SEO Glossary

What is 10x Content? Today information can be found with a simple search and a click of a link. So how do you make sure your content stands out? Simple. 10x content.  10x content refers to content that should be

What Is A 301 Redirect? Websites change, and they can change often. That’s why it’s essential to ensure that users—and search engines—can still find your content even when URLs are updated or moved.   A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect

Put simply a 302 redirect is a response code for the server to the browser (and user) that a webpage no longer exists at the requested URL and has moved to another.   But isn’t that the same as a 301

What is a 304 Not Modified Response? A 304 Not Modified response is a crucial part of web communication, designed to make browsing faster and more efficient.   When a user’s browser requests a page that they have visited before, it

What is a 404 Error? A 404 error is an HTTP status code that indicates the server couldn’t find the requested resource or page. This means the server couldn’t locate the web page or file at the requested address. The

What is the 410 Gone Error? 410 Gone is an HTTP status code that a web server can return when a user or crawler requests a page or resource that is no longer available. While this is similar to a 404

What are Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)? Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an open-source HTML framework created by Google. It was initially developed as a competitor to Facebook’s instant articles and Apple News, both of which allow users to experience content

What are ad impressions? Ad impressions are a metric used in digital advertising to count the number of times an ad has been seen. Key to note: Ad impressions measure how many times an advertisement has been displayed, regardless of

What is Alt Text? Alt text (alternative text) – also known as “alt description” or “alt attribute”, this is a written description for images, logos, drawings & graphics on a webpage. In SEO, this is often referred to as an “alt

What is Anchor Text? An anchor text or link text is the text of an HTML hyperlink. The purpose of anchor text is to explain the content of the linked page, which it distributes to users and search engines. The

What is Article Spinning? Article spinning, often referred to as “content spinning,” is the rewriting of someone else’s content to create what seems to be an original piece of content. Article spinning generally leverages programs or AI to replace words,

What is Article Syndication? Article syndication, or content syndication, is when a third party website publishes an article or post that first appeared on another website. Essentially, it is republishing the exact duplicate content on other websites. However it is

What Is Auto-Generated Content? Auto-generated content or automatically generated content is content that is automatically generated leveraging a program or code. It is considered a black hat SEO tactic, hence is typically used to manipulate rankings on Google. Google explicitly

What Are Backlinks? Backlinks, or also known as inbound links, are links to a specific web page or a resource from an external website. Backlinks are incoming links (as they link back to you). Links going out to a page

What is Bing Webmaster Tools Bing Webmaster Tools is a comprehensive suite of free tools offered by Bing (Microsoft) that allows webmasters to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot their website’s performance in Bing search. Like Google Search Console, this platform provides

What is Bingbot? Bingbot is a web crawler distributed by Microsoft that gathers data and builds a searchable index on the internet. It’s the bot behind Bing search, performing the same crucial function as Googlebot does for the Google search

What is Black-Hat SEO? Black hat SEO is the SEO practice that violates search engine policies with the aim of ranking a website. Generally speaking, Black hat SEO is a manipulative tactic to dramatically increase a website’s ranking by falsely

What is Bounce Rate? Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a website or web page after just viewing one page without clicking on-page links or exploring other content. Bounce rate improves design and SEO strategies as you

What is Branded Content? Branded content is primarily created to promote a company’s values, products, or services (without being overly promotional). This type of content is designed to enhance audience engagement while reinforcing the brand’s identity and message.  The goal

What are Branded Keywords? Branded keywords (often called navigational queries) are search terms/queries associated with a brand, product, or variation of either. They often contain brand names, and organic traffic from branded keywords is usually more transactional. For instance, if

What Is Breadcrumb Navigation? When exploring large websites it can be easy to get lost when navigating it. With so many pages and sections, finding your way back or understanding where you are can be a challenge.   Breadcrumb navigation (or

What is a Bridge Page? A bridge page is a landing page used in affiliate marketing with the purpose to send the user to the destination page via an affiliate link. For example, if you were to see an ad

What is a Broken Link? A broken link is a link that points to a page or resource that no longer exists. Typically, these linked resources or pages may have been deleted without a redirect put in place. When a

What is a Cached Page? A cached page is a copy of a web page that is stored in a temporary informational storage called “cached.” The purpose of caching a page is to store files to improve data retrieval performance.

