SEO has its own language — backlinks, canonical, E-E-A-T, schema, GEO. Most glossaries define jargon with more jargon. This one explains every term in plain English, with an example wherever it helps.
The text description of an image, used by screen readers and search engines. Essential for accessibility and image SEO. Example: alt="A bar chart showing SEO traffic over 12 months" — describe what's in the image, not what it's called.
The clickable text of a hyperlink. Google reads anchor text to understand what a linked page is about. "Click here" is bad anchor text; "free SEO course" is good.
How much trust a site or page has earned. Built primarily through backlinks from trusted sources. High-authority pages rank more easily for difficult keywords.
A link from another website pointing to your page. Backlinks are like recommendations — the more good-quality ones you have, the more Google trusts you. Also called "inbound links."
SEO tactics that violate Google's guidelines — keyword stuffing, link buying, cloaking, hidden text. Works briefly, then gets your site penalized or removed from Google entirely.
The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page. High bounce rate often signals content didn't match what the visitor wanted — a search-intent mismatch.
The official URL of a page when multiple URLs show the same content. Tells Google which version to rank. Example: https://example.com/article as the canonical for https://example.com/article?utm=email.
The percentage of people who click your search result after seeing it. A high CTR signals relevance to Google. Improving title tags is the fastest way to lift CTR.
The process where Googlebot discovers and reads pages on the web. Step one of the SEO journey: if Google can't crawl your page, nothing else matters.
A 1–100 score from Moz that estimates how well a domain ranks. Not an official Google metric, but a useful proxy. Higher DA = easier to rank for competitive keywords.
Two types of links. Dofollow passes "link juice" (authority) to the destination; nofollow does not. Most regular links are dofollow. Comment-section links and ads are usually nofollow.
Substantial blocks of content that appear in multiple places — same site or different sites. Google chooses one version to rank and ignores the rest.
Stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. Google's framework for evaluating content quality. Especially important for "Your Money or Your Life" topics like health and finance.
A link from your site pointing to another website. Linking to authoritative sources can improve your own credibility — assuming you link to genuinely good ones.
The boxed answer that sometimes appears at the very top of Google results — above position one. Often called "position zero." Stealing a featured snippet from a competitor is a high-leverage SEO play.
The practice of optimizing content to be cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. The new layer on top of traditional SEO.
Google's free tool that shows how your site performs in search — impressions, clicks, average position, and indexing status. Essential and free.
The process where Google stores a page in its database after crawling. A page must be indexed before it can rank. Check with site:yourdomain.com in Google.
A link from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Internal links help Google understand your site structure and pass authority between pages.
A word or phrase someone types into a search engine. The thing your page is trying to "rank for." Example keyword: how to learn SEO.
An estimated score (usually 0–100) of how hard it will be to rank for a keyword. Higher difficulty = more competition. New sites should target keywords under 25.
Repeating a keyword unnaturally in an attempt to game search rankings. Doesn't work and is actively penalized in 2026. Write naturally instead.
The practice of earning backlinks from other websites. Among the most effective and most-abused parts of SEO. Quality matters more than quantity.
A longer, more specific search phrase (typically 4+ words) with lower volume but lower competition. The smart starting point for new sites.
The 120–160 character summary that appears under your page title in search results. Doesn't directly affect rankings — but a good one boosts click-through rate.
HTML tags in the <head> of a page that tell search engines about the page. Includes title, description, robots, viewport, and others.
Stands for Name, Address, Phone. Critical for local SEO — your business info must match exactly across every directory and listing on the web.
A tag telling Google not to include a page in its index. Useful for thank-you pages, search results pages, and admin areas you don't want ranked.
Everything you do on a page to help it rank — title tags, headings, content, internal links, images. Contrast with off-page SEO (mostly backlinks).
Visitors who reach your site through unpaid search results — what SEO actually produces. Distinct from paid (ads), referral (other sites), and direct traffic.
The expandable question boxes that appear in Google search results. A goldmine of related keywords and questions to answer in your content.
A long, comprehensive article that covers a topic in depth. Smaller "cluster" articles link to it. Pillar + clusters = the standard content architecture for serious SEO sites.
The position your page appears in search results. Position 1 is the top organic result. Anything past page 2 (position 20+) gets minimal traffic.
An enhanced search result that shows extra info — star ratings, prices, FAQs. Earned by adding correct schema markup to your pages.
A text file at /robots.txt that tells search engines which parts of your site they can crawl. Misconfigured robots.txt is a common cause of disappearing traffic.
Structured data added to your HTML to help search engines understand the content. Can produce rich snippets (star ratings, FAQs, etc.) and improve AI citation eligibility.
Search Engine Results Page — what you see after typing a query into Google. The full SERP includes organic results, ads, AI Overviews, featured snippets, and more.
An XML file listing every page on your site. Submitted to Google Search Console to help Google find and index your pages. Mandatory for any serious site.
What the searcher actually wants when they type a query — information, navigation, comparison, or purchase. Matching intent is more important than matching keywords.
The clickable headline that appears in search results. The single most important on-page SEO element. Aim for 50–60 characters with the main keyword near the start.
The web address of a page. SEO-friendly URLs are short, descriptive, and use hyphens between words — example: /blog/why-most-people-fail-at-seo.
SEO that follows Google's guidelines — creating great content, earning real links, providing real value. Slower, but lasts. The opposite of black hat SEO.
More terms added every month. Have one to suggest? Contact us.