Reference
SEO glossary
109 terms you will meet in search, from the basics to AI search. Each definition links to the guide that teaches it properly. Link to any term with its anchor, for example #crawl-budget.
#
- 301 redirectalso permanent redirect, 308 redirect
- A permanent HTTP redirect from one URL to another. It tells search engines to transfer indexing and ranking signals to the new URL, which makes it the default tool for site migrations and URL changes. Learn more
A
- AI agentalso agentic browsing, browser agent
- Software that browses websites and takes actions such as filling forms or booking on behalf of a user. Google documented its Google-Agent user agent for this traffic in March 2026, and like most user-triggered fetchers it generally ignores robots.txt. Learn more
- AI citationalso AI source, cited source
- A link or named source shown inside an AI-generated answer, such as an AI Overview, AI Mode response, ChatGPT search result or Perplexity answer. Being cited is the main visibility goal of GEO. Learn more
- AI crawleralso AI bot, LLM crawler
- A bot run by an AI company to collect web content, either for model training, for an AI search index, or on demand when a user asks. Most vendors now separate these jobs into different user agents, such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User. Learn more
- AI Mode
- Google's conversational AI search experience, reached from a tab or button in Google Search, where follow-up questions keep context. It uses query fan-out, is available in over 200 countries and territories, and is not the default results page. Learn more
- AI Overviewsalso AIO, SGE
- AI-generated summaries with links that Google shows above some search results when its systems judge them helpful. Google reported over 2.5 billion monthly users in May 2026, and eligibility requires only that a page is indexed and can show a snippet. Learn more
- AI-generated contentalso AI content, generative AI content
- Text, images or other content produced with generative AI tools. Google does not ban it, but using it to mass-produce pages without adding value is scaled content abuse, and Google's guidance says to fact-check all AI output before publishing. Learn more
- Algorithm updatealso Google update
- A change to how a search engine ranks results. Google confirms its larger core and spam updates on the Search Status Dashboard and makes many smaller changes without announcing them. Learn more
- Alt textalso alt attribute, alternative text
- The alt attribute on an image that describes it in words. It makes images accessible to screen reader users and helps search engines understand what an image shows. Learn more
- Anchor text
- The visible, clickable words of a link. Search engines read it as a description of the page being linked to, so descriptive anchors help both users and rankings. Learn more
- Answer engine optimizationalso AEO
- Structuring content so search features and assistants can lift it as a direct answer, for example in featured snippets, People Also Ask and voice results. It builds on ordinary SEO rather than replacing it. Learn more
B
- Backlinkalso inbound link, external link
- A link from another website to yours. Links from relevant, trusted sites remain an important ranking signal, while links bought or exchanged to manipulate rankings break Google's spam policies. Learn more
- Bing Webmaster Toolsalso BWT
- Microsoft's free console for monitoring a site in Bing. Since February 2026 its AI Performance report shows how often your pages are cited in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. Learn more
- Brand mentionalso unlinked mention
- A reference to your brand on another site, with or without a link. Genuine mentions in reviews, news and forums shape how search engines and AI answers describe you, while seeking inauthentic mentions is a tactic Google says to ignore. Learn more
- Branded queryalso branded search, brand keyword
- A search that includes your brand or product name. Search Console's branded queries filter, available to eligible sites since March 2026, splits branded from non-branded traffic automatically. Learn more
C
- Canonical URLalso canonical tag, rel=canonical
- The URL a search engine treats as the main version among duplicate or near-duplicate pages. You suggest it with a rel=canonical link, redirects and consistent internal links, and Google makes the final choice. Learn more
- Click depthalso crawl depth
- The number of clicks needed to reach a page from the homepage. Pages buried deep in a site tend to be crawled less often and receive less internal link equity. Learn more
- Click-through ratealso CTR
- The share of impressions that turn into clicks, reported per query and page in Search Console. Titles, snippets and the SERP features around a result all influence it. Learn more
- Cloaking
- Showing search engines different content from what users see, in order to manipulate rankings. It violates Google's spam policies and can lead to a manual action. Learn more
