If you’re looking to up your SEO know-how, you need an SEO glossary. Whether you’re just looking to familiarize yourself with the language or enhance what you already know, this SEO glossary should help you get there.
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200: A HTTP status code that indicates a successful page response when crawled or indexed.
301: If you see the 301 status code, this indicates a permanent redirect of a web page from one location to another.
302: Indicates a temporary redirect of a web page from one location to another. This type of redirect is commonly used when you need to send visitors to a new site or page for a short period of time.
404: Indicates a page where the internet URL or address can't be located. Typically, this means that the URL is broken, missing, or misplaced. 404 errors impact SEO rankings and provide a negative UX. If you crawl your website and find 404 errors, correct them by using a 301 redirect.
A
Alt Text: A short written description of an image within the HTML of a web page. Sometimes called “alternative text” or “alt tag,” alt text has two functions 1) accessibility and 2) it helps inform search engines what an image is showing.
Anchor Text: The visible, clickable text of a link. It appears in a different color than the surrounding text and is often underlined. Anchor text helps search engines understand what the destination page is about and describes what you’ll see if you click the link. It’s also sometimes called “link text.”
B
Backlinks: Sometimes referred to as “inbound links,” these are links from outside your domain that point back to your website. Backlinks are commonly presented with specific anchor text that tells the visitor where the backlink is going or what the page is about. Search engines consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page, impacting a website's ability to rank in the SERP.
Black Hat SEO: A practice that goes against search engine guidelines and is used by bad actors to get a site ranking higher in search results. They employ unethical tactics such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and private link networks to build a site's search presence. Because of that, the pages don’t solve problems for the searcher and often end in a penalty from search engines.
Bots: Bots read through your web pages to inform search engines what your website is about. Bots are also commonly known as crawlers or spiders.
Bounce Rate: A metric that measures how many visitors leave a web page after viewing and never engaging with any links or taking any action. The session begins and ends on the same page.
Breadcrumb: Think of Hansel and Gretel's fairy tale, and you're close to understanding breadcrumbing. In SEO and UX, a breadcrumb is part of a trail that shows a visitor's location in relation to the rest of the website. Breadcrumbs also help search engines understand how your site is structured.
Broken Link: A broken link is a web page that's been moved or no longer exists. 404 errors are typically displayed when there's a broken link on a website.
Browser: A (web) browser is application software for accessing the internet. Some of the most commonly used browsers include Chrome and Safari.
C
Cache: The temporary storage of data for faster data delivery on future requests. For example, Google creates a cache of website pages as part of its indexing process.
Caffeine: Caffeine is Google’s web indexing system. Caffeine is the index or collection of web content, and Googlebot is the crawler that goes out and finds the content. Caffeine allows Google to crawl and store data much faster and more efficiently.
Canonical URL: A solution for duplicate content. A canonical URL is the HTML link element on a website represented with rel="canonical". A canonical URL tells search engines the website's preferred URL and helps crawlers prioritize different URLs with duplicate content.
Click-through Rate: In an SEO lens, the click-through rate (CTR) is a metric that measures the ratio of people who've actively clicked a link to your website to the total number of people who saw the link after they've seen it in the SERP.
Competitor Analysis: The process of exploring and analyzing websites that rank beside you in the SERP for the same target keywords.
Content Management System (CMS): Software or platforms that help users create and manage digital content. Some of the most common CMSs are WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace.
Conversion: When a visitor completes a desired action on your website (e.g., filling out a form or making a purchase).
Crawl Budget: Sometimes called a “crawl rate limit,” this is the number of pages a search engine crawler will crawl and index in a certain timeframe. Once your budget has been exhausted, the crawler will stop accessing your site’s content and move on.
Crawler Directives: Crawler directives communicate to search engines how to behave when crawling and indexing your website.
Crawling: Web crawling, or just simply crawling, is the process of search engines discovering your web pages and updated content on the web. It is different than indexing, in which a web page becomes eligible to show up in the SERP.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): A language used to describe the presentation of a page and how it’s designed and laid out. For example, CSS helps web developers create uniform and beautiful web pages, and develop a layout, on-page colors, and other styles. CSS can be used to define text styles, table sizes, etc.
D
Domain Authority (DA): A search engine ranking score that represents a domain's credibility in the eyes of search engines. The higher a website's DA, the better chance it ranks higher in the SERP.
