uses the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking. All new sites should be mobile-first by design. Key requirements: identical content on mobile and desktop, responsive design, no mobile-only blocked resources, and comparable mobile page speed.

The three core local business signals. NAP consistency — identical information across all directories, listings and citations — is a significant local ranking factor. Inconsistent NAP confuses Google about your business identity and can suppress local rankings.

A directive (meta name="robots" content="noindex" or X-Robots-Tag HTTP header) telling Google not to include a page in its index. Use for pages you don't want ranking: thank-you pages, internal search results, staging pages, privacy policies. Warning: a noindex page can still be crawled — block crawling via robots.txt if needed.

SEO activities performed outside your website — primarily link building, brand mention acquisition, digital PR and entity authority building. Signals to Google that others consider your site a credible, authoritative resource. Alongside technical and on-page SEO, one of the three pillars of SEO.

Optimisation of elements within a page: title tags, headings, content quality, keyword usage, internal links, structured data, image alt text and URL structure. Controls what Google reads and understands about your page's topic, relevance and quality.

Visitors who arrive at your site by clicking unpaid search results. The primary goal of SEO. Unlike paid traffic, organic traffic has zero marginal cost once rankings are established — it compounds indefinitely as domain authority grows.

Google's original link-based ranking algorithm, which assigned a score to each page based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it. While the public PageRank toolbar is gone, the underlying concept remains central to Google's ranking system — link equity still flows between pages and domains.

A network of websites created or acquired specifically to pass link equity to a target site. Explicitly violates Google's guidelines and risks manual penalties wiping out all organic rankings. The short-term ranking gains from PBNs are consistently outweighed by the long-term risk.

A comprehensive, authoritative page covering a broad topic at the centre of a topic cluster. The pillar links to cluster pages that cover sub-topics in depth; cluster pages link back to the pillar. This hub-and-spoke architecture signals topical authority to Google.

The words a user types into a search engine. Queries are classified by intent (informational, navigational, commercial investigation, transactional) and by type (head terms: short, high-volume; long-tail: specific, lower-volume, higher intent). Understanding query intent — not just the keyword — is the foundation of effective content strategy and the starting point for any page optimisation.

Google's public document (173+ pages) used by human Quality Raters to evaluate search result quality. Not a direct ranking factor, but the clearest public statement of what Google considers high-quality content. Defines and explains E-E-A-T, YMYL, and "needs met" ratings. Essential reading for anyone building a long-term SEO strategy aligned with Google's quality philosophy.

An algorithmic signal that boosts fresher content for queries where recency matters — breaking news, trending topics, product launches, seasonal events. If a query spikes in search volume, Google infers users want recent information and adjusts rankings accordingly. For evergreen queries, QDF has minimal effect. For news and time-sensitive topics, it can dramatically change the SERP composition within hours.

Automatically sends users and search engines from one URL to another. 301 (permanent) passes ~99% of link equity and is standard for permanent URL changes. 302 (temporary) signals the original URL will return. Never use 302s for permanent redirects — they can lose link equity.

Enhanced search result displays enabled by structured data markup — star ratings, FAQs, prices, event dates, recipe information. Improve CTR by making results more visually prominent. Require correct Schema.org implementation and compliance with Google's structured data guidelines.

A file at the root of your domain that gives instructions to web crawlers about which pages or directories to crawl. Important: robots.txt prevents crawling but does NOT prevent indexation — a blocked URL can still be indexed if other pages link to it. Use noindex for pages you don't want in the index.

Machine-readable code (typically JSON-LD) using Schema.org vocabulary that helps Google understand your content. Enables rich results and is a key signal for AI answer engines. Common types: FAQPage, Article, Product, LocalBusiness, Service, BreadcrumbList, Person, Organization.

The underlying goal of a search query. Google classifies intent as: Informational (learn), Navigational (find a site), Commercial Investigation (compare options), Transactional (buy/act). A page must match the dominant intent behind a query to rank — regardless of how well optimised it is technically.

The average number of times a keyword is searched per month. Used in keyword research to prioritise targets. High volume ≠ high value — a low-volume, high-intent keyword converting to revenue may be more valuable than a high-volume informational query.

The page Google (or another search engine) shows in response to a query. Modern SERPs are complex — they include organic results, paid ads, AI Overviews, local pack, shopping results, featured snippets, image packs and more. Understanding the SERP layout for a target query is essential before optimising for it.

An XML file listing all important URLs on your site to help Google discover and crawl them efficiently. Should include only canonical, indexable URLs — not redirects, noindex pages, or paginated duplicates. Submit to Google via Search Console. Most CMSs generate these automatically.

