The SEO & AI Search glossary

A

Above the Fold — The visible page area before scrolling.

Agentic Search — Search performed through multiple AI-planned steps.

AggregateRating — Structured data summarising multiple ratings.

AI Agent — A system that can plan and perform actions using tools.

AI Share of Voice — A brand’s comparative presence in AI-generated answers.

Algorithm — A system used to evaluate, retrieve or rank information.

Authority Score — Semrush’s proprietary authority metric.

Autocomplete — Suggestions shown while a user types a query.

Automated Internal Linking — Creating internal links through rules or data.

AVIF — A modern image format with high compression efficiency.

B

BERT — A language model used to understand context.

Bingbot — Microsoft Bing’s web crawler.

Black-Hat SEO — Manipulative tactics intended to influence rankings.

BOFU — Bottom-of-funnel content focused on conversion.

Boilerplate Content — Repeated text used across many pages.

Bot — Automated software performing online tasks.

Bot Verification — Confirming whether a crawler is genuine.

Branded Anchor — Anchor text containing a brand name.

Breadcrumb — Navigation showing a page’s position in the hierarchy.

C

Cart Abandonment — Starting but not completing a purchase.

Channel Grouping — A system for categorising traffic sources.

Chunking — Dividing content into smaller units for processing or retrieval.

Citation — A reference identifying a source supporting a claim.

Citation Frequency — How often a source is referenced in generated answers.

Click — A user selecting a search result.

Cluster Content — Supporting pages focused on subtopics around a pillar.

Co-Occurrence — Related terms or entities appearing in similar contexts.

Cohort — A group sharing a defined characteristic or period.

Compression — Reducing file size for faster transfer.

Content Calendar — A schedule of planned publishing activity.

Content Inventory — A complete record of existing website content.

Content Velocity — The rate at which content is published or updated.

Context Window — The amount of information an AI model can process at once.

Contextual Link — A link placed within relevant body content.

Conversational Search — Search conducted through dialogue and follow-up questions.

Cornerstone Content — A strategically important and comprehensive resource.

Crawl Demand — How strongly a search engine wants to revisit URLs.

Crawl Rate — How quickly a crawler requests pages.

Crawl Segmentation — Dividing crawl data by page type or directory.

Crawl Trap — A structure producing excessive crawlable URLs.

Crawl Waste — Crawler activity spent on low-value URLs.

Crawlability — Whether crawlers can access and navigate a page.

Cross-Selling — Suggesting complementary products.

CrUX — Chrome’s real-user experience dataset.

CTR — The percentage of impressions producing clicks.

D

Database-Driven Page — A page generated from database information.

Deep Link — A link to a specific internal page rather than the homepage.

Deindexing — Removing a page from a search index.

DNS — The system translating domain names into server addresses.

Domain Authority — Moz’s proprietary prediction of ranking potential.

Domain Rating — Ahrefs’ proprietary estimate of backlink strength.

Duplicate Content — Identical or highly similar content on multiple URLs.

Dynamic Page — A page assembled automatically from stored data.

E

Embedding — A numerical representation of meaning used in semantic retrieval.

Empty-State Page — A generated page with no meaningful results or information.

Engaged Session — A GA4 session meeting engagement criteria.

Engagement Rate — The percentage of sessions classified as engaged.

Entity Disambiguation — Distinguishing between entities with similar names.

Entity Home — The primary authoritative page describing an entity.

Entity Resolution — Determining which real-world entity a reference represents.

Entity Salience — The relative importance of an entity within content.

Event — A recorded user interaction in analytics.

Evergreen Content — Content designed to remain useful over time.

Evergreen Keyword — A query with relatively stable long-term demand.

Exact-Match Anchor — Anchor text exactly matching a target phrase.

Expired-Domain Abuse — Repurposing an expired domain mainly to manipulate rankings.

External Link — A link from your site to another website.

F

FAQ Schema — Structured data describing questions and answers.

FCP — The time until the first visible content appears.

Featured Snippet — A prominently displayed answer extracted from a webpage.

