SEO Glossary: 300+ A to Z SEO Terms and Definition

By Aman Bhati

25 min

January 3, 2024

“Are you looking for an SEO glossary that explains a renowned SEO terms in simple english and in an easy to understand way?”

We all know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a complex topic. You’ll be overwhelmed with many terms, especially if you’re new to SEO.

That’s why we’ve compiled the list of SEO glossary in this article containing 300+ SEO terms, from basic concepts to advanced. Acquire search result definition SEO glossary with definition for SEO success.

In this post, you’ll discover the following;

SEO GLOSSARY: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Definition of SEO terms

SEO Tools

FAQs

So, without further ado, let us dive into the sea of SEO glossary essential to all marketers.

We will go over all of the SEO terminology, including their meaning, definition, and use.

At the end of this blog, we will go over the top SEO tools 2024 for all-purpose marketing. We are also offer SEO services worldwide. If you are looking for marketing services, contact us.

Continue reading this search result definition SEO glossary to learn about each marketing phrase.

#A

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Algorithm: A set of rules or calculations that search engines use to determine the order in which results are displayed. These factors include user experience, content quality, expertise, backlinks, etc

Alt Text: It is a short description of an image. Descriptive text associated with an image to help search engines understand the “meaning of the images” you use within your blog posts or web pages.

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP): Google launched an open-source HTML framework to power your mobile experience. AMP itself isn’t a ranking factor in Google searches.

Above the Fold: Top portion of the web page is visible to the users without scrolling.

AI Content: AI content refers to “automated content” created by artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Jasper AI, etc. It is suggested that the AI-generated content is authenticated before posting. Do not rely 100% on AI content to build authority or improve your search rankings.

Anchor Text: Clickable text in a hyperlink > Best SEO practice to use a descriptive anchor text > Helps search engines to understand the context of the link.

Absolute URLs: It takes the complete form of the URL. An absolute URL is a full URL, including protocol (HTTP / HTTPS), the optional subdomain (e.g. www ), domain ( example.com ), and path (which includes the directory and slug).

Advanced search operators: Special characters and commands > You can type into the search bar.

Ambiguous intent: Refers to a search query in which the searcher’s intent is ambiguous and requires more clarification.

Async: (Asynchronous) Browser doesn’t have to wait for a task to finish before moving on to the next one while assembling your web page.

Amplification: Sharing information about your business on social media, sponsored commercials, and influencer marketing.

API: (Application Programming Interface) allows for the creation of applications by accessing the features or data of another service, like an operating system or application.

API: (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) It is a client-side script that exchanges data with a server/database without reloading or refreshing the page.

AJAX: (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) It is a client-side script that exchanges data with a server/database without reloading or refreshing the page.

Algorithmic Penalty: (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) You might have received an algorithmic penalty if your rankings drop heavily overnight. Check your Google Webmaster Tools Search Console to verify whether you received a manual penalty.

Ad group: One or more ads with a similar target. Businesses can group related keywords and write ads around a common theme.

Ad extensions: Extra bits of information that work to enhance your ad, make it more helpful to readers, and generate more clicks.

Authority: The combination of signals search engines use to assess websites and webpages for ranking.

Author Authority: Authority is the concept of using the reputation and credentials of a person who writes content online as a ranking factor.

Analytics: The process of gathering, evaluating, and interpreting data in order to get actionable insights that will help you better your strategy or campaign.

#B

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Bounce Rate: The visitors percentage who leave website within a few seconds after viewing only one page.

Below the Fold: Any content you need to scroll down to read would be considered “below the fold.”

Backlinks/Inbound Link: Backlinks are links on other websites that direct traffic to a page on your website. This links represent another website’s traffic coming to your site. The one of the significant SEO glossary every marketers should know.

Banner Ad: The banner ad is an online advertisement that’s displayed on a website. The formate of banner ads is JPG, GIF, PNG, or HTML5.

BNPL: (By Now Pay Later) BNPL is a short-term financing that allows consumers to make purchases and pay them in instalments, usually with no interest.

BOPIS: Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store is a business model that allows customers to order items online and pick them up in-store.

Black hat: Its an SEO practices that violate Google’s quality guidelines. It is recommended that do not use black hat practices much.

