Updated June 2026 · Reference
SEO Glossary: 105+ Terms, Acronyms & Definitions
The complete SEO glossary — every term, acronym and abbreviation you'll meet in modern search, defined in plain English. It covers technical SEO, on-page and off-page factors, content, link building and analytics, plus the AI-era additions of AEO, GEO and AI Overviews. Bookmark it and refer back as you build your AI SEO strategy.
SEO Acronyms & Abbreviations
A quick-reference table of the 19 most common SEO acronyms and what they stand for. Select any row to jump to its full definition.
| Acronym | Stands For |
|---|---|
| AEO | Answer Engine Optimization |
| CLS | Cumulative Layout Shift |
| CTR | Click-Through Rate |
| CWV | Core Web Vitals |
| DA | Domain Authority |
| DR | Domain Rating |
| E-E-A-T | Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness |
| GEO | Generative Engine Optimization |
| GSC | Google Search Console |
| INP | Interaction to Next Paint |
| JSON-LD | JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data |
| KD | Keyword Difficulty |
| LCP | Largest Contentful Paint |
| LLM | Large Language Model |
| NAP | Name, Address, Phone |
| SERP | Search Engine Results Page |
| TF-IDF | Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency |
| TTFB | Time to First Byte |
| YMYL | Your Money or Your Life |
0–9
301 Redirect
A permanent redirect from one URL to another. Passes nearly all link equity to the destination and is the correct way to move or consolidate pages.
Redirect Generator →302 Redirect
A temporary redirect. Use it when a move is short-lived; for permanent moves use a 301 so ranking signals transfer fully.
404 Error
The HTTP status returned when a page is not found. A few 404s are normal, but broken internal links to 404s waste crawl budget and hurt UX.
410 Gone
An HTTP status signalling a page was intentionally removed and won't return. Google deindexes 410 URLs faster than 404s.
A
AEO — Answer Engine Optimization
Optimizing content to appear in Google AI Overviews, featured snippets and voice answers. Focuses on clear direct answers, FAQ schema and concise definitions.
What is AEO? →Alt Text
Descriptive text for an image that helps search engines understand it and improves accessibility for screen readers. Describe the image and include keywords only where natural.
Anchor Text
The visible, clickable text of a hyperlink. Descriptive anchor text signals to search engines what the linked page is about.
B
Backlink
A link from another website to yours. Backlinks remain one of the strongest ranking signals — they act as votes of trust and authority.
Link Building Guide →Black Hat SEO
Tactics that violate search engine guidelines to manipulate rankings — cloaking, link schemes, hidden text. High risk of penalties and deindexing.
Bounce Rate
The share of visitors who leave after viewing a single page without further interaction. A high rate can signal a mismatch with search intent.
C
Canonical Tag
An HTML element telling search engines which URL is the master version of a page. Prevents duplicate-content dilution from URL variations.
Cloaking
Showing search engines different content than users see. A black-hat technique that typically results in a manual penalty.
CLS — Cumulative Layout Shift
A Core Web Vital measuring visual stability — how much content unexpectedly shifts while loading. Aim for a score below 0.1.
Content Decay
The gradual loss of traffic and rankings as content ages and competitors update theirs. Fixed with scheduled content refreshes.
Crawl Budget
The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a given window. Matters most for large sites; managed via site speed, internal links and robots.txt.
Crawl Budget Guide →Crawlability
How easily search-engine bots can discover and access your pages. Affected by robots.txt, internal linking, site architecture and response codes.
Crawler
An automated bot (such as Googlebot) that discovers and reads web pages to add them to a search index. Also called a spider.
CTR — Click-Through Rate
The percentage of searchers who click your result after seeing it. Strong titles, meta descriptions and rich results lift CTR.
CWV — Core Web Vitals
Google's page-experience metrics — LCP (loading), INP (interactivity) and CLS (visual stability). A confirmed, if lightweight, ranking factor.
D
DA — Domain Authority
A third-party score (Moz) from 0–100 predicting ranking potential. Not a Google ranking factor, but it correlates with backlink strength.
Deindexing
Removal of a page or site from a search engine's index, so it can no longer appear in results — by directive (noindex), penalty or low quality.
Disavow
Telling Google via a disavow file to ignore specific harmful or spammy backlinks when assessing your site. Use sparingly and only for clearly toxic links.
Disavow File Generator →Dofollow Link
A standard link that passes ranking signals (link equity) to its destination. The default unless a rel attribute says otherwise.
DR — Domain Rating
Ahrefs' 0–100 score measuring the strength of a domain's backlink profile relative to others in its index.
Duplicate Content
Substantially identical content on multiple URLs. Splits ranking signals and can suppress all copies; resolved with canonicals or consolidation.
Dwell Time
How long a visitor stays on a page after clicking from search before returning. Longer dwell time suggests the content satisfied the query.
