# SEO and GEO Glossary (English)

> 792 SEO and GEO terms in English, each with a short definition, explanation and sources. A project of searchVIU.

Links point to the Markdown version of each term page. The HTML page is at the same URL without `index.md`. Grouped by category and topic.

## Basics & Search Engines

### SEO basics

- [Black hat SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/black-hat-seo/index.md): Black hat SEO means optimization techniques that violate the guidelines of a search engine in order to improve rankings through deception.
- [Enterprise SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/enterprise-seo/index.md): Enterprise SEO is search engine optimization for large organizations.
- [Grey hat SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/grey-hat-seo/index.md): Grey hat SEO is industry slang for optimization tactics placed between white hat SEO (within search engine guidelines) and black hat SEO …
- [Off-page SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/off-page-seo/index.md): Off-page SEO covers activities and signals outside your own website that affect how a site performs in search.
- [On-page SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/on-page-seo/index.md): On-page SEO covers all optimizations made directly on the pages of your own website, including content, HTML elements, structure and …
- [Programmatic SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/programmatic-seo/index.md): Programmatic SEO is the automated creation of many pages from structured data and a page template, for example one page per city, per …
- [Search everywhere optimization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-everywhere-optimization/index.md): Search everywhere optimization is a marketing term for making content findable wherever people search, not only on Google.
- [SEM (search engine marketing)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sem/index.md): SEM stands for search engine marketing, meaning the promotion of a website through search engines.
- [SEO (search engine optimization)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo/index.md): SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of improving a website so it is found more often in the unpaid, organic results of search …
- [Technical SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/technical-seo/index.md): Technical SEO is the part of search engine optimization that makes sure search engines can fetch, render and index a website.
- [White hat SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/white-hat-seo/index.md): White hat SEO is search engine optimization that stays within the guidelines of search engines.

### Search engines & search

- [How Google Search works](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/how-google-search-works/index.md): Google Search is a fully automated search engine that uses software called web crawlers to find pages for its index.
- [Information retrieval](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/information-retrieval/index.md): Information retrieval (IR) is finding material, usually documents, of an unstructured nature, usually text, that satisfies an information …
- [Metasearch engine](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/metasearch-engine/index.md): A metasearch engine sends a query to several other search engines at once and merges their results into one list.
- [Organic search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/organic-search/index.md): Organic search refers to the results a search engine ranks on its own and that nobody pays to place.
- [Search algorithm](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-algorithm/index.md): A search algorithm is the set of rules a search engine uses to select pages for a query and put them in order.
- [Search engine](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-engine/index.md): A search engine is a program that finds documents for a query and sorts them by estimated relevance.
- [Search engine submission](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-engine-submission/index.md): Search engine submission means registering a website with a search engine so that it appears in results. (historical)
- [Search intent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-intent/index.md): Search intent (also user intent) is the goal a person has when typing a query into a search engine.
- [Search operators](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-operators/index.md): Search operators are characters and keywords, such as quotation marks or site:, that narrow a query in a search engine.
- [Search query](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-query/index.md): A search query is the input a person gives a search engine to find information, usually typed words, but also spoken questions or images.
- [SERP (search engine results page)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/serp/index.md): SERP stands for search engine results page, the page a search engine such as Google or Bing shows in response to a query.
- [Web directory](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-directory/index.md): A web directory is an online catalog of websites organized into categories and subcategories. (historical)

### Rankings & visibility

- [Organic traffic](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/organic-traffic/index.md): Organic traffic is the visits to a website that come from unpaid links in search results.
- [Ranking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ranking/index.md): Ranking in SEO is the order in which a search engine such as Google lists results for a query.
- [Ranking factors](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ranking-factors/index.md): Ranking factors are the signals search engines use to order pages for a query.
- [Search visibility](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-visibility/index.md): Search visibility (also SEO visibility) describes how often and how prominently a website appears in search results for relevant queries.
- [Zero-click search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/zero-click-search/index.md): A zero-click search is a search that ends without a click on any result.

### Google & Bing for site owners

- [Bing Webmaster Tools](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bing-webmaster-tools/index.md): Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's platform for site owners to monitor how their website performs in Bing.
- [Google Search Central](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-search-central/index.md): Google Search Central is Google's official source of guidance for people who build and maintain websites for Google Search.
- [Google Search Essentials](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-search-essentials/index.md): Google Search Essentials is the name of Google's guidelines for websites in web search.
- [Google Search Status Dashboard](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-search-status-dashboard/index.md): The Google Search Status Dashboard is a status page where Google reports widespread issues and ranking updates affecting Google Search.
- [Webmaster](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/webmaster/index.md): A webmaster is a person responsible for maintaining one or more websites.

### Strategy & planning

- [Customer journey](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/customer-journey/index.md): The customer journey is the sequence of touchpoints a person has with a brand, from first contact through research and purchase to the …
- [Niche keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/niche-keyword/index.md): A niche keyword is a specific search term for a narrow topic or a small audience.
- [Seed keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seed-keyword/index.md): A seed keyword is a short, broad term that a keyword research process starts from.
- [SEO audit](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-audit/index.md): An SEO audit, also called an SEO analysis, is a systematic review of a website that checks how well search engines can crawl, index, and …
- [SEO governance](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-governance/index.md): SEO governance describes the rules, roles and checks an organization uses to keep SEO requirements in place while many teams change the …
- [SEO KPIs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-kpis/index.md): SEO KPIs (also called SEO metrics when no goal is attached) are measurements that show whether search optimization is reaching a defined …
- [SEO ROI](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-roi/index.md): SEO ROI is the return on investment of search engine optimization: the revenue attributed to organic search, minus the cost of SEO …
- [SEO strategy](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-strategy/index.md): An SEO strategy is the plan that defines how a website will improve its visibility in search.

## Technical SEO

### HTTP status codes

- [5xx server errors](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/5xx-server-errors/index.md): 5xx server errors are HTTP status codes from 500 to 599.
- [200 OK](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/200-ok/index.md): The status code 200 OK means that an HTTP request has succeeded.
- [304 Not Modified](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/304-not-modified/index.md): 304 Not Modified is an HTTP status code that tells a client its cached copy of a resource is still current, so the server does not send …
- [401 Unauthorized](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/401-unauthorized/index.md): The HTTP status code 401 Unauthorized means a request lacks valid authentication credentials for the requested resource.
- [403 Forbidden](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/403-forbidden/index.md): 403 Forbidden is an HTTP status code in the 4xx class.
- [404 error](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/404-error/index.md): A 404 error (404 Not Found) is the HTTP status code a server returns when it finds nothing at the requested URL.
- [410 Gone](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/410-gone/index.md): 410 Gone is an HTTP status code that says a resource is no longer available on the server and that this is likely to be permanent.
- [429 Too Many Requests](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/429-too-many-requests/index.md): The HTTP status code 429 Too Many Requests means a client has sent too many requests in a given time.
- [451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/451-unavailable-for-legal-reasons/index.md): 451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons is an HTTP status code that signals the server denies access to a resource because of a legal demand.
- [500 Internal Server Error](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/500-internal-server-error/index.md): A 500 Internal Server Error is a generic HTTP server error.
- [502 Bad Gateway](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/502-bad-gateway/index.md): The HTTP status code 502 Bad Gateway means a server acting as a gateway or proxy received an invalid response from an upstream server …
- [503 Service Unavailable](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/503-service-unavailable/index.md): The HTTP status code 503 Service Unavailable means the server is not ready to handle the request.
- [504 Gateway Timeout](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/504-gateway-timeout/index.md): The HTTP status code 504 Gateway Timeout means a server acting as a gateway or proxy did not receive a timely response from the upstream …
- [Broken link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/broken-link/index.md): A broken link is a hyperlink whose target cannot be loaded, usually because the target page returns an error such as 404 or does not …
- [Custom 404 page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/custom-404-page/index.md): A custom 404 page is the page a server shows when a requested URL does not exist, designed to help visitors continue.
- [Dead-end pages](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dead-end-pages/index.md): Dead-end pages are pages where a visitor has no obvious next step, because no link or call to action leads onward.
- [HTTP status code](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-status-code/index.md): An HTTP status code is the three-digit number a web server sends with every response.

### Redirects

- [301 redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/301-redirect/index.md): A 301 redirect is a server response with the HTTP status code 301 Moved Permanently.
- [302 redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/302-redirect/index.md): A 302 redirect (status code 302 Found) tells browsers and crawlers that a resource is temporarily available at a different URL, given in …
- [307 redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/307-redirect/index.md): A 307 redirect (Temporary Redirect) is an HTTP status code that sends a client to another URL for a limited time.
- [308 redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/308-redirect/index.md): A 308 redirect (Permanent Redirect) is an HTTP status code for a permanent move.
- [JavaScript redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/javascript-redirect/index.md): A JavaScript redirect is a redirect that the browser carries out with a script, usually by setting window.location.
- [Meta refresh](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-refresh/index.md): Meta refresh is an HTML <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tag that tells the browser to reload the page or load another URL after a set number …
- [Redirect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/redirect/index.md): A redirect sends browsers and crawlers that request one URL automatically to a different URL.
- [Redirect chain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/redirect-chain/index.md): A redirect chain is a sequence of two or more redirects between the requested URL and the final page, for example A to B to C. A single …
- [Redirect loop](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/redirect-loop/index.md): A redirect loop exists when URLs redirect to each other in a circle, for example A to B and B back to A. The target page is never reached …

### URLs & domains

- [ccTLD](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cctld/index.md): A ccTLD (country code top-level domain) is a top-level domain with two letters that is assigned to a country or territory, such as .de for …
- [Domain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/domain/index.md): A domain name is a text label such as example.com that identifies a host on the internet and maps, through the Domain Name System (DNS) …
- [Dynamic URL](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dynamic-url/index.md): A dynamic URL contains parameters that the server evaluates before it returns the page, for example /product?id=12&color=red.
- [Fragment identifier](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/fragment-identifier/index.md): A fragment identifier is the last part of a URL, starting with the # character.
- [Mirror site](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mirror-site/index.md): A mirror site is a replica of a website hosted on a different server under a different URL.
- [Query string](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/query-string/index.md): The query string is the part of a URL that starts with a question mark (?) and carries additional data as key and value pairs.
- [SEO-friendly URL](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-friendly-url/index.md): An SEO-friendly URL (also called a clean or readable URL) is an address that uses readable words to describe the page, so people and …
- [Session IDs in URLs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/session-ids-in-urls/index.md): A session ID in a URL is an identifier that links requests to one visitor session and is appended to the address, for example ?sid=a1b2c3.
- [Static URL](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/static-url/index.md): A static URL is an address without parameters, for example /shoes/sneakers.
- [Subdirectory](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/subdirectory/index.md): A subdirectory (also called a subfolder) is a section of a website that sits in the path of the same domain, for example example.com/blog/.
- [Subdomain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/subdomain/index.md): A subdomain is a name placed in front of a domain, separated by a dot, for example blog in blog.example.com.
- [Top-level domain (TLD)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/top-level-domain/index.md): A top-level domain (TLD) is the last label of a domain name, the part after the final dot, for example com in example.com.
- [Trailing slash](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/trailing-slash/index.md): A trailing slash is the forward slash at the end of a URL, as in https://example.com/foo/.
- [URL](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url/index.md): A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of a unique resource on the web, such as an HTML page, an image or a document.
- [URL case sensitivity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-case-sensitivity/index.md): URL case sensitivity describes whether uppercase and lowercase letters in a URL count as different.
- [URL hijacking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-hijacking/index.md): URL hijacking is another name for typosquatting: registering domains that differ from a well-known brand's address only by a typing …
- [URL parameters](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-parameters/index.md): URL parameters are key and value pairs added to a URL after a question mark.
- [URL structure](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-structure/index.md): URL structure is the way a website builds its addresses: protocol, host, path, and optional parameters.
- [UTM parameters](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/utm-parameters/index.md): UTM parameters are tags added to the end of a URL, such as utm_source and utm_medium, that tell an analytics tool which campaign, channel …
- [Vanity URL](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/vanity-url/index.md): A vanity URL is a short, memorable web address that leads to a longer or more technical destination URL.
- [WHOIS](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/whois/index.md): WHOIS is a protocol and service for looking up registration data about domains and IP addresses, such as the registrar, name servers and …
- [www vs. non-www](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/www-vs-non-www/index.md): www vs. non-www is the choice between www.example.com and example.com as the main address of a website.

