SEO Glossary and Search Terms used by SEO’s

We know learning all the SEO Glossary and Search Terms used by SEO’s like learning another language. Here in this blog we will help you to grip on all the new terms we’re throwing at you, we’ve compiled all the SEO glossary with their one-line definitions and helpful links.

Chapter 1: Basic SEO Glossary

• 10 blue links: Search engines used to display 10 blue links in their SERP (search engine result page). All the 10 organic result appears in the same format.

• Black Hat SEO: Black hat is a technique used by SEO that abuse search engine to bring quick ranking.

• Crawling: Search engine crawlers performs this process known as Crawling to discover and index your website pages.

• De-indexing: De indexing is a process to remove webpage or group of web pages from Google index.

• Featured Snippets: It appears at the top of the search Engine Result Page (SERPs) contains organic answer boxes.

• Google My Business Listing: Is the most important free business listing tool available to list your business on Google map.

• Image Carousels: Some Search engine result pages (SERPs) display image results that slides from left to right.

• Indexing: Is a process of storing and indexing the content found in webpages during crawling.

• Intent: Intent in SEO refers to the words user type in search engine search bar.

• KPI: KPI stands for “key performance indicator” it is a type of performance measurement that helps you understand how your organization or department is performing.

• Local pack: A pack of normally three local business appears whenever we search for a local service. Google shows a map through organic search results. For example, is you search “SEO training program near me”.

• Organic Search Result: Earned the top ranking in SERP’s without paying Google.

• People Also Ask Boxes: It is an interesting feature box that appears in some SERPs. When users ask any query on search engine and it displays similar quires ask by peoples with their answers.

• Search Query: Also refer to the search terms that you type in search engine search bar.

• Ranking: Ordering to your website in a search result page according to the relevancy of the query.

• Search Engine: A search engine is a web-based tool that searches for the relevant information in a database that matches the user input query. Example: Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.

• SERP Features: A SERP feature is any result of a Google search engine results page that is not usually an organic result.

• SERP: Stands for search engine results page – This page arrived after you ask a query in the search bar.

• Traffic: Numbers of users visit your website.

• URL: Stands for “Uniform Resource Locators” also known as a web address. URL is the address of a resource on the Internet.

• Webmaster Guidelines: Webmaster is the free tool provided by the Google search engine to help the site owners and SEO to create web pages according to their guidelines so that is can b easily crawl, index and perform well in SERPs.

• White Hat SEO: What hat is a Technique used by SEO that obeys Search engine guidelines to bring ranking.

Chapter 2: How Search Engines Work – Indexing, Crawling and Ranking

• 2xx Status Codes: A class of status codes indicates that your request for a page has succeeded.

• 4xx Status Codes: A class of HTTP status codes that indicates the request for the page contains bad syntax or cannot be filled for some other reason.

• 5xx Status Codes: The class of HTTP status codes indicates that the server is aware that it is on error or is incapable of performing the request.

• Advanced Search Operators: Are special commands that you can type into a search engine bar and help you gain powerful insights and find new SEO opportunities.

• Algorithms: A process or set of rules to be followed for retrieving information and ordered in meaningful ways.

• Backlinks: Also known as “inbound links” are external links to a webpage. When a webpage links to any other page, is known as backlink or “inbound links”.

• Bots: Mostly know as Search engine “Crawlers” or “Spider” used in the web for indexing, gathering data and information.

• Caching: This is a Process to saved data of your web page in the cache.

• Business Listing: Also known as Citations. Business listing is a web-based listing for a local business that required name, address and phone number (NAP).

• Cloaking: Are techniques to present different content to Search engine spider as compare to the user’s browser.

• Crawl Budget: Is the number of pages Google bot will crawl on your website within a specific time frame

• Crawler Directives: This is the way to give instructions to search engine crawlers regarding how to behave on your site.

• Distance: It is referred to as the local location or the user or the location written in the search query.

• Engagement:  Information that shows how the user interacts with your website from SERPs.

• Google Quality Guidelines: Guidelines provided by Google about trick and tactics that are prohibited because they are malicious and/or intended to manipulate search results.

• HTML: Stands for Hypertext markup language. Use to create a website and its webpages.

• Index Coverage report: It is a report section present in Google Search Console that generates index pages report of your website.

• Index: Index is another name of a search engine database. Indexes contain the information on all the websites that search engines were able to find. If a website is not in a search engine’s index, users will not be able to find it.

• Internal links: Are your website internal links that goes from one webpage to another webpage.

• Login forms:  Pages required an authentic logic before a user can access the website/webpages content.

• Manual penalty: Google gives such manual penalty to not following their algorithms- You can see these penalties from Google Search console menu name as “manual action”.

• Meta robots tag: Is a code applies for search engine crawlers to advise them to crawl or index which web page.

• Navigation: Gives direction to visitors to navigate from one webpage to other webpages on your site. Some website has these navigation lists at the top of the website, some have at the side column of the website and some have at the bottom of the website.

• NoIndex tag: A meta tag used to instruct search engine crawler not to index the pages have no index tag.

