Why we wrote this
If you’ve ever sat in an SEO meeting and heard “we need to think about EEAT, canonicalisation and the crawl budget before we do any schema work,” you’ll know why a jargon buster exists. SEO has more acronyms than the military, and a lot of them are used badly by people who want to sound clever.
We think SEO should be understandable. If you can’t explain a concept in plain English, you probably don’t understand it yourself. Here are 30 terms that come up again and again, in the order you’re most likely to meet them.
The basics
1. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
The practice of making your website more visible in search engine results, mainly Google. Covers content, technical setup, and links.
2. SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page you see when you Google something. It includes ads, the local map pack, featured snippets, and regular (“organic”) results.
3. Organic traffic
Visitors who land on your site by clicking a regular search result, as opposed to an ad. The main goal of SEO is to increase this.
4. Keyword
The word or phrase someone types into Google. “Web design Bognor Regis” is a keyword. So is “how do I fix my slow website?”
5. Ranking
Where your page appears in the search results for a given keyword. Position 1 is the top of page one. Position 11 is the top of page two, where almost nobody clicks.
6. Impressions
How many times your site showed up in search results. Doesn’t matter if anyone clicked.
7. CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of impressions that actually turned into clicks. Low CTR means your title and meta description aren’t pulling their weight.
On-page SEO terms
8. Title tag
The clickable headline of a search result. Usually the single most important on-page SEO element. Limited to around 60 characters before Google truncates it.
9. Meta description
The short summary under the title in search results. Doesn’t directly affect rankings, but a good one improves click-through. See our guide on writing meta descriptions that actually get clicks.
10. H1, H2, H3
Heading tags. H1 is the main page heading (one per page, please). H2s are section headings. H3s are subsections. They help Google and readers understand the structure.
11. Alt text
A short description of an image, used by screen readers and search engines. Missing alt text is a common, easy-fix problem.
12. Internal linking
Links from one page on your site to another. They help Google understand what your site is about and spread ranking power around.
13. Anchor text
The clickable words in a link. “Click here” tells Google nothing. “Local SEO guide” tells it exactly what the linked page is about.
14. Search intent
The reason behind a search. Someone searching “what is SEO” wants information. Someone searching “SEO agency Bognor Regis” wants to buy. Matching intent is half the battle.
Technical SEO terms
15. Crawling
When Google’s bots visit your site to discover pages. If they can’t crawl it, they can’t rank it.
16. Indexing
When Google stores a page in its database so it can show up in results. Crawled isn’t the same as indexed.
17. Sitemap (XML sitemap)
A file that lists all the pages on your site so Google can find them easily. Most WordPress plugins generate one automatically.
18. Robots.txt
A file that tells search engine bots which parts of your site to ignore. Get it wrong and you can accidentally block your whole site from Google.
19. Canonical tag
A bit of code that tells Google “this is the main version of this page” when similar content exists in multiple places. Prevents duplicate content headaches.
20. Schema markup
Structured code that helps Google understand what’s on a page. Think reviews, FAQs, events, products. Can unlock rich snippets in the SERPs.
21. Core Web Vitals
Google’s page experience metrics measuring loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. They’re a ranking factor. See our guide on website speed.
22. 301 redirect
A permanent redirect from one URL to another. Important when you change your site structure, so you don’t lose the SEO value of old pages.
Off-page SEO terms
23. Backlink
A link from another website pointing to yours. Generally the more high-quality backlinks you have, the better you rank. Quality beats quantity, every time.
24. Domain Authority / Domain Trust
A third-party score (Moz calls it DA, others call it something similar) estimating how authoritative your site looks compared to competitors. Not a Google ranking factor but a useful benchmark. More in our post on what is domain authority.
25. Link building
The process of earning (or, sometimes, manufacturing) backlinks. Good link building is about genuine relationships and valuable content. Bad link building gets you penalised.
26. Nofollow / Dofollow
Attributes on links that tell Google whether to pass ranking value. Dofollow (the default) passes value. Nofollow doesn’t.
27. EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Google’s framework for judging content quality, especially on topics that affect money or health. Write like a real expert, not a content mill.
Local SEO terms
28. Google Business Profile (GBP)
The free listing that powers Google Maps results and the local pack. If you’re a local business and you haven’t claimed yours, start there.
29. NAP consistency
Name, Address, Phone. These need to match exactly across your website, Google Business Profile, and directory listings. Small differences cause big confusion for search engines.
30. Local citation
A mention of your business name, address and phone on another website (Yell, Yelp, industry directories). Consistent citations help Google trust your location data.
The terms to learn next
If you’ve got the 30 above under your belt, you’re ahead of most business owners. A few more worth adding to the vocabulary as you go: featured snippet, pillar content, topic cluster, log file analysis, crawl budget, and hreflang (for multilingual sites). We’ll cover more in future posts.
Confused by anything in your own SEO report? Get in touch and we’ll translate it into plain English.
Frequently asked questions
SEO is Search Engine Optimisation: the practice of making your website more visible in search results, mainly Google. It covers three broad areas, being your content, your technical setup, and the links pointing at your site. The goal is more organic traffic, meaning visitors who arrive by clicking a regular search result rather than an ad.
Crawling is when Google’s bots visit your site to discover pages. Indexing is when Google stores a page in its database so it can appear in results. Crawled is not the same as indexed, and a page can be one without the other, which is why “crawled but not indexed” is such a common report in Search Console.
Search intent is the reason behind a search. Someone typing “what is SEO” wants information. Someone typing “SEO agency Bognor Regis” wants to buy. Matching your page to the intent behind the search is half the battle, because Google ranks the pages that answer what the searcher actually wanted.
Not directly. The meta description is the short summary under the title in search results, and Google does not use it as a ranking factor. It does affect whether people click, though, so a sharp one improves your click-through rate and gets you more traffic from the same position.
An impression means your site appeared in search results, whether or not anyone clicked. A click means someone actually visited. The percentage of impressions that turn into clicks is your click-through rate, and a low one usually means your title tag and meta description are not pulling their weight.
