SEO in 79 Images – A Visual Guide to Search Engine Optimization Terms

Last updated: November 2019

Search Engine Optimization is not always clear for everyone. Some terms need more than just definitions and written examples. That’s why I created this list of 79 terms and tools relevant to SEO (in no particular order) and paired them all up with a relevant picture:

1. SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) – the place where all search results for specific keywords and websites are displayed according to their rankings

2. 404 error – a message that notifies you when a page can’t be found on a website

3. Search engine – a tool or software that helps you search for information on the Internet

4. Keyword – any word that you can use to find relevant content using a search engine

5. Keyword stuffing – the bad practice of repeating the same keyword too many times on a page in an attempt to make the page relevant and rank higher

6. Alt tag – an image attribute that helps search engines identify what a picture represents

7. Meta description – a text snippet that summarizes a page’s content and will appear in the search results

8. Indexing – the process of submitting a page to Google (or other search engines) so that they can be included in the Google index and appear in search results

9. Sitemap – a visual diagram of a website’s content that shows Google how it should crawl and index each page

10. Robots.txt – a file that provides all the necessary information regarding your website to any crawler or spider and can help you stop them from accessing certain parts of your website

11. Long tail keywords – longer keyword phrases that are very specific to what you want to promote or sell

12. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)  Keyword – a keyword whose meaning is linked to your main keyword and that help readers and search engines understand what the content is about

13. LSIGraph – a tool that helps you discover LSI keywords

14. Alexa Ranking – a measurement and tool that ranks a website based on its traffic

15. Breadcrumbs – a trail of pages that show you exactly where you are on a website according to the website’s hierarchy

16. Canonical – your chosen main page in a situation where there are multiple other pages with the same or similar content

17. Keyword density – the number of times your preferred keyword is used on a page

18. Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmasters) – a free tool that allows webmasters and SEO experts to check the status of a website in terms of speed and indexing and to optimize it for the search results

19. Black hat SEO – the bad practice of using paid, illegal, or violent SEO techniques to boost your ranking such as paying for backlinks like in the example below

20. Google AdWords Keyword Planner – Google’s keyword research tool that helps you find keywords to use in your ads or content

21. Backlink – a link placed on a website that’s not your but links back to your website

Source: VentureHarbour

22. The Skyscraper Technique – a content-building method created by Brian Dean that implies finding high-ranking content and creating something better or longer than that

Source: Backlinko

23. Link building – a technique used to get backlinks (to a page you want to promote) through email outreach, link submission or guest posting like in the example below

Source: HubSpot

24. NoFollow link – a tag that shows search engines not to follow a link

25. Meta keywords – a list of the main keywords that represent a page or a website

26. Organic search results – the free, unpaid results that appear on the search engine results page

27. Paid search results – the paid results that appear on the search engine results page

28. Rich snippet – a highlighted result that is shown to users based on their specific searches

29. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – promoting a product or service using search engines

30. Title tag – the page’s title that is seen in a browser’s title bar

31. Uniform Resource Locator (URL) – the address of a website or page

32. Ahrefs – a tool for researching your competition and checking SEO backlinks

33. SEMrush – a tool used to check competitor activity and discover relevant keywords for your website

34. Moz – a website that provides SEO software, tools, and other resources for marketers and SEO practitioners

35. Backlinko – a website that offers extensive SEO training and learning resources for link building

36. PageSpeed Insights – a Google tool you can use to analyze and improve the speed of your website

37. Google Suggest – Google’s auto-complete function that recommends other similar keywords to the one you’re looking for

38. Page Authority – a specific score created by Moz that can show you approximately how your page will rank in the search results

39. Domain Authority – a specific score created by Moz that can show you approximately how your website will rank in the search results

40. 301 Redirect – a message that lets you know when a page has been permanently moved to a different location

41. 302 Redirect – a message that lets you know when a page has been temporarily moved to a different location

42. Above the fold – the area of a page or landing page that is visible before the user scrolls down

43. Absolute link – a link to a website that includes the full URL of the page you link want to send users to

44. Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest – a free tool you can use to find keywords and analyze URLs

45. Anchor text – the text a user has to click on to reach a specific internal or external URL

46. Disavow – a method for removing unwanted or spam links

47. Favicon – a small icon that appears next to a website’s URL

48. Whiteboard Friday by Moz – a series of regular videos on the latest SEO news and tips

49. Google Trends – a free tool that shows you the search volumes for specific keywords

50. HTML headings – tags that define the importance of a heading according to the hierarchy you establish

51. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) – the language in which the pages of all websites across the Internet are written

52. Search Engine Journal – a website that offers SEO and search engine marketing news and tips

53. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) – a protocol that facilitates the communication between servers and web browsers

54. Internal link – a link that sends users to another page on the same website

55. External link – a link that sends users to page on a different website

56. Branded keywords – keyword phrases that include the name of a brand

57. Wordtracker – a keyword research tool

58. WordStream – a tool that allows you to discover and export keywords

59. Keyword Tool – a free keyword finder for Google, YouTube, Bing, Amazon, eBay, and App Store

60. KWFinder – a tool for finding and analyzing keywords

61. Google Correlate – a free tool that can help you generate keywords or compare them and their performance

62. MozBar – a free Chrome extension that can show you a website’s Page Authority (PA), Domain Authority (DA), and Spam Score.

63. Check My Links – a free Chrome extension that can show you which links from a page are not working anymore

64. Yoast SEO – a WordPress plugin that can help you optimize a page for the search results and identify any SEO-related issues

65. AnswerThePublic – a free visual keyword finder that offers content ideas

66. Help A Reporter – a service that can help you find content to contribute to in exchange for a backlink or ask for the help of other people to be a part of your own content

67. LongTailPro – a tool that helps you find long tail keywords

68. BuzzSumo – a tool that can help you find the best influencers to reach out too and the most shared content to link to or to re-create

69. BuzzStream – a software for link building and researching prospects

70. SEObook – a series of tools to help you with doing SEO on your website

71. Pingdom – a website to help you check the speed of your web pages

72. SEOprofiler – a tool that can check your website in terms of complete SEO

73. Search Engine Watch – a website that can keep you up to date with the latest changes in the world of search engines

74. Blog – an individual website or page on a website where regular written and visual content is published

75. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feed – a subscription method you can use to get the latest updates from a website you want to follow

76. Feedly – a website that can help you organize your favorite websites by subscribing to their RSS feeds

77. Soovle – a tool for discovering keyword according to specific search engines

78. Google Hot Keyword Searches – a tool that shows you the latest popular keywords to inspire you to write your next piece of content

79. cognitiveSEO – a series of tools that help you increase your traffic by dealing with all SEO issues

Know any other terms? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll check them out. Don’t forget to share this article with someone who might be interested in SEO or bookmark it to come back once it’s updated.