301 Redirect or Redirection: occurs when a page has been deleted but the user is redirected to the new page.
404 Not Found: an error that occurs when the page the user is trying to view cannot be found.
A
Above the Fold: the top part of the website that can be seen before the viewer scrolls down.
Absolute link: a hyperlink that contains the entire URL including the protocol and domain name.
Accelerated Mobile Pages: an HTML framework that aims to load the sites quickly for mobile devices.
Algorithm: refers to the process used to rank the most relevant pages for a query.
Algorithm Update: any change made to improve an existing algorithm.
Alt Attribute/Alt Text: a text that describes an image on a website.
Analytics: a system of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data or statistics.
Anchor Text: a clickable word or text of a hyperlink.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): an intelligence that allows the computer or system to develop human intelligence and perform human-like tasks.
Authority Site: a trusted and credible site.
B
Backlinks: a hyperlink that redirects to another page.
Bad Neighborhood: a collection of websites that are ranked down on search rankings.
Baidu: most popular search engine in China (similar to Google)
Bait and Switch: a technique (sometimes considered immoral) where content is placed on a website to increase traffic. Once indexed, it will be replaced by a regular page.
Banner Blindness: the tendency of a viewer to ignore the ads on a website.
Bing: a search engine launched by Microsoft.
Black Hat: techniques used to increase the page ranking that goes against search engine guidelines.
Blockers: a software that prevents search engines from viewing the website.
Blog Commenting: a strategy used for link building wherein you leave a comment with a link that redirects to your website.
Bounce Rate: the percentage of users that visited your website then, left immediately without viewing the other pages.
Brand Mention Link Building: a strategy where you search for your brand online and then reach out to the web pages that mention your brand for them to add a backlink.
Branded Keyword: term or phrase that includes the name of your brand, its product and services.
Breadcrumb: a text located usually at the top of the page that shows where they are on a website.
Broken Link: a hyperlink on a web page that does not work.
Business directory: online listing of businesses and their web pages.
C
Cache: a storage location that includes websites, data, browsers, so it can be accessed quickly.
Call To Action: messages that appear on a website that encourages the user to do something. For example, “register now”, “call us”, “buy now.”
Cascading Style Sheets/CSS: defines how the HTML looks on web documents.
ccTLD: also known as Country code top-level domain. This is a domain extension that shows in which country the page is for.
Churn and Burn SEO: a black hat strategy where you mass spam links on a website to gain higher rankings.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): the number of people that clicked on your ad or website after seeing it.
Click Bait: a headline or a text that is used to encourage the readers to click the hyperlink. Sometimes, these headlines are considered misleading.
Cloaking: a technique wherein the content displayed on the search engine is actually different from the content on the web page.
CMS: CMS also known as Content Management System is an application that allows different users to edit and create content.
Co-Citation: occurs when a website is mentioned by two different sources which are not necessarily linked to each other.
Comment Spam: a method used for link building wherein links are spam posted on different comment sections.
Competition: in SEO, competition refers to your competitors that have the same keywords or search terms as you.
Competitor Analysis: this involves researching and evaluating the links, keywords, and contents of your competitors.
Content: this includes all information displayed on your website.
Content Gap Analysis: strategic method performed in order to improve the gap contents on a website.
Content is King: this is one of the most used quotes by Bill Gates when it comes to SEO and marketing. This simply means that quality content is vital in a business.
Content Marketing: a marketing strategy that focuses on creating relevant and high-quality information to gain more visitors.
Content Score: a grade that refers to the relevance of your website’s keywords on search engines.
Content Spinning: also known as Article Spinning. This refers to the technique wherein the same article is rewritten using different synonyms or changing the words for it to appear as a “new article.”
Content Syndication: a strategy where the article is re-published on another website to gain more readers.
Conversion: occurs every time a visitor completes an action on your website. This includes buying a product, signing up, following a link, etc.
Conversion Rate: the number or percentage of viewers that completed an action on your website.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): includes different techniques used in order to increase the conversion rate.
Cookies: pieces of information that are stored on the computer of the user.
Copied Content: duplicate content that has been copy-pasted.
Cornerstone Content: this simply means the core of your website. This includes the most important articles that make and define your brand.
Cost Per Acquisition: the metric that measures the cost of a user completing the action.
Cost Per Click: refers to the amount you pay every time a user clicks on your ads.
