Here's an SEO Dictionary containing over 300 terms related to website positioning and optimization . This is likely the largest collection of short definitions for terms frequently used by SEO specialists and SEO agencies, and whose meanings many website owners have had to search online for. Therefore, we decided to consolidate all terms directly and indirectly related to website positioning and optimization and present them in an SEO Dictionary.
How is this SEO Dictionary structured?
Very simple and clear! Like most dictionaries, terms are listed alphabetically. We've added a short description to each term, explaining its meaning and practical application. This dictionary includes definitions of words known only to the most expert SEO specialists , as well as more commonly used phrases in the SEO industry. All of this is designed to make navigating the SEO world easier for you and make conversation with your SEO specialist much more enjoyable for both parties.
Ready to learn SEO from A to Z using the SEO Dictionary? 😀
Basic terms in website optimization
SEO Dictionary – A
Above the Fold (ATF)
The part of a website that a user can see without scrolling. This is an important part, as it often informs decisions about whether to scroll down, click next, or return to the search results. This is where content should be presented that encourages users to stay longer.
(The rest of the article can be found below the form)
Some proven tips on what should be included in the Above the Fold section?
- content that tells you exactly what you offer and what to expect when you scroll down,
- important content and messages for visitors
- Landing pages should already have a call to action (CTA) here
Absolute URL
Also known as: Absolute link, Absolute Path
This is a link used for internal linking, representing the absolute path to a file, HTML page, image, or other form of content that you want to link to on your website.
This link is used as part of an anchor tag and consists of a protocol, a domain name, possibly a subdirectory, and the name of a file, document, HTML page, image, etc.
An absolute URL is text enclosed in quotation marks.
Verseo
A / B Testing
Tests carried out, for example, on a website or in campaign settings, to compare two variants and decide which one performs better based on user behavior.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Websites built with mobile in mind. AMP is an initiative that companies should follow to ensure high-quality websites that load quickly on mobile devices.
AdSense, Google AdSense
Google's advertising system allows you to display text, banner, or video ads on websites.
AI – Artificial Intelligence
AI systems mimic human intelligence when performing tasks. Based on the data they collect and process, they improve their operations, often providing more optimal choices or results than humans. Systems based on AI or machine learning can make numerous changes per second, working 24/7, allowing for better optimization of advertising campaigns or improving the quality of data provided by SEO tools.
AJAX
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
It is a type of programming that allows a website to send and receive information from a server in order to dynamically change the page without reloading.
Algorithmic Penalty
The process of suppressing your website's search results for specific keywords. These are relatively difficult to spot without the help of an SEO specialist . To manage an algorithmic penalty, you need to identify and fix any issues that may violate Google's guidelines.
Google algorithm
Also known as: Google Algorithm Update, Google Updates, Search Engine Algorithm
What is an algorithm update?
Any changes to Google's search algorithms or ranking system include new rules or adjustments to existing regulations.
Google often releases small updates that leave no trace and have little impact on a website's rankings . However, several important updates are released throughout the year that can have a significant impact on a site's rankings. The most significant updates over the past few years include:
Panda, Penguin, Pirate, Hummingbird, Pigeon, Mobile Friendly, RankBrain, Possum and Fred.
Competition analysis
Competitive analysis primarily involves evaluating competitors who are trying to rank for the same or similar keywords as your website. Competitive analysis helps you determine the tactics that work best for your niche and which areas should be prioritized.
Competitor analysis in SEO will allow you to:
- discover keywords that you can also use,
- discover new backlink opportunities,
- get additional content ideas,
- get ideas for optimizing titles and descriptions of content on your page.
Anchor text
Also known as anchor text.
A linked word or words that lead to a specific page. This text is intended to provide humans and search engines with information about the linked web page or site. Anchors are placed between characters in the HTML code.
Answer Boxes
A place where you can ask a question or enter a search phrase, after which answers will appear in the search engine.
Sponsored article
A form of advertising placed on a popular website, usually with a link directing to our website, for which we pay an agreed-upon amount with the publisher. The main goal is to promote the company's offerings in a relatively subtle way – in the form of informative text, which is nevertheless marked as sponsored content. As part of an SEO agreement, such articles may also be commissioned by an SEO specialist to increase the visibility of the positioned website.
Alt attribute
HTML code that provides information to search engines and screen readers (for blind and visually impaired people) to understand the image content.
Also known as: alt text.
The alt tag is inserted into an image tag in HTML to specify alternative text for the image. Adding image descriptions is good practice, allowing search engines to understand what's included in the image.
By using keywords in the Alt Tag you can optimize your images for Google Images.
Website audit
A review of the website and its links performed by an SEO specialist, which is the basis for creating an individual positioning strategy (optimization, linking, website reconstruction, introducing new content, etc.)
Verseo SEO Website Audit
Verseo's proprietary tool, designed to help companies quickly see what's working and what needs improvement on their website. For companies that have never worked with an SEO specialist, Verseo's free SEO audit allows you to quickly identify errors on your website and implement improvements that will significantly improve its performance.
You can find the link to the free audit here: Instant Website Analysis . Go ahead and check your website out!
Authority Site
Also known as: Page Authority, Site Authority
Websites trusted by users and industry experts alike. They publish both credible information and link to trusted sites. Their content is high-quality and provides up-to-date information.
SEO Dictionary – B
Backlinks
Also known as: incoming link or external link.
This is a link placed on another website that points to your website. One of the activities performed by an SEO specialist involves acquiring backlinks from reputable sources. Obtaining such a backlink also signals to Google's search engine spiders that the site it links to is a valuable and relevant source of information. The SEO effect works both ways – when someone links to your website or when your website links to others.
The number of backlinks to a specific website is one of the most important factors determining its ranking. Credible link sources and their relevant profile are key factors.
Baidu
The most popular search engine in China, with over 60% market share in China and approximately 1,37% of the global market, Baidu offers almost the same services as Google.
Bait and switch
Also known as: Code Swap
This SEO term refers to a Black Hat SEO technique in which specific content on a website is used to achieve a high ranking in the SERPs. Then, after achieving a satisfactory ranking, that content is replaced with other content (usually content that would otherwise not rank well).
Ban
The most severe form of penalty from Google, imposed on a website domain that fails to adhere to best practices and violates its webmaster guidelines. A ban removes the entire domain from Google, and the number of indexed pages is set to 0.
Banner blindness
This phenomenon describes the tendency of people to ignore elements on websites that resemble or are advertising content.
This applies to an increasing number of internet users, so if you want to create a successful banner, you need to use appropriate techniques and design.
Bing
A search engine owned by Microsoft , with a global market share of 3,18%. A well-known, yet rarely used browser is Internet Explorer.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO is a practice used to improve the ranking of websites that go against search engine guidelines.
They are designed to manipulate search engines and tend to ignore human audiences and their experiences. Black Hat SEO practices include keyword stuffing, cloaking, paid linking, over-optimization, hidden text, and other changes that violate guidelines.
Blog
Search engines have changed the rules of the game. Just a dozen or so years ago, we asked friends for recommendations, and reading newspapers and consuming radio and television ads generated new shopping needs or responded to existing ones – today, we can find answers on blogs.
A blog is a type of website (often part of one) where content is posted, arranged from the newest, most recently published entry to the oldest. Organized into categories, they allow readers to explore a solution or story from a more informal perspective. 🙂
How to start a company blog? Download the guide and find out!
A company blog is a great source of traffic for your website. If you're investing in SEO , a blog will likely be one of the solutions your SEO specialist will recommend.
Blog commenting
Blog commenting has been a very popular link building tactic where we leave a comment on a blog article we find that is relevant to our niche with a link to our site.
This tactic is currently causing debate. Because it was previously overused, with people spamming blog articles en masse, leaving links and irrelevant comments everywhere, comment sections now apply nofollow attributes to links. Google has also put a stop to this practice, penalizing links from irrelevant websites and reducing the number of links provided by sites with massive amounts of links.
