| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| 301 Redirect | A 301 redirect is a server status code which signals a permanent redirect from one URL to another. The status code including its reason phrase reads '301 Moved Permanently'. Search engine crawlers treat a 301 redirect as a permanent address change and will update their indexes as necessary. |
| 302 Redirect | A 302 redirect is a server status code which tells the client to browse to another URL. The status code including its reason phrase reads '302 Found', which previously was '302 Moved Temporarily'. This was changed since search engine crawlers treat a 302 redirect in a similar way to 301 redirects. |
| 404 Error | A 404 error is a server status code which tells the client the requested resource could not be found but may be available in the future. The status code including its reason phrase reads '404 Not Found'. |
| 410 Gone | A 410 error is a server status code indicates that the resource requested was previously in use but is no longer available and will not be available again. The status code including its reason phrase reads '410 Gone'. |
| 418 I'M A Teapot | A 418 error is a server status code that should be returned by teapots requested to brew coffee. The code was defined in 1998 as one of the traditional IETF April Fools' jokes, in RFC 2324, Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol. The status code including its reason phrase reads '418 I'm a teapot'. |
| Blog Page | A blog page, also known as a blog post or article, is a text-rich page within a website's blog section. Blog pages, if well written, can contribute to a site's authority and relevance, and provide an indication of expertise. |
| Blog Post | A blog post, also known as a blog page or article, is a text-rich page within a website's blog section. Blog posts, if well written, can contribute to a site's authority and relevance, and provide an indication of expertise. |
| Blog | A blog, short for weblog, is a frequently updated webpage used for personal commentary or business content written in an informal or conversational style. While most blogs are self-serving, stand-alone media, they are also frequently integrated into an umbrella platform such as a webshop to provide explanations about products and services to their customers, and to be listed for longtail keyword in search engine result pages. |
| Core Update | A broad core algorithm update is a change to Google's overall search ranking algorithm and systems. |
| Cacheable Redirect | A cacheable redirect is a HTTP reponse that can be cached, that is storedlocally to be retrieved and used later, saving a new request to the server when a user revisits a redirected page. |
| Call-to-Action | A call-to-action is a small piece of content intended to induce a user to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of a directive, such as 'visit us' or 'buy now'. |
| Canonical | A canonical is an HTML attribute that can be used as a guideline for web crawlers to distribute the value of a page as desired. Canonicals, when deployed, should be implemented site-wide and not just on specific pages. |
| Category Page | A category page, also known as a list-of items page, is a topic page for a group of products or subcategories, offering an overview of products or categories that are related to each other. The pages help users navigate and find specific product (types). Category pages sits above product pages within a site's hierarchy, and below the homepage. |
| CMS | A Content Management System (CMS) is computer software used to manage the creation and modification of digital content in HTML, for example to building websites. Examples are Wordpress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and Shopify. |
| Conversion | A conversion is when a website visitor completes a desired goal, such as clicking a video, registering for a newsletter, or making a purchase. |
| CSS Sprite | A CSS Sprite is a collection of images that are combined into a single file, such as a logo, social media logos, or banners. The images are called into use within the HTML code to be displayed on the website. |
| Dead-end Page | A dead-end page is a page with no outgoing links. Dead-end pages include no header or footer links, inlinks, or any form of navigation, thus creating a 'death end' on the internet. |
| Desktop First | A Desktop First webdesign strategy is a strategy were the targetting of users with laptops and desktop computers forms the starting point for the design of a website. |
| DNS Lookup | A DNS loopup is the process through which human-readable domain names (such as https://www.website.com/) are translated into a computer-readable IP address (123.456.789.01). Each time a user or crawler requests a URL, a DNS lookup is performed. This means that when a webpage links to multiple domains (e.g. subdomains, or external domain such as Google Analytics or Facebook), the number of DNS lookups required to load the page increases. |
| Dynamic URL | A dynamic URL is a URL without a fixed structure; the URL changes when data is transmitted via the link using parameters, for example when filtering or sorting a page. An example is https://www.website.com/?parameter1=value1, where the query string is changable depending on which data is being transmitted. The counterpart of a dynamic URL is a static URL. |
| Filter | A filter is a navigation element for users to easily find a desired product, service, or piece of information. Filter menu's can way heavily on a site's crawl budget and should be managed properly. |
| Folder | A folder is a part of a URL. It is a folder situated beneath the root domain name in a URL and can contain subfolders. An example would be https://www.website.com/folder/. |
| Hamburger Menu | A hamburger menu is a compressed version of the header menu, which takes the form of an icon that consists of three parallel horizontal lines (≡). This menu style is mainly used on mobile sites.\ |
| Jump Link | A jump link is hyperlink using an hashtag anchor to refer users to a specific part of a page, such as a header or paragraph. |
| Keyword | A keyword is a word or a group of words that matches what a user types to perform a search in a search engine or search bar. Keywords equal the exact terms that are focused on within SEO, and can often match a variety of search queries. Within SEO, keywords are instrumental in optimizing web content for ranking purposes. |
| Keyword Theme | A keyword theme is composed of all words that fall directly under one primary keyword and share the same intent. |
| Landing Page | A landing page is the webpage where a user ends up after clicking a hyperlink; it serves as the entry point for a website or a particular section of a website. The landing page is the counterpart of the exit page. |
| Language Selector | A language selector is a visible user interface component that allows website users to choose their preferred language or national variation when interacting with a website. |
| Link | A link, also known as a hyperlink, is a reference within a hypertext document to another location, activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image known as the anchor. |
| Mobile First | A Mobile First webdesign strategy is a strategy were the targetting of users with mobile devices forms the starting point for the design of a website. |
| Multilingualism | A multilingual website is a website that offers content in more than one language to serve users from several countries or language regions. |
| Page Title | A page title, also known as a meta title, is the title of a webpage as it appears at the top of the browser window and in search engine results. The page title is defined by the HTML title tag. |