What is a Canonical Tag? A canonical tag is used to let search consoles know which version of a page on your website should be indexed. It does this by giving you the ability to specify which versions of your

What is a canonical URL? A canonical URL is a URL that has been set by the owner of a website as the master copy through canonical tags. This could be due to similar pages on a website having duplicate

What is Cloaking? Cloaking is an SEO technique that is deceptive to search engines and users, aligning with black hat SEO and being against Google search engine guidelines. The concept of cloaking has two definitive part; An Example: A page

What is a Co-citation?  Co-Citation refers to the citation of two references in a third piece of content or document. Alone, these references may seem different, but when they are mentioned together, a connection is formed between them.  When it

What is Co-Occurrence?  Co-occurrence simply refers to the way two or more terms or ideas appear together within the same context, whether it is a document, webpage, or even across multiple pieces of content. This means that if two words

What is Computer-Generated Content?  Computer-generated content, or most commonly known as AI generated content, refers to the creation of text, images, videos and other asses using AI and machine learning tools. Ai-generated content is not a new concept, but, significant

What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)? Imagine your website as a bustling city, and its content as the people and vehicles moving through it. To ensure that everything runs smoothly and efficiently, you need a well-connected transportation system…that is

What Is Content Gap Analysis? A content gap analysis is a strategy used in content marketing or SEO to specifically identify missing or irrelevant topics on a website or web page. The process involves comparing your content with competitors content

What is a Content Hub? A content hub is a collection of interlinked and related content that is centred around a specific topic. While it is very similar to SEO silos, content hubs are not restricted by linking to pages

What is Content Relevance? When we talk about content relevance, we are talking about how relevant the content on your page is to the topic and the search query, as well as the needs and wants of the users. “Content

What Are The Core Web Vitals? User experience isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a must for any website. If your website doesn’t load quickly or function smoothly, you risk losing your audience before they even see what you have to offer. 

What is Cornerstone Content?  Evergreen content, Pillar Content, cornerstone content; often used interchangeably, but all refer to the best or most important content on your site – fundamental pages and articles that you want to have rank on search engines

What is Crawl Budget?  There are over a billion websites across the globe today. And this number continues to grow. In fact, data suggests that over 250 000 new websites are created everyday. For Google, that’s a lot of ground to

What Does Crawlability Mean in SEO? In Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), crawlability refers to how well search engine crawlers like Googlebot can access, read, and understand your website’s content. Crawlability issues can negatively affect a website’s search engine rankings.  What

What is a Crawler? A crawler (also known as a robot or spider) is an internet program that systematically browses the web. Search engines primarily use crawlers to discover, process, and index web pages, allowing them to appear in search

What is a Customer Journey? The customer journey is the mapping of a customer’s steps; this can be from their first brand awareness through to acquisition & and past into repeat transactional intent. A customer journey is a comprehensive mapping

What is a Dofollow Link? A Dofollow link is a link that search engines will transfer link equity or (link juice) through to the linking site. These links aren’t nofollow, UGC links or sponsored links – As dofollows influence page

What is Domain Rating (DR)? Domain Rating (DR) a metric created by Ahrefs and it developed to represent a websites strength of its backlink profile on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, with 100 being to strongest. This is

What Is Domain Structure? Domain structure is how a website’s domain, subdomains and directories are organised. It’s a crucial part of a website’s architecture and plays a key part in both the user experience and SEO performance. A website’s domain

What is a Doorway Page? Similar to a gateway page, a doorway page is a webpage created to rank for specific (majority of the time long-tailed) keywords while sending your users to a different page. It is one of the

What Is Duplicate Content? Duplicate content is content that is a replicate of content from another website or webpage within a website. Why Is Duplicate Content Bad For SEO? Duplicating content from another source or webpage can hurt your SEO

What is Dwell Time? Dwell time is the amount of time that passes between when you click on a website after searching a query in Google, and returning to the search results page after visiting that page. It’s not the same

What is a Dynamic URL? A dynamic URL is a web page that is dynamically generated when specific data is requested from a database. This is most commonly used in online stores (eCommerce) when specific requests are made on the

What is an Editorial Link?  An editorial link is an inbound link that isn’t paid for, traded for or asked for. Instead, quality editorial links come from other websites that link naturally to your content because they are helpful and

What is Ego Bait?  Ego bait is a digital marketing strategy that focuses on creating content intended to capture the attention and engagement of influential individuals or experts in a specific field. The main purpose of this tactic is to

What is Email Outreach Email outreach is the process of sending targeted emails to prospects to build relationships, promote services or products, or achieve SEO-specific goals.  In SEO, email outreach is a link-building technique where you contact webmasters, authors, other

What is Entity-Based SEO?  In it’s early days, SEO used to focus on keywords and phrases – finding the right words and phrases that users might search for and making sure they’re found across your website. However, as the internet

What is an Entry Page?  Unlike a traditional brick and mortar business, not all website visitors come through the front door (or homepage!). As the name suggests, an entry page is the first page a user lands on when visiting your

What is Evergreen Content?  Unlike news articles or trending topics that may have a short shelf life, evergreen content refers to content that remains relevant and valuable to your audience long after it’s published. They typically cover topics that don’t

What is an External Link? External links, or also known as an outbound link, is a hyperlink that leads users to an external page or resource. It’s basically the opposite of an internal link, which is a link that leads

What is Faceted Navigation? A faceted navigation is a type of website interface that allows website users to quickly filter and sort through many results to find the specific item or items they are looking for on a website. Faceted

What is Gated Content? Gated content is anything on a website that requires users to complete a form or register for an account in order to access the information/resource. The form will typically require the user’s name and email address.