### Servers, HTTP & caching

- [Browser caching](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/browser-caching/index.md): Browser caching (also called HTTP caching) means that a browser stores a copy of a response, such as an image, stylesheet or script, and …
- [Cache-Control](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cache-control/index.md): Cache-Control is an HTTP header that tells browsers and shared caches such as CDNs whether and for how long they may store a response.
- [CDN (content delivery network)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cdn/index.md): A CDN (content delivery network) is a geographically distributed network of servers that stores copies of a website's files and delivers …
- [ETag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/etag/index.md): An ETag (entity tag) is an HTTP response header that identifies a specific version of a resource.
- [HSTS](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hsts/index.md): HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) is a security mechanism that tells browsers to access a host only over HTTPS for a set period.
- [.htaccess](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/htaccess/index.md): .htaccess is a plain-text configuration file for the Apache web server.
- [HTTP/2](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-2/index.md): HTTP/2 is the second major version of the HTTP protocol, standardized in RFC 9113 (the current revision, which replaces RFC 7540).
- [HTTP/3](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-3/index.md): HTTP/3 is the third major version of the HTTP protocol, standardized as RFC 9114 in June 2022.
- [HTTP header](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-header/index.md): An HTTP header is a name-value pair that a client or server sends along with an HTTP request or response to pass extra information, such …
- [HTTP Link header](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-link-header/index.md): The HTTP Link header is a response header that expresses links between resources, with the same meaning as the HTML <link> element.
- [HTTPS](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/https/index.md): HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is the HTTP protocol sent over an encrypted TLS connection.
- [IP address](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ip-address/index.md): An IP address is a numeric label that identifies a device or server in a network that uses the Internet Protocol, and it tells other …
- [IPv6](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ipv6/index.md): IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is the successor of IPv4 and is specified in RFC 8200.
- [Last-Modified header](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/last-modified-header/index.md): The Last-Modified header is an HTTP response header with the date and time the server believes a resource was last changed.
- [Mixed content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mixed-content/index.md): Mixed content occurs when a page loaded over HTTPS includes resources, such as images, scripts or stylesheets, that are fetched over …
- [Reverse DNS lookup](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/reverse-dns-lookup/index.md): A reverse DNS lookup (rDNS) is a DNS query that finds the hostname belonging to an IP address.
- [Server configuration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/server-configuration/index.md): Server configuration, in an SEO context, means the settings of a web server such as nginx or Apache that decide how requests are answered.
- [Server response time](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/server-response-time/index.md): Server response time is the time a server needs to answer a request.
- [SSL/TLS certificate](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ssl-tls-certificate/index.md): An SSL/TLS certificate is a digital file that binds a public key to a domain name, so that a browser can check it is talking to the right …
- [Vary header](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/vary-header/index.md): The Vary header is an HTTP response header that lists which request headers influenced the response, so that caches store and serve each …
- [Web application firewall](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-application-firewall/index.md): A web application firewall (WAF) inspects the HTTP and HTTPS traffic that reaches a website or web application and blocks suspicious …
- [Web hosting and SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-hosting-and-seo/index.md): Web hosting is the infrastructure that serves a website.

### HTML, mobile & accessibility

- [AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/amp/index.md): AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is an open-source framework for fast-loading web pages, announced by Google in 2015. (historical)
- [Anchor element](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/anchor-element/index.md): The anchor element <a>, often called anchor tag, creates a hyperlink in HTML.
- [BFSG (German Accessibility Act)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bfsg/index.md): The BFSG (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, German Accessibility Act) of July 16, 2021 sets accessibility requirements for certain …
- [Cloaking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cloaking/index.md): Cloaking in SEO means serving search engine crawlers different content than human visitors under the same URL.
- [Crawlable links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawlable-links/index.md): Crawlable links are links that a crawler can follow reliably.
- [Dynamic serving](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dynamic-serving/index.md): Dynamic serving is a mobile configuration in which one URL returns different HTML depending on the device.
- [HTML](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/html/index.md): HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the markup language that defines the meaning and structure of web content.
- [HTML head](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/html-head/index.md): The HTML head, written as the <head> element, holds machine-readable metadata about a document.
- [HTML validation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/html-validation/index.md): HTML validation, often called W3C validation, checks whether a page's markup follows the rules of the HTML specification.
- [iframe](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/iframe/index.md): An iframe (inline frame) is an HTML element that embeds another HTML document in the current page, for example a video player, a map or a …
- [indexifembedded](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/indexifembedded/index.md): indexifembedded is a robots rule that lets Google index the content of a page when that content is embedded in another page through an …
- [Infinite scroll](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/infinite-scroll/index.md): Infinite scroll is a design pattern where new content loads automatically as a visitor scrolls down, so there is no click to a second page.
- [max-image-preview](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/max-image-preview/index.md): max-image-preview is a robots rule that sets the largest size in which Google may show an image from a page as a preview.
- [Mobile-friendliness](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mobile-friendliness/index.md): Mobile-friendliness describes how easy a website is to read and use on a smartphone.
- [Pagination](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pagination/index.md): Pagination on the web splits a long list across several numbered pages, such as the products of a store category, blog archives, or search …
- [Progressive web app (PWA)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/progressive-web-app/index.md): A progressive web app (PWA) is an app built with web technologies that can be installed and used like a platform-specific app, partly even …
- [rel=next / rel=prev](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rel-next-rel-prev/index.md): rel=next and rel=prev are link relations that mark a page as part of a series and point to the following and preceding page, for example … (historical)
- [Responsive design](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/responsive-design/index.md): Responsive design is a web design approach in which one URL and one HTML document serve every device, while CSS adapts the layout to the …
- [Semantic HTML](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/semantic-html/index.md): Semantic HTML means choosing HTML elements by what they mean instead of how they look.
- [Separate mobile URLs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/separate-mobile-urls/index.md): Separate mobile URLs are a mobile setup where desktop and phone visitors receive different HTML at different URLs, usually on a subdomain …
- [Viewport meta tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/viewport-meta-tag/index.md): The viewport meta tag (<meta name="viewport">) gives browsers hints about how to size and scale the visible area of a page, mainly on …
- [WCAG](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/wcag/index.md): The WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are the W3C's technical standard for accessible web content.
- [Web accessibility](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-accessibility/index.md): Web accessibility means that websites, tools and technologies are designed so that people with disabilities can use them.
- [XML](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/xml/index.md): XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a text-based format that describes data in nested elements with self-defined tags.

### CMS, operations & special files

- [ads.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ads-txt/index.md): ads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is a public text file that lets publishers declare which companies may sell their digital ad inventory.
- [CMS (content management system)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cms/index.md): A CMS (content management system) is software for creating, editing, managing and publishing digital content, usually website content …
- [Favicon](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/favicon/index.md): A favicon (favorite icon) is the small icon of a website.
- [Hacked site](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hacked-site/index.md): A hacked site is a website on which third parties have placed content, code or redirects without permission.
- [Headless CMS](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/headless-cms/index.md): A headless CMS is a content management system that stores and manages content and delivers it through an API, without producing web pages …
- [humans.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/humans-txt/index.md): humans.txt is a text file in the root of a website that names the people who built it, such as developers, designers and writers.
- [Maintenance mode](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/maintenance-mode/index.md): Maintenance mode (SEO meaning: a website temporarily shows a notice page while work is done) should answer with HTTP status 503 Service …
- [Password protection (Basic Auth)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/password-protection/index.md): Password protection, in the website sense, means locking a site or directory behind a username and password, most often with HTTP Basic …
- [security.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/security-txt/index.md): security.txt is a plain text file in which an organization states how to report security vulnerabilities on its website.
- [Staging environment](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/staging-environment/index.md): A staging environment (also called a dev or test environment) is a copy of a website or application where changes are tested before they …

## Crawling & Indexing

### Crawlers & bots

- [Bad bots](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bad-bots/index.md): Bad bots (also called rogue bots) are automated programs that access a website against the operator's wishes or ignore its rules.
- [Bingbot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bingbot/index.md): Bingbot is the web crawler of Microsoft Bing.
- [DuckDuckBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/duckduckbot/index.md): DuckDuckBot is the web crawler of the DuckDuckGo search engine.
- [Googlebot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/googlebot/index.md): Googlebot is the web crawler of Google Search.
- [Googlebot Smartphone](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/googlebot-smartphone/index.md): Googlebot Smartphone is the mobile version of Googlebot, Google's crawler for Search.
- [Google-InspectionTool](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-inspectiontool/index.md): Google-InspectionTool is a Google crawler used by testing tools for Search, including the Rich Results Test and the URL Inspection tool in …
- [GoogleOther](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/googleother/index.md): GoogleOther is a generic crawler from Google that product teams can use to fetch publicly accessible content.
- [User agent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-agent/index.md): The user agent is the software that makes a request to a web server on behalf of a user, and the name of its HTTP request header.
- [Web crawler](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-crawler/index.md): A web crawler (also called a crawler, spider, or bot) is a program that automatically fetches web pages and follows the links on them to …

### Crawling & crawl budget

- [Crawl budget](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-budget/index.md): Crawl budget is the amount of time and resources Google's crawlers spend on a site.
- [Crawl demand](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-demand/index.md): Crawl demand is the part of crawl budget that describes how much a crawler wants to crawl a site.
- [Crawl depth](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-depth/index.md): Crawl depth, also called click depth, is the number of link steps between a starting point and a URL.
- [Crawl errors](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-errors/index.md): Crawl errors are problems that keep a crawler from fetching a URL or a whole site, for example server errors, missing pages or failed DNS …
- [Crawler trap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawler-trap/index.md): A crawler trap (also called a spider trap) is, in SEO, a part of a website where a crawler keeps finding new URLs that add little or no …
- [Crawling](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawling/index.md): Crawling is the automated fetching of web pages by a program called a crawler.
- [Crawl rate](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-rate/index.md): Crawl rate is the number of requests a crawler sends to a website within a given period of time.
- [DNS](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dns/index.md): DNS (Domain Name System) translates domain names such as example.com into IP addresses so that browsers and crawlers can reach the right …
- [Focused crawling](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/focused-crawling/index.md): Focused crawling is a crawling strategy that fetches only pages relevant to a specific topic instead of covering the whole web.
- [Fresh crawl / deep crawl](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/fresh-crawl-deep-crawl/index.md): Fresh crawl and deep crawl are historical terms from Google's early years. (historical)
- [Orphan page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/orphan-page/index.md): An orphan page is a URL on a website that no other page of the same site links to.
- [Recrawl](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/recrawl/index.md): A recrawl is a crawler fetching a URL it already knows again so that changes reach the index.
- [URL discovery](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-discovery/index.md): URL discovery is the step in which a search engine learns that a URL exists, before it fetches the page.

### robots.txt & robots directives

- [Crawl-delay](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-delay/index.md): Crawl-delay is a robots.txt directive that asks a crawler to wait between requests.
- [Crawler directives](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawler-directives/index.md): Crawler directives are instructions that tell search engine bots how to fetch and process a website.
- [data-nosnippet](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/data-nosnippet/index.md): data-nosnippet is an HTML attribute that marks a section of text on a page as off limits for snippets in search results.
- [Disallow directive](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/disallow-directive/index.md): Disallow is a rule in a robots.txt file that tells a crawler not to fetch URLs whose paths begin with a given value.
- [max-snippet](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/max-snippet/index.md): max-snippet is a robots rule that sets the maximum length of a text snippet in search results, counted in characters.
- [Meta robots tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-robots-tag/index.md): The meta robots tag is an HTML element in the <head> of a page that tells search engines how to handle that page.
- [noarchive](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/noarchive/index.md): noarchive is a robots rule that used to stop Google from showing a cached link to a saved copy of a page in search results. (historical)
- [nofollow](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nofollow/index.md): nofollow is a value that tells search engines not to follow a link or all links on a page.
- [noimageindex](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/noimageindex/index.md): noimageindex is a robots rule that tells Google not to index the images on the page where it appears.
- [noindex](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/noindex/index.md): noindex is a rule that tells search engines not to show a page or file in their search results.
- [nosnippet](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nosnippet/index.md): nosnippet is a robots rule that tells a search engine not to show a text snippet or video preview for a page.
- [Paywalled content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/paywalled-content/index.md): Paywalled content is content that is fully visible only after payment, subscription or registration.
- [Robots Exclusion Protocol](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/robots-exclusion-protocol/index.md): The Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP) is the standard that lets site owners tell crawlers, through a robots.txt file, which parts of a site …
- [robots.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/robots-txt/index.md): robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of a host that tells crawlers which URLs they may request.
- [unavailable_after](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/unavailable-after/index.md): unavailable_after is a robots rule that gives Google a date and time after which a page should no longer appear in search results.
- [X-Robots-Tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/x-robots-tag/index.md): The X-Robots-Tag is an HTTP response header that passes indexing and serving rules for a URL to search engines.

### Canonicals & duplicate content

- [Canonicalization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/canonicalization/index.md): Canonicalization in SEO is the process of choosing one preferred URL when the same or very similar content is reachable under several URLs.
- [Canonical tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/canonical-tag/index.md): A canonical tag is a <link rel="canonical"> element in the <head> of a page that names the preferred URL when the same or very similar …
- [Cross-domain canonical](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cross-domain-canonical/index.md): A cross-domain canonical is a rel="canonical" link that points to a URL on a different domain.
- [Duplicate content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/duplicate-content/index.md): Duplicate content is identical or very similar content that can be reached at more than one URL, either within one website or across …
- [Index bloat](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/index-bloat/index.md): In SEO, index bloat means a website has many more URLs in a search engine's index than are useful for searchers.
- [Near-duplicate content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/near-duplicate-content/index.md): Near-duplicate content is the SEO term (general usage, not a Google definition) for pages whose content is very similar to other pages …
- [Self-referencing canonical](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/self-referencing-canonical/index.md): A self-referencing canonical is a rel="canonical" link whose target is the URL of the page it sits on.