| Parameter | A parameter is part of a query string, making it part of a URL. Parameters are used to filter, sort, or otherwise arrange data shown on a web page, or to pass tracking information. An example is 'parameter1=value1' in https://www.website.com/?parameter1=value1. |
| Product Page | A product page, also known as a product detail page, is an informational pages providing details on one specific product, defining its features, price, manufacturer, and more, and allowing users to buy it. |
| Query String | A query string is part of a URL. Query strings are used to map parameters and don't fit within the normal hierarchical URL structure. In many cases, the start of a querystring is marked with a question mark ('?'), which is followed by various parameters separated by ampersands ('&'); for example '?parameter1=value1¶meter2=value4' in https://www.website.com/?parameter1=value1¶meter2=value4. |
| Rank Tracker | A rank tracker is a tool used to track the ranking of a website or web pages in the SERPs. It helps to monitor a website's positions over time for specific keywords or phrases. |
| Redirect | A redirect is a way to (temporarily) send both users and web crawlers to a different URL from the one they originally requested. The most commonly used redirects are 301 Moved Permanently and the 302 Found. |
| Relative URL | A relative URL is only includes the URL's path, leaving out the the protocol (http / https), the subdomain(s) (e.g. www), and the root domain (e.g. website.com); for example /folder/subfolder. It is assumed that when linking a relative URL, it uses the same protocol, subdomain and domain as the page it's on. The relative URL is the counterpart of the absolute URL. |
| Responsive Web Design | A Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a web development approach that creates dynamic changes to the appearance of a website, depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it. |
| Search Query | A search query is a phrase or a keyword combination a users enters in the search field of a search engine to find things of interest. Search queries often contains spelling errors and don't always directly correlate with a corresponding keyword. |
| Side Menu | A side menu is a supporting navigation element on a website, such as a category menu or a filter menu. |
| Character Set | A site's character set specifies the character encoding used for the HTML document. The character set UTF-8 contains almost all of the characters and symbols in the world, making it the go-to character set for most websites. |
| URL Structure | A site's URL structure refers to the way URLs are built up within that site, often consisting of the protocol, subdomain, root domain, top level domain, subfolders, anchors, and query strings. |
| Social Media Bio | A social media bio is a short but clear description of an account, which ideally should use the right focus keywords, include the most relevant (branded) hashtags, and provide a clear value proposition. |
| Soft 404 | A soft 404 indicated a situation where the server unjustly returns the status code '200 OK' when the webpage or content is actually missing. |
| Static URL | A static URL is a URL with a fixed structure; the URL doesn't change and typically doesn't contain any parameters. An example is https://www.website.com/folder/subfolder/. The counterpart of a static URL is a dynamic URL. |
| Subdirectory | A subdirectory, or subfolder, is a part of a URL. It is a folder situated beneath another folder as part of a website's hierarchy. Each (sub)folder can hold multiple subfolders. An example would be 'subfolder' in https://www.website.com/folder/subfolder/. |
| Subdomain | A subdomain is a part of a URL. It is a subsection of an existence root domain, such as https://www.subdomain.website.com/. Subdomains are often used when new web content is distinctly different from the current content on a site. |
| Subfolder | A subfolder, or subdirectory, is a part of a URL. It is a folder situated beneath another folder as part of a website's hierarchy. Each (sub)folder can hold multiple subfolders. An example would be 'subfolder' in https://www.website.com/folder/subfolder/. |
| Tag | A tag is a word or phrase in the form of a label that describes what a webpage is about, and is used as a navigational element. They are usually added to blogs or product pages to group related entries with similar content on a /tag page. |
| Textual Search Query | A textual search query is a search engine request typed into the search field. |
| URL Anchor | A URL Anchor is part of a URL, used to create jump links. Anchor URL's are neither crawlable or indexable, as they don't refer to actual pages or resources. An example is '#paragraph4' in https://www.website.com/article/#paragraph4, which refers to a specific header or paragraph on /article. |
| Visual Search Query | A visual search query is a search engine request created by submitting a photo or image. |
| Voice Search Query | A voice search query is a search engine request created through speach, which is transformed into tekst. |
| Web Crawler | A web crawler, also knowns as a web spider or bot, is a computer program used to autonomously browse the internet in a methodical, in order to automatically index website content and other information. Crawlers are mainly used by search engine to grow their indexes, though online marketing tools such as Screaming Frog and Ahrefs have their own crawlers as well. |
| Web Spider | A web spider, also knowns as a web crawler or bot, is a computer program used to autonomously browse the internet in a methodical, in order to automatically index website content and other information. Crawlers are mainly used by search engine to grow their indexes, though online marketing tools such as Screaming Frog and Ahrefs have their own crawlers as well. |
| Weblog | A webblog, 'blog' for short, is a frequently updated webpage used for personal commentary or business content written in an informal or conversational style. While most blogs are self-serving, stand-alone media, they are also frequently integrated into an umbrella platform such as a webshop to provide explanations about products and services to their customers, and to be listed for longtail keyword in search engine result pages. |
| Webpage | A webpage is a single document written in HTML code, which is displayable by a browser. Examples are homepages, category pages, and product pages. |
| Above-the-Fold Content | A webpage's Above-the-Fold content refers to all the content a viewer can see on the page before they scroll down. Above-the-Fold content is the counterpart of Below-the-Fold content. |
| Below-the-Fold Content | A webpage's Below-the-Fold content refers to all the content a viewer can see on the page only once scroll down. Below-the-Fold content is the counterpart of Above-the-Fold content. |
| Website | A website is a set of related web pages located under a single domain name, typically produced by a single person or organization. |
| Crawl Budget | A website's crawl budget determines the frequency with which the site is visited by a web crawler, as well as the maximum number of URLs that are visited during each visit. |
| Widget | A widget is a modular element that enables web developers to add a specific feature to your website. Sometimes these widgets take the shape of a navigation element, such as a section with 'Recent Posts', 'Related Products', or 'Trending Articles'. |
| Ad Extensions | Ad extensions are extra bits of information about a company or website that can be shown alongside ads. These advertising extensions are an expansion of simple text-based ads. Some ad extensions can be added manually; others are automated. Examples are a telephone number or route to easily lead users to a company/website. |
| Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate marketing is a form of internet marketing where partnerships ("affiliates") are rewarded for facilitating sales or leads. |
| Ahrefs | Ahrefs is a comprehensive SEO tool used for growing search traffic and optimizing websites. Of all third-party tools, it has the largest crawl-budget, offering the most accurate details concerning backlinks. Features include backlink analysis, keyword research, and insights into anchor text usage. |
| Ajax | AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript en XML. AJAX is a set of web development techniques uses for creating interactive web pages. Pages that use AJAX can be dynamically loaded from the web server. This means no full-page refresh is recuired when certain data is changed; only part of the content will be reloaded or changed. |
| Absolute URL | An absolute URL is the full URL of a source, including the protocol (http / https), the optional subdomain (e.g. www), the root domain (e.g. website.com), and the path (e.g. /category); for example https://www.website.com/folder/subfolder. The absolute URL is the counterpart of the relative URL. |
| Anchor | An anchor is a piece of text, image, or alternative HTML element which marks a hypertext link. |
| Anchor Text | An anchor text is a piece of text which marks a hypertext link. |
| AI First | An Artificial Intelligence (AI) First webdesign strategy is a strategy were the targetting of Artificial Intelligence (such as digital assistants) forms the starting point for the design of a website. See also: PASO. |
| Author Page | An author page is a webpage dedicated to showcasing information about a specific author or contributor. |
| Author Profile | An author profile is section of a webpage or blog dedicated to showcasing information about a specific author or contributor. |
| Automated Content System | An Automated Content System replaces words (terms) in a text with similar (equivalent) terms (words) to "refresh" content. |
| Exact-match Anchor Text | An exact-match anchor text is an anchor using the primary keyword of the page its link refers to. Exact-match anchors are perfect to use to indicate for which keyword the referred page should rank. |
| Exit Page | An exit page is the last webpage that a user visits before leaving the site; it equals the exit point within a user's session. The exit page is the counterpart of the landing page. |
| HTML Sitemap | An HTML sitemap is a webpage on which the most important pages of a website are listed. Unlike the XML sitemap, the HTML sitemap is intended for users and aims to promote the user-friendliness of a site. The HTML sitemap is usually linked in the footer of a site. |
| HTTP Request | An HTTP request is a contact moment between a browser and a websites server. For every resource that a browser wants to request from the server to built a page, an HTTP Request is needed. is required for every resource that a browser wants to request from the server; this is called an "HTTP Request". The browser submits a request to view a file or page and the server provides feedback as to whether the request can be honored; the “HTTP Response”. Contact moment between a browser and a websites server, where a file or page must be requested and/or loaded. |
| HTTP Response | An HTTP response is a contact moment between a browser and a websites server. Whenever the browser submits an HTTP request to download a file or page, the server provides feedback as to whether the request can be honored; the'HTTP Response. |
| iFrame | An iFrame is a piece of HTML code that can call up a frame from another website to display it on an external site; examples are embedded posts or videos from social media channels. |
| Inlink | An inlink, also know as an internal link, is a hyperlink referring a user to an different page or resource on the same site. |
| Internal Link | An internal link, also know as an inlinks, is a hyperlink referring a user to an different page or resource on the same site. |
| Outbound links | An outbound link is a hyperlink referring a user to an external page or resource. |
| XML Sitemap | An XML sitemap is a file that lists all pages and media of a website. Unlike the HTML sitemap, the XML sitemap is not intended for users, but is specifcally designed for web crawlers to help them find and crawl all URLs. The XML sitemap should be linked in Robots.txt and can be submitted to Google Search Console. |
| API | API stands for Application Programming Interface. An API is an extension to an existing system that makes it possible to use the functionality of that system within other systems. |
| Authority | Authority is one of the 'three pillars of SEO' and is composed of several important ranking factors. It refers to the importance or weight attributed to a website of webpage by a search engine, relative to a given search query. |
| Backlink | Backlinks, also known as 'inbound links', are incoming hyperlinks from one web page to another website. |
| Black Hat Seo | Black Hat Seo refers to a set of practices that are used to increases a site or page's rank in search engines through means that violate search engines' best practice principles and terms of service; examples are keyword spamming and hiding text. Black Hat Seo is the counterpart of White Hat SEO. |
| Blocking Issues | Blocking issues include all possible causes that slow down the loading of (part of) a website. |
| Bolded Tekst | Bold text within the body content of a page is seen by search engines as an additional focus indication regarding the key content of that page. |
| Breadcrumb Trail | Breadcrumb trails, also known as breadcrumbs, are website links that indicate the parent pages from the page a user is located on, allowing users to track where they are on a website and how far away they are from the homepage, and to allow them to navigate back. |
| Breadcrumbs | Breadcrumbs, also known as breadcrumb trails, are website links that indicate the parent pages from the page a user is located on, allowing users to track where they are on a website and how far away they are from the homepage, and to allow them to navigate back. |
| Bridge Page | Bridge pages, also known as doorway pages or portal pages, are webpages created to rank for a series of similar queries. The pages often have little or no value, since they ultimately all refer to the same target page, and using them is considered as a Black Hat SEO practice. An example of using bridge pages is when service providers create a landing page for every city in a country, but only offer one service. |
| Broken Link | Broken links are hyperlinks that link to a non-existent or removed external webpage. |
| Brower Caching | Browser caching is the process of saving files loaded by the browser in memory or on disk to reduce the number of HTTP Requests towards the server during future visits. |
| Business Listing | Business listings allow businesses to be displayed in the search engine results pages, and can be created via tools such the Google Business Profile, Bing Places for Business and Yahoo Local Listings. Business listings must include a company name, telephone number and address, and, when applicable, opening times. |
| Cache Control | Cache Control is an HTTP header used to specify browser caching policies, such as how a resource is cached, where it's cached and its maximum age before expiring. |
| CDN | CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. A CDN is a network of proxy servers that are geographically distributed, allowing browsers to request resources faster and without delay when users open a page. |
| Chrome DevTools | Chrome DevTools is a set of web developer tools built into the Google Chrome browser that enables developers to debug, diagnose and optimize websites in real-time. |