Bots/ Crawlers/ Spiders: Use to find content on internet. Its a common SEO glossary.

Browser (Chrome or Firefox): A software that allows you to access information on the web from anywhere like mobile or desktop.

Bundling: It is use to club multiple resources into a single resource.

Brand Authority: Brand Authority is a score (1-100) developed by Moz that measures the total strength of a brand.

B2B (Business-to-Business): In B2B SEO, a longer buying cycle, expensive products and services, and a professional decision-maker audience.

B2C: (Business-to-Consumer). This B2C SEO glossary means, In B2C SEO, the buying cycle is typically shorter (though it still varies by industry), products and services are (mostly) cheaper, and consumers are the audience.

Baidu: A popular search engine in China > Founded in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu.

Bing: It is a Microsoft’s search engine > Launched in June 2009, replacing Microsoft Live Search.

Black Box: Inputs and outputs can be observed, > No access to the process itself due to its confidential nature. One of the best examples of black box is, Google’s algorithm. It is very challenging to understand the programe of google algorithm.

Black Hat: Risky tactics that go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Blog: Blog a content writers friendly SEO glossary. It’s a publication of informative/educational content sorted in chronological order, with the updated content appearing at the top.

Branded Keyword: User’s query includes an exact match of a particular company or brand name.

Breadcrumb: A navigational element that helps users quickly figure out where they are within a website.

Broken Link: When a website goes offline, a webpage is removed without implementing a redirect, or the destination URL is changed without implementing a redirect is called broken links and it leads to 404 error page.

#C

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Canonical URL: The preferred URL when multiple versions of the same page exist.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of clicks on a link compared to the total number of impressions.

Crawling: It is the process used by search engines to discover your web pages.

Caching: A saved version of your web page.

Caffeine: Google’s web indexing system. A database of web material, whereas Googlebot is the crawler that searches for it.

Citations: Also known as a “business listing,” a citation is a web-based reference to a local business’ name, address, and phone number (NAP).

Cloaking: Cloaking is a black hat SEO glossary term, it is a practice in which a website displays one version of a URL, page, or piece of information to search engines while displaying another to its real visitors.

Crawl budget: Crawl budget is the amount of pages crawled by search engines on a website during a given timeframe.

Crawler directives: Instructions to the crawler regarding the things to crawl and index on your website.

Commercial investigation queries: A query in which the searcher want to compare items in order to discover the best one for them.

ccTLD (Country code top level domain): Domains associated with countries.

Client-side & server-side rendering: It refer to where the code runs. Client-side files are executed in the browser. Server-side files are executed at the server.

Critical rendering path: Sequence of steps > Browser goes through to convert HTML, CSS and JavaScript into a visible web page.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheet): CSS considers under the SEO glossary and web glossary both. It is use to give the aesthetic look to the website with fonts and colours.

Channel: The different platforms to get attention and acquire traffic, including organic search and social media.

Conversion rate: Ratio of the visitors into customers. Including how many of my website visitors are filling out contact forms, calling, and signing up for our newsletter.

Cache: Technical word for storing data in hardware or software.

Co-Citation: A strategy for determining if one subject is comparable to another based on whether a third-party source pointed out both subjects in a single document.

Co-Occurrence: Co-occurence, on the other hand, refers to particular phrases mentioned in close proximity to each other.

Correlation vs Causation: A mutual relationship between two variables does not necessitate that one causes another.

Co-Occurrence: Co-occurence, on the other hand, refers to particular phrases mentioned in close proximity to each other.

Code Swapping: A SEO glossary in which a form of black hat SEO where a page is optimized for ranking, and then swapping another page’s content in its place once it has achieved top rankings.

Content Delivery Network (CDN): A network of servers that speedily deliver web content to users based on their geographic locations.

Content Hub: A web users can find different types content including guides, ebooks, branded, curated, user generated, faqs related to a particular topic.

Content Marketing: A marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain audience and to drive customer traffic on website

Content Uniqueness: The uniqueness level of a piece of content. We all know that duplicate content usually doesn’t bode well when it comes to rankings.

Cross-Linking: Linking between two different websites or two individual webpages within the same website.

Curated Content: Relevant information on a particular topic that has been gathered and presented in an organized and meaningful way.