What is a Gateway Page? A gateway page is a page thats sole purpose is to rank well for a particular key term or search query. This is also known as a doorway page, and is known as a black

What are Google Alerts? Launched in 2003, Google Alerts is a free tool that allows you to monitor the web for any fresh and new content that matches a particular topic or search query – directly to your Gmail inbox. 

What is the Google Algorithm? When you’re browsing Google and searching for something, have you ever wondered how it decides which results to show first?  Simply put, the Google Algorithm is a complex set of instructions, sequences and actions that

What is Google Analytics? Google Analytics is a powerful, free tool provided by Google that allows website owners to track and analyse the behaviour of visitors to their site. It provides detailed insights into various aspects of user interactions, such

What is Google Autocomplete?  We’ve all seen Google Autocomplete at work. Google Autocomplete is the feature that predicts search queries as you type, helping you find information faster by suggesting possible completions to your search. In fact, it’s been shown

What Is Google Bombing?  Google Bombing is a black-hat SEO practice that manipulates the search engine results to increase a page’s rank. It works by artificially inflating the number of backlinks that link to a page using specific anchor text—the

What is Google Business Profile?  Google Business Profile (previously known as Google My Business) is a free tool that helps businesses manage their online presence across Google Search and Maps. It allows businesses to display a range of information, including

What is Google Caffeine? Launched in 2010, Google Caffeine was a major search algorithm update that aimed to improve the “freshens” of Google search results.    This replaced Google’s old indexing system and incorporated a number of new systems and technologies

What is Google Dance? Google Dance is a term used to describe the period of fluctuation and changes in search engine rankings that can occur when Google updates its algorithms or indexing systems. It is also common when new content

What is Google Hummingbird?  Google Hummingbird is another significant Google update. Rolled out in 2013, Google Hummingbird is Google’s biggest change to their algorithm since 2001.   Previously, Google matched the keywords in a search query to the content that is

What is the Google Knowledge Graph? The Google Knowledge Graph is a sophisticated database that stores information about entities—people, places, and things—and their interrelationships. This knowledge base enables Google to display informative panels, known as Knowledge Panels, directly on search

What is a Google Knowledge Panel? A Google Knowledge Panel is an information box that appears on the right side of Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), providing a summary of information about an entity—such as people, places, organisations, or

What is Google Panda? Google Panda was designed in 2011 to filter out websites with poor content quality or low content count and is an integral part of the Google search algorithm and Google’s efforts to mitigate black hat SEO

What is a Google Penalty? A Google penalty is a punishment a website can receive for violating Google’s webmaster quality guidelines. Within Google’s documentation classified as “manual actions”, Google’s penalties can result in pages or websites being removed completely or

What is Google Penguin? Google Penguin is the codename for an algorithm update by Google aimed at reducing webspam. It was introduced in April 2012 and its primary goal was to demote websites that engaged in spammy and manipulative link-building

What Is Google Pigeon? Google Pigeon is the name given to Google’s local search algorithm update released in 2014. It is considered one of the most significant update to Google’s local search. The update was specifically applied to the ranking

What is Google Sandbox?  Google Sandbox is a term that SEO’s use to refer to an unconfirmed phenomenon where there is a delay in ranking new websites or webpages in the SERPs. A common theory is that Google may put

What Is Google Search Console?  Previously known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free tool that allows website owners, webmasters, and SEO professionals to monitor their website.  Why is Search Console Important?   Originally launched in 2005, Google

What is Google Top Heavy Update? The Google Top Heavy Update is an algorithm change that Google introduced to improve the quality of search results. Launched in January 2012, it’s official name was Page layout algorithm improvement. This update specifically

What are the Google Webmaster Guidelines?  Now known as Google Search Essentials, Google Webmaster Guidelines are a set of guidelines and best practices that are recommended by Google to ensure that a website’s content is properly crawled, indexed and ranked. 

What are Google Webmaster Tools?  Google Webmaster Tools (now known as Google Search Console) is a free service provided by Google that helps website owners, webmasters, and SEO professionals monitor and manage their site’s presence in Google search results.  The

What is Googlebot? Googlebot refers to the web crawlers or “spiders,” responsible for discovering, collecting information and indexing new and updated content across the internet. It uses this information to build and update it’s search index.   While Google uses many

What is Grey Hat SEO? Grey-hat SEO refers to the combination of both white-hat SEO and black-hat SEO techniques.   between traditional “White Hat” and “Black Hat” SEO techniques. While White Hat SEO strictly follows Google’s Webmaster guidelines and focuses on

What is Guest Blogging? Guest blogging or guest posting is the practice of writing and publishing content on an external website. Why Is Guest Blogging Important? Guest blogging is important as it helps businesses build relationships and network with others

What is a Guestographic? Guestographics are infographics that you create and offer to other websites to add to their existing content. They are similar in nature to guest blogging or guest posts, however are a visual version! Guestographics combine the

What is H1 Tag? The H1 tag, also referred to as a level-1 heading), is an HTML heading used to mark up the visible title of the web page. Why is the H1 Tag Important? There are two key reasons

