Working in SEO also means keeping up with unusual acronyms and phrases.
We live in a digital world where breadcrumbs are welcomed, and anchors aren’t attached to a ship. (These are just tactics used to drive ongoing link juice.) Let’s not mention spammy backlinks—that’s enough to make you disavow them.
Search engine optimization is filled with jargon-heavy words we know and love. However, they are confusing. Whether you’re a beginner in the community or a pro helping 10s or 100s of clients rank online, this SEO glossary will come in handy.
A
SEO terms starting with the letter A
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text of a link within page copy is referred to as the link text.
Alternative Text
Usually shortened to alt text (or attribute), it is the HTML code that describes a visual image to search engines. This text provides an additional opportunity to rank and improve search visibility.
B
SEO terms starting with the letter B
Branded Keywords
As the name suggests, they’re search terms or phrases that contain your brand’s name.
Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumbs are small text routes at the top of a webpage help users navigate. Breadcrumbs improve navigation and user experience on multi-page websites.
C
SEO terms starting with the letter C
Cannibalization
Cannibalization occurs when content from the same domain competes for the same result. Keywords and duplicate content often cause search engines like Google to be unable to discern which page version to display or associate a keyword with.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is the informal abbreviation. It measures SERP and ad performance. You can calculate it by dividing your search result or ad’s clicks by its impressions.
Content Hub
A content hub is a digital library that is dedicated to a specific topic or niche. This “hub” or section will contain a pillar page (or main page) with several sub-topics that are linked to the core topic.
Content Grouping
Grouping content logically shows how subjects and ideas relate. Content hubs can organize content. Google Analytics has Content Grouping. Group content URLs to view page performance.
Cornerstone Content
This concept refers to your bread and butter content: the most important content on your website. It is usually the top-converting content that you want to increase or maintain keyword rankings for.
Conversion Rate (CVR)
Conversion rate or CVR for short, is your site’s conversion rate. It is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the total number of conversion point interactions.
Commercial Query or Intent
Commercial purpose search terms are those most likely to turn users into customers.
Character Limit
You get a set number of characters in a content block, similar on Twitter. Using the maximum number of characters isn’t always optimum.
D
SEO terms starting with the letter D
Domain Authority (DA)
Domain authority and trust signals help Google and other search engines evaluate content. It is believed that higher DA scores boost your chances of ranking first for a search query.
E
SEO terms starting with the letter E
Entry Page
The page the user entered your website on.
Evergreen Content
Evergreen content remains relevant over a long period of time and is not impacted by the news, world events, seasons, holidays, and trending topics. If well-optimized, it will stay fresh for months on end.
F
SEO terms starting with the letter F
Featured Snippets
Every brand wants these brief summaries at the top of organic search results. Featured snippets provide quick answers to search queries. Further reading: How Google’s featured snippets work
G
SEO terms starting with the letter G
Google Algorithms
Google Search results use complicated algorithms to retrieve information from its search database. Google uses algorithms and ranking factors to give users the best search results.
Google Analytics
A web-based platform that collects analytical data about your website and apps, as well as measures the return on investment (ROI) of your advertising efforts. In this platform, you can generate reports on website traffic received, who your customers are, where they’re located, what devices they use to engage with you, how your campaigns are performing, and much more.
Google Autocomplete
According to Google, “autocomplete is a feature within Google Search that makes it easier to complete searches that you start typing into the search box.” This automated system helps you generate predictions on what to search, allowing users to save time with suggested searches.
Google Dance
A term used to describe the fluctuations in Google’s search result rankings.
Google Hummingbird
2013’s major algorithm. The system answers search queries quickly and accurately like a hummingbird. Google’s Hummingbird algorithm evaluates context and query intent.
Google Panda
This algorithm was rolled out in 2011, and it aims to filter out websites with thin, low-quality content.
Google Sandbox
When your website does not have enough relevant content, it will end up in the Google sandbox.
Google Search Console (GSC)
GSC, previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, is a free service that helps website owners and managers monitor, maintain and troubleshoot website visibility in Google’s organic search results.
Guest Blogging / Posting
Guest blogging is when you write a piece of content that gets published on a third-party website. Usually, the website is in the same industry as the brand or the expert producing the content.
H
SEO terms starting with the letter H
H1 Title
The H1 tag is an HTML heading that is often used to mark up a web page title.
This follows a hierarchy structure, mostly followed by H2, H3, or H4, and grouped as title tags.
I
SEO terms starting with the letter I
Inbound Link
An inbound link is a link that is coming from another website and is pointing to your website.
Informational Query or Intent
This relates to search queries which enable users to learn more about something.
Internal Link
Any link that links from a page on your website to another page on your website.
K
SEO terms starting with the letter K
Keywords
Trackable search queries and phrases. They help customers find product listings, service pages, articles, etc. in search engines. Read more about Important keyword metrics
Keyword Clustering
Clustering your keywords allows you to organize them into semantically related sets.
