The Ultimate 2022 SEO Glossary

The world of SEO is complex, ever-changing, and filled with jargon that can make it easy to get confused quickly. If you’re new to SEO or just need some help refreshing your knowledge, we’ve made a comprehensive list of over 100 terms that SEO experts are likely to encounter in their work. 

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2xx status codes: “Successful” Your request was sent to the browser and received information (no action is required).

4xx status codes: Your resource/webpage is unavailable and will not load due to a client error.

5xx status codes: Your server does not support or is unable to process a user’s request.

A

Above the fold: Any webpage content viewed in your browser before scrolling. Once you scroll down, the content would be considered “below the fold.”

Analytics: The process of collecting data and using that information to better understand a website’s performance.

Anchor Text: Visible and clickable text that displays a hyperlink on a website.

Algorithm Updates: Step-by-step instructions given to a computer to complete a task that is customizable based on a series of criteria.

B

Backlinks: Hyperlinks on a page that direct you to another website from a different domain than the website you are currently on.

Black-Hat SEO: Unethical method of SEO used to improve a site’s ranking in a search query. This can be done through keyword stuffing, cloaking and using private link networks.

Blog: Regularly updated website or webpage that features content intended for the general public or a targeted audience relevant to a specific industry.

Bounce Rate: Percentage of single-engagement traffic visits to a website.

Bot: Typically called a “spider” or a “crawler,” they download content from all over the internet to provide relevant links in response to user search queries.

Brand Mentions: Reference to a company, brand or online service through another website or news media.

Breadcrumb: Found at the top of the website or under the navigation bar, these allow users to track their position on a webpage and how far they are from the website’s homepage.

Broken Links: A link on a webpage that sends visitors to a page that no longer exists.

C

Cache: Snapshot of a website that has been scanned/indexed by bots that’s stored by Google to help a developer promote the webpage.

Canonical URL: This is a URL that Google recommends as the accurate URL if there are duplicate pages on a site. Also known as a “master copy” of a page.

Citations: Reference or mention of a person or a company’s business information online.

Click Bait:  Marketing technique where webpages have links that are intended to boost a page’s clickthrough rate regardless if the content is valuable or truthful.

Cloaking: A method where a user is under the impression that the content on a webpage is similar or identical to what they see in the search engine results, but is actually different. Cloaking is usually considered a violation of webmaster guidelines by Google. 

Citation Flow (CF):  A metric created by Majestic that measures a site’s URL influence based on how many websites are linking to it.

Competitive Analysis: Research method using similar content or keywords from competitors to find relevant websites that will link to your content to compete for organic traffic. 

Content: Any relevant information that can be leveraged to increase your webpage’s rank in a search engine.

Core Update: Updates that improve the relevance of Google’s search results by changing the ranking algorithm to provide more authoritative and relevant content to searchers.

Core Web Vitals: Performance metric(s) that scores how quickly a page content loads, how quickly a browser can respond to a user’s input and how unstable the content is as it’s loading. Read more.

Crawlability: Search engine’s ability to access content and follow links on a page. 

Crawler: Program used to collect data from the internet to find new and updated content. 

(See Bot) 

D

Dead-End Page: Webpage with no outgoing links.

Deep-Link: A hyperlink that allows websites to build traffic to pages deeper within their site.

De-indexed: To have your site temporarily or permanently taken out of a user’s SERP.

Directories: Local business listings that include company name, address, website address and phone numbers.

Disavow: Action using the Google Search Console (GSC) that allows webmasters to discount certain links that may negatively affect a website’s authority. 

Disavow File: A text document that allows you to choose links to deactivate from the website’s backlink profile.

Do-follow Links: Links that allow bots and search engines to point back to your website or blog. 

Domain Authority (DA): A metric created by Moz, this is a range between 0-100 that measures how successful a website is during a search engine result. 

Duplicate Content: Similar or exact content on a page under the same domain or multiple webpages.

Dwell Time: Amount of time a user is on your website before going back to search results.

E

Editorial Link: Voluntarily linked content by webmaster after determining that it has high quality and value.

