Amrut Services

Mehul Dedhia

SEO Consultant · Amrut Services

SEO glossary, in plain English

Plain definitions of the SEO terms that come up in audits and on client calls, written the way I’d explain them to a client rather than the way a textbook would.

Where a term deserves more than a definition, it links to its own page on where I see it go wrong. Where I’ve already written about a term properly, the entry points you to that post instead of repeating it. 213 terms so far. If one you’ve heard isn’t here, ask me directly.

0-9 · A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · W · X · Y · Z

0-9

  • 301 redirectA permanent redirect. It tells Google the old URL has moved for good and that the new one should take its place in the index.
  • 302 redirectA temporary redirect. It tells Google to keep the old URL indexed because the move is not permanent, which is the wrong signal for most site changes.
  • 404 errorThe status a server returns when a page does not exist. It is normal and harmless on its own; the problem is a 404 on a page that still gets links or traffic.
  • 410 GoneA status that says a page was removed on purpose and is not coming back. Google treats it the same as a 404, so use it because it is accurate, not because it is faster.
  • 5xx server errorsServer-side failures such as 500 and 503. To Google they mean “slow down and come back later,” and if they persist, pages start falling out of the index.

A

  • AEO and GEOAnswer engine and generative engine optimization: labels for optimizing content for AI answers. Google says its AI features run on the same index and ranking as normal search, so there is no separate layer to optimize.
  • AI ModeGoogle’s separate conversational search for complex questions and comparisons, drawing on the same index as normal results. I compare it with AI Overviews, and explain which questions each one catches, in AI Mode vs AI Overviews for a business site.
  • AI OverviewsThe AI-generated summary Google shows above some normal results, built from pages already in its index, with links to the sources it drew on.
  • Algorithmic penaltyA ranking drop caused by Google’s automated systems rather than a human reviewer. Strictly, it is a demotion rather than a penalty, and nothing in Search Console tells you it happened.
  • Alt textThe text description in an image’s alt attribute. It is read by screen readers and used by Google to understand what an image shows.
  • Anchor textThe clickable words in a link, which tell Google what the linked page is about. The anchor text worth effort is on your own internal links; asking other sites for exact commercial anchors is a spam risk. More in writing your own anchor text carefully.
  • Apple Business ConnectApple’s free listing tool for businesses, which controls how you appear in Apple Maps, Siri and Spotlight.
  • Attachment pagesThe page WordPress creates for every uploaded image or file. Left indexable, they add hundreds of near-empty URLs to a site.
  • Author pageA page that tells readers and Google who wrote the content and why they are qualified to. It matters most on health, legal and money topics.
  • Average positionThe Search Console metric for where your page appeared on average for a query. It is an average across every search and location, so it rarely matches what you see when you search yourself.

B

  • Bing PlacesMicrosoft’s business listing service, which feeds Bing Maps and the local results used by several AI assistants.
  • Black hat SEOTactics that break search engine guidelines to rank faster: bought links, cloaking, hidden text, scaled spam. The useful list is Google’s own, and I go through which parts apply to a business site in Google’s spam policies, one by one.
  • Bounce rateThe share of visits that leave after one page. It is an analytics metric, not something Google ranks on, and a high bounce rate on a page that answered the question is fine. How Google does use clicks is in Google uses clicks.

