What is SEO?
Think of SEO as a massive question-and-answer game. In simplest terms, SEO is all about understanding the questions your potential customers are asking on search engines through the keywords that they type and then delivering the precise answers they’re searching for using the content you publish.
The more effectively your business answers those questions, the higher your site climbs in the rankings. And with higher rankings comes more traffic—and more opportunities to convert.
SEO Periodic Table PDF
[source: Search Engine Journal]
The SEO periodic table above highlights the key elements and factors that can boost your rankings in search results. But this is no use if you don’t know what they mean in the first place.
This SEO glossary PDF file is your cheat sheet for mastering the language of search engine optimization. We’ve turned complex jargon into clear, bite-sized explanations that anyone can understand and apply.
Table of Contents
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | X
A
Algorithm Updates: These are changes made by search engines to refine the way they rank websites in search results.
Algorithm: This is a complex set of rules that web search engines use to rank websites.
Alt Attribute: This HTML attribute provides alternative text for media that can’t be displayed.
Anchor Text: It’s the clickable hyperlink that gives you a glimpse of what’s on the linked page. For example, we use this “What is SEO and how it works?” as an anchor text that will lead you to a free step-by-step SEO cheat sheet PDF file.
Authority: This gauges a website’s trustworthiness and credibility.
B
Backlink: This is where other websites link to yours. While popular, most backlinks aren’t actually effective, especially compared to elements like content that have the biggest impact on SEO performance.
Bounce Rate: How many visitors leave a website after viewing only one page.
Branded Keyword: A keyword that includes the name of a brand or company. For example, searching for “Nike shoes” instead of just “shoes.”
Broken Link: No longer functional, and often results in a 404 (Not found) or 410 (Gone) status code. This may be due to misspellings or typos. Another reason could be that the URL structure of your site may have recently changed (permalinks) without a redirect.
C
Canonical URL: The version of a web page that is preferred among multiple URLs. Canonical URLs help prevent duplicate content issues, which can dilute the SEO value of your content.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR): The ratio of clicks to impressions, expressed as a percentage
Cloaking: A technique showing different content to search engines than to users, in violation of guidelines.
CMS (Content Management System): A software that allows digital content to be created, maintained, and published. Examples of some popular CMS platforms include:
Core Web Vitals: Core Web Vitals provide key metrics on your website’s health and usability, from load speed to layout stability. The way your site is perceived by users and search engines depends on it.
Crawl Budget: Measures how many pages a search engine will explore within a given period of time.
Cross–linking: The practice of linking between two or more websites to improve rankings.
D
Domain Name: The web address that identifies and locates your website.
Duplicate Content: Google doesn’t penalize you for duplicate content, but it can impact your SEO as they might not know which version to index or rank.
E
E-E-A-T: Standing for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, these are the key factors Google uses in evaluating your content.
Engagement Metrics: Metrics like clicks, views and likes inform you about user behavior and preferences. This helps you refine your site for better user satisfaction and conversion.
F
Featured Snippet: These rich results appear at the top of Google’s search page that give quick answers to users without the need to click on a link.
Freshness: The fresher the content, the more likely it will rank well in search queries specific to timeliness.
G
Google Analytics: Tracks and reports website traffic, offering insights into the number, nature and behavior of your visitors.
Google My Business (GMB): A free tool from Google that lets businesses manage how they appear on Google Search and Maps. It allows you to update your business details, respond to reviews, post updates and interact with customers.
Google Search Console (GSC): A free service from Google that provides tools and reports to help improve your website’s visibility and performance in Google Search.
H
Head Term: A head term is a short, generic keyword like “shoes” that casts a wide net but attracts fierce competition.
Heading Tags (H1 to H6): These tags structure a webpage by indicating the hierarchy of content, with H1 as the main heading and H2-H6 as subheadings of decreasing importance.
HTML Sitemap: An HTML sitemap organizes and categorizes all the pages of a website, making it easier for search engines to analyze the structure and content of a website, which is crucial for SEO. Here’s an example of our Area Ten sitemap.
I
Index: Think of an index as the back-of-the-book guide that helps you locate specific topics. Search engines use an index to quickly fetch relevant results when you search online.
