A

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A/B Testing

Testing two versions of a page or element to see which performs better (clicks, signups, sales).

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Above the Fold

What a user sees before scrolling. Put your primary message and CTA here.

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Algorithm

The system a search engine uses to retrieve, rank, and display results.

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Alt Text

Text describing an image. Helps accessibility and can support image SEO and topical relevance.

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Anchor Text

The clickable text of a link. Descriptive anchor text helps users and gives search engines context.

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Authority

A general concept of trust/credibility. Earned through quality content, links, and brand signals.

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B

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Backlink

A link from another website to yours. Relevant, editorial backlinks can improve visibility.

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Bounce Rate

Sessions where a user leaves without another interaction. Interpret carefully depending on analytics setup.

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Breadcrumbs

Navigation that shows page hierarchy. Helps UX and can appear in search results.

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Broken Link

A link that points to a non-working URL (often a 404). Hurts UX and can waste crawl resources.

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C

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Canonical Tag

A tag that signals the preferred URL when similar/duplicate pages exist.

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Citations (Local SEO)

Mentions of your business name/address/phone (NAP) across directories. Consistency matters.

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Click Depth

How many clicks it takes to reach a page from your homepage. Shallower is usually better.

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CLS

Cumulative Layout Shift. A Core Web Vital measuring how much the page shifts while loading.

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Content Audit

Reviewing existing content to update, consolidate, improve quality, and reduce cannibalization.

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Content Cluster

A pillar page supported by related pages that link to each other to build topical authority.

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Content Decay

When content performance declines over time. Refreshing can recover traffic.

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Core Web Vitals

Google performance metrics related to page experience (LCP, INP, CLS).

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Crawl

When search bots discover and fetch pages/URLs to evaluate.

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Crawl Budget

How much crawling a search engine allocates to your site. Important for large sites.

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Crawlability

How easily bots can access your site (internal links, robots rules, architecture).

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CTR (Click-Through Rate)

Clicks divided by impressions. Improving titles/snippets can increase CTR.

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D

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Duplicate Content

Identical/very similar content across URLs. Can dilute signals and confuse indexing.

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E

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E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. Quality concepts emphasized in Google guidelines.

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Entity

A distinct “thing” (person, brand, concept). Search engines use entities to understand topics.

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Evergreen Content

Content that stays relevant long-term and can compound traffic over time.

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F

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FCP

First Contentful Paint. A performance metric showing when the first content appears.

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Featured Snippet

A highlighted answer box in search results (often called position zero).

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G

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Google Business Profile

Your Google local listing that powers Maps/local pack visibility.

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Google Search Console

Google’s free tool for search performance, indexing, and technical issue reporting.

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Googlebot

Google’s crawler that discovers and fetches pages for indexing.

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H

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H1 Tag

Main page heading. Typically one clear H1 that matches the page topic/intent.

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Headings (H1–H6)

HTML headings that structure content for readability and topical clarity.

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Hreflang

Signals language/region targeting so search engines show the right version to the right users.

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HTTP Status Code

Server response code like 200, 301, 404, 500 indicating what happened to the request.

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I

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Index

The database of pages a search engine stores and can show in results.

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Indexing

When a search engine stores a crawled page in its index.

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INP

Interaction to Next Paint. A Core Web Vital measuring responsiveness to user interactions.

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Internal Link

A link from one page on your site to another. Key for crawling and distributing link equity.

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K

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Keyword

A search query/topic users search for. Modern SEO targets topics and intent, not just exact match phrases.

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Keyword Cannibalization

Multiple pages target the same intent/query and compete, splitting signals.

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Keyword Difficulty

A tool-based estimate of how hard it is to rank. Not an absolute metric.

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Keyword Mapping

Assigning topics/keywords to specific pages to avoid overlap and improve coverage.

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Keyword Stuffing

Overusing keywords unnaturally. Hurts readability and can lead to demotion.

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Knowledge Panel

An entity box in results with brand/entity info (often on desktop).

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L

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Landing Page

A page designed to convert visitors (signup, purchase, call, etc.).

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LCP

Largest Contentful Paint. A Core Web Vital measuring how fast the main content loads.

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Link Building

Earning links from other sites (ideally editorial and relevant) to improve authority.

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Link Equity

Value passed through links. Influenced by relevance, placement, and internal architecture.

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Local Pack

Map-based local results shown for location-intent queries (often a 3-pack).

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Long-Tail Keyword

Longer, more specific queries that often have lower volume but higher intent and easier ranking.

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M

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Manual Action

A penalty applied by a human reviewer. Shown in Search Console with steps to fix.

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Meta Description

Snippet text that may appear in results. Not a direct ranking factor but impacts CTR.

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Meta Robots Tag

Controls indexing/crawling directives (noindex, nofollow, etc.).

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Mobile-First Indexing

Google primarily uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking.

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N

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NAP Consistency

Keeping Name/Address/Phone consistent across listings. Important for local SEO trust.

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Nofollow

Link attribute hinting not to pass ranking signals. Common for ads/sponsored and user-generated links.

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Noindex

Directive telling search engines not to index a page, keeping it out of search results.

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O

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Off-Page SEO

Signals outside your site (links, reviews, mentions) that influence visibility.

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On-Page SEO

Optimizing content and page elements (titles, headings, internal links, etc.).

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Organic Traffic

Visits from unpaid search results (not ads).

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Orphan Page

A page with no internal links pointing to it. Harder to discover and rank.

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P

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PAA (People Also Ask)

Expandable questions in Google results. Great source for FAQ content ideas.

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Page Speed

How fast a page loads and becomes usable. Impacts UX and performance signals.

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Pillar Page

A comprehensive page targeting a broad topic, linking to supporting cluster pages.

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R

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Redirect Chain

A series of redirects (A→B→C). Can slow users/bots and dilute signals.

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Referring Domain

A unique domain linking to your site (different from total backlinks).

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Robots.txt

A file that provides crawler guidance about which paths they may crawl.

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S

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Schema Markup

Structured data that helps search engines understand content and can enable rich results.

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Search Intent

The goal behind the query (informational, commercial, transactional, etc.). Matching intent matters.

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SERP

Search Engine Results Page: the results plus features like snippets, maps, and PAA.

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SERP Feature

Enhanced result elements like featured snippets, local packs, sitelinks, images, etc.

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Site Architecture

How pages are organized and linked. Impacts crawlability, UX, and topical signals.

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Sitelinks

Extra links under a main result, often for strong brand navigation queries.

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Sitemap (XML)

A file listing URLs you want search engines to discover. Often submitted via Search Console.

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Slug

The URL portion after the domain. Keep it short and readable.

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T

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Thin Content

Low-value content with little unique information. Can hurt quality perception and rankings.

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Title Tag

HTML title often used as the clickable headline in search results.

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Topical Authority

Perceived expertise in a topic area, built through comprehensive, high-quality coverage and links.

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U

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UGC

User-generated content. For user links, rel=ugc may be appropriate.

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URL Parameters

Query strings like ?sort= or ?utm=. Can create duplicates if not controlled.

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W

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White Hat SEO

SEO that follows guidelines and focuses on user value. Sustainable long-term.

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Y

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YMYL

Your Money or Your Life topics (health, finance, safety). Require higher trust/accuracy.

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Z

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Zero-Click Search

A search where the answer is provided on the SERP, resulting in no click to a website.

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