E
E-E-A-T — Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness
Google's content-quality framework. Demonstrated through author bios, citations, credentials, original research and first-hand experience.
Entity
A distinct, well-defined thing (person, place, brand, concept) that search engines track in their knowledge graph. Entity clarity powers semantic and AI search.
What is Entity SEO? →Evergreen Content
Content that stays relevant and useful long after publication, attracting steady traffic with only occasional updates.
External Link
A link pointing from your site to a different domain. Linking to credible sources can support relevance and trust.
F
Featured Snippet
A highlighted answer box at the top of results ("position zero"). Won with concise answers in paragraph, list or table form.
G
GEO — Generative Engine Optimization
Optimizing content to be cited by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude. Focuses on quotable facts, data and being the definitive source.
GEO Guide →Google AI Overview
An AI-generated summary at the top of Google results that cites and links to source pages. The main AEO optimization target for 2026.
How AI Overviews Work →Googlebot
Google's web crawler that fetches pages for indexing. Has desktop and smartphone variants; mobile-first crawling is now the default.
GSC — Google Search Console
Google's free tool for monitoring indexing, queries, clicks, impressions and technical issues. The primary data source for SEO performance.
H
H1 Tag
The main heading of a page. Should be unique, describe the content accurately and usually contain the primary keyword.
Hreflang
An attribute signalling the language and region of a page so search engines serve the right version to the right users. Must be reciprocal to work.
Hreflang Generator →HTTPS
The encrypted (SSL/TLS) version of HTTP. A lightweight ranking signal and a baseline trust requirement for modern sites.
I
Indexation
The process of a search engine adding a page to its index. Only indexed pages can appear in search results.
INP — Interaction to Next Paint
A Core Web Vital measuring responsiveness — the delay between a user interaction and the next visual update. It replaced FID in 2024; aim below 200 ms.
Internal Link
A link from one page on your site to another. Distributes authority and helps search engines understand structure and topical relationships.
J
JSON-LD — JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data
Google's recommended format for schema markup, added as a script tag in the page head.
Schema Generator →K
KD — Keyword Difficulty
A 0–100 estimate of how hard it is to rank in the top results for a keyword, based on the backlink strength of current pages.
Keyword
A word or phrase users type into search engines that you target with a page. The starting point of most SEO strategy.
Keyword Cannibalization
When multiple pages target the same keyword and compete with each other, weakening all of them. Fixed by consolidating or differentiating intent.
Keyword Density
How often a keyword appears relative to total word count. There is no ideal ratio — write naturally and avoid stuffing.
Keyword Density Checker →Keyword Research
Finding the queries your audience searches, with their volume, intent and difficulty, to prioritise what content to create.
Keyword Research Guide →Keyword Stuffing
Overloading a page with keywords to manipulate rankings. A spam signal that hurts readability and can trigger penalties.
Knowledge Panel
The information box Google shows for a recognised entity, drawn from its Knowledge Graph. Earned through strong, consistent entity signals.
L
Landing Page
Any page where a visitor arrives from an external source. In SEO, the page that ranks and receives organic clicks for a query.
LCP — Largest Contentful Paint
A Core Web Vital measuring loading speed — when the largest visible element renders. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
Link Building
Earning backlinks from other sites through outreach, digital PR, content and partnerships to raise authority and rankings.
Link Building Guide →Link Equity
The ranking value passed through a link, influenced by the source's authority, relevance and link position. Also called link juice.
LLM — Large Language Model
An AI model trained on vast text that powers tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. The engine behind AI Overviews and the target of GEO.
llms.txt
A proposed plain-text file that gives AI crawlers a curated map of a site's most important content. An emerging GEO best practice.
llms.txt Guide →Local SEO
Optimizing to rank in location-based and map results — driven by Google Business Profile, citations, reviews and NAP consistency.
What is Local SEO? →Long-Tail Keyword
A specific, multi-word query (3+ words). Lower volume but clearer intent, higher conversion and less competition than head terms.
M
Meta Description
A ~150-character summary in the page head shown in results. It doesn't directly affect rankings but strongly influences click-through rate.
Meta Tag Generator →Meta Robots Tag
A page-level directive (index/noindex, follow/nofollow) controlling how search engines crawl and index that page.
Meta Title
The title tag shown in results and browser tabs. Keep under ~60 characters with the primary keyword near the front.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google's practice of using a page's mobile version for indexing and ranking. Your mobile experience is effectively your primary site.
N
NAP — Name, Address, Phone
The core business contact details that must stay consistent across the web (your site, Google Business Profile and directories) for strong local SEO.
Negative SEO
Malicious attempts to harm a competitor's rankings, such as spammy link blasts or content scraping. Monitored via backlink audits.
