I’ll be the first to admit, when I talk SEO I tend to run with it and get technical. As a means to help you with your search efforts, I’ve created the below SEO Glossary. Feel free to browse a portion of the SEO language.
| SEO Term | Description |
|---|---|
| AJAX | Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, is a programming approach (not a programming language) that combines web technologies to communicate with a server without interfering with the display of an existing web page |
| Algorithm | An extensive and complex ranking formula, that includes varying ranking factors, which determines where a webpage / asset will rank |
| Algorithm Updates | Updates that are made to search engines’ organic ranking formula to better reform search results |
| Anchor Text | The clickable text that is linked to a web page; anchor text helps denote relevancy to a targeted page (e.g. Edwin Romero, "Edwin Romero" is the anchor text) |
| Authority | The value search engines assign to a webpage or domain based on varying ranking factors |
| B2B | Business to Business: Businesses that provide goods and services directly to other businesses. GE, Boeing, IBM, FedEx, wholesalers, bulk suppliers are examples of B2B organizations. |
| B2C | Business to Consumer: Businesses that provide goods and services directly to consumers / customers. Amazon, Best Buy, Grocery Stores, etc. all deal directly with consumers. |
| Backlink | A link from an external web source that links back to a website |
| Baidu | Baidu is China's most popular search engine; in January 2020, Baidu maintains .7% of the global search engine market share |
| Bing | Microsoft's Search Engine, powering Yahoo's organic search results; in January 2020, Bing maintains 5.53% of the global search engine market share |
| Black Hat SEO | Search engine practices that violate Google's quality guidelines |
| Blog | A hub for content generation on a website, with topics reflecting brand or personal interests |
| Bounce Rate | The percentage of total users who leave a website without any additional action beyond the first page they visited; for example example if 10 users visit your site but 3 leave without going to another web page, your bounce rate would be 30% |
| Branded Keywords | Keywords, or phrases, users search that contain a company name; for example, "timex brown watches" is a branded keyword because of the inclusion of "timex" |
| Breadcrumb | The navigational hierarchy users use to maneuver through a website and its webpages; it is typically found in the head of a site and displays the hierarchy of the site |
| Canonical Tag | A tag that tells search engines there are duplicates of original content; it is used when consolidating duplicates and authority/value by funnelling all search authority to single location |
| ccTLD | Country Code Top Level Domain is a domain that references a specific territory or region at the end of the domain address; for example, a ccTLD might use something similar to .co.uk (UK Region), .ca (Canadian Region), .de (German Region) |
| Citation | A reference made on the web to a local business, name, address, and phone number |
| Click Through Rate | (CTR) The rate at which users click on a search result, e.g. a search result appears 1,000x but only gets 100 clicks, having a CTR of 10% |
| CMS | (Content Management System) is the platform that houses content and helps with publishing and the maintenance of a website; this site has a Wordpress CMS |
| Conversion Rate | The rate at which a user performs a desired action; typically associated with revenue but can also include email sign up, add to cart, form submissions |
| Crawl Budget | The average allowance a crawler has to crawl a specific website and its web pages |
| Crawler | Software that scours the webpages for information; Google and Bing’s crawlers (that crawls content) are GoogleBot and BingBot, respectively |
| Duplicate Content | Content that is not unique or is identical / highly similar to content found at other locations, on the same site or different site |
| Flash | A site that is driven by visuals which is not crawlable by search engines |
| Follow | The state of hyperlinks that pass on search authority and equity |
| Google Adwords Keyword Planner | A Free Google service, providing search phrasing (keyword) data around average search volumes |
| Google Analytics | A Free Google service, providing traffic and webpage performance data |
| Google Hummingbird | A Google algorithm update that evolved semantic search and presented more advanced results |
| Google My Business | Google's organic local listing dashboard, which allows you to provide further info on your local business, including hours, images, posts, ratings and reviews |
| Google Panda Algorithm | A Google algorithm update that penalized sites with duplicate content |
| Google Penguin Algorithm | A Google algorithm update that penalized sites who abused backlinks/inbound links |
| Google Search | Google's web search engine; in January 2020, Google maintains 87.35% of the global search engine market share |
| Google Search Console | A Free Google service (formerly called "Google Webmaster Tools"), providing limited traffic, web page performance, and site hygiene data |
| Guest Blogging | A content marketing and SEO technique where a marketer writes and posts a post for a 3rd party website as a means to promote their own brand / website; Some of the major goals of guest blogging is link building as well as further reaching a different audience |