Evergreen Content: Content that remains continually relevant over long periods of time. 

External Link: Backlink on a webpage that directs you to a different domain. 

F

Footer Link: Links that appear on every page of a website, also known as “site-wide” links. 

G

Gated Content: A form of content that is primarily meant for lead generation. Typically blocked by bots, accessing this content typically requires filling out contact information in a form. 

Google Analytics: Service tools provided by Google that helps SEO track, analyze and report data for their website.

Google Alerts: Notification service that alerts you via email when new content, relevant to a topic of your choosing, is found on websites indexed by Google.

Google My Business Listing: Product offered by Google that will show users using a SERP where and how to find your business.

Guest Posts: Posting blog content on another individual’s blog or company website.

H

Head Term: Straightforward keyword (1-3 words) that has a high search volume.

Hidden Text: Black-Hat practice where invisible or unreadable text is used to deceive bots into making a page rank better.

Homepage: Welcome page on your website that highlights important tools or information throughout your website for easy user navigation.

Hub Page: The main page of your website pertaining to a certain topic or keyword.

Inbound Link: Same as a backlink, these are links on different websites that lead a user to your website.

Indexed Page: Pages that a search engine/bot has reviewed and deemed relevant for search phrases and keywords.

Image Carousels: Interactive image experience that allows a website user to see images in a slideshow.

Image Links: URL link to images on a website. 

Infographic: Form of content that is visually pleasing and sometimes interactive to maintain attention from users and to make data more understandable. 

Intent: The main goal a user has when using a search engine.

Internal Links: Links that maintain the same domain URL of the website you are on and direct traffic internally.

IP Address: Known as an internet protocol address, identifies a device connected to the internet or another computer network. (Public, Private, Static and Dynamic)

J

Javascript: Commonly used programming language to create interactive web content such as applications and browsers.

JSON-LD:  (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) Formatted data that allows bots to understand the content of your page, usually embedded in a <script> tag. 

K

Keywords: Main ideas or topics used in words or phrases to optimize pages so search engines can find them when looking for relevant content.  

KPI: Also known as key performance indicators, these different metrics measure and track the organic performance and progress of a website.

L

Landing Page: Webpage that a visitor lands on after opening an email, link or other digital action. 

Linkable Asset: Valuable content created solely to get other webmasters to link to or share it.

Link Building: Process of acquiring backlinks from other websites to your website.

Link Equity: Measures the authority of a site based on the number of quality inbound links.

Link Farm: Another “Black-Hat” method where a website is created for the sole purpose of adding backlinks to increase SEO rankings.

Local Link: Typically found on business directories, these links are created to rank a local business or service in search engines. 

Local Pack: List of businesses that appear on a SERP when an individual uses “near me” or “near (location)”  in their search query. These are typically businesses that have a “Google My Business” listing.

Longtail Keywords: Longer and more specific search queries that have a low search volume but very specific intent. 

M

Machine Learning: Related to AI, this helps SEO understand user intent behind a query.

Meta Description: Summary of a webpage, up to 155 characters. 

Meta Tags: Snippet of codes that describe information given on a website, invisible to a user but is used by bots.

Metric: Different standards of measurement used in SEO.

Migration: Large revamping of a website in critical areas that impact visibility on search engines. 

N

Natural Link: Also known as an organic link, this occurs when a webmaster links to your content without you asking to.

Negative SEO: Tactics used to lower a competitor’s ranking in search results.

Niche: Refers to a marketing industry pertaining to particular needs.

No-index tag: These tags inform Google to exclude a page or website from a SERP.

No-follow Links: Links that tell Google to not follow the outbound hyperlink.  

O

Off-Page SEO: Factors that occur off your website, pertaining to backlinks and promotion methods.

On-Page SEO: Factors that are controlled on your website, such as content and source codes.

Organic Search: Unpaid search results, this search is more algorithm-based. 

Orphan Page: These pages cannot be accessed by a user unless they know the direct URL because it is not linked to any other webpage.

