SEO Glossary

📚 How to Use This Glossary

This glossary is laid out from A to Z, covering all essential terms and phrases used in the world of SEO. Each entry includes:

• ✅ A clear and simple definition
• ✅ Where and why it’s used
• ✅ Tips or examples where useful

You don’t need to read it all in one go — bookmark this page and come back any time you stumble across a confusing SEO term.

🧠 The SEO Glossary

A Simple Guide to SEO Terms (Without the Jargon)

🔍 A

Advanced SEO
In-depth SEO strategies, techniques, and concepts for experienced marketers looking to gain a competitive edge in search rankings.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Structuring content to answer common queries directly and clearly.

Affiliate Links
Unique URLs used to track referrals and earn commissions from products or services promoted on your website.

AI and SEO
AI is transforming SEO by enhancing content creation, user insights, search predictions, and automation of optimisation tasks.

AI Overviews
Google’s AI-generated summaries that provide quick answers and impact how users interact with search results.

AI Tools
Artificial intelligence tools used in SEO workflows.

Algorithm
A set of rules used by search engines to decide which pages appear in search results, and in what order. Google’s algorithm changes regularly to improve relevance and combat spam.

Alt Text (Alternative Text)
Describes images on a webpage. Important for accessibility and also helps search engines understand what the image is about.

Anchor Text
The clickable words in a hyperlink. For example, in “learn more about SEO,” the phrase is the anchor text.

Answer Engine Optimisation
Focuses on structuring content to directly answer user queries in search and AI-generated results.

Audits
Conducting SEO audits, both manually and with tools.

📈 B

Backlink
A link from one website to another. More high-quality backlinks usually mean better SEO.

Bad SEO Practices
Outdated or harmful SEO tactics that can damage your rankings.

Beginner SEO
SEO techniques and principles suitable for newcomers to digital marketing.

Black Hat SEO
Unethical tactics that violate search engine guidelines and can lead to penalties.

Blogging for SEO
Writing and optimising blog content to improve visibility, rankings, and organic traffic.

Blog Writing
Writing techniques tailored for bloggers and content creators.

Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing just one page. A high bounce rate may signal that your content isn’t engaging or relevant.

Brand Authority
The trust and credibility your brand earns through expertise, quality content, and consistent online presence.

Broken Link
A hyperlink that no longer works — perhaps the destination page has been deleted or its URL has changed. Broken links harm user experience and SEO.

🧱 C

Canonical URL
Tells search engines which version of a page is the “main” one when duplicate content exists. Helps prevent indexing issues and dilution of ranking signals.

Case Studies
Real-world SEO examples showing strategies, implementation, and results that drive performance.

ChatGPT
An AI language model by OpenAI that assists with content creation, keyword research, and SEO automation.

Claude
An AI tool by Anthropic used for generating SEO content, research, and supporting AI-driven marketing strategies.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of users who click your search listing after seeing it. High CTR often signals relevance and improves ranking potential.

Content Cluster
A group of related content pages structured around a central topic, supporting topical authority and internal linking strategy.

Content Management System (CMS)
A software platform used to manage and publish website content — WordPress is the most popular CMS globally.

Content Marketing
Using valuable, relevant content to attract, engage, and retain your target audience while supporting SEO and brand awareness.

Content Quality
Refers to the relevance, accuracy, originality, clarity, and usefulness of content — essential for satisfying users and search engines alike.

Content Strategy
The planning, development, and governance of content to achieve business and marketing goals through SEO.

Core Algorithm Update
A broad change to Google’s ranking algorithm, often leading to major shifts in search visibility and requiring content reassessment.

Core Web Vitals
A set of metrics Google uses to assess real-world user experience — including loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability.

Crawl Budget
The number of pages Googlebot will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Influences indexation and prioritisation.

Crawl / Crawling
The process by which search engines scan your website content to discover and understand new and updated pages.

🧠 D

Digital PR
Combines traditional PR with SEO by earning high-quality backlinks, brand mentions, and media coverage to boost search visibility.

Disavow Tool
A Google tool used to tell search engines to ignore spammy or low-quality backlinks pointing to your site.

Domain Authority (DA)
A score developed by Moz that estimates how likely your domain is to rank — based on link profile, trust signals, and age.

Duplicate Content
Identical or very similar content found on multiple web pages. Can lead to confusion for search engines and ranking issues.

📧 E

eCommerce
Online retail businesses and platforms that require specialised SEO to optimise product pages, schema, and shopping feeds.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
A Google quality standard that evaluates content credibility — especially important for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topics.

Entity SEO
Focuses on clearly defining people, places, and concepts to help Google understand and categorise your content semantically.

Expert SEO Advice
Strategic insights and recommendations from experienced SEOs designed to elevate rankings and avoid costly mistakes.

External Link
A hyperlink pointing to a different website. Can improve credibility when linking to high-quality, relevant sources.

🔍 F

FAQ Schema
Structured data markup that allows your FAQs to show directly in Google search results, improving click-through and visibility.

Featured Snippet
A special result at the top of Google that highlights a quick answer to a user’s question — also called position zero.

Focus Keyword
The primary keyword or phrase you want a specific page to rank for — used strategically in content and meta tags.

Future SEO
The evolution of search engine optimisation — including voice search, AI, machine learning, and the future of content delivery.

📁 G

GA4
Google Analytics 4 — the latest analytics platform from Google that tracks user behaviour using events instead of sessions.

Gambling SEO
Specialised SEO for casino and gambling sites, focused on compliance, link quality, and algorithm volatility in restricted niches.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Optimising content specifically for AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience).

Google AI Mode
A search interface powered by generative AI — summarising answers, influencing CTR, and changing traditional rankings.

Google Algorithm Changes
Regular updates to how Google ranks content — some minor, others major (like Panda, Penguin, Helpful Content). Can shift site traffic dramatically.

Google Analytics
A free analytics platform from Google that helps track user activity, source traffic, and goal conversions.

Googlebot
The crawling bot used by Google to discover and index pages across the web. Its behaviour is influenced by site structure, speed, and robot directives.

Google Business Profile
A free tool for local businesses to appear in local search and Google Maps. Optimising your profile boosts local visibility and trust.

Google Indexing
The process where Google adds your pages to its searchable database. If it’s not indexed, it won’t rank.

Google Ranking
Your website’s position in Google’s search results — influenced by hundreds of ranking signals like quality, relevance, and UX.

Google Search Console
A free platform from Google offering performance insights, coverage reports, and alerts for indexing or technical issues.

💡 H

Header Tags (H1, H2, H3…)
HTML tags that structure content hierarchically. H1 is your main title; H2 and H3 are subheadings — essential for both SEO and readability.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
The foundational code that builds web pages. Clean HTML structure improves crawlability and semantic understanding.

🔧 I

Index / Indexing
When Google stores your page in its database and makes it eligible to appear in search results.

Indexing Issues
Problems that prevent Google from adding your content to its index — often due to noindex tags, crawl blocks, or technical errors.

Internal Link
A link from one page on your site to another. Helps users navigate and spreads ranking signals throughout your site.

📁 J

JSON-LD
A type of structured data format used in SEO to help search engines better understand your page content and context.

🔑 K

Keyword Analysis
The process of researching and evaluating which keywords your audience uses — helps drive traffic and shape content strategy.

Keyword Difficulty
A score showing how hard it is to rank for a keyword — based on competition, domain authority, and search volume.

Keyword Stuffing
The outdated practice of overloading content with keywords to manipulate rankings. Penalised by search engines today.

Keyword Targeting
Choosing specific keywords to include in page titles, headers, and content in order to rank for those search queries.

Keyword Tools
Platforms like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner that help you research, compare, and monitor keyword opportunities.

🧭 L

Landing Page
A standalone web page designed to convert visitors — often used in SEO campaigns, ads, and email funnels.

Lead Generation
Using SEO strategies to attract, engage, and convert users into qualified leads for your business.

Link Building
The process of getting other websites to link to your content. Critical for improving authority and search engine trust.

LLM Optimisation
Tailoring your content for large language models like ChatGPT or Claude so it’s useful, accurate, and AI-readable.

Local Business
A business that serves a specific geographic area. Local SEO tactics help you show up in nearby searches and map listings.

Local Pages
Location-specific web pages tailored to different cities, towns, or service areas — critical for local SEO campaigns.

Local SEO
Optimising your online presence to appear in local search results, map packs, and mobile searches.

Long-Tail Keywords
More specific, lower-competition keyword phrases that often convert better than broad terms. Easier to rank and more targeted.

📍 M

Meta Description
A brief summary shown in search results below your title tag. While not a ranking factor, it can impact click-through rates.

Meta Tags
HTML tags that give metadata about your page — including title, description, robots directives, and more. Essential for SEO visibility.

Mobile SEO
Ensuring your website is responsive, fast, and easy to navigate on smartphones — now a core ranking factor in Google’s mobile-first index.

📦 N

NoFollow Link
A link with a rel=”nofollow” attribute that tells search engines not to pass link equity — used for sponsored or untrusted links.

Noindex Tags
HTML meta tags or HTTP headers that prevent a page from being indexed in search engines — useful for thank-you pages, admin areas, etc.

🌍 O

Off-Page SEO
SEO activities done outside your website — such as link building, influencer mentions, digital PR, and brand building.