### Sitemaps & feeds

- [Google Indexing API](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-indexing-api/index.md): The Google Indexing API is an interface that lets site owners notify Google directly when a page is added, updated or removed.
- [HTML sitemap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/html-sitemap/index.md): An HTML sitemap is an ordinary page on a website that lists links to its content so visitors can find their way around.
- [Image sitemap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/image-sitemap/index.md): An image sitemap is an XML sitemap that gives Google additional image URLs for a page.
- [IndexNow](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/indexnow/index.md): IndexNow is an open protocol that lets a website tell participating search engines which URLs were added, updated or deleted, so crawlers …
- [lastmod](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lastmod/index.md): lastmod is an optional field in an XML sitemap that states when the content of a URL last changed.
- [News sitemap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/news-sitemap/index.md): A news sitemap is an XML sitemap with extra details for news articles.
- [RSS/Atom feed](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rss-feed/index.md): An RSS feed or Atom feed is an XML file that lists the latest content of a website in a machine-readable form, usually with title, link …
- [Sitemap index](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sitemap-index/index.md): A sitemap index is an XML file that lists several individual sitemaps.
- [Video sitemap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/video-sitemap/index.md): A video sitemap is an XML sitemap with extra details about videos embedded on pages of a site.
- [XML sitemap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/xml-sitemap/index.md): An XML sitemap is a file in XML format that lists the URLs of a website a search engine should crawl and index, optionally with the date …

### Indexing & index status

- [Crawlability](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawlability/index.md): Crawlability describes whether a crawler such as Googlebot can reach and fetch a URL.
- [Crawled – currently not indexed](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawled-currently-not-indexed/index.md): Crawled - currently not indexed is a status in the Page indexing report of Google Search Console.
- [Deindexing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/deindexing/index.md): Deindexing means a URL is removed from a search engine's index and no longer shows in its results.
- [Discovered – currently not indexed](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/discovered-currently-not-indexed/index.md): Discovered - currently not indexed is a status in the Page indexing report of Google Search Console.
- [Google cache](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-cache/index.md): Google cache was a Google Search feature that showed the copy of a page Google had stored. (historical)
- [Google Caffeine](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-caffeine/index.md): Google Caffeine is the name of a web indexing system that Google announced in June 2010. (historical)
- [Indexability](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/indexability/index.md): Indexability describes whether a URL is technically allowed to be added to a search index.
- [Index coverage](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/index-coverage/index.md): Index coverage is the indexing status of the URLs of a site in Google Search Console.
- [Indexed pages](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/indexed-pages/index.md): Indexed pages are URLs that Google has crawled, processed and added to its index.
- [Indexing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/indexing/index.md): Indexing, in SEO, is the step in which a search engine analyzes a crawled page and stores it in its index, the database it draws search …
- [Mobile-first indexing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mobile-first-indexing/index.md): Mobile-first indexing means that Google uses the mobile version of a site's content, crawled with the smartphone user agent, for indexing …
- [Removals tool](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/removals-tool/index.md): The Removals tool in Google Search Console lets site owners temporarily hide their own URLs from Google Search results.
- [Rendering queue](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rendering-queue/index.md): The rendering queue is, in SEO, the waiting list where Google places crawled pages until it renders them with JavaScript.
- [Request indexing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/request-indexing/index.md): Request indexing is a function of the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console that asks Google to crawl a single URL.
- [Search index](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-index/index.md): A search index is the database in which a search engine stores what it has learned about the pages it crawled.
- [Soft 404](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/soft-404/index.md): A soft 404 is a URL that returns a success status code (usually 200) while its content looks like an error page or an empty page.
- [URL inspection tool](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-inspection-tool/index.md): The URL Inspection tool is a feature of Google Search Console that shows how Google has indexed a single URL and how Google can fetch and …

## Rendering & JavaScript

### Rendering methods

- [Client-side rendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/client-side-rendering/index.md): Client-side rendering (CSR) is a technique in which JavaScript builds the HTML of a page in the browser.
- [Dynamic rendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dynamic-rendering/index.md): Dynamic rendering is, in the SEO sense, a setup in which a server detects crawlers and serves them a server-rendered HTML version, while … (historical)
- [Edge SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/edge-seo/index.md): Edge SEO, also called serverless SEO, means, according to Patrick Stox, making technical SEO changes at the CDN or in an edge worker …
- [Hydration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hydration/index.md): Hydration is the step in which JavaScript in the browser attaches event handlers and application state to HTML that a server already …
- [Incremental static regeneration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/incremental-static-regeneration/index.md): Incremental static regeneration (ISR) is a caching strategy that serves pre-rendered static pages and regenerates them in the background …
- [Prerendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/prerendering/index.md): Prerendering means rendering a page ahead of time instead of when someone requests it.
- [Rendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rendering/index.md): In SEO and web development, rendering is the process in which a browser or crawler turns HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into the finished page …
- [Server-side rendering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/server-side-rendering/index.md): Server-side rendering (SSR) means the server generates the HTML of a page when a request arrives and sends the finished markup to the …
- [Static site generation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/static-site-generation/index.md): Static site generation (SSG) means a site's HTML files are created once when the site is built, not when a visitor requests a page.

### JavaScript & frameworks

- [AJAX](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ajax/index.md): AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a technique where a web page requests data from the server in the background and updates only …
- [Hash URLs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hash-urls/index.md): Hash URLs with #!, also called hashbang URLs, are an address form from the early AJAX era in which a JavaScript application stores the … (historical)
- [History API](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/history-api/index.md): The History API is a browser interface through which JavaScript reads and changes the session history of a tab.
- [JavaScript frameworks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/javascript-frameworks/index.md): JavaScript frameworks such as React, Angular, and Vue are toolkits for building interactive web interfaces from reusable components.
- [JavaScript SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/javascript-seo/index.md): JavaScript SEO is the work of making sure search engines can crawl, render, and index content, links, and metadata that a page creates or …
- [Lazy loading](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lazy-loading/index.md): Lazy loading means that non-critical resources such as images, iframes or scripts load only when they are needed, for example when they …
- [Shadow DOM](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/shadow-dom/index.md): The shadow DOM is an encapsulated subtree of the DOM that is attached to a regular element on a page.
- [Single-page application](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/single-page-application/index.md): A single-page application (SPA) is a web app that loads a single HTML document and then updates the content with JavaScript when another …
- [Web components](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-components/index.md): Web components are a set of browser standards for creating reusable custom HTML elements with their own behavior and styling.

### How search engines render

- [Blocked resources](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/blocked-resources/index.md): Blocked resources are CSS, JavaScript, image, and other files that a crawler is not allowed to fetch while rendering a page, usually …
- [DOM](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dom/index.md): The Document Object Model (DOM) is the structure a browser builds in memory from a web page.
- [Headless browser](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/headless-browser/index.md): A headless browser is a web browser that runs without a visible user interface and is controlled through code or the command line.
- [Raw HTML / source code](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/raw-html-source-code/index.md): Raw HTML is the source code of a web page as the server delivers it in the HTTP response, before a browser or crawler has run any …
- [Render-blocking resources](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/render-blocking-resources/index.md): Render-blocking resources are files, mostly CSS and JavaScript, that the browser has to load and process before it can display page content.
- [Rendered HTML](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rendered-html/index.md): Rendered HTML is the markup of a page after JavaScript has run, in other words the current state of the DOM.
- [Web Rendering Service](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-rendering-service/index.md): The Web Rendering Service (WRS) is the component of Google Search that renders pages and executes their JavaScript.

## Performance & Core Web Vitals

### Core Web Vitals & metrics

- [Core Web Vitals](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/core-web-vitals/index.md): Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to describe the user experience of a web page.
- [Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cumulative-layout-shift/index.md): Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a Core Web Vitals metric for visual stability. web.dev defines it as the largest burst of layout shift …
- [First Contentful Paint (FCP)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/first-contentful-paint/index.md): First Contentful Paint (FCP) is a performance metric for the time between the start of navigation and the moment the first piece of …
- [First Input Delay (FID)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/first-input-delay/index.md): First Input Delay (FID) was a Core Web Vitals metric. (historical)
- [Interaction to Next Paint (INP)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/interaction-to-next-paint/index.md): Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a Core Web Vitals metric for how quickly a page responds.
- [Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/largest-contentful-paint/index.md): Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a Core Web Vitals metric for loading speed.
- [Page experience](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/page-experience/index.md): Page experience is Google's term for the signals that show how pleasant a page is for visitors.
- [Speed Index](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/speed-index/index.md): Speed Index is a lab metric for page speed.
- [Time to First Byte (TTFB)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/time-to-first-byte/index.md): Time to First Byte (TTFB) is the time between the start of navigation to a page and the moment the first byte of the response arrives. …
- [Total Blocking Time (TBT)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/total-blocking-time/index.md): Total Blocking Time (TBT) is a lab metric.

### Basics & measurement

- [Chrome UX Report (CrUX)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/chrome-ux-report/index.md): The Chrome UX Report (CrUX) is a public Google dataset that reflects how real Chrome users experience websites.
- [Field data vs. lab data](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/field-data-vs-lab-data/index.md): Field data is performance data collected from real visitors on their own devices and networks.
- [Lighthouse](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lighthouse/index.md): Lighthouse is, in the web context, an open-source, automated tool from Google that audits the quality of web pages.
- [Page speed](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/page-speed/index.md): Page speed is how quickly a web page loads, becomes visible, and responds to user input.
- [PageSpeed Insights](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pagespeed-insights/index.md): PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a free Google tool that analyzes the performance of a web page on mobile and desktop and suggests improvements.
- [Real user monitoring (RUM)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/real-user-monitoring/index.md): Real user monitoring (RUM) collects performance data from real visits to a website or app, using code that runs in the visitor's browser.
- [Web performance](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-performance/index.md): In web development, web performance is how quickly a website loads, becomes usable and reacts to input.

### Optimization

- [Back/forward cache](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/back-forward-cache/index.md): The back/forward cache (bfcache) is a browser optimization that keeps a complete snapshot of a page in memory when a user navigates away.
- [Compression (Gzip/Brotli)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/compression/index.md): HTTP compression is the process of shrinking text files such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript on the server before they travel over the network.
- [Critical CSS](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/critical-css/index.md): Critical CSS is the CSS needed to render the content that is visible without scrolling (above the fold).
- [DOM size](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dom-size/index.md): DOM size is the total number of elements in the Document Object Model of a web page, the in-memory tree the browser builds from the HTML.
- [fetchpriority](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/fetchpriority/index.md): fetchpriority is an HTML attribute that tells the browser how important a resource is compared to other resources of the same type.
- [Minification](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/minification/index.md): Minification is the process of removing unnecessary or redundant data from a resource without changing how the browser processes it (MDN).
- [Preload / preconnect](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/preload-preconnect/index.md): Preload, preconnect and prefetch are resource hints.
- [Speculation Rules API](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/speculation-rules-api/index.md): The Speculation Rules API lets a web page tell the browser which URLs a visitor will probably open next.
- [Third-party scripts](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/third-party-scripts/index.md): Third-party scripts are JavaScript files that a website loads from domains it does not control.
- [Web font loading](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-font-loading/index.md): Web font loading describes how a page fetches custom font files and what the browser shows while they download.

## On-Page & Content

### Titles, meta tags & snippets

- [Brand SERP](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/brand-serp/index.md): A brand SERP is the search results page that appears when someone searches for a brand or company name.
- [Meta description](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-description/index.md): A meta description is an HTML meta tag that summarizes a page's content in one or two sentences.
- [Meta keywords](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-keywords/index.md): The meta keywords tag is a meta element in the <head> of a page where site owners once listed keywords for the page. (historical)
- [Meta tags](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-tags/index.md): Meta tags are meta elements in the <head> of an HTML page.
- [Open Graph](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/open-graph/index.md): Open Graph is a protocol that defines how a web page is displayed when it is shared on social networks or in messaging apps.
- [Pixel width](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pixel-width/index.md): Pixel width is the horizontal space a title or meta description takes up in a search result.
- [Search snippet](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-snippet/index.md): In SEO, a search snippet is the short description shown below the title link of a search result.
- [Title links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/title-links/index.md): A title link is the clickable title of a result in Google Search.
- [Title rewrite](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/title-rewrite/index.md): A title rewrite happens when Google shows a different title in search results than the one in a page's <title> element.
- [Title tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/title-tag/index.md): A title tag is the HTML <title> element inside a page's <head>.
- [Twitter cards](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/twitter-cards/index.md): Twitter cards, now called X cards, are meta tags in a page's <head> that control how a shared link looks as a preview on X, with title …

### Headings, images & media

- [Above the fold](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/above-the-fold/index.md): Above the fold is the part of a web page that is visible in the browser window when the page loads, before anyone scrolls.
- [Alt text](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/alt-text/index.md): Alt text (alternative text) is a short written description of an image, placed in the alt attribute of an HTML img element.
- [Boilerplate content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/boilerplate-content/index.md): Boilerplate is standard text that is reused with little change in many documents.
- [Heading hierarchy](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/heading-hierarchy/index.md): Heading hierarchy is the outline of a page built from the HTML elements <h1> to <h6>.
- [Headings (H1–H6)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/headings/index.md): Headings (H1–H6) are the HTML elements <h1> through <h6> that name and structure the sections of a web page.
- [Image file names](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/image-file-names/index.md): An image file name is the name of the image file on the server, such as red-running-shoe.jpg.
- [Image SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/image-seo/index.md): Image SEO (image optimization) is the set of practices that help images appear in Google Search and Google Images while keeping page load …
- [PDF SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pdf-seo/index.md): PDF SEO covers measures that help PDF files appear in search results and display sensibly.
- [Text-to-HTML ratio](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/text-to-html-ratio/index.md): Text-to-HTML ratio (also code-to-text ratio) is the share of a page's HTML that is visible text.
- [Video SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/video-seo/index.md): Video SEO covers the steps that help videos get found, indexed and displayed in search engines: in regular Google Search, in Google Videos …
- [WebP / AVIF](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/webp-avif/index.md): WebP is an image format developed by Google for the web.
- [YouTube SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/youtube-seo/index.md): YouTube SEO is the optimization of videos and channels so they appear and get clicked more often in YouTube search and recommendations.