Indexability: Being eligible to enter a competition and having a webpage that can be indexed by search engines share the same essence. If a page is indexable, it can join the race to appear in search results. If a page is blocked by a robots.txt file, it won’t be indexed.
Internal Link: These are hyperlinks that connect pages on the same website, which can help users navigate and improve site structure for search engines.
J
JavaScript (JS): JavaScript adds interactive features to web pages, making them more dynamic and engaging. It’s the code that allows elements like dropdown menus, animations and interactive forms to function, enhancing the overall user experience on a sit
K
Keyword: Keywords are the terms people enter into search engines to find specific information. They guide search engines in delivering relevant results. For effective SEO, keywords should be naturally integrated into your content, as search engines are equipped to detect and penalize unnatural keyword stuffing.
Keyword Cannibalization: This is when multiple pages on a single website target the same keyword, muddying the waters for both search engines and users.
Keyword Density: This refers to the number of times a keyword appears on a page. It’s a factor that can influence your SEO value, but overuse can harm your rankings.
Keyword Research: Identifying which search terms your potential customers are using. This research helps you tailor your content to match those searches, improving your visibility in search results.
Keyword Stuffing: This practice involves cramming keywords into webpage content to deceive search engines, which can result in penalties.
L
Landing Page: The landing page is the gateway to your online store, capturing leads or conversions the way an enticing store entrance encourages customers to step in and shop.
Lead: Potential customers who have shown interest in your services by providing contact information such as their name, email or phone number.
Link: A link serves as the digital bridge that ushers visitors from one web resource to another, be it an image, video or document.
Local Pack: If you ever wished for a map showing all nearby stores meeting your specific shopping needs, that’s exactly what Google’s local pack does, but in the digital world.
Local SEO: Local SEO is all about making sure your business shows up when people in your area search online. It’s about fine-tuning your website so that it ranks higher in local search results, so you can connect with nearby customers who are looking for what you offer.
Longtail Keywords: These are highly specific keywords that have multiple words, making up 90% of search opportunities with far less competition than Head terms. They typically represent people who are further along in their decision-making process, which means stronger buyer intent and potentially higher conversion rates.
M
Manual Action: If your website doesn’t follow Google’s quality guidelines, it could be hit with a manual action. This can lead to your ranking dropping or even your site being removed from search results. Manual actions are reviewed and applied by actual people at Google, not by an algorithm, and you’ll be notified through Google Search Console.
Meta Description: It gives a quick preview that encourages people to click on your page when it shows up in search results. While it doesn’t directly impact your search rankings, a well-written meta description can increase the amount of clicks your site receives, which in turn can improve your site’s visibility.
Mobile Optimization: Mobile optimization ensures your website looks and works great on mobile devices. This means making sure everything—from text to images and buttons—is designed for a smooth user experience on smartphones and tablets. Here are mobile-first indexing strategies you can use to improve your site’s ranking in 6 weeks.
N
Niche: A niche is your specialty area, like a cherished hobby or passion. It’s the focused segment of a market your website aims to serve, distinguished by its unique needs, preferences and characteristics.
Nofollow: Adding a nofollow attribute to links acts as a digital “Do Not Enter” signal, instructing search engines not to follow the link.
Noindex: A noindex attribute requests that search engines exclude your web page from their listings. Noindex should be used carefully because it will completely remove the targeted page from Google’s index, making it invisible in search results.
O
Off-Page SEO: This refers to actions outside your website that impact its reputation and rankings. This includes backlinks from other sites, social media activity and other external signals.
On-Page SEO: On page optimization in SEO involves refining individual elements on your website, such as content, meta tags, images and internal links. Search engines benefit from these optimizations since they improve understanding of your site’s content, improve user experience and directly impact your rankings in search results.
Organic: Organic traffic is the natural flow of visitors to your site, driven by quality content and good SEO practices, without relying on paid ads or manipulative techniques.
P
Page Speed: How fast a web page loads and becomes interactive. Improved page speed improves user experience and can positively impact search rankings.
PageRank: Google’s algorithm that evaluates a page’s importance by counting the number and quality of links pointing to it. Though not the only metric, PageRank remains important for assessing page relevance.