However, there are still instances where blog commenting is appropriate. Leaving a valuable comment on a blog post can help build relationships.
Bounce rate
This is a metric that shows how many users visited your website and then immediately left without taking any action or viewing any other pages.
So, the lower the bounce rate, the better. A high bounce rate (over 70%) is a sign that something isn't working properly on your website, for example, the page loads too slowly, the landing page isn't responsive, it contains low-quality content, there are too many ads, users can't find your page after entering the right keyword, etc. It's worth talking to an SEO specialist about how to fix the problem.
Branded keywords
Also known as: brand keyword, brand term
These are keywords and phrases containing the company or brand name and its variations.
SEO specialists usually do not advise positioning a website for phrases that include the brand name (e.g. Nike shoes, Apple computer), as these are extremely competitive phrases and it is much better to allocate the budget for website positioning to the most converting user queries.
Breadcrumbs – breadcrumb navigation
A type of secondary navigation that helps users determine their location on your website. Links appear horizontally, providing a link to each previous page on the site.
Example: home > rooms > bedroom > beds
This is beneficial for both user experience and indexing, as it provides an improved internal linking structure for large sites.
Broken link
Also known as: Dead Link
Essentially, a link that doesn't work. This can be caused by a broken URL or a deleted page being linked to. Broken links often happen when a site has moved or changed its name. This can negatively impact your SEO and lower your search engine rankings by preventing search engine crawlers from indexing your site.
SEO Dictionary – C
cache
A cache that stores data for quickest access. Thanks to the cache, many elements of our website can load much faster, without having to connect to the server to retrieve the data.
Call-to-Action (CTA)
A CTA typically refers to a button whose text is intended to elicit an immediate response from a website visitor. When designing banner ads or landing pages, it's worth including a button that persuades visitors to take a specific action, such as Buy Now, Register Now, Write Now, Call Now, or Check Out.
Canonical – canonical URL
Also known as: Tag Canonical
If you happen to have duplicate content on your website, web crawlers won't know which one to show in search results. Therefore, you should choose which content is the primary content and set a canonical URL on all other pages pointing to the original.
This is accomplished by using a canonical tag (rel = ”canonical”) in a code snippet that looks like this: <link rel = ”canonical” href = ”www.verseo.pl” /> on each page of copy. This is the responsibility of an SEO specialist , who will certainly consider the issue of duplicates when reviewing a website for corrections.
Clickbait
Content (in various forms) that is intended to encourage the user to click.
Using clickbait can increase traffic to your website. However, it's worth considering the content and format of such "bait" to ensure it aligns with your overall brand messaging.
cloaking
Cloaking is presenting different content to the Google crawler than it does to the people who visit your website.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A large, distributed system that delivers content to multiple data centers and Internet exchange points.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing is a process and a long-term strategy that involves regular delivery
Attractive, valuable, and highly tailored content. Content serves to build an audience—a group of recipients who will regularly return to the source for new information. The primary goal of content marketing is sales, but all content tactics are considered inbound marketing—according to Hubspot, activities that enable recipients to independently find the sender of a given advertising message.
Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is a system that allows users to edit, update, and maintain website content without requiring developer support. CMSs are easy to learn and configure. One of the most popular examples of a CMS is WordPress.
In terms of SEO , CMS systems are a less recommended choice. While they make it much easier to add and modify content to a website, it's much more difficult to make any changes to the code and site settings that would impact its search engine ranking. However, there are now many SEO plugins that support content optimization, for example, on WordPress.
Content Pruning
It's the process of analyzing and evaluating the content on a website, which results in the removal of selected content. This content is of little value to your audience and your website. This doesn't necessarily mean deleting it, but simply preventing it from being indexed by search engine crawlers.
Content Spinning
Also known as: Article Spinning
An SEO technique that involves rewriting the same article using synonyms or rearranging words within a sentence. This creates different articles on the same topic, hoping that Google won't flag them as duplicates. Therefore, it's a risky SEO practice.
Content Syndication
Also known as: content syndication, article syndication, syndicated content
A method of republishing the same content on a different website, allowing us to reach new audiences, increase traffic, and build links.
The risk, however, is that another site may rank better in search results than yours (where the article was originally posted) if it has more authority. Therefore, it's worth weighing the pros and cons before publishing.
Conversion
This is when a user completes an expected action. For example, registering for a webinar, downloading an e-book, clicking a link in an email, or interacting with any other CTA.
Conversion rate
The percentage of users who completed the desired goal (converted) out of all users who saw your ad, visited your website, received an email, or saw a call to action.
How to calculate conversion rate?
Just divide the number of conversions by the number of ad clicks (or other actions we wanted to take).
Copywriting
Copywriting , simply put, involves writing texts for publications, website descriptions, and advertising slogans. Copywriters provide texts for television and radio spots, online creatives, website descriptions, advertising brochures, flyers, blog posts, and more.
Crawling
This is a process performed by web robots that analyzes all the content and code on a website. Crawling is an activity in which robots index all internal and external links on a website.
Crawlability
Indexability refers to the process of enabling web crawlers to easily navigate our website, understand it, and effectively search for content and target indexing.
Crawlability can be improved by creating things like XML and a sitemap, optimizing page speed, images and videos, and properly using redirects.
cross-linking
This is the process of linking multiple domains belonging to the same company or person. This isn't a problem if the websites are thematically related and don't have many links.
CSS – Cascading Style Sheets
CSS is a language that defines the appearance of an HTML document.
Every page has one or more CSS files in which each element on it has a specific size, color, layout, etc.
CTR – click-through rate
This is a metric that measures the percentage of people who clicked on your ad/website after it was displayed in search results.
How to calculate it?
Just divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions and we have our CTR!
SEO Dictionary – D
De-indexing – de-indexing
The process of removing a website from a search engine's index, preventing it from appearing in search results.
To do this, set the HTML robots meta tag value to "noindex".
Dead-End Page
It is a website without any links, a so-called dead end for visitors and web crawlers, giving them no choice but to leave the site.
This can be easily remedied by placing navigation links in the header, footer, navigation menu, or links that suggest users to go to the next step, i.e. the next page.
Depositioning
Also known as: (page deposition, negative SEO)
Any action aimed at lowering the search results position of a selected domain or individual subpages. This can be negative (unethical actions) or positive (actions aimed, for example, at removing outdated information about a company that has already achieved a high position in search results and prevents current information from rising higher).
Direct Traffic
Direct traffic measures the number of visits to your website where a visitor typed the exact web address (URL) into their browser.
Disavow backlinks
These are backlinks that aren't beneficial to your website, such as those from unrelated or untrusted sources. These are considered bad links and may result in a penalty or negatively impact your SEO.
Long tail
A long-tail phrase is a phrase consisting of several words (at least 3-4) that clearly indicates specific (non-general) characteristics of the query. For example, it includes the name of a specific product or model, along with its parameters or precise features. So-called long-tail phrases provide more information about your potential customer's needs and the desired features of the product or service. Furthermore, such phrases often have a significantly higher conversion rate than more general phrases. This is most often because by entering such a specific product name, the user already knew the product, was interested in it, and now wants to buy it.
Dofollow Link
All links are dofollow links by default, which means they pass traffic to the linked page and allow crawlers to follow them, helping to rank the linked page in the SERPs (search engine results).
Domain
A website's location, usually displayed as a company name or IP address, is the part of a web address that directs users to the desired page.
Doorway page
Also known as: Jump Page
Black Hat SEO involves creating a website and positioning it for selected keywords using techniques that violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Users visiting Doorway Page are automatically redirected to the client's landing page.
DuckDuckGo
This alternative to more popular search engines prioritizes user privacy and doesn't utilize personalized search results. Users aren't profiled, so all users receive the same results for a specific search term.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is content that appears on more than one website (either on the same domain or on different pages).
