Search engine optimization has its own unique set of terminology, definitions, and abbreviations. Confused with all the SEO-related terms and buzzwords you encounter on a daily basis? Here's a glossary with over 200+ definitions to help you.
যারা Search engine optimization (SEO) নিয়ে কাজ করতে চান অথবা ইনফরমেশন টেকনোলজির জ্ঞান অর্জন করতে চান তাঁদের নিম্নোক্ত glossary জানা একান্ত প্রয়োজন।
10x Content
Content that is at least ten times better than the current top-ranking result for the target keyword.
301 Redirect
The 301 redirect takes users to the new URL and tells search engines that the page has moved permanently.
302 Redirect
The 302 redirect indicates that the web page or resource was moved from one location to another temporarily.
304 Not Modified
The 304 Not Modified is one of the redirection HTTP response codes from a server indicating that the resource has not been modified and there is no need to retransmit it since the client still has a cached copy of a resource.
404 Error
The 404 Not Found HTTP status code indicates that the server couldn’t find the requested page or resource.
410 Gone
The 410 Gone HTTP status code indicates that the requested resource is no longer available on the server and that this condition is likely to be permanent.
A
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Created by Google, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a HTML framework for creating stripped-down, fast-loading web page versions optimized for mobile.
AJAX
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a type of programming that allows a webpage to send and receive information from a server to change that page dynamically without reloading.
Algorithm
A complex computer program used by search engines to retrieve data and deliver results for a query. Search engines use a combination of algorithms to deliver ranked webpages via a results page based on a number of ranking factors and signals.
Alt Text
Alt text (alternative text) is the text description of an image on a web page. It's used by screen readers and search engines.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible clickable text of a hyperlink. Google uses anchor texts to better understand the content of the linked page.
Analytics
The science of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to take future action based on what has (or hasn’t) worked historically.
Article Spinning
Article spinning, aka content spinning, is where you take a piece of content and rewrite it to create many “new” pieces of content. Article spinning can be done manually or using an automated software.
Article Syndication
Article syndication is when one or more third-party sites republish an exact copy of content that originally appeared elsewhere.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The science of making computers perform tasks that require human intelligence. Rather than following a set of programmed rules (like an algorithm), an AI computer system is basically a digital brain that learns. AI can also make and carry out decisions without human intervention.
Authority
The combination of signals search engines use to assess websites and webpages for the purposes of ranking.
Author Authority
Authority is a concept of using the reputation and credentials of a person who writes content online as a ranking factor. Originally, Google tested this in combination with Google+ but despite several patents filed, no evidence supports author authority as a ranking factor.
Google is placing emphasis on E-A-T to reduce disinformation online, especially in YMYL niches such as health and finance. In these spaces, building the authority of an author is recommended for a brand to show credibility, even if it currently doesn’t influence ranking.
Auto-Generated Content
Auto-generated content is content that's automatically generated using a program or code.
B
B2B
Short for business-to-business. In B2B SEO, the buying cycle is longer, products and services are more expensive, and the audience is professional decision-makers.
B2C
Short for business-to-consumer. In B2C SEO, the buying cycle is typically shorter (though it still varies by industry), products and services are (mostly) cheaper, and consumers are the audience.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links from a page on one website to another. Search engines analyze the quality of a backlink to estimate how important a page is.
Baidu
The most popular search engine in China, Baidu was founded in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service from Microsoft that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in Bing’s search results.
Bingbot
Bingbot is the web crawler used by Microsoft to gather the information needed and build a searchable index of the web.
Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO refers to the use of strategies, techniques, and tactics that violate a search engine's guidelines. It focuses on finding and exploiting algorithmic loopholes.
Black Box
A complex computer program that is poorly understood. Inputs and outputs can be observed, but there is no access to the process itself due to its confidential nature. For example, Google’s algorithm is a black box.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that take no further action after landing on a website, like clicking through to another page, leaving a comment, or adding an item to their cart.
