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SEO Glossary
Your comprehensive guide to SEO and digital marketing terminology. Whether you're new to digital marketing or need a quick refresher, this glossary covers the essential terms you need to know.
A
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)
Optimising content to be selected as the direct answer in AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. AEO focuses on clear definitional phrasing, structured data, and entity clarity rather than traditional keyword density.
AI Overviews
Google’s AI-generated summary that appears above traditional organic results for many queries, citing several source URLs. Pages that earn citations in Google AI Overviews can capture visibility even when their own ranking is lower than the top blue links.
Alt Text
A short, descriptive attribute added to an image’s HTML tag that tells search engines and screen readers what the image depicts. Well-written alt text improves accessibility and helps images rank in Google Image Search.
Anchor Text
The visible, clickable text within a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text to understand the context and relevance of the linked page, making it an important factor in both on-page and off-page SEO.
Ask Maps
Google’s conversational feature inside Google Maps that answers detailed, multi-condition questions (for example, “a pet-friendly cafe open now with outdoor seating”) by drawing on Google Business Profile data, reviews, and other signals. A complete, accurate profile is what makes a business eligible to appear in Ask Maps answers.
B
Backlink
A link from one website to another, also known as an inbound link. Backlinks from authoritative, relevant sites signal trust to search engines and are one of the strongest ranking factors in Google’s algorithm.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page without taking any further action. A high bounce rate may indicate that the landing page content or user experience is not meeting visitor expectations.
Brand SERP
The search engine results page returned when a user searches for your brand name. A clean, controlled brand SERP (Knowledge Panel, sitelinks, accurate snippets) signals brand authority to both users and AI engines that mine SERPs for context.
Breadcrumbs
A navigational aid that displays the user’s path from the homepage to the current page, typically shown as a horizontal trail of links. Breadcrumbs improve site usability and can appear as rich results in search engine listings.
C
Canonical URL
An HTML element (rel="canonical") that tells search engines which version of a page is the preferred or authoritative one. Canonical tags prevent duplicate content issues when the same content is accessible via multiple URLs.
Citation (Local SEO)
A mention of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on an third-party website, with or without a link. Consistent local citations across directories like Yellow Pages SG, Yelp, and industry-specific platforms strengthen local ranking signals.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The ratio of users who click on a specific link compared to the total number of users who view it, expressed as a percentage. In SEO, CTR measures how effectively your title tags and meta descriptions entice searchers to visit your page.
Content Marketing
A strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Effective content marketing builds brand authority, earns natural backlinks, and drives organic traffic over time.
Content Pruning
The deliberate removal, consolidation, or noindexing of low-performing pages to concentrate ranking signals on the strongest content. Common on aged sites where thin or outdated pages dilute topical authority.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of website visitors who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. Improving conversion rates is often more cost-effective than increasing traffic volume.
Core Web Vitals
A set of specific metrics defined by Google that measure real-world user experience on a web page, including loading performance (LCP), interactivity (INP, which officially replaced FID in March 2024), and visual stability (CLS). These metrics are confirmed ranking signals in Google’s algorithm. Our guide on how to fix Core Web Vitals and site speed covers the practical playbook.
Crawling
The process by which search engine bots (such as Googlebot) systematically browse the web, discovering new and updated pages by following links. A page must be crawled before it can be indexed and appear in search results.
D
Disavow File
A text file uploaded to Google Search Console listing backlinks you do not want Google to consider when assessing your site. Rarely needed in 2026 since Google ignores most spammy links automatically, but still useful after a manual action or hostile SEO attack.
Domain Authority
A proprietary search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results. It is not a metric Google uses directly, so treat it as a relative benchmark for comparing domains rather than a true indicator of Google’s own authority signals.
Doorway Page
A low-quality page created mainly to rank for specific keywords and funnel users to another destination. Doorway pages violate Google’s spam policies and trigger algorithmic suppression.
Duplicate Content
Substantially similar or identical content that appears at more than one URL on the web. Duplicate content can confuse search engines about which version to index and rank, potentially diluting ranking signals across the duplicate pages.
E
E-E-A-T
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. A framework used by Google’s Search Quality Raters to evaluate content quality. The leading Experience criterion was added in December 2022 to emphasise first-hand familiarity with the topic. E-E-A-T is especially critical for YMYL topics, where content accuracy can directly affect a reader’s health, finances, or safety.
F
Featured Snippet
A special search result that appears at the top of Google’s organic results (often called “position zero”), displaying a concise answer extracted from a web page. Featured snippets can take the form of paragraphs, lists, tables, or videos.
G
GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
Google’s event-based analytics platform that replaced Universal Analytics in July 2023. GA4 uses an event-and-parameter data model, supports cross-device tracking via Google Signals, and reports modelled conversions when consent is missing.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)
Optimising content and brand presence to influence how generative AI engines (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot) describe, recommend, and cite your business. GEO blends classic SEO with brand mention strategy, structured data, and direct outreach to dataset compilers.