De-indexing: De-indexing is a bit like taking your website off the grid. Ultimately, de-indexing pages or entire websites tells search engine crawlers to remove the site from being indexed. The result means that the site or pages won't appear in the SERP.
Domain: The main address of a website (e.g., “www.klientboost.com”).
Domain Name System (DNS): A system that lets you connect to websites by matching human-readable domain names with the unique ID of the server where a website is stored. Think of the DNS system as the internet’s phonebook—it lists domain names with their corresponding identifiers called IP addresses instead of listing people’s names with their phone numbers.
Domain Name Registrar: Domain name registrar is a fancy word for domain name shop. It's simply a business that allows you to purchase and register domain names. GoDaddy and Bluehost are examples of domain name registrars.
Duplicate Content: Content that's been duplicated more than once and appears in more than one place within or across domains. Duplicate content is generally frowned upon in SEO and may impact search engine rankings because it makes it challenging for search engines to decide which version is more relevant.
E
Editorial Links: Editorial links are backlinks to content, web pages, or websites that are earned and not paid for or requested.
F
Featured Snippet: Highlighted pieces of information or brief excerpts that are pulled out from web pages and typically appear at the top of the SERP. The featured snippet provides searchers with quick answers to their queries.
G
Google Analytics: A free web analytics platform from Google. Google Analytics helps website owners glean insight into how people engage with their site and analyze their website traffic.
Google Analytics Goals: Goals track specific user activity actions taken on a website and give marketers an understanding of how well a website contributes to business growth. An example of a completed goal is a visitor filling out a form or making a purchase. Goals are closely tied to conversions. There are four goal types: Destination, Duration, Pages/Screen per session, and Event.
Google Business Profile: Google’s free tool for managing your business listing on Google. Businesses provide information such as opening hours, website, and phone numbers. Business profiles are then shown in the SERP when a user performs a search and helps ensure that people find a local business when looking for products and services.
Google Search Console: A tool provided by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results. It measures your site’s traffic and performance, helps you analyze your impressions, and more.
Google Tag Manager: A free tool that allows you to manage and deploy tags (snippets of code or tracking pixels) on your website or mobile app without having to modify the code. Tags are used in partnership with Google Analytics to give marketers more detailed reporting on the performance of their website.
Googlebots/Bingbots: Web crawlers that collect data from the web and read through your web pages to help inform search engines.
Guest Blogging: The practice of writing a blog post for another website other than your own, or vice versa. An example of guest blogging would be an employee from Company A writing a blog post for Company B and Company B publishing the blog post on their website. Guest blogging is commonly used to help build backlinks.
H
H1 tag: A H1 tag is HTML code that signals the header text (title) on a website. In SEO, it's best practice to ensure that each page only has one H1 tag.
Header Tags: Header tags are HTML elements used on websites to designate headings on your page and separate body copy. Header tags start with H1 and end at H6. Using header tags makes web pages easier to read.
Headings: Headings are created using header tags to separate body copy on a webpage and indicate new sections.
Holistic SEO: Holistic SEO looks at the bigger picture when performing SEO work on a website. Instead of focusing on one specific type of SEO (e.g., on-page SEO, off-page SEO, or technical SEO), holistic SEO explores how all these elements and other aspects work together to help improve organic search rankings.
HTML: HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the primary language used to format web pages and what web crawlers read.
HTTP Status Codes: Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) status codes are responses to a browser’s request. When visiting a website, the browser will send a request to the site’s server, and the server will respond to the request with the HTTP status code. Status codes can help diagnose site errors, minimize site downtime, and help search engines access your site.
I
Image Compression: Image compression refers to the practice of compressing images so that the file size is smaller upon uploading an image to a website. This is done to help web pages load faster (an important ranking factor).
Inbound link: An inbound link is a link from one domain to another domain. See also: backlinks.
Index: A search engine’s database containing all the URLs and data the search engine was able to find. A search engine will first crawl your site, then index it.
Index Coverage Report: A tool in Google Search Console that allows site owners to access a detailed view of the pages on a website that are indexed. The report also shows any issues regarding indexing and is typically used for large sites with a high volume of URLs.
Indexed Pages: Indexed pages are the pages of a website that have been crawled and added to the search engine's database or index.
Indexing: The process of crawling a website and adding the information to a search engine's database, known as an index.