Nofollow
A link attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking signals. Common on user-generated, paid or untrusted links.
Noindex
A directive telling search engines to keep a page out of their index. Used for admin, staging, thank-you and thin pages.
O
Off-Page SEO
Ranking factors that happen away from your site — backlinks, brand mentions, reviews and social signals.
What is Off-Page SEO? →On-Page SEO
Optimizing elements on the page itself — content, titles, headings, internal links, structured data and UX.
What is On-Page SEO? →Organic Traffic
Visitors arriving from unpaid search results. Growing it is the central goal of SEO.
Orphan Page
A page with no internal links pointing to it, making it hard for crawlers and users to find. Fixed by adding contextual internal links.
Outbound Link
A link from your page to another website. Citing authoritative sources can reinforce topical relevance and trust.
P
Page Experience
Google's bundle of UX signals — Core Web Vitals, HTTPS and mobile-friendliness — that influence rankings at the margins.
PageRank
Google's original algorithm scoring pages by the quantity and quality of links. Still conceptually central to how link equity flows.
Pillar Page
The broad, comprehensive hub of a topic cluster that introduces a subject and links out to all supporting cluster pages.
Pogo-Sticking
When a user clicks a result, quickly returns to the SERP and picks another — a strong sign the page failed to satisfy intent.
Programmatic SEO
Using templates and structured data to generate many optimized pages at scale — common for directories, locations and product listings.
What is Programmatic SEO? →Q
Query
The exact words a user enters into a search engine. Modern SEO targets the intent behind queries, not just literal strings.
R
Rank Tracking
Monitoring a site's positions for target keywords over time, increasingly including AI Overview and AI-assistant visibility.
AI Mode Rank Tracking →RankBrain
A machine-learning component of Google's algorithm that helps interpret novel and ambiguous queries by understanding intent.
Rich Results
Enhanced search listings — star ratings, FAQs, recipes, breadcrumbs — generated from schema markup. Also called rich snippets.
Robots.txt
A file at the site root telling crawlers which paths to access or avoid. Critical for managing crawl budget and allowing AI crawlers.
Robots.txt Generator →S
Schema Markup
Structured data that gives search engines explicit context about content, enabling rich results. JSON-LD is the recommended format.
Schema Generator →Search Intent
The goal behind a query — informational, commercial, transactional or navigational. Content must match intent to rank.
Semantic SEO
Optimizing around topics, entities and relationships rather than isolated keywords, so a page comprehensively covers a subject.
What is Semantic SEO? →SERP — Search Engine Results Page
Everything shown for a query: organic results, ads, featured snippets, AI Overviews and other features.
SERP Preview Tool →SERP Features
Non-standard result types beyond the classic blue links — snippets, People Also Ask, image packs, knowledge panels and AI Overviews.
Sitemap (XML)
An XML file listing a site's important URLs to help search engines discover and crawl them. Submitted in Search Console.
Sitemap Generator →Speakable Schema
Schema marking content suited to text-to-speech by voice assistants. Used on answer pages and direct-response content for AEO.
Status Code
The HTTP response a server returns for a request — 200 (OK), 301/302 (redirects), 404 (not found), 5xx (server error). Key signals for crawlers.
Structured Data
Machine-readable markup (usually schema.org via JSON-LD) describing a page's content so engines can understand and enhance it.
T
Technical SEO
Optimizing crawling, indexing, speed, structure and security so search engines can access and render a site efficiently.
Technical SEO Checklist →TF-IDF — Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency
A statistical measure of how important a word is to a document relative to a larger corpus. Used to gauge how thoroughly a page covers a topic.
Thin Content
Pages with little unique value or substance. They rarely rank and, at scale, can drag down a site's overall quality assessment.
Topic Cluster
A group of interlinked pages covering one topic comprehensively: a pillar page plus supporting cluster pages connected by internal links.
Topic Clustering →TTFB — Time to First Byte
How long a browser waits for the first byte from the server after a request. A core server-speed metric affecting LCP.
U
URL Slug
The readable part of a URL identifying a page (e.g. /seo-glossary). Short, descriptive, keyword-relevant slugs help users and search engines.
UX Signals
Behavioural cues — CTR, dwell time, pogo-sticking — that reflect how well a page satisfies searchers. Indirectly influence rankings.
V
Voice Search
Searching by spoken query via assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Favours conversational, direct, concise answers.
W
White Hat SEO
Tactics that follow search-engine guidelines — quality content, sound technical work and genuine link earning — for durable results.
Y
YMYL — Your Money or Your Life
Topics that can affect a person's health, finances or safety. Held to the highest E-E-A-T standards by Google.
Z
Zero-Click Search
A search resolved on the results page itself — via a snippet, answer box or AI Overview — without any click to a website.
What is Zero-Click Search? →Continue Learning
Frequently Asked Questions
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