This SEO glossary is a reference dictionary covering link building, crowd marketing and search engine optimization. For each term you’ll find a short plain-English definition and a link to a detailed blog article. The page is updated as new terms and algorithms appear.
Key points in 30 seconds
- More than 55 terms: from anchor text and crowd marketing to AI Overviews and GEO.
- Each term: a short definition plus a link to an in-depth breakdown.
- Sections: abbreviations and tool names first, then general link building and SEO terms.
- A living page: it grows along with changes in search.
How to use it: find a term alphabetically, read the short definition and click the term name to go to the detailed article. If you’re just starting out, begin with the cornerstone guide on what link building is, then move on to the topics you need.
Index: A · B · C · D · E · G · H · I · K · L · M · N · O · P · R · S · T · Y
Abbreviations and tool terms
| Term | Definition |
| AI Overviews | AI-generated answers Google shows directly in the SERP above the regular results; they reduce click-through rates for some queries. |
| Core Web Vitals | A set of Google’s technical metrics (LCP, INP, CLS) that measure loading speed, responsiveness and layout stability. |
| CTR | The share of clicks on your result out of the number of times it was shown in search; affects traffic at the same rankings. |
| Disavow | A Google tool you use to ask it to ignore selected harmful links pointing to your site. |
| Dofollow / Nofollow | Link attributes: dofollow passes the donor’s weight, nofollow marks the link as a “hint” without passing weight. |
| Domain Authority (DA) | Moz’s predictive domain authority metric on a 0–100 scale; a third-party metric, not a Google signal. |
| Domain Rating (DR) | An Ahrefs metric that rates the strength of a domain’s link profile on a 0–100 scale. |
| E-E-A-T | Google’s principles of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness; especially important for YMYL topics. |
| GEO | Optimizing content for AI-generated answers (AI Overviews, ChatGPT) rather than the classic SERP. |
| Google Core Update | A major update to Google’s core algorithm that can noticeably shift rankings for many sites at once. |
| Google Search Console | A free Google service for monitoring your site’s indexing, queries, errors and links. |
| hreflang | An attribute that tells Google about the language and regional versions of a page, so the right version is shown to the right audience. |
| KPI (in SEO) | Measurable indicators of a contractor’s work: traffic, rankings, leads, link quality, not “a report for the sake of a report.” |
| LSI keywords | Topically related words and synonyms that help a search engine understand the content of a page more precisely. |
| PBN | A private blog network built for links; a gray-to-black-hat method with a risk of mass deindexing. |
| People Also Ask | The “People also ask” block in Google’s SERP with expandable answers. |
| robots.txt | A service file in the site root that tells search engine crawlers which sections they may crawl. |
| ROI (in SEO) | Return on SEO investment: the ratio of profit from organic search to what you spend on it. |
| Schema markup | A structured data standard (usually JSON-LD) that helps a search engine understand content and show a rich snippet. |
| SERP | The search engine results page with all its elements: organic results, ads, snippets, maps, AI answers. |
| sitemap.xml | An XML sitemap listing URLs to make indexing faster and more complete. |
| Tier 1 / 2 / 3 | A tiered link scheme: tier 1 points to your site, tiers 2–3 strengthen the links themselves. |
| Trust Flow | A Majestic metric that rates “trust” in a domain based on the quality of the sources linking to it. |
| YMYL | “Your Money or Your Life”: topics on health, finance and safety that Google holds to higher standards. |
General link building and SEO terms
| Term | Definition |
| Anchor text | The visible text of a link; its makeup directly affects the risk of an over-optimization penalty. |
| Anchor list | A pre-planned list of anchors distributed by type and target page. |
| Outreach | Placing links and articles through direct agreements with site owners. |
| Broken backlink | A backlink pointing to a page that doesn’t exist (404); it loses its weight, but can often be reclaimed. |
| Permanent links | Links placed once that stay on the site without a monthly rental fee. |
| Internal linking | A system of links between pages of the same site that distributes link equity and improves navigation. |
| Guest post | An article published on someone else’s site with a link to your resource. |
| Doorway page | A page or site created for search engine crawlers to redirect traffic; a serious guidelines violation. |
| Duplicate pages | Several URLs with identical or nearly identical content that dilute relevance. |
| Indexing | Adding a page to a search engine’s database, after which it can appear in search results. |
| Keyword cannibalization | When two pages compete for the same query and keep each other from ranking. |
| Canonical tag | A signal telling the search engine which of several similar pages to treat as the main one (rel=”canonical”). |
| Keyword clustering | Grouping keywords by page based on SERP similarity. |
| Cloaking | Showing different content to the search engine and to users; a prohibited method. |
| Crowd marketing | Natural mentions and links in real discussions: on forums, in reviews and comments. |
| Crawl budget | The number of pages a crawler is willing to crawl on a site within a given time. |
| Link building | Acquiring external links to grow a site’s authority and rankings. |
| Local SEO | Ranking for location-based queries and in Google Maps for local businesses. |
| Meta tags | Page service tags (title, description, H1, alt) that affect how a page is understood and how often it gets clicked. |
| Negative SEO | An attempt to harm someone else’s site with toxic links or other manipulation. |
| Niche edits | Inserting a link into an already published and indexed article on a relevant site. |
| Organic traffic | Visitors who come from unpaid search results rather than ads. |
| Pagination | Splitting long lists (catalog, blog) into pages; requires careful SEO setup. |
| Bounce rate | The share of visits without meaningful interaction; a sign the page doesn’t match the query. |
| Link profile | All external links pointing to a site, together with their characteristics. |
| Redirect (301/302) | Forwarding from one URL to another: 301 is permanent (passes weight), 302 is temporary. |
| Semantic core | The full set of queries a site is optimized for, grouped by page. |
| Snippet | A page’s listing in the SERP: title, description and URL; a rich snippet adds structured data. |
| Domain spam score | An estimate of how polluted a site’s link profile is; a high score is a reason to reject the donor. |
| Technical SEO audit | Checking a site for technical errors that hinder indexing and ranking. |
| Trust | A search engine’s overall “confidence” in a site; built from link quality, age and history. |
| Search volume | How many times per month users search for a specific query. |
Knowing the terms is useful, but results come from applying them. If you need professional link profile growth without the risk of penalties, check out our link building services or go straight to buying crowd links for your niche.
Where to start reading
The core blog articles the glossary refers to most often: what is link building, what is anchor text and semantic core and clustering.
Got the terminology down and ready to get to work? We’ll discuss your project and estimate the cost: submit a link building request.
FAQ
1. What is an SEO glossary and why do you need one?
It's a dictionary of key link building and SEO concepts with short definitions and links to detailed articles. It helps you quickly understand an unfamiliar word and keep up with the terminology when working with a contractor.
2. How often is the glossary updated?
Regularly: search keeps changing and new concepts appear (for example, AI Overviews and GEO), so the page is expanded and adjusted as the algorithms change.
3. Which terms should a beginner start with?
Start with the basics: link building, crowd marketing and anchor text. That's enough to follow 80% of conversations about links.
4. How are crowd links different from outreach?
Crowd links are natural mentions in discussions; outreach is placement through an agreement with the site owner. A detailed comparison is in the article on outreach.
5. Do links affect rankings in 2026?
Yes, links remain one of the significant factors, although their role is changing with the rise of AI search. See the breakdown in the article on whether links affect rankings.