When a search engine robot finds one, it won't be able to determine which page is more relevant. Duplicate content is common on a website. For example, if you have both a mobile and a desktop version of your site, you should choose the page you want to designate as the original and add a code snippet (rel = canonical) to all the others to clearly indicate to search engines which page to treat as the original.
Dwell Time
Also known as: Time Spent on Page
This is the amount of time a visitor spends on your website after clicking on a link in search results. The longer the time, the better, as it shows that the visitor found relevant and engaging content.
SEO Dictionary – E
Email Outreach
Also known as: Link Outreach, Blogger Outreach
An important part of the link building process, it involves seeking out backlink opportunities by contacting the website's author to request a link back to your own site. Through email outreach, we can acquire links from:
- pages with a link in an article that corresponds to the topic of one of your websites,
- websites that are relevant to your niche, have a low number of outgoing links and the possibility of including you in the content as, for example, a co-author,
- a website for which you can write a guest post,
- the website of the company or person you mentioned in your content,
- website of the company or person who mentioned you on their website.
Error 200
HTTP code that indicates that the request sent to the server was successful and the content of the requested document was displayed to the user.
Error 202
One of the HTTP response codes that is intended to inform the user that their request has been submitted to the server and will be handled, but this has not happened yet.
Error 404
This error occurs when a connection is made to the server, but it is unable to find the subpage the user was looking for.
Error 503
This is an HTTP response code that appears when a server is overloaded. It sometimes disappears when the page is refreshed, but if the problem persists, it likely means that the page has exceeded a load limit set by the hosting company, such as the reference server's CPU or memory.
Exact Match Anchor Text
Also known as exact match anchor text, this occurs when the anchor text accurately describes the topic of the web page it links to.
Evergreen content
This content is always relevant. It covers topics that are always relevant to readers, regardless of the date or season.
Exact Match Keywords
In other words, an exact match keyword.
This refers to keyword matching in Google Ads . Your ad will only appear in search results when a user enters a given word or phrase in the order specified.
Exact Match Domain (EMD)
A keyword entered into the search engine that exactly matches the domain name, e.g. "wallpapers for a room", www.tapetydopokoju.pl
External Duplicate Content
Duplicate content created on various external domains, for example by copying:
- product descriptions from their manufacturers;
- text from competing websites;
- own content for online catalogs,
- content from your own website for publication purposes, e.g. on social media or other platforms.
SEO Dictionary – F
Favicon
A favicon is a small icon, usually in the form of a logo, (16 x 16 pixels) representing your brand, company or website, displayed in browser tabs, search history and bookmark lists.
Favicon does not directly impact SEO, but it improves usability, which in turn increases user engagement metrics (like page views, returning visitor, conversion rate, etc.) which are a ranking factor.
Featured Snippet
Also known as: featured snippet, direct response
When you enter a search query as a question into a search engine, the first answer in the results may be a featured snippet. This is displayed in a box with a summary of the answers and a link to the website underneath.
Using structured data, we can help Google better understand our content, which can help us position our content as a featured snippet. Google's algorithm then determines which website best answers the question and displays it as a suggested snippet.
Filter
This is a type of penalty imposed by Google for websites that use unethical SEO techniques to manipulate their ranking. The filtering process results in a drop in the page's ranking for selected keywords or even its complete removal from search results. There are two types of filters imposed by Google:
- manual filter
- algorithmic filter.
Algorithmic filter
A penalty imposed on a website by a search engine algorithm. It's relatively difficult to detect this type of filter. It's important to carefully examine the website's statistics to determine whether the site has experienced a significant drop in traffic and the number of phrases appearing in the top 10 search results.
Manual filter
The second type of filter applied by Google. Fortunately, we are notified when one is applied. Therefore, we can easily check in Google Webmaster Tools whether such a filter has been applied. If so, we will also find information there about whether the filter applied to the entire website or just part of it, and the reason for the penalty.
Footer link
A link located at the bottom of the page—the "footer." These links may lead to specific categories on the page and to external sites.
SEO Dictionary – G
Geolocation
It presents users with local search results, based on their IP address location. This means that when searching for "vegetarian restaurant" in Poznań, search results will only show restaurants located in and around Poznań.
Geotargeting
A method of targeting ads to users based on their location.
Google
Also known as: Google Search, Google Search
The most popular search engine in the world with a market share of 90,91% and a multitude of additional services and tools.
From an SEO point of view , we can use the following tools:
- Google Keyword Planner,
- Google Alerts,
- Google Analytics,
- Google Maps,
- Google Mobile Optimization Test,
- Google My Business,
- Google PageSpeed Insights,
- Google Search Console,
- Google Trends,
- Google Webmaster Tools,
- Youtube.
Googlebot
Also known as: Crawler, Search Engine Robot, Bot,
It's a crawler whose job is to automatically discover, analyze, and index websites on the Internet (both on desktop and mobile devices). It detects both new and updated websites by following links within the sites, thus reaching new websites.
Google Ads
Google Ads is an advertising system created by Google that is used to build and manage advertising campaigns. It allows us to create advertisements and direct users to our website, encouraging them to make a purchase or use a service. Within the Google Ads system, we can use various types of advertising, such as:
- text ads,
- Display Network advertising,
- ads in apps and gmail,
- Google Shopping ads,
- video ads on Youtube.
Google advertising and website positioning are two strongly supporting channels, the use of which guarantees the best results and an increase in the company's visibility in search results, and therefore an increase in sales.
Google Analytics
Google's web analytics tool provides precise data about a given website. By adding tracking code to your website, you can track and obtain detailed data about your website's traffic.
Google Autocomplete – Google autocomplete
A search feature that suggests and completes a phrase when a user types it into the search box.
Google Mobile-Friendly Test – Google's mobile optimization test
In recent years, Google has placed increasing importance on mobile-friendly websites because so many users use mobile phones and Google sets high standards for a good user experience, where mobile friendliness has become an important ranking factor.
Google PageSpeed Insights
A Google tool designed to analyze a website's content to determine its page speed, providing suggestions on what could be improved to speed up its loading time.
Google Search Console
Formerly: Google Webmaster Tools
A free Google tool that allows you to check the status of a website in search results, analyze incoming and outgoing links, contains information about keywords and indicates page indexing errors.
Gray Hat SEO
SEO practices that are technically permissible but ethically questionable.
One such practice is buying or selling links. While virtually impossible to detect, if purchased within your niche, it can result in penalties and is considered unethical. The same applies to buying likes or shares on social media.
target group
This is a group created by a company to which it targets its products or services. This group is aligned with demographic, psychosocial, and behavioral determinants (both online and offline).
guest blogging
Posting content on blogs that is both reader-friendly and SEO-effective. Such posts, for example, on high-quality, topic-specific blogs, can help strengthen your website's search engine rankings.
SEO Dictionary – H
H1 – H6 – HTML Header
Heading tags are used in HTML to create structure. They denote titles and subheadings, or underlined text. There are six levels of headings in HTML – H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. The higher the level, the more important the heading. They are the simplest way to communicate the content hierarchy to both the reader and web crawlers.
Assigning an H1 to the title signifies that it is the most important element on your page, so there should only be one such heading on it.
Hidden text – hidden text
Hidden text is content embedded in code but invisible to the user. Historically, this method has been used as a way to manipulate rankings, primarily through keyword stuffing, and is therefore classified as a Black Hat SEO technique.
Examples you may encounter:
- text that matches the background color,
- text behind an image or off-screen, placed using CSS,
- Using CSS to reduce the size of the element that contains the text and hide the overflow.
Hyperlink
A hyperlink is text or an image that, when clicked, provides direct access to another page or section of a page, allowing for easy navigation on the web.
hreflang
The hreflang attribute is used to mark up pages on a multilingual website. By using this attribute, you ensure that visitors are viewing the page in the correct language—the one they used in their query.
Hreflangs can be used to help with content duplication. For example, if you have a website that has the same content for different locales (e.g., Polish, German, or English), but with differences such as currency, you can tell Google which locale or language a given version of the web page is optimized for.
