SEO Glossary

A

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Open-source HTML framework for creating stripped-down versions of web pages that load faster on mobile.

Alt text

Descriptive text that appears in place of an image if it fails to load.

Anchor text

Clickable word or phrase that links one webpage to another.

B

Backlinks

Links from pages on another website.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Free service from Microsoft that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in Bing’s search results.

Bounce rate

The percentage of visitors that take no further action after landing on a website.

Branded keywords

Words and phrases associated with your brand, products, or services.

Breadcrumb navigation

Internal links that give users (and search engines) a clear trail to follow around your site.

Broken link

Link on your site that points to a non-existent resource. They can be internal or external links.

C

Cached page

What a web page looked like the last time Google visited it.

Canonical tag

HTML code that tells Google what you consider to be the “master” version of a page.

Canonical URL

URL that Google sees as the “master” version of a page or set of pages.

Core Web Vitals

Metrics that are part of Google’s Page Experience signals used to measure user experience.

Crawl budget

How fast and how many pages a search engine wants to crawl on your site.

Crawlability

A search engine’s ability to access content on a page.

Crawler

The computer bot search engines use to discover pages on the web.

D

Dofollow link

Link that transfers PageRank. AKA a “followed” link.

Domain Rating (DR)

The relative strength of a website’s authority based on its backlink profile.

Duplicate content

Content that appears on the web in more than one place.

Dwell time

How much time passes between you clicking a search result and clicking back to the SERPs.

Dynamic URL

URL with content that depends on variable parameters.

Entry page

The first page a searcher views on your site.

External link

Link from your site to another site.

G

Gateway page

Pages created to rank for specific, similar search queries. Also known as doorway pages.

Google Alerts

Free service from Google that monitors the web for content changes matching a specific search query.

Google algorithm

Set of rules used by Google to rank matching results when a user performs a search.

Google Analytics

Free service from Google for tracking and monitoring website traffic.

Google autocomplete

Search suggestions given by Google when entering a search.

Google Business Profile

Free business listing from Google that shows up in maps and web search results.

Google dance

Slang term describing the volatility a new website or page experiences when Google is trying to determine where it should rank.

Google Hummingbird

Algorithm update released by Google in 2013 to return better search results. It emphasized the meaning of search queries over individual keywords.

Google Knowledge Graph

Knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them.

Google Knowledge Panel

SERP feature that provides information about the main subject of the query.

Google My Business

Free service from Google that allows business owners to create, manage, and optimize their Google Business Profile.

Google Panda

Algorithm update released in 2011 by Google that rewarded higher-quality sites and downgraded the presence of lower-quality sites in their search results.

Google penalty

Penalty issued by Google to demote a page or site in its search results. Can be algorithmic or manual.

Google Penguin

Algorithm update released in 2012 by Google to downgrade sites that engaged in manipulative link schemes and keyword stuffing.

Google Pigeon

Algorithm update released in 2013 by Google to improve search results for local search queries.

Google Search Console

Free service from Google that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in their search results.

Google Webmaster Tools

Old name of Google Search Console.

Googlebot

Web crawler that powers Google’s search engine.

Guest blogging

When you create content for another website.

Guestographic

Infographic created by you but published on other websites.

H

H1 tag

HTML heading that’s most commonly used to mark up a web page title.

Header tags

HTML elements used to define headings and subheadings on a page.

Hreflang

HTML attribute used to tell Google about alternate versions of a web page for different languages and regions.

HTTPS

Encrypted version of HTTP that protects the communications between your browser and server from being intercepted and tampered with by attackers.

I

Inbound link

Link from another site to your website.

Indexability

A search engine’s ability to analyze and store a web page in its database.

Informational query

Query where someone wants to find information, not products.

Internal link

Link from another page on the same website.

K

Keyword cannibalization

When a single website unintentionally targets the same keyword across multiple posts or pages.

Keyword density

Percentage of total words on a page that are a specific keyword or phrase.

Keyword Difficulty

Metric used by SEO tool providers to estimate a keyword’s ranking difficulty.

Keyword ranking

Your position in organic search for a particular keyword.

Keyword stuffing

Repeating the same keywords (or similar phrases) in your content to try to manipulate rankings.

Keywords

Words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for.

L

Link bait

Content specifically formulated to attract links.

Link building

The process of getting other websites to link to pages on your website.

Link equity

‘Authority’ that is passed when one page links to another.

?Link profile

Assessment of all the backlinks (quantity, quality, diversity, etc.) a website has.

Link reclamation

The process of trying to get back lost links.

Link rot

Natural tendency for links to become broken on the web over time.

Link scheme

Links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results.

Link spam

Irrelevant links placed on pages to try and improve search engine rankings.

Link velocity

The rate at which a website’s backlink profile is growing.