Informational Queries: Searches with the intent to answer a question. The searcher is often looking for information (e.g., "how old is LeBron James?" or “how to make coffee”).
Intent: Intent refers to the reason a searcher has performed a query. For example, do they need to buy something, learn about something, or find something? In other words, intent is the goal of the keyword(s) they used to search.
Internal Links: Links that point from one web page to another web page within the same domain. For example, a link on Page A directs the visitor to Point B on the same website.
IP Address: AKA “Internet Protocol,” this is a unique numerical address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network.
J
JavaScript: A programming language used to create web pages and add interactive elements to a website. Javascript is often used in conjunction with CSS and HTML.
JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data (JSON-LD): A linked data format that makes it easy to read and write structured data. It allows for data to be serialized similarly to traditional JSON.
K
Keyword(s): AKA search queries, keywords are a word or group of words a user searches for using a search engine. SEO specialists use keywords to build optimization strategies and ensure that websites contain keywords related to a) their business and b) what a user will search for. Keywords help a business become discoverable in the SERP and appear more relevant to searchers.
Keyword Difficulty (KD): A score given by SEO tools such as Ahrefs that shows the difficulty level of a keyword. The difficulty level refers to how hard it will be to rank for the given keyword in comparison to competitors vying for the same keyword.
Keyword Explorer: A keyword research tool in Moz and Ahrefs that’ll help determine the keyword difficulty and will research the keyword in question. In Google, this tool is called the Keyword Planner, and on Semrush, it’s called the Keyword Magic Tool.
Keyword Research: The process of using an SEO tool or explorer to conduct research on keywords and decide which is most valuable for your business. Keyword research can help you uncover search volume, keyword difficulty, search intent, and more.
Keyword Stuffing: The (spammy) practice of adding repeated keywords all over your site to gain a higher ranking on the SERP. Keyword stuffing is a total no-go for on-page optimization and is typically used by black hat SEO companies to quickly rank in the SERP.
KPI: A key performance indicator is a metric that shows how effectively a business is hitting its various goals and objectives. KPIs help a business to define its strategy and finances. Some examples of KPIs for SEO include organic traffic, amount of links, search rankings, etc.
L
Landing Page: A web page that visitors "land on" after clicking a link from a marketing channel, such as an email or paid ad. The most common goal of a landing page is to convert the traffic and inspire them to take action.
Lazy Loading: An optimization technique for websites. Instead of the entire web page loading immediately, only the required sections are loaded until the remaining sections are required by the visitor. This is also known as on-demand loading, and it allows you to defer slow-loading page elements until the visitor engages with it.
Link Accessibility: The ease with which a link is able to be found either by web crawlers or human visitors.
Link Building: The strategic practice of getting other websites within your industry or reputable sites to link back to you. These links are known as backlinks and are a key factor in ranking websites higher in the SERP.
Link Equity: A ranking factor that places value on the quality of links from one website to another. Some links give more equity than others. This value is dependent on several factors, including the linking page's domain authority, the relevancy of the link, HTTP status, and the do-follow tag. Also known as link juice.
Link Exchange: The practice of exchanging links with another website. For example, Company A has a link placed on Company B's website and visa versa. A tactic for link building.
Link Volume: Link volume is defined as the number of links on a web page.
Local Business Schema: Local business schema is structured data and markup code that a business adds to a website to make it easier for local search engines to determine who the company is and what it does.
Local Pack: A SERP feature and group of local business listings that appear on the first page for any search query with local intent. The Local Pack features a map of business locations and listings for three businesses relevant to the search. Owning a spot in the local pack is a great way to generate clicks to a website.
Local Queries: Local queries are search terms that are location-specific (e.g., “best LA restaurants” or “Seattle bars”).
Local SEO: Local SEO is the practice of strategically optimizing a business to become more visible in local search results.
Long-tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases and search queries (typically contain more than three words). Long-tail keywords impact closer to the bottom of the marketing funnel and indicate that a visitor is closer to converting into a customer as they’re specific (e.g., “law firm” vs. the long-tail keyword, “how to find the right law firm to work with”). However, long-tail keywords usually have a lower search volume than short keywords.
M
Manual Penalty: A manual penalty is when a human at Google applies a penalization to a website because it's been found to go against Google's Webmaster Guidelines and policies. Manual penalties are typically a result of using spammy or manipulative ranking tactics.