### Content quality

- [10x content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/10x-content/index.md): 10x content is an SEO industry concept for content that should be ten times better than the best result already ranking for a topic.
- [AI-generated content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-generated-content/index.md): AI-generated content is text, images, audio or video created fully or partly with generative AI.
- [Author bylines](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/author-bylines/index.md): An author byline is the line that names who wrote a piece of content.
- [Comment spam](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/comment-spam/index.md): Comment spam is unwanted posts under articles or in forums, usually generated automatically and carrying links to other sites.
- [Content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content/index.md): Content in SEO means everything on a website that users and search engines evaluate: text, images, video, audio and interactive elements …
- [Content quality](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-quality/index.md): In SEO, content quality describes how well a page serves what the searcher is looking for.
- [Content syndication](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-syndication/index.md): Content syndication means that content you already published appears again on one or more other websites, with your permission.
- [Doorway page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/doorway-page/index.md): Doorway page refers to a page built to rank for specific search queries that sends visitors on to a different destination.
- [E-E-A-T](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/e-e-a-t/index.md): E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
- [Gated content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/gated-content/index.md): Gated content is content that visitors can only access after a step such as filling in a form with a name and email address.
- [Helpful content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/helpful-content/index.md): Helpful content is content that Google describes as created primarily to benefit people rather than to attract search traffic. (historical)
- [People-first content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/people-first-content/index.md): People-first content is content written for people with a specific need and judged by how useful it is to them.
- [Readability](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/readability/index.md): Readability describes how easily readers can understand a written text.
- [Search Quality Rater Guidelines](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-quality-rater-guidelines/index.md): The Search Quality Rater Guidelines are Google's public handbook for the people who evaluate search results and web pages on its behalf …
- [Thin content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/thin-content/index.md): Thin content describes pages that give visitors little or no added value.
- [Unique content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/unique-content/index.md): Unique content is content that exists in this form on only one page and gives readers something of their own.
- [User-generated content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-generated-content/index.md): User-generated content (UGC) is content that users create instead of the site owner, such as reviews, forum posts, comments, photos and …
- [YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ymyl/index.md): YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) describes topics where inaccurate or misleading content could harm people.

### Content strategy & maintenance

- [Content audit](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-audit/index.md): A content audit is a systematic review of the content on a website to decide which pages to keep, update, consolidate or remove.
- [Content brief](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-brief/index.md): Content brief is a working document written before a text is produced.
- [Content decay](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-decay/index.md): Content decay is the gradual decline of rankings, impressions and clicks on a page that used to perform well.
- [Content freshness](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-freshness/index.md): Content freshness describes how current a piece of content is relative to a search query.
- [Content gap analysis](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-gap-analysis/index.md): Content gap analysis compares a website's content with what the audience searches for and what competitors cover, to find missing or weak …
- [Content hub](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-hub/index.md): A content hub is a section of a website that gathers content on one topic or for one audience and links it together.
- [Content marketing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-marketing/index.md): Content marketing is a marketing approach in which a company creates and distributes useful content to attract and keep a clearly defined …
- [Content pruning](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-pruning/index.md): Content pruning is the deliberate review of existing pages with the goal of updating, merging or removing those that perform poorly or are …
- [Content refresh](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-refresh/index.md): Content refresh means revising an existing page so that it matches current facts and the current search intent again.
- [Content strategy](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-strategy/index.md): A content strategy is the plan behind a website's content.
- [Cornerstone content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cornerstone-content/index.md): Cornerstone content is the term SEOs use for the most important pages or articles of a site on a core topic.
- [Editorial calendar](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/editorial-calendar/index.md): An editorial calendar is a schedule that lists which content gets published, on which date, in which channel and who is responsible for it.
- [Evergreen content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/evergreen-content/index.md): Evergreen content is content that stays relevant over a long period, so people keep searching for and reading it.
- [FAQ page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/faq-page/index.md): An FAQ page (FAQ stands for "frequently asked questions") collects questions customers often ask about a product, service or topic and …
- [Holistic content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/holistic-content/index.md): Holistic content is an SEO term for content that treats a topic comprehensively and covers the different questions and angles searchers …
- [Hub page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hub-page/index.md): A hub page is, in SEO, a page that collects links to the content on one topic.
- [Pillar page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pillar-page/index.md): A pillar page is a comprehensive page on a broad topic that links to more detailed pages and is linked back from them.
- [Topical authority](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/topical-authority/index.md): Topical authority is an SEO idea that a website becomes a trusted source on a subject when it covers that subject broadly and in depth.
- [Topical map](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/topical-map/index.md): Topical map has a geographic meaning (a map showing terrain), but in SEO it is a plan: an overview of the topics, subtopics and pages a …
- [Topic cluster](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/topic-cluster/index.md): A topic cluster is a group of pages on one website that together cover a main subject.

### On-page keywords & semantics

- [Entity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/entity/index.md): In SEO, an entity is a uniquely identifiable thing, such as a person, organization, place, product or concept, that search engines can …
- [Keyword cannibalization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-cannibalization/index.md): Keyword cannibalization happens when several pages of the same website target the same search query or intent and, according to reports …
- [Keyword density](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-density/index.md): Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a page compared to the total number of words.
- [Keyword proximity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-proximity/index.md): Keyword proximity is the distance between the words of a search phrase within a text, counted as the number of words that separate them.
- [Keyword stuffing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-stuffing/index.md): Keyword stuffing is the practice of filling a web page with keywords or numbers to manipulate rankings in Google Search results.
- [Latent semantic analysis](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/latent-semantic-analysis/index.md): Latent semantic analysis (LSA) is a statistical technique from natural language processing.
- [Lemmatization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lemmatization/index.md): Lemmatization is a natural language processing technique that reduces inflected word forms to their dictionary form, the lemma.
- [LSI keywords](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lsi-keywords/index.md): LSI keywords is an SEO term for words that relate to a main keyword, such as synonyms and neighboring concepts. (historical)
- [Semantic search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/semantic-search/index.md): Semantic search is a search method that interprets the meaning and intent of a query and returns results that match that meaning, even …
- [Stemming](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/stemming/index.md): Stemming is a method that reduces inflected or derived words to a common stem, so that "fishing," "fished" and "fisher" are all treated as …
- [TF-IDF](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/tf-idf/index.md): TF-IDF (term frequency–inverse document frequency) is a weighting method from information retrieval.
- [Topic modeling](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/topic-modeling/index.md): Topic modeling is a text-mining technique that finds the main themes in a large set of documents without labeled training data.

### Internal linking, structure & UX

- [Anchor text](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/anchor-text/index.md): Anchor text (link text) is the visible, clickable text of a link.
- [Breadcrumb navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/breadcrumb-navigation/index.md): Breadcrumb navigation (breadcrumbs) is a row of links, usually above the main content, that shows the path from a website's home page to …
- [Call to action (CTA)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/call-to-action/index.md): A call to action (CTA) is an element that asks visitors to take a specific next step.
- [Click path](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/click-path/index.md): A click path (also clickstream) is the sequence of pages a visitor views on a website, in the order they were viewed.
- [Entry page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/entry-page/index.md): An entry page is the first page of a visit in web analytics.
- [Footer links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/footer-links/index.md): Footer links are links in the footer of a website.
- [Heatmap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/heatmap/index.md): Heatmap (or heat map) is a visualization that uses color to show values: warm colors mark high values, cool colors low ones (Coursera).
- [Homepage](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/homepage/index.md): Homepage is the page at the root of a domain or subdomain, for example https://example.com/.
- [Internal linking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/internal-linking/index.md): Internal linking is the set of links that point from one page of a website to another page on the same website.
- [Intrusive interstitials](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/intrusive-interstitials/index.md): Intrusive interstitials are page elements that obstruct the view of the content, usually for promotional purposes, according to Google.
- [Landing page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/landing-page/index.md): A landing page is a page that visitors reach after clicking an ad, an email link or a search result and that is built around one goal …
- [Link equity (link juice)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-equity/index.md): Link juice (also called link equity) is an informal SEO term for the value a link is thought to pass from the page it sits on to the page …
- [Mega menu](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mega-menu/index.md): A mega menu is a website navigation element that opens a large panel with many links, usually grouped in columns, when a visitor hovers …
- [PageRank sculpting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pagerank-sculpting/index.md): PageRank sculpting is a historical SEO tactic. (historical)
- [SEO silo](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-silo/index.md): SEO silo (siloing) means grouping a website's pages by topic into separate sections, usually through URL folders and internal links that …
- [Site architecture](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/site-architecture/index.md): Site architecture (also called website structure or information architecture) describes how the pages of a website are grouped, named and …
- [Usability](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/usability/index.md): Usability is how easy and effective an interface is to use.
- [User experience (UX)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-experience/index.md): User experience (UX) covers all aspects of a person's interaction with a company, its services and its products.
- [User journey](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-journey/index.md): A user journey is the sequence of steps a person takes to reach a goal, such as choosing and buying a product.
- [User signals](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-signals/index.md): User signals are measurable behavior data from searchers, such as click-through rate in search results, returning to the results page …
- [Website navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/website-navigation/index.md): Website navigation is the set of elements that lead visitors and crawlers from page to page.

## Keywords & Research

### Keyword types

- [Branded keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/branded-keyword/index.md): A branded keyword is a search term that contains a brand name, a variant or misspelling of it, or a product of the brand.
- [Keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword/index.md): In SEO, a keyword is a word or phrase that people type into a search engine and that a page is meant to be found for.
- [Long-tail keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/long-tail-keyword/index.md): A long-tail keyword is a specific search query with low search volume, usually made up of several words.
- [Mid-tail keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mid-tail-keyword/index.md): A mid-tail keyword is a search term between broad short-tail and specific long-tail keywords.
- [Money keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/money-keyword/index.md): A money keyword, according to reports from SEO practice, is a search term that is closely tied to a purchase intent, so ranking for it …
- [Question keywords](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/question-keywords/index.md): Question keywords are search queries phrased as a question, usually starting with a word such as who, what, when, where, why or how.
- [Short-tail keyword](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/short-tail-keyword/index.md): A short-tail keyword is a broad search term, usually one to three words long, that covers a whole topic.

### Search intent

- [Commercial investigation intent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/commercial-investigation-intent/index.md): Commercial investigation intent, often shortened to commercial intent, describes a search in which the person researches and compares …
- [Informational intent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/informational-intent/index.md): Informational intent describes a search in which the person wants to learn something, such as a definition, an explanation, or instructions.
- [Navigational intent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/navigational-intent/index.md): Navigational intent describes a search in which the person wants to reach a specific website or page and uses the search engine as a …
- [Personalized search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/personalized-search/index.md): Personalized search means that a search engine adjusts results for the person searching.
- [Transactional intent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/transactional-intent/index.md): Transactional intent describes a search in which the person wants to complete an action, most often a purchase, a booking, or a sign-up.

### Keyword research

- [Google Autocomplete](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-autocomplete/index.md): Google Autocomplete is the feature in Google Search that shows predicted queries in a dropdown while someone types.
- [Google Trends](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-trends/index.md): Google Trends is a free Google tool that shows how interest in a search term changes over time.
- [Keyword clustering](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-clustering/index.md): Keyword clustering is the grouping of related search terms into sets that share the same search intent, so that one page can target a …
- [Keyword difficulty](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-difficulty/index.md): Keyword difficulty (KD) is a score from 0 to 100 that an SEO tool assigns to a keyword to estimate how hard it is to rank in the top 10 …
- [Keyword gap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-gap/index.md): A keyword gap is the set of search terms that competitors rank for but your own website does not.
- [Keyword mapping](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-mapping/index.md): Keyword mapping is the process of assigning target keywords to specific pages of a website and recording those decisions in a document …
- [Keyword research](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-research/index.md): Keyword research is the process of finding out which words and phrases people type into search engines when they look for a topic …
- [Keyword seasonality](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/keyword-seasonality/index.md): Keyword seasonality means that the number of searches for a term rises and falls in a recurring pattern during the year.
- [NLP (natural language processing)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nlp/index.md): NLP here means natural language processing, a field of artificial intelligence that lets computers read, interpret and generate human …
- [Related searches](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/related-searches/index.md): Related searches are query suggestions that Google shows on a results page so people can refine or continue their search.
- [Search volume](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-volume/index.md): Search volume is an estimate of how often people search for a term in a search engine, usually given as an average per month for one …
- [SEO competitor analysis](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-competitor-analysis/index.md): An SEO competitor analysis is the process of examining how other websites perform in search results for the topics you target, in order to …
- [SERP analysis](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/serp-analysis/index.md): A SERP analysis is the review of the search engine results page for a keyword.

### Rankings & rank tracking

- [Ranking drop](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ranking-drop/index.md): A ranking drop is a fall in the position of a page in search results for one or more queries.
- [Ranking position](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ranking-position/index.md): A ranking position is the place at which a page appears in a search engine's results for a given query, counted from the top.
- [Rank tracking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rank-tracking/index.md): Rank tracking is the regular measurement of where a website appears in search results for a defined set of keywords.
- [SERP volatility](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/serp-volatility/index.md): SERP volatility describes how much the results on search engine results pages change over a period of time.
- [Share of voice](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/share-of-voice/index.md): Share of voice (SOV) is a marketing metric that shows how much of the visibility or conversation in a market a brand holds compared with …
- [Striking distance keywords](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/striking-distance-keywords/index.md): Striking distance keywords are search queries for which a page already ranks, but too low to earn many clicks.