The discipline of ensuring search engines can efficiently crawl, render and index your website. Covers: site architecture, crawlability, indexation, page speed (Core Web Vitals), mobile-first experience, HTTPS, structured data, JavaScript rendering and URL structure. The foundation on which content and links build.

Content with little original value — very short, duplicate, auto-generated or scraped pages. A significant negative quality signal. Google's Panda and Helpful Content systems actively demote sites with large quantities of thin content. Fix by improving, consolidating or removing thin pages.

A content architecture consisting of a central pillar page (broad topic) and multiple cluster pages (specific sub-topics), all internally linked. Signals topical authority and improves both rankings and user experience. The standard content architecture for establishing authority in a niche.

Majestic's metric measuring link quality based on topical relevance and proximity to trusted seed sites. A high Trust Flow relative to Citation Flow (quantity-based) indicates a healthy backlink profile. Not an official Google metric but a useful quality indicator.

The format and organisation of your website's URLs. Best practices: descriptive and readable, include the primary keyword, use hyphens (not underscores), keep them concise, avoid unnecessary parameters, and maintain a logical hierarchy matching your site architecture.

See Search Intent. The purpose behind a user's search query — what they're actually trying to accomplish. The single most important factor in content strategy: matching user intent at every touchpoint of the conversion funnel.

Optimising content for voice queries spoken through smart speakers (Alexa, Google Home) or mobile assistants. Voice queries are more conversational and question-based than typed queries ("What's the best SEO consultant in Madrid?" vs "SEO consultant Madrid"). Optimising for voice overlaps significantly with AEO and featured snippet strategy: direct, concise answers to specific questions in natural language, supported by FAQPage schema. Voice results typically pull from Featured Snippet (Position 0) content.

A composite metric — provided by tools like Sistrix, Searchmetrics or SE Ranking — that combines ranking positions across a keyword set, weighted by search volume, into a single index. Used to track overall organic presence over time and compare share-of-voice against competitors. Not a Google metric; definitions vary between tools. Useful for trend benchmarking and competitive analysis, but should be supplemented by actual organic traffic data from GSC and GA4.

SEO practices that comply with Google's Webmaster Guidelines — creating genuinely useful content, earning editorial links, maintaining technical excellence and demonstrating E-E-A-T. Results compound over time and are sustainable through algorithm updates. The only reliable long-term SEO strategy.

Google's classification for content that could significantly impact a person's health, safety, financial stability or wellbeing — medical advice, legal guidance, financial products, news about major events. YMYL content is held to the highest E-E-A-T standards and is most affected by core quality updates.

A file listing all important URLs on a site to help Google discover and crawl them efficiently. Should contain only canonical, indexable URLs — no redirects, noindex pages, or parameter duplicates. Submitted via Google Search Console and referenced in robots.txt. See also Sitemap (XML) in the S section.

An HTTP response header that provides the same directives as the meta robots tag (noindex, nofollow, etc.) but applies to non-HTML files — PDFs, images, Word documents — that can't contain HTML meta tags. Use it to control indexation of file types that don't support HTML, or to set crawling directives at the server level without modifying individual page HTML.

Google's classification for content that could significantly impact health, safety, financial stability or wellbeing — medical advice, legal guidance, financial products, major news events. YMYL content is held to the highest E-E-A-T standards and is most affected by Google Core Updates. For businesses in YMYL categories, E-E-A-T investment (credentials, authoritative citations, transparent authorship) is a prerequisite for competitive rankings, not an optional enhancement.

Comparing traffic, rankings or conversions for a time period against the same period in the prior year — the standard benchmarking method for organic SEO because it accounts for seasonal patterns. Comparing October 2026 to October 2025 is meaningful; comparing October to September is not. YoY growth in organic sessions and revenue is the clearest indicator of a working SEO programme. Available in GSC (Performance report, date comparison) and GA4.

A search where the user's query is answered directly on the SERP — via a Featured Snippet, AI Overview, knowledge panel, calculator or other SERP feature — without clicking through to any website. Zero-click searches have increased significantly with AI Overviews. Being cited in a zero-click result still builds brand authority and trust even without generating a direct click to your site.

The SERP elements responsible for zero-click searches: Featured Snippets, AI Overviews, knowledge panels, People Also Ask boxes, local packs, and built-in tools. The strategic response: optimise to appear within these features — being cited as the source — rather than compete below them for traditional click traffic. A featured snippet showing your brand as the source increases brand authority even in zero-click scenarios.