40 terms with examples, plain English.
SEO terms, explained.
A jargon-free glossary of the words you will hear when working on search rankings, content, and technical SEO — each with a real example and links to the guides and free tools that go deeper.
A
- Alt text
- A written description of an image that search engines and screen readers use to understand what the image shows. Descriptive alt text also helps images appear in image search.
- Example: Instead of alt="photo of a dog", write alt="Golden retriever puppy chewing a red ball on a lawn".
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Anchor text
- The clickable words in a hyperlink. Clear, relevant anchor text tells readers and search engines what the linked page is about.
- Example: Prefer "read our guide to meta tags" over "click here" — the words describe the destination.
- Read the guide →
B
- Backlink
- A link from another website to yours. Quality backlinks act as endorsements and are one of the strongest signals that your content is trustworthy.
- Example: If an industry blog links to your study, that single link can outweigh dozens of links from low-quality directories.
- Read the guide →
- Bounce rate
- The percentage of visitors who leave after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate can mean the page did not match what the visitor expected.
- Example: A visitor searching for a pricing calculator who lands on a long essay is likely to bounce — the content does not match the query.
- Read the guide →
C
- Canonical tag
- An HTML tag that tells search engines which version of similar or duplicate pages is the preferred one to index. It looks like <link rel="canonical" href="...">.
- Example: If /shoes?color=red and /shoes/red show the same page, point both canonicals to /shoes so ranking signals are not split.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- The percentage of people who click your search result after seeing it. A compelling title and description can raise CTR.
- Example: If 1,000 people see your result and 40 click it, your CTR is 4%.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Competitor analysis
- Studying the sites that rank well for your target keywords to learn what content, structure, and links they use.
- Example: If the top three results for your keyword all include a comparison table and a pricing section, your page probably needs them too.
- Read the guide →
- Core Web Vitals
- A set of Google metrics that measure loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability of a page: LCP (loading), INP (responsiveness), and CLS (layout shift).
- Example: If a banner image pushes text down as the page loads, that hurts your CLS score.
- Read the guide →
- Crawl budget
- The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site in a given period. A clean site structure and robots.txt rules help spend it wisely.
- Example: A shop with 500,000 filter-generated URLs can block them in robots.txt so crawlers spend their budget on real product pages.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
D
- Duplicate content
- Content that appears in more than one place on the web. Search engines may struggle to decide which version to rank.
- Example: The same product description on http://, https://, and www versions of a page is duplicate content — fix it with redirects and a canonical tag.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Dwell time
- How long a visitor stays on a page before returning to the search results. Longer dwell time often signals useful content.
- Example: Someone who reads your 1,500-word guide for five minutes signals satisfaction far more than someone who leaves in ten seconds.
- Read the guide →
E
- External link
- A link from your page to another website. Linking to reputable sources can support the credibility of your content.
- Example: Citing a Google documentation page when you describe ranking factors tells readers your claims are grounded.
- Read the guide →
F
- Featured snippet
- A highlighted answer box at the top of some Google results. Clear headings, lists, and concise answers improve your chances of winning it.
- Example: A section titled "What is a sitemap?" followed by a one-sentence answer is a classic featured-snippet format.
- Read the guide →
- Flesch Reading Ease
- A score from 0–100 that measures how easy text is to read, based on sentence and word length. Higher scores mean easier reading; 60–70 is a common target for web content.
- Example: "Dogs bark." scores very high; a 40-word sentence full of jargon scores very low.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
H
- Hreflang
- HTML tags that tell search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to each visitor, so the right audience sees the right page.
- Example: hreflang="en-gb" on the UK version and hreflang="es" on the Spanish version stops Google from showing the wrong one.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
I
- Indexing
- The process search engines use to store and organize pages so they can appear in search results. If a page is not indexed, it cannot rank.
- Example: Submitting your XML sitemap in Search Console helps new pages get discovered and indexed faster.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Internal link
- A link from one page on your site to another. Good internal linking helps visitors and search engines discover related content.
- Example: Linking from a blog post about meta tags to your Meta Tag Generator passes context — and visitors — to the tool.
- Read the guide →
J
- JSON-LD
- A JavaScript-based format for adding structured data to a page inside a single <script> tag. It helps search engines understand content and can unlock rich results.
- Example: An Article JSON-LD block tells Google your headline, author, and publish date in a format it can reliably parse.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
K
- Keyword cannibalization
- When multiple pages on one site compete for the same keyword, confusing search engines about which page to rank — so neither ranks as well as it could.
- Example: Two posts both targeting "free sitemap generator" split your authority; merge them or differentiate their focus.