C

  • Canonical tagA tag that tells Google which URL is the main version of a page when several URLs show the same content. Google treats it as a strong hint, not a command.
  • CanonicalizationThe process Google uses to pick one URL out of a set of duplicates and index that one. Your canonical tag is one input; internal links, redirects and sitemaps are others. Full entry: canonical tag.
  • Category pageA page listing products in one category. Its copy is there to help a shopper choose, not to hit a word count under the grid. More in category page copy: how much and where.
  • ccTLDA country-code top-level domain, such as .co.uk or .de. It tells Google the site targets one country. For sites serving several countries, see hreflang.
  • CDNA content delivery network: servers around the world that hold copies of your files so pages load faster for visitors far from your host.
  • Click depthHow many clicks a page sits from the homepage. “Within three” is roughly right and badly explained: depth is a symptom of internal linking, not a rule. See click depth is a symptom, not a rule.
  • Click-through rate (CTR)The share of people who saw your result in Google and clicked it. Search Console reports it per query and per page.
  • CloakingShowing Google different content from what visitors see. It is a named spam policy and one of the fastest routes to a manual action.
  • Collection pageShopify’s name for a category page. On most stores it is a product grid with a heading and nothing else, which is the biggest structural miss I find. More in collections are your category pages.
  • Commodity contentContent anyone could write, with nothing in it the reader could not get from the first ten results. Google’s guidance on AI search names it as the thing to avoid.
  • Content decayThe slow loss of traffic on a page that used to perform, usually because competitors published better answers or the topic moved on.
  • Content pruningRemoving, merging or redirecting pages that do not earn their place. It works, but bulk removal based on traffic alone often makes things worse. Check links first: the content pruning that made things worse.
  • Content syndicationRepublishing your content on another site. Without a canonical or a link back, the copy can outrank the original.
  • Core updateA broad change to Google’s ranking systems, released several times a year. It reassesses quality across the web rather than targeting any one tactic.
  • Core Web VitalsGoogle’s three page experience metrics: loading (LCP), responsiveness (INP) and visual stability (CLS). A real ranking signal and a weak one; about half the web fails and ranks fine. See ranking factor, or conversion problem.
  • Crawl budgetHow many URLs Google is willing and able to crawl on a site. Almost nobody has a crawl budget problem: Google’s own threshold is around a million pages. You cannot raise it, only stop wasting it. More in crawl budget: almost nobody has one.
  • Crawl stats reportThe Search Console report showing how often Googlebot requests your pages, what it gets back and how fast your server responds.
  • CrawlabilityWhether Google can reach and fetch a page: it has to be linked or listed, not blocked by robots.txt, and served without errors.
  • Crawled, currently not indexedA Search Console status meaning Google fetched the page and chose not to index it. On most sites the list is pages the platform created and nobody wrote, which is normal. See what it actually means.
  • CrawlingGoogle fetching a page by following links or reading a sitemap. A page can be crawled and never indexed. The difference is explained in crawling vs indexing.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)The Core Web Vital that measures how much a page jumps around while it loads, usually from images, ads or fonts arriving late.

D

  • Deindexed pagesPages that were in Google and dropped out. That is a different investigation from pages never accepted: get the date, then ask what shipped that week. See deindexed pages: find out what shipped.
  • Digital PREarning links and coverage from journalists with stories, data or expert comment. For a small business it means local and trade press and a handful of strong links a year. More in what is realistic for a small business.
  • DisavowA file that asks Google to ignore specific links to your site. I recommend it far less than I used to, because Google now ignores most junk on its own. Never disavow on a toxicity score. More in when disavowing helps and when it hurts.
  • Discontinued productsProducts that are gone for good. Whether to keep, redirect or remove the page depends on whether anything links to it. The full decision is in out of stock: keep, redirect or delete.
  • Discovered, currently not indexedA Search Console status meaning Google knows the URL but has not fetched it yet. It is a queue, not a verdict on quality. See a queue, not a verdict.
  • DomainThe address of a website, such as amrutservices.com. Whether a keyword in it still helps is covered under exact match domain.
  • Domain AuthorityA score from Moz estimating how well a site might rank, built from Moz’s own link data. Google does not use it. Useful for quick comparisons, poor for judging a link. More in third-party scores: what they measure.
  • Domain RatingAhrefs’ score of a site’s link strength. Like Domain Authority, it is a tool company’s estimate and not a Google metric. See domain authority and other third-party scores.
  • Doorway pagesPages built to rank for one search and funnel visitors elsewhere, such as near-identical city pages. Google’s spam policies name them directly.
  • Duplicate contentThe same or very similar content at more than one URL. It is rarely a penalty; the cost is Google choosing the wrong version or splitting signals between copies.
  • Dwell timeThe time between clicking a result and returning to Google. It is not a metric Google reports or confirms using in that form. What the record does show about clicks: Google uses clicks.

