SEO & Web Development Glossary
A
- Accessibility
- The practice of making websites usable by people with disabilities.
- Algorithm
- A process or set of rules followed in problem-solving operations. In SEO, search engines use algorithms to rank pages.
- Alt Text (Alternative Text)
- Descriptive text for images, crucial for accessibility and image SEO.
- Anchor Text
- The clickable text in a hyperlink.
- API (Application Programming Interface)
- A set of rules that software programs use to communicate with each other.
B
- Backlink
- A link from one site to another, important for SEO rankings.
- Bounce Rate
- The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page.
- Breadcrumbs
- Navigation aid showing a user's position within site hierarchy.
C
- Canonical URL
- The preferred URL for a page to avoid duplicate content issues.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- The percentage of users who click on a specific link.
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Software for creating and managing digital content (e.g., WordPress).
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
- A language for describing the presentation of web documents.
- Crawler (Spider/Bot)
- Program used by search engines to discover and index content.
D
- Deindex
- Removing a page from a search engine index.
- Domain Authority (DA)
- Moz metric predicting how well a site will rank.
- Duplicate Content
- Content that appears on multiple URLs, potentially harming SEO.
E
- E-A-T
- Googleā€™s concept of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
F
- Featured Snippet
- A summary shown at the top of Google search results.
H
- Heading Tags (H1-H6)
- HTML elements to structure content hierarchically.
- .htaccess
- Apache server configuration file.
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
- The standard language for creating web pages.
I
- Index
- A search engineā€™s database of web pages.
- Internal Link
- A link from one page to another on the same website.
J
- JavaScript
- A scripting language for web development.
- JSON-LD
- A structured data format using JavaScript Object Notation.
K
- Keyword
- A word/phrase used to search online content.
- Keyword Density
- The frequency of a keyword in content.
L
- Landing Page
- The page a user lands on after clicking a link.
- Link Building
- The process of acquiring backlinks.
- Long-Tail Keyword
- More specific and less common keyword phrase.
M
- Meta Description
- A brief summary shown in search engine results.
- Meta Keywords
- A deprecated tag for specifying page keywords.
- Mobile-First Indexing
- Google uses the mobile version for indexing/ranking.
N
- NoFollow
- Prevents a link from passing PageRank.
- NoIndex
- Instructs search engines not to index a page.
O
- Off-Page SEO
- SEO activities outside your website.
- On-Page SEO
- SEO within your website (e.g., keywords, structure).
- Organic Search Results
- Unpaid listings on a search engine results page.
P
- Page Authority (PA)
- A Moz metric predicting page ranking ability.
- Page Speed
- The time it takes a page to load.
- Permalink
- A permanent link to a specific page.
- PHP
- A server-side scripting language.
- PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
- Advertisers pay when an ad is clicked.
Q
- Query
- A search term entered into a search engine.
R
- RankBrain
- Google's AI-based algorithm for refining search results.
- Redirect (301, 302)
- Forwarding from one URL to another. 301 is permanent, 302 is temporary.
- Responsive Web Design
- Design that adjusts to all screen sizes and devices.
- Rich Results
- Enhanced SERP listings with extra features like stars or images.
- Robots.txt
- File telling search engines which pages to crawl.
S
- Schema Markup
- Structured data to help search engines understand content.
- SERP
- Search Engine Results Page.
- Semantic HTML
- HTML that describes meaning and structure clearly.
- SEO
- Improving website visibility on search engines.
- Sitemap
- XML file that lists a websiteā€™s pages.
- SSL
- Secure Sockets Layer, replaced by TLS.
- Structured Data
- Code that helps search engines understand your content.
T
- Title Tag
- HTML element for a pageā€™s title in search results and browser tabs.
- TLS
- Transport Layer Security, provides encrypted communication.
U
- URL
- Uniform Resource Locator, a web address.
- User Experience (UX)
- The overall interaction a user has with a website.
- User Interface (UI)
- Visual components of a digital product.
V
- Viewport
- The visible portion of a web page on a device.
W
- Webmaster
- A person responsible for website maintenance.
- Webmaster Tools
- Search engine tools like Google Search Console.
X
- XML
- A markup language used for structuring data.