"

37 SEO Technical Guide: Terms You Need to Know

Essential SEO Terminology

This guide was created with assistance from Claude.ai. First, we will review some key SEO (search engine optimization) concepts. Then we will look at more technical elements of SEO. Finally, we will learn about content and performance metrics that professional writers use to track reader engagement.

Core SEO Concepts

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The practice of optimizing content to rank higher in search engine results pages to increase visibility and organic traffic.

Keywords: Specific words or phrases that users type into search engines. These form the foundation of SEO strategy.

  • Short-tail keywords: Brief, general search terms (e.g., “running shoes”)
  • Long-tail keywords: Longer, more specific phrases (e.g., “best waterproof running shoes for trail running”)

SERP (Search Engine Results Page): The page displayed by search engines in response to a user’s search query.

Organic Traffic: Visitors who find your website through unpaid search results.

Technical SEO Elements

Meta Title: The title of a webpage that appears in search results (displayed as the clickable headline). Optimally 50-60 characters.

Meta Description: A brief summary of a webpage that appears under the title in search results. Ideally 150-160 characters.

Header Tags (H1, H2, H3): HTML elements that structure content hierarchically. H1 is typically the main title, with H2s as section headers and H3s as subsection headers.

Alt Text: Descriptive text added to images that helps search engines understand their content and improves accessibility.

URL Structure: How the web address is formatted. SEO-friendly URLs are concise, descriptive, and contain relevant keywords.

Content & Performance Metrics

Backlinks: Links from other websites that point to your site, signaling authority and credibility to search engines.

Domain Authority: A search engine ranking score that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search results.

Keyword Density: The percentage of times a keyword appears on a page compared to the total word count.

Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors who navigate away from a site after viewing only one page.

Dwell Time: How long visitors stay on your page before returning to search results.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Cyborgs and Centaurs: Academic Writing in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence Copyright © by Liza Long is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book