SEO TERMS WITH EXPLANATION

SEO TERMS AND ITS MEANING

Content that is at least ten times better than the current top-ranking result for the target keyword.

301 Redirect

The 301 redirect that takes users to a new URL and tells search engines that the page has moved permanently.

302 Redirect

The 302 redirect indicates that the web page or resource was moved from one location to another temporarily.

The 304 Not Modified is one of the redirection HTTP response codes from a server indicating that the resource has not been modified and there is no need to retransmit it since the client still has a cached copy of a resource.

404 Response Code

The 404 Not Found HTTP status code indicates that the server couldn’t find the requested page or resource.

410 Gone

The 410 Gone HTTP status code indicates that the requested resource is no longer available on the server and that this condition is likely to be permanent.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

Created by Google, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a HTML framework for creating stripped-down, fast-loading web page versions optimized for mobile.

AhrefsBot

AhrefsBot is a web crawler run by Ahrefs SEO software suite that powers its index of pages and links.

Alt Text

Alt text (alternative text) is the text description of an image on a web page. It’s used by screen readers and search engines.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the visible clickable text of a hyperlink. Google uses anchor texts to better understand the content of the linked page.

Article Spinning

Article spinning, aka content spinning, is where you take a piece of content and rewrite it to create many “new” pieces of content. Article spinning can be done manually or using an automated software.

Article Syndication

Article syndication is when one or more third-party sites republish an exact copy of content that originally appeared elsewhere.

Auto-Generated Content

Auto-generated content is content that’s automatically generated using a program or code.

Backlinks

Backlinks are links from a page on one website to another. Search engines analyze the quality of a backlink to estimate how important a page is.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service from Microsoft that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in Bing’s search results.

Bingbot

Bingbot is the web crawler used by Microsoft to gather the information needed and build a searchable index of the web.

Black-Hat SEO

Black-hat SEO refers to the use of strategies, techniques, and tactics that violate a search engine’s guidelines. It focuses on finding and exploiting algorithmic loopholes.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that take no further action after landing on a website, like clicking through to another page, leaving a comment, or adding an item to their cart.

Branded Keywords

Branded keywords are the words and phrases that are associated with your brand, products, or services.

Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumb navigation are internal links that give users and search engines a clear trail to follow around your site.

Bridge Page

A bridge page is a page solely designed to send users elsewhere. It is used by affiliate marketers to send traffic to an affiliate link.

Broken Link

A broken link is a link on your site that points to a non-existent (or “dead”) resource. They can be internal or external links.

Cached Page

A cached page is a version of a web page that has been saved by Google on their servers the last time they visited it.

Canonical Tag

A canonical tag (rel=“canonical”) is a snippet of HTML code that defines the main version for duplicate, near-duplicate and similar pages.

Canonical URL

A canonical URL is a URL that Google sees as the “master” version of a set of duplicate or near-duplicate pages.

Co-citation

Co-citation occurs when two documents are cited together by other documents

Co-occurrence

When keywords show up together on pages about a certain topic.

Computer-Generated Content

Content created by software that is supposedly on par with what a human can create.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Globally distributed server network that makes it quicker for users to access your website.

Content hub

Interlinked collections of content about a similar topic.

Core Web Vitals

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

Cornerstone Content

Cornerstone content is the collection of articles on your website that you most want to rank for in search engines.

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

A crawler is an internet program designed to browse the internet systematically. Crawlers are most commonly used as a means for search engines to discover and process pages for indexing and showing them in the search results.

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.

Doorway page

Pages designed to rank for similar search queries.

Duplicate Content

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

Dwell time

How much time passes between clicking one of the search results and heading back to them.

Dynamic URL

URL with content that depends on variable parameters.

Editorial Link

Link that points to your site (that you didn’t ask or pay for.)

Email outreach

The process of putting your product or content in front of relevant people by sending them personalized emails.

Entry page

The first page a searcher views on your site.

Evergreen Content

Content that doesn’t go out of date.

External Link

Link from your site to another site.

Gated content

Content that visitors can only access after providing their contact information.

Gateway Page

A gateway page is a web page designed to rank for particular search queries without offering useful information or answering the user’s search query. When clicked from SERP, the page will redirect the visitor to a different page.

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

Google Analytics is a free web tracking tool offered by Google to analyze how visitors interact with your website.

Google autocomplete

Search suggestions given by Google when entering a search.

Google bombing

Where you get a website to rank higher in Google for irrelevant or unrelated search queries using black-hat SEO tactics.

Google Business Profile

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

Google Caffeine

Search index introduced by Google in 2010 that allowed them to index more content and provide fresher 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

Google Panda is an algorithm update launched in an effort to filter out sites with lower-quality, thin content. Today, it’s part of Google’s core algorithm.

Google Penalty

A Google penalty is a punishment a human reviewer can impose on website for violating Google’s webmaster quality guidelines.

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 Sandbox

Alleged filter by Google that prevents new websites from ranking in Google’s top results.

Google Search Console

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

Google Top Heavy Update

Algorithm update released in 2012 by Google to downgrade web pages with too many ads at the top.

Google Webmaster Guidelines

Best practices from Google to help them find, index, and rank your site.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools – now Google Search Console – is a free tool by Google that allows users to check how their website is performing in the search results and whether it experiences any issues that can affect that performance.

Googlebot

Web crawler that powers Google’s search engine.

Grey Hat SEO

The use of SEO strategies and tactics that blur the line between white-hat and black-hat methods.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is the practice of writing and publishing a blog post on another person or company’s website.