E

  • E-E-A-TExperience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust: the qualities Google’s quality raters are asked to look for. It is a framework for judging content, not a score.
  • Ecommerce SEOThe work of getting a store’s categories and products found in search. On a large catalogue it is mostly about which pages exist at all. More in what is ecommerce SEO, or see my ecommerce SEO service.
  • EntityA thing Google understands as distinct and identifiable, such as a person, business, place or product, along with the facts connected to it.
  • Exact match domainA domain that matches a search term exactly, such as bestroofingdenver.com. It once carried a ranking boost; Google removed that in 2012.
  • Expired domain abuseBuying an expired domain to use its old reputation for unrelated content. Google added it to its spam policies in 2024.

F

  • Faceted navigationThe filters on a category page: size, color, price, brand. Every combination can become a URL, which runs into tens of thousands on a modest catalogue. The decision is per facet. See index, crawl or block, per facet.

G

  • GBP postsUpdates published on a Google Business Profile. I have never been able to attribute a change in calls to one across the profiles I track. Attributes are worth more. See do Business Profile posts do anything.
  • GBP primary categoryThe main category on a Google Business Profile, and one of the strongest local relevance signals. Sometimes the right category does not exist, which turns it into a choice about which demand to compete for. See the primary category that did not exist.
  • GBP suspensionWhen Google removes or disables a Business Profile, usually for an ineligible address, a keyword-stuffed name or a wrong category. Fix the cause before appealing, and do not create a new profile. More in suspensions and reinstatement.
  • Geogrid rank trackingChecking local rankings from a grid of points across an area. The average score hides the useful part, which is the shape of where you rank. How I read one: a map, not a score.
  • Google Analytics 4Google’s analytics platform. For SEO, four reports matter: organic landing pages, which of them produce enquiries, AI assistant traffic and engagement. See GA4 for SEO: four reports worth setting up.
  • Google Business ProfileThe free listing that controls how a business appears in Google Maps and the local map pack, formerly called Google My Business.
  • Google DiscoverThe personalized feed of articles in the Google app and on Android home screens. It sends traffic without a search, and is volatile in a way normal search is not.
  • Google sandboxThe idea that Google holds new sites back for months. Google denies it exists; what people notice is that a new site has no links or history yet.
  • Google Search ConsoleGoogle’s free tool for site owners. It shows the queries you appear for, which pages are indexed, and problems Google found.
  • GooglebotThe crawler Google uses to fetch pages for its index. It mostly crawls as a smartphone, because Google indexes the mobile version of a site.
  • Guest postingWriting articles for other sites, usually with a link back. Google’s policy targets payment and optimized anchors, not the format. Would you still write it if the link were nofollowed? See what’s left of guest posting.

H

  • Hacked contentPages or code injected into a site without the owner’s knowledge, often shown only to Google. Most hacked business sites do not look hacked. How to find it: finding it before Google does.
  • Heading tagsThe H1 to H6 tags that structure a page. A weak ranking signal, and often misused by themes, such as a whole menu wrapped in H2s. See your header menu is wrapped in H2 tags.
  • Helpful contentGoogle’s term for content written for people rather than for rankings. The standalone helpful content system was folded into core ranking in 2024.
  • Hidden text and linksText or links placed out of sight to manipulate rankings, which breaks Google’s spam policies. Tabs and accordions are fine. More in what counts as hidden text.
  • HreflangA tag that tells Google which language or country version of a page to show to which searchers.
  • HTTP status codesThe three-digit code a server returns with every page. Each is an instruction to Google: 301 move, 302 keep, 404 or 410 drop, 5xx come back later. See what each status code tells Google.
  • HTTPSThe secure version of HTTP, shown by the padlock in the browser. Google confirmed it as a light ranking signal in 2014; today it is simply expected.