## Structured Data & SERP Features

### Basics & formats

- [JSON-LD](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/json-ld/index.md): JSON-LD (JSON for Linked Data) is a JSON-based format for embedding structured data in a web page.
- [Microdata](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/microdata/index.md): Microdata is a syntax from the HTML standard for marking up content as structured data directly in the visible HTML.
- [RDFa](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rdfa/index.md): RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes) is a W3C standard for adding structured data to a page through extra attributes in the …
- [RDF (Resource Description Framework)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rdf/index.md): RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a W3C data model that describes information as statements made of a subject, a predicate, and an …
- [Rich Results Test](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rich-results-test/index.md): The Rich Results Test is a Google tool that shows which rich results can be generated from the structured data on a page.
- [sameAs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sameas/index.md): sameAs is a schema.org property that points to a URL of a reference web page that unambiguously identifies an item. schema.org gives the …
- [Schema Markup Validator](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/schema-markup-validator/index.md): The Schema Markup Validator (validator.schema.org) is a tool for checking structured data that uses the schema.org vocabulary.
- [Schema.org](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/schema-org/index.md): Schema.org is a shared vocabulary for describing the content of a web page to machines.
- [Semantic Web](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/semantic-web/index.md): The Semantic Web is the W3C's concept of a web in which data is described in a way machines can process, so it can be shared and reused …
- [Structured data](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/structured-data/index.md): Structured data in SEO is machine-readable code on a page that states what the page is about, for example a product with its price, a …

### Schema types

- [Article schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/article-schema/index.md): Article schema is structured data that describes an article page: its headline, images, dates and author.
- [Breadcrumb schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/breadcrumb-schema/index.md): Breadcrumb schema is BreadcrumbList structured data that describes where a page sits in the site hierarchy.
- [Event schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/event-schema/index.md): Event schema is structured data that describes an event, such as a concert or workshop.
- [FAQ schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/faq-schema/index.md): FAQ schema, also called FAQPage markup, is a schema.org type that describes a page with a list of frequently asked questions and their … (historical)
- [HowTo schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/howto-schema/index.md): HowTo schema is a schema.org type for instructions that lead to a result in a sequence of steps. (historical)
- [JobPosting schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/jobposting-schema/index.md): JobPosting schema is structured data that describes a job opening.
- [Organization schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/organization-schema/index.md): Organization schema is structured data that describes an organization, such as its name, URL, logo and contact details.
- [Product schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/product-schema/index.md): Product schema is schema.org structured data that describes a product on a web page, for example its name, image, price and availability.
- [Recipe schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/recipe-schema/index.md): Recipe schema is structured data that describes a cooking recipe, such as ingredients, times and instructions.
- [Review schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/review-schema/index.md): Review schema is structured data that describes a review or an aggregate rating of an item.
- [Video schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/video-schema/index.md): Video schema is VideoObject structured data that describes a video on a web page.

### Rich results & snippets

- [Carousel rich result](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/carousel-rich-result/index.md): A carousel rich result is a Google Search feature in which several entries from one site appear as cards that users can swipe through.
- [Favicon in search results](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/favicon-in-search-results/index.md): The favicon in search results is the small icon Google shows next to the site name and URL of a result.
- [Featured snippet](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/featured-snippet/index.md): A featured snippet is a highlighted answer box in Google Search.
- [Key moments (video)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/key-moments/index.md): Key moments are segments of a video that Google Search shows with a timestamp and a label, so users can jump straight to the part they need.
- [Merchant listings](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/merchant-listings/index.md): Merchant listings are Google Search experiences for products that shoppers can buy directly on a page.
- [People Also Ask](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/people-also-ask/index.md): People Also Ask (PAA) is a block in Google's search results with expandable questions related to the search.
- [Product snippets](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/product-snippets/index.md): Product snippets are search results that include extra product information such as ratings, review details, price and availability.
- [Rich results](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rich-results/index.md): Rich results are Google search results that show more than a title, URL, and description, such as ratings, prices, images, or recipe …
- [Rich snippets](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rich-snippets/index.md): Rich snippets are search results that show more than title, URL, and description, for example star ratings, prices, or images.
- [Sitelinks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sitelinks/index.md): Sitelinks are links from the same domain that Google groups under a text result.
- [Sitelinks search box](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sitelinks-search-box/index.md): The sitelinks search box was a search field that Google could show under the result for a brand's homepage, letting people search within … (historical)
- [Site names in Search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/site-names-in-search/index.md): A site name is the name Google shows for a whole website in search results, separate from the title link of each page.

### SERP features & Google services

- [Google Discover](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-discover/index.md): Google Discover is part of Google Search that shows people content related to their interests, based on their Web and App Activity …
- [Google for Jobs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-for-jobs/index.md): Google for Jobs is the common name for the job search experience in Google Search.
- [Google Images](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-images/index.md): Google Images is Google's image search.
- [Google News](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-news/index.md): Google News is a Google service that collects current news from many sources and presents it by relevance, freshness and the user's …
- [Google Publisher Center](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-publisher-center/index.md): Google Publisher Center is Google's admin tool for news publishers.
- [Image pack](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/image-pack/index.md): An image pack is, in SEO terminology, a block of image results inside the regular Google web results.
- [Knowledge Graph](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/knowledge-graph/index.md): The Knowledge Graph is Google's database of entities, such as people, places, organizations, and things, and the relationships between them.
- [Knowledge panel](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/knowledge-panel/index.md): A knowledge panel is an information box in Google Search that gives a quick snapshot of a person, place, organization or other entity that …
- [SERP features](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/serp-features/index.md): SERP features are elements on a search engine results page that go beyond the standard text links.
- [Top stories](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/top-stories/index.md): Top stories is a section in Google Search that can appear when Google detects a news-oriented query.
- [Universal search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/universal-search/index.md): Universal search is Google's approach of blending results from several of its search services, such as images, video, news and maps, into … (historical)

## Link Building & Off-Page

### Backlinks & link profile

- [Backlink](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/backlink/index.md): A backlink (also inbound link) is a link from another website to a page on your site.
- [Deep link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/deep-link/index.md): A deep link is a link that points directly to specific content instead of a start page.
- [Domain popularity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/domain-popularity/index.md): Domain popularity is, as defined by SISTRIX, the number of different domains that link to an analyzed domain at least once.
- [Editorial link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/editorial-link/index.md): An editorial link is a link that an editor or site owner places in an article on their own initiative because the linked content helps …
- [Link popularity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-popularity/index.md): Link popularity describes how many incoming links a page or domain has.
- [Link profile](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-profile/index.md): A link profile, also called backlink profile, is the full set of external links pointing to a website or its pages.
- [Link rot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-rot/index.md): Link rot is the gradual decay of hyperlinks over time.
- [Link velocity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-velocity/index.md): Link velocity is the rate at which a website or page gains new backlinks in a given period, usually counted as new links or new referring …
- [Lost backlinks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/lost-backlinks/index.md): Lost backlinks are links that a backlink tool found before and does not find any more.
- [Natural link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/natural-link/index.md): A natural link is a link that a site owner places on their own because the linked content seems useful to their readers.
- [Outbound links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/outbound-links/index.md): Outbound links, also called external links, are links that point from a page to a different domain.
- [Referring domain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/referring-domain/index.md): A referring domain is a domain that links to a given website or page at least once.

### Link attributes

- [Dofollow link](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dofollow-link/index.md): A dofollow link is an ordinary link that carries no rel value such as nofollow, sponsored or ugc.
- [Link attributes](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-attributes/index.md): Link attributes, in an SEO context, are values of the rel attribute on an <a> element that describe how a link relates to its target.
- [rel="sponsored"](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rel-sponsored/index.md): rel="sponsored" is a value of the rel attribute on links.
- [rel="ugc"](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rel-ugc/index.md): rel="ugc" is a value of the rel attribute on links.

### Link value & metrics

- [Co-citation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/co-citation/index.md): Co-citation means that two documents, pages or brands are cited together by a third source, without citing each other.
- [Domain authority](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/domain-authority/index.md): Domain authority is a score that estimates how strong a website's link profile is.
- [Page authority](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/page-authority/index.md): Page Authority (PA) is a metric from the SEO tool vendor Moz.
- [PageRank](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pagerank/index.md): PageRank is a method for scoring the importance of a web page from the links that point to it.
- [Trust flow](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/trust-flow/index.md): Trust Flow and Citation Flow are two metrics from the SEO tool vendor Majestic.
- [TrustRank](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/trustrank/index.md): TrustRank is a link-based method to separate reputable pages from web spam. (historical)

### Link building methods

- [Brand mentions](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/brand-mentions/index.md): Brand mentions are places on the web that name a brand or domain.
- [Broken link building](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/broken-link-building/index.md): Broken link building is a link building method.
- [Digital PR](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/digital-pr/index.md): Digital PR is public relations carried out through online channels.
- [Expired domain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/expired-domain/index.md): An expired domain is a domain whose registration ran out because its previous owner did not renew it.
- [Guest post](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/guest-post/index.md): A guest post is an article that an outside person or company writes for another website or blog.
- [Linkbait](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/linkbait/index.md): Linkbait (also link bait) is content designed so that other sites want to link to it.
- [Link building](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-building/index.md): Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link to yours.
- [Link reclamation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-reclamation/index.md): Link reclamation means restoring backlinks that have disappeared or stopped working.
- [Outreach](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/outreach/index.md): Outreach in SEO means contacting site owners, bloggers or editors to present content and earn backlinks, mentions or guest posts.
- [Partial match domain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/partial-match-domain/index.md): A partial match domain (PMD) is a domain name that contains part of the keywords a site wants to be found for, combined with other words …
- [Social signals](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/social-signals/index.md): Social signals are interactions with content on social networks, such as likes, shares, comments or follower counts.

### Link spam & risks

- [Article directory](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/article-directory/index.md): An article directory is, in SEO, a website where users submit articles and place a link to their own site in the text or author box. (historical)
- [Bad neighborhood](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bad-neighborhood/index.md): Bad neighborhood is an SEO term for a group of spam sites that a website is connected to through links.
- [Buying links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/buying-links/index.md): Buying links means giving money, goods or services in return for a link to your site.
- [Disavow links](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/disavow-links/index.md): Disavowing links means uploading a list of links to Google that Google should ignore when assessing your site.
- [Google bombing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-bombing/index.md): Google bombing (also Googlebomb) was an attempt to push a page up for a search term by pointing many links with identical anchor text at … (historical)
- [Link exchange](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-exchange/index.md): A link exchange, also called reciprocal linking, means two websites agree to link to each other.
- [Link scheme](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-scheme/index.md): A link scheme is a pattern for creating links mainly to influence search rankings.
- [Link spam](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-spam/index.md): In SEO, link spam means links to or from a site that exist primarily to manipulate search rankings.
- [Negative SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/negative-seo/index.md): Negative SEO means deliberate attempts to harm the search rankings of another website.
- [Private blog network (PBN)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/private-blog-network/index.md): A private blog network (PBN) is a group of websites under common control whose main purpose is to link to one or more target sites to …
- [Toxic backlinks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/toxic-backlinks/index.md): Toxic backlinks is a term from SEO tools for incoming links judged harmful to a site, for example links from spam sites or link networks.

## International SEO

### hreflang & language tags

- [Content-Language header](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-language-header/index.md): The Content-Language header is an HTTP header that states which language group a response is intended for.
- [Country code (ISO 3166-1)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/country-code/index.md): A country code under ISO 3166-1 is a standardized identifier for a country or territory.
- [hreflang](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hreflang/index.md): hreflang is an attribute that tells search engines which language or regional versions of a page exist.
- [hreflang return tag](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hreflang-return-tag/index.md): A hreflang return tag means two pages reference each other through hreflang.
- [hreflang sitemap](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hreflang-sitemap/index.md): hreflang in an XML sitemap is one of three ways to tell Google about language and country versions of a page.
- [HTML lang attribute](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/html-lang-attribute/index.md): The HTML lang attribute declares the human language of an element's content.
- [Language code (ISO 639-1)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/language-code/index.md): A language code, in web and SEO use, is a short identifier for a language, usually the two-letter code from ISO 639-1 such as de, en or fr.
- [x-default](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/x-default/index.md): x-default is a reserved value of the hreflang attribute.

### Country & language targeting

- [Geo-targeting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/geo-targeting/index.md): Geo-targeting means directing content or ads at users in a specific location.
- [International SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/international-seo/index.md): International SEO is the optimization of a website for users in several countries or languages.
- [Locale-adaptive redirects](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/locale-adaptive-redirects/index.md): Locale-adaptive redirects send visitors to a particular language or country version based on IP address, location or browser language.
- [Multilingual website](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/multilingual-website/index.md): A multilingual website offers its content in more than one language.
- [Multiregional website](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/multiregional-website/index.md): A multiregional website explicitly targets users in different countries, for example Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- [SEO localization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-localization/index.md): SEO localization adapts a page to a specific market so that it can be found there.

## Local SEO

### Business Profile & Maps

- [Google Business Profile](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-business-profile/index.md): Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is the free business listing that appears in Google Search and Google Maps.
- [Google Maps SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-maps-seo/index.md): Google Maps SEO is the work of making a business easier to find in Google Maps and the local pack.
- [Local pack](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/local-pack/index.md): The local pack (also map pack or 3-pack) is the block in Google Search that shows a small set of local businesses next to a map when a …
- [Near me searches](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/near-me-searches/index.md): Near me searches are queries that ask for something close to the searcher, such as "pharmacy near me", without naming a place.
- [Online reviews](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/online-reviews/index.md): Online reviews are customer ratings of a business or product, shown in Google as stars with text.
- [Service area business](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/service-area-business/index.md): A service area business (SAB) is a business that visits or delivers to customers directly and does not serve customers at its own address.

