DICTIONARY · CATEGORY 4 OF 15
SEO
How search engines crawl, index and serve pages, and the work that makes a site easier to find. The largest category here, and the one that changes most often.
102 terms
Note: This deserves to be one of the largest categories on the site. Google currently describes Search as crawling, indexing and serving, and its current documentation explicitly covers canonicalisation, sitemaps, robots.txt, JavaScript, structured data and AI-search visibility.
Important: I've included AEO and GEO, but the Dictionary should explain that these aren't magical replacements for SEO. Google's current guidance explicitly says foundational SEO remains relevant and warns against chasing unsupported "AI-search hacks."
The practice of improving a website's visibility in organic search results.
The full process of making a website easier to discover and understand through search.
A system that discovers, indexes and retrieves information in response to queries.
The search engine results page shown after someone performs a search.
Unpaid search results generated by a search engine's ranking systems.
The underlying reason behind a person's search query.
Search intent focused on learning something.
Search intent focused on finding a specific website or page.
Search intent showing that someone is researching a potential purchase.
Search intent indicating that someone is ready to take an action or buy.
A word or phrase people use when searching for information.
Finding and evaluating the search terms relevant to an audience.
A broad starting term used to discover related keyword opportunities.
A specific search phrase usually containing several words.
A broad search term usually containing fewer words.
An estimate of how difficult it may be to rank for a keyword.
The estimated number of searches for a keyword over a given period.
The likely purpose behind a particular search term.
Assigning target keywords to specific website pages.
When multiple pages compete for substantially the same search intent.
Optimising the content and structure of individual webpages.
SEO activities occurring outside your own website, especially authority-building activities.
Improving the technical foundations that allow search engines to crawl and understand a website.
Optimising a business for visibility in geographically relevant searches.
Optimising websites for multiple countries, languages or regions.
Optimising a website for search visibility and usability on mobile devices.
Optimising images so they are accessible, fast and discoverable in search.
Optimising video content for discovery through search engines and video platforms.
SEO specifically focused on online stores and product visibility.
Creating large numbers of useful pages from structured data and templates.
Optimising around topics, entities and relationships rather than isolated keywords.
Optimising how search engines understand people, places, brands and concepts.
Demonstrated depth and breadth of useful content around a subject.
A comprehensive page serving as the central resource for a topic.
A group of related pages organised around a central topic.
A useful topic or query your site does not adequately cover.
A link from another website pointing to your website.
The process of earning or acquiring relevant links from other websites.
A link connecting one page on a website to another page on the same site.
A link from your site to another website.
The clickable words used in a hyperlink.
The ranking value that may be passed through links.
A link attribute used to indicate that a link should not pass certain ranking signals.
A link marked to indicate a paid or commercial relationship.
A link marked as user-generated content.
The web address identifying a website.
A third-party score estimating the strength of a domain's backlink profile.
A third-party estimate of the ranking strength of an individual page.
When a search-engine crawler fetches a webpage.
Software that discovers and fetches webpages for processing.
Google's crawler used to discover and process web content.
The process search engines use to discover and fetch webpages.
The process of analysing and storing webpage information in a search index.
The database from which search engines retrieve pages for results.
A Search Console tool for examining how Google sees a particular URL.
The amount of crawling resources a search engine allocates to a site.
How easily search-engine crawlers can access a website's content.
Whether a page can be included in a search engine's index.
A file that tells crawlers which URLs or resources they may request.
A file listing important URLs to help search engines discover them.
The preferred version of a page when multiple URLs represent similar content.
The process of signalling which version of duplicate or similar URLs should be treated as primary.
An instruction telling search engines not to include a page in their index.
Instructions controlling how search engines may process or display a page.
The title element that helps describe a webpage to search engines and users.
A short description that can appear beneath a search result title.
HTML markup used to structure page headings and subheadings.
Text describing an image for accessibility and search understanding.
Structured data that helps search engines understand page content.
Machine-readable information describing entities or content on a page.
An enhanced search result that displays additional information.
A highlighted search result designed to answer a query directly.
A system Google uses to represent entities and relationships between them.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Content created primarily to satisfy people rather than manipulate rankings.
Google's set of real-world metrics for loading, responsiveness, and visual stability.
Largest Contentful Paint, a metric measuring loading performance.
Interaction to Next Paint, a metric measuring responsiveness to user interactions.
Cumulative Layout Shift, a metric measuring unexpected visual movement.
The overall usability and experience a visitor receives on a webpage.
The encrypted version of HTTP used to secure web communication.
A mechanism that sends visitors and crawlers from one URL to another.
A permanent redirect from one URL to another.
A temporary redirect from one URL to another.
A response indicating that the requested page cannot be found.
A response indicating that a resource has been permanently removed.
A server-side error indicating that the request could not be fulfilled.
Analysing server logs to understand crawler and visitor behaviour.
Optimising JavaScript-based websites so search engines can properly access and understand them.
Google's tool for monitoring search visibility and technical search issues.
A change to Google's search systems that can affect search visibility.
A set of computational processes used to determine search results.
The position a page occupies in search results for a query.
The percentage of searchers who click an organic result.
Google's AI-generated search summaries that can include links to supporting webpages.
Google's more conversational, exploratory AI-powered search experience.
Answer Engine Optimisation, a term used for improving visibility in answer-oriented search experiences.
Generative Engine Optimisation, a term used for improving visibility in generative AI search experiences.
The use of related searches to explore multiple aspects of a complex query.
Search experiences that use generative AI to interpret queries and present answers.
An earlier term associated with Google's generative search experiments.
A broader term for improving visibility in AI-powered search experiences.
Every term in this category has a full page: what it means in plain English, what to know, why it matters, common mistakes and FAQs.