Field Data — Performance data collected from real users.

Fine-Tuning — Additional training adapting a model to a particular task.

Footer Navigation — Links displayed in the website footer.

Free Product Listing — An unpaid product listing in Google Shopping surfaces.

Fresh Content — Recently published or substantially updated information.

G

Geogrid — A grid visualising local rankings across coordinates.

Googlebot — Google’s web crawler.

Grey-Hat SEO — Tactics between clearly acceptable and clearly manipulative.

Grounding — Connecting an AI answer to evidence or trusted context.

H

Head Keyword — A broad, usually high-volume keyword.

Hosting — The infrastructure where a website is stored and served.

HTML Sitemap — A user-facing page listing important sections or URLs.

I

Image Caption — Visible text explaining an image or chart.

Impression — An occasion when a result is shown under reporting rules.

Inbound Link — Another term for a backlink.

Indexation Threshold — A quality rule deciding whether a generated page should be indexable.

Infinite Scroll — Automatically loading more content as the user scrolls.

Information Architecture — The organisation and labelling of website information.

J

Jump Link — A link moving to a section on the same page.

K

Key Event — GA4’s term for an important conversion-related event.

Keyword Clustering — Grouping queries that can be served by the same page.

Keyword Density — The proportion of page text made up by a keyword.

Keyword Gap — A query competitors rank for while your site does not.

Keyword Stuffing — Unnatural repetition of keywords to manipulate rankings.

Knowledge Cutoff — The latest period represented in a model’s trained knowledge.

Knowledge Graph — A structured network of entities, facts and relationships.

L

Lab Data — Performance data generated in a controlled test.

Lastmod — A sitemap value showing the last meaningful modification date.

Lazy Loading — Delaying resource loading until it is needed.

Lighthouse — An automated website quality and performance tool.

Link Reclamation — Recovering lost, broken or missing links and mentions.

Local Keyword — A query containing or implying geographic intent.

Location Page — A page dedicated to one branch or location.

Log-File Analysis — Studying server logs to understand crawler behaviour.

Looker Studio — Google’s reporting and data-visualisation platform.

M

Medium — The general category of a traffic source.

Mention Frequency — How often a brand or entity appears in generated answers.

Merchant Center — Google’s platform for managing product data.

Meta Robots — Page-level instructions controlling indexing and snippets.

Micro-Intent — A precise need inside a broader intent.

Microdata — Structured data embedded directly in HTML elements.

Minification — Removing unnecessary characters from code.

Mixed Intent — A query representing more than one valid goal.

MOFU — Middle-of-funnel content focused on evaluation.

MPN — A manufacturer-assigned product identifier.

Multilingual Website — A website offering content in several languages.

Multimodal Model — A model processing several formats such as text and images.

Multiregional Website — A website targeting several countries or regions.

N

Naked URL — A link using the URL itself as anchor text.

Near-Duplicate Content — Pages that differ only slightly.

Near-Me Search — A query requesting nearby results.

Neural Matching — Machine learning connecting concepts in queries and content.

Nofollow — A link attribute limiting normal ranking treatment.

Noindex — A directive requesting that a page not appear in results.

O

Offer Schema — Structured data describing price, currency and availability.

Ontology — A formal model of concepts and relationships.

Organic Traffic — Website visits generated through unpaid search results.

P

PageRank — Google’s original link-based page-evaluation system.

Pageview — A recorded view of a webpage.

Pagination — Dividing a collection across multiple pages.

Partial-Match Anchor — Anchor text containing part of a target phrase.

Passage Ranking — Evaluating individual page sections for relevance.

Passage-Level Relevance — The relevance of an individual section to a query.

PBN — A controlled network of sites used to manipulate rankings.

People Also Ask — Expandable questions shown within search results.

Pillar Page — A broad page linking to detailed subtopic content.

Prefetch — A browser instruction to retrieve a likely future resource.

Preload — A browser instruction to load an important resource early.

Primary Navigation — The website’s main menu.

