So, you’ve got a website and heard the phrase “you need SEO”. But what is SEO? And why does everyone sound like they’re speaking in code?
This updated guide breaks down the jargon — from basic terms to more advanced technical language — in plain English. Whether you’re new to SEO or just need a refresher, this glossary is for you.
SEO Basics
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is the process of improving your website so that it appears higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Done right, SEO helps you gain more visibility, clicks, and customers — all without paying for ads.
SERP
This stands for Search Engine Results Page — the list of websites that appear when you search for something on Google, Bing, or another search engine.
Rankings
Your “ranking” is simply your position in the SERP. Ranking #1 organically (without ads) means you’re the top result for a given keyword.
Organic SEO
Organic SEO refers to the methods used to get higher rankings without paying for advertising by optimising content, improving site structure, and earning backlinks.
Paid Search
Paid search means paying to appear in the sponsored sections of the SERP. Common examples include Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and social platforms like Facebook or Instagram Ads.
PPC (Pay-Per-Click)
A type of advertising where you only pay when someone clicks your ad. Google Ads is the most common platform for PPC campaigns.
Local SEO
Local SEO focuses on getting your business found in your area — e.g. “plumber in Chesterfield.” It starts with a well-optimised Google Business Profile, local citations, and location-specific landing pages.
Understanding Traffic
Traffic
Traffic is the number of people who visit your site. In analytics, you’ll often see terms like:
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Sessions: Each individual visit to your website.
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Users: Unique visitors to your site (people, not bots).
Direct Traffic
Visits from users typing your URL directly or using a bookmark. However, some untrackable visits also get lumped into this category.
Referral Traffic
Traffic that comes from other websites. This could include social platforms (e.g. Facebook, X, Reddit) or blogs that link to your pages.
Site Health & Audits
Site Audit
A full health check of your website’s SEO performance. Tools like Screaming Frog, Sitebulb or SEMrush can uncover issues like broken links, duplicate content, slow load times, and more.
Website Architecture Jargon
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the core code that structures your website pages.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator — in plain English, your web address.
Head
The <head> section of your HTML contains meta information like page titles, descriptions, and links to CSS or JavaScript.
CSS
Cascading Style Sheets control how your website looks — fonts, colours, spacing, etc.
JavaScript
A scripting language that adds interactivity to your site — think image sliders, live chat, dropdown menus.
Body
This is where your page’s actual content (text, images, links) lives in the code.
Copy
Marketing speak for “text”. Quality copy improves SEO and conversions. Don’t enjoy writing? We can help.
Key Terms Your SEO Team Will Use
Technical SEO
A broad category that includes everything that helps search engines crawl and index your site efficiently — like site speed, mobile responsiveness, structured data, and more.
E-E-A-T
Stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google uses these principles to assess content quality — especially important for websites in finance, health, and legal niches.
Authority
In SEO, authority means trust and credibility in the eyes of search engines. Factors include backlinks, brand mentions, and content quality.
Domain Authority (DA)
A score from Moz (0–100) that predicts how well your website will rank in search engines. Not used by Google, but still a useful benchmarking tool.
Page Authority
Also from Moz — predicts the ranking potential of individual pages.
Trust Flow / Citation Flow
Metrics from Majestic. Trust Flow reflects link quality, while Citation Flow measures link quantity.
Spam Score
Another Moz metric. A high spam score suggests your site may have low-quality backlinks.
Backlinks
These are links from other websites to yours — one of the most important ranking factors. Quality matters more than quantity.
Duplicate Content
When the same or very similar text appears on more than one page — either on your own site or copied from others. Can hurt rankings if not handled properly.
Canonical URL
Used to tell search engines which version of a page is the “master” one. Helps avoid duplicate content issues.
SSL Certificate / HTTPS
Secure Sockets Layer encrypts your website. HTTPS is now a ranking factor and a must-have for all modern websites.
Alt Text
A description added to images. Helps with accessibility and also gives search engines context — a win for SEO.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google primarily uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking. If your site doesn’t work well on mobile, you’ll likely struggle to rank.
Core Web Vitals
A set of Google performance metrics measuring load time, interactivity, and visual stability. Includes:
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LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
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FID (First Input Delay — now replaced by INP: Interaction to Next Paint)
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CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)
301 / 302 Redirects
Redirects help send users from one URL to another.
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301: Permanent redirect (best for SEO)
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302: Temporary redirect
404 Error
When a page doesn’t exist, try to minimise these. Too many can harm user experience and SEO.
Data, Tracking & Tools
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
The latest version of Google Analytics. Tracks user behaviour across your website and app using event-based data.
Search Console
Google’s free tool to help you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft’s version of Search Console. Don’t overlook it — Bing still sends valuable traffic.
Google Tag Manager (GTM)
A tool that lets you add tracking tags (like GA4, Facebook Pixel, etc.) without editing your website code directly.
Structured Data / Schema Markup
Code you add to your site helps search engines better understand your content. Used for rich results like review stars, FAQs, recipes, and more.
Crawling, Indexing & Sitemaps
Crawl
When bots (also called spiders) scan your website to gather data.
Crawl Budget
The number of pages a search engine is willing to crawl on your site within a certain timeframe. Optimising your site structure can help make the most of it.
Index / Indexed Pages
When a page is added to a search engine’s database. If it’s not indexed, it won’t show in search results.
XML Sitemap
A file that lists all the important URLs on your website. Submitted to Search Console to help with indexing.
Robots.txt
A file that tells bots which pages or sections of your site they should or shouldn’t crawl.
Content Management & Blogs
Blog
A blog can improve your rankings by giving you a steady flow of new content. Posts help target long-tail keywords and demonstrate expertise.
Blog Post
An individual article, like the one you’re reading now.
Plugins
Software add-ons that enhance functionality. Used with platforms like WordPress to manage SEO, forms, caching, and more.
H3: Want Your SEO Questions Answered?
Whether you’re completely new or just confused by some of the latest changes in SEO, Peak District SEO can help. We specialise in plain-speaking SEO services tailored for real businesses.
👉 Visit our contact page and let’s demystify your website together.
I’m Phil Gregory, the MD and founder of Peak District SEO.
I’m an SEO & Google Ads Consultant with 27+ years of experience in I.T and helping UK Businesses improve website performance.
I built my first website in 1998, then I discovered the joys of website optimisation and never looked back.
If you want a no-nonsense, no-hard-sell approach and to actually get your website fixed with a solid, affordable, long-term approach, hit the contact button today.
Peak District SEO is a UK-based Digital Marketing Company.
We help businesses make more money, using traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) , Ai Search / GEO and paid advertising (PPC).
Why Peak District SEO?
27+ years of experience.
80+ 5* reviews on Google
Our customers have hundreds of page one and position 1 rankings, and we can prove it.
We’ve helped hundreds of SMEs in the UK
We have numerous articles published across the web discussing SEO.
We regularly publish case studies about the work we’ve done
Customers trust our service – See our reviews on Google, Trustpilot and Facebook
Our customers have hundreds of page one and position 1 rankings and we can prove it.
