SEO Glossary

A list of popular terms and their meaning, as used in Digital Marketing.

Above the Fold:
The portion of a webpage that appears in the user's browser before they have to scroll.

AJAX:
A type of coding that is used to create interactive webpages.

Algorithm:
A set of instructions used by search engines to determine which pages are relevant to a query.

Algorithm Change:
An update to a search engine's algorithm that affects the quality and rankings of webpages in the search engine results page (SERP).

Alt Attribute:
An HTML attribute used to specify alternative text for an image.

AMP:
Accelerated Mobile Pages, a web framework used to create mobile-optimized webpages.

Analytics:
The process of collecting and analyzing data to gain insights into website performance.

Anchor Text:
The clickable text of a hyperlink.

Artificial Intelligence (AI):
A type of computer programming that enables machines to perform tasks that require human-level intelligence.

Authority:
The quality of a webpage or website that is determined by its relevance, trustworthiness, and popularity.

Author Authority:
The trustworthiness and expertise of the author of a webpage.

B2B:
Business-to-business, a type of e-commerce transaction in which one business sells to another business.

B2C:
Business-to-consumer, a type of e-commerce transaction in which a business sells to an individual consumer.

Backlink:
A link from one website to another.

Baidu:
A Chinese-based search engine.

Bing:
A web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft.

Black Box:
A search engine algorithm or process that is not known or understood, making it difficult to optimize for.

Black Hat:
Search engine optimization techniques that violate search engine guidelines and are used to manipulate search engine rankings.

Blog:
A type of website that regularly publishes content, typically in the form of articles.

Bounce Rate:
The percentage of website visitors who only view one page before leaving the site.

Bot:
A type of software program used by search engines to index webpages.

Branded Keyword:
A keyword that includes a brand name or trademark.

Breadcrumb:
A website navigation feature that shows the path a user took to get to the current page.

Broken Link:
A link on a webpage or website that does not lead to the intended destination.

Cache:
A type of memory that stores frequently accessed data for quick retrieval.

Cached Page:
A version of a webpage stored by a search engine.

Canonical URL:
A URL that is used to represent a set of similar webpages.

ccTLD:
A country code top-level domain, a type of domain name that is used to identify a website's country of origin.

Citation:
An online reference to a business or website, typically used in local SEO.

Click Bait:
Content that is designed to draw clicks without providing value.

Click Depth:
The number of clicks it takes to reach a specific web page from the website's homepage.

Click-Through Rate (CTR):
The ratio of website visitors who click on a link, typically measured as a percentage.

Cloaking:
A type of search engine optimization technique in which different content is shown to search engine crawlers than what is shown to website visitors.

CMS:
A type of software used to create and manage websites.

Co-Citation:
A type of link building technique in which two websites mention each other without linking.

Code To Text Ratio:
The ratio of HTML code to text content on a webpage.

Comment Spam:
Spam comments posted on websites and blogs to increase the number of links pointing to a website.

Competition:
The other websites that are targeting the same keywords as a given website.

Content:
The information on a website such as text, images, videos, etc.

Content is King”:
A phrase used to emphasize the importance of creating quality content for a website.

Conversion:
A website visitor taking an action such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.

Conversion Rate:
The percentage of website visitors who take a desired action.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO):
The process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action.

Core Update:
A major update to a search engine's algorithm.

Core Web Vitals:
A set of metrics used to measure website performance.

Correlation:
The relationship between two variables or metrics.

Crawl Budget:
The amount of time and resources that a search engine is willing to allocate to crawling a website.

Crawl Error:
A problem with a website that prevents search engine crawlers from indexing a page.

Crawler:
A type of software program used by search engines to index webpages.

Crawling:
The process of a search engine's crawlers indexing webpages.

CSS:
Cascading Style Sheets, a type of coding that is used to style webpages.

Customer Journey:
The path a customer takes to purchase a product or service.

Data:
Information that is collected and used to identify patterns or trends.

Dead-End Page:
A webpage that does not have any links to other pages on the website.

Deep Link:
A link that leads to an internal page on a website, rather than the homepage.

Deep Link Ratio:
The ratio of deep links to other pages on a website compared to the number of links to the homepage.

De-index:
The process of removing a webpage from a search engine's index.

Direct Traffic:
Website traffic that is not referred from another website or a search engine.

Directory:
A type of website that provides links to other websites.

Disavow:
The process of telling a search engine not to use certain links when determining rankings.

DMOZ:
The Open Directory Project, a web directory that is maintained by volunteers.

Do-follow:
A type of link that passes authority to the linked page.

Domain:
The main address of a website.

Domain Age:
The length of time a domain has been registered.

Domain Authority:
A metric used to measure the quality of a website.