Cost Per Thousand Impressions: the amount you have to pay per one thousand impressions of your ad.
Crawl/Crawling: the process wherein search engine crawlers visit a website to collect data and its content.
Crawl Budget: refers to the number of pages Google will crawl on your website.
Crawl Demand: refers to the demand for Google to crawl your pages.
Crawl Depth: refers to the number of pages the crawler will index on your website.
Crawl Error: occurs when the search engine fails to access or go through your website.
Crawlability: the ability of the search engine to navigate through your website.
Crawler: a bot or a program that is used by search engines to collect data from websites.
Cross-Linking: refers to the process when you link one website to another.
Curated Content: content made by others that you collect and present to your viewers as they are relevant to your niche.
D
Data: in SEO, this information includes the traffic, impressions, visitors of your website.
De-index/Delisting: refers to the process of removing a web page from the search engine’s index.
Dead-End Page: a page that does not contain any outgoing links.
Deep Link: a hyperlink that links directly to the specific content of a website.
Direct Traffic: the number of visits directly on your website without clicking on any ads. This means any traffic that includes typing your URL on their web browser.
Disavow: the process that helps you remove backlinks that are harmful to your website. This helps you avoid being penalized.
Do-follow: these are default links that allow search engines to redirect back to your website.
Domain: refers to the location of your website.
Domain Authority: a metric developed by Moz that shows the ranking score of a website on search engine results.
Domain Name: this refers to the name of your website. This is the address the viewers type to access your page.
Domain Popularity: the number of links that redirect to your website.
Doorway Page: a page specifically made to rank high on search engines. This falls under the cloaking technique.
DuckDuckGo: a secure search engine that aims to protect the user’s privacy. This means that this does not use a personalized search result.
Dwell Time: refers to the time spent on your page after clicking on the search engine page.
Dynamic Tags:
E
E-commerce SEO: the tactic used by online businesses to rank high on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)
Ego-Bait: a strategy used wherein you mention a brand/person on your content for them to promote your website.
Email Outreach: a link-building strategy that involves reaching out to different people via email to persuade them to link your website.
Engagement Metrics: this measures how much time a user interacts with your content/website.
Exact Match Anchor Text: refers to the anchor text that exactly describes the page it’s linking to.
Exact Match Keyword: this means that your ads will only appear once a user searches for the exact keyword of your website.
Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness: Google’s indicator in evaluating a website.
F
Favicon: a small icon that represents your website when displayed on web pages.
Featured Snippet: a summarized answer that is displayed on a box and appears on the top result. Also known as Page Zero.
Footer Link: links that are displayed on almost every page of a website. These links usually include the privacy policy, location, social media accounts, etc.
Fresh Content: refers to websites or content that are updated regularly.
G
Geotargeting: the practice of targeting your audience based on their location.
Google: the most popular search engine.
Google Ads (AdWords): an advertising service by Google that is used to promote your brand, website, or your content.
Google Analytics: software that provides the statistics and data of user interaction on your website
Google Autocomplete: refers to the feature wherein suggestions appear while you are typing your search query.
Google Bowling: a form of black hat SEO where you spam your competitor’s website with irrelevant links.
Google Fred: an algorithmic update released in 2017 to remove low-quality search results.
Google Keyword Planner: a tool that is designed to help advertisers research the keywords for their campaign.
Google My Business: a tool for businesses that allows customers to find you on Google Search and Google Maps.
Google PageSpeed Insights: a free tool that helps you analyze your website’s page speed.
Google Panda Update: a huge update from Google in 2011 that aims to get rid of low-quality contents and promote high-quality ones.
Google Penguin Update: an algorithmic update in 2012 that focuses on targeting and removing spammy links.
Google Pigeon Update: a major update in 2014 that aims to increase the rankings of local business on search results.
Google Pirate: an update release in 2014 that focuses on demoting sites that contain copyrighted content.
Google Sandbox: a filter that is believed to prevent new websites from ranking high on search results.
Google Search Console: a free tool offered by Google that allows users to analyze their sites.
Google Trends: a tool used by most marketers that allows them to see the most common search queries.
Google Webmaster Guidelines: guidelines or practices on how Google can optimize and rank your website better.
Google’s Related Searches: the eight related suggested searches which can be found below the search results page.
Gray Hat: the combination of white hat and black hat SEO. These tactics aren’t really illegal but are considered unethical.
