Glossary
SEO & AI search glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms you'll meet when growing in Google and AI search.
301 Redirect
A 301 redirect permanently sends visitors and search engines from one URL to another.…
404 Error
A 404 error means the requested page does not exist.…
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
AEO is the practice of structuring content so AI assistants and answer boxes can quote it …
AI Overview
An AI Overview is Google's AI-generated summary shown at the top of some search results, w…
Alt Text
Alt text is a written description of an image added to its HTML.…
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable words in a link.…
Backlink
A backlink is a link from another website to yours.…
Black-Hat SEO
Black-hat SEO means trying to manipulate rankings with tactics that break search engine gu…
Canonical Tag
A canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the main version of a page when similar …
Citation
A citation is an online mention of a business's name, address and phone number, often in a…
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is the percentage of people who click a result after seeing it.…
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
CLS measures how much page content unexpectedly moves while loading.…
Content Hub
A content hub is a main pillar page linked to a cluster of related detailed pages.…
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google's metrics for loading speed (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and vis…
Crawl Budget
Crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine will crawl on a site within a given ti…
Domain Authority
Domain authority is a third-party score estimating how likely a whole website is to rank, …
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is substantially the same content appearing at more than one URL.…
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness — qualitie…
Entity SEO
Entity SEO is optimising content around clearly defined things — brands, people, places, p…
Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is a highlighted answer box shown above the normal results.…
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
GEO is optimising a website so generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity …
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows a business on Google Maps and local…
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is Google's free tool showing how a site performs in Google Search.…
Hreflang
Hreflang is a tag that tells search engines which language or regional version of a page t…
Impressions
Impressions are the number of times a page appears in search results, whether or not it is…
Indexing
Indexing is when a search engine stores a page in its database so it can appear in results…
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
INP measures how quickly a page responds to clicks, taps and key presses.…
Internal Linking
Internal linking is linking from one page on your site to another.…
JSON-LD
JSON-LD is the format Google recommends for adding schema markup to a page inside a script…
Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is an estimate of how hard it is to rank on page one for a search term.…
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
LCP measures how long the largest visible element on a page takes to load.…
llms.txt
llms.txt is a plain-text file at a site's root that summarises its most important pages fo…
Local SEO
Local SEO is optimising a business to appear in local searches and map results.…
Long-Tail Keyword
A long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase with lower volume and usually…
Manual Action
A manual action is a penalty applied by a Google reviewer when a site breaks spam policies…
Meta Description
A meta description is the short summary that can appear under the title in search results.…
Meta Title
A meta title is the page title shown as the blue headline in search results and browser ta…
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.…
Orphan Page
An orphan page is a page with no internal links pointing to it.…
Programmatic SEO
Programmatic SEO is creating many useful pages from structured data, each targeting a spec…
Rank Tracking
Rank tracking is monitoring where a website appears in search results for chosen keywords …
Rich Results
Rich results are enhanced search listings showing extras such as stars, FAQs, prices or im…
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a file at the root of a website that tells crawlers which areas they may or …
Schema Markup
Schema markup is structured code (usually JSON-LD) that describes a page's content to sear…
Search Intent
Search intent is the goal behind a search — to learn, compare, buy or find a specific site…
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
SEO is improving a website so it appears higher in unpaid search engine results for releva…
SERP
A SERP (search engine results page) is the page a search engine shows after someone enters…
Thin Content
Thin content is a page with little useful or original information.…
Topical Authority
Topical authority is how thoroughly a site covers a subject across many related pages.…
White-Hat SEO
White-hat SEO means improving rankings using methods that follow search engine guidelines.…
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file listing the pages you want search engines to find and index.…
Zero-Click Search
A zero-click search is one where the user gets their answer on the results page without vi…
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