### Local signals & pages

- [Business directory](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/business-directory/index.md): A business directory is a website or printed listing that sorts businesses into categories.
- [LocalBusiness schema](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/localbusiness-schema/index.md): LocalBusiness schema is structured data from schema.org that describes a local company or branch in a machine-readable way. schema.org …
- [Local citations](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/local-citations/index.md): Local citations are mentions of a business that include its name, address and phone number (NAP), with or without a link to its website.
- [Local SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/local-seo/index.md): Local SEO (local search engine optimization) covers the work that makes a business visible in searches with a geographic component, such …
- [Location pages](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/location-pages/index.md): Location pages are pages on a website that each cover one location or branch of a business.
- [NAP (name, address, phone)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nap/index.md): NAP stands for name, address and phone number.

## E-Commerce SEO

### Shop pages & navigation

- [Category page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/category-page/index.md): A category page in e-commerce is a page that groups related products under one URL and leads visitors to the product detail pages.
- [E-commerce SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/e-commerce-seo/index.md): E-commerce SEO is search engine optimization for online stores.
- [Faceted navigation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/faceted-navigation/index.md): Faceted navigation is a filter system that lets visitors narrow a list of products or content by several attributes at once, such as …
- [Filter pages](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/filter-pages/index.md): Filter pages, in online shop SEO, are category or list pages that get their own URL after a visitor selects filters such as color, size or …
- [Out-of-stock products](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/out-of-stock-products/index.md): Out-of-stock products are items a shop cannot currently deliver while the product page still exists.
- [Product description](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/product-description/index.md): A product description is the text on a product detail page that explains what an item is, what it does and how it is used.
- [Product detail page (PDP)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/product-detail-page/index.md): A product detail page (PDP) is the page of an online store that presents one product with its information and the option to buy.
- [Product variants](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/product-variants/index.md): A product variant is a version of one product that differs in an attribute such as size, color, material or pattern.
- [Site search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/site-search/index.md): Site search (also on-site search or internal search) is the search function inside a website or online store.
- [Sort parameters](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sort-parameters/index.md): Sort parameters are URL parameters such as ?sort=price-asc that change the order of items on a list page without changing which items …

### Product data, feeds & Shopping

- [Free product listings](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/free-product-listings/index.md): Free product listings let merchants show products on Google without paying for ads.
- [Google Merchant Center](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-merchant-center/index.md): Google Merchant Center is the free tool in which retailers manage their product data for Google.
- [Google Shopping](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-shopping/index.md): Google Shopping is the area of Google where products from retailers appear with image, price and store.
- [GTIN](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/gtin/index.md): A GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is a globally unique number that identifies a product, usually shown as the barcode on its packaging.
- [Manufacturer part number](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/manufacturer-part-number/index.md): The manufacturer part number (MPN) is the identifier a manufacturer assigns to a product or part.
- [Marketplace SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/marketplace-seo/index.md): Marketplace SEO is the optimization of product listings for the internal search and rankings of a marketplace such as Amazon or eBay.
- [Offer markup](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/offer-markup/index.md): Offer markup is structured data of the schema.org type Offer.
- [Product feed](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/product-feed/index.md): A product feed is a file or interface that lists a shop's products with attributes such as ID, title, link, image, price and availability.
- [Return policy markup](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/return-policy-markup/index.md): Return policy markup (MerchantReturnPolicy) is structured data that describes a store's return conditions in a machine-readable way.
- [Shipping details markup](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/shipping-details-markup/index.md): Shipping details markup is structured data that states shipping costs, delivery times and destinations in a machine-readable way.

## Relaunch & Migration

### Types of migration

- [Change of Address tool](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/change-of-address-tool/index.md): The Change of Address tool is a feature in Google Search Console for telling Google that a website has moved to a different domain, for …
- [CMS migration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cms-migration/index.md): A CMS migration is the move of a website to a different content management system, for example from WordPress to a headless CMS.
- [Domain consolidation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/domain-consolidation/index.md): Domain consolidation means merging several domains, for example country, brand or legacy domains, into one or a few.
- [Domain migration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/domain-migration/index.md): In SEO, a domain migration means a website moves to a different domain name, for example from old-brand.com to new-brand.com, and every …
- [Ecommerce replatforming](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ecommerce-replatforming/index.md): Ecommerce replatforming (also called shop migration) is the move of an online store from one commerce platform to another, for example …
- [HTTP to HTTPS migration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/http-to-https-migration/index.md): An HTTP to HTTPS migration moves a website from unencrypted HTTP to HTTPS.
- [Website migration](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/website-migration/index.md): In SEO, a website migration is any major change in which a website's domain, URL structure, protocol, platform, or hosting changes.
- [Website relaunch](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/website-relaunch/index.md): A website relaunch is the overhaul of an existing website in which several layers change at once, for example design, structure, content …

### Planning & mapping

- [Baseline crawl](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/baseline-crawl/index.md): A baseline crawl, also called a benchmark crawl, is a full crawl of the current website taken before a major change such as a relaunch or …
- [Redirect mapping](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/redirect-mapping/index.md): Redirect mapping is the planning of redirects for a relaunch, domain move or migration.
- [Staging crawl](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/staging-crawl/index.md): A staging crawl is a crawl of the staging or development version of a website, run before the new version goes live.
- [URL mapping](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/url-mapping/index.md): URL mapping, in SEO, is the assignment of old URLs to new target URLs when the structure or domain of a website changes.
- [Website migration checklist](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/website-migration-checklist/index.md): A website migration checklist is an ordered list of checks for a site move, such as a domain change, a new platform or new URLs, so that …

### Go-live & after

- [Deployment](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/deployment/index.md): Deployment, also called a release, is the step in which a new version of a website goes from the development process to the live …
- [Go-live](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/go-live/index.md): A go-live is the point at which a system or website moves from testing into production, so real users can reach it.
- [Rollback](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rollback/index.md): A rollback returns a system to an earlier, working state.
- [Traffic drop](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/traffic-drop/index.md): A traffic drop is a marked decline in visits to a website.

## Monitoring & Alerts

### Types of monitoring

- [Change monitoring](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/change-monitoring/index.md): Change monitoring (also called website change detection) is the automated comparison of a web page or file against its earlier version …
- [Crawl comparison](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-comparison/index.md): A crawl comparison puts the results of two crawls of the same website side by side.
- [Crawl frequency](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-frequency/index.md): Crawl frequency is how often a crawler requests a website or an individual URL.
- [robots.txt monitoring](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/robots-txt-monitoring/index.md): robots.txt monitoring is the regular, automatic check of a website's robots.txt for changes and errors.
- [SEO monitoring](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-monitoring/index.md): SEO monitoring, in common usage, is the ongoing, automated tracking of the factors that determine a website's visibility in search engines.
- [SEO QA](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-qa/index.md): SEO QA (quality assurance for SEO) is the systematic check of changes to a website for effects on search visibility.
- [Sitemap monitoring](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sitemap-monitoring/index.md): Sitemap monitoring is the regular, automatic check of a website's XML sitemaps.
- [Uptime monitoring](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/uptime-monitoring/index.md): Uptime monitoring is the recurring check of whether a website or service responds.
- [Website monitoring](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/website-monitoring/index.md): Website monitoring is the automated, repeated testing of a website to confirm that it is available, loads quickly and works as expected.

### Alerts & thresholds

- [Alert](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/alert/index.md): An alert is an automatic notification that fires when a monitored value meets a condition set in advance.
- [Alert threshold](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/threshold/index.md): An alert threshold is a limit set for a measured value.
- [Anomaly detection](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/anomaly-detection/index.md): Anomaly detection is the identification of observations, events or data points that deviate from what is usual or expected.
- [Availability (SLA)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/availability/index.md): Availability is the share of time in which a website or service responds correctly.
- [False positive](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/false-positive/index.md): A false positive (false alarm) is an alert that reports a problem that is not there.
- [Webhook](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/webhook/index.md): A webhook is an HTTP request that one system sends automatically to a URL of another system when an event occurs.

### Issues & analysis

- [Page template](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/page-template/index.md): A page template is the layout and code from which many pages of the same type are generated, such as product pages, category pages or …
- [SEO issue](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-issue/index.md): An SEO issue is a problem or weakness on a website that an audit or crawling tool detects, such as a broken link, a missing title or a …
- [SEO segmentation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/segmentation/index.md): SEO segmentation is the practice of splitting a website's URLs or keywords into groups that share a characteristic, so that each group can …
- [Severity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/severity/index.md): Severity is the level that describes how large the impact of a problem is.
- [Site health score](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/site-health-score/index.md): A site health score is a single value, usually a percentage, that an SEO audit tool calculates from the issues it finds on a website.

## Log Files

### Log data & formats

- [Access log](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/access-log/index.md): An access log is the file in which a web server records each request it handles, one line per request.
- [Combined Log Format](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/combined-log-format/index.md): The Combined Log Format is a line format for web server access logs.
- [Crawl stats report](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-stats-report/index.md): The Crawl Stats report is a report in Google Search Console that summarizes Googlebot's requests to a site.
- [Log file](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/log-file/index.md): A log file is a record that a system writes automatically while it runs.
- [Log file analysis](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/log-file-analysis/index.md): Log file analysis in SEO means evaluating a web server's access logs, which record every request for a URL with its timestamp, status …
- [Referrer](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/referrer/index.md): The referrer is the address of the page from which a visitor reached the current page.

### Identifying & managing bots

- [Bot management](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bot-management/index.md): Bot management means detecting automated requests to a website, classifying them and deciding what happens next.
- [Bot traffic](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bot-traffic/index.md): Bot traffic is any traffic to a website that comes from automated programs instead of people.
- [Bot verification](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bot-verification/index.md): Bot verification is the check whether a crawler really belongs to the operator named in its user agent.
- [Crawler IP ranges](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawler-ip-ranges/index.md): Crawler IP ranges are the IP address blocks from which a search engine operator runs its crawlers.
- [Fake Googlebot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/fake-googlebot/index.md): A fake Googlebot is a client that identifies itself as Googlebot in the user agent but does not come from Google.
- [Rate limiting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rate-limiting/index.md): Rate limiting controls how many requests a client may send to a server or API within a set time.

## Analytics & Measurement

### Search Console

- [Anonymized queries](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/anonymized-queries/index.md): Anonymized queries are search queries that Google leaves out of Search Console to protect user privacy.
- [Average position](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/average-position/index.md): Average position is a metric in the Google Search Console performance report.
- [Clicks](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/clicks/index.md): Clicks in SEO count how often users clicked a link to your website in Google Search results.
- [Click-through rate (CTR)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/click-through-rate/index.md): Click-through rate (CTR) is the share of people who click a link, ad, or search result after seeing it.
- [Google Search Console](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-search-console/index.md): Google Search Console is a free service from Google that shows site owners how their website performs in Google Search.
- [Impressions](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/impressions/index.md): Impressions in SEO are the number of times a link to your website was shown in Google Search results.
- [Performance report](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/performance-report/index.md): The performance report is the report in Google Search Console that shows how often a website appeared in Google Search results and how …
- [Regular expressions (regex)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/regular-expressions/index.md): A regular expression (regex) is a text pattern that describes a set of strings.
- [Search Console API](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-console-api/index.md): The Search Console API is the programming interface of Google Search Console.
- [Search Console bulk export](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-console-bulk-export/index.md): The Search Console bulk export is a Google feature that schedules a daily export of a property's performance data to BigQuery, Google's …
- [Search Console Insights](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-console-insights/index.md): Search Console Insights is a report in Google Search Console that summarizes key metrics and traffic changes of a site in a simplified form.
- [Search Console property](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/search-console-property/index.md): A Search Console property defines which URLs a site owner sees data for in Google Search Console.

### Web analytics & metrics

- [Bounce rate](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bounce-rate/index.md): Bounce rate is the share of visits to a website that end without engagement.
- [Clickstream data](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/clickstream-data/index.md): Clickstream data is the recorded sequence of pages a user visits and the clicks the user makes along the way.
- [Data sampling](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/data-sampling/index.md): Data sampling means that a report is calculated from a subset of the available data and the result is extrapolated.
- [Dwell time / time on page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dwell-time-time-on-page/index.md): Dwell time is, in SEO usage, the time between a click on a search result and the return to the results page.
- [Engagement rate](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/engagement-rate/index.md): Engagement rate in Google Analytics 4 is the percentage of sessions that were engaged.
- [Google Analytics 4 (GA4)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-analytics-4/index.md): Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the current version of Google Analytics, Google's analytics service for websites and apps.
- [Pageviews](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pageviews/index.md): Pageviews count how often pages of a website were viewed.
- [Pogo-sticking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pogo-sticking/index.md): Pogo-sticking in SEO is the behavior of clicking a search result, returning to the results a few seconds later and clicking another result.
- [Sessions](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sessions/index.md): A session is a period in which a user interacts with a website or app, grouped into one visit for analysis.
- [Web analytics](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-analytics/index.md): Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of website data to understand and improve how a site is used.