Guest Blogging: also called Guest Posting. Refers to the act of writing content for another website which includes a link that redirects to your page.
H
Heading: also called h1, is usually the largest text on the page. This is considered the main topic of your content.
Hidden Text: a black hat method wherein there are hidden contents in the article that are invisible to the readers but are made to rank high on search rankings.
Homepage: the main or the welcoming page of your website.
Hreflang Attribute: an attribute used by Google to specify what language should be used on a specific page. This is mainly used on a multilingual site.
HTML/Hypertext Markup Language: a system used to organize and display the materials on a website.
HTML Sitemap: a file that displays all the links to the pages of the website.
Hyperlink: a clickable link that redirects to another page.
I
Image Filename: the file name used to identify the image in a system.
Image SEO: the process of improving and optimizing and the images on your website to increase search engine visibility.
Impression: a term used when a viewer has seen your ad or the link to your website.
Indexed Page: websites that have been viewed and analyzed by search engines.
Infographic: a technique used where the information is presented in a visually pleasing manner to engage the readers.
Internal Link: a link that redirects to a page within your website.
Interstitials: a pop-up ad that covers the entire page which needs to be manually closed.
IP Address: a uniques address given to each device that helps identify internet activity.
J
JavaScript SEO: a technical SEO that makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index Javascript.
K
Key Performance Indicator: the metric you set to measure the performance of the website.
Keyword: words or phrases inserted into the content to increase search rankings.
Keyword Analysis: the process of evaluating the keywords you use and the keywords mostly searched by people.
Keyword Cannibalization: occurs when the same keyword is being used throughout your website.
Keyword Competition: the metric that shows how difficult it is to rank on a keyword on the SERPs.
Keyword Frequency: the number of times the keyword was mentioned throughout the web page.
Keyword Prominence: refers to how prominent the keyword is within the web page.
Keyword Stuffing: a black hat tactic wherein a keyword is mentioned repeatedly to the content to manipulate search rankings.
L
Landing Page: the page that appears once you click a link.
Lead Magnet: the technique used to encourage the visitor to provide you their information in exchange for access.
Link Building: refers to the process of increasing the backlinks to your website.
Link Burst: the process of collecting a huge number of backlinks in a limited time.
Link Diversity: a strategy of collecting links from different kinds of websites.
Link Equity: also called Link Juice. An idea that the value of a link can be passed down to another.
Link Popularity: the number of backlinks a website has.
Link Profile: the term for the overall links that point to your website.
Link Reclamation: the process of retrieving back broken links and updating the URLs.
Link Relevancy: describes the connection of the two websites involved in link building.
Link Rot: the process wherein previously working links become outdated and unavailable.
Local Citation: occurs when a company name, address, or phone number of a business is mentioned.
Log File: a file that includes all the activities performed in and out of the server.
Long-Tail Keyword: keywords that are longer and more specific usually searched by visitors that are close to making a purchase.
LSI Keyword/Latent Semantic Indexing: keywords or phrases that are related to the main keyword.
M
Manual Action: refers to the penalty that occurs when you don’t follow the webmaster guidelines.
Meta Description: an HTML tag that provides the users a small description of the web page.
Meta Refresh: a tag that instructs the web page to refresh after the given time interval.
Metric: indicators of tracking the performance of a website.
Mirror Site: a replica of an existing site that is used if the original site is generating too much traffic.
Mobile Optimization: the process of improving and optimizing the website for mobile users.
N
Natural Link: unpaid links that are placed on the content because the author finds your website to be valuable.
Niche: refers to the specific portion of a target audience.
Noarchive Tag: a tag that does not store cache copy of your page.
Nofollow Attribute: an attribute that informs the search engines to not pass link equity to the website.
O
Off-Page SEO: activities that were done outside of your webpage to improve its ranking.
On-Page SEO: the process of optimizing the web pages on your website.
Opt-In: a consent given by the user for the marketer to send direct messages.
Opt-Out: a user wanting to unsubscribe or to be removed from a mailing list.
Orphan Page: pages on a website that aren’t linked to other pages and can only be accessed by knowing the URL.
Over-Optimization: occurs when too much SEO has been performed on your web page sacrificing the content.
P
Page Authority: a score that shows the performance of the page in SERPs compared to other sites.
Paid Links: a process wherein a website purchases backlinks to increase traffic.