- Read the guide →
- Keyword density
- How often a keyword appears in a piece of content, usually shown as a percentage of total words. Natural usage matters more than an exact number.
- Example: Using "sitemap" 12 times in a 1,000-word article is a 1.2% density — plenty if the page is genuinely about sitemaps.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
L
- Local SEO
- Optimizing a business to appear in local search results, such as map packs and “near me” queries.
- Example: A bakery adding LocalBusiness schema with its address, hours, and phone number helps Google show it for “bakery near me”.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Long-tail keyword
- A longer, more specific search phrase with lower search volume but often higher intent and easier ranking potential.
- Example: "How to write a meta description for a product page" is easier to win than just "meta description".
- Read the guide →
M
- Meta description
- A short summary of a page that may appear under the title in search results. It does not directly affect rankings but can influence clicks.
- Example: "Generate a valid XML sitemap in your browser in seconds — free, no signup, no upload."
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Meta tags
- Snippets of HTML in the <head> that describe a page to search engines and social platforms. Common examples are the title tag, meta description, and Open Graph tags.
- Example: <meta name="description" content="..."> plus og:title and og:image cover the essentials for search and sharing.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Mobile-first indexing
- Google primarily uses the mobile version of a page for ranking and indexing. A mobile-friendly site is essential.
- Example: If content is hidden behind a tab on mobile, Google may treat it as less important than visible content.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
N
- Nofollow
- A link attribute (rel="nofollow") that tells search engines not to pass ranking credit to the linked page. Useful for sponsored or untrusted links.
- Example: Blog comments and paid placements commonly use nofollow so they do not influence rankings.
- Read the guide →
- Noindex
- A meta tag that asks search engines not to include a page in their index. Use it for pages you do not want in search results.
- Example: Thank-you pages, staging sites, and internal search results are good candidates for noindex.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
O
- Open Graph
- A set of meta tags (og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url) that control how a page looks when shared on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Example: Without og:image, a shared link shows a blank card; with it, your featured image fills the preview.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Orphan page
- A page on your site that has no internal links pointing to it, making it hard for visitors and crawlers to find.
- Example: A landing page only reachable from an old email campaign is an orphan page — link it from your navigation or a related post.
- Read the guide →
P
- Page speed
- How quickly a page loads for visitors. Faster pages tend to rank better and provide a better user experience.
- Example: Compressing a 3 MB hero image to 200 KB can cut load time by seconds on mobile connections.
- Read the guide →
R
- Readability
- How easy your content is to read. Short sentences, common words, and clear structure help both humans and search engines.
- Example: Splitting one 40-word sentence into two 15-word sentences can raise a readability score noticeably.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Rich results
- Enhanced search results that include extra elements like star ratings, images, breadcrumbs, or FAQ dropdowns.
- Example: A recipe page with Recipe schema can show cook time and ratings directly in Google.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Robots.txt
- A plain text file at the root of your site that tells search engine crawlers which parts they may or may not request.
- Example: Disallow: /admin/ keeps crawler traffic out of your admin area — but it is not a security control.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
S
- Schema markup
- Structured data added to a page (usually as JSON-LD) to help search engines understand its content and enable rich results.
- Example: FAQ schema on a support page can earn expandable question dropdowns in Google results.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Search intent
- The goal behind a search query — informational (learn), navigational (find a site), or transactional (buy or do). Matching your content to that goal improves relevance.
- Example: Someone searching "buy running shoes" wants a product page, not a history of running shoes.
- Read the guide →
- SERP
- Search Engine Results Page. The page a search engine shows after someone enters a query, including organic results, ads, snippets, and more.
- Example: Your title and meta description are your storefront window on the SERP — preview them before publishing.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
- Sitemap
- An XML file that lists the important pages on a site, helping search engines discover and crawl them.
- Example: A new site with few backlinks can get indexed faster by submitting a sitemap in Search Console.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
T
- Title tag
- The HTML element that defines the title of a page. It appears in browser tabs and is often used as the clickable headline in search results.
- Example: "Free XML Sitemap Generator — No Signup | Lean SEO" beats "Home" by every measure.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
U
- UTM parameters
- Tags added to a URL (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) so analytics tools can identify where a visitor came from.
- Example: ?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=june-launch shows that a visit came from your June email.
- Try the tool →
X
- XML sitemap
- A machine-readable list of pages on a site, usually submitted to search consoles to help with indexing. Each URL can include lastmod, changefreq, and priority hints.
- Example: <loc>https://example.com/pricing</loc> tells Google the pricing page exists and is worth crawling.
- Read the guide →Try the tool →
Want the full picture? Read the guides or browse the FAQ.