SEO Glossary: 40 Terms Every Marketer Should Know

SEO conversations are full of jargon, and that is where many marketers lose control of the work. If you cannot tell a canonical tag from a redirect, it is hard to judge an audit, brief a specialist or question a monthly report. You do not need to be a technical expert, but you do need the vocabulary.

Below are 40 terms, grouped by topic, each explained in one line.

How search engines work

• SERP (search engine results page): the page shown for a query, with organic links, ads, maps, images and sometimes AI-generated summaries.
• Organic results: unpaid listings that the search engine ranks with its own algorithm.
• Crawler (bot, spider): a program that discovers pages by following links; Google's crawler is called Googlebot.
• Indexing: analysing a page and storing it in the search engine's database so that it can appear in results.
• Ranking: the order in which indexed pages are shown for a specific query; it changes with algorithm updates.
• Search intent: what the person actually wants from a query: to learn, compare, buy or find a place.

Technical SEO

• Robots.txt: a file at the root of your site that tells crawlers which sections they should not crawl.
• XML sitemap: a file listing the pages you want search engines to discover and crawl.
• Noindex: a tag or header that tells search engines not to show a page in results.
• Canonical tag: a tag that tells search engines which URL is the main version when several pages have similar content.
• 301 redirect: a permanent redirect from an old URL to a new one, used when pages move or merge.
• Hreflang: tags that tell search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which users.
• Structured data (schema markup): code that describes page content, such as a product, review, event or organization, in a standard format.
• Core Web Vitals: Google's metrics for loading speed (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and visual stability (CLS).
• Mobile-first indexing: Google primarily uses the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking.

Content and on-page SEO

• Keyword: a word or phrase people type or say into a search engine; tools estimate how often it is searched (search volume).
• Long-tail keyword: a longer, more specific query with fewer searches but clearer intent, such as "wedding photographer Baku price".
• Title tag: the page title that usually appears as the clickable headline in search results.
• Meta description: a short summary of the page that search engines may show under the title.
• Headings (H1–H6): the main heading and subheadings that structure a page for readers and search engines.
• Featured snippet: a highlighted answer taken from a page and shown prominently in the results.
• Duplicate content: the same or very similar text on several URLs, which makes it unclear which one should rank.
• E-E-A-T: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness, the qualities Google's quality guidelines describe for good content.

Links and authority

• Backlink: a link from another website to yours and an important signal of trust for search engines.
• Anchor text: the clickable words of a link, which tell users and search engines what the target page is about.
• Internal link: a link from one page of your site to another, which helps crawlers and users find content.
• Nofollow, sponsored, UGC: link attributes that mark a link as not an endorsement, as paid, or as user-generated.
• Domain authority: a score from third-party SEO tools that estimates a site's link strength; it is not a Google metric.
• Link building: the work of earning relevant links through partnerships, PR, useful content and directories.

Local SEO

• Google Business Profile: the free business listing that appears in Google Maps and local search results.
• Local pack (map pack): the block of map results with several businesses that appears for local queries.
• NAP consistency: using the same business name, address and phone number everywhere your business is listed.

Measurement

• Google Search Console: Google's free tool that shows your site's queries, clicks, impressions, positions and indexing problems.
• Impressions: the number of times your page appeared in search results, whether or not anyone clicked.
• CTR (click-through rate): clicks divided by impressions; a low CTR often means the title or description needs work.
• Average position: the average ranking of your page for a query or a group of queries over a period.

AI search

• AI Overviews: short AI-generated summaries at the top of some Google results pages, with links to sources.
• AI Mode: Google's conversational search for complex questions, which can run several related searches ("query fan-out") to build one answer.
• Zero-click search: a search that ends without a click because the answer is already on the results page.
• GEO (generative engine optimization): a newer name for making content easy for AI assistants and AI search features to find and cite; in practice it rests on the same fundamentals as SEO.

How to use this glossary

Do not memorise the list. Use it as a filter. When an agency or freelancer sends you an audit or a monthly report, every recommendation should connect to one of these groups and explain what will change for the business. "We fixed 40 canonical tags" is activity. "Duplicate service pages no longer compete with each other, and the main page now gets the clicks" is a result.

Two habits help. First, open Google Search Console yourself once a month, even if a contractor manages SEO, so impressions, CTR and average position stop being abstract words. Second, when you hear an unfamiliar term, ask what problem it solves and how you will see the result. A good specialist can always answer both questions in plain language.

Save this page and share it with your team. If everyone uses the same words, briefs get clearer and reports become easier to challenge.