| Click-To-Call Ads | Click-to-Call ads allows users to directly call a business from their mobile device by clicking the advertisement. The ads are used in mobile marketing campaigns. |
| SEO Content | Content is the second of the 'three pillars of SEO'. One of the most important aspects of a good website is the presence of unique, relevant and high-quality content. Content aspects that influence the online findability of a site include body content, page titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, keyword usage and keyword density and visual elements. |
| Cookie | Cookies are small (text) files used to catalog the behavior of a user on a website. They are stored on the computer of a user and can be used to track the user internally or across several websites, to send advertisments, and for other marketing purposes. |
| CPC | CPC stands for Cost Per Click. The Cost Per Click bidding strategy is an advertising model where advertisers pay for each click on their ads. |
| CRO | CRO stands for Conversion Rate Optimization. CRO is a marketing method used to increase the percentage of a website's visitors who take a desired action, such as clicking a button, filing a request, buying a product, or any other conversion. |
| Cross-Selling | Cross-selling is the process of offering a users products that are compatible with the ones they're purchasing, even though they aren't actively looking for those products. |
| CSS | CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is a style sheet programming language used for describing the layout and presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML. |
| CTR | CTR stands for Click-through rate. The CTR is the percentage ratio of the number of users who see a paid or organic listing in the search engine results and the number of users who actually click the listing. It's calculated by dividing the number of clicks that listings receive by the number of times it's shown. |
| Display Advertising | Display advertising is a mode of online advertising where marketers use images, videos, gifs, or other visual ads to advertise their message. |
| DNS | DNS stands for Domain Name System. A DNS turns domain names into IP addresses, and vice versa, which allow browsers to get to websites and other internet resources. |
| DNSSEC | DNSSEC stands for Domain Name System Security Extension. DNSSEC is a security system which strengthens authentication in DNS using digital signatures based on public key cryptography, preventing errors from the DNS. |
| DOM | DOM stands for Document Object Model. DOM is a programming interface that allows users to create, change, or remove elements from a document, such as an HTML web pages. |
| Doorway Page | Doorway pages, also known as bridge pages or portal pages, are webpages created to rank for a series of similar queries. The pages often have little or no value, since they ultimately all refer to the same target page, and using them is considered as a Black Hat SEO practice. An example of using doorway pages is when service providers create a landing page for every city in a country, but only offer one service. |
| Duplicate Content | Duplicate content refers to all content that can be found on multiple places on the internet - this applies both internally and externally. Pages with a match of 80% or more are generally marked as duplicates. According to Google, 60% of the internet consists of duplicate content. |
| Dynamic Resource | Dynamic resources are those resources that are required to be downloaded by browsers upon every visit. The resources change during the use of the page or site, making it necessary for them to be reloaded. Examples are resources that change when filters and/or query strings are activated. The counterpart of dynamic resources are static resources. |
| E-Commerce | E-commerce equals the online sale of products or services on the internet, such as in a webshop. |
| Emailmarketing | Email marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses email to send commercial or fundraising messages to (potential) customers. |
| External Duplicate Content | External duplicate content refers to all content that can be found on multiple websites on the internet. It is the counterpart of internal duplicate content. |
| Facebook Open Graph | Facebook Open Graph is a social tag internet protocol originally created by Facebook to standardize the use of met adata within a webpage to represent the content of a page. Facebook Open Graph is supported by Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram, among others. |
| Favicon | Favicons are icons of 16x16 pixels, which usually contain (part of) the logo or other characteristic visual element of a website. Favicons are shown as visual elements in bookmarks, on tabs, and in the SERPs. |
| Featured Snippets | Featured snippets are special boxes situated in the organic search results where search queries are directly answered. The snippets appear in 'position zero', above the first organic result. |
| Page Load Time | For web crawlers, page load time is a sum of elements represented by time stamps, which indicates how fast a page loads. |
| Google Ads | Google Ads is an advertising program that can be used to promote businesses, to sell products or services, raise awareness, or increase traffic to a website. Using pay-per-click advertisements, Google Ads can be used to create text-based advertisements, graphic display advertisements, video advertisements, in-app advertisements, and more. |
| Google Analytics | Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that provides insights into website traffic and user behavior. This includes the number of users, user demographics, device use, and more. |
| Google Marketing Platform | Google Marketing Platform is an online advertising and analytics platform developed by Google, including several services with which data and statistics can be collected, including the 360-services Campaign Manager 360, Display & Video 360, Search Ads 360, and Google Analytics 360, as well as Google Tag Manager, Google Optimize and Looker Studio. |
| Google Search Console | Google Search Console allows webmasters to monitor, maintain, and optimize their website's performance within Google’s organic search results. This includes average keyword positions, SERP visibility, and more. |
| Google Tag Manager | Google Tag Manager is a tag management system that enables webmasters to easily deploy tracking and marketing tags on their website without needing to modify the website's code. |
| Google Algorithm | Google's core algorithm used for ranking pages from the search engines' index in the search result. It consists of a collection of smaller algorithms, also known as systems, that interpret signals from webpages, with the goal of ranking the content that best answers a user's search query. |
| GZIP | GZIP is a software application used for file compression and decompression; it packages content in (g)zip files to reduce data load and fasten transfers from the sever to the browser. |
| H* Tag | H* tags are HTML elements used for structuring text. As a best practice, they are hierarchically used in the order of H1 to H6. H* tags are also known as 'header tags'. |
| Header Tag | Header tags are HTML elements used for structuring text. As a best practice, they are hierarchically used in the order of H1 to H6. H* tags are also known as 'H* tags'. |
| Heading | Headings are the content snippets inserted in the header tags of an HTML document. |
| Hreflang Tag | Hreflang tags are HTML elements used to indicate which language and which language area a page is targetting, and what the alternative versions of that page are. |
| HTML | HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the standard markup language for creating webpages; it describes the structure of a page and tell the browser how to display the content of the pages through elements such as DIV, SPAN, and the H* Tags. |