- Content decayalso traffic decay
- The gradual loss of traffic and rankings as a page goes out of date or competitors publish better answers. It is usually fixed by refreshing, merging or retiring the page. Learn more
- Content pruning
- Improving, merging, redirecting or removing low-value pages so a site's overall quality is higher. It is an editorial decision, not a deletion quota. Learn more
- Core updatealso broad core update
- A broad change to Google's core ranking systems, announced on the Search Status Dashboard and typically rolling out over about two weeks. Google also makes smaller unannounced core updates, and in February 2026 ran its first Discover-only core update. Learn more
- Core Web Vitalsalso CWV
- Google's three field metrics for loading, responsiveness and visual stability: LCP, INP and CLS. They are measured at the 75th percentile of real user visits and form part of page experience. Learn more
- Crawl budget
- The number of URLs Googlebot can and wants to crawl on a site, set by its crawl capacity limit and crawl demand. It mostly matters for very large or fast-changing sites. Learn more
- Crawlingalso spidering
- The process of bots fetching pages and following links to discover content. A page has to be crawled before it can be indexed and ranked. Learn more
- CrUXalso Chrome User Experience Report, field data
- The Chrome User Experience Report, Google's public dataset of real-user performance data from Chrome. It is the field data behind Core Web Vitals in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. Learn more
- Cumulative Layout Shiftalso CLS
- The Core Web Vital that measures unexpected layout movement while a page is in use. A good score is 0.1 or less. Learn more
D
- Digital PR
- Earning coverage, links and brand mentions from publications by creating newsworthy assets such as original data, studies and expert commentary. Learn more
- Discussions and forumsalso forums filter, Perspectives
- A Google Search feature, launched in 2022, that surfaces threads from Reddit and other forums for queries where first-hand experience helps. Google's related search filter is called Forums. Learn more
- Duplicate content
- The same or very similar content available at more than one URL. It is not a penalty by itself, but it splits signals and wastes crawling until a canonical version is chosen. Learn more
E
- E-E-A-Talso EEAT, E-A-T
- Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust: the framework Google's quality raters use to judge content, with Trust as the most important part. It is not a single ranking factor, but it describes what Google's systems try to reward. Learn more
- Entity
- A distinct, identifiable thing such as a person, organisation, place or concept that search engines can recognise across the web. Entity SEO makes your brand unambiguous to Google's Knowledge Graph and to language models. Learn more
- Expired domain abuse
- Buying an expired domain and reusing it to host low-value content that trades on the old site's reputation. It is one of Google's named spam policies. Learn more
F
- Featured snippetalso position zero
- A highlighted excerpt from a web page shown near the top of Google results to answer a query directly. Google picks the passage itself; there is no markup that requests one. Learn more
G
- Generative AI performance report
- Search Console reports, available worldwide since August 31, 2026, that show impressions for your pages in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's AI features. They report impressions only, with no clicks, queries or positions. Learn more
- Generative engine optimizationalso GEO, AI SEO, LLM optimization
- The practice of earning visibility and citations in AI-generated answers from tools such as AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity. Google says the same quality and relevance work that drives SEO is what matters for its AI features. Learn more
- Google Business Profilealso GBP, Google My Business
- The free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and the local pack. Categories, reviews, hours and photos are its main ranking inputs. Learn more
- Google Discoveralso Discover
- Google's personalised feed of articles and videos, shown in the Google app and on mobile without a query. Eligibility needs only indexing and compliance with Discover's content policies, and large images help most. Learn more
- Google Search Consolealso GSC, Search Console
- Google's free tool for site owners that reports clicks, impressions, indexing status, manual actions and structured data issues. It is the primary source of truth for how Google sees your site. Learn more
- Google-Extended
- A robots.txt product token that controls whether content Googlebot crawls may be used to train Gemini models and to ground Gemini apps and Vertex AI. Google says it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search, including AI Overviews. Learn more
