Chykalophia Docs

A plain-English A–Z glossary of search engine optimization vocabulary — every term defined without jargon.

SEO comes with its own vocabulary. This glossary defines the terms you're most likely to encounter when working with us or reading about SEO online — in plain language, no technical background needed.

Quick summary

Use this page as a reference whenever you encounter an SEO term you don't recognize. Each definition is written for a non-technical reader. Alphabetical order, A to Z.

A

Algorithm The set of rules Google uses to decide which pages to show in search results and in what order. Google updates its algorithm hundreds of times per year. No one outside Google knows the exact rules, but the general principle is: reward genuinely helpful, trustworthy, well-structured websites.

Alt text A written description of an image, used by screen readers for visually impaired users and by Google to understand what an image contains. Every meaningful image on your site should have descriptive alt text. See: Image SEO & alt text.

Anchor text The visible, clickable words in a hyperlink. "Click here" is poor anchor text. "Download our SEO checklist" is good anchor text — it tells both the reader and Google what the linked page contains. See: Internal linking explained.

Authority A measure of how trustworthy and credible a website or page is in Google's eyes. Authority is built over time through quality content, earned backlinks, and a strong history of being a reliable source.

B

Backlink A link from another website pointing to a page on your site. One of the strongest SEO ranking signals. Quality backlinks from respected, relevant sites significantly boost your rankings. See: Backlinks, explained.

Black-hat SEO SEO tactics that violate Google's guidelines — such as buying links, keyword stuffing, or cloaking (showing Google different content than what users see). These tactics may produce short-term results but risk severe Google penalties.

Bounce rate In the context of SEO, a high bounce rate — visitors leaving immediately without engaging — can signal that a page doesn't satisfy what the searcher expected. Google uses engagement signals like this to evaluate page quality.

Branded search A search that includes your business name. People searching "Chykalophia" are conducting a branded search. These are relatively easy to rank for because you're the most relevant result for your own name.

C

Canonical tag An HTML element that tells Google which version of a page is the "main" one, when similar content exists at multiple URLs. Used to prevent duplicate content issues. Usually invisible to you — we manage these technically.

Citation A mention of your business's name, address, and phone number on another website or directory. Citations are important for local SEO. Consistency across all citations matters. See: Local SEO basics.

Click-through rate (CTR) The percentage of people who see your page in search results and click on it. A compelling page title and meta description improve your CTR. See: Page titles & meta descriptions.

Cloaking Showing Google different content than what human visitors see. This is a black-hat tactic that violates Google's policies and can result in a penalty.

Competitor analysis Examining which keywords your competitors rank for, what content they produce, and where their backlinks come from — in order to identify opportunities for your own SEO strategy.

Content marketing Creating useful, relevant content (blog posts, guides, videos) to attract your target audience. Content marketing and SEO work closely together — content provides the pages that SEO optimizes. See: SEO & content marketing.

Conversion A desired action taken by a visitor — filling in a contact form, making a purchase, calling your phone number. SEO drives traffic, but conversions are the actual business outcome you care about.

Core Web Vitals A set of three specific page-experience metrics Google uses as ranking signals: LCP (loading), INP (responsiveness), and CLS (visual stability). See: Site speed & SEO.

Crawling The process by which Google's bots visit web pages, follow links, and collect information. If Google can't crawl your pages, they won't appear in search results. See: How search engines work.

D

De-indexing When Google removes a page from its index, either because of a "noindex" tag, a policy violation, or a technical error. De-indexed pages don't appear in search results.

Do-follow link A standard link that passes SEO value (link equity) to the linked page. This is the default for most links. Compare with nofollow.

Domain authority (DA) A metric created by Moz (not by Google) that estimates how likely a site is to rank well, on a 1–100 scale. Useful as a rough comparative benchmark. It's not a metric Google uses directly.

Duplicate content When the same or very similar content appears at multiple URLs on your site. This can confuse Google about which page to rank. Canonical tags and proper redirects prevent this issue.

E

E-E-A-T Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. A framework Google uses (described in its quality rater guidelines) to evaluate the quality of content and its authors. Building E-E-A-T means demonstrating real expertise, being transparent about authorship, and earning trust through quality and accuracy.

External link A link from your website to another website. Linking to authoritative external sources can support your credibility. Compare with internal link.

F

Featured snippet A highlighted answer box that appears at the very top of some Google results, above the regular blue links. It typically shows a short text excerpt, list, or table directly answering the search query. Well-structured, clear answers can earn featured snippets.

Fresh content New or recently updated content. Google favors freshness for some types of searches (news, current events) but less so for evergreen topics. Keeping your content accurate and updated is still good practice.

G

Google Business Profile A free Google service that controls how your business appears in Google Search and Google Maps. Essential for local SEO. See: Google Business Profile for SEO.

Google Search Console A free Google tool that shows how your site performs in search results — what searches show your pages, how many clicks you receive, and technical issues Google has found. See: How to measure SEO results.

Google Search Central Google's official documentation and guidance for website owners and SEO practitioners. The most authoritative source of SEO information.

H

H1, H2, H3 HTML heading levels used to structure page content. H1 is the main page title; H2 and H3 are sub-sections. Proper use of headings helps Google understand your content's organization. See: Headings & content structure for SEO.

Helpful content Google's term for content primarily written to benefit people, not primarily to rank in search engines. Google's Helpful Content system rewards this and penalizes the opposite.

I

Impression Each time your page appears in a search result — whether or not the person clicks. A high impression count means your pages are showing up in searches; low clicks relative to impressions suggest your titles and descriptions need work.

Indexing The process by which Google stores information about a crawled page in its database. Only indexed pages can appear in search results. See: How search engines work.