I

  • Image SEOMaking images findable and fast: descriptive file names and alt text, the right format and size, and placement near relevant text.
  • ImpressionsThe number of times your result was shown in Google, whether or not anyone scrolled to it or clicked.
  • Index bloatMore pages in Google’s index than anyone decided to publish: tag pages, filters, parameters, attachments. Stop generating them before cleaning up. See 9,220 pages indexed, nobody decided to publish them.
  • IndexabilityWhether a page that Google can reach is allowed and likely to be added to its index: no noindex, a sensible canonical, and content worth keeping.
  • IndexingGoogle deciding a fetched page is worth storing and showing in results. Crawling comes first, and not everything crawled is indexed. See crawling vs indexing.
  • IndexNowA protocol for telling search engines a URL has changed. Bing and Yandex use it; Google does not.
  • Infinite scrollLoading more content as the visitor scrolls instead of using page links. Without paginated URLs behind it, Google may never see anything past the first batch.
  • Information gainWhat a page adds that other pages on the same topic do not: a new fact, case, number or angle.
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP)The Core Web Vital that measures how quickly a page responds when someone taps, clicks or types. It replaced First Input Delay in 2024.
  • Internal linkingHow the pages on your own site link to each other. It decides how Google finds pages and which ones it treats as important. More in what is internal linking, or see my internal linking service.
  • Internal search result pagesThe pages your site’s own search box generates. Google advises against letting them be crawled, because they create endless thin URLs.
  • Intrusive interstitialsPop-ups and overlays that cover the main content on mobile, especially on arrival from search. Google treats them as a poor page experience.

J

  • JavaScript renderingGoogle running a page’s JavaScript to see the final content. Your browser’s inspector shows the rendered version, which is why it can show tags that were never in the HTML Google first read. See what Googlebot actually sees.

K

  • KeywordThe word or phrase someone types into a search. In practice one page answers many related keywords. How to find and group them: keyword research.
  • Keyword cannibalizationTwo or more pages on the same site competing for the same search, so Google keeps switching between them and neither ranks as well as one would.
  • Keyword difficultyA tool’s estimate of how hard it is to rank for a keyword, usually based on the links of pages already ranking. Each tool calculates it differently.
  • Keyword researchFinding the searches your customers make, then deciding which ones deserve a page and which belong together on one.
  • Keyword stuffingRepeating a keyword unnaturally to rank, which is a named spam policy. Tools still score keyword density; I ignore the score. See keyword density is a 1990s number.
  • Keyword-stuffed business namesAdding service or city words to a Business Profile name. It breaks Google’s guidelines and can get the profile suspended. What to do when competitors do it: keywords in your business name.
  • Knowledge panelThe box of facts Google shows about a person, business or thing it recognizes as an entity, usually on the right of desktop results.

L

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)The Core Web Vital that measures how long the largest visible element, usually a hero image or headline, takes to appear.
  • Lazy loadingDelaying images and other files until they are about to scroll into view. Good for speed, except on the first image on the page, where it slows LCP.
  • llms.txtA proposed text file listing pages for AI models to read. Google Search ignores it and says so in its own guidance.
  • Local citationA listing of your business name, address and phone number on another site, such as a directory. Stale citations contradict you more than they cost rankings. See three phone numbers, two dead domains, one closed Yelp page.
  • Local ranking factorsGoogle names three: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance you cannot change, relevance you control, prominence you earn slowly. More in how Google ranks local results.
  • Local SEOGetting a business found by people searching in a specific place, mostly through the map pack and Business Profile. More in what is local SEO, or see my local SEO service.
  • Local Services AdsGoogle’s pay-per-lead ads for service businesses, shown above the map pack with a Google Screened or Google Guaranteed badge.
  • Location pagesPages for each area or branch a business serves. A few honest pages work; a page per suburb is a liability. See location pages that work, and forty spun pages that don’t.
  • Log file analysisReading your server logs to see what Googlebot actually requested. It is the only way to see pages Google never fetched, and for most sites not worth the effort. See log files tell you what Googlebot actually did.
  • Long-tail keywordsSpecific, lower-volume searches. They are where a small site’s depth can beat a big site’s authority. More in long-tail keywords for a site with little authority.
  • LSI keywordsA term from a 1980s indexing method that SEO tools borrowed for “related keywords.” Google does not use latent semantic indexing.