Open Rates: A marketing parameter that measures the percentage of emails that are opened. 

Outreach: Link-building tactic that is done by sending emails to gain organic backlinks to other websites. 

P

Paid Search: Digital marketing tactic used through search engines allowing advertisers to show ads for their products/services.

Page Authority (PA): A metric created by Moz, this is a score between 0-100 that predicts how a page will rank in the SERP.

PageRank: One of Google’s algorithms for ranking a web page for placement on SERPs.

People Also Ask boxes: Questions and answer boxes that appear on a search query. These answered questions help narrow a user’s SERP and are related to the user's original search query.

Pogo-Sticking: This happens when a user goes back and forth between websites and the SERP until they find the information/website they are looking for.

Q

Quality Content: Unique, high-ranking content that gets users to engage, inform or support a website audience that boosts a brand’s image.

Query: Keyword or phrase typed in search engines to find relevant content. 

R

Reciprocal Links: Link(s) that occur between two brands after making an agreement to trade links to boost their site authority.

Redirects: Related to status codes, this happens when a user thinks they are being sent to a certain URL, but gets redirected to a different website. (301, 302)

Redirect Chain: Multiple redirects between a requested URL and the destination URL.

Referring Domains: Domains that have one or more backlinks to a particular website. 

Reclamation: Finding websites that have already linked to your content, but asking them to fix the link or update it to a current URL.

Resource Pages: Page on a website that includes helpful links regarding a particular topic.  

Rich Snippet: Enhanced search results due to additional data being displayed.

S

Schema Markup: A code placed on your website that helps bots understand your content to better place it in search results.

Scrape: Technique used to extract data from a website.

Search Operators: Special command used in your search results to refine and target more specialized content. 

SEO: Search engine optimization—these are strategies used by website owners to improve search rankings and improve website traffic.

SERPs: Search engine results page.

Site links: These appear as sub-headers on your search results page and they are links that appear under the main URL to a different page to help you navigate your search more effectively. 

Site Architecture: Also known as website architecture, this is a hierarchical structure of your website’s pages.

Source code: Set of instructions created by a website programmer using computer programming languages.

Spam: Black-Hat tactic that manipulates search engine rankings to lead users to scams and spammy websites. 

Spiders: Web crawler or bot. 

Status Codes: Three-digit codes that are a response to a user’s request. 

Subdomain: Under the main domain, these domains are used to organize and navigate different sections of a website.

Subfolder: Organizational method used on websites to store information located within another folder/tab.

T

Taxonomy: Structure used in a website to group relevant information in a logical manner to help users navigate effectively.

Toxic links: Harmful links that affect the search rankings of a website. 

Traffic: Number of visits to your website from organic or paid-search results.

Trust Flow (TF): Metric created by Majestic, this is based on backlinks and measures the trustworthiness of your website.

U

Unlinked Mentions: Mentions of your brand or company with no linking URL to your website. 

Universal Search: Search engine results that show all forms of content. (videos, images, news)

Unnatural Link: An artificially created link, used to manipulate search results.

URL: Uniform resource locator, often simply referred to as a web address.

Usability: How easily a user can access and navigate a webpage. 

V

Vertical Search:  This is a search engine that solely focuses on a specific area of content.

Visibility: Another metric used to measure the number of organic clicks your website receives from search engine results based on specific searches or keywords.

W

Webpage: Document displayed from a browser that is delivered through a web server.

Webmaster Guidelines: Information about how to create and maintain a website that helps search engine pages to find, index and rate your site.

Website: Group of related web pages under a domain.

Webspam: Another technique used to cheat search rankings results.

White-Hat SEO: Opposite of black-hat seo, these are legal tactics in improving your website’s position on SERP.

X

XML Sitemap: Recommended for larger websites, this is a special document or file that contains information about a website’s most important pages.

Y

YMYL pages: “Your Money or Your Life” These pages sell products, services or information that impact a user’s well-being. 

Z

Zero-click search: The top search results in a query that answers or showcases information regarding your search without sending you to a specific website. 

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