Google Business Profile
A free tool from Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google Search and Maps. Set yours up with our GBP setup guide for Singapore, then keep it sharp with ongoing optimisation so you stay in the local pack.
Google Search Console
A free service provided by Google that helps website owners monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in search results. It provides data on search queries, indexing status, crawl errors, and Core Web Vitals performance.
H
Helpful Content Update
A Google algorithm system (rolled into the core algorithm in March 2024) that demotes content created primarily for search engines rather than humans. Sites hit by it typically need a sitewide content quality lift, not single-page fixes.
Hreflang
An HTML attribute used to specify the language and geographical targeting of a web page. Hreflang tags help search engines serve the correct language or regional version of your content to users in different countries.
HTTP Status Codes
Three-digit responses returned by a server when a browser requests a page. Common codes include 200 (OK), 301 (permanently redirected), 404 (not found), and 500 (server error). Each carries different implications for SEO and user experience.
I
Impressions
The number of times a URL from your site appears in search results as seen by a user. Impressions are counted regardless of whether the listing was clicked, making them a useful metric for measuring search visibility and brand awareness.
Indexability
Whether a page is technically eligible to be indexed by search engines, after checking robots.txt, meta robots, canonical, X-Robots-Tag, and HTTP status. A page can be crawlable but not indexable, which is a common audit finding.
Indexing
The process by which search engines store and organise the content they have crawled so it can be retrieved and displayed in search results. If a page is not indexed, it will not appear for any search queries, regardless of its quality.
Internal Linking
The practice of linking one page of a website to another page on the same website. A strong internal linking structure helps search engines discover content, distributes page authority throughout the site, and improves user navigation.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
A Core Web Vitals metric introduced in March 2024 that measures the time from a user’s interaction (click, tap, keystroke) to the next visual update. Replaced FID as the official interactivity Core Web Vital.
K
Keyword Density
The percentage of times a target keyword appears on a page relative to the total word count. While there is no ideal keyword density, overusing keywords (keyword stuffing) can trigger search engine penalties and harm readability.
Keyword Research
The process of identifying and analysing the search terms that people enter into search engines to find information, products, or services. Thorough keyword research forms the foundation of any effective SEO strategy by revealing user intent and opportunity.
Knowledge Graph
Google’s database of entities and the relationships between them, used to power Knowledge Panels, rich results, and contextual understanding of queries. Earning a Knowledge Graph entry for your brand strengthens almost every other ranking signal.
Knowledge Panel
The information box that appears on the right side of desktop SERPs for entities Google recognises (brands, people, places). Knowledge Panels pull from the Knowledge Graph and authoritative web sources like Wikipedia and your official website.
L
Link Building
The practice of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own, with the goal of improving search engine rankings. Effective link building focuses on earning high-quality, relevant links through content creation, outreach, and digital PR.
LLM (Large Language Model)
A machine learning model trained on massive text corpora that can generate human-like text, answer questions, and reason about content. LLMs power AI search engines, chatbots, and increasingly the AI Overviews that appear in Google SERPs.
Local Pack
The grouped block of three local business listings (with map) that Google shows for local-intent queries. Ranking in the Local Pack is driven primarily by Google Business Profile signals, reviews, proximity, and on-page local relevance. Our playbook on how to rank on Google Maps in Singapore covers the full process.
Local SEO
A branch of search engine optimisation focused on improving visibility for businesses that serve customers in a specific geographic area. Local SEO tactics include optimising your Google Business Profile, earning local citations, and targeting location-based keywords.
Log File Analysis
Reviewing your web server’s raw access logs to see exactly how Googlebot and other crawlers interact with your site. The only fully accurate way to measure crawl frequency, crawl budget waste, and discovery of new URLs.
Long-Tail Keywords
Longer, more specific keyword phrases that typically have lower search volume but higher conversion rates. Long-tail keywords are easier to rank for and better reflect the precise intent of searchers further along in the buying journey.
M
Manual Action
A penalty applied by a human Google reviewer (rather than an algorithm) and shown in Google Search Console. Manual actions require an explicit reconsideration request to be lifted, unlike algorithmic suppression.
Meta Description
An HTML element that provides a brief summary of a page’s content, typically displayed beneath the title in search engine results. While not a direct ranking factor, a compelling meta description can significantly improve click-through rates. Preview yours with our free SERP simulator before publishing.
Meta Title
Also known as the title tag, the meta title is the HTML element that defines the title of a web page and appears as the clickable headline in search results. It is one of the most important on-page SEO elements for both rankings and CTR.
N
NAP Consistency
Maintaining identical Name, Address, and Phone number across your website, Google Business Profile, and all third-party citations. Inconsistent NAP weakens local SEO and can prevent Google from confidently attributing reviews to your business.
Nofollow
A link attribute (rel="nofollow") that tells search engines not to pass ranking credit (link equity) to the linked page. Nofollow links are commonly used for sponsored content, user-generated links, and untrusted sources.
O
On-Page SEO
Optimising elements within your own pages, including title tags, headings, content, internal links, schema markup, and Core Web Vitals. The counterpart to off-page SEO (backlinks, brand mentions, citations).