• PageRank: PageRank (PR) is a core component of the Google algorithm used to rank web pages in their search engine results.

• Prominence: Refers to famous businesses that are popular and well known internationally.

• RankBrain:  An Google algorithm uses a machine learning module to manage the website ranking by the most relevant and helpful results.

• Relevance: in the perspective of the local pack, Relevance is how well local business is relevant to the query in the search bar.

• Robots.txt: File used by SEO and website owners to block the pages from search engine crawlers to not index them.

• Search forms: Search bar or Search function option on a website to help users to find pages of the website.

• Search Quality Rater Guidelines: Human raters provide Google a ranking of webpages about the quality and content.

• Sitemap: A list of URLs provides by SEO or website owners to Google for index or crawls the URLs.

• Spammy tactics: like black hat technics, spammy tactics are also search engine optimization practices that violate Google’s quality guidelines.

• URL folders: Category present in a website occur after TLD (.com) for Example: www.naeemrajani.com/trainings. “/training” is a URL folder.

Chapter 3: Keyword Research

• Ambiguous Intent: Are those search phrases where the search query is unclear and required more detail.

• Commercial Investigation Queries: A query in which users want a comparison between product and top choice which suits them best.

• Informational Queries: A query in which the user is looking for information for example user asking for an answer to a question.

• Keyword Difficulty: Also know as keyword competition. This is the most important element which doing keyword research.

• Keyword Explorer: It gives you an idea of other relevant keywords that people ask for.

• Local queries: A query in which searcher is looking for specific things in a specific location. For Example: SEO training in Karachi.

• Long-tail keywords: Are those quires which contain more than three words. Normally these quires are more specific as compare to short tail quires. For Example:  Google Ads Training program.

• Navigational queries: A query in which the searcher is trying to find a specific webpage. For Example:( Amazon Training).

• Regional keywords: Regional Keywords overwrite the main Keyword for visitors from a specific region.

• Search volume: How many times a keyword is searched by peoples. Many tools are available to check keyword search volume.

• Seasonal trends: Time of year where visitors have seasonal demand like “independence day sale” is the most used query a week before 14 august in Pakistan.

• Seed keywords: A term or phrase we use to describe our business primary keywords.

• Transactional queries: A query which is a request when the user wants to take an action such as ”to complete a transaction, to purchase or to order”. If keyword types set in the marketing funnel, transactional queries may be displayed at the bottom.

Chapter 4: On-Site Optimization

• Alt-Text: Also known as Alternative text used in HTML code to describe the images present in your website pages.

• Anchor Text: A clickable text which is a link to other pages.

• Auto-Generated Content: Content that is generated by software/tools or programmatically. Not written by humans.

• Duplicate Content: Same or plagiarized content between different domains or Web pages of the same domain.

• Geographic Modifiers: Also known as “Geo modifiers” generally used to a search query of a local business or service with their location. For example, SMM Training is not a geo modifier but, SMM Training in Karachi is.

• Header Bags: There are 6 header tags in HTML code used to define the Headings of web pages.

• Image Compression: A process to increase webpage load time by compressing image size without affecting image quality.

• Image Sitemap: A sitemap only has the Image URLs on a website.

• Keyword Stuffing: A tactic to use the primary keyword of your website and their variation in content.

• Link Equity: Also known as “link juice”. It is a method in which a link can pass authority from one page to another.

• Link volume: The number of links present on a specific webpage.

• Local Business Schema: Structured data markup found on a web page that helps search engine to understand all the information about your business.

• Meta descriptions: Present in HTML code that describes the summary of web pages. It is also displayed on the SERPs page.

• Panda: Update in Google algorithm which considers low-quality content.

• Protocol: There are two types of protocol HTTP and HTTPS use before the domain name. This manages how data is transfer between the server and browsers.

• Redirection: A process of forwarding one URL on different URL locations. There are two main types of redirection temporary (307 redirects) and permanent (301 redirects)

• Rel=canonical: A tag that is used to advice Google that which webpage is original and which is duplicate.

• SSL certificate: Stand for “Secure Sockets Layer”. It is a universal standard security technology that enables encrypted communication between a web browser and a web server.

• Thin content: It can be defined as content with little or no added value.

• Thumbnail: Used in Images. It is a small version of an image.

• Title Tag: Present in HTML code that shows the title of a particular webpage.

Chapter 5: Technical Optimization

• AMP: Stands for “Accelerated Mobile Pages” used to make website mobile friendly and fast for mobile visitors.

• Async: Full form “Asynchronous”. Async state that the browser can move onto the next web page while assembling other webpage process task is to completed

• Web Browser: Is an application software that use to access information on the World Wide Web (www). The most popular Browsers are (Chrome, Firefox, Safari (for Apple users), Opera).

• Bundling: To merge multiple resources into one resource.

• ccTLD: Stands for “Country Code Top-Level Domain” ccTLD assign to the domain which is associated with countries. For Example .pk is the recognized ccTLD for Pakistan.

• Client-side & server-side rendering: It specifies where the code runs. Client-side means the file is executed at the browser. Server-side means the side is executed at the server and the server sends them to the browser in their fully concluded state.