Branded Keywords
Branded keywords are the words and phrases that are associated with your brand, products, or services.
Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumb navigation are internal links that give users and search engines a clear trail to follow around your site.
Bridge Page
A bridge page is a page solely designed to send users elsewhere. It is used by affiliate marketers to send traffic to an affiliate link.
Broken Link
A broken link is a link on a web page that points to a non-existent (or "dead") resource. They can be internal or external links.
C
Cached Page
A cached page is a version of a web page that has been saved by Google on their servers the last time they visited it.
Canonical Tag
A canonical tag (rel=“canonical”) is a snippet of HTML code that defines the main version for duplicate, near-duplicate and similar pages.
Canonical URL
A canonical URL is a URL that Google sees as the “master” version of a set of duplicate or near-duplicate pages.
Co-citation
Co-citation occurs when two documents are cited together by other documents
Co-occurrence
When keywords show up together on pages about a certain topic.
Computer-Generated Content
Content created by software that is supposedly on par with what a human can create.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Globally distributed server network that makes it quicker for users to access your website.
Content Hub
Interlinked collections of content about a similar topic.
Core Web Vitals
Metrics that are part of Google’s Page Experience signals used to measure user experience.
Cornerstone Content
Cornerstone content is the collection of articles on your website that you most want to rank for in search engines.
Crawl Budget
How fast and how many pages a search engine wants to crawl on your site.
Crawlability
A search engine’s ability to access content on a page.
Crawler
A crawler is an internet program designed to browse the internet systematically. Crawlers are most commonly used as a means for search engines to discover and process pages for indexing and showing them in the search results.
D
Dofollow Link
Link that transfers PageRank. AKA a “followed” link.
Domain Rating (DR)
The relative strength of a website’s authority based on its backlink profile.
Doorway Page
Pages designed to rank for similar search queries.
Duplicate Content
Content that appears on the web in more than one place.
Dwell Time
How much time passes between clicking one of the search results and heading back to them.
Dynamic URL
URL with content that depends on variable parameters.
E
Editorial Link
Link that points to your site (that you didn’t ask or pay for.)
Email Outreach
The process of putting your product or content in front of relevant people by sending them personalized emails.
Entry Page
The first page a searcher views on your site.
Evergreen Content
Content that doesn’t go out of date.
External Link
Link from your site to another site.
F
Faceted Navigation
Type of navigation found on websites with a large number of listings such as e-commerce sites.
G
Gated Сontent
Content that visitors can only access after providing their contact information.
Gateway Page
A gateway page is a web page designed to rank for particular search queries without offering useful information or answering the user’s search query. When clicked from SERP, the page will redirect the visitor to a different page.
Google Alerts
Free service from Google that monitors the web for content changes matching a specific search query.
Google Algorithm
Set of rules used by Google to rank matching results when a user performs a search.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free web tracking tool offered by Google to analyze how visitors interact with your website.
Google Autocomplete
Search suggestions given by Google when entering a search.
Google Bombing
Google Bombing is a practice in which individuals or groups intentionally manipulate search engine rankings to produce unexpected or humorous results.
Google Business Profile
Free business listing from Google that shows up in maps and web search results.
Google Caffeine
Search index introduced by Google in 2010 that allowed them to index more content and provide fresher search results.
Google Dance
Slang term describing the volatility a new website or page experiences when Google is trying to determine where it should rank.
Google Hummingbird
Algorithm update released by Google in 2013 to better understand natural language search queries. It emphasized the meaning of search queries over individual keywords.
Google Knowledge Graph
Knowledge base of entities and the relationships between them.
Google Knowledge Panel
SERP feature that provides information about the main subject of the query.
Google Panda
Google Panda is an algorithm update launched in an effort to filter out sites with lower-quality, thin content. Today, it’s part of Google’s core algorithm.
Google Penalty
A Google penalty is a punishment a human reviewer can impose on website for violating Google’s webmaster quality guidelines.
