The SEO Glossary – 101 SEO Terms you Should Know

Table of Contents

Here is a complete SEO Glossary for you. Please review the following 101 Terms related to SEO and Marketing:

1. AdSense:

A system run by Google that posts adverts on the Google search engine and other people’s websites.

2. AdWords:

The system with which advertisers enter their adverts onto the Google Adsense system.

3. AdCopy:

The content that makes up your adverts.

4. Affiliate Marketing:

Advertising by having adverts on other people’s websites, social media sites and search engines.

5. Analytic:

Measurement methods that produce data. The data itself may be called an analytic.

6. Anchor Text:

The text that goes into a hyperlink. The text may be clicked on in order to take the person from one page to another.

7. Black Hat SEO:

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) designed and/or orchestrated to fool or manipulate the search engines.

8. Bookmarks:

Links to websites that are saved, usually in a browser, to make websites easier to find later.

9. Bot:

A program that performs a specific task. For example, Google has spider bots that read web content.

10. Broken Link:

A link that no longer directs a person from one page to another.

11. Browser:

A piece of software that interprets web pages and displays them as per current Internet standards.

12. Canonization:

Picking the correct URL when there are several choices available.

13. Cloaking:

Hiding the content of a page from the viewers, from the search engines, or from standards browsers.

14. Conversion:

Having a viewer complete a certain task as set out by the webmaster.

15. Cost per Action:

CPA allows people with adverts on their website to be paid if a certain conversion action is achieved.

16. Cost Per Impression:

CPC allows people to be paid for having adverts depending on how many people see the adverts.

17. Cost per Click:

With CPC people that have adverts on their websites may be paid every time somebody clicks on their adverts.

18. Click through Rate:

CTR how many people click on the advert after seeing it. It is usually expressed as a percentage.

19. Co-citation:

Used to show search engines that you are quoting and not duplicating/plagiarizing.

20. Contextual Advertising:

Adverts based on the content of a web page and/or even on the cookies a device/PC has.

21. Cross Linking:

Links between websites that are owned by the same company and/or person.

22. Duplicate Content:

The same content being present on more than one domain.

23. Domain:

The address of a website and the name of the website.

24. Dynamic Content:

Content that changes depending on the user, the user’s device, the user’s actions, and cookies.

25. Dynamic Website:

A database-driven website that offers a different website experience to different people.

26. ECommerce Site:

A website that was set up to sell services or products.

27. Error page:

Usually, they display warnings or advice. They are generated when errors have occurred.

28. External Link:

A backlink that points from another domain to your website.

29. Favicon:

A small image that is displayed in the address bar so that people know what your website is when there are multiple tabs open.

30. Gateway page:

Web pages that were optimized simply to draw in traffic to either have them click on adverts or to send the traffic to another website or location.

31. Geo-Targeting:

Advertising or optimizing to appeal to people in a certain geographical area.

32. Hallway Page:

Indexes a few pages that you want Google to find.

33. Headings:

Describes the content of one or more paragraphs in an easy-to-understand manner.

34. Hidden Text:

Text that humans cannot read, but that the search engine bots can read.

35. Hijacking:

Coding that convinces search engines and people that a website is in a certain domain or URL.

36. Hits:

Usually, refers to the number of visitors or number of clicks.

37. Home Page:

The first page on a website that resides on the naked domain.

38. HTML:

Hyper Text Markup Language, which is a scripting language.

39. HTTP:

HyperText Transfer Protocol is used to transfer data.

40. HTTPS:

Using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to transfer data to and from the servers and browsers.

41. Hypertext Link:

A link that takes you from one part of a page to another.

42. Inbound Link:

The same as a backlink, where another domain links to yours.

43. Indexed Pages:

Pages that have been read, interpreted, and placed into the Google database.

44. Inlink:

This is another name for inbound links and backlinks. Some people also consider inlinks to be links from one page to another page within the same website.

45. Internal Link:

Links that point internally from one website page to another on the same domain.

46. Impression:

A single impression means that one person has seen the website, advert, or thing in focus.

47. Java Applet:

An applet that is written in Java code.

48. JavaScript:

A client-side scripting language that is commonly used within websites.

49. Keyword Density:

The number of times a keyword appears in web content.

50. Keyword prominence:

How important a certain keyword is when compared with other keywords.

51. Keyword Research:

Research into the most suitable keywords for a website or advert.

52. Keyword Research Tools:

Tools that may help a keyword researcher judge which words are the best to focus on.

