SEO glossary
Forty terms in plain English. Click a term's link to see the service that deals with it.
A
AI Overview
- A summary Google shows at the top of some results, generated by AI, with links to sources.
Related service: AI Search / GEO Alt text
- A short description of an image for screen readers and search engines.
Related service: Technical SEO Anchor text
- The clickable words of a link.
Related service: Link Building & Digital PR
B
Backlink
- A link from another website to yours.
Related service: Link Building & Digital PR
C
Canonical tag
- A tag that tells search engines which URL is the main version of a page.
Related service: Technical SEO Citation (AI)
- A reference to your brand or page in an AI-generated answer.
Related service: AI Search / GEO Citation (local)
- A mention of your business name, address and phone on another site.
Related service: Local SEO Click-through rate (CTR)
- The share of people who click your result after seeing it.
Related service: SEO Audit Core Web Vitals
- Google's measures of loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability.
Related service: Technical SEO Crawl
- When a search engine's bot visits and reads your pages.
Related service: Technical SEO Crawl budget
- How many pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a set time.
Related service: Technical SEO
D
- A third-party score estimating a site's link strength. Not used by Google.
Related service: Link Building & Digital PR Duplicate content
- Very similar content on more than one URL.
Related service: E-commerce SEO
E
E-E-A-T
- Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust: what Google looks for in quality content.
Related service: Content SEO & Copywriting Entity
- A clearly defined thing, like a business or person, that search engines and AI tools recognise.
Related service: AI Search / GEO
F
- Filters on category pages, such as size or colour.
Related service: E-commerce SEO
G
GEO
- Generative engine optimisation: making content easier for AI tools to cite.
Related service: AI Search / GEO Google Business Profile
- Your free listing in Google Search and Maps.
Related service: Local SEO
H
Hreflang
- A tag telling search engines which language or country a page is for.
Related service: International & Multilingual SEO
I
Index
- Search engines' database of pages they can show in results.
Related service: Technical SEO Indexing
- The process of adding a page to that database.
Related service: Technical SEO Internal link
- A link from one page of your site to another.
Related service: Content SEO & Copywriting
K
Keyword
- A word or phrase people search for.
Related service: SEO Strategy & Keyword Research Keyword cannibalisation
- When two of your pages compete for the same search.
Related service: SEO Strategy & Keyword Research
L
Link ledger
- A list of every link earned, with page, source and reason.
Related service: Link Building & Digital PR Local pack
- The map and three listings shown for local searches.
Related service: Local SEO Long-tail keyword
- A longer, more specific search with lower volume and clearer intent.
Related service: SEO Strategy & Keyword Research
M
Meta description
- The short summary under a result in search.
Related service: Content SEO & Copywriting
N
Noindex
- An instruction telling search engines not to index a page.
Related service: Technical SEO
O
Organic traffic
- Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.
Related service: SEO Audit
P
PageSpeed
- How fast a page loads and becomes usable.
Related service: Technical SEO
R
Redirect (301)
- A permanent forward from an old URL to a new one.
Related service: Technical SEO Robots.txt
- A file telling bots which parts of a site not to crawl.
Related service: Technical SEO
S
Schema markup
- Structured data that describes what a page contains.
Related service: Technical SEO Search intent
- What a person actually wants when they type a query.
Related service: SEO Strategy & Keyword Research SERP
- Search engine results page.
Related service: SEO Audit Sitemap (XML)
- A file listing the pages you want indexed.
Related service: Technical SEO
T
Title tag
- The page title shown in browser tabs and search results.
Related service: Content SEO & Copywriting - Being seen as a reliable source across a whole subject.
Related service: Content SEO & Copywriting
U
UTM parameter
- A tag added to a link to track where visitors came from.
Related service: SEO Audit
X
x-default
- The hreflang value for pages meant for users whose language doesn't match any version.
Related service: International & Multilingual SEO