| Info Page | Info pages offer visitors more information regarding the organization behind a website and the services offered. Examples are the customer service page, the terms and conditions, the shipping and handling page, and the privacy policy. |
| Internal Competition | Internal competition occurs when two or more pages rank on the same keyword, which often results in lower positions for both pages, since search engines can’t properly determine which page is the best match for the given keyword. |
| Internal Duplicate Content | Internal duplicate content refers to all content in several places within a single website. It is the counterpart of external duplicate content. |
| International SEO | International SEO refers to the search engine optimization strategy of optimizing websites for a multiple market around the world, and to rank their pages higher in the local search results per geographical region. |
| IP | IP stands for Internet Protocol address. An IP address is a unique string of characters that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over a network. The IP is determined by the network card (also: 'Network Interface Card of Controller', NIC), which enables the computer to connect to a network. |
| Italic Text | Italic text within the body content of a page is mainly used as a style indicator for titles of books and films, among other things. |
| JavaScript | JavaScript is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects on web pages. |
| KA | KA stands for keepalive. A keepalive signal is a message sent between two devices to check whether the link between the two is still working, or to prevent the link from being broken. |
| Link Building | Link building concerns obtaining relevant links on other sites that point to one own's site. Link building helps build 'authority' on the internet, meaning, the extent to which a site (or page) is considered an expert in a certain area. |
| Link Equity | Link equity, also known as link juice or link value, describes the level of authority or value that is passed from a linking page to the page or pages it links to. |
| Link Juice | Link juice, also known as link value or link equity, describes the level of authority or value that is passed from a linking page to the page or pages it links to. |
| Link Value | Link value, also known as link juice or link equity, describes the level of authority or value that is passed from a linking page to the page or pages it links to. |
| Local SEO | Local SEO refers to the search engine optimization strategy of optimizing websites for a specific geographical market such as a region or city, and to rank their pages higher in the local search results. |
| Long-tail Keywords | Long-tail keywords are keywords containing three or more words. They are more specific than generic terms, and often less competitive, allowing marketeers to use them to target niche demographics. Long-tail keywords are the counterparts of short-tail keywords. |
| Majestic | Majestic is a comprehensive SEO tool for growing search traffic and optimizing websites. Of all third-party tools, it has the largest crawl-budget, offering the most accurate details concerning backlinks. Features include backlink analysis, keyword research, and insights into anchor text usage. |
| Meta Data | Meta data, also known as meta tags, are data that describes and gives information about other data. Examples are Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions. |
| Meta Keywords | Meta keywords are keywords that appear in the meta keywords tag within the HTML code of a webpage. In the past, these keywords were used to help search engines understand the topic of pages. Nowadays, however, they are mainly considered as spam, as they were heavily used as a Black Hat SEO technique to manipluate search engine results.are HTML element in which a list of keywords can be specified; Out of Black Hat SEO method. |
| Meta Tags | Meta tags, also known as meta data, are data that describes and gives information about other data. Examples are Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions. |
| Micro Copy | Micro copy, within Social Media Marketing, refers to the small bit of text that accompanies a social media post. |
| Mobile SEO | Mobile SEO refers to the search engine optimization strategy of optimizing websites for their use on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and to rank their pages higher in the mobile search engine results pages. |
| Moz | Moz is a comprehensive SEO tool for growing search traffic and optimizing websites. Of all third-party tools, it has the largest crawl-budget, offering the most accurate details concerning backlinks. Features include backlink analysis, keyword research, and insights into anchor text usage. |
| Page Speed | Page speed is the amount of time it takes (in milliseconds) between the browser's initial request for a page until it completes processing and rendering the content. |
| PageRank | PageRank is a value a value assigned to a webpage as a measure of its popularity or importance, used to determine the order in which search engine results are presented. PageRank values range from 1 to 10. |
| Gtmetrix | PageSpeed Insights is a independent web-based tool that analyzes the performance of a website on both desktop and mobile devices, providing a report with recommendations for improving website speed and optimization. |
| PageSpeed Insights | PageSpeed Insights is a web-based tool developed by Google that analyzes the performance of a website on both desktop and mobile devices, providing a report with recommendations for improving website speed and optimization. |
| Pagination | Pagination is used to divide (overview) pages with a large number of links or information into multiple pages. This makes the pages faster and reduces the number of links per page, which allows for better link value distribution. Pagination can be used for various purposes, such as dividing overview pages with products, services or articles, splitting long articles, splitting search engine results, or dividing pages of forum posts. |
| Parsing | Parsing is the process of reading text or code, such as JavaScript, to determine its structure and meaning. Though parsing is needed computer to understand scripts and execute them, deferring the parsing of non-essential scripts can decrease the load time of a webpage. |
| PASO | PASO stands for Personal Assistant Search Optimization. PASO is a form of search engine optimization form aimed at digital assistants and other forms of AI. Within the realm of voice search and voice-activated digital assistants, users are no longer responsible for writing queries and often don't get to see the search results themselves either. Digital assistants instead analyse and filter data, which means SEO efforts have to be targetted to make it easier for AI applications to read a website's data and to use its functionalities. |
| Penalty | Penalties can be given by search engines to sites that have been detected to utilize black hat SEO techniques to manipulate the search results. As a result of a pentaly, a site can be delisted from the search results, or the site's rankings can drop dramatically. |
| Portal Page | Portal pages, also known as bridge pages or doorway pages, are webpages created to rank for a series of similar queries. The pages often have little or no value, since they ultimately all refer to the same target page, and using them is considered as a Black Hat SEO practice. An example of using portal pages is when service providers create a landing page for every city in a country, but only offer one service. |