### Traffic sources

- [AI referral traffic](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-referral-traffic/index.md): AI referral traffic is made of visits that arrive through a link in an answer from an AI assistant such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity.
- [Attribution](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/attribution/index.md): Marketing attribution assigns credit for a conversion to the channels and touchpoints that led to it.
- [Dark traffic](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/dark-traffic/index.md): Dark traffic means visits whose origin an analytics tool cannot determine.
- [Direct traffic](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/direct-traffic/index.md): Direct traffic is the group of website visits that analytics cannot assign to a source.
- [Referral traffic](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/referral-traffic/index.md): Referral traffic is the group of visits that reach a website by clicking a link on another website.
- [Traffic sources](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/traffic-sources/index.md): Traffic sources describe where the visits to a website come from, for example search engines, other websites, social networks or direct …

### Tracking & consent

- [Consent Mode](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/consent-mode/index.md): Consent mode is a Google feature that lets a website pass its visitors' consent choices to Google tags and SDKs, which then adjust their …
- [Cookie banner](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cookie-banner/index.md): A cookie banner is a notice through which visitors consent to or reject the storage of cookies and similar technologies.
- [Data layer](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/data-layer/index.md): A data layer is a JavaScript object on a website that holds information about the page and user interactions so that tags can read it.
- [Event tracking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/event-tracking/index.md): Event tracking is the measurement of individual interactions on a website or in an app, such as link clicks, file downloads, video plays …
- [Google Tag Manager](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-tag-manager/index.md): Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a tag management system.
- [Tracking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/tracking/index.md): In SEO and web analytics, tracking means recording what visitors do on a website, usually by code that runs in the browser and sends data …

### Reporting & conversions

- [Annotations](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/annotations/index.md): In SEO, an annotation is a short dated note placed on a chart of performance data.
- [Conversion](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/conversion/index.md): A conversion is an action by a visitor that has value for the business, such as a purchase, a sign-up, an inquiry or a download.
- [Conversion rate](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/conversion-rate/index.md): Conversion rate is the share of visitors or interactions that lead to a conversion, expressed as a percentage.
- [Conversion rate optimization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/conversion-rate-optimization/index.md): Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the ongoing process of increasing the share of website visitors who take a desired action, such as a …
- [SEO A/B testing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-a-b-testing/index.md): SEO A/B testing (also called SEO split testing) checks whether a change affects organic search performance.
- [SEO dashboard](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-dashboard/index.md): An SEO dashboard is a single view that collects key metrics of organic search, usually as charts and tables updated from connected data …
- [SEO reporting](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/seo-reporting/index.md): SEO reporting is the regular summary of search performance for a website: how visible it is in search, how much traffic and how many …

## AI Search & GEO

### GEO basics

- [AEO (answer engine optimization)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/aeo/index.md): AEO (answer engine optimization) describes measures that aim to make content appear as an answer in AI-based systems such as ChatGPT …
- [AI content detection](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-content-detection/index.md): AI content detection means methods and tools that try to estimate whether a text, image or video was generated by an AI.
- [AI sentiment](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-sentiment/index.md): AI sentiment in the SEO and GEO sense is the tone with which an AI system describes a brand, product or person in its answers, for example …
- [AI SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-seo/index.md): AI SEO is a loose term with two common meanings.
- [Brand signals](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/brand-signals/index.md): Brand signals in branding means the elements that make a brand recognizable, such as name, logo and colors.
- [Citability](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/citability/index.md): Citability in generative engine optimization (GEO) describes how likely it is that a passage of content is selected and cited by an AI …
- [GEO audit](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/geo-audit/index.md): A GEO audit is a review of whether and how a website appears in answers from AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Google AI Overviews …
- [GEO (generative engine optimization)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/geo/index.md): GEO (generative engine optimization) is the practice of making content more likely to appear in answers from generative AI systems such as …

### AI search & answer engines

- [Agentic search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agentic-search/index.md): Agentic search is a search approach in which an AI agent decides when to search, writes the queries, reads the results and, if needed …
- [AI agent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-agent/index.md): An AI agent is a system in which a language model decides on its own which steps and tools to use to reach a goal.
- [AI chatbot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-chatbot/index.md): An AI chatbot is software that holds conversations with people and answers their input automatically.
- [AI Mode](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-mode/index.md): AI Mode is a search experience in Google Search that answers questions with an AI-generated response in a conversational view, alongside …
- [AI Overviews](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-overviews/index.md): AI Overviews are AI-generated summaries that Google Search shows above the regular results for some queries.
- [AI search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-search/index.md): AI search refers to search systems that answer a query with text generated by a language model and link to the web sources the answer …
- [AI snippet](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-snippet/index.md): AI snippet is an informal SEO label for the text that Google shows from a page inside its AI answers, or for the AI-written summary itself.
- [Answer engine](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/answer-engine/index.md): An answer engine is a search system that responds to a question with a written answer and source links, instead of putting a list of …
- [Circle to Search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/circle-to-search/index.md): Circle to Search is a Google feature for Android phones that searches for anything on the screen without leaving the current app.
- [Conversational search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/conversational-search/index.md): Conversational search is a form of search in which users ask in natural language and can follow up, while the system keeps the earlier …
- [Deep research](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/deep-research/index.md): Deep research is a feature of AI assistants that investigates a topic across many web sources in several steps and returns a longer report …
- [Direct answer](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/direct-answer/index.md): A direct answer, also called an answer box, is in SEO a result element that answers a question directly on the results page or inside an …
- [Google Lens](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-lens/index.md): Google Lens is Google's visual search.
- [Multimodal search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/multimodal-search/index.md): Multimodal search is search that accepts and combines more than one type of input, for example a photo and a text question.
- [Preferred sources](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/preferred-sources/index.md): Preferred sources is a Google Search feature that lets signed-in users pick the news sites they want to see more often.
- [Voice search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/voice-search/index.md): Voice search is a search where the query is spoken instead of typed.

### Measuring AI visibility

- [AI brand mention](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-brand-mention/index.md): An AI brand mention occurs when an AI system such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity names a brand in the text of its answer.
- [AI citation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-citation/index.md): An AI citation is a source reference in an answer from an AI system, usually a link or footnote to the web page a statement came from.
- [AI share of voice](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-share-of-voice/index.md): AI share of voice, often called share of model, measures how often a brand appears in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini …
- [AI visibility](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-visibility/index.md): AI visibility describes how often and in what way a brand, product or website appears in answers from AI systems such as ChatGPT …
- [AI visibility tracking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-visibility-tracking/index.md): AI visibility tracking measures how often and in which context a brand or domain appears in answers from AI systems, either as a name in …
- [Prompt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/prompt/index.md): In AI use, a prompt is the text input a user gives an AI model to get a response.
- [Prompt tracking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/prompt-tracking/index.md): Prompt tracking is the regular running of defined prompts on AI systems and the evaluation of the answers for brand mentions, linked …
- [Prompt volume](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/prompt-volume/index.md): Prompt volume is an estimate of how many prompts people send to AI assistants such as ChatGPT about a topic.

### AI & LLM basics

- [AI hallucination](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-hallucination/index.md): An AI hallucination is an output from a language model that sounds plausible but is false, irrelevant or invented.
- [Artificial intelligence (AI)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/artificial-intelligence/index.md): Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad term for computer systems that handle tasks which normally call for human intelligence, such as …
- [Context window](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/context-window/index.md): The context window is all the text a language model can reference when it generates a response, including the response itself.
- [Embeddings](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/embeddings/index.md): Vector embeddings are lists of numbers that represent data such as words, sentences, documents, images or audio as points in a vector space.
- [Fine-tuning](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/fine-tuning/index.md): Fine-tuning in AI means continuing the training of an already pretrained model on additional, task-specific examples.
- [Generative AI](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/generative-ai/index.md): Generative AI refers to AI models that create new content such as text, images, audio, video or code.
- [Knowledge cutoff](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/knowledge-cutoff/index.md): The knowledge cutoff is the point in time up to which a language model has been trained on data.
- [Large language model (LLM)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/large-language-model/index.md): A large language model (LLM) is an AI model trained on very large amounts of text that generates language by repeatedly predicting the …
- [System prompt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/system-prompt/index.md): A system prompt is the standing instruction that a developer or operator gives a language model before the user's own input.
- [Token](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/token/index.md): A token in the context of language models is the unit of text a model reads and writes.
- [Tokenizer](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/tokenizer/index.md): A tokenizer is the component that splits text into tokens and assigns each token a numeric ID from a fixed vocabulary.
- [Training data](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/training-data/index.md): Training data is the collection of examples a machine learning model learns from.
- [Transformer](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/transformer/index.md): A transformer is a neural network architecture that processes text and other sequences with an attention mechanism, called self-attention.

### Retrieval & grounding

- [Chunking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/chunking/index.md): Chunking, in the context of AI search, means splitting long documents into smaller passages, called chunks, that a system stores, searches …
- [Grounding](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/grounding/index.md): Grounding in AI means tying a language model's answer to external, checkable sources instead of relying on training data alone.
- [Grounding page](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/grounding-page/index.md): A grounding page is a web page that states verifiable facts about one entity, such as a company, person or product, in plain language and …
- [Grounding with Google Search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/grounding-with-google-search/index.md): Grounding with Google Search is a tool in the Gemini API.
- [LLM web search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/llm-web-search/index.md): LLM web search is a tool function that lets a large language model run web searches while it answers a request, read the results, and cite …
- [Query fan-out](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/query-fan-out/index.md): Query fan-out is a technique used in AI search in which the system breaks one question into several related sub-queries and runs them at …
- [Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/retrieval-augmented-generation/index.md): Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) is a method in which a language model retrieves relevant information from an external source before …
- [Vector database](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/vector-database/index.md): A vector database stores embeddings, the number vectors that represent the meaning of text, images or audio, and retrieves the entries …
- [Vector search](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/vector-search/index.md): Vector search finds similar items by representing text, images or audio as vectors, called embeddings, and comparing the distance between …

### Controls & opt-out

- [AI opt-out](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-opt-out/index.md): AI opt-out here means the ways a website can limit how Google's generative search features use its content, which are AI Overviews and AI …
- [ai.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-txt/index.md): ai.txt is a proposed file name for a text file in which website operators state how AI systems may use their content.
- [Content Signals Policy](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/content-signals-policy/index.md): The Content Signals Policy is a robots.txt extension that lets a site state what crawlers may do with its content after fetching it.
- [EU AI Act](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/eu-ai-act/index.md): The EU AI Act is Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the European Union's rules for artificial intelligence.
- [Google-Extended](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-extended/index.md): Google-Extended is a robots.txt product token that lets site owners control whether content Google has crawled may be used for training …
- [llms-full.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/llms-full-txt/index.md): llms-full.txt is a file that makes the complete text of a website or documentation available in one Markdown document.
- [llms.txt](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/llms-txt/index.md): llms.txt is a proposed Markdown file at the root of a website (/llms.txt) that gives language models and AI agents a short, curated …
- [Markdown for LLMs](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/markdown-for-llms/index.md): A Markdown version for LLMs is a second, leaner version of a page in Markdown that AI agents and language models can request instead of …
- [TDM reservation](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/tdm-reservation/index.md): A TDM reservation is a rights holder's declaration that third parties may not use their content for text and data mining (TDM).

## AI Bots & Crawlers

### Types of AI bots

- [AI crawler](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-crawler/index.md): An AI crawler is an automated program that fetches web pages for AI applications.
- [AI search crawler](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-search-crawler/index.md): An AI search crawler is a crawler that fetches web pages for the search feature of an AI product, so the product can surface and link them …
- [Browser agent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/browser-agent/index.md): A browser agent is an AI system that operates a web browser the way a person does.
- [Training crawler](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/training-crawler/index.md): A training crawler is an AI crawler that fetches web pages to collect content for training AI models.
- [User-triggered fetcher](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-triggered-fetcher/index.md): A user-triggered fetcher is an automated program that loads a web page because a person asked a product to do so.
- [Web scraper](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-scraper/index.md): A web scraper is a program that automatically extracts data from web pages and converts it into a structured format such as a spreadsheet …

### OpenAI, Anthropic & Perplexity bots

- [anthropic-ai](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/anthropic-ai/index.md): anthropic-ai is a user agent name that appears in many robots.txt files to keep Anthropic's crawlers out. (historical)
- [ChatGPT agent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/chatgpt-agent/index.md): ChatGPT agent is the OpenAI feature that lets ChatGPT carry out multi-step tasks on the web for a user.
- [ChatGPT-User](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/chatgpt-user/index.md): ChatGPT-User is an OpenAI user agent that fetches web pages when someone using ChatGPT or a Custom GPT triggers an action.
- [ClaudeBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/claudebot/index.md): ClaudeBot is the web crawler of Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude.
- [Claude-SearchBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/claude-searchbot/index.md): Claude-SearchBot is an Anthropic crawler that navigates the web to improve the quality of search results for Claude users.
- [Claude-User](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/claude-user/index.md): Claude-User is the user agent Claude, Anthropic's AI assistant, uses to access websites when a person asks Claude a question.
- [GPTBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/gptbot/index.md): GPTBot is OpenAI's web crawler for collecting publicly available content that may be used to train its generative AI models.
- [OAI-SearchBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/oai-searchbot/index.md): OAI-SearchBot is a crawler run by OpenAI.
- [PerplexityBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/perplexitybot/index.md): PerplexityBot is the crawler of the AI search engine Perplexity.
- [Perplexity-User](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/perplexity-user/index.md): Perplexity-User is a Perplexity user agent that visits web pages when a person asks Perplexity a question and the answer needs a page.