Customer Journey: The touchpoints at which a prospect engages with a brand.

#D

Dive Into The World of Search Result Definition SEO Glossary, a Definitive Guide From A to Z.

Domain Authority (DA): A metric that predicts a website’s ranking ability in search engine results.

De-indexed/ Delisting: It means which and how many pages removed from Google’s index.

Data: All the hard numbers that represent real customers like who the person, what is his requirement, where he came from, when he come to visit, why he is coming, and how he will pursue.

Dead-End Page:Dead-end-page in SEO glossary means a page with no connections to other pages.

Deep Link: A link pointing to any webpage or content other than the homepage.

Deep Link Ratio: When an internal link points directly to a page other than the homepage on a site, this is known as a deep link.

Direct Traffic: Users that navigate directly to the site by typing the URL directly into the browser or by clicking on a bookmark are known as direct traffic.

Directory: A list of websites, sorted by related categories and maintained by human editors.

Disavow: If your link profile includes a high number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality inbound links that may be harming your rankings – and can’t get them removed for a legitimate reason. Use Google’s Disavow Tool to tell Google to ignore those links.

Do-follow:One of the important SEO glossary in which a link that does not use the nofollow attribute.

Domain: A website address – typically ending in an extension like .com, .org, or .net.

Domain Authority: The “power” of a website that has been built up over time and can assist a new page rank well immediately, even if that content has not yet gained links or interaction.

Domain History: Any activity, including backlinks and website built on a domain previously is known as domain history.

Doorway Page: Webpages are created to rank in search engines for specific keywords only for the purpose of redirecting users who click on that page to a different website.

DuckDuckGo: A search engine > founded in September 2008. Iits heavy focus on user privacy and a lack of filter bubbles is make it unique.

Duplicate Content: A similar content information present on others website.

Dwell Time: The amount of time that passes between a user clicking on a search result and returning to the SERP from a website. Short dwell duration > indicates poor quality material.

DNS (Domain Name Server): It allows domain names (ex: “xyz.com”) to be linked to IP addresses (ex: “120.1.0.0”).

DOM (Document Object Model): DOM SEO glossary means it is the structure of an HTML document and defines how that document can be accessed and changed by things like JavaScript.

DNR (Domain name registrar): A company that manages the reservation of internet domain names. eg: GoDaddy.

Directory links: In the context of local SEO, a “directory” is > a list of local companies that includes the business’s name, address, phone number, and other information such as their website. It can also refer to a specific form of unnatural link that goes against Google’s guidelines: “low-quality directory or bookmark site links.”

Dynamic Content: Dynamic content, the opposite of static content, serves content that changes based on the user browsing behaviour.

Dynamic Serving: Different material is served to different users based on their device type.

Dynamic URL: URLs may change based on the session id.

#E

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External Link: A link pointing from one domain to another. In other words an external link is any hyperlink that points to a destination URL other than its own domain.

E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness): A concept taken from the Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines and became known as E-A-T. It represents signals that Google uses to determine quality content but it is not a direct ranking factor.

Editorial Link / Natural Link: A link exchange from one website to another without the recipient asking or paying.

.edu Links: A top level educational-focused institution domain (TLD).

Engagement Metrics: Methods to measure how users are interact with webpages and content. Including Click-through rate, Conversion rate, Bounce rate, Time on page/site, New vs. returning visitors. Frequency and recency, and Dwell time.

Entities: Google has been moving towards entity search which is based on the knowledge graph including people, places, organizations, websites, events, groups, facts, and other things.

Egobait: A technique used by SEOs for link building to acquire backlinks. One of the important SEO terms to know.

Everflux: A constant fluctuation and the way Google updates its index > by continuously crawling the web for new content and integrating it ASAP into an individual index.

Exact Match Domain (EMD): An exact match domain refers to a keyword targeted domain. For example if you wanted to rank for the keyword phrase “how to develop a app”, you would buy www.howtodevelopaapp.com and you would rank on top of Google.

#F

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Follow: “follow” links, which are the default status of a link, pass PageRank.

Frames: An act of dividing the screen into different windows, displaying content from different URLs in a single view.

Freshness: The age of content published online, as seen in many patents filed by Google.

