Jargon Buster

Grow

SEO & Discoverability

Being found by search engines and social previews.

The territory

30 core terms mapped for this field, ranked by how often builders reach for them. Each one is a future entry. Want to bust one? One entry, one file, one pull request.

  • CrawlingBots discovering and fetching pages for search engines to process"when Google visits my site" · "bots reading my pages"
  • IndexingSearch engines storing eligible pages so they can appear in results"getting on Google" · "why isn't my page showing up"
  • Title tagThe clickable headline of a page in search results"the blue link text on Google" · "the browser tab name"
  • Meta descriptionShort snippet under the title in search results"the little grey text under the link" · "the search blurb"
  • SERPThe search engine results page itself"the Google results page" · "what shows up when you search"
  • Search intentWhat the searcher actually wants: learn, compare, or buy"what people mean when they search that" · "the reason behind the query"
  • Open Graph tagsMeta tags controlling how a link looks when pasted anywhere"the thing that makes links preview nicely" · "why does my link show blank"
  • Open Graph image (`og:image`)The 1200x630 preview picture attached to a shared URL"the picture that shows when you paste the link" · "the Slack/Twitter thumbnail" · "social share card"
  • UnfurlWhen a chat app expands a pasted URL into a preview"when Slack turns a link into a card" · "the link preview popping up"
  • Structured data (JSON-LD)Machine-readable page facts search engines parse into features"the hidden code that tells Google what my page is" · "schema markup"
  • Rich resultEnhanced search listing showing stars, prices, FAQs, images"those listings with stars and prices" · "the fancy Google box"
  • Canonical URLTag naming the one true version of duplicate pages"telling Google which page is the real one" · "the master URL"
  • SlugHuman-readable last segment of a URL path"the words at the end of the link" · "the URL name"
  • XML sitemapMachine-readable list of every URL you want crawled"the file that lists all my pages for Google" · "the crawl index file"
  • robots.txtRoot file telling crawlers which paths to skip"the file that blocks bots" · "the crawler rules file"
  • noindexDirective keeping a page out of search results entirely"hide this page from Google" · "make it unsearchable"
  • 301 redirectPermanent forward that passes ranking to the new URL"point the old link at the new one" · "permanent forwarding"
  • Internal linkingLinks between your own pages that distribute crawl and authority"linking my own pages to each other" · "cross-linking my site"
  • BacklinkInbound link from another site, the main authority signal"other sites linking to me" · "inbound links"
  • Anchor textThe visible clickable words of a link, a relevance signal"the words you actually click" · "the link label"
  • Long-tail keywordLonger, specific, lower-competition phrase with clearer intent"the really specific search phrases" · "niche search terms"
  • Featured snippetAnswer box lifted above regular results"the answer box at the top" · "position zero"
  • Topic clusterHub page plus supporting articles interlinked around one subject"one big guide with articles branching off" · "content hub" · "pillar page"
  • AI OverviewsAI-generated answer block above search results"the AI summary at the top of Google" · "the robot answer"
  • Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)Optimizing to be cited by AI assistants, not just ranked"getting ChatGPT to mention my product" · "showing up in AI answers" · "AEO"
  • E-E-A-TExperience, expertise, authority, trust signals quality raters weigh"proving my site is legit" · "credibility signals"
  • Mobile-first indexingGoogle ranks based on the mobile version of pages"Google looks at the phone version" · "the mobile version is what counts"
  • Thin contentLow-substance pages that add nothing over existing results"pages with barely anything on them" · "filler pages"
  • Content decayTraffic erosion of aging pages that need refreshing"my old posts are losing traffic" · "stale content slipping"
  • Orphan pageLive page no internal link points to"a page nothing links to" · "the page Google can't find"

Deeper in the field

  • Crawler (spider/bot) Automated program that discovers and fetches pages for search engines
  • Crawlability Whether search bots can reach and fetch a page
  • Indexability Whether a page is eligible to enter a search index
  • Organic search Unpaid discovery and traffic from search engine results
  • Search query Words a user enters into a search engine
  • Target keyword Query a page is intentionally optimized to rank for
  • Search ranking A page's position for a query in organic results
  • Technical SEO Site work improving crawling, rendering, indexing, and search eligibility
  • On-page SEO Optimizing page content, headings, metadata, and internal relevance signals
  • JavaScript SEO Ensuring script-rendered content remains crawlable, renderable, and indexable
  • Robots meta tag HTML metadata controlling indexing and link-following directives
  • X-Robots-Tag HTTP header applying indexing rules to non-HTML files
  • Duplicate content Substantially similar pages creating canonicalization and ranking ambiguity
  • Link equity Ranking value passed between pages through links
  • X/Twitter Card tags Platform-specific meta tags for large-image link previews
  • hreflang Tag mapping equivalent pages across languages and regions for search
  • Soft 404 Missing-content page that wrongly returns a 200 status
  • Click depth Number of clicks from homepage to reach a page
  • Faceted navigation Filter combinations generating near-infinite crawlable URL variants
  • Sitemap index Parent sitemap referencing multiple child sitemap files
  • IndexNow Push protocol pinging engines the instant a URL changes
  • Breadcrumb structured data Structured data rendering a path trail in search listings
  • Sitelinks Sub-page links shown indented under a main search result
  • People Also Ask Expandable related-question block inside search results
  • Entity Real-world thing search engines model as a node, not a keyword
  • Topical authority Site-level trust earned by covering one subject exhaustively
  • Local pack Three-result map block for location-based queries
  • Query fan-out AI search splitting one prompt into many background searches
  • Link `rel` values (`nofollow`, `sponsored`, `ugc`) Link attributes declaring paid, user-generated, or untrusted links
  • Programmatic SEO (pSEO) Generating many templated pages from a dataset
  • Crawl budget Finite pages a bot will fetch per site per period
  • Dynamic rendering Serving crawlers static HTML instead of JavaScript-dependent pages
  • Keyword cannibalization Multiple own pages competing for the same query
  • Zero-click search Query answered on the SERP, so nobody visits