Domain History:
The changes a domain has gone through over time.

Doorway Page:
A webpage that is created to rank for a specific keyword, but does not provide any additional value to website visitors.

DuckDuckGo:
A privacy-focused web search engine.

Duplicate Content:
Content that is copied from another website.

Dwell Time:
The amount of time a user spends on a website before returning to the search engine results page.

E-A-T:
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, three qualities that Google looks for in websites.

E-commerce:
Electronic commerce, the buying and selling of products or services online.

Editorial Link:
A link that is added to an article or blog post simply to provide additional information or context.

.edu Links:
Links from .edu websites, typically used in link building.

Engagement Metrics:
Metrics that measure user engagement with a website such as time on page, bounce rate, etc.

Entities:
A type of data structure used to store and retrieve information about people, places, and things.

External Link:
A link from one website to another.

Featured Snippet:
A type of search engine result that appears at the top of the search engine results page (SERP).

Findability:
The ability of a website to be found in search engine results.

First Link Priority:
A search engine optimization technique in which the first link on a webpage is given more importance than subsequent links.

Footer Link:
A link in the footer of a webpage.

Freshness:
The frequency with which a website's content is updated.

Google:
A web search engine owned and operated by Alphabet Inc.

Google Analytics:
A web analytics tool used to measure website performance.

Google Bomb:
A type of search engine manipulation in which a website is given an artificially high ranking in search engine results.

Googlebot:
A type of software program used by Google to index webpages.

Google Dance:
A period of time during which Google updates its index and rankings.

Google Hummingbird:
A major update to the Google algorithm that was released in 2013.

Google Panda Algorithm:
An algorithm update released by Google in 2011 that focused on filtering low-quality content.

Google Penguin Algorithm:
An algorithm update released by Google in 2012 that focused on filtering low-quality links.

Google Pigeon Update:
An algorithm update released by Google in 2014 that focused on local search results.

Google RankBrain:
A machine learning algorithm developed by Google to understand natural language queries and to improve the relevancy and accuracy of search engine results.

Google Sandbox:
A term used to describe a hypothetical filter which Google may use to temporarily prevent new websites from achieving high rankings in their search engine results pages.

Google Search Console:
A free tool provided by Google which provides website owners with data and diagnostic information to help optimize their website’s performance in Google search engine results.

Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines:
Guidelines created by Google to help their search quality raters evaluate websites and webpages to determine their relevance and quality.

Google Trends:
A free tool provided by Google which shows how often a certain search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions and languages.

Google Webmaster Guidelines:
A set of guidelines created by Google to help webmasters create websites which are optimized for their search engine and comply with their guidelines.

.gov Links:
Links to a website from a .gov (government) domain.

Gray Hat:
A term used to describe a technique used in search engine optimization which is considered to be unethical, but not illegal.

Guest Blogging:
A technique used in search engine optimization where an individual writes content for another website or blog in order to gain exposure and links to their own website.

Heading:
A piece of text which is used to identify a section or subsection on a webpage.

Headline:
A phrase or sentence which is used to identify a webpage or article and is typically used as the title of the webpage or article.

Head Term:
A term used to describe a high-volume keyword which is typically short and generic in nature.

Hidden Text:
Text on a webpage which is not visible to the user, but can be read by search engine spiders.

Hilltop Algorithm:
An algorithm created by Stanford University in 1995 which is used to calculate the authority of a webpage based on the number of websites which link to it.

HITS Algorithm:
An algorithm created by Stanford University in 1999 which is used to rank websites based on their degree of importance.

Homepage:
The main page of a website which is the entry point for visitors.

.htaccess File:
A file used by web servers which is used to control how certain files and folders are treated by the server.

HTML:
An acronym which stands for Hypertext Markup Language and is a coding language used to create webpages.

HTTP:
An acronym which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is a protocol used to transfer data between a web server and a web browser.

HTTPS:
An acronym which stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and is an encrypted version of HTTP which provides a secure connection between a web server and a web browser.

Hub Page:
A page which links to many other related pages on a website.

Inbound Link:
A link from an external website to a page on your website.

Index:
A database of websites and webpages created by search engines which is used to store and retrieve information in response to search queries.

Indexability:
The ability of a website or webpages to be indexed by a search engine.

Indexed Page:
A webpage which has been crawled and indexed by a search engine.

Information Architecture:
The structure of a website and how it is organized in order to make it easy for users to find the content they are looking for.

Information Retrieval:
The process of searching for information in a database of documents or webpages.

Internal Link:
A link on a website which links to another page on the same website.

IP Address:
An acronym which stands for Internet Protocol Address and is a numerical label assigned to each device which is connected to a computer network.