Meta Description: A meta description is an HTML element that summarizes a webpage. A page's meta description tag is displayed as part of a search snippet in the SERP and gives the searcher insight into what's on the page. Meta descriptions should be written in under 150 characters, as it is a brief preview blurb.
Meta Tags/Directives: Code snippets contained within the header codes of web pages. Not viewable directly on a web page, meta tags are content descriptors that inform search engines what the page is about.
Metadata: Metadata is… well, data that describes other data. It helps search engines understand your content and the purpose of individual web pages. An example of metadata is your meta description.
Mobile-first Indexing: Mobile-first indexing is a practice by Google that prioritizes indexing and ranking the mobile version of a website. For websites that aren't optimized for mobile devices, they'll find that they rank lower than those that are.
N
Navigation: Navigation refers to how internal links are structured on a website. Of course, every business wants users to quickly find what they're looking for, and good navigation begins with a solid internal linking structure that helps visitors navigate to other pages. Navigation often appears as a list of links at the top of your website, on the side, or at the bottom.
Navigational Queries: Searches in which the user is trying to get to a specific location or web page. An example of navigational search queries includes “YouTube,” “Twitter trending page,” or “KlientBoost blog.” The searcher is looking for a specific website or location in their query.
Nofollow Links: Links with a rel=”nofollow” tag applied. These essentially tell search engines to ignore them, and they don't impact SEO rankings.
Noindex: Sometimes, it's okay to have a web page not showing in the SERP. Noindex tags tell Google's crawlers not to add a specific webpage to its index, which means that it won't be shown on the results page.
O
Organic Search: Results shown in the SERP that are earned rankings rather than paid. Getting a website to rank high in the organic search results is at the core of any good SEO strategy and high-quality content.
P
Page Authority: Similar to domain authority, page authority is the value a search engine assigns a specific web page and estimates how your page may rank compared to competitors.
Page Speed: How quickly a web page loads. Page speed is a ranking factor.
Page Titles: AKA a title tag, a page title is within the header code of web pages and informs search engines what to show on the SERP.
PageRank: PageRank was one of the original algorithm concepts created by Google to determine how well the page(s) were performing and counted links to determine value.
Pages Per Session: Pages per session is the number of pages a visitor views in one session.
Pagination: Pagination is the process of separating a series of content into multiple pages to improve ease of use. Pagination is mostly used in large sites with blog sections, product categories, etc.
Panda: Refers to the 2011 Google algorithm update to help eliminate black hat SEO, low-quality content and spam. Panda is one of the first steps Google took to focus on quality and user experience. It rewards high-quality websites and diminishes spammy or low-quality pieces of content.
Pay-per-click (PPC): The marketing model of targeting visitors with paid advertisements and used to drive traffic to websites. Businesses pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. PPC campaigns can be run on search engines and social media.
People Also Ask: A Google SERP feature that presents a list of additional questions related to a searcher's query.
Personalization: Personalization refers to Google’s ability to tailor search results based on a user's location, language, and previous search history on the device or the Google account the user is logged into.
Programming Language: A programming language is a set of commands, instructions, and other syntax used to create software. Examples of programming languages include Python, Ruby, Java, JavaScript, etc.
Prominence: In the context of Google’s Local Pack, this refers to businesses that are well-liked and popular in the real world. It can also be used to just describe how well-known a business is.
Protocol: The “HTTP” before your domain; influences how data is transmitted between a server and browser.
Pruning: Content pruning is the strategy of removing low-performing or out-of-date content from a website in order to increase the quality of the overall site. While pruning, it's common practice to either deindex or consolidate content that’s irrelevant or obsolete.
Purchased Links: Purchased links are backlinks that have been acquired through payment. Buying backlinks is often a form of black hat SEO and can result in a manual penalty.
Q
Qualified Lead: A person who has shown interest in your brand or offer and is more likely to become a customer than other leads. Qualified leads are bucketed into two main categories: marketing qualified leads (MQL) and sales qualified leads (SQL).
Qualified Traffic: Similar to qualified leads, qualified traffic is more likely to engage with a website, be pushed into the marketing funnel, and eventually become a customer.
Query: A query refers to the words or phrases a person searches for on a search engine. For example, "best season to travel" or "KlientBoost marketing agency" are both examples of search queries.