- Googlebot
- Google's main crawler for Search. For Google Search it fetches the first 2MB of each HTML or text file, and it renders JavaScript with an evergreen version of Chromium. Learn more
- Grounding
- Connecting an AI model's answer to retrieved sources, such as live search results, so it can cite them and stay current. Grounded answers are why ranking and indexing still matter in AI search. Learn more
H
- Helpful content systemalso HCU, helpful content update
- A Google system launched in 2022 to demote content written for search engines rather than people. Since March 2024 it is part of Google's core ranking systems, so there are no separate helpful content updates. Learn more
- hreflang
- An annotation that tells search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which users. Each version must reference the others for the set to be valid. Learn more
I
- Indexing
- Storing and organising crawled pages so they can be shown in search results. A page can be crawled but not indexed if it is a duplicate, low value, or blocked with noindex. Learn more
- IndexNow
- An open protocol that lets sites notify participating search engines, including Bing, the moment URLs are added, changed or deleted. Google does not support it. Learn more
- Interaction to Next Paintalso INP
- The Core Web Vital for responsiveness, measuring the delay between a user interaction and the next visual update. A good score is 200 milliseconds or less, and it replaced FID in March 2024. Learn more
- Internal link
- A link from one page on your site to another. Internal links help crawlers discover pages, spread link equity and tell search engines what each page is about. Learn more
J
- JSON-LD
- A JavaScript-based format for adding structured data to a page inside a script tag. It is the format Google recommends for schema.org markup. Learn more
K
- Key momentsalso video chapters
- Labelled segments of a video that Google can show in search results so people can jump to a specific part. You can supply them with Clip or SeekToAction markup, or with timestamps in a YouTube description. Learn more
- Keyword cannibalizationalso cannibalisation
- Several pages on the same site competing for the same query and intent, which can leave none of them ranking well. The usual fix is to merge or differentiate the pages. Learn more
- Keyword difficultyalso KD
- A third-party estimate of how hard it is to rank for a query, usually based on the backlinks of current top results. Scores differ between tools and are not used by Google. Learn more
- Knowledge Graph
- Google's database of entities and the relationships between them. It powers knowledge panels and helps Google understand who and what a page is about. Learn more
- Knowledge panel
- The information box Google shows for a recognised entity, such as a company or person, drawn from the Knowledge Graph. Verified entities can suggest edits to it. Learn more
L
- Largest Contentful Paintalso LCP
- The Core Web Vital for loading, measuring when the largest image or text block in the viewport renders. A good score is 2.5 seconds or less. Learn more
- Link equityalso link juice, link authority
- The ranking value that passes from one page to another through links. Internal linking decides how the equity your site earns is spread across its pages. Learn more
- llms.txt
- A proposed Markdown file at a site's root that lists its key pages for language models. Google said in June 2026 that Google Search does not use it, and no major AI search engine has committed to using it for ranking or citations. Learn more
- Local packalso map pack, 3-pack
- The map and short list of businesses Google shows for searches with local intent. Proximity, relevance and prominence decide which Business Profiles appear. Learn more
- Log file analysisalso server log analysis
- Reading server logs to see exactly which URLs search engine and AI bots request, how often, and with what response codes. It is the only direct evidence of crawler behaviour on your server. Learn more
- Long-tail keywordalso long tail
- A specific, lower-volume search phrase, often longer and more conversational. Long-tail queries tend to have clearer intent and convert better than broad head terms. Learn more
M
- Manual actionalso manual penalty
- A penalty applied by a human reviewer at Google when a site breaks its spam policies. It is reported in Search Console, and you lift it by fixing the issue and filing a reconsideration request. Learn more
- Meta description
- An HTML tag summarising a page that search engines may use as the snippet under the title. It does not directly affect rankings, but a good one can improve click-through rate. Learn more
- Mobile-first indexing
- Google's practice of using the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking. Content, links and structured data missing from your mobile pages effectively do not exist for Google. Learn more
N
- NAP consistencyalso NAP, citations
