SEO Glossary

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) The practice of improving a site so it ranks higher in organic search results. SERP (Search Engine Results Page) The page of results a search engine returns — increasingly full of rich features. Click-Through Rate (CTR) The share of searchers who click your result — driven by titles, descriptions and rich features.

On-Page SEO Optimizing the content and HTML of a page itself — titles, headings, content and internal links. Title Tag The HTML title of a page — one of the strongest on-page ranking and click signals. Meta Description The short summary shown under your title in search results — it drives click-through rate. Keyword Density How often a keyword appears relative to total words — useful in moderation, harmful if stuffed. Internal Linking Links between pages on your own site — they spread authority and aid discovery.

Technical SEO Making a site easy for search engines to crawl, render and index. Core Web Vitals Google's user-experience metrics: LCP (loading), INP (interactivity) and CLS (visual stability). Page Speed How fast a page loads and becomes usable — a trust, ranking and conversion factor. Canonical Tag An HTML tag that tells search engines the master version of a URL. Duplicate Content Identical or near-identical content on multiple URLs, which splits ranking signals. XML Sitemap A file listing your important URLs to help search engines discover and crawl them. robots.txt A root file that tells crawlers which paths they may or may not request. Crawl Budget How many pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a given period. Schema Markup (Structured Data) Code that describes your content to search engines to unlock rich results.

Backlink A link from another website to yours — a key trust and ranking signal. Domain Authority A score (0–100) predicting how well a whole domain can rank, based on its backlink profile. Referring Domain A unique website that links to you — more valuable than counting individual backlinks. Anchor Text The clickable words of a link — they tell search engines what the target page is about. Spam Score An estimate of how likely a site's backlink profile is to be seen as low-quality or manipulative.

Long-Tail Keyword A longer, more specific search phrase with lower competition and higher intent. Search Intent The goal behind a query — informational, navigational, commercial or transactional.

Featured Snippet The answer box at the top of some results — "position zero".