Organic Traffic
Visitors who arrive at your website through unpaid search engine results rather than through paid advertisements. Organic traffic is generally considered the most sustainable and cost-effective source of website visitors over the long term.
Orphan Page
A page on your site that no internal link points to. Orphan pages are usually missed by crawlers, accumulate no internal link equity, and often indicate broken information architecture.
P
Page Speed
A measurement of how quickly the content on a web page loads. Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor and directly impacts user experience. Slower pages tend to have higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates.
People Also Ask (PAA)
The expandable list of related questions that appears within Google SERPs. PAA boxes are a strong source of long-tail traffic and a useful research signal for content briefs.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
An online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. PPC campaigns, such as Google Ads, offer immediate visibility in search results and are often used alongside SEO for a comprehensive search strategy.
Programmatic SEO
The systematic generation of large numbers of landing pages from a structured data source, typically targeting long-tail keyword variations. Effective when the underlying data is genuinely useful (e.g. comparison pages, location pages); spammy when pages add no real value.
Q
Query Fan-Out
A retrieval technique used by AI search engines where one user prompt is internally rewritten into several related sub-queries, each run against the index, and the results synthesised into a single answer. Optimising for AI search means earning visibility across the family of related queries, not just the user’s literal prompt.
R
RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)
A technique used by AI search engines like Google AI Overviews to ground their answers in real, up-to-date web content. Instead of relying only on what the language model already knows, the system retrieves relevant pages from a search index in real time and uses them as the source material for the generated answer. For SEO and GEO, this means traditional search ranking determines whether your page even becomes eligible for citation in AI answers.
Robots.txt
A text file placed in the root directory of a website that instructs search engine crawlers which pages or sections they are allowed or disallowed from crawling. It is a key tool for managing crawl budget and controlling indexation.
Rich Snippet
An enhanced search result that displays additional information beyond the standard title, URL, and meta description, such as star ratings, prices, or recipe details. Rich snippets are generated from structured data (schema markup) on your page.
S
Schema Markup
A standardised vocabulary of structured data (from schema.org) that you can add to your HTML to help search engines understand your content more precisely. Schema markup for SEO can enable rich snippets, knowledge panels, and other enhanced search features.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page. The page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s query, containing organic results, paid ads, featured snippets, and other SERP features. Understanding SERP layout helps SEO professionals optimise for maximum visibility.
Site Architecture
The structural organisation of pages, categories, and internal links across a website. Strong site architecture and website structure concentrates link equity on commercial pages, clarifies topical relevance to search engines, and improves user navigation.
Site Migration
The process of changing a site’s domain, URL structure, CMS, or hosting in a way that affects URLs and SEO signals. High-risk operation that requires comprehensive 301 redirect mapping and pre/post-launch monitoring.
Sitemap
An XML file that lists all the important pages on your website, helping search engines discover and crawl your content more efficiently. Each sitemap is capped at 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed; larger sites split content across multiple sitemaps referenced from a sitemap index file. Submitting your sitemap via Google Search Console is a best practice for ensuring comprehensive indexation.
T
Technical SEO
The process of optimising a website’s infrastructure to make it easier for search engines to crawl, index, and render its content. Technical SEO covers areas such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, structured data, XML sitemaps, secure connections (HTTPS), and fixing the crawl errors that quietly kill rankings.
Title Tag
An HTML element that specifies the title of a web page, displayed in browser tabs, search results, and social media shares. Title tags should be concise (under 60 characters), include primary keywords, and accurately describe the page’s content.
Topical Authority
The cumulative signal that a site is a credible, comprehensive source on a specific subject, built by publishing in-depth, well-linked content covering a topic from multiple angles. Topical authority is now a stronger lever than domain-level metrics for many queries.
U
Universal Analytics (UA)
The legacy session-based Google Analytics platform, sunset on 1 July 2023 and replaced by GA4. Mentioned for historical context: any “GA” reference predating 2023 likely refers to UA.
URL Structure
The format and organisation of a web page’s address. Clean, descriptive URLs that include relevant keywords and follow a logical hierarchy improve both user experience and search engine understanding of your site’s content.
User Experience (UX)
The overall experience a visitor has when interacting with a website, encompassing factors like page speed, navigation, design, and content quality. Google increasingly uses UX signals (including Core Web Vitals) as ranking factors in its algorithm.
Y
YMYL (Your Money or Your Life)
Google’s category for content topics that can significantly affect a user’s health, finances, safety, or wellbeing. YMYL content is held to a higher E-E-A-T standard and faces stricter quality scrutiny in core updates. Common YMYL niches we work in include licensed money lenders and aesthetic clinics.
Z
Zero-Click Search
A search query that is fully answered on the SERP itself (via featured snippet, Knowledge Panel, AI Overview, or direct answer box) without the user clicking through to any website. The rise of zero-click search is the single biggest reason traditional SEO traffic numbers are flattening even when visibility is growing.
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