Google Penguin
Algorithm update released in 2012 by Google to downgrade sites that engaged in manipulative link schemes and keyword stuffing.
Google Pigeon
Algorithm update released in 2013 by Google to improve search results for local search queries.
Google Sandbox
Alleged filter by Google that prevents new websites from ranking in Google’s top results.
Google Search Console
Free service from Google that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in their search results.
Google Top Heavy Update
Algorithm update released in 2012 by Google to downgrade web pages with too many ads at the top.
Google Webmaster Guidelines
Best practices from Google to help them find, index, and rank your site.
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools - now Google Search Console - is a free tool by Google that allows users to check how their website is performing in the search results and whether it experiences any issues that can affect that performance.
Googlebot
Web crawler that powers Google’s search engine.
Grey Hat SEO
The use of SEO strategies and tactics that blur the line between white-hat and black-hat methods.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is the practice of writing and publishing a blog post on another person or company’s website.
Guestographic
Infographic created by you but published on other websites.
H
H1 tag
HTML heading that’s most commonly used to mark up a web page title.
Header Tags
Header tags are HTML tags used to set apart headings and subheadings from the rest of the content on a webpage, in descending order of importance from H1 to H6.
Hilltop Algorithm
Algorithm adopted by Google in 2003 to identify authoritative web pages to rank.
Holistic SEO
The practice of improving all aspects of a website to rank higher in search engines.
Hreflang
HTML attribute used to tell Google about alternate versions of a web page for different languages and regions.
HTTP 200 Response Code
The HTTP 200 (OK) is the status response code from a server for successful HTTP requests from a client.
HTTPS
Encrypted version of HTTP that protects the communications between your browser and server from being intercepted and tampered with by attackers.
I
Inbound Link
Link from another site to your website.
Indexability
A search engine’s ability to analyze and store a web page in its database.
Informational Query
Query where someone wants to find information, not products.
Internal Link
Link from another page on the same website.
Interstitial ad
Full-screen interactive ads that cover the interface of the website or app.
J
JavaScript SEO
A part of technical SEO that seeks to make JavaScript-heavy websites more search-friendly.
K
Keyword Cannibalization
Keyword cannibalization happens when a single website unintentionally targets the same keyword across multiple posts or pages.
Keyword Clustering
Keyword clustering is a practice in SEO used to combine similar, relevant keywords into groups (clusters).
Keyword Density
Keyword density is a metric that tells us how frequently a keyword is used within a piece of content in relation to the overall word count.
Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is a metric provided by various SEO tools intended to estimate a keyword’s ranking difficulty.
Keyword Ranking
A keyword ranking is a website's organic ranking position in the search results for a particular keyword.
Keyword Stemming
Process of reducing a word to its ‘stem’ or ‘root’ (e.g., flowers, flowery -> flower).
Keyword Stuffing
Repeating the same keywords (or similar phrases) in your content to try to manipulate rankings.
Keywords
Words and phrases that the web page is associated with.
L
Link Bait
Content specifically designed to attract backlinks.
Link Building
The process of getting other websites to link to pages on your website.
Link Equity
‘Authority’ that is passed when one page links to another.
Link Exchange
Agreement between two websites to link to each other.
Link Farm
Group of websites created to link to each other to improve search engine rankings.
Link Popularity
The number of backlinks that point to a website.
Link Profile
Assessment of all the backlinks (quantity, quality, diversity, etc.) a website has.
Link Reclamation
The process of trying to get back lost links.
Link Rot
Natural tendency for links to become broken on the web over time.
Link Scheme
Links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results.
Link Spam
Irrelevant links placed on pages to try and improve search engine rankings.
Link Velocity
The rate at which a website’s backlink profile is growing.
Local Business Schema
A specific type of structured data for local businesses recognized by search engines and used in local search results.
Local Citation
A local citation is any mention of your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) online.
Local Pack
SERP feature that appears for local queries and displays local Google business listings.
Local Search Marketing
Local search marketing is the process of improving a local business's search visibility online. A local business is any business that serves its customers in person.
