SEO Terms: 85 SEO, Blogging and WordPress Terms Explained

SEO♥

Also called: search engine optimization

Improving a website so it shows up higher in search results and gets more visitors.

Everyday

SERP♥

Also called: search results page

The page of results a search engine shows for a search.

Everyday

Ranking♥

A page’s position in search results for a search term.

Everyday

Organic traffic♥

Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.

Everyday

Search intent♥

Also called: user intent

What a person really wants when they search: to learn, to buy, to find a site or to compare.

Intermediate

Algorithm update

Also called: core update

A change in how a search engine ranks pages, which can move rankings up or down.

Intermediate

Crawling

When search engine bots visit pages to discover content and links.

Intermediate

E-E-A-T

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust: qualities Google’s guidelines say helpful content should show.

Advanced

Featured snippet

A highlighted answer box at the top of search results, quoted from a web page.

Intermediate

Indexing

When a search engine stores a page in its database so it can appear in results.

Intermediate

Local SEO

Helping a business show up in nearby searches and on maps.

Intermediate

Zero-click search

A search where people get the answer on the results page and do not click any site.

Intermediate

Keyword♥

Also called: search term

A word or phrase people type into a search engine.

Everyday

Search volume♥

How many times a keyword is searched in a month.

Intermediate

Title tag♥

Also called: SEO title

The page title shown in search results and browser tabs.

Intermediate

Meta description♥

The short summary that often appears under a title in search results.

Intermediate

Alt text

Also called: alt tag

A short text description of an image for screen readers and search engines.

Intermediate

Duplicate content

The same or very similar text on more than one page or site.

Intermediate

Evergreen content

Content that stays useful for years, such as a how-to guide.

Everyday

Heading tags

Also called: H1, H2

Headings that structure a page. Each page should have one main H1 heading.

Intermediate

Keyword difficulty

Also called: SEO difficulty

An estimate of how hard it is to rank on page one for a keyword.

Intermediate

Keyword research

Finding the words people search for, and how often, before writing content.

Everyday

Long-tail keyword

A longer, more specific search phrase. Fewer people search it, but they often know exactly what they want.

Intermediate

Pillar page

Also called: content pillar

A long main guide on a topic that links to related, more detailed articles.

Advanced

Thin content

Pages with little useful information, which search engines tend to rank poorly.

Intermediate

Topic cluster

A group of related articles linked to a pillar page to show depth on a subject.

Advanced

Backlink♥

Also called: inbound link

A link from another website to yours. Good backlinks help pages rank.

Everyday

Internal link♥

A link from one page on your site to another page on the same site.

Everyday

301 redirect

A permanent forward from an old web address to a new one, passing most ranking value along.

Intermediate

Anchor text

The clickable words of a link.

Intermediate

Broken link

Also called: dead link

A link to a page that no longer exists, usually showing a 404 error.

Everyday

Disavow

Telling Google to ignore certain spammy links pointing to your site.

Advanced

Domain authority

Also called: DA, domain rating

A score from SEO tools that estimates how strong a site’s backlinks are.

Intermediate

Guest post

An article you write for another website, usually with a link back to your site.

Everyday

Link building

Earning links from other websites to your pages.

Intermediate

Nofollow

A link tag that tells search engines not to pass ranking credit through the link.

Intermediate

Sitemap♥

Also called: XML sitemap

A file listing a site’s pages to help search engines find them.

Intermediate

Page speed♥

How fast a page loads. Faster pages keep visitors and help rankings.

Everyday

Canonical tag

A tag that tells search engines which version of similar pages is the main one.

Advanced

Core Web Vitals

Google’s measures of page experience: loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability.

Advanced

Crawl budget

How many pages a search engine will crawl on a site in a given time.

Advanced

Mobile-friendly

A site that works well on phones, with readable text and easy-to-tap buttons.

Everyday

Noindex

A tag that keeps a page out of search results.

Advanced

Robots.txt

A file that tells search engine bots which parts of a site not to crawl.

Advanced

Schema markup

Also called: structured data

Code that labels page details, such as reviews or recipes, so search engines can show rich results.

Advanced

Search Console

Google’s free tool that shows how a site performs in search and flags problems.

Everyday

Slug

Also called: URL slug

The readable end of a web address, such as /best-ai-tools/.

Everyday

Blog♥

A website or section with regular articles, called posts, usually newest first.

Everyday

Blog post♥

Also called: post

A single article on a blog.

Everyday

Blogger

Someone who writes a blog.

Everyday

Bounce rate

The share of visitors who leave after viewing only one page.

Intermediate

Byline

The line showing who wrote an article.

Everyday

Call to action

Also called: CTA

A prompt telling readers what to do next, such as Subscribe or Download.

Everyday

Category

A broad group used to organise blog posts by topic.

Everyday

Comment

A reader’s reply posted under a blog article.

Everyday

Editorial calendar

Also called: content calendar

A schedule of what to publish and when.

Intermediate

Lead magnet

A free resource, such as a checklist or ebook, offered in exchange for an email address.

Intermediate

Newsletter

A regular email sent to subscribers with news, tips or new posts.

Everyday

Niche

The specific topic a blog focuses on, such as budget travel or home cooking.

Everyday

Permalink

The permanent web address of a single post or page.

Intermediate

RSS feed

Also called: feed

A file that lists a site’s latest posts so readers and apps can follow updates.

Intermediate

Tag

A label for specific details in posts, used to group related content.

Everyday

WordPress♥

Free software that powers a large share of the world’s websites and blogs.

Everyday

Theme♥

A design package that controls how a WordPress site looks.

Everyday

Plugin♥

An add-on that gives a WordPress site new features, such as forms or SEO tools.

Everyday

Block editor

Also called: Gutenberg

The WordPress editor that builds pages from blocks such as paragraphs, images and buttons.

Intermediate

Caching plugin

A plugin that saves ready-made copies of pages so the site loads faster.

Intermediate

Child theme

A theme that inherits another theme’s design so you can customise it safely.

Advanced

Custom post type

A content type beyond posts and pages, such as products or recipes.

Advanced

Dashboard

Also called: wp-admin

The admin area where you manage a WordPress site.

Everyday

Media library

Where WordPress stores your uploaded images, videos and files.

Everyday

Page vs post

Pages hold timeless content like About; posts are dated articles that appear in the blog feed.

Everyday

Shortcode

A short code word that adds a feature, such as a form or gallery, when placed in a post.

Intermediate

Widget

A small content box placed in a sidebar or footer area of a site.

Intermediate

Analytics♥

Also called: web analytics

Tools and reports that show how many people visit a site and what they do.

Everyday

Affiliate marketing♥

Earning a commission when readers buy through your links.

Everyday

Click-through rate

Also called: CTR

The share of people who see a link or ad and click it.

Intermediate

Conversion

When a visitor does what you want, such as subscribing or buying.

Intermediate

CPC

Also called: cost per click

What an advertiser pays each time someone clicks their ad.

Intermediate

Display ads

Image or text ads shown on a website, often run by an ad network.

Everyday

Pageviews

How many times pages were viewed.

Everyday

RPM

Revenue per thousand pageviews, a common way to measure ad earnings.

Advanced

Sessions

Visits to a site. One session can include many pageviews.

Intermediate

Sponsored post

Content a company pays a blog to publish, which should be clearly labelled.

Everyday

UTM tags

Also called: UTM parameters

Extra text added to a link so analytics can show where visits came from.

Advanced