SEO & Search terms

A permanent server-side redirect from one URL to another.

An HTTP redirect that tells clients a page has moved temporarily to another URL.

A temporary HTTP redirect that preserves the original request method, such as POST.

An HTTP status meaning the requested page could not be found on the server.

An HTTP status meaning a page has been permanently removed and will not return.

A server-side HTTP status code showing the server failed to fulfill a valid request.

Optimizing content to be chosen as the direct answer by answer engines.

Google's AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of some search results.

A ranking drop caused automatically by search algorithms rather than a human reviewer.

A short written description of an image that browsers and screen readers use in place of the picture.

An open framework for building stripped-down pages that load very fast on mobile.

The mix of wording used in the clickable text of links pointing to a page.

A link to a page from another website.

Google's language model that reads full query context to better understand words.

Microsoft's free tool for tracking and improving a site's visibility in Bing.

Microsoft's web crawler that gathers pages for the Bing search index.

The repeated template text that appears across many pages of a site, such as navigation, headers, footers, sidebars, and standard legal wording.

Link text that uses a company or website's brand name.

A row of links showing a page's position within a site's hierarchy.

Breadcrumb schema is markup that shows a page's position in the site hierarchy.

Finding dead links on other sites and suggesting your working page as a replacement.

An HTML tag that names the preferred version of a page among duplicates.

The preferred version of a page when similar URLs exist.

The process of choosing one preferred URL when the same content is reachable at several addresses.

A two-letter top-level domain assigned to a specific country or territory.

Majestic's score predicting a site's link influence based on the quantity of backlinks.

How easily AI answer engines can quote and attribute a piece of content.

Building page content in the browser using JavaScript after an initial load.

Cloaking shows search engines different content than human visitors see.

When separate sources mention two entities together, suggesting a topical relationship between them.

The repeated appearance of specific words near a brand or link across the web.

Commercial investigation is research before buying, comparing options and reading reviews.

The gradual loss of traffic or rankings a page suffers over time.

How current and up to date a page's information is, which can affect some rankings.

A central section of a site that organizes related content around a single theme.

Reviewing and removing or improving low value pages to strengthen a site overall.

A link placed within the body text of content, surrounded by relevant words.

Google's set of user experience metrics for loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

How easily search engine crawlers can reach and read a site's pages.

The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a given period.

How many clicks a page sits from the homepage or entry point.

A problem that stops a search engine from successfully fetching a URL.

How many requests a crawler makes to your site within a set time.

A site structure that generates near-infinite low-value URLs, wasting crawler resources.

An automated program that browses the web and fetches pages by following links.

The process search engines use to discover pages and follow links.

A canonical tag that names a preferred URL on a different domain than the current page.

CLS measures how much page content unexpectedly moves while it loads.

A third-party score intended to estimate a domain's ranking strength.

Removing pages from a search engine's index so they no longer appear in results.

Earning coverage and links from online publications through newsworthy stories, data, and outreach.

A text file telling Google to ignore specific backlinks when assessing your site.

An informal term for a normal link that can pass ranking signals to its destination.

Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score of a website's overall backlink profile strength.

A doorway page is a low-value page built mainly to rank and funnel users elsewhere.

Duplicate content is text that appears on more than one web page or URL.

Serving a prerendered page version to bots and the normal version to users.

A link a publisher adds freely because your content is genuinely worth citing.

Google's guideline for judging content quality by experience, expertise, authority, and trust.

Optimizing content around clearly defined people, places, things, and concepts search engines recognize.

Link text that exactly matches the target keyword a page wants to rank for.

Filter and sort options that let users narrow listings by attributes like size, color, or price.

Structured data that marks up a list of questions and their answers on a page.

A highlighted answer that may appear above standard organic results.

Structuring content to win Google's highlighted answer box above results.

FCP measures when the first text or image appears on a loading page.

A site layout where most pages sit only a few clicks from the homepage.

Optimizing content so AI generative engines cite and include it in answers.

Showing content or ads to people based on their physical location.

Google's free listing tool that lets businesses manage how they appear in Search and Maps.