What are Header Tags? Put simply, header tags are HTML elements used on a webpage to define headings and subheadings.   There are 6 main header tags used on a page:  Remember: It’s important to remember that the H1 tag and

What is Hilltop Algorithm? The Hilltop Algorithm is one of Google’s lesser-known algorithms designed to identify the most credible information and web pages on a given search query. Developed around 2003, it was part of a broader effort to refine

What is Holistic SEO? The term ‘holistic’ refers to the belief that the parts of something are interconnected and can only be fully understood by considering the entire system as a whole.   When it comes to SEO, this means that

What is Hreflang? Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines about the different versions of a page tailored for various languages or regions. This helps Google deliver the correct localised version to users. You can apply the hreflang

What is a 200 Status Code? The HTTP 200 OK status code is a server response indicating that an HTTP request from a client (such as a browser) has been successfully processed. When applied to a web page, it means

What is HTTPS? HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, which is the encrypted and secure version of the traditional HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). It is a crucial protocol that enables secure communication between a web browser and a web

What are Inbound Links? An inbound link, also known as a backlink, or external link, is a link from one website that directs users to your website.  Inbound vs Outbound Links There are different types of external links: Inbound and

What is Index Bloat? Index bloat is a term used to describe a situation where a search engine’s index becomes overcrowded with unnecessary or low-quality pages from a website. This can happen when a site has a lot of pages

What is Indexability? Indexability is simply a web page’s ability to be found indexed and added to a database by search engines like Google. This is the only way a webpage can be ranked for relevant search terms and queries 

What is an Informational Query? Searching for news, specific website, upcoming movies and events – Google is used for so many things!   One of the most common reasons people use Google is to get an answer to a specific question

What is an Internal Link? An internal link is any link on a page or resource to another page or resource within the same website. Internal links are implemented to establish the website’s hierarchy, as well as to help users

What is an Interstitial Ad? Interstitial ads are full-screen advertisements that appear as pop-ups, covering the interface of the website or mobile app. These ads are often associated with mobile apps, when they typically appear at transition points or during

What is JavaScript SEO? JavaScript SEO refers to the process of making sure that websites using JavaScript can be properly crawled, indexed, and ranked by search engines like Google.  JavaScript is a programming language that allows developers to create interactive

What is Keyword Cannibalization? Keyword cannibalisation happens when multiple pages on your website compete for the same or very similar keywords. This often happens when two separate pages target the same keywords or there are multiple pages with a lot

What Is Keyword Clustering?  Keyword clustering is an SEO strategy that involves grouping related keywords into clusters or themes. Instead of focusing on single keywords, clustering helps optimise content for a broader set of terms that are closely related.   The

What is Keyword Density? Keyword density measures how often a specific keyword appears in a piece of content relative to the total word count. This is typically shown as a percentage. To calculate keyword density, you divide the number of

What is Keyword Difficulty? Keyword Difficulty (KD) is a metric that helps you understand how hard it will be to rank for a specific keyword in search engines like Google. It provides insight into how many other websites are already

What is a Keyword Ranking? When you type a query into Google (or any other search engine), you’ll get thousands of results, ranked based on their relevance, quality, and other factors determined by the search engine’s algorithm.  This is keyword

What is Keyword Stemming? Keyword stemming is referred to as Google’s ability to recognise and understand the different forms of the same word in a particular search query. The term “stemming” comes from the fact that a “word stem”, which

What is Keyword Stuffing? Keyword stuffing refers to the excessive use of a particular keyword in on-page content with the core intention to try and rank for that keyword. Google considers keyword stuffing as a spam technique and lists it

What are Keywords? Keywords are the words and phrases that are used by websites and writers to describe the main topic of a piece of content. These are the terms that you want to rank for in the SERPs (search

What is a Landing Page? If you’ve ever clicked on a link from an email, search ad, or social media post and ended up on a specific page, you’ve landed on a landing page!   What Makes a Landing Page Different

What is Latent Semantic Analysis? Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a natural language processing method used by search engines and other systems to understand the relationships and hidden (latent) meaning between words (semantics) in a piece of text or content. 

What is Link Bait? Link bait refers to content designed to attract editorial links from other websites. The concept is simple: if a piece of content is engaging, informative, or valuable, other websites are more likely to link to it,

What is Link Building Link building refers to obtaining backlinks (or inbound links) from other websites to various pages on your site. Links are important in ranking, as search engines like Google use them to assess a website’s relevance and

What is Link Equity? Link equity, or “link juice,” refers to the authority or value transferred from one page to another through a link. This value is influenced by factors such as the relevance and authority of the linking page,

What is Link Exchange? Link exchanging, or reciprocal linking is used in SEO to help improve the visibility of of two websites in the SERPs. This is done through external links from each website to each other’s content. This is

What is a Link Farm? A link farm is a term used to describe a group of websites that all share links with each other to help manipulate their rankings in the SERPs. Link farms are commonly mistaken for PBNs (private

What is Link Juice? Link juice or link equity is a term used in SEO that refers to the value or authority that is passed from one webpage to another through links. Think of it as a vote of confidence