JavaScript (JS):
A programming language which is used to create interactive webpages.

Keyword:
A word or phrase which is used by search engines to identify relevant webpages in response to a search query.

Keyword Cannibalization:
A situation which occurs when multiple webpages on a website are competing for the same keyword in the search engine results pages.

Keyword Density:
The number of times a keyword appears in relation to the total number of words on a webpage.

Keyword Research:
The process of researching and selecting keywords which are relevant to a website and which are likely to be used by search engine users.

Keyword Prominence:
The position of a keyword in relation to other words on a webpage.

Keyword Stemming:
The process of changing a keyword in order to make it more relevant to a search query.

Keyword Stuffing:
The practice of adding keywords to a webpage in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings.

Knowledge Graph:
A database created by Google which contains facts, entities, and relationships between them.

Knowledge Panel:
A feature created by Google which displays information about a person, place, or organization in the search engine results pages.

KPI:
An acronym which stands for Key Performance Indicator and refers to a metric which is used to measure the performance of a website or business.

Landing Page:
A webpage which is designed to capture the attention of a visitor and to encourage them to take a specific action.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI):
A method used by search engines to identify the relationship between words and phrases in order to improve the relevance of search results.

Lead:
A person who has expressed interest in a product or service.

Link:
A connection between two webpages, either on the same website or on different websites.

Link Bait:
Content which is created with the intention of attracting links from other websites.

Link Building:
The process of creating links to a website in order to increase its visibility in the search engine results pages.

Link Equity:
A term used to describe the amount of value which a link has in the eyes of a search engine.

Link Farm:
A group of websites which are linked together in order to manipulate search engine rankings.

Link Juice:
A term used to describe the amount of authority which is passed from one webpage to another through a link.

Link Profile:
A collection of links which are pointing to a website or webpages.

Link Stability:
The consistency of the links which are pointing to a website or webpages over a period of time.

Link Velocity:
The rate at which links are acquired by a website over a period of time.

Links, Internal:
A link which points from one page on a website to another page on the same website.

Links, NoFollow:
A type of link which tells search engine spiders not to follow the link when crawling a website.

Links, Outbound or External:
A link which points to a page on an external website.

Log File:
A file which is created by web servers which records data about visitors to a website.

Log File Analysis:
The process of analyzing the log files of a website in order to gain insights about visitor behaviour.

Long-Tail Keyword:
A keyword which is typically longer and more specific than a head term.

Machine Learning:
A branch of artificial intelligence which enables computers to learn from data and to improve their performance over time.

Manual Action:
A penalty which is imposed on a website by a search engine as a result of its webmaster breaking the search engine’s guidelines.

Meta Description:
A brief description of a webpage which is used by search engines to provide a snippet of information in the search engine results pages.

Meta Keywords:
A tag which is used to provide additional information about a webpage which is not visible to the user.

Meta Tags:
Tags which are used to provide additional information about a webpage which is not visible to the user.

Metric:
A measure which is used to track the performance of a website or business.

Natural Link:
A link to a website which is created naturally by another website or webmaster without any incentive or payment.

Negative SEO:
A technique used to manipulate the search engine rankings of a website by building spammy or unnatural links to it.

Niche:
A market or topic which is focused on a particular product, service, or audience.

Noarchive Tag:
A tag which is used to tell search engine spiders not to store a cached version of a webpage in their index.

Nofollow Attribute:
An attribute which is used to tell search engine spiders not to follow a link when crawling a website.

Noindex Tag:
A tag which is used to tell search engine spiders not to index a webpage in their index.

Nosnippet Tag:
A tag which is used to tell search engine spiders not to display a snippet of information in the search engine results pages.

“(not provided)”
A term which is used to describe traffic to a website which has been encrypted and is not visible in Google Analytics.

Off-Page SEO:
The process of optimizing a website in order to improve its visibility in the search engine results pages, without making any changes to the website itself.

On-Page SEO:
The process of optimizing a website in order to improve its visibility in the search engine results pages, by making changes to the website itself.

Organic Search:
Search engine results that are not paid for and are determined by the search engine's algorithm.

Orphan Page:
A web page that has no links pointing to it.

Outbound Link:
A link that points from one website to another.

PageRank:
A metric used by Google to determine the importance of a web page.

Page Speed:
The speed at which a web page loads.

Pageview:
 A single instance of a web page being viewed by a user.

Paid Search:
Advertising on a search engine where an advertiser pays the search engine for clicks on its ad.

PBN:
Private Blog Network.

PDF:
Portable Document Format, a file format that preserves the formatting of a document across multiple platforms.

Penalty:
A sanction or punishment imposed on a website by a search engine for violating its guidelines.