| Hyperlinks | Webpage links that point to other locations on a webpage; Hyperlinks help distribute page and domain authority to other site sections |
| Image Alt Tag | Alternative text users can see when they disable images and search engines can use to interpret said images |
| Image Title Tag | Text that names an image and appears when hovered over |
| Implementation | A large-scale project that updates the structure and architecture of a website. This is typically associated with site (re)launches. |
| Inbound Link | A link from an external web source that links back to a website |
| Knowledge Graph | An advanced system launched by Google to understand facts about people, places and things and the how there are connected |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator, or a metric that is reflective of ideal performance (e.g. revenue, sessions, form submissions, social share, etc.) |
| Link Juice | The search engine value that is passed on from one webpage/site to another (see Authority) |
| Long-Tail Keywords | Long-tail keywords are search keywords that are highly specific and consist of several words, typically more than 3 or 4 words |
| Manual Action | Google's term for penalty, which is a reprimand brought upon by the violation of Google's quality guidelines. A manual action has a human behind that decides whether a site has violated quality guidelines. |
| Meta Description | A brief summary of a webpage that appears in search results that doesn’t affect search rankings but impacts click through rate |
| Meta Keywords | A selection of terms that describe a webpage – due to spam and abuse, meta keywords are no longer a ranking factor |
| Monthly Search Volume | Monthly Search Volume or (MSV) depicts how many searches are performed on average in a single month. That is if "mens brown watches" experiences 1,600 searches per month, the MSV is 1,600. |
| No-Follow | Hyperlinks with a rel="nofollow” tag, that passes no search authority or influences search engine rankings |
| No-Follow | Hyperlinks with a rel="nofollow” tag, that passes no search authority or influences search engine rankings |
| Non-Branded Keywords | Keywords, or phrases, users search that contain general text with no reference to a brand term, "mens brown watches" is a non-branded keyword as it makes no reference to a specific brand |
| Off-site SEO | SEO factors that are influenced by external sources |
| On-site SEO | SEO factors found onsite |
| Open Graph Tag | HTML elements that create tailored messaging for Facebook and other social sites |
| Organic Search | Search results that are free and fall below paid search results |
| Page Titles | HTML Element that names a webpage and is the most important webpage factor |
| Paid Search | Search results that are above organic search that abides by a “pay-to-play” model, requiring search phrasing bids |
| Penalty | A search engine reprimand caused by violations to Google's quality guidelines |
| Query | A phrase or group of phrases that are used within search |
| Ranking | The order in which results are presented to query that is searched |
| Ranking Factors | Selection of criteria set by search engines that determine where a webpage will rank in search results |
| Redirects | Process of sending a user from one web page to another via a 3XX status code (301 Permament Redirect, 302 Temporary Redirect, or 307 Temporary Redirect) |
| Rendering | The ability for a browser to process code and scripts to generate a viewable and interactable web page |
| Schema | A type of structured markup / web resource where HTML code enhancements can be found to provide more webpage context to search engines |
| Search Engine | A web based program that intakes criteria or queries and computes results based on varying factors |
| Search Intent | Search Intent refers to the true meaning behind when a user performs a search; that is, whether a searcher's intent is learn more, purchase, etc. |
| SEM | (Search Engine Marketing) Search efforts specific to Paid Search |
| SEO | (Search Engine Optimization) Search efforts specific to Organic Search |
| SERP | (Search Engine Results Page) The page that is displayed when a user is presented with search results |
| Short-Tail Keywords | Short tail keywords are search keywords that consist of 1 to 3 words or minimal word usage |
| Site Architecture | The website hierarchy and distribution of content and site sections |
| Site Re-launch | A large-scale project that updates the structure and architecture of a website. This is typically associated with moving a website's technology to a new CMS or incorporating new technology. |
| Social Signals | The accruement of social performance, e.g. Facebook Likes, Shares, Comments, and Tweets |
| Structured Markup | HTML code enhancements to provide more webpage context to search engines and social sites |
| Traffic | The amount of visits made to a site |
| Twitter Cards | HTML elements that create tailored messaging for Twitter and other social sites |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator is the address for a web document or resource |
| Webmaster | The owner or manager who is responsible for making changes to a website; webmaster may be marketing manager, developer, site author |
| White Hat SEO | Search engine practices that abide by Google's quality guidelines |
| Yandex | Yandex is Russia's most popular search engine; in January 2020, Yandex maintains .76% of the global search engine market share |
