Jargon de-mystified
What are we going on about?
Most SEO conversations are full of terms nobody stops to explain. Crawl budget, E-E-A-T, canonical, position zero. This page gives you the plain English version of each one, so you can follow a strategy call or read an agency report without nodding along.
The SEO list is the longest one here. Web design and CRO words are included because they come up in the same conversations. Broader marketing acronyms (ROI, CTA, CTR and the rest) have a page of their own.
Updated August 2026.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) terms
The SEO terms that come up most often in meetings and reports. For a longer walk through each one, read SEO terms explained.
The box at the top of Google results that directly answers a query, often called “position zero”.
The number of pages Google will crawl on your site in a given time period, relevant for larger sites.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust. Google’s quality framework for evaluating content credibility.
The underlying reason behind a search query. Google ranks pages that best match whether a user wants to buy, learn, navigate or find a local business.
Identifying relevant search terms to optimise content and campaigns.
Link from one website to another, important for SEO and authority
HTML elements that provide metadata about a webpage.
Set of rules used by search engines to rank webpages.
Page displayed by search engines in response to a query.
Traffic generated from unpaid search engine results.
Optimisation of individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic.
Techniques done outside of a website to improve search engine rankings.
Optimising a website to rank higher in local search results.
Ensuring a website is optimised for mobile devices to improve user experience and rankings.
Web design terms
Google’s three performance metrics (LCP, CLS, INP) that measure user experience and are used as ranking factors.
Platform for creating, managing, and publishing digital content.
Design of user interfaces for websites or applications.
Overall experience of a user interacting with a website or product.
Design approach that ensures a website adapts to different screen sizes and devices.
Visual guide that represents the skeletal framework of a website.
Structure and organisation of menus and links on a website.
Service that stores and serves website files to users.
Unique address used to access a website.
Protocol that ensures secure communication between a user’s browser and a website.
Designing websites to be usable by people with disabilities.
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimisation) terms
Percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action.
Comparing two or more versions of a webpage to determine which performs better.
Visual representation of user interactions on a webpage.
Level of interaction users have with content or ads.
Stand-alone page designed for a specific marketing campaign or objective.
Evaluating a website’s ease of use by testing it with real users.
Shaping content and experiences to individual users based on their preferences and behaviour.