Persona:
A representation of the ideal user of a website.

Personalization:
Customizing content for a particular user based on their preferences and behaviour.

PHP:
A programming language used to write web applications.

Piracy:
The practice of illegally copying and distributing copyrighted material.

Pogo-sticking:
When a user clicks on a search result and immediately returns to the results page without visiting the page.

Position:
The position of a website in the search engine results page for a given query.

PPC (Pay Per Click):
A type of online advertising where advertisers pay the publisher each time their ad is clicked.

QDF:
Query Deserves Freshness. A ranking factor used by Google to determine the order of search results.

Quality Content:
Content that is original, well-written, informative and useful to users.

Quality Link:
A link from a website to another website that is of high-quality and relevant to the content.

Query:
A search query entered into a search engine.

Rank:
The position of a website in the search engine results page for a given query.

Ranking Factor:
 A factor used by search engines to determine the order of search results.

Reciprocal Links:
Links between two websites that point to each other.

Redirect:
 A method of sending a user from one URL to another.

Referrer:
An HTTP header that contains the address of the webpage that linked to the current webpage.

Reinclusion:
The process of getting a website re-indexed by a search engine.

Relevance:
How closely the content of a website matches the query of a user.

Reputation Management:
The practice of monitoring and improving the online reputation of a person or brand.

Responsive
Website: A website that is designed to adapt to the device it is being viewed on.

Rich Snippet:
A type of structured data that provides additional information about a webpage in the search engine results page.

robots.txt:
A text file stored on a server that tells search engine crawlers which pages not to index.

Return on Investment (ROI):
A measure of the profitability of an investment.

Schema:
A type of structured data markup used by search engines to better understand the content of a webpage.

Scrape:
The process of collecting data from a website by scraping it from the HTML.

Search Engine:
A website that searches other websites for information.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
The practice of marketing a website through search engines.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
The practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engine results pages.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP):
The page of results displayed by a search engine after a query is entered.

Search History:
The record of a user's past searches.

Share of Voice:
The percentage of a market that a brand or product has.

Sitelinks:
Links to other pages on a website that are displayed in the search engine results page.

Sitemap:
A page on a website that lists the URLs of all the pages on the website.

Sitewide Links:
Links on a website that appear on every page.

Social Media:
Online platforms for sharing and discussing content.

Social Signal:
A signal to search engines that a website is popular and high-quality.

Spam:
Unsolicited email or comments that are irrelevant and often contain malicious content.

Spider:
A program used by search engines to crawl the web and index websites.

Split Testing:
The process of testing different versions of a website with different users to determine which version performs better.

SSL Certificate:
A certificate that encrypts the connection between a website and its visitors.

Status Codes:
An HTTP response code that indicates the status of a request.

Stop Word:
A word that is ignored by search engines when processing a query.

Subdomain:
A domain that is part of a larger domain.

Taxonomy:
The practice of organizing content into categories and subcategories.

Time on Page:
The amount of time a user spends on a single page.

Title Tag:
An HTML tag that contains the title of a web page.

Top-Level Domain (TLD):
The last part of a domain name, such as .com, .org or .net.

Traffic:
The number of visitors to a website.

Trust:
A measure of how trustworthy a website is.

TrustRank:
An algorithm used by search engines to determine the order of search results.

User-Generated Content (UGC): Content that is created by users, such as comments and reviews.

Universal Search:
A search engine results page that displays multiple types of results, such as images, videos and webpages.

Unnatural Link:
A link that has been created for the purpose of manipulating search engine rankings.

URL:
A Uniform Resource Locator, the address of a webpage.

URL Parameter:
A part of a URL that contains information about the page.

Usability:
The ease of use of a website.

User Agent:
A name given to a web browser by its developer.

User Experience (UX):
The experience of a user when they interact with a website.

Vertical Search:
A search engine that is focused on a specific type of content, such as images or videos.

Virtual Assistant:
A software application that can understand natural language and provide answers to questions.

Visibility:
How easy it is for a website to be found in search engine results pages.

Voice Search:
A type of search query that is spoken instead of typed.

Webpage:
A single page of a website.

Website:
A collection of webpages and other content on the Internet.

Website Navigation:
The structure of a website and how a user can move between different pages.

Webspam:
Unsolicited and irrelevant content on the web.

White Hat:
Ethical and legal practices used to improve a website's ranking in the search engine results page.

Word Count:
The number of words in a piece of content.

WordPress:
A content management system used to create websites.

XML:
Extensible Markup Language, a markup language used to structure data.

XML Sitemap:
An XML file that contains the URLs of a website and information about them.

Source Credit: We provided our own written definitions of each term. Credit to SEJ for producing a master glossary list to work from.