R
RankBrain: RankBrain is Google’s machine-learning artificial intelligence system that’s used to process and sort through search results.
Ranking: Ranking refers to the order in which search results appear on the SERP.
Ranking Factor(s): A pre-determined set of criteria applied by a search engine to evaluate web pages and rank them in the SERP. There are hundreds of ranking factors that search engines use to help assess a page’s relevance. Some examples include high-quality content, page speed, user experience, etc.
Redirection: The process of directing one web page to another. See also 301 and 302 redirects. You might redirect a post when you delete a page, need to change the URL structure, or avoid/merge duplicate content.
Referral Traffic: Traffic that comes to a domain from any other source other than search results. Email, social media, and other websites are sources of referral traffic.
Referrer URL: The address of the web page that a user clicked that sent them to your page (i.e., the web page the user was on right before they arrived on your page).
Regional Keywords: Keywords unique to a specific locale. For example, “soda” and “pop” both mean the same thing but may have different audiences, search volumes, etc., depending on the location.
rel=”canonical” : Tells search engines the website's preferred URLs and helps crawlers prioritize different URLs with duplicate or similar content.
Relevance: How well does your content or offering match or align with what the user is searching for? Search relevance is the measure of accuracy between a search query and search results. It can refer to searchers’ intents, if your content answers the users’ questions, etc.
Rendering: The process wherein a browser turns a site’s code into a viewable and navigable web page.
Resource Page: A resource page is a web page that contains detailed information about a specific topic and will include a good internal linking structure to other relevant content. A resource page is commonly used for link building.
Responsive Design: Website and page layouts with content blocks that seamlessly reassemble and render depending on the size and orientation of a user’s device or screen.
Rich Snippet: A rich snippet is an enhanced version of a snippet but with additional data displayed and is commonly seen on results for reviews, recipes, and events. They’ll often include images, star ratings, number of votes, etc.
robots.txt: A robots.txt is a file that tells crawlers the URLs it can access, prevents the crawler from exploring specific web pages, and is used to actively manage and direct the crawler.
RSS Feed: RSS stands for “really simple syndication,” and an RSS feed is essentially a standardized content distribution system that delivers updates and notifications to subscribers.
S
Schema Markup (schema.org): Structured data vocabulary of tags and a form of microdata to add your HTML to help search engines interpret your pages and represent them in the SERP. Schema markup contributes to your rich snippet and is commonly used for events, people, products, recipes, etc.
Scraped Content: When content is “scraped” (AKA stolen) off other websites and is republished without consent from the OG website. Scraped content is illegal and goes against Webmaster Guidelines.
Scroll Depth: Scroll depth measures how far a user scrolls on a web page. Scroll depth is measured by a vertical scroll or horizontal scroll. Scroll depth shows how engaged a site visitor is with your content and is measured either in pixels or percentages. You can configure your scroll depth trigger in Gooogle Tag Manager.
Search Engine: You know that thing we’ve been rattling your ear off about? You might’ve heard us say “Google” about a hundred times. This is one example of a search engine. Think of a search engine as a huge database that users access when they perform a search online. A search engine will identify and present items that are most relevant to the searcher’s keyword. Other examples of search engines include Bing, Yahoo!, etc.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The science and art of optimizing a website's on-page, off-page, and technical elements so that its contents become easier to discover, more relevant for search queries, and rank higher in the SERP.
Search Quality Rater Guidelines: Google’s guidelines in which a team of Quality Raters use as a reference point when rating the quality of websites.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page that a search engine displays to show the results of a search query.
Search Traffic: Traffic that comes to a domain from a search engine. Search traffic can be broken down into two cohorts: organic and paid.
Search Volume: The number of searches for a search query that's performed on a monthly basis. Marketers look to search volume as an indicator of how popular and competitive a keyword is, and if vying for that keyword would be of value to their business.
Seasonal Trends: Rain or shine, Google doesn't stop working. Buuuut, seasonal weather, traditions, or holidays can impact search volume and relevance (e.g., “clever halloween costumes”).
Seed Keywords: The primary or main keyword(s) (typically one or two words) that you can use to grow your keyword list and perform more accurate keyword research. Seed keywords tend to have high competition and high search volumes and are designed to “sprout” some other keywords that you can use to optimize your content around (e.g., “website design”).