• Critical rendering path: A steps that the browser performs to convert HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into a viewable webpage.

• CSS: Stand for “Cascading Style Sheet” is the code that use to design the website for example font style, font size, color etc)

• DNS: Stands for “Domain Name System” is the phonebook of the Internet. Humans access information online through domain names, like naeemrajani.com,  Web browsers communicate through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load the webpage resources.

• Fetch and Render Tool: It is a Google Search Console function that allows you to view a web page some as how the search engine sees it.

• Hrelang: This tag specifies Google the language of the content present on a webpage. The benefit of using this tag is that Google will show the correct language version of your web page to the peoples searching in a similar language. 

• Lazy Loading: it is a tactic to improve your webpage speed.

• Mobile-First Indexing: From 2018 Google started moving toward mobile-first indexing. This means that Google crawlers index and rank your website on the bases of mobile-friendly versions more than desktop versions of your website.

• Programming Language: A specific language that is understandable by Machine (computer).

• Rendering: The process of a browser turning a website programming language into a viewable page for humans.

• Responsive Design: Google likes websites that are user-friendly as well as mobile-friendly. Responsive design means that the website is designed in such a way which can access and fit you every screen size.

• SRCSET: Same as responsive design but for images, SRCSET allows the image to show the same in different situations.

• Structured Data: We can say it Organized data. Schema.org helps you to structure your data that can help search engine to understand.

Chapter 6: Link Building & Establishing Authority

• 10x content: A term coined by Rand Fishkin to define how content is “10x better” than other components present on the web for the same topic.

• Amplification: It is a process of helping your content to reach a much wider audience – normally this process uses the context of social media platform, paid marketing and influencer marketing.

• DA: Stands For “Domain Authority”. DA is the search engine ranking score that will predict how well a Domain/website rank on SERPs. DA score range (1 to 100) the higher the score the higher chances to rank.

• Deindexed: When a specific URL, Multiple URLs or a complete website URL remove from the search engine database. This can happen due to multiple reasons like submitting the wrong Robot.TXT file, the website receives a manual penalty from the search engine for violating.

• Directory links: In the context of SEO off-page work includes directory links submission. Directory means to register your business locally which includes name, address, phone number, website URL  and other information. Directory is a low quality website the refers to an unnatural link that violates Google’s guidelines.

• Editorial Links: Editorial links are links that results from a site having good content and marketing techniques and strategy. An editorial link is not paid for or directly requested, as is the case with acquired links.

• Do Follow: Do follow links allow all search engines to follow them and reach the website. By default, all links are Do-follow.

• Google Analytics: A free tool provided by Google to Website owners and web marketers to analyze that how peoples are getting engage with their websites.

• Google Search Operators: Special text that use in a query to perform specific functions. For example adding “related:” before the domain name can search a list of competitors for example: related:naeemrajani.com

• Guest Blogging: Guest blogging is a method used by the blogs or website owners for link building strategy and to increase traffic to their sites. Guest bloggers offer to write content for others with a hope that they will publish your content with your website link. Remember: Google doesn’t like large scale guest blog posting with keyword anchor text links.

• Link Building: Link building is a process to create links of your website and webpages on other domains. It helps to increase the authority of your site for search engines.

• Link Exchange: Commonly known as “Reciprocal links”. Link exchange means you add my link on your domain and I will add your link. Unnecessary or more Link exchange is not a good practice and it is against Google Guidelines.

• Link Explorer: Explore backlinks and discover new links.

• MozBar: An extension available on Google Chrome browser that helps you to check specific webpage DA, PA, meta title, keywords and many more.

• NoFollow: You can set a no-follow link by “rel=follow” on your website code. The No-follow tag advice search engines to pay no attention to that link.

• PA: Stands for “Page Authority”. PA is almost the same as DA predict single webpages ranking capability.

• Qualified Traffic: Your targeted traffic is your qualified traffic. This means those who are visiting your website or landing on your website are looking for the services/products that you are providing or selling.

• Referral Traffic: Traffic coming to your website from other platforms like:  ther domains, social media platforms.

• Sentiment: View or opinion of peoples about your brand.

• Unnatural links: Unnatural links are fake links that mainly proposed to manipulate a page’s ranking. Unnatural links are against Google guideline and it may cause manual penalties for the website.

Chapter 7: Measuring, Prioritizing, & Executing SEO

• API: Stand for “Application programming interface”. API is a set of functions used for creating the application by using specific features data of someone else services. For example OS or Application

• Bounce Rate: The percentage of total visitors on the website does not make a secondary action on your side. For example, if someone visited your home page and then left before visiting any other page.

• Channel: Different platform by which you can increase your web traffic. For Example: Social media pages, paid marketing.

• Click-through rate: The percentage of impressions of your website from SERPs divided by the number of clicks.

• Conversion rate: The number of conversions. That means how many visitors are performing on live chat, filing up contact us form etc.

• Qualified lead: Lead is any personal information of visitors you received which may have include name, number, email address. Not all the lead are relevant and give you a sells.

• Google Analytics goals: What sequence of action you take by humans required to form your website.