What is Link Popularity? Link popularity refers to the quality and quantity of the backlinks pointing to a website or page. It is a metric that is often in SEO used to determine a site’s authority in the SERPs (search

What is a Link Profile? Your link profile, or backlink profile, refers to the complete collection of backlinks that are pointing to your website. It shows which websites are linking to yours, how these links are distributed, and the quality

What is Link Reclamation? A sign of a good, credible website is backlinks. As you work on your website and create high-quality content , other websites may link to your pages, signalling to search engines that your site is trustworthy

What is Link Rot? Link rot is where links on across the internet gradually cease to point to their original target URL. This happens due to the web resources being relocated or completely removed. The term “broken link” is very

What is a Link Scheme? Link schemes (also called link spam) is an activity to attempt to manipulate Google’s ranking algorithm with unnatural links. Link schemes include links to your website as well as outgoing links from your website. Types

What is Link Spam? Link spam refers to backlinks that are generated with the core purpose of manipulating the rankings in the SERPs. Link spam is typically classed as a black-hat SEO tactic. Just like any other manipulation tactic on

What is Link Text? Link text, more commonly known as “Anchor text” is the hyperlink you see on pages that internally or externally link to another page, it uses text as the anchor, and is usually easy to spot as it’s

What is Link Velocity? Link velocity in SEO is the rate at which a website or a page is acquiring backlinks. It is usually measure in links per month or referring domains per month. The idea of link velocity is

What is Local Business Schema? LocalBusiness Schema markup is a type of structured data used on websites that provides Google with specific information about the running of a local business. This information will depend on the type of business but

What is a Local Citation? Local citations are online mentions of a business that include its name, address, and phone number, commonly called “NAP.” These references appear on an external website and are not controlled by the business itself. If

What is a Local Pack? The Local Pack is a search engine results page (SERP) feature that appears at the top when a user makes a query with local intent. It displays a map and three relevant local business listings.

What Is Local Search Marketing? Local search marketing involves enhancing a local business’s online search visibility. A local business refers to any business that serves customers face-to-face through a physical storefront or by offering services at customers’ locations within a

What is Local SEO? Local SEO is a specialised area of search engine optimisation (SEO) that improves a website’s visibility in local search results. These results are tailored to the searcher’s geographic location and specific local keywords. For example, a

What is Log File Analysis Log file analysis involves reviewing the data stored by a website’s servers, which is recorded in log files that track every request made to the site (an important part of technical SEO). In the context

What is a Long-tail Keyword? There are 3 common types of keywords. Short-tail, mid-tail and long-tail keywords. These typically classified by their length.   Long-tail keywords are specific phrases that usually contain three or more words and target a very particular

What are LSI Keywords? Short for Latent Semantic Indexing, LSI keywords refer to words (or terms) that are closely linked to the main keyword a page is targeting.   For example, if your primary keyword is “Apple,” LSI keywords might include

What is a Manual Action? Also known as a Google Penalty, a Manual Action is a penalty or punishment by Google when a websites has violated it’s guidelines – knowingly or unknowingly.   Unlike algorithmic penalties, which are automatically triggered by

What is a Meta Description? When you search for something in the SERPs (search engine results pages), you’ll see a short summary that appears under the page title and URL. This is the meta description, also known as the SEO

What are Meta Keywords?  Meta keywords are an HTML meta tag that provides search engines with information about the keywords a page should be associated with. For example: <meta name=”keywords” content=”digital nomads hq glossary, seo glossary”> While Google and Bing

What is a Meta Redirect?  A meta redirect, also referred to as a meta refresh redirect, is a type of client-side redirect that instructs a web browser to automatically navigate to another webpage after a specified amount of time. Unlike

What Is a Meta Robots Tag? A meta robots tag is an HTML tag that gives search engine crawlers instructions on how to index, crawl, and display a page in search results. It’s placed within the <head> section of the

What are Meta Tags? Meta tags are snippets of HTML code that provide specific information (metadata) to search engines and browsers that isn’t visible on the webpage itself. These tags are typically used to define the page description and influence

What is a Mirror Site? A mirror site is essentially a duplicate (two or more) of an original website but on a different domain or server. These have the same content, look and functionality and are typically used to provide

What Is Mobile-First Indexing? Mobile-first indexing means Google primarily uses a website’s mobile version for crawling, indexing, and ranking. Before 2020, Google mainly crawled websites’ desktop versions – However, with the increased use of mobile devices (like smartphones and tablets)

What is NAP? NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number, essential details in a business’s online profile. These elements are at the heart of local SEO, which aims to optimise a business’s online presence to attract more customers from

What is Natural Language Understanding? Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) focusing on machine reading comprehension. NLU enables computers to comprehend and interpret human language, whether spoken (voice search) or

Natural Links – What Are They? A natural link—also referred to as an organic link, earned link, or editorial link—is an external link created voluntarily by one website, pointing to another based on the relevance and usefulness of the content

