Reference
SEO Glossary: Plain-English Definitions of Key SEO Terms
A practical SEO glossary covering the terms that matter — algorithm, backlink, canonical, E-E-A-T, schema, technical SEO, and more — each linked to deeper guides.
A
- AI Overview
- An AI-generated summary Google displays above traditional search results for many queries, synthesizing and citing information from multiple sources.
- Algorithm
- The set of automated systems and calculations a search engine uses to select and order the results it shows for a given query. Google's ranking algorithm is actually a collection of many systems working together, not a single formula.
- Anchor Text
- The clickable, visible text of a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text as a relevance signal about the page being linked to — descriptive, varied anchor text is more useful (and safer) than repeated exact-match phrases.
B
- Backlink
- A link from another website pointing to a page on your site. Historically treated as a signal of trust or endorsement; quality and relevance matter far more than raw count.
C
- Canonical Tag
- An HTML tag (`rel="canonical"`) that tells search engines which version of a page (among duplicates or near-duplicates) should be treated as the primary, indexable one.
- Citation
- In local SEO, a mention of a business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) on another website or directory, whether or not it includes a link. Consistent citations support local ranking trust signals.
- Core Web Vitals
- A set of specific metrics (LCP, INP, and CLS) Google uses to measure real-world page loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability, factored into its page experience signals.
- Crawl Budget
- The number of pages a search engine's crawler will crawl on a site within a given timeframe. Most sites never approach a limiting crawl budget, but very large sites can be affected by wasted crawl activity on low-value URLs.
- Crawling
- The process by which a search engine's automated bots discover pages by following links and reading sitemaps, before those pages can be indexed and ranked.
D
E
- E-E-A-T
- Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — the framework Google's quality rater guidelines use to describe what makes content and its source credible. It is a set of guiding concepts for human quality raters, not a direct, measurable ranking factor with a numeric score.
F
- Featured Snippet
- A highlighted search result shown above standard organic results, quoting a direct answer extracted from a single ranking page. Increasingly complemented (and in some cases replaced) by AI Overviews.
G
- Google Business Profile
- A free Google tool that lets businesses manage their presence in Google Search and Maps, including hours, location, reviews, and photos. Central to local SEO visibility.
I
- Indexing
- The process of a search engine analyzing and storing a crawled page in its index, making it eligible to appear in search results. A page must be indexed before it can rank for anything.
- Internal Link
- A hyperlink from one page to another page on the same website, used to distribute authority, aid navigation, and clarify topical relationships.
K
- Keyword Cannibalization
- When two or more pages on the same site compete for the same keyword or search intent, splitting relevance signals and often causing both to rank worse than a single consolidated page would.
- Keyword Difficulty
- A third-party estimate of how hard it would be to rank in the top results for a given keyword, usually based on the backlink strength of currently-ranking pages. Directional, not an exact prediction.
L
- Local Pack
- The map plus a short list of business listings (typically three) shown for many location-based Google searches, sitting above traditional organic results.
- Long-Tail Keyword
- A longer, more specific search phrase, typically with lower individual search volume but clearer intent and often better conversion rates than shorter, more generic 'head' terms.
M
- Meta Description
- An HTML tag providing a short summary of a page's content. Not a direct ranking factor, but it often appears as the description snippet in search results and influences click-through rate.
N
- Noindex
- A meta tag or HTTP header instructing search engines not to include a page in their index. Used deliberately for pages with no search value (like internal search results or thin filter pages), but a serious problem if applied accidentally to important content.
O
- Off-Page SEO
- SEO factors that happen outside a website itself, primarily backlinks, brand mentions, and other external trust and authority signals.
- On-Page SEO
- SEO practices applied directly to a page's content and HTML — titles, headings, structure, internal links, and image optimization — as distinct from technical or off-page (link-based) SEO.
S
- Schema
- Structured data markup (commonly implemented as JSON-LD, following the schema.org vocabulary) that explicitly describes a page's content to search engines, supporting eligibility for enhanced search result features.
- Search Intent
- The underlying goal behind a search query — informational, commercial investigation, transactional, navigational, or local — which strongly influences what format of content Google will rank for it.
- SERP
- Search Engine Results Page — the page displayed after a search, containing organic results, ads, and features like the local pack or AI Overviews.
- Sitemap
- An XML file listing a site's canonical, indexable URLs, submitted to search engines to aid discovery — particularly useful for large sites or pages with few internal links.
T
- Technical SEO
- The practice of ensuring a website's infrastructure allows search engines to crawl, render, and index it correctly, and that it loads quickly and works well across devices.
U
- URL
- Uniform Resource Locator — the address of a specific page. Clean, descriptive, human-readable URLs are easier for both users and search engines to understand than long parameter strings.
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