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SEO Glossary
62 SEO terms, defined clearly
Technical SEO, redirects, title tags, E-E-A-T, AI search, and revenue attribution. Every term comes with a full definition, a worked example, and answers to the questions practitioners actually ask.
A-Z index
SEO Fundamentals
SEO
Search Engine Optimization — improving a site's visibility in organic search results.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page — what Google shows for a query.
Keyword
Query or phrase a user searches for.
Long-tail Keyword
3+ word queries with specific intent and lower search volume.
Search Intent
The underlying goal behind a user's query.
Keyword Difficulty
How hard it is to rank for a keyword on page one.
Backlink
An inbound link from another domain.
Referring Domain
A unique domain linking to your site.
Anchor Text
The visible clickable text of a link.
Domain Rating (DR)
Ahrefs' metric for backlink profile strength, 0–100.
Internal Link
A link between two pages on the same domain.
Featured Snippet
Position zero — answer box above organic results.
People Also Ask (PAA)
Expandable question box on Google SERPs.
Rich Result
Enhanced SERP listing with stars, images, or carousels.
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's quality framework for evaluating content and the entities behind it.
Nofollow
A link attribute (rel="nofollow") signaling the linking site does not vouch for the destination. Treated by Google as a hint since 2019, alongside rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc".
Technical SEO
Canonical Tag
Tells search engines which URL is the preferred version.
Duplicate Content
Substantially similar content on multiple URLs.
Hreflang
HTML attribute signaling page language and region.
Schema Markup
Structured data (JSON-LD) that helps search engines understand content.
Core Web Vitals
Google's LCP, INP, CLS page-experience metrics.
Crawl Budget
How often/many pages Googlebot crawls on your site.
Indexability
Whether a page can be stored in Google's index.
robots.txt
File telling crawlers which URLs they can access.
Title Tag
The HTML <title> element that names a page — shown as the blue headline in search results and used as a primary on-page ranking signal.
Meta Description
The HTML snippet (160 chars) that summarises a page below its title in search results. Not a ranking signal but directly affects CTR.
301 Redirect
A permanent HTTP redirect that passes ~99% of link equity from the old URL to the new one. The correct redirect type for site migrations and URL changes.
Redirect Chain
Two or more consecutive redirects between a source URL and its final destination. Chains lose link equity at each hop and slow page load.
Noindex Tag
A robots meta tag (content="noindex") that instructs search engines not to include a page in their index. The page is crawlable but will not appear in search results.
XML Sitemap
A structured file (sitemap.xml) that lists a site's URLs so search engines can discover and prioritise them for crawling.
H1 Tag
The top-level HTML heading that names the main topic of a page. One clear H1 per page anchors the heading hierarchy for crawlers, accessibility tools, and AI systems.
Alt Text
The alt attribute describing an image for screen readers and search engines. The foundation of image SEO and an accessibility requirement.
Open Graph Tags
Meta tags (og:title, og:image, og:description) that control how a page renders when shared on social platforms, chat apps, and link previews.
Meta Robots Tag
An HTML meta tag giving crawlers page-level indexing instructions: noindex, nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet. Controls what crawlers do after fetching a page.
JavaScript SEO
Making JavaScript-rendered content crawlable and indexable. Critical for React, Vue, and Angular sites where content renders client-side.
AI Search
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Optimization for AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
Content structured for LLM retrieval and citation.
LLM Visibility
How often a brand is cited in LLM outputs.
Entity SEO
Optimization around Google's Knowledge Graph entities.
Knowledge Graph
Google's database of real-world entities and relationships.
AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated answers shown above organic results, with citation links to sources. Being cited in them is the new position zero.
AI Citation
A reference to a brand or page inside an AI-generated answer. The unit of visibility in answer engines: AEO counts citations the way SEO counts rankings.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
The practice of structuring content for retrieval, citation, and accurate representation inside large language model-generated answers.
LLMO (LLM Optimization)
The practice of shaping content and brand presence so large language models accurately represent and cite a brand in their outputs.
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
An LLM architecture that retrieves live documents before generating an answer, making cited sources the unit of visibility for RAG-powered search.
Vector Embeddings
Numerical representations of text meaning used by AI search engines to match queries to semantically similar content rather than exact keywords.
Semantic Search
Search that understands meaning, context, and entity relationships rather than matching exact keyword strings.
llms.txt
A plain-text file at the domain root that tells AI crawlers which pages to use when generating LLM-friendly summaries of a site.
Zero-Click Search
A search session that ends without any click to a website because the SERP or AI answer satisfied the query directly.
AI Search
Search experiences powered by large language models — including Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot — that generate answers rather than just rank links.
Grounding / Source Attribution
The process by which an AI system anchors its answer to specific retrieved sources, reducing hallucination and surfacing citable pages.
Query Fan-Out
Google AI Mode's technique of breaking a single user query into multiple sub-queries to retrieve richer, more comprehensive context before generating an answer.
Share of Model
The frequency with which a brand is mentioned or cited by large language models relative to competitors — the AI-era equivalent of share of voice.
ChatGPT / Perplexity SEO
Optimizing content and brand presence specifically for citation in ChatGPT search and Perplexity AI answers, where retrieval-based selection determines visibility.
Analytics
Paid-to-Organic Attribution
Paid-to-Organic Gap
The delta between keywords you pay to appear for and keywords you rank for organically.
Blended CAC
Total customer acquisition cost calculated across both paid and organic channels combined.
Branded Keyword
A search query that includes your brand name. Ranks almost automatically but can signal whether paid spend is cannibalising organic branded traffic.
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