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The Definitive SEO Glossary
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes with its own extensive set of terminology, acronyms, and concepts that are used daily by the SEO team here at summit and by professionals across the industry.
The Summit SEO team have created a glossary of the most important terms to help simplify the language of SEO.
From technical elements to on-page strategies and more, this glossary is designed to support your understanding and give you greater confidence when navigating discussions, reports, and performance insights within the channel.
| Full Name | Acronym | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Above the fold | ATF | Content that appears on a website before the user scrolls |
| Algorithm | A complex computer program used by search engines to retrieve data and deliver results for a query. Search engines use a combination of algorithms to deliver ranked webpages via a results page based on a number of ranking factors and signals. | |
| Alt Attribute | HTML code that provides information used by search engines and screen readers (for blind and visually-impaired people) to understand the contents of an image. | |
| Anchor Text | The clickable word or words of a link. This text is intended to provide contextual information to people and search engines about what the webpage or website being linked to is about. | |
| Black Hat | Risky tactics that go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. | |
| Bot | A software application that performs automated tasks over the internet. Search engines use bots to crawl websites and index their content. | |
| Bounce Rate | The percentage of website visitors who leave after viewing only one page. | |
| Canonical URL | The preferred version of a webpage that search engines should index when multiple URLs have similar or identical content. | |
| Click-Through Rate | CTR | The percentage of users who click on a link compared to the number of users who view it. |
| Content Management System | CMS | A software application used to create, manage, and modify digital content on a website. |
| Conversion Rate | The percentage of users who complete a desired action on a website, such as making a purchase or filling out a form. | |
| Crawler | A program used by search engines to systematically browse the web and index content. | |
| Domain Authority | DA | A search engine ranking score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine results pages. |
| Duplicate Content | Content that appears on more than one webpage, either within the same website or across different websites. | |
| Google Analytics | A web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic. | |
| Google Search Console | A free tool provided by Google to help monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot a website’s presence in search results. | |
| Indexing | The process by which search engines store and organize content so it can be retrieved during a search. | |
| Keyword | A word or phrase that users enter into search engines when looking for information. | |
| Keyword Density | The percentage of times a keyword appears in content compared to the total number of words. | |
| Link Building | The process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. | |
| Meta Description | A brief summary of a webpage that appears in search engine results. | |
| Meta Tags | HTML tags that provide information about a webpage to search engines. | |
| Organic Search | Search results that are not paid advertisements. | |
| Page Speed | The time it takes for a webpage to fully load. | |
| PageRank | An algorithm used by Google to rank webpages in search engine results. | |
| Robots.txt | A file that instructs search engine crawlers which pages or sections of a website should not be crawled. | |
| Search Engine Optimization | SEO | The practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility in search engine results. |
| Search Engine Results Page | SERP | The page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s query. |
| Site Map | A file that lists all the pages of a website to help search engines crawl and index them. | |
| White Hat | Ethical SEO practices that comply with search engine guidelines. |
To see these concepts in action and stay updated on the latest shifts in the digital landscape, explore our blog.
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