SEO Glossary: Every Term Used in an SEO Audit, Explained
100+ SEO terms explained in plain English. Bookmark this page or jump to a letter below.
A
Algorithm
The set of rules Google (and other search engines) use to evaluate and rank webpages. Updates are frequent and rarely fully documented.
Alt Text
Descriptive text added to images so search engines and screen readers can understand the image content. Essential for accessibility and SEO.
Anchor Text
The clickable text of a hyperlink. Anchor text variety and relevance are signals Google uses to understand what a linked page is about.
AMP
Accelerated Mobile Pages — a Google framework for fast-loading mobile pages. No longer required for Top Stories eligibility.
Authority
A general term for how trustworthy and credible Google considers your site. Influenced by backlinks, content quality, and brand signals.
B
Backlink
An external link from another website pointing to yours. High-quality, relevant backlinks are one of the top ranking signals.
Black Hat SEO
SEO techniques that violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines — link schemes, cloaking, keyword stuffing. High risk of penalty.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of users who leave your site after viewing only one page. Not a direct ranking factor but a useful UX signal.
Breadcrumb
A navigation aid showing the user's location in a site hierarchy. With BreadcrumbList schema, breadcrumbs can appear in SERPs.
C
Canonical Tag
An HTML tag (rel="canonical") telling Google which URL is the preferred version when duplicate or similar content exists.
Citation
A mention of a business name, address, and phone number on another website. Critical for local SEO.
CLS
Cumulative Layout Shift — a Core Web Vitals metric measuring unexpected layout shifts during page load. Lower is better; under 0.1 passes.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (purchase, signup, contact). Higher conversion rate compounds SEO ROI.
Core Web Vitals
Google's three page experience metrics: LCP, INP, CLS. Confirmed ranking factor since 2021.
Crawl Budget
The number of URLs Googlebot will crawl on your site within a given time. Limited budget is wasted by low-value URLs.
CTR
Click-Through Rate — the percentage of users who click your result after seeing it in search results.
D
Domain Authority
A Moz-proprietary score (1-100) predicting ranking ability. Not used directly by Google, but useful as a benchmark.
DR
Domain Rating — Ahrefs' equivalent to Domain Authority. Measures backlink profile strength.
Duplicate Content
Substantial content that appears at more than one URL. Google may filter duplicates from results or dilute ranking signals.
Disavow
A Google Search Console tool for telling Google to ignore specific backlinks when evaluating your site.
E
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — Google's framework for evaluating content quality, especially YMYL.
EAT
Earlier version of E-E-A-T (without Experience). Updated in late 2022.
Engagement
How users interact with your site — time on page, scroll depth, clicks. Strong engagement signals quality to Google.
F
Featured Snippet
A summarized answer Google shows above organic results for some queries. Sometimes called "position zero."
FID
First Input Delay — deprecated Core Web Vital, replaced by INP in March 2024.
Footer Link
A site-wide link in the page footer. Less weight than in-content links but useful for distributing internal link equity.
G
Google Business Profile
Free Google tool for managing your business listing on Google Maps and Search. Critical for local SEO.
Googlebot
Google's web crawler. Two variants: Googlebot Desktop and Googlebot Smartphone (the primary indexer since mobile-first indexing).
GSC
Google Search Console — free Google tool showing how your site performs in Search results.
H
Hreflang
An HTML attribute specifying the language and regional targeting of a page. Critical for international SEO.
HTTPS
Secure HTTP. A confirmed minor ranking signal — every site should be HTTPS in 2025.
Heading Tags
H1 through H6 HTML tags marking content hierarchy. Used by search engines to understand topical structure.
I
Indexation
The process of Google adding a page to its searchable index. Indexed != ranked.
INP
Interaction to Next Paint — Core Web Vitals metric measuring responsiveness. Replaced FID in March 2024.
Internal Link
A link from one page on your site to another. Distributes link equity and signals importance.
J
JavaScript SEO
The discipline of ensuring JavaScript-rendered content is properly crawled, rendered, and indexed by Google.
JSON-LD
The recommended format for implementing structured data (schema). Embedded in