Panda Update: A Google update aimed at penalizing low-quality web content to improve search result quality. Post-Panda, the focus is on building high-quality sites.
People Also Ask boxes: Search result features that display additional relevant questions and answers based on the initial query. Google’s algorithms determine which questions to show.
R
RankBrain: RankBrain is Google’s AI system that helps process search queries by understanding the intent behind them, improving search results over time.
Ranking: A website’s ranking is determined by its position in search engine results. Higher-ranking pages are considered more relevant and are more likely to be clicked.
Redirect: A redirect sends visitors from one URL to another, typically used when a web page has been moved or deleted. Proper implementation is crucial for maintaining SEO value.
Rel=Canonical Tag: Search engines use this tag to determine which version of a webpage is the primary one when multiple versions exist, helping to avoid duplicate content issues.
Relevance: Relevance is how well a webpage matches a user’s search query, affecting its ranking in search results.
Rich Snippet: A rich snippet provides extra information directly in search results, such as ratings or reviews, making the result more appealing and informative.
Robots.txt: The robots.txt file specifies which parts of your website search engines should index or avoid, helping manage site indexing and protecting sensitive content.
S
Schema Markup: This type of structured data enriches your web pages by giving search engines additional clues about their content. It’s akin to affixing nutritional labels to food products, detailing their ingredients and caloric content.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The SERP shows up in response to your query, featuring a curated list of relevant web pages and other helpful elements such as maps or ads.
Search Engine: These software programs act as global encyclopedias, accessible at your fingertips, where you can look up any information you seek by typing in keywords or phrases.
Spam: Spam refers to unsolicited and often irrelevant content, usually in bulk, that clutters inboxes and search results.
Split Testing: Split testing, or A/B testing, compares two versions of the same webpage to see which performs better in terms of user engagement.
SSL Certificate: An SSL certificate secures the data transmitted between your website and users which ensures privacy and authenticity..
Structured Data: Structured data organizes information so search engines can understand it more easily.
T
Time on Page: This term represents an approximate measure of how long a user remains on a particular webpage. Keep in mind that a high exit rate from the page could distort this metric.
Title Tag: This is an HTML meta tag that serves as a webpage’s title and is usually what search engines display in the search listings. It should include keywords that are both strategic and relevant to that specific webpage, while also making sense to human readers.
Traffic: Traffic is the digital footfall to your website, a virtual headcount similar to keeping tabs on the number of people entering a physical store. It serves as an important metric for gauging a site’s success or popularity.
U
User–Generated Content (UGC). Any type of content, including text, images, and videos, that is created by users rather than the website owner.
URL: Your URL is the internet’s equivalent of a home address, marking out where your website lives online.
Usability: The measure of how user-friendly a website is, determined by factors such as site layout, compatibility with different web browsers, and accessibility features for those with disabilities.
User Agent: This is software that browses the web that’s often used for web scraping or crawling.
User Experience (UX): This envelops every nuance of a visitor’s interaction with a website or service, akin to reviewing a restaurant where the food, service and ambiance all contribute to the overall experience.
User Intent: Much as you have a particular reason for visiting a grocery store, user intent reveals the ultimate goal behind someone’s internet search, be it informational, transactional or navigational.
W
Website Navigation: This refers to the arrangement of links and pathways that help visitors explore a website. Breadcrumb Navigation is an example. Though less common now, this shows a linear path that helps users understand their current location on your website. The format is usually: Home > Topic > Subtopic > Current Page.
WordPress: This is a commonly used CMS (Content Management System) for building websites.
X
XML Sitemap: An XML sitemap operates as a detailed index in the back of a book, guiding search engines to the pages on your site worth crawling and indexing, including information like how often these pages are updated and their relevance.
Remember when we said SEO is about answering your customers’ questions? At Area Ten, we turn those questions into clicks and those clicks into conversions.
We push boundaries with innovative systems and proprietary technology that starts delivering bigger results in just 6 weeks.
Our Full Body SEO strategy targets head, shoulder and longtail keywords, and our scalable content creation approach achieves 10x more exposure and delivers 4X faster results than traditional SEO programs.
So don’t just stare at this SEO terminology PDF file. You can do more. Inquire and get your FREE SEO Fast Track today.
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