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SEO glossary (A–Z)

Quick reference. More detail (with examples and "reality checks") is in SEO for beginners.

TermWhat it meansWhat it's for
Alt textImage description for screen readers and botsAccessibility; bots understand what's in the image
Canonical"Main" URL of a pageRemoving duplicates (filters, URL parameters)
CrawlBot browsing the siteGoogle downloads pages for analysis
CTRClick-through rate in resultsHow many people click vs. how often you appear
DescriptionMeta description under the URL in GoogleEncourages clicks; not a direct ranking factor
Focus keywordTarget phrase for *you*Organization in the plugin; not a magic signal for Google
404Page does not existSignal of broken links — fix with a redirect
GSCGoogle Search ConsoleData from Google: queries, indexing, errors
Head / head tagsHTML part before <body>Title, meta, schema, canonical — bots read this first
Index / indexingIncluding a page in searchWithout index, the page can't be found in search
IndexNowPing after URL change (Bing…)Faster change notification; Google works differently
Internal linkLink within your siteSite navigation for people and bots
JSON-LDStructured data formatSchema in HTML for Google
KeywordQuery people typeContent goal for the page — not literal repetition 50×
llms.txtSite map for AI toolsOptional; not a replacement for Google SEO
Meta tagInstructions in <head>Title, description, robots, OG…
Noindex"Don't index this page"Cart, login, internal pages
Nofollow"Don't follow this link"Different from noindex — applies to a link
OG (Open Graph)Meta for social sharingLink preview on Facebook / LinkedIn
OrphanPage with no inbound linkHarder to crawl; Link Scope shows this
Redirect 301Permanent URL redirectAfter renaming a page or migration
Redirect 302Temporary redirectShort-term actions
Rich resultsEnhanced result (FAQ, stars…)From schema — Google may, may not
Robots.txtRules for bots in site rootWhat not to crawl — not a noindex replacement
SchemaStructured data about contentProduct, FAQ, business — must be truthful
SERPSearch engine results pageBlue title + URL + description
Sitemap (XML)URL list for botsHelps discovery of pages
SlugURL part after the domain/blog/my-post/ → slug my-post
Title tagPage SEO titleMain heading in Google; very important
URLPage addressShort, clear URLs help users

Common mix-ups

Mistaken beliefCorrect
"Meta description = ranking"Description mainly affects clicks, not direct order
"Focus keyword = Google knows"Google reads the whole page, not one plugin field
"Schema = always stars"Google may ignore schema or display it differently
"robots.txt = hide page from Google"For hiding from index, use noindex
"Sitemap = guaranteed indexing"Google may know a page and still not index it

Related

Glossary A–Z | Puluno — audit & moduly