Local SEO
The process of ‘optimizing’ your online presence to show up and rank higher in relevant local searches.
Log File Analysis
Where you analyze the crawl behaviour of search engine bots in server logs to discover opportunities to improve SEO.
Long-tail Keyword
A low-volume search query on a specific topic.
LSI Keywords
Misnomer for semantically-related words and phrases. (LSI keywords don’t exist.)
M
Manual Action
Demotion or removal of websites/webpages issued by Google to sites that do not comply with their webmaster guidelines.
Meta Description
HTML attribute used to describe what a page is about.
Meta Keywords
Meta tags that give some search engines (not Google) more information about a page’s content.
Meta Redirect
Code that tells the web browser to redirect the user to a different URL after a set amount of time.
Meta Robots Tag
An HTML snippet that tells search engines how to crawl and index a page.
Meta Tags
Snippets of code that tell search engines important information about your web page.
Mirror Site
A mirror website is a copy of a site hosted on another server.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google’s shift to using the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking.
N
Natural Link
A natural link is a type of external link created voluntarily by a website owner or content creator.
Navigational Query
Query where someone is looking for a specific website.
Negative SEO
When a competitor uses black-hat tactics to attempt to sabotage the rankings of a competing website or web page.
Nofollow
Tag that tells Google not to take a link into account for ranking purposes.
Noindex Tag
Tag that instructs search engines not to index a page.
Noopener
The term “noopener” refers to the rel="noopener" HTML attribute that’s added to links set to open in a new browser tab or window for security reasons.
Noreferrer
HTML attribute that prevents referrer information passing through a link.
Not Provided in Google Analytics
Keyword data that Google omits from sharing with you in Google Analytics.
O
Off-page SEO
Any efforts taken outside of a website to improve its search engine rankings.
On-page SEO
The practice of optimizing a web page’s visible content and source code to rank higher.
Open Graph Meta Tags
Snippets of code that control how URLs are displayed when shared on social media.
Organic Search Results
Non-paid search results from a search engine that can’t be bought or influenced by advertisers.
Organic Traffic
Traffic from a search engine’s organic results.
Orphan Page
Page with no internal links pointing to it.
Outbound Link
Link that points to a page not on your website.
P
Page Speed
The amount of time it takes for a web page to load.
PageRank
A formula that judges the value of a page by looking at the quantity and quality of other pages that link to it.
Paid Link
A backlink that you pay for.
People Also Ask
SERP feature that answers questions related to the user’s search query.
Pillar Page
A pillar page is a high-level guide about a broad topic. It is part of a topic cluster, which are topically-grouped pages designed for ranking.
Pogo-Sticking
Back-and-forth process between the SERPs and its results when a searcher is unable to find the content they want.
Primary Keyword
A primary keyword is the single, main keyword around which a web page is created and optimized.
Private Blog Network (PBN)
A private blog network (PBN) is a network of websites created solely to link out to another website and improve its organic search visibility.
R
RankBrain
RankBrain is a deep machine learning system developed by Google to better understand new and long-tail search queries and return more relevant search results.
Reciprocal Link
When two websites link to each other.
Reconsideration Request
Request to have Google review your site after fixing problems identified in a manual action or security issues notification.
Related Searches
Related searches are search queries related to the keyword you type into a search engine. After you type in your search query, scroll to the bottom of the SERP. There, you’ll find a list of related searches.
Resource Pages
Resource pages are web pages that curate and link out to useful industry resources.
Rich Snippet
Google search result with additional data shown alongside it, usually from structured data on the page.
Robots.txt
A file that tells search engines where they can and can’t go on your site.
S
Schema Markup
Code that helps search engines to better understand and represent your content in the search results.
Search Algorithm
List of rules used by search engines to rank matching results when a user performs a search.
Search Engine Poisoning
When malicious hackers create dummy websites that appear to be legitimate search engine results. Their goal is to steal personal information or install malware.