A broad, periodic change to Google's core ranking systems.

Google's web crawler that discovers and fetches pages for its search index.

Writing an article for another website, usually to earn a byline and a link back to your own site.

The top-level HTML heading that usually states the main topic of a page.

HTML heading elements from H1 to H6 that structure content into a clear hierarchy.

A Google system that rewards content made for people over content made mainly for search engines.

An HTML annotation that tells search engines the language and region a page targets.

A header that forces browsers to always connect to a site over secure HTTPS.

A web page that lists links to a site's important pages for human visitors.

The secure, encrypted version of the protocol browsers use to load websites.

A 2013 Google overhaul that improved understanding of the meaning behind queries.

A row or block of image thumbnails shown within Google's regular search results.

The practice of optimizing images so they load fast and rank well in search results.

When too many low-value or duplicate pages of a site get indexed.

The status of which of your pages are indexed, excluded, or have errors.

The process of storing and organizing content for possible search results.

A protocol that instantly tells search engines when site URLs change.

Informational intent means the searcher wants to learn or find an answer.

INP measures how quickly a page responds to user interactions across a visit.

Linking from one page on your site to another page on the same site.

Optimizing a site so search engines serve the right content to users in different countries or languages.

Making JavaScript-heavy sites crawlable, renderable, and indexable by search engines.

JSON-LD is a script-based format for adding structured data to a page.

A word or phrase that represents a searcher's query or a marketer's target.

When several pages on one site compete for the same keyword and weaken each other.

The percentage of a page's words that are made up of a specific keyword or phrase.

An estimate of how hard it would be to rank on page one for a given keyword.

Keyword mapping assigns target search terms to specific pages on a site.

The process of finding and analyzing the search terms your audience uses to plan content.

Overloading a page with keywords in an attempt to manipulate search rankings.

Google's database of real-world entities and the connections between them.

An information box on Google results that summarizes facts about a person, place, or thing.

LCP measures how long the largest visible element takes to render on screen.

Delaying the load of images or content until a user is about to see it.

Content designed to be so useful, surprising, or shareable that people link to it naturally.

The practice of earning links from other websites to your own.

The ranking value passed from one page to another through hyperlinks.

A group of sites created mainly to link to each other and inflate rankings.

Informal term for the ranking value passed from one page to another through links.

The rate at which a site or page gains or loses backlinks over a set period.

A unique root domain that links to your site, counting subdomains under it as one.

A proposed text file that gives AI models a curated guide to a site's content.

Any online mention of a business's name, address, and phone number.

A Google search result block that shows a map and a short list of nearby businesses.

The goal behind a search that suggests the person wants a nearby product, service, or place.

Optimizing a business to appear in local search results and map listings for nearby customers.

Reviewing server logs to see exactly how bots and users request your pages.

A specific lower-volume search phrase that often signals precise intent.

A popular but technically inaccurate label for terms related in meaning to a main keyword.

A penalty a human Google reviewer applies when a site breaks Google's guidelines.

Another name for the Local Pack, the map plus list of local businesses in Google results.

A short page summary that search engines may show in a result snippet.

An HTML tag that reloads or redirects a page after a set number of seconds.

The specific instructions, like noindex and nofollow, given through robots meta tags or headers.

A secure HTTPS page that still loads some resources over insecure HTTP.

Mobile-first indexing means Google uses a page's mobile version for indexing and ranking.

Google's AI model built to answer complex questions across languages and formats.

A link whose clickable text is the raw web address itself.

Keeping a business's name, address, and phone number identical across all online listings.

Navigational intent means the searcher wants a specific site or page.

A link attribute telling search engines not to pass ranking credit through a link.

A link marked so search engines know not to pass ranking credit through it by default.

A directive asking search engines not to include a page in search results.

Visits earned from unpaid search results.

Structured data that describes a company's identity, such as name, logo, and contact details.

A page on a site that no internal links point to, making it hard to discover.

Moz's 0 to 100 score predicting how well a single page may rank in search.

Page experience is Google's set of signals for how pleasant a page feels to use.

