GLOSSARY
Search Marketing
Glossary.
Every term you'll hear in an SEO pitch - explained in plain English. No jargon walls. No filler. Just the definitions that actually matter.
Brand new to SEO? Start with the plain-English What is SEO? primer.
A
Above the Fold
The visible part of a web page before scrolling - where first impressions happen.
Alt Text
Image descriptions that help search engines and screen readers understand visuals.
Anchor Text
The clickable words in a hyperlink - a relevance signal Google actually uses.
AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated answer at the top of results - and the biggest single change to the SERP since featured snippets.
AI Search (Answer Engines)
Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, Gemini - the AI engines people now ask questions to instead of Google. Different rules, same goal: being the cited answer.
AI Citation
When an AI answer names your brand or page as its source. The new high-value position - cited beats ranked for the answer itself.
AI Crawlers
GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot - the bots that read your content for AI answers. Blocking them means vanishing from AI search.
Ahrefs
The backlink and keyword intelligence platform - the tool behind competitor analysis, link research and rank tracking.
AI Content Generation
Using AI models to draft and scale content - a multiplier, not a substitute for judgment. The tool that made volume cheap and taste expensive.
B
Backlink
A link from another site to yours - still one of Google's top ranking factors.
Black Hat SEO
SEO tactics that violate search engine guidelines - fast gains, brutal penalties.
Bounce Rate
Percentage of visitors who leave after viewing just one page on your site.
Breadcrumbs
Navigation showing a page's position in your site hierarchy - useful for users and Google.
C
Canonical Tag
Tells search engines which version of a page is the original when duplicates exist.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of searchers who see your listing and actually click it.
Cloaking
Showing different content to search engines than to users - a fast path to penalties.
Content Cluster
A group of related pages around a core topic, connected by internal links.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors who take a desired action - the metric that actually matters.
Core Web Vitals
Google's page experience metrics - loading speed, visual stability, and interactivity.
Crawl Budget
How many pages Google will crawl on your site in a given timeframe.
Crawling
How search engine bots discover and download your pages - the first step to ranking.
CMS
Content Management System - the software running your website (WordPress, Shopify, etc).
ChatGPT
OpenAI's chatbot - the product that made AI search a habit. For SEO, it's now a search engine with citation preferences.
Claude
Anthropic's model family - increasingly used for research and search-adjacent answers, and a reminder that every AI reader has preferences.
D
Domain Authority (DA)
Moz's third-party metric predicting ranking potential - useful, but not a Google factor.
Domain Rating (DR)
Ahrefs' version of domain authority - measures backlink profile strength on a 0-100 scale.
Duplicate Content
The same content appearing on multiple URLs - confuses Google about which to rank.
E
F
G
Google Business Profile (GBP)
Your business listing on Google Maps and local search - essential for local visibility.
Google Search Console (GSC)
Google's free tool showing how your site actually performs in search - essential data.
Googlebot
Google's web crawler that discovers, downloads, and indexes your pages.
Grey Hat SEO
SEO tactics in the murky middle ground between white hat and black hat - risky but common.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
The practice of getting your brand cited by AI answers instead of just ranked on Google. Optimising for being the source, not just the link.
Google Lighthouse
Google's open-source auditor for page quality - the tool behind the scores people screenshot and the audit trail behind real fixes.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google's free speed tester - the official way to check Core Web Vitals and the first tool Google itself points you to.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
Google's analytics platform - the source of truth for whether your SEO is moving revenue, not just traffic.
Google Trends
Google's free tool for search-interest data - the reality check for whether a market, season or topic is actually growing.
GTmetrix
A speed-testing tool with a difference: it shows the waterfall of every request, so you can see exactly what's slowing the page down.
H
I
J
K
Keyword Cannibalisation
When multiple pages on your site compete for the same keyword, splitting authority.
Keyword Density
How often a keyword appears relative to total word count - an outdated metric.
Keyword Difficulty (KD)
A tool-generated estimate of how hard it is to rank for a specific keyword.
Keyword Research
Finding what your audience searches for - the foundation of every SEO strategy.
Knowledge Panel
The information box Google shows for recognised entities - people, businesses, places.
L
Landing Page
The page a user arrives on from search - where intent matching either works or fails.
Link Building
Acquiring backlinks from other sites to build authority - effective when done right.
Link Equity
The ranking value passed through links from one page to another - also called link juice.
Local Pack (Map Pack)
The three local business listings with a map that dominate local search results.
Long-Tail Keyword
Longer, more specific search queries - lower volume but higher intent and easier to rank for.
Large Language Model (LLM)
The AI technology behind ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and the search engines that now read your content. Understanding it is the new SEO literacy.
M
Meta Description
The text snippet below your title in search results - your ad copy for organic search.
Meta Robots
HTML directives telling search engines whether to index a page and follow its links.
Meta Refresh
An HTML tag that automatically redirects or reloads a page after a set delay.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking - not desktop.
N
O
P
Page Speed
How fast your pages load - a confirmed ranking factor that affects conversions too.
PageRank
Google's original link-based algorithm for measuring page importance - still a factor.
PBN (Private Blog Network)
A network of fake sites built to manipulate rankings with links - don't do this.
People Also Ask (PAA)
Expandable question boxes in search results - a growing source of SERP visibility.
Perplexity
The AI answer engine built for search - and the clearest case study in how citations, not rankings, are becoming the goal.
R
Redirect (301 vs 302)
301 is permanent (transfers ranking signals), 302 is temporary - use the right one.
Robots.txt
A file telling search engine crawlers which parts of your site they can access.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
The technique that lets AI answers draw from your content instead of guessing. RAG is why having crawlable, citable pages still matters in the AI era.
S
Schema Markup
Structured data that helps search engines understand your content and enables rich results.
Search Intent
The reason behind a search query - matching it is more important than matching keywords.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
The broader practice of marketing through search - includes both SEO and paid search.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Improving your site's visibility in organic search - an ongoing system, not a project.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page Google shows after a search - the competitive landscape you're fighting in.
Sitemap (XML)
An XML file listing all pages you want search engines to discover and index.
Semantic Search
Search engines matching meaning, not just keywords. The shift that killed keyword stuffing and made understanding intent the whole game.
Screaming Frog
The crawler that sees your site the way Googlebot does - the tool that finds the technical problems nobody else notices.
Semrush
The all-in-one SEO platform - keyword research, competitor intelligence, site audits and rank tracking in one dashboard.
T
Technical SEO
Optimising your site's infrastructure so search engines can crawl, render, and index it.
Thin Content
Pages with little useful content - Google devalues them and they drag your site down.
Title Tag
The clickable heading in search results - one of the strongest on-page ranking signals.
Topical Authority
How comprehensively your site covers a subject - depth beats breadth for rankings.
Token
The unit of text AI models read and write - the cost and capacity measure behind AI content. Cheap tokens made volume trivial; judgment became the expensive part.
U
W
Z
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