| PPC | PPC stands for Pay-per-Click. The Pay-per-Click bidding strategy is an advertising model where advertisers pay per click on their advertisements. |
| Retargeting | Retargeting is an online advertising strategy where paid ads are used to target audiences who have visited a website, specific webpage, or social media profile before, in order to remind them of their visit and stimulate them to convert. The users are retrieved by showing them advertisements elsewhere on the internet which are related to their shop behavior. |
| Rich Snippets | Rich snippets are enhancements of the Google search results, offering more information than the standard results. The appearance of snippets can lead to a higher click-through rate for the listing. Snippets include reviews, availability, people, recipes, applications, events, videos and others. |
| Robots.txt | Robots.txt is a text file that tells web crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on a website. The file is located directly in the root directory of a website, reachable via the URL */robots.txt. Robots.txt is used to influence the behavior of the crawlers in order to avoid overloading the website with requests. |
| RSS | RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (previously: Rich Summary Site). RSS Feeds are web feeds that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized XML file form. The feeds are often used by news sites or weblogs. |
| Schema | Schema.org is a collaborative structured data standardization initiative for drawing up (and reading) structured data via HTML, sponsored by three major search engines: Bing, Yahoo, and Google. |
| Screaming Frog | Screaming Frog is a website crawler used to audit a site’s (technical) performance. The tools maps technical elements such as internal and external URLs, status codes, meta tags, canonicals and schema, as well as technical ‘content’ elements, such as page titles, meta descriptions, headings and images. |
| SEA | SEA stands for Search Engine Advertising. SEA is the process of advertising directly on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other similar search engines to stimulate the number of conversions on a site. It's also referred to as PPC advertising. It is the process of advertising directly on Google and other similar search engines. |
| Over-optimization | Search engine over-optimization is the practice of implementing too many SEO improvements that qualify as Black Hat SEO, hampering a site's ability to rank. |
| Search Engine | Search engines are computer programs that can be used to search for information within a particular collection; online this concerns a collection of websites and pages. The largest search engines on the internet are Google, Bing, Yahoo and Duck Duck Go. Baidu is big in the Asian market and Yandex in Russia. Alternative search engines with a global audience are YouTube (for video) and Amazon (for products). |
| Search | Search refers to the fully-automated search engines offered by Google Bing, and other parties, which use web crawlers to explore and index websites and pages, and search algorithms to rank the pages from threir index. |
| Secondary Keyword | Secondary keywords are important terms that are related to a page's primary keyword. Without the use of secondary keywords, search engines might perceive the page's content as low-quality. Secondary keywords can (e.g.) be synonyms, or related words; for example 'water' and 'teabag' for 'tea'. |
| See Think Do Care | See Think Do Care is a digital marketing framework created by Avinash Kaushik, the Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google. The framework helps marketers map customer journeys and understand the customers' decision-making process by splitting the process into four phases: See (awareness), Think (evaluation), DO (purchase) and Care (retention). |
| SEM | SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. SEM is a digital marketing strategy used to optimize the position of a website in the search engine results pages. SEM consists of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA). |
| Semrush | Semrush is a comprehensive SEO tool for growing search traffic and optimizing websites. Of all third-party tools, it has the largest crawl-budget, offering the most accurate details concerning backlinks. Features include backlink analysis, keyword research, and insights into anchor text usage. |
| SEO META in 1 CLICK | SEO META in 1 CLICK is a browser extension for Google Chrome used to analyze website metadata and optimize for search engine rankings. |
| SEO | SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of optimizing a website to improve its position within the organic search engine results pages of search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, to generate more traffic. |
| SERPs | SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Pages. The SERPs are the pages that a search engine returns after a user submits a search query. The pages consist of organic search results, paid results, and several algorithm-based features named the Featured Snippets. |
| SFTP | SFTP stands for SSH File Transfer Protocol, in which SHH stands for Secure Shell. SFTP is an FTP-based network protocol used for securely accessing, transferring and managing large files and sensitive data from a computer to the server, and vice versa. |
| Short-tail Keywords | Short-tail keywords are keywords containing three or less words. They are more general than long-tail keywords, and often have higher search volumes, allowing marketeers to cast a wide net to attract more website visitors. Short-tail keywords are the counterparts of long-tail keywords. |
| Siteliner | Siteliner is a web-based tool that analyzes a website's content for duplicate content, broken links, page size, and several other issues that may affect website performance. |
| SMA | SMA stands for Social Media Advertising. SMA is the process of advertising a business, brand, product or service on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. |
| SMM | SMM stands for Social Media Marketing. SMM is the process of using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to promote a business, brand, product or service. A paid for of SMM is SMA; Social Media Advertising. |
| Social Media Handle | Social media handles are used for creating static display URLs on social media channels. In addition, the handles contribute to the brand awareness and online visibility of a company. Ideally, the exact same handle would be used on every social media platform. |
| Social Media Hashtag | Social media hashtags are used to categorize and track content from different parts of the platforms under a new URL, which is equal to the domain name plus the hashtag. Hashtags can add be added to social posts, bios and comments on most major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest. |
| Social Tags | Social tags are internet protocols used to standardize the use of meta data within a webpage to represent the content of a page. Examples are Facebook Open Graph and Twitter Cards. |
| Spamdexing | Spamdexing refers to a set of practices that are used to increases a site or page's rank in search engines through means that violate search engines' best practice principles and terms of service; examples are keyword spamming and hiding text. Spamdexing is also known as Black Hat Seo. |
| SSL | SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. A SSL certificate is an encryption protocol which ensures better data protection through authentication and encryption. |
| Static Resource | Static resources are those resources that are to be downloaded by browsers only once, and can be reused upon each visit. The counterpart of static resources are dynamic resources. |
