Technical SEO Glossary - Terms & Definitions

– Key Terms & Definitions for Better Rankings

Welcome to our Technical SEO Glossary, your go-to resource for understanding key SEO terms and concepts. Whether you’re an SEO expert or just starting, this glossary covers essential topics like crawling, indexing, schema markup, Core Web Vitals, and more.

Learn how search engines work, optimize your website for better rankings, and stay ahead with the latest technical SEO practices. Explore the definitions, best practices, and expert tips to improve your site’s performance and visibility in search results.

📖 Bookmark this page to keep up with evolving SEO trends!

A

Algorithm – A set of rules used by search engines to determine rankings.
Alt Text (Alternative Text) – A description added to images for accessibility and SEO.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) – A Google-backed project for fast-loading mobile web pages.
Anchor Text – The clickable text in a hyperlink.

B

Breadcrumbs – A navigational feature that helps users and search engines understand page hierarchy.
Broken Links – Links that point to non-existent pages, leading to a 404 error.
Bounce Rate – The percentage of visitors who leave a site after viewing only one page.

C

Canonical Tag – An HTML tag (rel="canonical") that prevents duplicate content issues by specifying the preferred URL.
CDN (Content Delivery Network) – A network of servers that speeds up website content delivery.
Cloaking – A black-hat SEO technique that presents different content to users and search engines.
Crawl Budget – The number of pages a search engine bot will crawl on a website within a given time.
Crawling – The process where search engine bots scan a website’s content.
Core Web Vitals – A set of metrics measuring user experience (LCP, FID, CLS).

D

Dead Link – A hyperlink that no longer works, usually leading to a 404 error.
Disavow File – A file submitted to Google to ignore harmful backlinks.
Dwell Time – The time a user spends on a webpage before returning to search results.

E

Error 404 – A status code indicating that a page is not found.
External Links – Links pointing from one website to another.

G

Googlebot – Google’s web crawler that indexes websites.
GSC (Google Search Console) – A free tool from Google for monitoring website performance.

H

Hreflang Tag – An HTML tag that tells search engines which language version of a page to show.
HTML Sitemap – A user-friendly version of a sitemap that helps with navigation.
HTTP Status Codes – Responses from a web server, such as 200 (OK), 301 (Redirect), and 404 (Not Found).

I

Indexing – The process where search engines store and organize content for retrieval.
Internal Links – Links connecting pages within the same website.

J

JavaScript SEO – The optimization of JavaScript-heavy websites to be crawlable by search engines.

L

Lazy Loading – A technique that delays the loading of non-visible images and content.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – A Core Web Vital that measures the loading speed of the largest visible element.

M

Meta Description – A brief page summary shown in search engine results.
Mobile-First Indexing – Google’s indexing method where the mobile version of a site is prioritized.

N

Noindex Tag – A directive that prevents a page from being indexed by search engines.
Nofollow – An attribute that tells search engines not to pass ranking value to a link.

P

PageSpeed Insights – A Google tool for measuring website performance.
Pagination – The practice of dividing content across multiple pages for better navigation.

R

Redirect (301, 302) – A way to forward users and search engines from one URL to another.
Rendering – The process by which search engines display a webpage’s content.
Robots.txt – A file that tells search engine crawlers which pages they can and cannot access.

S

Schema Markup – Structured data that helps search engines understand website content.
Sitemap XML – A file that lists all pages of a website for search engine crawling.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) – A security protocol that enables HTTPS.

T

Thin Content – Pages with little or no useful content for users.
Title Tag – The HTML tag that defines a page’s title in search results.

U

URL Parameters – Values added to a URL to track or modify content, often causing duplicate content issues.
User Agent – The software that identifies a web browser, bot, or device accessing a website.

W

WebP – An image format optimized for web performance.
White Hat SEO – Ethical SEO practices that follow search engine guidelines.