- Keeping a business's name, address and phone number identical across its website, Business Profile and directories. Consistent details help search engines trust and match local listings. Learn more
- nofollowalso rel=nofollow, rel=sponsored, rel=ugc
- A rel attribute value that tells search engines not to associate your site with a link or pass ranking credit through it. Google treats nofollow, sponsored and ugc as hints, and paid links should carry sponsored or nofollow. Learn more
- noindex
- A robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header value that keeps a page out of search results. The page must stay crawlable for search engines to see the directive. Learn more
O
- Orphan page
- A page with no internal links pointing to it. Search engines struggle to find and value orphan pages, even when they are listed in a sitemap. Learn more
P
- Page experience
- Google's umbrella term for how using a page feels, covering Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, mobile usability and the absence of intrusive interstitials. Google says good page experience helps but does not outweigh relevant, helpful content. Learn more
- PageRankalso PR
- Google's original algorithm for scoring pages by the quantity and quality of links pointing to them. A version of it is still one of many ranking signals, though the public toolbar score was retired years ago. Learn more
- People Also Askalso PAA
- An expandable box of related questions in Google results, each revealing a short answer from a web page. It is a useful source of question-based content ideas. Learn more
- Pillar pagealso hub page
- A comprehensive page covering a broad topic that links to more detailed pages on its subtopics. It is the hub of a topic cluster. Learn more
- Platform property
- A Search Console property type, available worldwide since July 29, 2026, for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and X accounts. It shows how your posts perform in Google Search, Discover and News. Learn more
- Preferred sources
- A Google Search setting that lets people choose sites they want to see more of in Top Stories, and since May 2026 in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Site owners can link to it with a button or deeplink. Learn more
- Programmatic SEOalso pSEO
- Generating many pages from a template and a dataset, such as one page per city or integration. It works when each page adds unique value and becomes scaled content abuse when it does not. Learn more
Q
- Quality Rater Guidelinesalso QRG, Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines
- Google's handbook for the human raters who evaluate search result quality, where concepts like E-E-A-T and YMYL are defined. Raters' scores do not directly change rankings; the current edition is dated September 11, 2025. Learn more
- Query fan-outalso fan-out queries
- The technique Google says AI Mode and AI Overviews may use: breaking a question into many related subqueries, searching them at once, and combining the results into one answer. Building a separate page for every fan-out query to manipulate AI answers is scaled content abuse. Learn more
R
- Redirect chainalso redirect loop
- A series of redirects between the requested URL and the final page. Each hop slows users and crawlers, so links and redirects should point straight to the final URL. Learn more
- Renderingalso JavaScript rendering, client-side rendering, CSR
- Executing a page's JavaScript to produce the final content a user sees. Google renders JavaScript, but many AI crawlers do not, so important content should be present in the initial HTML. Learn more
- Retrieval-augmented generationalso RAG
- An AI technique that retrieves relevant documents first and then writes an answer from them. Most AI search products work this way, which is why being indexed and retrievable matters for AI visibility. Learn more
- Rich resultsalso rich snippets
- Search results enhanced with extra visual information such as review stars, prices or recipe details, usually enabled by structured data. Google retires types over time: HowTo went in 2023 and FAQ rich results stopped showing on May 7, 2026. Learn more
- Robots meta tagalso meta robots, X-Robots-Tag, nosnippet
- Page-level instructions such as noindex, nofollow, nosnippet and max-image-preview, set in a meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag header. nosnippet also stops content being used as a direct input for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Learn more
- robots.txt
- A text file at a site's root that tells crawlers which paths they may fetch. It controls crawling, not indexing, and it is a request that well-behaved bots honour rather than a security measure. Learn more
S
- Scaled content abuse
- A Google spam policy against producing many pages primarily to manipulate rankings without helping users, whether made with AI, scraping or human writers. It also covers page farms built for AI query fan-out. Learn more
