SEO Glossary
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The 404 Not Found HTTP status code indicates that the server couldn’t find the requested page or resource.
Auto-generated content is content that's automatically generated using a program or code.
Article syndication is when one or more third-party sites republish an exact copy of content that originally appeared elsewhere.
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.
Anchor text is the visible clickable text of a hyperlink. Google uses anchor texts to better understand the content of the linked page.
Alt text (alternative text) is the text description of an image on a web page. It's used by screen readers and search engines.
Created by Google, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a HTML framework for creating stripped-down, fast-loading web page versions optimized for mobile.
An ad impression is a metric used in digital advertising to count the number of times an advertisement is displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked or not.
ADA website compliance refers to the adherence of a website to the standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
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.
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.
Breadcrumb navigation are internal links that give users and search engines a clear trail to follow around your site.
Branded keywords are the words and phrases that are associated with your brand, products, or services.
Branded content is ancy created by brands promoting their products, services, or values.
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.
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.
Bingbot is the web crawler used by Microsoft to gather the information needed and build a searchable index of the web.
Bing Webmaster Tools is a free service from Microsoft that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in Bing’s search results.
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.
The customer journey is a comprehensive mapping of the steps a consumer takes from their initial awareness of a brand to the eventual purchase of a product or service, and their experiences beyond this point.
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.
A search engine’s ability to access content on a page.
How fast and how many pages a search engine wants to crawl on your site.
Cornerstone content is the collection of articles on your website that you most want to rank for in search engines.
Metrics that are part of Google’s Page Experience signals used to measure user experience.
Content relevance is the extent to which the content is relevant to the needs, interests, and preferences of the reader.
Interlinked collections of content about a similar topic.
Content gap uses competitor research to identify missing or underrepresented topics on a website.
Globally distributed server network that makes it quicker for users to access your website.
D
The relative strength of a website’s authority based on its backlink profile.
Link that transfers PageRank. AKA a “followed” link.
E
The process of putting your product or content in front of relevant people by sending them personalized emails.
Ego bait is a specific tactic in digital marketing that involves creating content designed to attract the attention and engagement of influential individuals or experts in a particular field.
Link that points to your site (that you didn’t ask or pay for.)
F
Type of navigation found on websites with a large number of listings such as e-commerce sites.
G
The use of SEO strategies and tactics that blur the line between white-hat and black-hat methods.
Content that visitors can only access after providing their contact information.
Content that visitors can only access after providing their contact information.
H
The practice of improving all aspects of a website to rank higher in search engines.
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.
HTML heading that’s most commonly used to mark up a web page title.
I
Link from another site to your website.
J
A part of technical SEO that seeks to make JavaScript-heavy websites more search-friendly.
K
A keyword ranking is a website's organic ranking position in the search results for a particular keyword.
Keyword cannibalization happens when a single website unintentionally targets the same keyword across multiple posts or pages.
L
The process of ‘optimizing’ your online presence to show up and rank higher in relevant local searches.
A landing page is a web page where a visitor "lands" after clicking on a link in a specific marketing campaign.
M
Snippets of code that tell search engines important information about your web page.
HTML attribute used to describe what a page is about.
N
A natural link is a type of external link created voluntarily by a website owner or content creator.
O
Any efforts taken outside of a website to improve its search engine rankings.
P
The amount of time it takes for a web page to load.
Q
QDF, or Query Deserves Freshness, is one of the search ranking system in Google designed to show fresher content for the search queries where it would be expected.
R
QDF, or Query Deserves Freshness, is one of the search ranking system in Google designed to show fresher content for the search queries where it would be expected.
S
Code that helps search engines to better understand and represent your content in the search results.
T
Making technical adjustments to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages.
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.
V
Search engine dedicated to a specific area of focus.
W
A metric from SEO tool providers that measures the relative strength of a site. (Ours is Domain Rating.)
X
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
Pages about topics that could impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.
Z
Search results where users get answers directly on the SERP without clicking any link.