What is a Navigational Query? A navigational query is a search performed when users want to locate a specific website or web page. These queries are typically made with the intent of reaching a known destination and often include brand-specific

What is Negative SEO? Negative SEO is the unethical practice of deliberately harming a competitor’s search engine rankings. This is typically achieved through tactics like link spamming, which aims to reduce a website’s authority in Google’s rankings. While Google representatives

What is Nofollow? Nofollow (rel=”nofollow”) is a link attribute instructing search engine crawlers not to follow a particular link, meaning they won’t crawl the linked page. Consequently, nofollow links do not contribute to the search engine rankings of the linked

What is a Noindex Tag? A “noindex tag” is an on-page directive that tells search engines not to index a specific page, preventing it from appearing in search results. This is one way to block search engines from indexing content

What is Noopener? The term “noopener” refers to the rel=”noopener” HTML attribute added to links that open in a new tab or window for security purposes. This attribute provides an added layer of security by preventing the website you’re linking

What Is Noreferrer? Noreferrer, indicated by the attribute rel=”noreferrer” in HTML links, is a tool that tells the browser not to share any referrer information when a user clicks on a link.  This simply means that when someone clicks a

What is “Not Provided”? “Not provided” in Google Analytics refers to organic search traffic from SSL searches or logged-in users, where specific search queries are withheld for privacy and security reasons. When a user is logged into their Google account

What is Off-page SEO?  Off-page SEO (search engine optimisation) involves strategies to improve a website’s rankings without changing the website itself. This includes tactics like link building, guest posting, and promoting content through social media marketing. The main goal of

What is On-Page SEO? On-page SEO refers to the process of optimising individual web pages to improve their rankings on search engines and attract more organic traffic.   Unlike off-page SEO, which focuses on backlinks and external factors, on-page SEO is

What are Open Graph Meta Tags? Open graph meta tags are snippets of code that are used to determine how a website is displayed when links are shared on social media and instant messaging apps. It was first developed by

What are Organic Search Results? When it comes to browsing Google, a lot will come up on a search results page, including ads, maps, and more.   But the core of what you’re looking at are organic search results. These are

What is Organic Traffic? Organic traffic refers to visitors who land on your website through unpaid search results (SERPs). In other words, these are the people who find your site by searching for relevant keywords on search engines like Google

What is an Orphan Page? An orphan page is a webpage that lacks any internal links from other pages on a website, making it inaccessible through navigation. However, it can still be reached via external backlinks or direct URLs. Sometimes,

What is an Outbound Link? An outbound link, or external link, is a hyperlink that takes users to a URL outside of your website. On the contrary, an outbound link from one site is considered an inbound link or backlink

What is Page Speed? Page speed refers to the time it takes for a web page to load and display for users, typically measured in seconds. It is important for both user experience and overall website performance. Since 2018, Google

What is PageRank? PageRank (PR) is one of Google’s algorithms for assessing a webpage’s relative importance within the World Wide Web. It evaluates the quantity and quality of external pages linking to it and assigns a value based on these

What is a Paid Link? A paid link (or paid backlink) refers to a hyperlink to your website that has been paid for, not earned.   Types of Paid Links While there is no denying the importance of backlinks, its important

What Is People Also Ask? People Also Ask is a handy Google feature that provides users with other questions related to their original query.   It is usually displayed towards the top or bottom of the SERPs and will also offer

What is a Pillar Page? When it comes to content, a website can have a lot of it! Even small websites can have quite a few pages. In SEO, a pillar content refers to a comprehensive, in-depth piece of content

What is Pogo-Sticking? Have you ever clicked on a search result only to hit the back button, looking for something else? If so, you’ve experienced what’s known as pogo sticking. Put simply, pogo sticking happens when users click on a

What Is A Primary Keyword?  There are a lot of different types of keywords – Primary, Secondary and Tertiary that will inform your SEO strategy, but the most important is the Primary Keyword.   Simply put, a primary keyword is the

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a network or collection of websites that are owned and controlled by the same individual or group. The main goal of a PBN is to build backlinks to a primary website to artificially boost

If you’ve ever noticed how certain news stories, trends, or popular topics seem to shoot straight to the top of Google search results almost instantly – That’s because of a search ranking system called Query Deserves Freshness (QDF).  Essentially, QDF

What is Reciprocal Link?  As the name explains, reciprocal links are when two websites link to each other for SEO purposes. These links are most often the result of an agreement between both parties. Think, “I’ll link to your site

What is a Reconsideration Request?  You noticed your website has gotten a manual action, and you’ve fixed all the issues – now what?  A reconsideration request is an appeal that you send to Google’s webspam team after fixing the issues

What Are Related Searches?  When you type a query into Google (or any search engine), there will be a list of suggestions that appear below your search box, or towards the bottom of the SERP page. These are called related

What is a Relative URL?  There are two main URL options: Absolute URLs and Relative URLs. Where an absolute URL is the full URL (with the protocol subdomain, domain, and path) a relative URL is a way to link to

What are Resource Pages?  Resource pages are specialised webpages that curate and organise valuable information, tools, or references on a particular topic. These are popular because they are easy to create and provide a lot of value to visitors –

