SEO glossary

#

• 404 page

  A web page displayed when a user attempts to access a URL that does not exist on the server.

A

• Ahrefs

  An SEO tool that tracks keyword rankings, search volumes, keyword difficulty and backlinks for any website.

• AI Overview

  Google's AI-generated answer, shown above the ordinary search results for some searches.

• Alt text

  A short, descriptive text attribute added to an image's HTML code that provides a textual alternative to the image.

B

• Backlinks

  Hyperlinks from one website to another, which search engines like Google treat as a signal of credibility and relevance when ranking websites.

• Bad neighbourhood

  A group of websites or IP addresses associated with low-quality or unethical practices, such as spam, malware, or black-hat SEO tactics.

• Blog

  A regularly updated website or section of a website where individuals or organisations share written content, images, and multimedia on specific topics or themes.

• Breadcrumb

  A navigation aid displayed as a horizontal trail of links that shows users their current location within a website’s hierarchy.

C

• CTR

  The percentage of people who click a search result after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.

D

• DR

  An Ahrefs score from 0 to 100 measuring the strength of the backlinks pointing at a whole website.

G

• GBP

  A free listing that puts a business on Google Maps and in the local results of Google Search, with its address, opening hours, reviews and photos.

• GSC

  Google's free tool showing how a website performs in its search results: the searches it appears for, how often it is shown and clicked, and its average position.

H

• H1

  The main heading on a web page.

• hreflang

  A tag in the code of a page telling Google which language and country each version of the page is written for.

• Hub page

  A page covering a broad topic in depth and linking out to more specific child pages.

J

• JSON-LD

  The format structured data is usually written in: a block of code in a page that describes it to search engines, such as a product, an organisation or a set of FAQs.

K

• KD

  An Ahrefs score from 0 to 100 estimating how hard it is to reach the first page of Google for a search term.

L

• Local pack

  The block of local businesses with a map, shown near the top of Google for searches with local intent.

N

• NAP

  The core contact details of a business: its name, address and phone number.

P

• PAA

  A box in Google's results listing questions related to the search.

S

• Schema

  Structured data added to a page's code to describe what the page is, such as a product, a local business, a breadcrumb trail or a set of FAQs.

• SEO

  The work of improving how often a website is found in unpaid search results, and how often the people who find it click through.

• SERP

  The page Google shows in answer to a search.

U

• UR

  An Ahrefs score from 0 to 100 measuring the strength of the backlinks pointing at a single page, as distinct from the website as a whole.

• URL

  The full web address of a page, such as https://d3creative.uk/glossary/url.