A link-analysis system that estimates the relative importance of pages.

How quickly a web page loads and becomes usable for visitors.

Splitting a large set of content across numbered pages, such as page 1, 2, and 3.

A 2011 Google update that targeted thin, low-quality, and duplicate content.

A common but imprecise name for Google's passage ranking capability.

Google's ability to rank a specific passage within a page for a query.

A set of sites, often built on expired domains, secretly owned to funnel links to a money site.

A 2012 Google update that targeted manipulative link building and link spam.

An expandable list of related questions shown within Google search results.

A broad, comprehensive page that anchors a topic cluster and links to related subpages.

Generating static HTML of pages ahead of time so bots receive ready content.

Structured data that describes a product's details like price, availability, and rating.

Google's machine learning system that helps interpret the meaning behind search queries.

A request asking Google to review a site after fixing a manual action.

A sequence where one URL redirects to another, which then redirects again before reaching the final page.

A broken redirect setup where URLs point back to each other and never reach a final page.

A unique website that links to your site at least once, counted once regardless of link total.

Old HTML link tags that marked the sequence of paginated pages for search engines.

Terms and phrases connected in meaning or intent to your main target keyword.

The limited resources a search engine spends rendering JavaScript on your pages.

Scripts or styles that must load before the browser can show a page.

Responsive design lets one layout adapt to any screen size using flexible styling.

Structured data that describes a review or rating of an item like a product or business.

An earlier Google format that showed structured content as a visual, card-style result.

A rich result is an enhanced search listing with extra visual features beyond text.

Rich snippet is the older name for an enhanced search listing with extra details.

An HTML tag in the page head that tells search engines how to index and follow a page.

A site-level file that gives web crawlers access instructions.

Schema markup is code from the Schema.org vocabulary that labels content for search engines.

Google's free tool for monitoring how a site performs in Google Search.

The underlying goal a person is trying to accomplish with a search.

The average number of times people search a keyword in a given period, usually per month.

A short, broad starting term used to generate a larger list of related keyword ideas.

Search that interprets the meaning and intent behind a query, not just the exact words.

The page a search engine displays in response to a query.

Any non-standard result element on a search results page beyond plain links.

SERP intent is the goal behind a search, read from the results Google shows.

The degree to which search rankings shift over a short period.

Building the full HTML of a page on the server before sending it to the browser.

A business that serves customers at their locations instead of at a storefront.

Google's experimental name for AI-generated search results, now called AI Overviews.

How a website's pages are organized and linked together into a structure.

A search field shown inside a site's Google result that queries that site directly.

Extra links to a site's inner pages shown beneath its main search result.

A master XML file that points to several individual XML sitemaps.

Finding top-performing content, making something clearly better, then asking linkers to point to yours.

A page that looks empty or missing but returns a success status code.

Moz's percentage estimate of how likely a site is to be penalized or spammy.

Another name for a web crawler that follows links across the web.

The rel=sponsored value that marks a link as paid or part of an advertisement.

A digital file that enables encrypted HTTPS connections and verifies a site's identity.

Structured data is standardized code that describes a page's content to search engines.

Pages that offer little or no value to users, often short or duplicated.

TTFB measures how long the browser waits for the first byte from the server.

The HTML element that sets a page's title, often shown as the clickable result headline.

A news box on Google results that highlights recent articles about a topic.

A group of related pages linked around one central topic to build depth and authority.

A low-quality or spammy inbound link that may harm a site's search reputation.

Transactional intent means the searcher is ready to buy or take action.

Majestic's score estimating a site's link quality based on proximity to trusted seed sites.

The rel=ugc value that marks a link as coming from user-generated content.

Managing how query string parameters in URLs affect crawling, indexing, and duplicate content.

A text string that identifies the browser or bot making a web request.

A scrollable row of video results shown on a Google search page.

Optimizing content to be found and read aloud by voice assistants.

An HTTP response header that applies robots directives like noindex to any file type.

A file that lists a site's important URLs to help search engines discover them.

Google's label for topics that could seriously affect health, finances, safety, or well-being.

A search that ends without the user clicking any result.