// SEO GLOSSARY

The technical terms, translated

Plain-language definitions for the SEO terms used throughout the 37-step framework — built for non-technical clients who want to understand what they are buying.

Priority Band

One of four categories (Q1-Q4) the framework sorts findings into, based on importance and urgency: Critical, Reactive, Strategic and Deferred.

Canonical Tag

An HTML element that tells search engines which version of a page is the master copy, preventing duplicate-content issues.

Core Web Vitals

Google's set of user-experience metrics — LCP (loading), INP (interactivity) and CLS (visual stability) — that influence ranking.

Crawl Budget

The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site within a given timeframe. Wasted on low-value pages, it starves your money pages.

Crawl Diagnostics

The process of analysing how search engines crawl your site, identifying blocked, orphaned or error URLs.

Domain Authority

A comparative score predicting how well a domain will rank in search results, based largely on its backlink profile.

Faceted Navigation

Filter and sort controls (e.g. by price, colour) that generate many URL combinations — often a source of duplicate content.

GBP (Google Business Profile)

The free listing that powers Google Maps and local pack results; central to local SEO.

Indexation

Whether a page has been stored in a search engine's database. A page that isn't indexed cannot rank.

INP

Interaction to Next Paint — measures how quickly a page responds to user input. Replaced FID as a Core Web Vital.

Internal Link Topology

The structure of links between your own pages, which channels authority and guides crawlers and users.

JSON-LD

A structured-data format that helps search engines understand your content and unlock rich results.

LCP

Largest Contentful Paint — the time until the largest visible element renders. A key loading metric.

Local Grid Mapping

Tracking rankings across a grid of geographic points to visualise local search visibility.

NAP Consistency

Name, Address and Phone number being identical everywhere it appears online — a local SEO trust signal.

Orphan Page

A page with no internal links pointing to it, making it hard for crawlers and users to find.

Render Budget

The resources a search engine allocates to executing JavaScript when rendering a page.

Robots.txt

A file that instructs search engine crawlers which parts of your site they may or may not crawl.

Schema

Structured data added to pages to describe their content (e.g. product, article, FAQ) to search engines.

Search Intent

The goal behind a search query — informational, navigational, commercial or transactional.

Semantic Cluster

A group of topically related pages that collectively establish authority on a subject.

SERP

Search Engine Results Page — the listings returned for a query, including organic, paid and feature results.

Sitemap (XML)

A file listing your important pages to help search engines discover and prioritise them.

TF-IDF

Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency — a measure of how important a word is to a document relative to a corpus.

Toxic Link

A low-quality or spammy backlink that can harm your rankings and may need to be disavowed.

White-label

Rebranding a service or framework so it appears as though produced by the reselling agency.