Homepage – Home page
The first (main) page of a website, displayed when a visitor enters a web address containing only our domain name, is also the most frequently used page, from which subsequent subpages branch off.
HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol
It's the primary network protocol that allows us to display and receive information. From an SEO perspective, it's better to use the secure HTTPS type, especially for online stores, where HTTPS is required.
HTTPS – Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol
An encrypted, secure version of the HTTP protocol that protects information sent and received from hackers. Google recommends HTTPS, offering certain benefits to sites that use it, such as improved rankings and referral traffic data.
SEO Dictionary – I
Image SEO – image positioning
Image SEO refers to the optimization of all images on a website to increase content relevancy, search engine visibility, and accessibility for screen readers.
You can position images by:
- selecting the appropriate image file size so as not to slow down the website loading time,
- using descriptive file names,
- adding alt tags with image descriptions,
- creating sitemaps with images.
Inbound Links
These are inbound links that point to our website. These links were acquired naturally, for example, when another website recommended our product or service.
Inbound Marketing
According to Hubspot, these are all activities that enable recipients to independently find the sender of a given advertising message, interest them and allow them to decide whether they are interested in a given offer.
Indeks
A search engine's database containing data about all websites a user can find. If a site is not included in the index, it will not appear in search results.
Indexing
The process of adding a website to a search engine's database.
If you want to speed up this process, you can:
- check if you are using the "noindex" value in the HTML robots tag,
- submit an XML sitemap that includes the missing page,
- get backlinks from high authority sites as they are indexed more often.
Indexing
This is done by web crawlers. The indexing process involves collecting information about the content, keywords, links, and images published on your website and storing it in the search engine's database. This way, every time a user uses a search engine, they search this database instead of searching every page on the Internet.
User Interface (UI)
Everything displayed on your website that a user can interact with. The user interface must be:
- simple (avoid unnecessary elements),
- clear (use colors, sizes and layout to create hierarchy),
- coherent (different elements should fit together into a whole),
- intuitive (the website should be easy to understand and the content should clearly communicate what the user should do).
The goal of a user interface is to create a positive experience for visitors. Because these factors influence user dwell time and engagement, they are crucial for SEO.
Internal Duplicate Content
Duplicating content within a single domain, e.g. presenting multiple products with the same or very similar descriptions.
interstitial
This is a type of aggressive advertising that appears over the content of the entire website, covering most of it and preventing the free use of the site.
SEO Dictionary – J
Website quality
A set of features that search engine bots check when ranking a website. The following key elements are considered when determining the quality of a given website:
- relevance of content,
- content length,
- user engagement,
- spelling,
- social signals,
- backlink profile,
- readability,
- variety of media (films and images).
JSON-LD
Data format, implemented dynamically as JavaScript code or embedded as widgets in a content management system.
SEO Dictionary – K
Extended cards
Also known as: Rich cards, Rich results, Rich snippets
This is a type of Google search result that presents content in the form of images and text. They are displayed as individual results or in a carousel format, which means results swipe left and right. Rich cards are organic results.
and may contain information such as:
- name of the website,
- title of the article, publication,
- the average rating given to the website by Internet users and the number of votes cast,
- preparation time (in the case of recipes)
- and more.
Cataloging
This is a procedure used by SEO specialists that involves submitting a website to various directories to obtain backlinks. This process requires using unique page descriptions and titles, which often serve as the anchor text for the link. Of course, a website should be submitted to directories that are thematically related and relevant to the content of the website.
Catalog stron
Also known as: web directory
This is a type of website that contains links to other websites and descriptions of their content, so you can quickly find the website you're interested in. Website directories usually focus on specific topics, for example, collecting all the links about recent events or specific types of products.
Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)
This is a famous saying, especially in the business world, which says that it is best to describe various issues in the simplest and most recipient-friendly way possible, so as not to complicate the message.
Key Performance Indicators
Metrics allow us to measure whether the initial goals have been met. These metrics can address business, marketing, or financial issues. In the case of SEO, our KPI might be, for example, the number of website visitors or the bounce rate percentage.
keyword
Also known as: keywords, keyword phrases
A word or phrase for which a website is positioned and by which the website can potentially be found in a search engine.
Keyword Analysis
The process of finding all the keywords for which a website ranks or could rank. When conducting keyword analysis, it's important to consider data on search volume, cost-per-click (CPC), competition, and current position in the SERPs.
Keyword Cannibalization
This occurs when multiple pages on a single website appear in search results for a specific phrase or keyword. This can be problematic for website owners when a less important page achieves a relatively high ranking and outperforms another, more business-critical page. For example, when the home page ranks for a phrase that we want a specific product page to rank for.
Keyword Categorization
The process of classifying and grouping keywords based on user intent and context at the time of search. Keyword categorization can help determine which keywords users are searching for at different stages of the purchasing journey.
Keyword Competition
It indicates the popularity of a given keyword among other sites ranking for it. Keyword competition is an important metric that shows how easy or difficult it is to compete for a position for that word or phrase in search results.
Keyword Density
The ratio of keywords to the total text. Too many keywords in a text can cause a page to be considered spammy and lower its ranking in the SERPs. The density and number of keywords in a given text should be determined depending on the text's topic and the industry in which it operates.
Keyword Frequency
This is the total number of keywords used on a website. We're measuring the frequency of a keyword's appearance, regardless of the amount of content on the website.
Keyword Funnel
The search terms a potential customer uses vary depending on their stage of the purchasing journey. A customer looking to buy something will therefore enter different terms than one who is just looking to learn more about products. Therefore, we can categorize keywords according to these stages and optimize specific landing pages for them to increase conversions.
Keyword Positioning
This is the distribution of keywords or phrases within a given text. According to best practice, we should include them in the title, meta tags, headings, and throughout the page's content, taking into account their density and position.
Keyword Prominence
This indicator tells us how important or noticeable a given keyword is. Naturally, the most important place will be at or near the beginning, for example in the title, headings, meta descriptions, or opening text.
Keyword Proximity
This determines how closely related keywords are within the entire phrase. For example, with a longer phrase like "Content Marketing Guide," the frequency of the phrase's occurrence is considered. The more closely the keywords align with the phrase, the more relevant the website is perceived.
Keyword Rank
This is the position of your website in search results for a given keyword.
Keyword Research
The process of properly matching keywords to the nature of a website is essential for SEO , including creating content that is both user-friendly and search engine-friendly. Keyword research can be conducted manually or using dedicated tools, such as Google Ads Keyword Planner.
keyword stuffing
The practice of including an excessive number of keywords in text in the hope of securing a higher ranking in search results. This practice is discouraged by SEO specialists and typically results in a lower credibility of the page for web crawlers, resulting in a drop in ranking.
Google Knowledge Panel
This is a box containing basic information about a user's query, which most often appears on the right side of the search results.
SEO Dictionary – L
Landing page
The page to which we direct a user who clicks on a given link. A landing page is most often defined as a subpage created for a specific purpose, such as registering for a webinar, downloading an ebook, or purchasing a product. However, it can be any page we choose to direct traffic to.
Lead Magnets
This content is intended to encourage potential customers to leave their email address or other contact information. For example, offering free copies or valuable content in exchange for leaving an email address. Email lists collected this way can then be used in further marketing activities.
Link Baiting
This method involves acquiring high-quality links without having to pay for them. This method is often used by content marketing, which creates valuable content for its audience so that it is then naturally linked to by internet users.
Link Building
This is a series of activities aimed at providing our website with valuable incoming links. These activities allow us to transfer some of the power of the website we're linking from to our own. It's worth leveraging the experience of specialists in this area, as the linking method and the selection of sites from which we seek links are crucial to the entire SEO process and can impact a website's ranking.
Link Burst
A so-called link streak occurs when a website acquires a large number of backlinks in a very short period of time. This is undesirable, as it usually indicates to web crawlers that these links were not acquired naturally.