M

  • Manual actionA penalty applied by a human reviewer at Google, shown in Search Console. Google lists sixteen kinds; a local business can realistically get about five. See which manual actions apply to you.
  • Map packThe block of three local business results with a map that Google shows for searches with local intent.
  • Merchant Center free listingsUnpaid product listings in Google Shopping, Images and product panels. They need a Merchant Center feed and merchant listing markup; most stores have only one. See free product listings and merchant listings.
  • Meta descriptionThe summary you write for a page’s search result. It is not a ranking factor, and Google rewrites it often, but a good one still earns clicks.
  • Meta robots tagA tag in a page’s HTML that tells search engines whether to index the page and follow its links.
  • Mixed contentAn HTTPS page that loads some files over plain HTTP. Browsers block or warn about it, which can break the page.
  • Mobile-first indexingGoogle indexing and ranking the mobile version of your pages. Anything a template drops on phones does not exist for Google. The ten-minute check: what your phone version is missing.

N

  • NAP consistencyYour business name, address and phone number matching everywhere. The first place to check is your own site, where the footer, contact page, location pages and schema often disagree. See your NAP is in four places.
  • Negative SEOAttempts by someone else to harm your rankings, usually by pointing spammy links at your site. Google says it ignores most of this automatically.
  • Noindex tagA directive that tells Google not to show a page in its results. Google has to crawl the page to see it, so it does not work on pages blocked by robots.txt.
  • nosnippet and max-snippetDirectives that limit how much of a page Google can quote in results and in its AI features.

O

  • Off-page SEOEverything away from your own site that affects how it ranks, mostly links and mentions. More in what is off-page SEO.
  • On-page SEOEverything on the page itself that helps it match a search: the content first, then titles, headings and structure. More in what is on-page SEO.
  • Organic trafficVisits that arrive from unpaid search results. In analytics it mixes branded and non-branded searches, which need separating.
  • Orphan pageA page no other page on the site links to. At scale they come out of a database, and a normal crawl reports none unless you feed it the sitemap. See ninety per cent of this site was unreachable.
  • Out-of-stock pagesProduct pages for items not currently available. Whether to keep, redirect or delete turns on one question: is it coming back? See out of stock: keep, redirect or delete.

P

  • Page cachingStoring a ready-built copy of a page so the server does not rebuild it for every visitor. The main fix for slow server response on WordPress.
  • Page experienceGoogle’s umbrella term for how using a page feels: Core Web Vitals, HTTPS, mobile usability and no intrusive pop-ups.
  • Page indexing reportThe Search Console report listing which of your pages are indexed and the reasons the rest are not.
  • PageSpeed InsightsGoogle’s free speed test. It shows real-user Core Web Vitals data where it exists, plus a lab test that is easy to over-read.
  • People Also AskThe expandable box of related questions in Google results, each with a short answer pulled from a page.
  • Pillar pageA broad page on a topic that links out to narrower pages covering its parts, which link back.
  • Pogo-stickingClicking a result, coming straight back and trying another. People treat it as a ranking signal; Google has never confirmed it in that form. What the record does say: Google uses clicks.
  • Private blog network (PBN)A group of sites built or bought only to link to a money site. It is link spam under Google’s policies.
  • Product page SEOMaking individual product pages findable. Most cannot rank against Amazon and the manufacturer, so the useful question is which twenty can. See most of your product pages cannot rank.
  • Product variant URLsSeparate URLs for each color or size of a product. One indexable product page is right for most catalogues. See when variant URLs deserve to be indexed.
  • Programmatic SEOGenerating many pages from a template and a dataset, such as one page per city or per product combination.
  • ProximityThe distance between the searcher and the business, one of Google’s three local factors. It is why no business ranks across a whole city. See why you cannot rank across a whole city.