Semantic Search: Refers to a search engine’s ability to accurately interpret search query nuance (derived from context, semantics, and search intent) so that it can yield the most relevant search result.
Sentiment: Sentiment measures the positive, negative, or other emotions associated with a brand, content, and messaging.
SERP Features: Any result on a search engine results page that's not a “traditional” search result or link. Featured snippets and the People Also Ask box are examples of SERP features on Google.
Short-tail Keywords: Keywords with only one or two words and are typically more general or very broad. Because of this, the competition is relatively stiff and they have a high search volume (e.g., “engagement ring” or “backpacking”).
Site Speed: Similar to page speed, site speed refers to how quickly a website renders and loads in a browser. Sites that load faster typically acquire more traffic and have better conversion rates.
Site Structure: How you organize your website's content. Often, a website will be built on pages and topics. Site structure organizes how this content is grouped, linked, and presented to the visitor.
Sitemap: A sitemap is a file in which you provide data and information regarding the pages and contents of your site. A sitemap lists a website's most important pages and makes sure search engines can crawl and understand the pages listed.
Spammy Tactics: Spammy tactics and black hat SEO are essentially the same things: SEO strategies that go against Webmaster Guidelines. An example of a spammy tactic is buying links or keyword stuffing.
Spider: A search engine bot that crawls websites and collects information for search engines to then index.
SSL Certificate: A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate is an online security certificate that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser and authenticates a website’s identity. It enables better website security and helps protect sensitive transactions, data transfers, etc.
Structured Data: A markup that informs search engines precise information about a website’s structure and how to interpret and present the content.
T
The Fold: The fold is the point on a web page where the user needs to scroll down to see more information (i.e., the point on your site where the page is cut off by the bottom of the browser window). Content is therefore presented above the fold or below the fold, and search engines place some priority on content above the fold.
Thin Content: Content that adds little to no value to the visitor or little to no SEO value.
Thumbnails: A term used to describe a small image representation or small version of a larger image. Typically meant to make it easier to look at and manage a large group of images.
Time On Page: A web analytics metric that tells marketers the amount of time visitors spend on a specific web page before clicking to another page.
Title: Title refers to the title of a webpage. Titles are presented in the head section of a page and in the SERP using a title tag.
Title Tag: An HTML code tag that gives a web page its title. The title tag displays the chosen title in a browser title bar and the SERP.
Traffic: Another name for visits to a website. Common forms of traffic come from search engines, email, social media, and paid advertising.
Transactional Queries: Search queries that have purchase intent and indicate a searcher is looking to buy (e.g., “white Vans slip-on shoes” or “buy vitamin D”).
U
Unnatural Links: These are artificial links typically used to manipulate a page’s ranking. Unnatural links may include purchased links or any links that weren’t editorially placed by a site’s owner.
URL: A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the web address of an online resource and are the locations for pieces of content on the web. Commonly known as a web address.
URL Directory: A list of URLs and files listed in a hierarchical order that helps website owners easily access the files of a website.
URL Parameters: URL parameters are a way to track information about a click. They’re elements inserted into URLs to help organize and filter content. Parameters are added to the end of a URL after a ‘?’ symbol, made up using a key and a value, and separated by an equal sign. Multiple parameters can be included when separated by the ‘&’ symbol.
UTM Code: An Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) code is snippets of code that are added to the end of a URL to help you measure the effectiveness of campaigns and pinpoint sources of traffic.
W
Webmaster Guidelines: A set of rules, best practices, and warnings set forth by search engines to guide site owners into creating content that will perform well and be indexed. Webmaster guidelines, if not followed, can lead to your page being dropped from the SERP or dropped in ranking.
White Hat SEO: Opposite of black hat SEO. White hat SEO complies with Webmaster Guidelines and follows optimization best practices.
X
X-robots-tag: The X-robots-tag is part of the HTTP header that controls the whole indexing of a page and specific elements.
XML Sitemap: An XML sitemap lists a website’s most important pages and ensures that web crawlers can find and access them, and helps search engines understand your website’s structure.
SEO glossary wrap-up
By now, you should be an SEO wiz with the ins and outs needed to take you to the top.
Now all there is to do is apply your brand new vocab and earn your spot.
Feel free to bookmark and share this glossary, and don’t forget to read up on all things on-page SEO in our next blog.