### Other AI bots

- [Amazonbot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/amazonbot/index.md): Amazonbot is Amazon's web crawler.
- [Amzn-SearchBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/amzn-searchbot/index.md): Amzn-SearchBot is an Amazon crawler that, according to Amazon, improves search experiences in Amazon products and services.
- [Amzn-User](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/amzn-user/index.md): Amzn-User is an Amazon fetcher that loads web pages on behalf of users.
- [Applebot / Applebot-Extended](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/applebot-applebot-extended/index.md): Applebot is Apple's web crawler.
- [Bytespider](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bytespider/index.md): Bytespider is a web crawler attributed to ByteDance, the company behind TikTok.
- [CCBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ccbot/index.md): CCBot is the web crawler of Common Crawl, a non-profit that maintains an open repository of web crawl data.
- [cohere-ai](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/cohere-ai/index.md): cohere-ai is a user agent token attributed to the AI company Cohere.
- [Diffbot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/diffbot/index.md): Diffbot is a company that uses machine learning to turn web pages into structured data.
- [DuckAssistBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/duckassistbot/index.md): DuckAssistBot is the web crawler DuckDuckGo uses for the AI-assisted answers in DuckDuckGo Search.
- [Google-CloudVertexBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-cloudvertexbot/index.md): Google-CloudVertexBot is a Google crawler that fetches a website when the site owner has requested it, to build Vertex AI agents.
- [Meta-ExternalAgent](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-externalagent/index.md): Meta-ExternalAgent is a web crawler run by Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
- [Meta-ExternalFetcher](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-externalfetcher/index.md): Meta-ExternalFetcher is a Meta user agent that fetches individual links when a user asks for them.
- [Meta-WebIndexer](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/meta-webindexer/index.md): Meta-WebIndexer is a Meta crawler that, according to Meta, navigates the web to improve the quality of search results in Meta AI.
- [MistralAI-User](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mistralai-user/index.md): MistralAI-User is a user agent from Mistral AI that visits a web page when a person asks Mistral's assistant a question.
- [YouBot](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/youbot/index.md): YouBot is the web crawler of the You.com search engine.

### Managing & measuring AI bots

- [Agent analytics](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agent-analytics/index.md): Agent analytics, in an SEO context, is the analysis of visits by AI bots and AI agents to a website, usually based on server or CDN logs.
- [Blocking AI bots](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/blocking-ai-bots/index.md): Blocking AI bots means denying specific AI crawlers and fetchers access to a website.
- [Crawl-to-refer ratio](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/crawl-to-refer-ratio/index.md): The crawl-to-refer ratio (also written crawl-to-referral ratio) compares how many pages a platform crawls with how often it sends users to …
- [Pay per crawl](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pay-per-crawl/index.md): Pay per crawl is a model in which a crawler pays for each page it fetches.
- [Web Bot Auth](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-bot-auth/index.md): Web Bot Auth is a method for automated clients such as crawlers and AI agents to identify themselves to websites with a cryptographic …

## Agents & Protocols

### Agent protocols

- [Agent2Agent protocol (A2A)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agent2agent-protocol/index.md): The Agent2Agent protocol (A2A) is an open protocol that lets AI agents built on different frameworks and by different vendors communicate …
- [Agent Card](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agent-card/index.md): An Agent Card is a JSON document in which an AI agent describes itself under the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol: its name, what it can do …
- [API](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/api/index.md): An API (application programming interface) is, in MDN's wording, a set of features and rules in a software program that lets other …
- [MCP (Model Context Protocol)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mcp/index.md): MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI applications such as Claude or ChatGPT connect to external data sources …
- [MCP server](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mcp-server/index.md): An MCP server is a program that exposes capabilities such as functions, data and prompt templates to AI applications through the Model …
- [NLWeb](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/nlweb/index.md): NLWeb (Natural Language Web) is an open project that gives websites a natural language interface for people and AI agents.
- [OpenAPI](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/openapi/index.md): OpenAPI is a language-agnostic specification format for describing HTTP APIs.
- [Tool calling](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/tool-calling/index.md): Tool calling, also called function calling or tool use, is the ability of a language model to answer with a structured request to run a …
- [WebMCP](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/webmcp/index.md): WebMCP is a proposed web standard that lets a website expose structured tools to AI agents working in the browser.

### Agentic commerce

- [Agentic commerce](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agentic-commerce/index.md): Agentic commerce describes purchases in which an AI agent acts on a person's behalf to find, compare, and buy products, up to and …
- [Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agentic-commerce-protocol/index.md): The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is an open standard for connecting buyers, their AI agents and businesses so that purchases can be …
- [Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agent-payments-protocol/index.md): The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) is an open protocol from Google for payments that AI agents make on behalf of users.
- [AI product feed](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/ai-product-feed/index.md): An AI product feed is a file that provides a shop's product data in a defined format so that AI assistants can find, compare and display …
- [Instant Checkout](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/instant-checkout/index.md): Instant Checkout was a ChatGPT feature that let users buy products without leaving the chat. (historical)
- [Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/universal-commerce-protocol/index.md): The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard that lets AI agents discover products and complete purchases at businesses.

### Agent readiness & browser agents

- [Accessibility tree](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/accessibility-tree/index.md): The accessibility tree is a representation of a page that the browser derives from the DOM and exposes to assistive technologies such as …
- [Agentic browser](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agentic-browser/index.md): An agentic browser is a web browser with a built-in AI agent that plans and carries out tasks on a user's behalf, such as opening pages …
- [Agent readiness](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/agent-readiness/index.md): Agent readiness describes how well AI agents can discover, read and use a website.
- [ARIA attributes](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/aria-attributes/index.md): ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications, specifically WAI-ARIA) is a W3C specification for giving HTML elements extra information for …

## Google Updates & Algorithms

### Updates & actions

- [Algorithmic penalty](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/algorithmic-penalty/index.md): An algorithmic penalty is an informal SEO term for a drop in rankings caused by Google's automated systems rather than by a human reviewer.
- [Algorithm update trackers](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/algorithm-update-trackers/index.md): Algorithm update trackers, also called SERP volatility tools, measure how strongly Google's search results change over time.
- [Google algorithm update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-algorithm-update/index.md): In SEO, a Google algorithm update is a change to the algorithms and ranking systems of Google Search that affects how results are ordered.
- [Google core update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-core-update/index.md): A Google core update is a broad change to the algorithms and systems of Google Search that Google rolls out several times a year.
- [Google Dance](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-dance/index.md): Google Dance is a historical SEO term for the noticeable ranking changes that followed Google's index updates in the early 2000s. (historical)
- [Google sandbox](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-sandbox/index.md): Google sandbox is an SEO theory that Google holds back new websites in search results for a while, even when their content and links are …
- [Manual action](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/manual-action/index.md): A manual action is a penalty Google applies to a site after a human reviewer determines that pages do not comply with Google's spam …
- [Reconsideration request](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/reconsideration-request/index.md): A reconsideration request asks Google to review a manual action taken against your website and lift it.

### Ranking systems

- [BERT](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/bert/index.md): BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) is an AI system Google uses to understand how combinations of words express …
- [Deduplication systems](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/deduplication-systems/index.md): Deduplication systems are ranking systems at Google that remove redundant results when many pages say nearly the same thing.
- [MUM (Multitask Unified Model)](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mum/index.md): MUM (Multitask Unified Model) is an AI system from Google that can both understand and generate language.
- [NavBoost](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/navboost/index.md): NavBoost is a Google ranking signal that pairs search queries with documents by memorizing which results users clicked.
- [Neural matching](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/neural-matching/index.md): Neural matching is an AI system Google uses to understand representations of concepts in queries and pages and to match them.
- [Original content systems](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/original-content-systems/index.md): Original content systems are ranking systems that Google uses to show original content, including original reporting, ahead of pages that …
- [Passage ranking](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/passage-ranking/index.md): Passage ranking is an AI system Google uses to identify individual sections, called passages, of a web page to better understand how …
- [RankBrain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/rankbrain/index.md): RankBrain is an AI system in Google Search that helps Google understand how words relate to concepts.
- [Reliable information systems](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/reliable-information-systems/index.md): Reliable information systems is an umbrella term from Google's overview of ranking systems.
- [Site diversity](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/site-diversity/index.md): Site diversity is a Google ranking system that generally keeps more than two listings from the same site out of the top results.

### Spam updates & policies

- [Expired domain abuse](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/expired-domain-abuse/index.md): Expired domain abuse is a Google spam policy violation.
- [Link spam update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-spam-update/index.md): A link spam update is an announced improvement to how Google detects and discounts unnatural links.
- [Scaled content abuse](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/scaled-content-abuse/index.md): Scaled content abuse is a Google spam policy violation.
- [Site reputation abuse](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/site-reputation-abuse/index.md): Site reputation abuse, often called parasite SEO, is the practice of publishing third-party pages on an established site to take advantage …
- [SpamBrain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/spambrain/index.md): SpamBrain is Google's AI-based spam-prevention system.
- [Spam update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/spam-update/index.md): A spam update is a Google improvement to its automated spam detection, in the context of search rankings.

### Historical updates & events

- [Exact match domain update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/exact-match-domain-update/index.md): The exact match domain update (EMD update) is a Google change from late September 2012 that reduced the ranking advantage of domains whose … (historical)
- [Florida update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/florida-update/index.md): The Florida update is the SEO industry's name for a major change in Google's ranking that began on November 16, 2003. (historical)
- [Fred update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/fred-update/index.md): Fred is the unofficial name of a Google ranking update from March 2017. (historical)
- [Google API leak](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-api-leak/index.md): The Google API leak is the 2024 publication of internal documentation for Google Search's Content Warehouse API. (historical)
- [Helpful content update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/helpful-content-update/index.md): The helpful content update was a Google ranking system announced in August 2022 to show more original, helpful content written by people … (historical)
- [Hilltop algorithm](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hilltop-algorithm/index.md): The Hilltop algorithm is a ranking method from search engine research that scores pages according to the links of independent "expert … (historical)
- [Hummingbird](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hummingbird/index.md): In SEO, Hummingbird is a major improvement to Google's ranking systems from 2013, not a bird or an app. (historical)
- [Medic update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/medic-update/index.md): The Medic update is the name the SEO industry uses for a Google core update from August 2018. (historical)
- [Mobile-friendly update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/mobile-friendly-update/index.md): Mobilegeddon is the SEO nickname for Google's mobile-friendly update, which began rolling out globally on April 21, 2015. (historical)
- [Over-optimization](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/over-optimization/index.md): Over-optimization in SEO describes optimization that is pushed so far that it looks manipulative. (historical)
- [Panda update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/panda-update/index.md): The Panda update was a Google system introduced in 2011 to make sure high-quality and original content appears in search results. (historical)
- [Payday loan update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/payday-loan-update/index.md): The Payday Loan update is a Google webspam update that, according to reports, began in June 2013 and affected queries with heavy spam … (historical)
- [Penguin update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/penguin-update/index.md): The Penguin update was a Google system introduced in 2012 to combat link spam. (historical)
- [Phantom update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/phantom-update/index.md): Phantom update is the SEO industry's name for a change in Google's ranking from early May 2015, often called "Phantom 2". (historical)
- [Pigeon update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/pigeon-update/index.md): The Pigeon update is, according to reports, the name Search Engine Land gave to a change in Google's local search that launched in the … (historical)
- [Possum update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/possum-update/index.md): Possum update is the name the local SEO community gave to a change in Google's local ranking around September 2016. (historical)
- [Query deserves freshness](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/query-deserves-freshness/index.md): Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) refers to the freshness systems Google uses to show newer content for queries where people would expect it.
- [Reviews update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/reviews-update/index.md): The reviews update (first called product reviews update) was a series of announced changes to Google's reviews system, which rewards … (historical)
- [Top heavy update](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/top-heavy-update/index.md): The top heavy update, officially the page layout algorithm change, is a Google change announced on January 19, 2012. (historical)

## Spam & Guidelines

### Policies & basics

- [Google Safe Browsing](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/google-safe-browsing/index.md): Google Safe Browsing is a Google security service that warns users about dangerous sites and files.
- [Spam policies](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/spam-policies/index.md): Spam policies are Google's rules about which techniques count as spam because they deceive users or manipulate Search systems.
- [User-generated spam](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/user-generated-spam/index.md): User-generated spam is spammy content that users add to a website through a channel meant for user content, such as comments, forum …
- [Web spam](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/web-spam/index.md): Web spam (also search spam or SEO spam) describes practices that manipulate search results or mislead users instead of helping them.

### Content spam & affiliate

- [Affiliate SEO](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/affiliate-seo/index.md): Affiliate SEO is search engine optimization for websites that earn commissions through affiliate links, meaning payment for referred …
- [Article spinning](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/article-spinning/index.md): Article spinning is the automatic rewriting of an existing text. (historical)
- [Automatically generated content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/automatically-generated-content/index.md): Automatically generated content is content that software produces, for example from templates and data feeds, through translation, or with …
- [Scraped content](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/scraped-content/index.md): Scraped content is text, images, or data taken from other websites, often automatically, and republished elsewhere.
- [Thin affiliate pages](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/thin-affiliate-pages/index.md): Thin affiliate pages carry affiliate links but offer little original content, for example product descriptions copied unchanged from the …

### Deception & manipulation

- [Exact match domain](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/exact-match-domain/index.md): An exact match domain (EMD) is a domain name that consists exactly of a search phrase, for example dental-insurance-compare.com.
- [Hidden text](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/hidden-text/index.md): Hidden text is content placed on a page so that visitors cannot see it, or barely see it, while search engines can still read it.
- [Link farm](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/link-farm/index.md): A link farm is a group of websites that mainly exist to link to each other or to chosen target pages and so lift their rankings …
- [Sneaky redirects](https://seo-geo-glossary.com/en/glossary/sneaky-redirects/index.md): Sneaky redirects send users, search engines, or both to content they did not expect, or show users and search engines different content.