Q

R

  • Rank trackingChecking where your pages rank for chosen keywords over time, from a fixed location and device.
  • Ranking factorAnything Google uses to decide the order of results. The two people argue about most are relevance and authority. My take on which wins: relevance or authority.
  • Redirect chainOne redirect pointing to another before the final page. The real cost is internal links pointing at redirects, and it is the cheapest fix. See the redirects nobody sees, including forty on my own site.
  • Referring domainsThe number of separate websites linking to yours, counting each site once however many links it sends.
  • Render-blocking resourcesCSS and JavaScript files the browser must load before it can show anything, which delays the first paint.
  • Review gatingAsking customers how they felt first and sending only happy ones to Google. Google’s policy forbids it by name. See review gating is against Google’s policy.
  • Review recencyHow recent your reviews are, as opposed to how many. A roofer with 140 old reviews can be worse off than one with 30 recent ones. See review recency in a seasonal trade.
  • Rich resultsSearch results with extra features such as prices, ratings or breadcrumbs, usually powered by structured data.
  • Robots.txtA file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which paths not to fetch. It controls crawling, not indexing.

S

  • Scaled content abuseGoogle’s spam policy against many pages made mainly to manipulate rankings, however they were produced. It is not about volume or AI. See what Google means and what it doesn’t.
  • Search algorithmThe systems Google uses to rank results. The antitrust trial and the 2024 leak put parts of it on the record. What changed for me: what the trial and the leak changed.
  • Search intentWhat kind of page a search is asking for: an explanation, options, a provider or a specific site. Match the page type or the best-written page will not rank. See the four types and the pages that match them.
  • Search operatorsCommands typed into Google to narrow results, such as site:, intitle: and quotation marks for exact phrases.
  • Search snippetThe title, URL and description Google shows for each result. How the description part works: meta description.
  • Search volumeA tool’s estimate of how many times a keyword is searched per month. Estimates differ widely, and low-volume terms often convert best.
  • SeasonalityPredictable rises and falls in search demand through the year. Compare with the same month last year, never last month. See seasonal dip, or a real problem.
  • Self-referencing canonicalA canonical tag pointing at the page’s own URL. It is the normal setup and protects against parameter duplicates. Full entry: canonical tag.
  • SEOSearch engine optimization: the work of making a site easier for search engines to find, understand and rank, and better for the people who arrive. What I do with it: SEO services.
  • SEO auditA diagnosis of what is stopping a site from ranking, the evidence for it, and which fixes are worth the money. More in what is an SEO audit, or see my SEO audit service.
  • SEO consultantA specialist who diagnoses what is holding a site back and decides what should be done. More in what is an SEO consultant.
  • SERPSearch engine results page: everything Google shows for a search, including ads, maps, AI Overviews and normal results. The parts beyond the blue links: SERP features.
  • SERP featuresAnything on a results page beyond the standard blue links: AI Overviews, the map pack, featured snippets, People Also Ask, images and video.
  • Server-side renderingBuilding a page’s HTML on the server before sending it, so Google gets the full content without running JavaScript.
  • Service area businessA business that goes to its customers and can hide its address on Google. The area gets drawn far too big. See drawing an area you can actually rank in.
  • Service area pagesPages for the towns or areas a business serves. Choose them by where customers actually come from, not by radius. See twenty towns, tiered.
  • Shopify duplicate product URLsEvery Shopify product sits at two or more URLs, one per collection. The canonical already handles it. See every Shopify product has two URLs.
  • Shopify tag pagesURLs Shopify creates for each product tag in a collection. They pile up unseen and compete with real pages. See 659 tag pages.
  • Site architectureHow a site’s pages are organized and linked: the hierarchy, the categories and the paths between them.
  • Site reputation abusePublishing third-party content on a trusted site mainly to exploit its rankings, sometimes called parasite SEO. A named Google spam policy since 2024.
  • Soft 404A page that returns a normal status but has nothing on it, so Google treats it as missing. In my experience Google is almost always right. See soft 404s: Google is usually right.
  • Spam policiesGoogle’s list of practices that can get a site demoted or removed. Most were written for spam networks; a business site faces a handful. See the spam policies, one by one.
  • Staging site indexingA test copy of a site that Google has found and indexed, creating a duplicate of the real site.
  • Structured dataCode that describes a page’s content to Google in a standard format, usually schema.org. For most service businesses it now produces little you can see. See structured data in 2026.
  • Subdomain vs subfolderblog.site.com versus site.com/blog. Google says it handles both; in practice a subfolder keeps everything in one site. More under URL structure.

