SEO Glossary
Every definition links to a full guide with examples, common mistakes and the AuditMe check that verifies it on your site.
What Is a Canonical URL?
A canonical URL is the preferred version of a web page when multiple URLs serve similar or identical content. It is specified using a <link rel="canonical"> tag in the HTML <head> or via HTTP header. The canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page to index and rank.
Read the guide →What Is a Meta Description?
A meta description is an HTML attribute (<meta name="description">) that provides a brief summary of a web page. It appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) below the page title. While not a direct ranking factor, it significantly influences click-through rate (CTR).
Read the guide →What Is Structured Data?
Structured data is a standardized format for providing information about a page and classifying its content. It is typically implemented using JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) and follows the Schema.org vocabulary. Structured data helps search engines understand your content and can enable rich results (featured snippets, knowledge panels, FAQ dropdowns).
Read the guide →What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of three specific metrics that Google uses to measure user experience on web pages. They are: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — measures loading performance, First Input Delay (FID) — measures interactivity, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — measures visual stability. These metrics are part of Google's Page Experience signals.
Read the guide →What Is a Toxic Backlink?
A toxic backlink is an inbound link from a low-quality, spammy, or irrelevant website that can negatively impact your search engine rankings. Toxic links may come from link farms, private blog networks (PBNs), automated link building tools, spam comments, or hacked websites. Google's algorithms (especially Penguin) can detect and devalue these links.
Read the guide →What Is robots.txt?
robots.txt is a text file placed at the root of a website (e.g., https://example.com/robots.txt) that tells web crawlers which pages or sections of the site they are allowed or disallowed from accessing. It uses the Robots Exclusion Protocol. Search engines and AI crawlers typically check robots.txt before crawling any page.
Read the guide →What Is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all important pages on a website, helping search engines discover and crawl content more efficiently. It is placed at the root of the site (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml) and referenced in robots.txt. A sitemap can include metadata like last modification date, change frequency, and page priority.
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