SEO & GEO glossary

71 definitions of the vocabulary you will hear in a pitch, an audit or a reporting meeting — from crawl budget to AI Overviews. Every entry answers the question first, then explains why it matters and what it changes in practice.

All Fundamentals Technical SEO Content Links & authority Local SEO Measurement AI search & GEO Buying SEO

A

Anchor text

Anchor text is the clickable words of a link. It tells search engines what the destination page is about, which makes it both a strong signal and a common source of over-optimisation.

B

Backlink

A backlink is a link from another site to yours. Links remain one of the strongest ranking signals because they are a costly, third-party endorsement.

Brand mention

A brand mention is a reference to a company by name without a link. Mentions help search engines and AI models build a consistent picture of an entity.

D

Digital PR

Digital PR earns links and brand mentions by producing something journalists want to cover — original data, a study, a tool, a story — rather than by asking for placements.

Domain authority / rating

Domain authority scores are third-party metrics, typically 0-100, estimating a site's link strength. They are invented by tool vendors and used by nobody at Google.

L

Link scheme

A link scheme is any arrangement intended to manipulate rankings through links — buying them, exchanging them at scale, or building private networks. Google's spam policies prohibit it.

N

nofollow, sponsored, ugc

These link attributes tell search engines how to treat a link: nofollow for links you do not vouch for, sponsored for paid ones, ugc for user-generated content.

R

Referring domain

A referring domain is a unique website linking to yours, regardless of how many individual links it sends. It is the meaningful unit when measuring an authority profile.