| Status Code | Status codes, or HTTP response status codes, are issued by a server in response to a client's request made to the server; for example when a browser tries to approach a web page and request the resources that have to be downloaded. There are five classes defined by the standard wherin the first digit of the status code defines the class of response. The most important status codes for SEO are 200, 301, 302, 404, and 504. |
| Technical SEO | Technical SEO is the first of the 'three pillars of SEO’. Building a website is similar to building a house: without a good foundation, it's impossible to build a firm construction. Therefore, it is important for SEO that the technical foundation of a website is in order. Technical aspects that influence the online findability of a site include structure and navigation elements, loading speed, indexing status and HTML elements, such as the header tags. |
| Text Advertising | Tekst advertising is a mode of online advertising where marketers use textual ads to advertise their message; usually located within the search results of search engines such as Google. |
| 1XX Informational Response | The 1XX server status codes are used to communicate an informational response, indicating that a request was received and understood. 1XX status codes offer a short moment of communication, but don't offer a final response. |
| 2XX Success | The 2XX server status codes are used to communicate success, indicating the action requested by the client was received, understood, and accepted. |
| 3XX Redirection | The 3XX server status codes are used to communicate diversion, indicating the client must take additional action to complete the request. |
| 4XX Client Errors | The 4XX server status codes are used to communicate an error, indicating that the error seems to have been caused by the client. No results can be shown, since something went wrong. |
| 5XX Server Errors | The 5XX server status codes are used to communicate an error, indicating that the error seems to have been caused by the server. No results can be shown, since something went wrong. |
| 404 Page | The 404 page, or error page, is the content a user sees when they try to reach a non-existent page on a website. The server will display this page when the user enters a faulty URL or when the requested page can 't be found. |
| Alt Attribute | The alt attribute, or alt tag, is an HTML attribute used to specify alternative text (alt text) that is to be displayed in place of an image. It's used to describe the content of the image and is used by search engine crawlers to index the images and display them with relevant searches. |
| Body Content | The body content of a webpage consists of the area between the HTML tag and ; it is the area in which most of the unique content of a webpage resides. |
| Cache Lifetime | The cache lifetime of a file equals the period of time (measured in seconds) it can be stored in the cache from the time it was first requested, before it must be retrieved freshly from the server. |
| Cache | The cache, also known as the temporary internet files, is the auxiliary memory on a website user's computer where web resources are temporarily stored, which allows for high-speed retrieval of those resources upon reloading a webpage. |
| Canonical URL | The canonical URL marks which URL out of a set of similar pages is the 'original' and should be indexed and ranked by search engines. |
| Core Web Vitals | The Core Web Vitals are a set of specific page speed factors that Google considers important in a webpage's overall user experience. They include the Largest Contentful Paint, the Cumulative Layout Shift, and the Interaction to Next Paint (as a replacement of the First Input Delay). |
| Country Code Top-level Domain | The country code top-level domain, or ccTLD, is a top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territor; examples are '.nl', '.co.uk' or '.es'. |
| Cumulative Layout Shift | The Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is one of the Core Web Vitals. It is determined when a page no longer shows visual shifts and allows a maximum score of 0.1. |
| Expires Headers | The expires header is an HTTP header that contains the date and time after which a response is considered expired; if a source or page's cache is outdated, the browser will put in a new request at the server to download it again. |
| First Input Delay | The First Input Delay (FID) is one of the Core Web Vitals. It equal the moment that the possibility of interactivity has been established and has a maximum loading time of 100 milliseconds. |
| FOLLOW | The FOLLOW meta tag tells search engine crawlers to follow the link it is connected to. When used in the HTML header of a page, the command tells them to follow all the links on that page. |
| Footer | The footer is a structural, site-wide content element of a website, situated at the very bottom of a web page. The footer typically contains a copyright notice, links to the terms and conditions, the privacy policy, the sitemap, the contact page, the customer service, and popular pages, as well as a logo, contact information, opening times, social media icons, and a newsletter sign-up form. The footer typically consists of the Above Footer, the Footer and the Below Footer. |
| Footer Menu | The footer menu is a part of the site-wide footer and usually contains links to the terms and conditions, the privacy policy, the sitemap, the contact page, the customer service, and popular pages. |
| Fourth-level Domain | The fourth-level domain is a part of a URL. Though it isn't always present, it equals the second part of each url, namely the 'www' (e.g. in https://www.website.com/). |
| Hamburger Structure | The hamburger structure is used as a model for writing paragraphs, in which each paragraph contains a topic sentence followed by one or more supporting sentences, and ends with a conclusion sentence. |
| Header | The header is a structural, site-wide content element of a website, situated at the very top of a web page. The header typically contains links to important main categories and subcategories, the blog, contact page, customer service, account login page, shopping cart, wishlist, and more, as well as a logo, USPs, and often a click-to-call button. The header typically consists of the Above Header, the Header and the Below Header. |
| Header Menu | The header menu is a part of the site-wide footer and usually contains links toimportant main categories and subcategories, the blog, contact page, customer service, account login page, shopping cart, wishlist, and more. |
| Homepage | The homepage equals the root domain of a site, and is used as the calling card of a website; for example https://www.website.com/. |
| INDEX | The INDEX meta tag tells search engine crawlers to save a page in the search engines' index, to enable it to appear in the search results. |
| Interaction to Next Paint | The Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is one of the Core Web Vitals. It is a metric that measures user interface responsiveness; how quickly a website responds to user interactions such as clicks or key presses. |
| Largest Contentful Paint | The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is one of the Core Web Vitals. It is equal to the loading time of the largest HTML element above the fold and has a maximum loading time of 2.5 seconds. |
| Meta Description | The meta description is an HTML element that summarizes a webpage's content. Search engines such as Google often use the meta description in listings on search engine results pages (SERPs). |
| Meta Refresh | The meta refresh is an HTML meta element used as a method to instruct a web browser to automatically refresh the current webpage after a given time interval. To achieve this, the element's http-equiv parameter is set to 'refresh' and the content parameteris given the desired time interval in seconds. |