What is A Rich Snippet?  A rich snippet (or rich result) is a special type of search result that provides more detailed information than a standard search listing. When searching for something on Google, users typically see a list of

What is Robots.txt?  Sometimes, you don’t want web crawlers to access specific URLs on your website. To do so, you can use a robots.txt file to block certain pages or sections of your website. This file gives instructions to search

What is Schema Markup?  Developed by Schema.org, a collaborative project started by Google, Microsoft, Yandex, and Yahoo in 2011, schema markup is a structured data format that offers key details about your web pages in a way that search engines

What is A Search Algorithm?  At its core, a search algorithm is a set of rules and calculations that search engines like Google use to determine the order in which web pages appear in search results. When you type a

What is Search Engine Poisoning?  Search engine poisoning is a malicious practice that aims to manipulate search engine results by using deceptive tactics to promote harmful or unwanted content. This tactic can mislead users into clicking on links that can

What are Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)?  When you search for something online, what you see on your screen is known as a Search Engine Results Page, or SERP for short. This page is generated by search engines like Google,

What is Search Intent? People use search engines for a variety of reasons. One person might want to find and compare certain products where someone else might use the search engine to find more information about a certain topic.   This

What are Search Results? When you type a query into a search engine like Google, the information that appears on the page after you hit “search” is called a search result. These results are a mix of web pages, images,

What is a Search Term? A search term is simply the word or phrase you type into a search engine (like Google or Bing) when you’re looking for information. It’s how you tell the search engine what you want to

What is Search Visibility? Search visibility (or SEO visibility or search engine visibility) refers to how often your website appears in search engine results for relevant queries. It’s essentially a measure of your website’s presence in search engines and how

What is Search Volume? Search volume refers to the number of times a specific keyword or phrase is searched for within a given month. It is measured by SEO tools like Google Keyword planner to provide insight into the popularity

What are Secondary Keywords? When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), we often hear about primary keywords—the main terms you want your website to rank for. But, that’s not the only keyword you page will (or should rank for!) 

What is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)? What is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)?  Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is a internet security protocol that creates a secure, encrypted connection between your web browser and a web server. First developed in 1995,

What are Seed Keywords? Seed keywords are the foundation of a successful keyword research strategy. These are the highly competitive primary terms or phrases that broadly define the topics you want to rank for on search engines. Seed keywords are

What is SEO? SEO, short for Search Engine Optimisation, is the process aimed at increasing a website’s visibility on search engines like Google. It is one of the most important, and beneficial, digital marketing techniques for any business who has

What Is An SEO Audit?  An SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of your website’s performance and how well it is optimised for search engines. It is a process that identifies any existing SEO issues, potential issues and any areas

What is An SEO Silo?  An SEO Silo is a type of website architecture where a website’s pages are grouped, isolated and interlinked by a specific topic. This can create clear, distinct sections of related content.   How Does Siloing Work?  The

What Are SERP Features  Google has come a long way since it’s early days, and are continuously evolving to give users the best results for their queries. Beyond traditional search results (the typical list you see when browsing) Google has

What is Share of Voice?  Share of Voice (SOV) is a marketing metric that shows how much visibility (in a percentage) your brand has compared to your competitors.   Traditionally, it was used in paid advertising to indicate share of advertising space.

What are Short-Tail Keywords?  Short-tail keywords, as the name explains, are keywords that are typically one to three words long. More specifically, they are generic, broad terms that covers an entire topic. For this reason, they are incredibly popular and

What are Sitelinks?  Sitelinks refer to the cluster of links that can be found under some search results. They are the most common SERP feature and often display other important or relevant pages of the ranking website. Google will analyse

What is a Sitemap?  A sitemap is a file that provides a structured list of all the pages and content (such as images, PDFs and images) available on your website. They are used to provided users (HTML sitemaps) and search

What is a Sidewide Link? A sitewide link is a link (internal or external) that appears on every page of a website. The most common example that is found on most websites are the links in the header, menu navigation

What Is Spamdexing? Spamdexing is a set of black-hat SEO techniques that are used to manipulate search engine results. While some spam indexing techniques are effective in boosting rankings, they trick search engines into believing the content is valuable when,

What Is a Sponsored Link Attribute? The “sponsored” link attribute is an HTML tag that tells search engines a particular link is paid for or part of a sponsorship. It is indicated as rel=”sponsored”  So, if a website is linking

What is Srcset? People access the internet on a rage of devices including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and cellphones. This means that web developers must consider different screen sizes and resolutions when displaying images on websites.  Srcset is an HTML

What is Structured Data? Structured data is a system of organising and labelling content on a webpage in a format that search engines, social media platforms, and applications can easily interpret. It uses specific code, known as schema markup, to

What is a Subdomain? A subdomain is an extension of a primary domain that allows different sections of a website to be organised and function independently. It appears at the beginning of the main domain name, separated by a period.

