SEO Glossary

Plain-English definitions of SEO and AI search terms. 22 terms and counting.

A

Alt text

Alt text is a short written description of an image, added in the HTML, that screen readers read aloud to people who can't see the image and that search engines use to understand what the picture shows.

Answer Engine OptimizationAEO

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of shaping content so that answer engines, like AI assistants and Google's answer features, can pull a clear, accurate response straight from your page and show it to the user directly.

B

Backlink

A backlink is a link from another website that points to a page on yours. Search engines read backlinks from trusted sites as a signal that your content is credible, which can lift your rankings.

C

Canonical URL

A canonical URL is the version of a page you tell search engines to treat as the main one when the same or similar content can be reached through several different URLs. It points them to the copy you want indexed and ranked.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are three Google metrics that measure how a page actually feels to use: how fast the main content loads, how quickly the page responds when you interact with it, and how much the layout jumps around while loading.

Crawl budget

Crawl budget is how many of your pages a search engine is willing to crawl in a given period. It's shaped by how fast and reliably your server responds and by how much the engine thinks your pages are worth revisiting.

D

Duplicate content

Duplicate content is the same or near-identical text appearing at more than one URL. It leaves search engines unsure which version to show and can split the ranking signals that should be flowing to a single page.

G

Generative Engine OptimizationGEO

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of writing and structuring content so that generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google's AI Overviews, draw on it and cite it when they build their answers.

I

Internal linking

Internal linking is the practice of linking from one page on your site to another page on the same site. It helps visitors find their way around and helps search engines discover your pages and gauge how they relate.

K

Keyword

A keyword is the word or phrase someone types or speaks into a search engine. In SEO it also means the terms you choose to target so your pages show up when people search for them.

L

llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file placed at a website's root that gives AI models a curated map of the site's most important content, helping them find and understand it.

M

Meta description

A meta description is a short summary of a page, set in the HTML, that search engines often show beneath the title in results. It doesn't affect rankings directly, but a good one persuades people to click.

Meta title

A meta title, also called the title tag, is the HTML element that names a web page. Search engines usually show it as the blue clickable headline in results, and browsers display it in the tab.

O

Organic traffic

Organic traffic is the visitors who reach your website through unpaid search results, rather than through ads or other paid placements.

R

Rich snippet

A rich snippet is an ordinary search result dressed up with extra detail — star ratings, price, stock status — pulled from the structured data on the page. It doesn't change your ranking, but it makes your listing far more clickable.

robots.txt

robots.txt is a plain-text file at a website's root that tells search engine crawlers which URLs or sections of the site they may and may not request.

S

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of improving a website so it ranks higher in unpaid search results and brings in more organic traffic.

Schema markup (JSON-LD)

Schema markup is structured code you add to a page, most often in a format called JSON-LD, that describes the page's content to search engines using the shared vocabulary from Schema.org.

Search Engine Results PageSERP

A search engine results page, or SERP, is the page a search engine shows in response to a query. It lists organic results alongside ads and features like featured snippets, image packs, and AI overviews.

Search intent

Search intent is the goal behind a search query, what the person actually wants, whether that's to learn something, find a specific site, compare options, or make a purchase.

Sitemap (sitemap.xml)

A sitemap is a file, usually named sitemap.xml, that lists a website's important URLs so search engines can find and crawl them more easily.

Structured data

Structured data is page information organized in a standard, machine-readable format so search engines and AI systems can understand what the content means and how its parts relate.