SEO Glossary – Some of the Most Used Terms

One thing you will quickly notice in the world of digital marketing and SEO is the heavy use of acronyms. For anyone new to search engine optimisation, this can feel confusing at first and sometimes overwhelming.

To help make things clearer, we have put together a simple glossary of SEO and digital marketing terms you are likely to come across when discussing website performance, rankings, and online visibility. Understanding these terms will make it easier to follow reports, ask the right questions, and make informed decisions about your SEO strategy.

Below are some of the most common terms used in SEO and what they mean.

Terms

CTR: Click Through Rate
Refers to the number of users that have clicked on your organic search result versus the amount of impressions your website has received.

CMS: Content Management System
A web based piece of software that allows you to upload, manipulate, edit, and manage digital assets that are displayed on your website. Our preferred CMS is WordPress.

SERP: Search Engine Results Page
This is the page that is displayed after a term has been entered into a search engine. It often consists of organic, paid, and shopping results.

KPI: Key Performance Indicator
A measurable value that helps to determine how well something is achieving a set goal.

Sitemap:
A list of URLs that search engine crawlers use to quickly discover and follow to index a site’s content.

BR: Bounce Rate
The percentage of website visits that did not result in a secondary action or viewing of other pages. It is calculated by dividing the number of total visits by the number of visits that left the site without taking another action.

UTM: Urchin Tracking Monitor
A small piece of code linked to a URL that helps to track additional information about website traffic. This includes the source, medium, and campaign of where the traffic originated from.

DR: Domain Rating
Refers to the strength of a website’s authority based on its backlinks.

Keyword Stuffing:
When keywords are repeatedly added to a website’s copy with the aim of quickly manipulating rankings. This often results in over optimised content and does more harm than good for SEO.

UX: User Experience
Refers to how a user views and interacts with your website, including relevance of information and how easily users can achieve their goals.

CR: Conversion Rate
The percentage of users who visit your site and complete a desired action versus the total number of users that visited your site.

Additional SEO and Digital Marketing Terms

Crawl Budget:
The number of pages a search engine is willing to crawl on your website within a given timeframe. A well structured site helps search engines use crawl budget more efficiently.

Indexing:
The process of search engines storing and organising your website pages so they can appear in search results.

Meta Title:
The title shown in search engine results and browser tabs. It plays an important role in rankings and click through rate.

Meta Description:
A short description shown in search results that helps users understand what a page is about and encourages clicks.

Internal Linking:
Links that connect one page of your website to another. Internal links help users navigate your site and help search engines understand page relationships.

Backlink:
A link from another website pointing to your website. Backlinks are an important trust and authority signal for SEO.

Anchor Text:
The visible text of a link. Clear and relevant anchor text helps search engines understand what the linked page is about.

Canonical URL:
A way of telling search engines which version of a page should be treated as the main version when similar or duplicate content exists.

Organic Traffic:
Website visitors who arrive through unpaid search engine results rather than paid advertising.

Technical SEO:
The part of SEO that focuses on website infrastructure, including speed, mobile friendliness, indexing, and crawlability.

Local SEO:
SEO focused on improving visibility for location based searches, including Google Maps and local search results.