T

  • Technical SEOMaking sure Google can crawl, render, index and serve your pages quickly. More in what is technical SEO, or see my technical SEO service.
  • Thin affiliate contentAffiliate pages that repeat product details from the merchant without adding testing, comparison or opinion of their own.
  • Thin contentPages with too little value to deserve a place in the index. Thin does not mean short: a 300-word contact page is fine, a 1,400-word service page can be thin. See thin does not mean short.
  • Time to First Byte (TTFB)How long the server takes to start sending a page after it is requested. Slow TTFB delays everything after it.
  • Title tagThe HTML title of a page, usually shown as the headline of its search result. Google rewrites titles it finds missing, stuffed or misleading. See why Google changed yours.
  • TLDTop-level domain: the last part of a domain, such as .com or .org. Generic TLDs do not affect rankings. More under URL structure.
  • Tool false positivesIssues an SEO tool flags that are not costing you anything. An issue count measures how far a template reaches, not the damage. See 1,562 missing H1s.
  • Topic clusterA group of pages on one subject: a broad page and narrower pages linked to it and to each other.
  • Topical authorityAn industry term, not a Google metric, for a site covering a subject thoroughly enough to be trusted on it. How a small site builds it: topical authority for a small site.
  • Topical mapA plan of every subtopic a site should cover on a subject and how those pages connect.
  • Traffic dropA sudden fall in search traffic. In fifteen years it has almost never been Google: check the drop is real, then ask what shipped that week. See the first six things I check.
  • Trailing slashThe slash at the end of a URL. /page and /page/ are different URLs to Google, so a site should pick one and redirect the other.

U

  • Unlinked brand mentionsPlaces your business is named online without a link. Some are worth asking to link; all of them still help people find you.
  • URLThe address of a single page. How to structure them: URL structure.
  • URL Inspection toolThe Search Console tool showing Google’s indexed copy of a URL and a live test of the page now. Neither guarantees it will rank. See what the live test does and doesn’t tell you.
  • URL parametersThe part of a URL after a question mark, used for sorting, filtering and tracking. Each combination can become a separate URL to Google.
  • URL slugThe part of a URL that names the page, such as /seo-glossary. Short and descriptive is best. More under URL structure.
  • URL structureHow a site’s URLs are organized: folders, slugs, parameters and consistency.

W

  • Web crawlerA program that fetches pages by following links. Google’s is called Googlebot.
  • White hat SEOSEO that follows search engine guidelines. The line between white and black hat is Google’s own spam policy list. See Google’s spam policies, one by one.
  • White label SEOSEO work done by a specialist and delivered by an agency under its own brand. More in what is white label SEO, or see my white label SEO service.
  • Word countThe length of a page in words. Google has no ideal length; the question is whether the page covers what the searcher needs.

X

  • X-Robots-TagA noindex or other directive sent in the HTTP header instead of the HTML, so it never shows in the page source. A common hidden cause of vanished pages. See the noindex you cannot see.
  • XML sitemapA file listing the URLs you want Google to know about. It will not get pages indexed; it shows which ones are not. See what a sitemap is actually good for.

Y

  • YMYL“Your money or your life”: topics where bad information could harm someone’s health, finances or safety. Google holds them to a higher standard.

Z

If you’re reading these because something on your own site isn’t adding up, an SEO audit is where I’d start. If there’s nothing worth fixing, I’ll tell you that.