| NOFOLLOW | The NOFOLLOW meta tag tells search engine crawlers not to follow the link it is connected to. When used in the HTML header of a page, the command tells them not to follow any of the links on that page. |
| NOIMAGEINDEX | The NOIMAGEINDEX meta tag tells search engine crawlers not to save the images on a page in the search engines' index, to prevent them from appearing in the search results. |
| NOINDEX | The NOINDEX meta tag tells search engine crawlers not to save a page in the search engines' index, to prevent it from appearing in the search results. |
| Organic Search Results | The organic search results are the unpaid results search engines generate after receiving a search query. |
| Paid Search Results | The paid search results are those results that have been paid for by advertisers, which appear when search engines generate after receiving a search query. |
| Path | The path is a part of a URL, consisting of everything that comes after the domain, including the subfolders and query string; for example '/folder/subfolder' in 'https://www.website.com/folder/subfolder'. |
| Primary Keyword | The primary keyword is the most important term that a page should rank for, as it is a the most relevant term the page's target audience is searching for. |
| Minify | The process of script or document minification involves removing all unnecessary characters, such as spaces, new lines, and comments from a source lines, comments, without changing its functionality; this is done in order to trim the size of resources. |
| Protocol | The protocol is a part of a URL. It is the first part of each URL, usually 'http://' or 'https://'. |
| Rich Results Test | The Rich Results Test is a free tool provided by Google that enables website owners and developers to test the structured data markup on their website. |
| Schema Markup Validator | The Schema Markup Validator is a tool created by Schema (initiated by Bing, Google and Yahoo) to validate structured data markup to ensure it is compliant with the Schema.org vocabulary and is properly implemented. |
| Search Intent | The search intent, also knwon as user intent or audience intent, describes the purpose of an online search. Search engines such as Google try to estimate the search intent of each search query. They constantly re-evaluate and redetermine search intent; it can change both sporadically and monthly, depending on the keyword. |
| Search Volume | The search volume of a keyword indicates the average number of searches are carried out for a certain keyword within a given timeframe - usually per month. Search volumes are often subjected to seasonal, regional and thematic fluctuations. |
| Root Domain | The second-level domain, also known as the root domain, is a part of a URL. It equals the main domain under which a site is known; for example 'website' in https://www.website.com/. |
| Second-level Domain / Root Domain | The second-level domain, also known as the root domain, is a part of a URL. It equals the main domain under which a site is known; for example 'website' in https://www.website.com/. |
| Slug | The slug is a part of a URL. It is the last part of the URL address that serves as a unique identifier of the page; for example 'this-is-subfolder' in 'https://www.website.com/folder/this-is-subfolder'. |
| Social Media Menu | The social side menu is a supporting navigation element on a website, which reffers website users to the various social media profiles connected to thesite. |
| Online Marketing | The term online marketing is a collective name for all marketing practices that take place online. There are several branches of online marketing: SEO, SEA, CRO, SMA, and email marketing. |
| Third-level Domain | The third-level domain is the third part of a URL, usually a www-subdomain of the root domain. The domain level is not always present. An exmple of a third-level domain is 'www' in https://www.website.com/. |
| Title Tag | The title tag is an HTML tag that can be used to attribute a title to a webpage. |
| Top-level Domain | The top-level domain, or TLD, is a part of a URL. It represents the first stop after the root zone, plus everything that follows; examples are '.com', '.nl', '.co.uk' or '.org'. |
| Thin-content Pages | Thin-content pages are pages with roughly 300 words or less that offer no added value to users. The more thin-content pages a site has, the lower the overall quality score of the site. |
| Twitter Cards | Twitter Cards are a social tag internet protocol originally created by Facebook to standardize the use of met adata within a webpage to represent the content of a page. Facebook Open Graph is supported by Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram, among others. |
| UBR | UBR stands for Unique Buying Reasons. An UBR is an alternative to the well-known USP, which stands for Unique Selling Point. Instead of promoting the benefits of the product or service, the UBR reasons the consumer's motivation to make a purchase. |
| UGC | UGC stands for User-generated Content. User-generated Content is published information provides to a website that is created by customers and other unpaid contributors. Examples of UGC content are photos, videos, blogs, reviews, forum posts, and comments. |
| URL | URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. A URL is the address of a web resource such as a webpage, and is used to locate it on the Internet. The URL is related to the URI, which is used to identify a resource on the Internet and differentiate it from other resources. |
| URI | URL stands for Universal Resource Identifier. A URI is used to identify a resource on the Internet and differentiate it from other resources. the Internet. The URI is related to the URL, which is used to locate a resource on the Internet. |
| USP | USP stands for Unique Selling Point. A USP is a feature or characteristic of a product, service, or brand that distinguishes it from comparable alternatives, and makes it more appealing. |
| Visual Search | Visual search refers to section of search engines where users can perform searches based on a photo, screenshot, or other image instead of a text-based query. |
| Voice Search | Voice search refers to a form of search engine employment where users can perform searches by speaking on a mobile phone or computer. |
| Web Developer | Web Developer is a browser extension for Google Chrome used for web development and SEO. |
| Web Vitals | Web Vitals is a Chrome plugin developed by Google that helps website owners and developers measure the performance of their websites based on a set of user-centric metrics: the Core Web Vitals. |
| Indexation | When a webpage is indexed, it is added to a search engine's index, allowing it to rank within the search engine result pages. |
| White Hat Seo | White Hat Seo refers to a set of practices that are used to increases a site or page's rank in search engines through means that don't violate search engines' best practice principles and terms of service. White Hat Seo is the counterpart of Black Hat SEO. |
| User Agent | Within the robots.txt file, web crawlers are defined as 'User Agents', such as Google's main crawler, Googlebot. Robots.txt can be used to block specific user agents, or all of them at once using the wild card '*'. |
| XML | XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. XML is a markup language that provides rules to define any data in the form of flat text, and can be used for structured data management. |
| Zero-traffic Page | Zero-traffic pages are webpages that don't generate new visitors and aren't visited during user sessions. Zero-traffic pages can weight down a site's overall quality score and can generally be removed and redirected. |