Local business schema

Type of structured data markup to help local businesses optimize for local SEO.

Local citation

Any mention of your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) online.

Local pack

SERP feature that appears for local queries and displays local Google business listings.

Local search marketing

The process of improving your presence in local search using SEO or paid ads.

Local SEO

The process of ‘optimizing’ your online presence to show up and rank higher in relevant local searches.

Long-tail keyword

A low-volume search query.

LSI keywords

Misnomer for semantically-related words and phrases. (LSI keywords don’t exist.)

M

Manual action

Demotion or removal of websites/webpages issued by Google to sites that do not comply with their webmaster guidelines.

Meta description

HTML attribute used to describe what a page is about.

Meta redirect

Code that tells the web browser to redirect the user to a different URL after a set amount of time.

Meta robots tag

HTML snippet that tells search engines how to crawl or index a page.

Meta tags

Snippets of code that tell search engines important information about your web page.

Mobile-first indexing

Google’s shift to using the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking.

N

Natural link

A link that occurs organically.

Navigational query

Query where someone is looking for a specific website.

Negative SEO

When a competitor uses black-hat tactics to attempt to sabotage the rankings of a competing website or web page.

Nofollow

Tag that tells Google not to take a link into account for ranking purposes.

Noindex tag

Tag that instructs search engines not to index a page.

Not provided

Keyword data that Google omits from sharing with you in Google Analytics.

O

Off-page SEO

Any efforts have taken outside of a website to improve its search engine rankings.

On-page SEO

The practice of optimizing a web page’s visible content and source code to rank higher.

Organic search results

Non-paid search results from a search engine that can’t be bought or influenced by advertisers.

Organic traffic

Traffic from a search engine’s organic results.

Orphan page

Page with no internal links pointing to it.

Outbound link

Link that points to a page not on your website.

P

Page speed

The amount of time it takes for a web page to load.

PageRank

A formula that judges the value of a page by looking at the quantity and quality of other pages that link to it.

Paid link

A backlink that you pay for.

People also ask

SERP feature that answers questions related to the user’s search query.

R

RankBrain

Component of Google’s algorithm that uses sophisticated machine learning algorithms to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases.

Rich snippet

Google search result with additional data shown alongside it, usually from structured data on the page.

Robots.txt

A file that tells search engines where they can and can’t go on your site.

S

Schema markup

Code that helps search engines to better understand and represent your content in the search results.

Search algorithm

List of rules used by search engines to rank matching results when a user performs a search.

Search intent

The reason behind a search.

Search query

The words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they’re looking for.

Search visibility

How visible your website and its related pages are in a search engine’s organic results.

Search volume

How many times per month, on average, people in a given country search for your target keyword.

Secondary keywords

Terms closely related to the keyword you want to target.

SEO

The practice of optimizing a website or webpage to get more high-quality traffic from a search engine’s organic results.

SEO audit

The process of evaluating and assessing your website to see how well it’s performing in search engines.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

Pages that search engines show in response to a user’s search query.

SERP features

Non-traditional search results that provide information directly within the SERP, so users do not have to click.

Share of voice

How visible your brand is in the market.

Short-tail keywords

Terms with high search volumes.

Sitelinks

Links to other pages or sections of a page that appear under some Google search results.

Sitemap

XML file listing all the important content on your website.

Sitewide link

Outbound link that appears on every page of a website.

SSL

Protocols for establishing authenticated and encrypted links between networked computers.

Structured data

A standardized way to provide information about a web page.

Subdomain

The part of a URL on the left of the root domain, e.g., help.ahrefs.com

T

Technical SEO

Making technical adjustments to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages.

Thin content

Content that has little or no value for the user.

Title tag

HTML element used to specify the title of a webpage.

Top level domain (TLD)

Last segment of a domain name, like .com or .org.

U

Unnatural links

Links in a page’s content that are not editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner.

URL Rating (UR)

The strength of a target page’s backlink profile on a 0–100 scale, with 100 being the strongest.

URL slug

The end part of the URL that (typically) explains a page’s content.

v

Vertical search

Search engine dedicated to a specific area of focus.

Voice search

The use of voice to interact with a search engine (rather than searching by text).

W

Website structure

How a site is organized and its web pages interlinked.

Website authority

A metric from SEO tool providers that measures the relative strength of a site. (Ours is Domain Rating.)

White-hat SEO

The use of Google-approved website SEO strategies, techniques, and tactics.

X

X?robots-tag

HTTP header sent from a web server that controls indexing of a page.

301 redirect

Redirect that takes users to a new URL and tells search engines that the page has moved permanently.

302 redirect

Redirect that takes users to a new URL and tells search engines that the page has moved temporarily.

404 error

HTTP status code indicating that the server couldn’t find the desired page or resource.