Featured Snippets: It refers to a special block Google shows above the organic search results. This box contains a summary (a paragraph, list, table, or video), as well as the publication date, page title, link to the webpage from which the answer originated, and URL.

Findability: How quickly a website’s content may be found, both internally (by consumers) and outside (by search engines).

First Link Priority: A concept in internal linking.

Footer Link: Links that shows in the bottom/footer section of a website.

#G

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Google AdWords/ Keyword Tool: A google tool use by the SEO to find the keywords.

Google Alerts: Google Alerts is a free tool provided by Google which allows you set up email alerts to monitor the web for interesting content and mentions of your brand, your competitors, and any particular entity.

Google Bombing: A webpages optimisation practice to rank highly for irrelevant search terms. Google Booming is the important SEO glossary element to know.

Google Dance: An algorithmic fluctuation of Google’s search results pages.

Googlebot: Google’s web crawling robot, also known as a “search engine spider”.

Google My Business: Also known as GMB listing. It is free GMB listing service for business to be found on Google Search and Google Maps.

Google Sitelinks: Links of Google’s search results to help users navigate directly to various sections of a website.

Google Slap: This is a PPC word used when Google finds that an advertiser is sending visitors who click on their ad to a page that is unrelated, of poor quality, or simply loads too slowly.

Google Suggest: The terms refers to the suggested queries by Google itself, as you type in your search queries on Google.

Google Supplemental Index: The supplementary index of Google is an extra search engine index that may contain some of your website’s pages.

Google Trends: A free tool offered by Google allows you to explore trending, latest and updated search topics.

Google Webmaster Guidelines: A set of general guidelines, approaches, best practices, and principles.

Guestographics: Guestographics is a approach of link building. A link builder uploads an infographic on his or her site, contacts other bloggers who have written comparable information, and provides the infographic to graphically represent their content, potentially earning links.

Guest Blogging / Guest Posting: A marketing method whereby a blogger contributes an article to another blog.

#H

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HTML: HyperText Markup Language website standard language for creating web pages.

Hummingbird: A semantic search > focusing on user intent and returning contextually relevant results > represents a revamped version of Google’s algorithm.

HTML5: HTML5 is another SEO-friendly markup language that includes various enhancements over HTML, such as improved user experience in audio and video and serves as a viable alternative to less SEO-friendly languages like as Flash and Silverlight.

HTML Sitemap: In contrast to an XML sitemap, which is designed particularly for search engine spiders to scan, an HTML sitemap is more user-friendly, allowing users to locate and navigate to different sites by clicking on the links given.

HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure): All sending and receiving of information are encrypted and secured.

#I

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Index: The database of web pages collected and maintained by search engines.

Internal Link: A link from one page to another within the same website.

Image Sitemap: A sitemap lists the photos on your website, increasing the likelihood of your photographs being picked up by Google and appearing in Google Image search results.

Image Title: The image’s title and description are the material around the image that informs search engines about the topic and content on the page.

Impression: The number of search result is seen no matter whether it is clicked or not.

Inbound Link: A hyperlink from another website to your website > may be followed or nofollowed.

Index: The index of a search engine is analogous to the index of books in a library in that information is sorted and organized by predetermined parameters so that it may be quickly retrieved when a search is performed.

Indexability: How easily that a page can be included into a search engine’s index.

Infographic: An infographic is a graphical representation of information, data, or knowledge and is designed to be visually appealing. It is also a popular link building technique.

Internal Linking: A technique of hyperlinking different pages within a site to one another.

Index Coverage report: A report in GSC (Google Search Console) > shows you the indexation status of your site’s pages.

International SEO: The process of optimising a website to improve its search engine rankings in multiple countries > methods include > use of rel hreflang tags,ccTLDs, geo-targeting your website through Google Webmaster Tools.

Interstitials: Ads that appear in a form of a popup, lightbox, or a separate browser window when you are browsing or waiting for a page to load.

Inverse Document Frequency (IDF): A numerical statistic that evaluates how important a word in a document is > based on vaious factors including the frequency of the term in the doc.

IP (Internet Protocol) Address: It refers to the unique blocks of numbers (e.g. 192.168.1.1) which identifies devices on a computer network.

Image carousels: Image results in some SERPs (Search engine result pages) > are scrollable from left to right.