SEO & Marketing: glossary terms
Search engine optimization and digital marketing terms, from backlinks and crawl budget to conversion rate and ROAS.
Glossary · SEO & MarketingAffiliate MarketingAffiliate marketing is a performance model where publishers earn a commission for sales or leads they refer to a merchant through tracked links.Glossary · SEO & MarketingAnchor TextAnchor text is the clickable, visible text of a hyperlink, which tells readers and search engines what the linked page is about.Glossary · SEO & MarketingBacklinkA backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another, and search engines treat these links as references that help signal a page's relevance and trust.Glossary · SEO & MarketingBounce RateBounce rate is the percentage of visits that do not engage with a site; in GA4 it is the inverse of engagement rate, not the old single-page measure.Glossary · SEO & MarketingCanonical URLA canonical URL is the preferred address of a page, declared with rel="canonical", that tells search engines which version to index when duplicates exist.Glossary · SEO & MarketingContent MarketingContent marketing is the strategy of creating and distributing useful content, such as articles, videos and guides, to attract and retain a defined audience.Glossary · SEO & MarketingConversion RateConversion rate is the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action, such as buying, signing up or submitting a form.Glossary · SEO & MarketingCore Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's page experience metrics, LCP, INP and CLS, that measure loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability for real users.Glossary · SEO & MarketingCPC (Cost Per Click)CPC is the average amount an advertiser pays for each click on an ad, calculated as total ad spend divided by the number of clicks received.Glossary · SEO & MarketingCPM (Cost Per Mille)CPM is the cost of showing an ad one thousand times, used to buy or price display, video and social advertising by impressions.Glossary · SEO & MarketingCrawl BudgetCrawl budget is the number of URLs a search engine bot is willing and able to fetch from your site within a given period, shaped by server health and demand.Glossary · SEO & MarketingCTR (Click-Through Rate)CTR is the percentage of impressions that result in a click, calculated as clicks divided by impressions, used for search listings, ads and emails.Glossary · SEO & MarketingDomain AuthorityDomain Authority is a third-party score, created by Moz, that predicts how well a site may rank; it is not a Google metric or ranking factor.Glossary · SEO & MarketingDuplicate ContentDuplicate content is substantially similar text that appears at more than one URL, which can split ranking signals and confuse search engines.Glossary · SEO & MarketingE-E-A-TE-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, the framework Google's quality raters use to judge content reliability.Glossary · SEO & MarketingEmail MarketingEmail marketing is the practice of sending promotional and relationship-building messages to subscribers who have opted in to receive them.Glossary · SEO & MarketingFeatured SnippetA featured snippet is an answer extract shown at the top of search results, pulled from a web page along with its title and link.Glossary · SEO & MarketingGoogle AnalyticsGoogle Analytics is a free web analytics service that records visitor behavior, traffic sources and conversions on a website or app using event-based data.Glossary · SEO & MarketingGoogle Business ProfileGoogle Business Profile is a free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Search and Maps, with hours, photos, reviews and contact details.Glossary · SEO & MarketingGoogle Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is a free Google tool that shows how your site performs in Google Search, including queries, clicks, indexing status and errors.Glossary · SEO & MarketingH1 TagThe H1 tag is the top-level HTML heading that states a page's main topic to visitors and search engines, normally used once per page.Glossary · SEO & MarketingIndexingIndexing is the step where a search engine analyzes a crawled page and stores it in its database so the page can appear in search results.Glossary · SEO & MarketingKeywordA keyword is a word or phrase that people type into a search engine, and the term a page is optimized to match in search or advertising campaigns.Glossary · SEO & MarketingLanding PageA landing page is a standalone web page built for one specific goal, such as a signup or purchase, where visitors arrive from an ad, email or search.Glossary · SEO & MarketingLead GenerationLead generation is the process of attracting people who show interest in a product and capturing their contact details so they can be nurtured into customers.Glossary · SEO & MarketingLink BuildingLink building is the practice of earning hyperlinks from other websites to your own to improve search visibility and bring referral visitors.Glossary · SEO & MarketingLocal SEOLocal SEO is the optimization of an online presence to appear in location-based searches, such as map results and queries containing "near me".Glossary · SEO & MarketingLong-Tail KeywordA long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase with lower volume but clearer intent and usually less competition than broad terms.Glossary · SEO & MarketingMarketing FunnelA marketing funnel is a model of the stages a prospect passes through, from first awareness to purchase and loyalty, narrowing at each step.Glossary · SEO & MarketingMeta DescriptionA meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes a page in a sentence or two, often shown as the snippet under your title in search results.Glossary · SEO & MarketingNofollowNofollow is a link attribute (rel="nofollow") that tells search engines not to endorse the linked page, treated by Google as a hint rather than a command.Glossary · SEO & MarketingNoindexNoindex is a robots directive, set in a meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header, that tells search engines not to include a page in their search results.Glossary · SEO & MarketingOff-Page SEOOff-page SEO covers signals that originate outside your website, mainly backlinks, brand mentions and reputation, that influence how search engines rank it.Glossary · SEO & MarketingOn-Page SEOOn-page SEO is the optimization of elements on a page you control, such as content, titles, headings, links and images, to rank for target queries.Glossary · SEO & MarketingOrganic TrafficOrganic traffic is the visitors who reach your site by clicking unpaid search engine results, as opposed to paid ads, social posts or direct visits.Glossary · SEO & MarketingPPC (Pay-Per-Click)PPC is an advertising model where the advertiser pays a fee each time a user clicks an ad, common in search engine and social media campaigns.Glossary · SEO & MarketingRetargetingRetargeting is an advertising tactic that shows ads to people who previously visited your site or app, to bring them back and complete an action.Glossary · SEO & MarketingRich ResultsRich results are enhanced search listings that show extra details such as star ratings, prices, images or FAQs, generated from structured data.Glossary · SEO & MarketingROAS (Return on Ad Spend)ROAS is the revenue earned for every unit of currency spent on advertising, calculated as ad-attributed revenue divided by ad spend.Glossary · SEO & MarketingSearch IntentSearch intent is the underlying goal behind a query, such as learning, finding a site, comparing options or buying, which a ranking page must satisfy.Glossary · SEO & MarketingSEO (Search Engine Optimization)SEO is the practice of improving a website so search engines can crawl, understand and rank it higher in unpaid results for relevant searches.Glossary · SEO & MarketingSERP (Search Engine Results Page)A SERP is the page a search engine shows in response to a query, combining organic results, ads and features such as snippets, maps and image packs.Glossary · SEO & MarketingStructured Data (Schema Markup)Structured data is standardized code, usually JSON-LD using Schema.org vocabulary, that labels page content so search engines can interpret it precisely.Glossary · SEO & MarketingTechnical SEOTechnical SEO is the work of making a site easy for search engines to crawl, render and index, covering speed, status codes, sitemaps and site structure.Glossary · SEO & MarketingTitle TagA title tag is the HTML title element that names a web page, shown in browser tabs and as the clickable headline in search engine results.Glossary · SEO & MarketingUTM ParametersUTM parameters are tags added to a URL, such as utm_source and utm_campaign, that let analytics tools identify which campaign sent a visitor.