- Schema.orgalso schema markup, schema
- The shared vocabulary of types and properties, such as Product, Article and Organization, that search engines use for structured data. Version 30.1 was released in September 2026. Learn more
- Search engine optimizationalso SEO
- The practice of improving a website so search engines can find, understand and rank it for the queries its audience searches. It covers technical, on-page and off-page work. Learn more
- Search generative AI controlalso AI opt-out
- A Search Console setting (Settings > Search generative AI), available worldwide since August 31, 2026, that includes or excludes a property from AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover's generative AI features. Google says it is not used as a ranking signal elsewhere and does not limit AI training. Learn more
- Search intentalso user intent, keyword intent
- The goal behind a query, commonly grouped as informational, navigational, commercial or transactional. Matching the intent shown by the current results matters more than matching keywords. Learn more
- Search profile
- A Google page that gathers a creator's or publisher's content from their website and social platforms in one place. Google says people who follow a Search profile are more likely to see that content in Discover. Learn more
- SEO split testingalso SEO A/B testing
- Testing an SEO change by applying it to one group of similar pages and comparing their performance against an unchanged control group. It isolates the effect of the change from seasonality and algorithm updates. Learn more
- SERPalso search engine results page, SERP features
- The search engine results page: everything shown for a query, including organic results, ads, AI Overviews and features like local packs and video results. Learn more
- Server-side renderingalso SSR, static site generation, SSG
- Generating a page's HTML on the server for each request, so crawlers receive the full content without running JavaScript. Static generation does the same work at build time. Learn more
- Site reputation abusealso parasite SEO, site reputation policy
- Publishing third-party content on a host site mainly to exploit that site's ranking signals, also called parasite SEO. Since August 2026 Google calls it the site reputation policy, and its manual actions no longer affect results shown to users in the EEA. Learn more
- Soft 404
- A page that tells users it does not exist, or has almost no content, while returning a 200 status code. Google reports these in Search Console and usually leaves them out of the index. Learn more
- Spam policiesalso Search Essentials, spam update
- Google's rules listing the tactics that can get pages demoted or removed, such as cloaking, link spam, scaled content abuse and expired domain abuse. Since May 2026 they explicitly cover attempts to manipulate generative AI responses in Search. Learn more
- Speakable
- Structured data that marks sections of a news article as suitable for text-to-speech playback by Google Assistant. It is a beta feature limited to news publishers in US English. Learn more
- Structured data
- Machine-readable markup, usually JSON-LD using schema.org, that describes what a page contains. It makes pages eligible for rich results, but it is not required to appear in Google's AI features. Learn more
T
- Title tagalso title element, SEO title
- The HTML title element of a page, the main source for the clickable headline in search results. Google may rewrite it when it judges another title describes the page better. Learn more
- Topic clusteralso content cluster, hub and spoke
- A group of pages on related subtopics linked to a central pillar page. Clusters help users and search engines see the depth of your coverage on a subject. Learn more
U
- User-triggered fetcheralso user agent fetcher
- A bot that fetches a page because a person asked an AI tool to, such as ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User or Google-Agent. Most generally ignore robots.txt, with Anthropic's Claude-User a documented exception. Learn more
V
- Voice search
- Searching by speaking to a phone, smart speaker or assistant. Voice queries tend to be longer and more conversational, and answers usually come from a single source. Learn more
X
- XML sitemapalso sitemap, sitemap.xml
- A file that lists the URLs you want search engines to crawl, with optional last-modified dates. It aids discovery but does not guarantee indexing. Learn more
Y
- YMYLalso Your Money or Your Life
- Your Money or Your Life: topics that could significantly affect a person's health, finances, safety or society, such as medical or financial advice. Google holds YMYL content to the highest standards of trust. Learn more
Z
- Zero-click searchalso zero-click
- A search that ends without a click to any website, because the answer appears on the results page. SparkToro estimated in June 2026 that about 68% of US Google searches ended without a click. Learn more