SEO terms, in one sentence.
No jargon explained with more jargon. Each term has a short definition, why it matters, and the lesson that goes deeper.
A
Alt text
Alt text is a short written description of an image that screen readers read aloud and search engines use to understand the picture.
Read definitionAnchor text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable words of a link, which tell people and search engines what the linked page is about.
Read definitionB
Backlink
A backlink is a link on someone else's website that points to a page on yours.
Read definitionC
Canonical tag
A canonical tag is a line in a page's code that tells search engines which address is the main version of that page.
Read definitionCore Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are three measurements from Google that show how fast a page loads, how quickly it reacts and how steady its layout is.
Read definitionCrawl budget
Crawl budget is the number of pages a search engine is willing and able to visit on your site in a given period of time.
Read definitionCrawling
Crawling is when a search engine's program visits a web page and reads it, the first step before the page can appear in search results.
Read definitionH
H1 heading
An H1 heading is the main headline of a page, the one that tells visitors and search engines what the whole page is about.
Read definitionHTTPS
HTTPS is the secure way of loading a website, where the connection between the visitor's browser and the site is encrypted.
Read definitionI
Indexing
Indexing is when a search engine stores a page in its database so that the page can be shown in search results.
Read definitionInternal link
An internal link is a link from one page of your website to another page of the same website.
Read definitionK
Keyword
A keyword is the word or phrase a person types into a search engine, and that you want one of your pages to be found for.
Read definitionL
Language attribute
The language attribute is a small piece of code at the top of a page that states which language the page is written in.
Read definitionM
Meta description
A meta description is a short summary of a page, written in its code, that search engines may show under the page's title in the results.
Read definitionN
Noindex
Noindex is an instruction on a page that tells search engines they may read the page but must not show it in their search results.
Read definitionO
Open Graph
Open Graph is a set of tags in a page's code that control the title, text and image shown when someone shares the link on social media or in a chat app.
Read definitionR
Redirect
A redirect automatically sends visitors and search engines from one web address to another, so an old or moved page still leads somewhere useful.
Read definitionRobots.txt
Robots.txt is a small text file at the root of a website that tells search engine crawlers which addresses they should not visit.
Read definitionS
Search intent
Search intent is the reason behind a search, meaning what the person typing the words actually wants to find, learn, compare or do.
Read definitionSERP
SERP stands for search engine results page, the page of results a search engine shows after someone types in a search.
Read definitionStructured data
Structured data is a block of code on a page that describes its content in a fixed format, so search engines can understand what the page is about.
Read definitionT
Time to first byte
Time to first byte is how long a server takes to start answering after a browser asks it for a page.
Read definitionTitle tag
A title tag is the name of a page, written in its code, that shows in the browser tab and usually as the clickable headline in search results.
Read definitionV
Viewport meta tag
The viewport meta tag is one line of code that tells a phone's browser to fit the page to the width of the screen instead of shrinking a desktop layout.
Read definitionX
XML sitemap
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the pages of a website you want search engines to find and show in their results.
Read definition