Guestographic

Infographic created by you but published on other websites.

H1 tag

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

Header Tags

Header tags are HTML tags used to set apart headings and subheadings from the rest of the content on a webpage, in descending order of importance from H1 to H6.

Hilltop algorithm

Algorithm adopted by Google in 2003 to identify authoritative web pages to rank.

Holistic SEO

The practice of improving all aspects of a website to rank higher in search engines.

Hreflang

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

HTTP 200 Response Code

The HTTP 200 (OK) is the status response code from a server for successful HTTP requests from a client.

HTTPS

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

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.

Interstitial ad

Full-screen interactive ads that cover the interface of the website or app.

Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization happens when a single website unintentionally targets the same keyword across multiple posts or pages.

Keyword Clustering

Keyword clustering is a practice in SEO used to combine similar, relevant keywords into groups (clusters).

Keyword Density

Keyword density is a metric that tells us how frequently a keyword is used within a piece of content in relation to the overall word count.

Keyword Difficulty

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

Keyword Ranking

A keyword ranking is a website’s organic ranking position in the search results for a particular keyword.

Keyword Stemming

Process of reducing a word to its ‘stem’ or ‘root’ (e.g., flowers, flowery -> flower).

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.

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 exchange

Agreement between two websites to link to each other.

Link Farm

Group of websites created to link to each other to improve search engine rankings.

Link Popularity

The number of backlinks that point to a website.

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

Local search marketing is the process of improving a local business’s search visibility online. A local business is any business that serves its customers in person.

Local SEO

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

Log file analysis

Where you analyze the crawl behaviour of search engine bots in server logs to discover opportunities to improve SEO.

Long-tail keyword

A low-volume search query.

LSI keywords

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

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 Keywords

Meta tags that give some search engines (not Google) more information about a page’s content.

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.

Mirror Site

A copy of a website hosted on another server.

Mobile-first indexing

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

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.

Noopener

The term “noopener” refers to the rel=”noopener” HTML attribute that’s added to links set to open in a new browser tab or window for security reasons.

Noreferrer

HTML attribute that prevents referrer information passing through a link.

Not Provided

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

Off-page SEO

Any efforts 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.

Open Graph meta tags

Snippets of code that control how URLs are displayed when shared on social media.

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.

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.

Pillar Page

A pillar page is a high-level guide about a broad topic. It is part of a topic cluster, which are topically-grouped pages designed for ranking.

Pogo-sticking

Back-and-forth process between the SERPs and its results when a searcher is unable to find the content they want.

Private Blog Network (PBN)

A private blog network (PBN) is a network of websites created solely to link out to another website and improve its organic search visibility.

RankBrain

RankBrain is a deep machine learning system developed by Google to better understand new and long-tail search queries and return more relevant search results.

Reciprocal link

When two websites link to each other.

Reconsideration request

Request to have Google review your site after fixing problems identified in a manual action or security issues notification.

Resource Pages

Resource pages are web pages that curate and link out to useful industry resources.

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.

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 engine poisoning

When malicious hackers create dummy websites that appear to be legitimate search engine results. Their goal is to steal personal information or install malware.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

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

Search Intent

The reason behind a search.

Search Results

Search results are a list of webpages from a search engine that appear in response to a particular search query.

Search Term

A search term (or search query) is a word or set of words that a person enters on a search engine like Google to generate specific results.

Search Visibility

Search visibility is the estimated percentage of clicks a website gets from its organic rankings for one or more keywords.

Search Volume

Search volume is the number of times, on average, that users enter a particular search query into a search engine each month.

Secondary Keywords

Terms closely related to the keyword you want to target.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

Protocol for establishing a secure private connection between networked computers.

Seed Keywords

Seed keywords are words or phrases used in the keyword research process as the starting point to unlock more keyword suggestions.

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.

SEO silo

The grouping together of topically-related web pages via internal links.

SERP Features

SERP features are the elements of search engines’ search result pages that aren’t traditional organic search results. They provide additional and related information on the search query.

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.

Sitemaps

A sitemap is an XML file listing all the pages on your website that you want search engines like Google to index.

Sitewide link

Outbound link that appears on every page of a website.

Spamdexing

Deliberate manipulation of search engine results using techniques that are against their guidelines.

Srcset

Srcset is an HTML image attribute that specifies the list of images to use in different browser situations. The browser will pick the most optimal image version, based on the screen size and resolution.

Structured data

A standardized way to provide information about a web page.

Subdomain

A subdomain is a part of a website that’s placed under that website’s root directory. It is represented by an addition at the front of the root domain name.

Taxonomy SEO

Optimizing for search engines by organizing the structure of content.

Technical SEO

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

TF-IDF

Statistical measure that aims to judge the relative importance of a word in a document.

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)

A top-level domain is the segment of a domain that immediately follows the last dot symbol in a domain name. It has the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet.

Transactional Query

Query where someone is looking to purchase something but hasn’t yet decided where to buy it from.

Transport Layer Security (TLS)

An updated, more secure version of SSL. Used interchangeably with SSL.

TrustRank

Algorithm that analyzes links to separate useful web pages from spam.

UGC link attribute

Link attribute that shows a link is user-generated content (UGC). Used for comments, forum posts, or any other content sections where users can add content.

Universal Search

Universal Search was introduced in 2007 as an expansion of search results to incorporate other media formats – like images, videos, maps, and news – in SERPs