Keyword Cannibalization
Cannibalization occurs When domain-wide web pages use the same keywords.
Keyword Density
The density of keywords refers to how frequently a certain keyword appears in a given text or on a given website.
Keyword Difficulty
An SEO metric that estimates the difficulty of ranking on Google’s first page for a keyword. Many keyword and rank-tracking software include this metric. Learn more about keyword difficulty.
Keyword Proximity
Keyword proximity is the distance between a search phrase’s individual keywords.
Keyword Research
The process of identifying keywords that users type into search engines to find information.
Keyword Ranking
Tracking a group of keywords’ search engine position rankings and movements to determine the website exposure.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing refers to the overuse of a specific keyword within a webpage.
Knowledge Graph
This knowledge-base model includes a collection of descriptions, entities, topics, and relationships. Learn more about Google’s Knowledge Graph.
L
SEO terms starting with the letter L
Local Query
A search query containing a location in the phrase.
Long-Tail Keyword
Long-tail keywords are more particular than short, high-volume ones. They receive fewer searches but more customized results.
M
SEO letter starting with the letter M
Meta Title
HTML meta title tags are meta titles. It tells search engines and viewers the page’s topic. It appears in SERPs.
Meta Description
A meta description appears with a meta title in search engine results. The meta description provides a summary of what the page is about.
Meta Keywords
No longer recognized by Google, meta keywords allowed webmasters to include keywords into the html relevant to the page.
N
SEO terms starting with the letter N
Navigational Query
A query that’s used to navigate a database or website.
O
SEO terms starting with the letter O
On-page SEO
On-site SEO optimizes individual pages to rank higher and get more traffic in search engines.
Organic Search Results
Search engine results pages. Search engines generate these without payment.
P
SEO terms starting with the letter P
Page Rank
Google’s webpage ranking algorithm. The system “measures” each element of a hyperlinked group of pages by assigning a PageRank value.
People Also Ask
Search engine results pages display People Also Ask results below the top search result (SERPs). These user-generated questions can help identify relevant queries.
Pillar Page
“Content hubs” often include pillar pages. It usually is long-form content piece that provides an overview, covers related subtopics, and links to additional related content.
Q
SEO terms starting with the letter Q
Query
Using keywords, a query retrieves data from a data source.
R
SEO terms starting with the letter R
Rankings or Ranking Position
This refers to the position of a website on a search engine results page (SERP) when a query or keyword is searched.
Rank Brain
Google RankBrain uses AI to rank search results. Machine learning interprets searches and determines the most relevant search results.
Related Searches
Related search queries that supplement or broaden the scope of the main search query.
S
SEO terms starting with the letter S
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
SEPRs are abbreviated for search engine result pages. It is a summary of relevant search results that you receive after entering a search query into a search engine such as Google.
Search Intent
Search intent is a user’s motivation for conducting a particular search.
Search Volume
Search volume is a measure of the average number of monthly searches for a specific keyword or phrase on a search engine.
Semantics
It refers to the relationships between words and how they are used to convey meaning.
Seed Keywords
A seed keyword is used to kick off your keyword research.
Search Terms
A word or phrase that a user enters into a search engine to find relevant web pages.
Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords are added after you’ve determined your primary keyword.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The process of improving a website’s and its content’s visibility in search engines.
SEO Silo
Used to organize website content internally and externally to boost rankings. The structure aids search engines in quickly identifying relevant content.
SERP Features
In response to a search, the search engine returns a list of results, each of which may contain various elements.
Share of Voice
A marketing channel’s share of voice (SOV) is a metric for gauging how prominent a brand’s message is inside that medium.
Short-Head Keywords
Competitive phrases of 1-3 words in length are known as “short head keywords.” They tend to be more generic and hence more challenging to rank for.
T
SEO terms starting with the letter T
Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF)
TF-IDF is a numerical statistic used to assess a word’s significance to a corpus of documents. In text mining, user modeling, and information retrieval, TF-IDF is frequently employed as a weighting factor.
Thin Content
It refers to low-quality content in the form of duplicate content, short articles, or content with very few words. Thin content is generally not a good practice and can lead to lower search rankings.
Transactional Query
Transaction-specific query. These requests commonly include phrases like “buy,” “order,” “pricing,” “download,” etc., indicating a purchase.
Topical Relevance
A measure of how closely a search query matches the content of a particular web page.
V
SEO terms starting with the letter V
Vertical Search
A type of specialized search where users are presented with relevant results from a particular source.
Voice Search
A type of technology that allows users to search for information by speaking into a device such as a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
Z
SEO terms starting with the letter Z
Zero Click Searches
A type of search query where the user does not have to click on any results to get an answer.
Our glossary is constantly being expanded with new terms to assist with your SEO knowledge. Bookmark this page to keep up with the most important terminology.