53. Keyword Stuffing:

Purposefully entering a keyword too many times into text in order to fool the search engines.

54. Keyword Targeting:

Adverts and websites are optimized for certain keywords, and those keywords may be called target keywords.

55. Keyword density:

How often a target keyword appears in a web page when compared with all the words on the web page.

56. Landing Page:

The page that the user lands on if he or she clicks a link.

57. Link Removal:

Removing links from a search engine’s index.

58. Link Reputation:

Measuring if a link will have a positive or negative effect on your website.

59. Linking Profile:

All of the links that point to your website and what they may mean.

60. Long Tail Keyword:

Keyword phrases that are longer than three words.

61. Meta Description:

Metadata that may appear on the search engine results page.

62. Meta Keywords:

Metadata that tells the search engines which of your words are keywords.

63. Metrics:

A chunk of data that is used to measure something on or about your website.

64. Microblogging:

Small blog posts of just a few words. The most popular form is via the social media site Twitter.

65. Mirror Site:

An exact replica of a single website.

66. Naked Links:

Links that do not have anchor text, images, or any type of media.

67. Navigation:

The name for the system and method by which users get around and navigate your website.

68. Negative Keyword:

Keywords that advertiser do not want to be included in their keyword profile.

69. Niche:

A topic, theme, area, group or “thing” that is set apart from the mainstream in such a way that it has its own identity.

70. Nofollow:

A tag that instructs the search engines not to index a link.

71. Organic Link:

A backlink to another website in a website post.

72. Organic SEO:

Allowing your content to rank up on its own.

73. Outbound links:

Links on your website that go out and over to another website.

74. Page rank:

A now outdated way of judging the search engine friendliness of a website.

75. Page Title:

The title of a web page.

76. Page Views:

A number showing how many people have looked at a web page.

77. Paid links:

A link pointing to another website. The link costs money.

78. Penalty:

A Google penalization–usually for attempts to manipulate its search engine.

79. PPC (Pay per Click):

Promoters pay every time their advert is clicked.

80. Reciprocal Links:

Where one website links to another, and the other website links back.

81. Redirect:

A person lands on a website and is sent to another website.

82. Referrer String:

It’s a header field that identifies another website’s address that is linked to the resource requested.

83. Robots.txt:

It gives instructions to the search engine crawlers to help them crawl the website as the webmaster desires.

84. RSS:

Really Simple Syndication updates users when new content is produced.

85. Search Engine Marketing:

Using search engines to spread a marketing message.

86. Search Engine Optimization:

Abiding by Google search engine guidelines in order to rank higher on all search engines.

87. Search Engine Results Page (SERP):

A list of results after a person enters a query into a search engine.

88. SEO Copywriting:

Content is written for search engines that is also user-friendly.

89. Site Map:

A guide that tells users and/or search engines where the website’s pages are located.

90. Spam:

Automated messages and content that has no thought or consideration behind its dissemination or inclusion.

91. SSL:

Secure Socket Layer is an encryption technology.

92. Static Website:

A website that doesn’t change. The opposite of a dynamic website.

93. Time-On-Page:

How much time a user spends on a web page.

94. TLD:

Top Level Domain.

95. Trackback:

A system that notifies a webmaster when another website has linked to their website.

96. Traffic:

How many visitors a website or web page gets.

97. Unique Visitor:

New traffic that is not repeated traffic from people that have visited before.

98. URL:

Uniform Resource Locator.

99. Viral Marketing:

Marketing that uses other people’s inclination for sharing to spread quickly.

100. Web Crawler:

A program that searches for, searches through, and reads content. It is usually used to index information.

101. White Hat SEO:

Search Engine Optimization that follows the Google guidelines.

This article is written by Stacey Marone. She is a part-time essay writer for https://essays.scholaradvisor.com/. Since graduation, she has become a professional essayist, blogger, and online guest poster. She is able to turn her hand to many things, and is especially knowledgeable about economics, statistics, and search engine marketing.

Disclosure: Some of our articles may contain affiliate links; this means each time you make a purchase, we get a small commission. However, the input we produce is reliable; we always handpick and review all information before publishing it on our website. We can ensure you will always get genuine as well as valuable knowledge and resources.
Share the Love

Related Articles

Published By: Souvik Banerjee

Souvik BanerjeeWeb Developer & SEO Specialist with 15+ years of experience in Open Source Web Development specialized in Joomla & WordPress development. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions".