SEO Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the SEO and blogging terms used across Rankenza articles, tools, and docs. Each term links to its own page with a definition, why it matters, and how Rankenza handles it.
Alt text
On-page
Alt text is the short written description attached to an image on a page. Search engines cannot see a picture the way a person does, so they read this text to u…
Anchor text
Links
Anchor text is the clickable wording of a link. It is the short phrase a reader sees underlined, and it hints at what the linked page covers before anyone click…
Backlink
Links
A backlink is a link from another website pointing to your page. It is one site publicly pointing its readers at another site's content.…
Broken-Link Audit
Links
A broken-link audit is a systematic check of every link on a website to find the ones that no longer lead anywhere useful. The auditor collects the links…
Canonical URL
Technical
A canonical URL is the single address a site marks as the official version of a page when that content can be reached through more than one address,…
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
On-page
Click-through rate, usually shortened to CTR, is the percentage of people who click on a page after seeing it in a search results page. If a result…
Content Brief
Content
A content brief is a short written plan made before an article is drafted. It states the target keyword, the searcher's intent, the angle the article…
Content Diff
Content
A content diff is a line-by-line comparison of two versions of the same piece of writing, showing exactly what was removed, what was added, and what was…
Content Gap
Keywords
A content gap is a subject, question, or angle that people in your audience search for but that your site has not yet written about, or has only…
Content refresh
Content
A content refresh is an update to an existing published article: correcting facts, adding new information, tightening structure, and removing anything that is o…
Content ROI
Basics
Content ROI, short for content return on investment, is a way of asking whether the content a business produces earns more than it costs. It compares what…
Core Web Vitals
Technical
Core Web Vitals are a set of three measurements Google uses to describe how a page feels to a visitor: how quickly its main content loads, how fast…
Cost Per Article
Basics
Cost per article is the total cost of producing one published article, counted once, all in. It is the unit cost of a blog post: everything spent to take…
Crawl budget
Technical
Crawl budget is a loose way of describing how much attention a search engine gives to crawling a site in a given period. Larger sites with many pages need to ma…
CSAT Score
Basics
A CSAT score, short for customer satisfaction score, is a single number that summarises how satisfied customers say they are after a specific experience.…
Keyword cannibalization
Keywords
Keyword cannibalization happens when two or more pages on the same site compete for the same search query. Instead of one strong page, the site splits its relev…
Keyword Research
Keywords
Keyword research is the work of finding out which words and phrases real people actually type into a search engine when they are looking for something a…
Link Rot
Links
Link rot is the slow, gradual process by which links on a website stop working over time, as the pages they point to are moved, renamed, deleted, or taken…
Long-tail keyword
Keywords
A long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase, usually several words, that describes a narrower question than a broad single-word topic.…
Long-Tail Strategy
Keywords
A long-tail strategy is a plan for choosing, grouping, and sequencing the specific, detailed phrases a site will target, instead of chasing only the…
Meta description
On-page
A meta description is a short summary of a page, shown by search engines under the page title in results. It does not directly decide rankings, but it influence…
Metadata
On-page
Metadata is information about a page that describes the page rather than appearing as part of the page's visible article. The word itself gives the…
Off-Page SEO
Links
Off-page SEO is the part of search optimization that happens away from the page itself. It is mainly about other websites linking to a page,…
On-Page SEO
On-page
On-page SEO is the part of search optimization that happens on the page itself. It includes the title tag, the headings, the words used in the body,…
Open Graph Tags
On-page
Open Graph tags are a small set of labels placed in a page's code that tell social platforms and messaging apps how to display the page when someone…
Organic traffic
Basics
Organic traffic means visitors who arrive from unpaid search results, as opposed to ads, social posts, or direct visits.…
Redirect Chain
Technical
A redirect chain is a series of redirects that a browser or a search engine crawler must follow, one after another, before it reaches the final page.…
Redirect Types (301 vs 302)
Technical
Redirect types are the different status codes a server can send when it tells a browser or a crawler that a requested page lives somewhere else. The code…
Revision History
Content
Revision history is the saved, ordered record of every version of a piece of content, together with the information that explains each version: when it…
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Basics
Search engine optimization, usually shortened to SEO, is the practice of shaping a page so that search engines can find it, understand what it…
Search intent
Basics
Search intent is the goal behind a search query: what the searcher is actually trying to do, whether learning something, comparing options, finding a specific s…
Search Volume
Keywords
Search volume is an estimate of how often a particular phrase is typed into a search engine over a given period, usually a month. When a keyword tool…
Seed Keyword
Keywords
A seed keyword is a short, broad starting term that a researcher types into a keyword tool or a search engine at the very beginning of keyword research,…
SERP
Basics
SERP stands for search engine results page — the page of results a search engine shows after a query, including organic listings and, often, extra features like…
Sitemap
Technical
A sitemap is a file that lists a site's pages for search engines, helping them discover and understand the site's structure. It is usually submitted through a t…
Speech Synthesis
Technical
Speech synthesis is the technology that turns written text into spoken words. You type or supply a sentence, and a synthesis system produces the sound of…
Speech-to-Text Transcription
Technical
Speech-to-text transcription is the process of turning spoken words into written text. You speak, or you play a recording, and a transcription system…
Structured Data (Schema Markup)
Technical
Structured data, often called schema markup, is extra labelling added to a page in a format search engines can read precisely. It states facts about…
Survey Scoring
Basics
Survey scoring is the set of rules by which answers to a survey are turned into numbers that can be reported, compared, and acted on. A survey collects…
Text-to-Speech Accessibility
Technical
Text-to-speech accessibility means making written content available as spoken audio, so that people who cannot easily read a screen can still use the…
Title tag
On-page
A title tag is the HTML title of a page. It is what appears as the clickable headline in search results and in the browser tab.…
Topical authority
Basics
Topical authority is the idea that a site which covers one subject thoroughly, across many connected articles, is more trusted on that subject than a site with …
Transcription Accuracy
Technical
Transcription accuracy is a measure of how closely a transcript matches what was actually said. A perfectly accurate transcript contains every word, in…
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