Paid Search: paying a search engine in order to have a position on the top of the SERPs.
PBN/Private Blog Networks: a network of websites that are only used to build backlinks.
Poison Words: words that negatively affect the ranking of your website.
Primary Keyword: refers to the most used keyword that can be used on your page title, headline, and first paragraph.
Q
Quality Content: refers to content that is not only valuable for SEO but also provides quality information to the readers.
Quality Link: links that are from reputable and trusted websites.
R
Ranking: refers to the spot of your page when displayed on the search engine results page.
Ranking Factor: the criteria used by search engines when evaluating a web page.
Reciprocal Links: an agreement made by two websites to exchange backlinks with each other.
Referral Traffic: visits that come from clicking your domain from other sites and not on search engines.
Reputation Management: the practice of managing and monitoring how the others see your website.
Responsive Website: a website that is mobile friendly and adjusts to how your screen looks.
S
Screaming Frog: an advanced SEO tool from the UK that offers in-depth audits.
Search Engine: a software program that searches through different contents on the internet. The biggest search engine is Google.
Search Engine Guidelines: practices that you need to follow in order to rank high on SERPs.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): the process of improving your site to increase visibilty and traffic.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP): the pages that the search engine displays after you enter your search query.
Search History: the list of web pages the user has visited.
Search Query: the term or phrase a user enters in search engines.
Secondary Keywords: these are supporting keywords that add additional information to your primary keyword
SEO Service: a paid service that assists in optimizing the website.
SEO Site Audit: the complete process of analyzing the website’s performance on search engines.
Sitelinks: additional links that appear under the main URL.
Skyscraping: a technique used wherein you look for popular web pages, improve their content and copy the backlinks.
Social Signal: metrics that describe the engagements on social media posts such as likes, comments, shares, views, etc.
Splash Page: the page that the user sees before they enter your website. It contains words such as “enter site,” “skip intro”
Static URL: a web page that has an unchanged URL.
Status Codes: a response code to a browser’s request.
Submission: the process of submitting your website to the search engines for it to be indexed.
T
Technical SEO: refers to the process of optimizing your website to make it easier for the search engine bot to crawl and index your site.
Thin Content: refers to the content that does not provide any value to its reader.
Title Tag: an HTML code that defines the title of the page. This is the headline that appears in the SERPs.
Top Heavy: a Google update that prevents websites that have too many ads above the fold from ranking high in the SERPs.
Top-Level Domain (TLD): the last words after the dot of the website address. For example, .com, .org, .net
Topical Relevance: the measure of how relevant the backlinks are to your website.
Traffic: refers to the users that visit your website.
U
Uniform Resource Locator (URL): an address that points to a specific page of a website. This is also known as “web address.”
Unique Visit: refers to the number of first visits on your website during a specific period of time.
Unnatural Link: refers to links that are artificial and aim to manipulate the search rankings.
URL Parameter: the query string that follows after the question mark on a URL.
User Agent: refers to any software that provides content or information to the users.
User Engagement: refers to the interaction of your visitors to your website.
User Experience (UX): the factor that describes how the visitors assess the quality of your website.
User-Generated Content (UGC): refers to any content made by the visitors of a platform or website.
User/Search Intent: the reason or purpose behind a search query.
V
Vertical Search Engine: a search engine that focuses on a specific topic. For example, Youtube, Google Maps, etc.
Video Optimization: refers to the optimization of your video to increase its search visibility.
Viral Content: any type of content that becomes popular and is shared across by different users.
Visibility: the metric that shows how visible your website is on search engines.
W
Webpage: refers to a document that is available and can be read by a browser.
Website: a group of web pages that share the same domain.
Website Structure: refers to how the web pages are linked to each other and their hierarchy.
White Hat: refers to any ethical strategies implemented that aims to increase search rankings of the website.
WooRank: a tool that reviews and assess the website including its on-page and off-page SEO
WordPress: one of the most popular software that is used to build a website.
X
XML Sitemap: XML or Extensive Markup Language refers to the list of all pages on a website.
Y
Yahoo: a popular search engine that also provides e-mail service, directory, and news.
Yandex: the most popular search engine in Russia.
YMYL Pages: stands for “Your Money Your Life.” This refers to any content that affects people’s lives/finances/health.
Z
Zero Click Searches: occurs when a user does not click on any of the results.
