Glossary of SEO Terms

Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization occurs when you have a page optimized for a certain keyword/keyword phrase, and there is another page existent on your domain that is optimized for the same keyword/keyword phrase. This typically happens when pages are written about similar topics, or your blog covers similar topics. This issue can be avoided by structuring the information you put on your website in a manner that consolidates related content, and by using proper title tags and h1 tags.


Page Ranks is an analysis algorithm that is used by Google to dictate a page’s established authority and trust, and then is used as a factor in determining placement in ranking in the SERPs.


This is an acronym for Search Engine Results Page.

Link Building

Link building is the process of establishing hyperlinks from different websites to the relevant pages on your own website. There is a wide range of strategies to utilize in order to build links from high quality websites in order to better establish the authority of your own website and its ability to rank


CMS stands for Content Management System. A CMS allows for publishing, editing, and modifying content in a centralized interface. This allows for collaborative work, and helps to standardize common website procedure. WordPress is the most commonly used CMS.


A citation, as we use the word, is a listing of a business’ Name Address and Phone number (N.A.P.) in an online business directory. This is a needed step when establishing a local authority.


Ranking, as we utilize the work, refers to where a certain piece of website content appears in the search results for a given keyword search.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text that a hyperlink uses to call and retrieve a different page on the internet.

N.A.P. +W

This is an acronym for Name Address Phone Number plus Website. These things must be listed in quality directories throughout the web in order to rank well in local search results.


A blog is a collection of posts that are typically informational, and of similar content to the associated website. One can also use the word blog as a verb, meaning to maintain or update a blog.

Blog Post

A blog post is a piece of content that is added to a blog. The word count of a blog posts can vary, but they are typically around 500 words.

Website Page

A website page is a URL address that is associated with specific content on your site.


A database is a structured collection of data. It is organized so that the data is easy to find.


Stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is a standard protocol to transfer files from one host to another host over the internet.

Local Pack

The local pack is the collection of search results that have an upside-down tear drop next to them and a correlating marker on the map that shows up when a locally relevant search query is entered into google.


Stands for HyperText Markup Language, and it is the language used to display information in a web-browser.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

As it relates to internet marketing, CRO is the process of optimizing a given webpage to maximize the rate at which visitors to that webpage are completing a desired action.


As it relates to online marketing, a conversion simply refers to the successful completion of a desired action. For example, a conversion for an eCommerce website which sells shoes may be an online purchase of a pair of shoes. For a blogger, a conversion may be a user signing up for the blog newsletter.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

The click-through rate for a given web link is calculate like so: # of impressions / # of clicks = CTR. For more information, read this.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is a reporting term in Google Analytics. Direct traffic reports on the number of times a visitor visited your site directly (ie. the visitor navigated directly to your website in their browser, rather than using any medium, such as a search engine, to get to the site).

On-Site Optimization

When we refer to on-site optimization we are referring to the breadth of optimization tasks performed on your website. Examples of this work include optimizing meta data based on keyword research, implementing a search friendly URL structure, and creating a site map.

H1 Tag

H1 tags are used to define HTML headings on a webpage. As it relates to SEO, an H1 tag is a crucial place to include primary keywords. For more information, read this.

Title Tag

Title tags define the title if an online document and are required for all HTML and XHTML documents. As it relates to SEO, the title tag is a crucial place for primary keywords to be used for a given page of content. For more information, read this.

Meta Tag



As search marketers, when we refer to a keyword we are normally talking about a word (or phrase) that is entered in a search engine’s search bar, for which the engine returns web pages related to that word (phrase). We may also refer to keywords as search queries or search terms.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is a kind of market research which relates specifically to search engine marketing. The goal of keyword research is to understand the language people are using to search for the goods or services that you are marketing. This research is fundamental to your SEO project, as it informs both our semantic optimization choices and the personas we target.