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
Pages that search engines show in response to a user’s search query.
Search Intent
The reason behind a search.
Search Results
Search results are a list of webpages from a search engine that appear in response to a particular search query.
Search Term
A search term (or search query) is a word or set of words that a person enters on a search engine like Google to generate specific results.
Search Visibility
Search visibility is the estimated percentage of clicks a website gets from its organic rankings for one or more keywords.
Search Volume
Search volume is the number of times, on average, that users enter a particular search query into a search engine each month.
Secondary Keywords
Terms closely related to the keyword you want to target.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
Protocol for establishing a secure private connection between networked computers.
Seed Keywords
Seed keywords are words or phrases used in the keyword research process as the starting point to unlock more keyword suggestions.
SEO
The practice of optimizing a website or webpage to get more high-quality traffic from a search engine’s organic results.
SEO Audit
The process of evaluating and assessing your website to see how well it’s performing in search engines.
SEO Silo
The grouping together of topically-related web pages via internal links.
SERP Features
SERP features are the elements of search engines’ search result pages that aren’t traditional organic search results. They provide additional and related information on the search query.
Share of Voice
How visible your brand is in the market.
Short-Tail Keywords
Terms with high search volumes.
Sitelinks
Links to other pages or sections of a page that appear under some Google search results.
Sitemaps
A sitemap is an XML file listing all the pages on your website that you want search engines like Google to index.
Sitewide Link
Outbound link that appears on every page of a website.
Spamdexing
Deliberate manipulation of search engine results using techniques that are against their guidelines.
Sponsored Link Attribute
Link attribute that shows a link is an advertisement, paid placement, sponsorship, or affiliate link.
Srcset
Srcset is an HTML image attribute that specifies the list of images to use in different browser situations. The browser will pick the most optimal image version, based on the screen size and resolution.
Structured data
A standardized way to provide additional information about a web page to search engines, social networks and other services.
Subdomain
A subdomain is a part of a website that’s placed under that website’s root directory. It is represented by an addition at the front of the root domain name.
T
Taxonomy SEO
Optimizing for search engines by organizing the structure of content.
Technical SEO
Making technical adjustments to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages.
TF-IDF
Statistical measure that aims to judge the relative importance of a word in a document.
Thin Content
Content that has little or no value for the user.
Title Tag
HTML element used to specify the title of a webpage.
Top-Level Domain (TLD)
A top-level domain is the segment of a domain that immediately follows the last dot symbol in a domain name. It has the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet.
Transactional Query
Query where someone is looking to purchase something but hasn’t yet decided where to buy it from.
Transport Layer Security (TLS)
An updated, more secure version of SSL. Used interchangeably with SSL.
TrustRank
Algorithm that analyzes links to separate useful web pages from spam.
U
UGC Link Attribute
Link attribute that shows a link is user-generated content (UGC). Used for comments, forum posts, or any other content sections where users can add content.
Universal Search
Universal Search was introduced in 2007 as an expansion of search results to incorporate other media formats - like images, videos, maps, and news - in SERPs
Unnatural Links
Links in a page’s content that are not editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner.
URL Rating (UR)
The strength of a target page’s backlink profile on a 0–100 scale, with 100 being the strongest.
URL Slug
A URL Slug is the part of the URL that follows the slash ("/") after the domain name or subfolder.
V
Vertical search
Search engine dedicated to a specific area of focus.
Voice Search
The use of voice to interact with a search engine (rather than searching by text).
W
Website Authority
A metric from SEO tool providers that measures the relative strength of a site. (Ours is Domain Rating.)
Website Structure
How a site is organized and its web pages interlinked.
Webspam
Webspam is any online content created to manipulate search engine rankings.
White-hat SEO
The use of Google-approved website SEO strategies, techniques, and tactics.
X
X-Robots-Tag
The X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP header sent from a web server that contains the directives for the web crawlers such as Googlebot.
Y
YMYL Pages
Pages about topics that could impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.