Primary Research — Original research conducted by the publisher.

Product Taxonomy — The classification system used to organise products.

Prompt — The input or instruction provided to an AI system.

Prompt Engineering — Designing instructions to improve AI outputs.

Q

Quality Rater Guidelines — Instructions used by Google’s human quality evaluators.

Query Fan-Out — Expanding one question into multiple retrieval tasks.

Query String — The parameter section of a URL.

Question Keyword — A search phrase written as a question.

R

RankBrain — A Google machine-learning system supporting query interpretation.

Ranking Factor — A signal or condition that may influence search performance.

RDFa — An HTML extension for structured information.

Readability — How easily users can understand written content.

Reciprocal Link — A link exchanged between two websites.

Recrawl — A later crawler visit to a previously discovered URL.

Regex — A pattern language used to match and filter text.

Related Searches — Additional queries suggested around a search.

Render-Blocking Resource — A file delaying visible page rendering.

Responsive Design — A layout adapting to different screen sizes.

Review Schema — Structured data describing a review.

Rich Results Test — Google’s tool for testing supported structured data.

S

SameAs — A schema property connecting an entity to authoritative profiles.

Schema App — A platform for managing structured-data implementation.

SE Ranking — An SEO platform for rankings, audits, research and reporting.

Search Spam — Content or behaviour created primarily to manipulate search systems.

Search Trend — A change in search interest over time.

Seasonal Keyword — A query whose demand rises during specific periods.

Secondary Keyword — A related query supported by the same page.

Secondary Research — Analysis based on research produced by others.

Segment — A subset of users, sessions or data.

Self-Referencing Hreflang — An hreflang annotation pointing to the current page.

Semantic Keyword — A contextually related term or concept.

Semantic Similarity — The degree to which two pieces of information share meaning.

SEO Campaign — A coordinated set of SEO activities over a defined period.

SEO Strategy — The plan connecting organic visibility with business goals.

SEOmonitor — A platform for forecasting, rank tracking and agency reporting.

Server — A system delivering website resources and responses.

Service-Area Business — A business serving customers at their locations.

Session — A group of user interactions within a defined period.

Share of Voice — A brand’s visibility compared with competitors.

Short-Tail Keyword — A short, broad and often competitive query.

Site Reputation Abuse — Using third-party content to exploit a host site’s established signals.

Sitebulb — A website crawler and technical-audit platform.

Sitemap Index — A file listing multiple XML sitemaps.

Sitewide Link — A link appearing across many pages of a website.

Snippet — The title, URL and description shown for a result.

Source — The origin of website traffic.

Spider — Another term for a search-engine crawler.

Sponsored Attribute — A link attribute identifying paid or sponsored links.

Subdirectory Structure — An international setup such as example.com/uk/.

Subdomain Structure — An international setup such as uk.example.com.

T

Taxonomy — A structured classification system.

Template Footprint — Repeated patterns shared by generated pages.

TOFU — Top-of-funnel content focused on awareness.

Token — A unit of text processed by a language model.

Topic Cluster — A connected group of pages organised around one subject.

Topical Authority — Demonstrated depth and credibility across a subject area.

Transcreation — Creative adaptation of content for another market.

U

UGC Attribute — A link attribute identifying user-generated links.

Upselling — Encouraging the purchase of a higher-value option.

URL Inspection — A Search Console tool for evaluating a specific URL.

URL Parameter — A value added to a URL after a question mark.

User — A person or device interacting with a website.

User Agent — A value identifying software making a request.

UTM Parameter — A URL value used for campaign tracking.

V

Vector Database — A database designed to store and retrieve embeddings.

Video Schema — Structured data describing video content.

Visibility — How often and how prominently a brand appears in relevant results.

W

WebP — A modern web-image format with efficient compression.

White-Hat SEO — Practices aligned with guidelines and user value.

X

x-default — An hreflang value identifying a fallback page.

Z

Zero-Click Search — A search completed without visiting another website.

Zero-Volume Keyword — A query reported with no demand despite possible real searches.