SEO Glossary for Business Owners: 50 Terms in Plain English

Key takeaways

You do not need to learn SEO to hire well, but knowing these terms helps you read reports and spot empty promises.
The terms that matter most to a business owner: conversion, impressions, clicks, CTR, indexing and Google Business Profile.
Google's own SEO Starter Guide and Search Essentials are the official references behind most of these definitions.

I wrote this glossary for the owners and managers I work with, who want to understand what their SEO provider is doing without becoming specialists. It follows the same plain-language approach as the SEO consultant home page. When a term needs more than two sentences, I link to a full guide. If you are reading a report right now, start with what an SEO report should show you.

A to B

AI Mode: Google's chat-style search, where you ask follow-up questions and get an AI-written answer with links. Pages qualify the same way as for AI Overviews.
AI Overview: An AI-written summary at the top of some Google results, with links to the pages it used. See what AI Overviews mean for a small business.
Alt text: A short description of an image in the page code. It helps people using screen readers and helps search engines understand the image.
Anchor text: The clickable words of a link. "Emergency plumbing in Tampa" tells users and Google more than "click here".
Average position: Where your page appeared in Google results on average, as shown in Search Console. Lower is better: 1 is the top.
Backlink: A link from another website to yours. Links from relevant, trusted sites help; bought or spammy links can hurt.
Breadcrumbs: The small trail of links near the top of a page (Home / Services / Roof repair) that shows where the page sits in your site.

C

Canonical URL: The main version of a page when several URLs show the same content. You tell Google which one to use with a canonical tag.
Citation (local): A mention of your business name, address and phone on another site, such as a directory. Consistent citations support local SEO.
Click-through rate (CTR): The share of people who clicked your result after seeing it. 100 impressions and 3 clicks is a 3% CTR.
Conversion: Any action that matters to your business: a call, a form, a booking, a sale. The number every SEO report should start with.
Core Web Vitals: Google's three metrics for page experience: loading, responsiveness and visual stability. See the guide to Core Web Vitals and INP.
Crawling: When a search engine's bot visits your pages to read them. If a page cannot be crawled, it cannot rank or be cited by AI tools.

D to H

Domain authority: A score from third-party SEO tools that estimates the strength of a site's links. Google does not use these scores; treat them as rough guides only.
Duplicate content: The same or very similar text on several URLs. It confuses search engines about which page to show and splits your signals.
E-E-A-T: Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: qualities Google describes in its guide to helpful, reliable content. Show who wrote a page and why they know the topic.
Entity: A thing search engines and AI tools can identify clearly: your business, a person, a place. Consistent facts about your business make it a clear entity.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Google's free tool to measure visits and actions on your website. Set it up to record calls, forms and sales, not only page views.
Google Business Profile: Your free business listing on Google Maps and Search, with hours, reviews and photos. See the Business Profile checklist.
Google Search Console: Google's free tool that shows which searches bring people to your site, which pages are indexed and which problems Google found.
Heading tags: The titles inside a page (H1, H2, H3). One clear H1 and logical H2s help readers and search engines scan the page.
Hreflang: Code that tells Google which language or country each version of a page is for, for example English and Spanish versions of the same service.

I to L

Impressions: How many times your page appeared in search results, whether or not anyone clicked.
Indexing: When Google stores a page in its database so it can appear in results. Crawled does not always mean indexed.
Internal link: A link from one page of your site to another. Good internal links guide visitors and help Google find and understand your key pages.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint): The Core Web Vital that measures how quickly a page responds to taps and clicks. It became a Core Web Vital in March 2024.
Keyword: A word or phrase people type into a search engine, such as "AC repair Houston".
Keyword research: Finding which searches your customers use, how often, and how hard they are to win. It is the basis of any content plan. See keyword research.
Landing page: The page a visitor lands on from a search or an ad. For SEO, each important service or location deserves its own.
Link building: Earning links from other relevant websites through useful content, partnerships and PR. See link building.
Local pack: The map with three businesses that appears for many local searches. Your Google Business Profile decides whether you appear there.

M to O

Meta description: The short summary you write for a page. Google may show it under your title in results; a clear one earns more clicks.
Mobile-first indexing: Google mainly uses the mobile version of your site to index and rank it, so your mobile pages need the full content.
NAP: Name, address and phone. They should match exactly on your website, Business Profile and directories.
Noindex: An instruction that tells search engines not to show a page in results. Useful for thin or private pages; a disaster if placed on a service page by mistake.
Off-page SEO: Everything outside your website that affects visibility: links, reviews, citations and mentions.
On-page SEO: Work on the page itself: titles, headings, content, images, internal links and structured data.
Organic traffic: Visits that come from unpaid search results, as opposed to ads.

P to R

Programmatic SEO: Creating many useful pages from structured data, such as one page per city or product type, with care to keep each page genuinely helpful. See programmatic SEO.
Redirect (301): A permanent forward from an old URL to a new one. Essential when you change URLs or redesign, as explained in redesigning a website without losing SEO.
Rich results: Search results with extras such as stars, prices, FAQs or event dates, usually made possible by structured data.
Robots.txt: A file at the root of your site that tells crawlers which areas they may visit. It also decides whether AI search crawlers can read you: see how to show up in ChatGPT.

S

Schema markup (structured data): Code that describes your page in a standard format so search engines understand it better: your business, products, reviews, FAQs. See schema for local businesses.
Search intent: What the person really wants when they search: to learn, to compare, to buy or to find a place. The page must match that intent to rank.
SERP: Search engine results page: everything Google shows for a search, including ads, the map, AI Overviews and regular results.
Sitemap: A file that lists the pages you want search engines to find. Google explains what a sitemap is and when you need one.
Spam policies: Google's rules against manipulative tactics, such as link schemes and scaled low-value content. Breaking them can remove a site from results.

T to Z

Technical SEO: The work that makes a site easy to crawl, index and load: speed, redirects, errors, structure. See technical SEO and the technical SEO checklist.
Title tag: The page title in the code, usually shown as the blue headline in Google results. One of the strongest on-page signals.
Zero-click search: A search where the person gets the answer on the results page (from a snippet, the map or an AI summary) and does not click any site.

Putting the terms to work

Knowing the words is the first step; the next is seeing them on your own site. An SEO audit shows which of these items are holding you back, in plain language and in order of impact. Audits start at $450, and you can check the pricing page or book a free 30-minute diagnosis.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SEO and SEM?

SEO earns unpaid visibility in search results. SEM usually means paid search ads, and sometimes both together.

What does GEO or AEO mean?

Generative engine optimization and answer engine optimization: names for making your content easy for AI tools like ChatGPT and AI Overviews to find and cite. It builds on regular SEO.

Which SEO terms should I know before hiring someone?

Conversion, impressions, clicks, CTR, indexing and Google Business Profile. With those you can read almost any report and ask the right questions.

Is domain authority a Google ranking factor?

No. It is a score created by third-party SEO tools. It can be a rough guide, but Google does not use it.

Where can I learn SEO from Google directly?

Google's SEO Starter Guide and Search Essentials, both on Google Search Central, are free and written for beginners.

About the author

Juan José Giraldo is an SEO consultant in Medellín, Colombia, with 5+ years of experience. He works on technical and local SEO for 600+ US car dealerships at an Inc. 5000 agency and supervises the SEO of 18 US online stores with more than 3 million products. Read more · LinkedIn.

SEO glossary for business owners: 50 terms in plain English.