Link Diversity
A link-building strategy that collects a range of links from different types of websites (blogs, news, directories, social media) and different domains (.com, .pl) and utilizes both "nofollow" and "dofollow" attributes. Many experts consider this important for SEO, diversifying link sources and thus building a natural link profile.
Link to subpage
Also known as: Deep link
This is a link placed on an external website that leads to a subpage, not to the main page of the website.
Link Equity
This term describes the process of conveying authority or value to one page through the use of hyperlinks.
Link Farm – link farms
A collection of websites containing links that point to each other or to a single, specific page. According to the guidelines, this is considered inadvisable and may result in a penalty from Google.
Link Hoarding
A tactic used by some websites to try to gather as many incoming links as possible while maintaining as few outgoing links as possible. This is considered a derogatory tactic.
Link Popularity
This is the total number of backlinks on a website. Each backlink is counted separately, even if it comes from the same website.
Link profile – link profile
A summary of all links leading to our website. We can analyze the link profile based on:
– sources of obtaining links (forums, blogs, directories, other websites),
– types of link anchors
– link types (text, graphic, etc.),
– type of links (dofollow, nofollow, etc.).
Link Reclamation
This is the process of recovering lost links.
Link Relevancy
It determines whether the content published on a given website from which we obtain a link is consistent with the content of the website to which the link leads.
Link Rot
These are all links that are outdated and may no longer be working, or the sites they came from have already been removed. This can happen if the site owner doesn't conduct regular audits and periodically review their link profile.
Link Scheme
These are all techniques and activities aimed at obtaining incoming links to a website that are inconsistent with Google's guidelines, such as buying and selling links, exchanging links on a large scale, or having too many sponsored articles on a website.
Link Spam (blog spam, comment spam)
This is literally spamming the number of links in comments on various blogs or online forums, in an attempt to gain as many links as possible. Currently, most links like this are added with the nofollow attribute, so it's not a profitable practice.
Link Title
The link title attribute provides additional information about the link. However, this title has no direct SEO significance.
Link Velocity
The speed at which your website acquires new backlinks. How quickly or slowly you develop your backlink profile plays a role in your website's SEO . The more natural this acquisition appears, the better.
linkbait
Valuable content that other websites will naturally link to. Containing information that is uniquely high-quality and has a tendency to spread virally. Difficult to achieve, but extremely beneficial for SEO.
Direct links
A link that leads directly to a target website and can influence its position in search engine results (if specified with the dofollow attribute).
Natural links
Links obtained naturally, i.e. without the action of an SEO specialist, e.g. by recommending our website or part of the content posted on it, by the owner (blogger or company) of another website.
Paid links
Also known as: sponsored links, paid traffic, paid links
These are text ads created in the Google Ads system . Paid links are not part of the SEO environment, which assumes organic growth of a website's position.
Indirect links
These are links that take the user to another website, via a 301 or 302 redirect, in such a way as to lead the user and web crawlers to the desired website by first leading them through their own domain.
Incoming links
These are links placed on domains other than the website they link to.
Outgoing links
Links placed on a website that redirect the user and search engine robots to a page located outside the website on which they were placed.
Internal linking
These are links to other parts of the text or other subpages within one domain.
External linking
This is linking from external websites to our website. The goal is to obtain links from subpages of high-quality and authoritative websites.
Local search – local search
Thanks to it, search results display companies that are closest to the location of the user entering the phrase into the search engine (usually stationary stores or service providers).
Local SEO
These are activities aimed at positioning the website for queries related to the location, for example "waffles in Gdańsk" will display restaurants and cafes offering waffles in this city.
Local traffic
These are users who found our website through SEO efforts based on local keywords—usually focused on the same city or province. Geotargeted keywords and Google Maps listings can help the company achieve this.
Long click
We define this type of link clicks as those in which the user, after entering a phrase in the search engine and finding the appropriate link, goes to the page and does not return to the search results because he or she has probably found what he or she was looking for.
SEO Dictionary – M
M-dot domain
A version of the website dedicated specifically to mobile users, whose name starts with the letter m before the dot and the entire website address.
Machine learning
Machine learning is the ability of a system to learn certain actions based on vast amounts of data and the analysis it performs. The system learns patterns and solutions, allowing it to improve the performance of a given service or product.
The proprietary VCM (Verseo Campaign Manager) system, based on a huge amount of campaign data, can adjust bids in Google Ads ads, and by monitoring campaigns 24/7, is able to optimize them to achieve the most measurable results.
Site Map
Also known as: XML (Extensible Markup Language) site map, Site Map
A sitemap is a list of URLs that we want to point to web crawlers, and XML is a universal markup language that allows us to describe data regardless of the platform or technology we use.
The site map should include:
- home pages,
- informational,
- category pages,
- products etc.
Image Site Map
An image sitemap is an XML file containing all the images from your website that you want to index. It can be a separate file or added to an existing XML sitemap.
Data Marker
A tool available in Google Search Console that is used to indicate to the search engine which information on a website should be treated as structured data, so that it can be highlighted in search results as rich descriptions.
Camouflage
Black Hat SEO is a manipulation practice in which website visitors are presented with different content than the user sees.
Meta description
A description of a page's content that will be displayed in Google search results. Google uses it to determine whether the page addresses a user's query and whether it should appear in search results.
meta keywords
Keywords that describe a website's content are used to inform web crawlers about the content on the page. This has been relatively overused, so they are currently not considered a ranking factor in Google. It's believed that their impact on SEO may even be negative.
Meta refresh
A meta tag that instructs the browser to refresh the page after a specified period of time. It is primarily used when the page contains data that may change depending on availability or settings, such as the number of products in a store.
meta tag
Tags placed in the header of a page's code allow web crawlers to understand the site's content. They are found in HTML and XHTML. The most important tags include title, description, and robots.
International SEO
International SEO aims to increase your website's visibility in different countries. Configuring your website's country and language detection will automatically display relevant content. Examples of international SEO tactics include:
- optimization for the most frequently used search engine in the selected country,
- hreflang, which will determine the language of your website content and help search engines display it to the appropriate target group,
- translation of website HTML elements, e.g. URL, meta description, and title
- translating website content, including navigation, image names and alt tags,
- using the country detection feature to match the price currency.
Microdata
Also known as: microformats
This is a type of structured data that allows search engines to better understand the content of websites. It can be used to mark different types of content on a page, allowing search engine robots to better identify them.
Mobile First Index
An index created by Google that evaluates websites' mobile-friendliness. It's also a ranking factor for Google, so it's worth ensuring your website is mobile-friendly.
Mobile Friendly Website
A mobile-friendly website is one that is optimized for viewing on a mobile device and allows users to easily use it even on small screens, for example, with adapted button sizes, the appearance of the home page, and navigation to various subpages.
Mobile Optimization – optimization for mobile
Any action aimed at improving a website for mobile devices. Very often, this means significantly modifying the website to meet the requirements and criteria that allow for a smooth experience for users on small screens. Fast-loading, responsive, and always functional. These are the three most important features of a mobile website.
SEO Dictionary – N
Over-optimization
This is a negatively viewed optimization practice aimed at tricking search engines and artificially accelerating SEO results, without taking into account the user's role and experience on the website.
NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number
Important contact details (name, address and telephone number) that should be included on the website are most often recommended to be placed in the "Contact" or "About Us" tabs or in the website footer, thus increasing credibility in the eyes of users and Google robots.
Negative SEO
Negative practices that aim to lower a competitor's ranking in search results, to their own advantage. These activities can include hacking a competitor's website, spamming, linking from untrustworthy sites, or creating duplicate content.
Unnatural link
Links that were not created with good intentions, but only to lower the website's ranking.
Noarchive
A value that can be placed in the “robots” file if we want the page not to be cached by search engines the next time the robots index the page.
Nofollow
The value of the rel attribute of an HTML tag that indicates that web crawlers should not follow the linked site.
noindex
It's responsible for blocking search indexing for a specific subpage. While Google's crawlers can still check its content, it won't be indexed and, therefore, won't appear in search results.