Internal link A link from one page on your site to another page on the same site. Essential for helping Google discover all your pages and for passing ranking strength between pages. See: Internal linking explained.

K

Keyword A word or phrase that people type into a search engine. Targeting the right keywords means writing content that matches what your audience is actually searching for. See: Keywords, explained.

Keyword cannibalization When two or more pages on your site target the same keyword, causing them to compete against each other. This weakens both pages. Each keyword should have one dedicated page.

Keyword density The percentage of times a keyword appears in a piece of content relative to the total word count. Obsessing over keyword density is outdated; write naturally instead.

Keyword research The process of finding which words and phrases your target audience searches for. See: Keyword research basics.

Keyword stuffing Unnaturally overusing a keyword in content in an attempt to rank higher. Google penalizes this as a spam tactic.

L

Landing page The page a visitor arrives on after clicking a link — often from a search result or an ad. Good landing pages match exactly what the searcher expected to find.

Link building The practice of earning or creating backlinks from other websites. See: Backlinks, explained.

Link equity The SEO value passed from one page to another through a link. Also called "PageRank" (historically) or "link juice" (informally).

Local Pack The block of 3 local business listings with a map that appears at the top of Google results for local searches. Appearing here requires an optimized Google Business Profile. See: Local SEO basics.

Local SEO SEO focused on improving visibility for geographically relevant searches. Especially important for businesses serving specific cities or areas. See: Local SEO basics.

Long-tail keyword A specific, multi-word search phrase with lower search volume but also lower competition. Usually easier for smaller businesses to rank for than short, broad terms. See: Keywords, explained.

M

Manual action A Google penalty applied by a human reviewer (not just the algorithm) for a serious policy violation. Can severely suppress or remove a site from search results. Recoverable, but requires fixing the issue and filing a reconsideration request.

Meta description A short text summary of a page's content shown in search results below the page title. Doesn't directly affect rankings but influences click-through rate. See: Page titles & meta descriptions.

Mobile-first indexing Google's practice of using the mobile version of a site as its primary source for indexing and ranking. Sites that perform poorly on mobile rank lower. See: Mobile-friendliness & SEO.

N

NAP Name, Address, Phone number. The core local business information that should be consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, and all online directories. See: Local SEO basics.

Nofollow An attribute added to a link that tells Google not to follow it or pass link equity through it. Used on sponsored links, ads, and user-generated content.

Noindex An instruction (placed in code on a page) that tells Google not to add the page to its index. Useful for pages you don't want in search results — login pages, thank-you pages, etc. Accidentally adding this to important pages is a serious SEO error.

O

Off-page SEO SEO work done outside your website — primarily building backlinks and your online reputation.

On-page SEO SEO optimizations made directly on your pages — content, headings, titles, images, internal links, and URLs. See: On-page SEO explained.

Organic traffic Visitors who arrive at your site from unpaid search results. Distinct from paid traffic (Google Ads), social media traffic, or direct visitors.

Orphan page A page with no internal links pointing to it. Orphan pages are hard for Google to discover and often rank poorly. See: Internal linking explained.

P

PageRank Google's original algorithm, which scored pages based on the number and quality of links pointing to them. Still a core component of ranking, though Google no longer publishes PageRank scores publicly.

Page speed How quickly a page loads for visitors. A confirmed ranking factor. Slow pages rank lower and lose more visitors. See: Site speed & SEO.

Page title (title tag) The text shown as the clickable headline in Google search results. One of the most important on-page SEO elements. See: Page titles & meta descriptions.

Penalty A reduction in rankings due to violations of Google's guidelines. Can be algorithmic (automatic) or manual (from a human reviewer). Recovering requires fixing the violations.

Position Your page's ranking in search results for a specific keyword. Position 1 is the top organic result. Position 11+ means you're on page 2 or beyond (rarely seen by searchers).

R

Rank / Ranking Where your page appears in search results for a specific keyword. Higher rank = closer to the top = more visibility and clicks.

Redirect (301) A permanent redirect that sends visitors and search engines from an old URL to a new one. Essential when pages are moved or removed — without redirects, you lose the SEO value attached to old URLs.

Rich result An enhanced search result that displays additional information — star ratings, prices, FAQs, images — directly in the search listing. Earned through structured data markup.

Robots.txt A file on your website that tells search engine bots which pages not to crawl. A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block your whole site. See: Sitemaps & robots.txt explained.

S

Schema markup Code added to your site that gives Google structured, machine-readable information about your content — like marking up a business address, a review, an event, or a product. Enables rich results in search listings.

Search engine A tool people use to find information online. Google is by far the most dominant (90%+ market share), followed by Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others.

Search intent The reason behind a search — why the person is searching, and what kind of result would satisfy them. Matching your content to search intent is essential for ranking. See: Keywords, explained.

Search volume How many times a keyword is searched per month. Used in keyword research to gauge whether a topic has enough demand to be worth targeting.

SERP Search Engine Results Page — the page Google shows after a search. Contains organic results, paid ads, local listings, featured snippets, and other result types.

Sitemap A file that lists all the pages on your website, submitted to Google to help it discover your content. See: Sitemaps & robots.txt explained.

Slug The part of a URL that comes after the domain name. For example, in yoursite.com/blog/seo-tips, the slug is seo-tips. Good slugs are short, descriptive, and contain the page's main keyword. See: SEO-friendly URLs.

Structured data See Schema markup.

T

Technical SEO The behind-the-scenes optimization of your site's code, structure, and server configuration to help search engines crawl and index it effectively. See: Technical SEO basics.

Title tag See Page title.

Traffic Visitors to your website. Organic traffic specifically refers to visitors from unpaid search results.

SEO terms, explained simply

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SEO terms, explained simply

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