What is Taxonomy SEO? Taxonomy SEO refers to organising and categorising website content in a structured and hierarchical way to enhance user experience and search engine visibility. By creating a logical system of classifications, such as categories, tags, and subcategories,

What is Technical SEO? Technical SEO is the foundation of a successful website optimisation strategy. While traditional SEO focuses on creating great content and building quality backlinks, technical SEO ensures that your website is structured in a way that search

What is TF-IDF? TF-IDF (Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency) is a technique used in natural language processing and information retrieval to assess the importance of a word in relation to a document and a larger set of documents (corpus). It helps

What is Thin Content? Thin content are web pages with little to zero authentic, human written content. These pages may have a high word count, however lack substantial value to users. Thin content with little to no additional value is

What is Tiered Link Building? Tiered link building is creating links to external URLs that link back to your website or a particular page. With this approach to link building, the links are built in layers, reinforcing the pages that

What Is a Title Tag? A title tag is an HTML element that defines a webpage’s title. When shared, this title is displayed in three primary places: browser tabs, search engine results pages (SERPs), and social media previews. The title

What is a Top-Level Domain? A top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of a domain name, located after the final dot. It represents the highest level in the hierarchical structure of the Domain Name System (DNS), and the TLD

What is Topical Relevance? When creating content for your website, there is a lot to consider. Not only do you want it to appeal to your target audience, but you also want to ensure that search engines like Google can

What is a Transactional Query? A transactional query is a search term used by someone who is looking to make a purchase, but have not decided where to get it from.   Transactional queries are action-driven and typically include keywords like

What is Transport Layer Security (TLS)? Transport Layer Security, or TLS, is a protocol that ensures data is securely transmitted over the internet. Whether you are browsing a website, sending an email, or shopping online, TLS encrypts the information being

What is TrustRank? TrustRank is an algorithm that was to help identify and filter out low-quality or spammy websites from search results. It helps distinguish between trustworthy sites and those that may engage in deceptive practices, like spamdexing or keyword

What is UGC Link Attribute?  Introduced in 2019, after Google changed how the “nofollow” attribute works, the UGC (User-Generated Content) link attribute is a type of rel attribute used in HTML to signal to search engines that a link was

What is Universal Search? Universal search, also known as “Blended Search” or “Enhanced Search,” is a feature introduced by search engines like Google to provide more diverse search results by combining content from different sources. Instead of only showing traditional

What are Unnatural Links? Unnatural links are backlinks deliberately created to manipulate search engine rankings. They violate Google’s guidelines, and websites caught using them can face penalties, which may significantly hurt their visibility in search results. These links aren’t naturally

What is URL Rating (UR)? URL Rating, or UR, is a metric used by various SEO tools to measure the strength of a specific webpage’s backlink profile. It’s a score (usually between 0 to 100) that reflects how well a

What is a URL Slug? A URL slug is the part of a URL that comes after the domain name and identifies a specific page on the website. It follows the slash (“/”) after the main address. For example, in

What Is User Intent? User intent, or search intent, refers to the underlying purpose or goal behind a user’s search query. When someone types a query into a search engine, they have a specific intention—whether it’s to find information, make

What Is Vertical Search? Vertical search (or specialty or topical search), refers to search engines that cater to a specific niche, focusing on a particular content type or segment of the overall search experience. Compared to general search engines, which

What is Voice Search? Voice search uses spoken commands to perform searches via search engines, websites, or apps. It utilises voice recognition technology to convert spoken language into text-based queries. Popular voice-activated tools include Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa,

What is WCAG? WCAG, short for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, are a set of international standards created to make web content more accessible for everyone. WCAG was formed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3) to ensure that everyone (specifically

What is Website Authority?  In SEO, website authority refers to the overall strength of a particular website. It is essentially a measure of trust, how reliable and authoritative your site appears when search engines like Google evaluate it and how

What is a Website Hit?  A website hit refers to a single request made to a web server for a file, which could be anything from a page, image, video, or stylesheet.   For example, when someone visits a webpage, every

Also known as website architecture, website structure refers to how a website’s content and pages organised and arranged. It is a framework that guides users and search engines through different sections of your site.  Why is Website Structure Important?  A

What is Webspam? Webspam refers to content that is created with the goal of manipulating search engine rankings. This content is created purely for search engines and do not offer any value to the user. Because of this, webspam violates

Released as a part of Google’s core algorithm update in October 2015, RankBrain is a machine-learning component of Google’s search algorithm that helps sort and rank search results.   Before it’s introduction Google found it difficult to understand complex, ambiguous, or

What is White-Hat SEO? When it comes to optimising your website for search engines, you may have heard of black-hat SEO—the techniques that focus on tricking search engines into ranking your site higher, often at the expense of user experience

What is the X-Robots-Tag?  When a browser or a search engine bot requests a resource from your server, the server sends back an HTTP response, which can include various headers. The X-Robots-Tag is one of those headers that gives specific

What are YMYL Pages? YMYL stands for “Your Money or Your Life,” and it’s a term that Google use in its guidelines for quality evaluators to categorise web pages that can significantly impact a person’s happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.