Reference

SEO Glossary

Plain-language definitions of the SEO terms you’ll meet everywhere — from anchor text and backlinks to SERP features, keyword difficulty, and topical authority. Each term links to the free RankSEOTool that puts it into practice.

A B C D F G I K L M N O P R S T

Anchor text: The clickable visible text of a hyperlink. Descriptive, natural anchor text helps search engines understand the linked page; repetitive exact-match anchor text looks manipulative.
Average position: The mean ranking position of your URLs across all impressions for a query in Google Search Console. A leading indicator of search visibility before clicks arrive.
Backlink: A link from another website pointing to yours. Backlinks remain a core Google ranking signal; relevance and authority of the linking site matter more than raw count.
Canonical URL: The preferred version of a page URL, declared via a rel="canonical" link tag. It consolidates ranking signals when multiple URLs have similar content.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that turn into clicks. Low CTR with high impressions usually means a weak title or meta description, or a low ranking position.
Core Web Vitals: Google’s user-experience metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
Crawl budget: The number of pages search engines will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Important for large sites; wasted on duplicate or low-value pages.
Dofollow link: A standard link that passes authority to the destination page. By default all links are dofollow unless rel="nofollow" or similar attributes are added.
Domain authority: A predictive score (popularized by Moz) estimating a domain’s ability to rank, based on its backlink profile. Higher authority sites can compete for harder keywords.
Featured snippet: A concise answer shown above organic results, pulled from a ranking page. Winning a snippet can dramatically increase clicks even from position 2–5.
Google Search Console: Google’s free tool showing how your site appears in search: impressions, clicks, position, indexing status, and coverage. Essential for monitoring SEO progress.
Indexing: When Google stores a page in its database after crawling it. A page must be indexed to appear in search results; check coverage in Search Console.
Internal link: A link from one page on your site to another. Internal links distribute authority and help Google discover and understand your pages.
Keyword: The word or phrase a searcher types into Google. SEO targets keywords that match real search demand and intent.
Keyword difficulty: A 0–100 score estimating how hard it is to rank on page one for a keyword, based on the authority of pages currently ranking.
Keyword gap: A keyword that competitors rank for but your site does not. Gap analysis surfaces proven, winnable content opportunities.
Local pack: The map-based set of three businesses Google shows for queries with local intent. Appearing in the pack drives most clicks for local searches.
Long-tail keyword: A longer, more specific search phrase, usually with lower volume and difficulty but clearer intent. The fastest wins for newer sites.
Meta description: The HTML summary shown under your title in search results. It does not directly affect rankings but strongly influences click-through rate.
Nofollow link: A link with rel="nofollow", telling search engines not to pass authority. Used for sponsored or untrusted links; still valuable for traffic.
On-page SEO: Optimizations made on the page itself: title tags, headings, content, internal links, images, and technical elements like canonical and viewport tags.
Organic results: Search results that rank naturally based on relevance and authority, not paid placement. The target of SEO.
Page authority: A predictive score estimating a single page’s ability to rank, based on its backlinks and content. Distinct from domain-level authority.
Ranking position: Where your page appears in the organic results for a keyword. Position 1 is the top result; positions 1–10 are page one.
Referring domain: A unique domain that links to your site. Diversity of referring domains matters more than the total number of backlinks.
Robots.txt: A file at the site root telling crawlers which pages they may access. It controls crawling, not indexing.
Search intent: What a searcher actually wants for a query: information, a product, navigation, or a transaction. Matching intent is a prerequisite for ranking.
SERP: Search Engine Results Page — the full page Google returns for a query, including organic results, ads, and features like snippets and local packs.
Sitemap: An XML file listing your important pages for search engines. Submit it in Search Console to aid discovery and indexing.
Title tag: The HTML element defining the page title, shown as the clickable headline in search results. The single most important on-page SEO element.
Topical authority: The depth and breadth of coverage your site has on a topic. Building clusters of related content and internal links signals expertise to Google.

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SEO Glossary

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