Noopener and Noreferrer
These values indicate the relationship between the web page on which the link resides and the page the link points to. They are set for the rel attribute of the href (link) tag.
Not provided – hiding keywords
It involves hiding keywords in analytical systems such as Google Analytics. Google takes these actions to, as they explain, protect users' privacy online.
SEO Dictionary – About
Off page SEO
Any activities undertaken outside of a website's SEO that aim to improve search engine rankings. For example, acquiring inbound links, PR activities, and strengthening the company's image on social media.
On page SEO
Activities performed on a website, which include both technical optimization of the website code and improving and adapting the content to the search engine.
Opera
A web browser created and developed by Opera Software ASA.
OPTIMIZATION
Also known as: SEO, Search Engine Optimization
It encompasses all activities aimed at improving a website's visibility online, thereby increasing sales. Website optimization aims to improve its quality in the eyes of both web crawlers and users through on-page and off-page SEO activities.
Video Optimization – vSEO, Video Search Engine Optimization, Video SEO
Actions taken on video platforms (the most popular being YouTube) to improve a video's visibility in search results. Both the entire channel and individual videos within it can be optimized, for example, by:
- identifying and using keywords in descriptions
- creating a description that will be helpful to both viewers and web crawlers,
- adding tags to each uploaded video to define its topic,
- creating thumbnails that stand out from other videos in search results.
Organic search results SERP, Search Engine Results Page - organic search results
Organic search results are the lists of results that appear to users who search for specific phrases in a search engine. They are divided into paid results (PPC, Google Ads ) and organic results (SEO, natural).
Organic traffic
These are users who reached the website through organic search results.
Orphan page
A page on a website that has no referring links. They can't be found by a search bot, so they're useless for SEO.
SEO Dictionary – P
Page Cloaking
Black Hat SEO practices that violate guidelines involve presenting a version of content on a page that differs from the one the visitor sees. This is achieved by delivering content based on the user's IP address.
Page Footer
The lower part of a website, where we can usually find information such as the company address, contact details and links to important subpages.
PageRank
This formula, used by the Google search engine, is based on an analysis of the number and quality of incoming links to a page. The PageRank value for individual pages is not published.
Page Speed
Page loading speed. This is a significant factor that influences a website's position and its user experience.
Page Title – page title
The page title is the clickable headline that appears in search results for a specific website. It's the most visible part of the SERP snippet and has a major impact on your CTR, SEO, and social media sharing.
To set your page title yourself, you'll need to use title tags in your HTML source code. (Or use a plugin in your CMS.) If your title is too long, Google's algorithm will try to use a different piece of content. Therefore, a good practice for page titles is to keep them under 487 pixels for mobile and 568 pixels for desktop.
Pageview
Occurs each time a user loads a specific page. The number of page views is tracked by the Google Analytics tracking code.
URL parameter (link parameter)
Values dynamically set in a page's URL during a query. In page addresses, everything after "?" is a link parameter containing data about the content on the page.
Partial match domain (PMD)
This is a domain name, part of which overlaps with the entered keyword, e.g. ceramic pots in a set – “www.garnki-zestawy.pl”
People also ask
Google suggests the most frequently searched phrases, similar to the ones we entered. People also ask most often appears among the search results.
Primary keyword
This keyword has the greatest potential to drive traffic to a page, making it the most important keyword for that page. When creating content for a website, it's worth optimizing it specifically for that keyword, which we'll use in the page title, content heading, and first paragraph.
Poison words
Words that lower a page's quality in search engines and classify it as low-quality. These are usually words and phrases that generate distrust from both users and web crawlers.
Posts on Google – posts on Google
These are short posts about your business that can be created through the Google My Business panel. You can include content in the form of photos and short videos. These posts will appear both on your Google Maps listing and in the search results themselves.
Positioning
Any deliberate action intended to improve the visibility of a website in search engine results lists.
Presell pages
So-called SEO pretzels are websites that publish topical articles. They contain links that lead to websites, most often linking to the website we want to position. However, SEO pretzels are low-quality websites whose content is worthless or meaningless, and therefore are not recommended by SEO experts.
301 redirect
Otherwise: redirect 301, 301, "Moved Permanently"
This redirection of a website's address to another website's address constitutes a permanent transfer. It's recommended for redirecting a website to one of two versions—"www" or "non-www," or for redirecting SEO power from defunct pages to existing versions.
302 redirect
Otherwise: redirect 302, 302, "Found"
Redirecting a website address to another website. This is primarily used when the original website is temporarily unavailable. This redirection can be used, for example, for a product page that is temporarily unavailable in an online store.
SEO Dictionary – Q
QDD – Query Deserves Diversity
One of Google's ranking algorithms that is designed to match user intent by displaying broader match results.
QDF – Query Deserves Freshness
The assumption that Google searches should display the latest information about specific events. This is most often used for political, environmental, and economic events, which should be updated on a regular basis.
SEO Dictionary – R
RankBrain
An algorithm based on an artificial intelligence model. It evaluates new queries and the overall quality of search results.
RDFa
An HTML5 extension that allows you to mark up specific types of content on a website. It is one of the structured data formats that allows search engines to better interpret a website's content.
Reciprocal linking
An agreement between two websites to share backlinks. It's important to trust the company you're working with, as exchanging links with a company that doesn't play fair can damage your website's backlink profile and make it harder for search engine crawlers to rank your website's content.
Redirect links
Also known as: Redirects
Links leading to a subpage of our website that redirects to another address. There are different types of redirects, which are also discussed in this SEO Glossary.
Referrer
This is a website that takes a user to another destination page. This is called a referrer. A referrer is sent in the HTTP request header.
Relative URL
A link used for internal linking. This is a short path to the file, HTML page, image, or other content being linked to. This link is used as part of an anchor tag but does not include a protocol or domain name.
JavaScript rendering
A feature that allows search engines to crawl and understand the content on a website that is, often dynamically, generated using JavaScript code.
The content of JavaScript code on a page can vary from simple style changes to deeper integrations that modify the structure of the page with specific data.
Google is one of the few search engines that supports JavaScript rendering, because rendering JavaScript content on a page is a difficult task. The script must first be executed and processed, which can take a crawler a significant amount of time and resources. Furthermore, it often doesn't work properly because JavaScript doesn't function as a standard or typical HTML page.
Responsive website – responsive website
This is a type of website that adapts to the user's device. A responsive website can change its layout, width, and resolution depending on the device. This ensures the site remains user-friendly on both large and small screens.
Robots Meta Tag
A snippet of code that allows you to control how a search engine crawler will index your website's content. The default value is "index, follow," which means the crawler will both index your page and follow all links pointing away from it. Other values exist, such as:
- noindex – stops the bot from indexing a given page,
- nofollow – prevents the user from following a link on the page,
- nosnippet – the description will not be displayed in the search list (only for Google),
- noimageindex – stops displaying images from a given page when searching for images,
- noarchive – a cached copy of your page will not be stored or displayed in the SERPs.
Robots noindex
Also known as: noindex
This is one of the possible values assigned to the robots meta tag, which blocks crawlers from indexing a given subpage. By using "noindex," we instruct the crawler not to include it in the index when analyzing the content of our page.
Robots.txt
This file is placed on the website's server in the root folder. It should contain all commands for web crawlers that visit your website. This file allows you to either allow or deny Google robots access to specific website resources. This means you can block access to specific types of files, folders, or page addresses.
SEO Dictionary – S
safari
A web browser created and developed by Apple, available exclusively on devices running the OS X operating system. It is the second most popular web browser in the world.
Schema.org
This is a website that collects the markup schemas of the structured data available on the web. This allows web crawlers to quickly and easily understand the page's content and its meaning.
Scraping
Using an automated program to collect data, typically metadata, from multiple websites. The data you collect may include all of your competitors' page titles and meta descriptions.
This technique can be used in Black Hat SEO, in which we download content to use it on our website.
As part of the White Hat SEO technique, data is used for informational purposes.
SEA – Search Engine Advertising
It literally means advertising in search engines and is one of the marketing activities aimed at increasing the visibility of a website in search engines.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
All activities aimed at improving the position of a website in search results, including both paid (PPC) and organic (SEO) practices.
Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM)
Any activities aimed at improving the reputation or image of a company online, including, for example, opinion moderation, website optimization, etc.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
These are search results, i.e. a list of links directing to websites that appeared after the user entered a given phrase.
Search Engine Spam
A practice related to Black Hat SEO that involves deliberately manipulating the search engine index to gain a higher ranking in the SERPs, thereby reducing the precision of search results.
Search Quality Rater Guidelines
This is a set of information and policies created by Google specifically for those responsible for manually evaluating search results and pages to detect spam or inappropriate content. These guidelines are regularly updated and have been publicly available since 2015.
Search Result Feature
Search results features are a collective term for all the different ways Google displays information in its results. Search results can be influenced by the country, language, and device you're searching from.
Search Result Snippet
The part of the links displayed in SERPs that show the content contained in your meta description tag. A traditional organic, or natural, search result consists of a title and a description.
Semantic search
Its purpose is to understand the user's search intent, so that the website or product suggestions that appear in the search results are more relevant and tailored to the user's intention when entering a given phrase into the search engine.
Semantic Web
A project whose task is to recognize the context and intent of the query that the user sends to the search engine.
SEO Services
Also known as: SEO service provider , SEO agency
A paid service provided by SEO specialists to improve the position of our website in search results.
SEO Silo
Also known as: content silo, silo network structure
A method of grouping related content into distinct categories and subcategories on a website to help both humans and search engines understand its meaning.
SEO Site Audit – Website Audit, SEO Audit
A complete analysis of your website's search engine visibility should help you pinpoint errors, issues, and content gaps that you can leverage in your SEO strategy. There are two types of audits you can conduct to gain insight into SEO issues: a technical SEO audit and a content audit.
SEO URL
A user-friendly URL that has been optimized for maximum SEO benefits.
SERP Shaker
Black Hat SEO is a technique that uses content creation software and websites solely to rank for long-tail, low-competition keywords. These sites are then used to generate revenue through linking, backlinking, email address harvesting, and so on.
Session
This occurs every time a user visits your website and continues browsing. A session is counted regardless of whether the person has visited your website before. Another session will be counted if 30 minutes pass between visits.
List
Czech internet search engine and information portal.
Short click
Designates an event in which a user clicked on our link found in the search results, but after briefly viewing the content, left the page and returned to the search results.
Website:
By entering “site:website domain” we will obtain information about all indexed subpages within a given website.
Site-wide link
A so-called link displayed on all subpages, e.g. on the home page, blog, in various tabs.
Sitelinks
These are additional links that appear high in organic or paid search results. They can be more comprehensive, revealing more information about the site's content, or less, depending on whether they match the user's search query.
Sitelinks Searchbox
This is an additional window displayed in search results, where users can search the website for information about the company. An internal search engine must be installed on the website for this window to be displayed.
Skyscraping
Also known as: Skyscraper technique, SEO Skyscraper
A method of finding popular websites with lots of backlinks, then writing content that is better than them and reaching out to sites that link to them, offering your link with improved content instead.
Keywords
Also known as: Keywords, Key phrases
These are words (or entire phrases) that users enter into search engines to find items, products, or services they're interested in. Properly understanding the keywords for our offer will allow us to incorporate them into our website content, thus achieving better search engine rankings.
Snippet Bait
A short piece of content optimized for Google to display as a featured snippet. It's placed at the beginning of an article and typically answers a query in 2-3 sentences, allowing Google to easily retrieve that piece of content instead of having to scrape content from various positions on the page and combine it into one.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
It's the process of using social media as a channel to increase traffic, business visibility, and brand awareness by creating engaging content and sharing it on social media. Nowadays, social media links can also influence your Google rankings, so using them is definitely worthwhile.
Spam
This is any useless content or entire websites that do not serve users and clutter the internet space.
Spam blog
A method of automatically creating blogs by copying content from other websites and posting it on a single blog. Content is copied from various sources for the sake of secrecy, but this technique is considered Black Hat SEO.
Speed Update
Google's algorithm update, which has taken on greater importance in terms of website loading speed.
SQT – Search Quality Team
A specially appointed team by Google whose task is to verify the quality of search results, for example by eliminating spam.
SSL – Secure Socket Layer
A protocol that is part of the HTTPS protocol, which is responsible for data security on the network and is used to encrypt data transferred between the web browser on the user's computer and the website server.
STA – Searcher Task Accomplishment
This is one of the ranking factors taken into account by Google. According to Google, a website that meets user needs and expectations should be ranked higher.
Storytelling
It's a way of building content that's meant to captivate the user like a compelling story. Its structure emphasizes both narrative and the reader's imagination and emotions, creating a connection.
Street View
Available in Google Maps or embedded on a website, this feature allows you to precisely verify the location you're looking for, even by walking its streets.
Website
An HTML document that can connect to the World Wide Web and be read by a browser. A website can consist of just one or many web pages.
structured data
Data that helps web crawlers understand the content of a website. The schemas for these markups are publicly available at Schema.org.
Site structure (site structure, site architecture)
Website structure refers to the form your pages and links take. A good website structure makes it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, increases conversions and CTR, increases dwell time, and facilitates indexing. Because good structure translates to good user experience, your website's structure impacts search engine rankings. An optimal website structure should:
- have a clear hierarchy: with a home page, 3-5 categories and subcategories,
- have an effective internal linking strategy,
- use navigation etc.
Supplemental index
This is a secondary index of Google search engines designed for websites that web crawlers have flagged as less valuable or duplicate. You can verify these by repeating your searches, taking into account the omitted results.
SXO – Search Experience Optimization
This is a combination of SEO and UX, a process designed to improve the user experience on our website. These take into account both search engine and user friendliness.
Social signal
An SEO term that describes social media engagement activities such as shares, votes, pins, views, etc. It's not entirely clear whether they affect rankings, but they certainly increase the likelihood of your website being cited, increasing backlinks and improving brand authority.
Link Exchange System
A system that allows you to automatically acquire a large number of links to a given website in a very short time, using the websites of publishers belonging to that system. Using these systems is not recommended or well-received by Google, and therefore may potentially reduce the website's value in search results.
SEO Dictionary – T
Title tag
This is the title tag, or tag that specifies the page's title. It's one of the most important tags because it allows web crawlers to first determine what the page's content is about. Therefore, it should include the keywords that we want our website to appear in the results after entering them.
Technical SEO
This is the part of SEO that deals with making it as easy as possible for search engine crawlers to index a given website and focuses on improving the rendering phase. Technical SEO is the foundation of all other SEO activities and is absolutely essential if you want your website to perform optimally.
Technical SEO activities include:
- improving website performance,
- content and image optimization,
- improving the structure of the website, etc.
TF-IDF – Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency
This is a technique that can be used when creating content on a website, where the weights of phrases are calculated based on the number of their occurrences in a given text.
The Open Graph protocol
An HTML tag that allows a specific piece of content (i.e. text and graphics) from a given website to be displayed after posting a link on social media.
Thin content
This is a type of content that is very scarce, so its quantity is insufficient for web crawlers and is therefore classified as of little value to the user.
Tiny text
This is a Black Hat SEO practice in which certain content on a website is made very small, so small that it is almost invisible to the user, yet it is indexed by web crawlers.
TLS – Transport Layer Security
Part of the HTTPS protocol, it's responsible for encrypting data and monitoring its integrity during transfer between the browser and the website server. This protects data from phishing attempts, for example, by unauthorized users or bots.
Traffic
Also known as: website traffic
One of the most well-known SEO terms that describes the total number of visitors to a given website. We distinguish traffic:
- direct,
- organic,
- Paid Parking,
- referral.
Traffic potential
Data on the number of potential visits to your website that you can receive if it appears in the first place in Google search results.
TrustRank
This is an alternative created by Yahoo to Google's PageRank, which determines the level of trust in a given website.
Twin website
A so-called twin site, or a website that is very similar to another website in terms of its content, negatively impacts the SEO of the original, main page.
SEO Dictionary – U
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keyword
LSI keywords are words and phrases that are semantically related to a primary keyword. These words share the same context and are often used together. Examples of LSI for the word "SEO" include SEO audits, SEO tools, SEO-specific keywords, and so on.
URL – Uniform Resource Locator
Also known as: web address
A URL is an addressing format, i.e. specifying the location of given resources, which consists of the following parts: protocol, server address (domain name) and path to the resource.
User Agent
This is an identifying header sent via the HTTP protocol by a program (browser or bot) that establishes a connection to a web server.
User Engagement – user engagement indicator
This indicator determines the extent to which users engage with the content on the website.
User Experience (UX)
User experience is a search engine ranking factor that describes how easy it is to use a product or service (or website). Factors that influence UX include:
- simplicity and usability of the user interface,
- website structure,
- website loading speed on various devices,
- responsiveness and friendliness to mobile devices.
UX takes into account the user experience in particular, but since it is equally important to Google, it also has an impact on the SEO of our website.
User-Friendly
This term refers to devices or services that are easy to understand and use for any user.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
This refers to any content (blog posts, graphics, videos, social media mentions) published by internet users that relates to our brand. It can have a positive impact on SEO because it helps us gain links and online visibility.
User Intent
When creating content for your website and developing your services, it is worth taking into account the user's intent – that is, their need and intention with which they enter specific phrases into the search engine depending on the stage of the purchasing path.
SEO Dictionary – V
Vanity URL
This is a user-friendly form of our company's website address, which appears, for example, when we include it in social media posts. It's usually a shortened version of the address that directs to a subpage with a longer URL link.
Viral Content
Content that quickly becomes very popular (e.g., text, photos, videos). It most often relates to recent events or situations that are easily picked up by online users. This content is good for SEO, gaining links to our website, and generating publicity.
Vlog
Also known as: videoblog, video blog
It's a way of presenting blog content in video format. The most popular platform for vlogs is YouTube.
Voice search
Also known as: voice search
A function that allows you to search for a given query in a search engine using a voice command.
SEO Dictionary – W
Webmaster
This is the person who handles the technical aspects of creating and optimizing a website. They are responsible for updating it and making changes necessary for the website's positioning.
Webmaster Guidelines
Google has created guidelines specifically for webmasters, which can be used to improve websites to meet the requirements of web crawlers and users.
White Hat SEO
These are all activities that position a website in search results that are both compliant with Google's guidelines and ethical and fair to competitors and web users.
White paper
This is official content, for example, about specific areas of the company's operations, intended to provide up-to-date information about the company. It primarily serves PR purposes, aimed at strengthening the company's online image and building brand awareness.
Domain Age
This is one of the factors Google considers when evaluating a website. A domain's age is calculated from the moment it is registered, and the longer it is, the more valuable it is to Google.
website
A collection of websites under the same domain.
Mirrored showcase
This is a copy of a website embedded at a different website address, used when the main website generates so much traffic that the server cannot handle it.
Wordpress
One of the most well-known and popular content management systems, built in PHP, it offers a wide range of website templates and allows even beginners to create them from scratch.
A special visit
Also known as: unique visit
This is literally the first visit of a given user (with a given IP address) to our website. We can determine their number, for example, per month using tools like Google Analytics.
Universal search
Also known as: (mixed search, extended search)
Results on Google that are placed among traditional organic results but include additional media such as images, videos, maps, locations, etc. This is Google's attempt to create dynamic search results where the user is exposed to different forms of search results.
Search
A website or program that collects and organizes data and information. It allows you to search for various types of information available on the internet. The most popular search engines include Google, Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex.
Vertical search engine
It is a type of search engine that, through its specialized functions, focuses on a specific segment of online content (usually by topic or media type).
SEO Dictionary – Y
Yahoo
Once a leader in email, online messaging and search, it is now used by a small percentage of users as an internet search engine.
Yandex
The most popular search engine in Russia, with a market share of over 50%. However, it is relatively unpopular worldwide, with a market share of less than 1%.
Yoast SEO
One of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress. Among other things, it can:
- set the title and description of the search results fragment,
- check the readability of the content on our website,
- set a keyword for a given content,
- manage links and meta tags, etc.
SEO Dictionary – Z
Backend – Satellites
Websites created for the SEO of a given website contain content focused on topics related to those discussed on the targeted website. By creating dedicated backends, we obtain credible links to our website, which are perceived by web crawlers as positive and unobtrusive.
Search engine query
These are words or phrases that a person enters into a search engine. To find a specific answer, you can also use search operators such as "OR," "related:," or "*."
Zero-Click
A search query that receives no clicks. This occurs when a user, for some specific reason, doesn't click on any results. One common reason for a query to receive no clicks is that it's a top-level information search, where Google answers the question with some form of rich results. For example, the query "How old is Brad Pitt?" is answered in the search results.
Zero-match anchor text
This is an anchor link whose phrase doesn't contain any content that specifically describes what will be found after clicking the link. These are most often links with CTAs like "click here" or "check here," etc., which direct to a specific subpage or landing page.
Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT)
A marketing concept created by Google, according to which consumers, when making purchasing decisions, also pay attention to opinions, comments, and information about a product or service found online. Therefore, it's crucial to pay attention to these aspects in the context of your business, as they can influence purchasing decisions.
A Summary of the Powerful SEO Dictionary
That's all! Over 300 terms related to website positioning and optimization are a powerful dose of knowledge! We hope you found the word you were looking for and that the SEO Dictionary did its job. 😀
If you have found a phrase that we have not included here, please let us know in the comments, we will be happy to add it so that future users have a complete knowledge base.
If you'd like, you can download our SEO Dictionary in PDF format to read over coffee or look up a specific phrase whenever you need it. You can also take it with you, for example, to a meeting with an SEO specialist, so that if something unexplained arises, you can easily find it in the SEO Dictionary.
FAQs about SEO Dictionary
- Organic results are unpaid search engine results. Google displays them based on advanced algorithms that assess the quality and relevance of a page to a search query.
- Paid results (PPC/Google Ads) are ad slots marked as "Sponsored." Their positioning depends on the advertiser's budget and bid-per-click.
- SERP (Search Engine Results Page): This is simply the search results page you see on Google after entering any phrase.
- SXO (Search Experience Optimization): A modern approach that combines traditional SEO (technical traffic attraction) with UX (User Experience Optimization), the goal of which is to lead to conversions once the customer is on the website.
Algorithms (e.g., the former Panda, Penguin, and the current Core Updates) are sets of rules and mathematical formulas that Google uses to evaluate and rank websites. They change regularly to eliminate worthless spam from results and best match content to user intent (Search Intent).
These are HTML tags visible directly in search engine results (SERPs):
- Title: The title of the page (blue link), which is one of the most important ranking factors for robots.
- Description: A short description below the link. It doesn't directly impact position, but it determines click-through rate (CTR) – it encourages users to visit the page.
- Crawling: This is the process by which web robots (e.g. Googlebot) crawl the internet and technically visit your website by reading its code.
- Indexing: This is the next step – saving and adding the crawled page to Google's massive database (index). A page that isn't indexed will never appear in search results.
- Robots.txt: A text file that instructs robots which sections or folders on a website they should not visit and scan.
- Sitemap.xml: A digital directory of all the important pages on your website. It acts like a travel guide, helping Google crawlers quickly find and index all your content.
This is a tag in the page's code that indicates to search engines which version of a given page is the original and superior version. It is used to avoid duplicate content when the same product or item is available on several different URLs (a common occurrence in online stores with filters).
Summary
The above article covers the following topics:
- a practical explanation of the concepts used by SEO specialists and internet marketing agencies.
