Algorithms
A process or formula by which stored information is retrieved and ordered in meaningful ways.
Alt text
Alternative text is the text in HTML code that describes the images on web pages.
Anchor text
The text with which you link to pages.
Backlinks
Or “inbound links” are links from other websites that point to your website.
Bots
Also known as “crawlers” or “spiders,” these are what scour the Internet to find content.
Click-through rating (CTR)
The percentage of the time your results are clicked on when seen in results.
Crawling
The process by which search engines discover your web pages.
Crawl budget
The average number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on your site.
Domain
A domain name is an address on the Internet.
Featured snippets
Organic answer boxes that appear at the top of SERPs for certain queries.
GMB listing
This is the Google My Business profile for a business.
Google Search Console
A free program provided by Google that allows site owners to monitor how their site is doing in search.
Header tags
An HTML element used to designate headings on your page and organize content. There are 6 heading sizes, H1 being the largest and H6 being the smallest.
HTML
Hypertext markup language is the language used to create web pages.
Indexing
The storing and organizing of content found during crawling.
Intent
In the context of SEO, intent refers to what users really want from the words they typed into the search bar.
JavaScript
A programming language that adds dynamic elements to static web pages.
Keyword
A term or phrase used in search-engine queries.
Keyword difficulty
An estimate, in the form of a numerical score, of how difficult it is for a site to outrank their competitors.
Keyword ranking
Ordering search results by relevance to the query.
Query
Words typed into the search bar.
Organic
Earned placement in search results, as opposed to paid advertisements.
Robots.txt
A file that suggests which parts of your site that search engines should and shouldn’t crawl. As an example, you wouldn’t want pages meant for administration purposes appearing in search results.
Search engine
An information retrieval program that searches for items in a database that match the request input by the user. Examples: Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Search volume
The number of times a keyword was searched. Many keyword research tools show an
estimated monthly search volume.
SERP
Stands for “search engine results page” — the page you see after conducting a search.
Sitemap
A list of URLs on your site that crawlers can use to discover and index your content.
Structured data
Another way to say “organized” data. Structured data uses a code library called Schema to gather additional information that helps the search engine understand it.
Spammy tactics
Like “black hat,” spammy tactics are those that violate search engine quality guidelines.
Webmaster guidelines
Guidelines published by search engines like Google and Bing for the purpose of helping site owners create content that will be found, indexed, and perform well in search results.
URL
The address of a world wide web page.