On-Page SEO
The optimisation of content, HTML structure, headings, images, and internal links within your own site to improve rankings.

Organic Traffic
Website visits from unpaid search engine results — driven by good SEO, not paid ads.

🧩 P

Page Speed
How fast your webpage loads for users. Affects bounce rates, UX, and SEO performance — especially on mobile.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
A digital advertising model where you pay every time someone clicks your ad — most common with Google Ads.

Prompt Engineering
The skill of writing effective AI prompts to generate better content, data extraction, or SEO task completion.

🔁 R

Rank Math
A popular SEO plugin for WordPress users, offering advanced features like schema generation, redirect management, and on-page scoring.

Redirect
A technique that sends users (and search engines) from one URL to another — used for broken links, page moves, or canonicalisation.

Robots.txt
A file that tells search engines which pages or sections of your website they are allowed (or not allowed) to crawl.

🧪 S

Schema Markup
Structured data that helps search engines understand your content — supports rich snippets for reviews, FAQs, events, and more.

Search Console
Google’s official SEO tool that provides index status, performance reports, sitemaps, and issue alerts.

Search Intent
The reason behind a user’s search query — informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial. Match your content to their intent.

Search Trends
Patterns in how people search over time. Monitoring trends helps you adapt content and SEO strategies accordingly.

Search Visibility
A metric that shows how often and prominently your site appears in search engine results for relevant keywords.

SEO Copywriting
Writing content that’s both optimised for search engines and compelling for human readers — combines structure, keywords, and tone.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page Google displays after a user submits a query — includes ads, organic listings, featured snippets, and AI results.

Sitemap
A file that lists all the URLs on your site to help search engines discover and index them faster.

Site Migration
Changing a site’s domain, structure, or CMS without damaging SEO — requires redirects, updated links, and GSC notifications.

Slug
The part of the URL after the domain name — keep it short, descriptive, and keyword-relevant for better SEO.

Structured Data
Code that helps search engines make sense of your content — used for recipes, reviews, events, product listings, etc.

📉 T

Title Tag
The main clickable link in SERPs — one of the most important on-page SEO elements for rankings and clicks.

Technical SEO
Optimising website infrastructure so it can be crawled, indexed, and ranked effectively. Includes speed, mobile-friendliness, structure, and more.

Toxic Backlinks
Low-quality or spammy links from dubious sources — they can hurt your site’s authority and may need to be disavowed.

Traffic
The number of visitors to your site. SEO aims to increase organic (unpaid) traffic through search engines.

Trust Signals
Elements like reviews, security badges, policies, and author credentials that build credibility with users and search engines.

📚 U

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
The address of a web page — clean, keyword-rich URLs are better for SEO and usability.

User Engagement
Measures like dwell time, bounce rate, and clicks that indicate how users interact with your site — indirectly affect SEO.

User Experience (UX)
How usable, enjoyable, and accessible your website is. Great UX supports SEO by improving engagement and conversion rates.

User-First Content
Content created to help users — not manipulate rankings. Central to Google’s Helpful Content system.

🧩 V

Video SEO
Optimising videos for visibility in search and YouTube. Includes transcripts, metadata, schema, and engagement signals.

🔐 W

White Hat SEO
Ethical SEO practices that follow Google’s rules. Focuses on long-term growth through quality content and good user experience.

WordPress SEO
SEO strategies for websites built on WordPress. Involves plugins, permalinks, structured data, and performance optimisation.

🟡 Y

Yoast SEO
One of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress, offering tools for metadata, readability, and on-page optimisation.

YouTube SEO
Optimising your video content to appear in YouTube and Google search — uses tags, descriptions, thumbnails, and user engagement.

YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)
Pages that impact a person’s health, finance, or safety. Held to higher quality standards by Google.

🦓 Z

Zero-Click Search
Search results where the answer is shown directly in Google (e.g., snippets, calculators), so the user doesn’t click through to a site.

🧠 Final Thoughts

SEO doesn’t have to feel like learning a new language. This glossary helps you make sense of the terms, acronyms, and phrases that dominate the digital marketing world — in plain English.

Bookmark this page, return whenever something sounds confusing, and know that understanding SEO is the first step to owning your online presence.

🔁 Up Next!

How to use this site – This site is organised into easy-to-follow sections that build on each other. You can jump straight to what you need or follow the guides step-by-step — it’s completely up to you.

📈 SEO Smarts: Test Your Knowledge!

Think you know SEO? Let’s find out! 🚦

This quick multiple-choice quiz is designed to test your basic knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation. Whether you’re a total beginner or just brushing up on the essentials, “Ready, Set, SEO!” will challenge what you know (and reveal what you don’t).

No pressure—just 20 fun questions to help you learn, improve, and maybe even impress Google. 😉 – Go to the Quiz