The vocabulary,
in plain English.

SEO tactics that violate Google's guidelines, buying links from PBNs, cloaking, keyword stuffing, hidden text, etc. Black-hat tactics may produce short-term gains but typically result in manual penalties and ranking loss. See also: White hat SEO.

SEO tactics that don't clearly violate Google's guidelines but skirt the line, buying expired domains, scaled link exchanges, lightly-edited spun content. Higher risk than white hat, lower than black hat. Most reputable Australian agencies avoid grey hat entirely.

The subset of SEO focused on appearing for location-based searches, "plumber Joondalup", "dentist near me". Driven by Google Business Profile, NAP consistency, citations, reviews, and location-targeted content. See: Local SEO Perth.

Everything that influences your rankings from outside your website. Primarily backlinks, brand mentions, Google Business Profile signals, and reputation. The "things other people say about you" half of SEO. See: Off-Page SEO section.

Optimisations you make to your own webpages, content, headers, internal links, schema, titles, meta descriptions, image alt text. Everything that lives within the page itself. See: On-Page SEO section.

Search Engine Optimisation. The discipline of improving a website's visibility in unpaid (organic) search engine results. Encompasses technical health, content quality, on-page optimisation, and authority building. Different from paid search (Google Ads).

SEO done within Google's guidelines, quality content, earned backlinks, sound technical hygiene. Slower but sustainable. The only kind we practise.

The alternative-text attribute on an <img> tag, describing the image for screen readers and search engines. Required for accessibility (WCAG) and the primary signal Google uses to understand image content. Bad: alt="img1.jpg". Good: alt="rooftop solar installation on a Perth single-storey home".

The clickable text portion of a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text as a signal about what the linked page is about. Over-optimised anchor text (every link saying "best plumber Perth") looks unnatural and can trigger penalties. Natural anchor profiles include brand names, URLs, and generic phrases.

The <h1> through <h6> HTML elements that structure a page hierarchically. One H1 per page (main topic), H2s for major sections, H3s for sub-sections. Google reads header structure to understand outline, don’t use headings purely for visual styling.

Optimising images for search and performance: descriptive alt text, compressed file size (WebP or AVIF), meaningful filenames, structured data for product/recipe images, lazy-loading below the fold. Good image SEO directly improves Core Web Vitals.

Links between pages on your own website. Used to distribute PageRank, signal topical relationships, and guide users. Strong internal linking is one of the cheapest, highest-leverage SEO improvements.

A search query (or close variation) you want to rank for. Modern SEO targets topics rather than single keywords, one page can rank for hundreds of related queries if it's authoritative and well-structured.

When two or more pages on your site compete for the same query, splitting rankings and CTR. Fix by consolidating, redirecting, or differentiating intent.

A specific, multi-word query with lower volume but higher intent, e.g. "emergency electrician Joondalup after hours" versus the head term "electrician Perth". Long-tail keywords are easier to rank for and typically convert better.

The HTML snippet that often appears under your title in Google's results. Not a direct ranking factor, but a major CTR factor. Aim for 140-160 characters, with a clear value proposition.

A long-form authoritative page covering a broad topic ("pillar"), surrounded by interlinked supporting pages on narrower sub-topics ("cluster"). Builds topical authority and helps Google identify the canonical answer for a topic.

What the user actually wants when they type a query. Generally informational ("how do I…"), navigational ("Telstra login"), transactional ("buy"), or commercial investigation ("best… in Perth"). Matching intent is the single highest-leverage thing you can do for on-page SEO.

The HTML <title> element, the headline that appears in search results and browser tabs. One of the strongest on-page ranking signals. Aim for 50-60 characters, primary keyword early, brand at the end.

Google's evaluation of how deeply your site covers a given topic. Built by publishing comprehensive content across related queries and earning links from sites in the same space. Often more important than backlink count for ranking.

The path component of your page URL. /services/seo beats /p?id=842. Short, descriptive, lowercase, hyphenated. A minor ranking signal but a major usability and CTR signal.

The set of rules Google uses to decide which pages rank for which searches. Google's core algorithm is updated thousands of times a year, with major "core updates" published a few times annually. Most algorithm changes are small; the named ones (e.g., "Helpful Content Update") have bigger ranking impact.

An HTML element <link rel="canonical"> that tells Google which version of a page is the "primary" version when duplicates exist. Critical for e-commerce sites with filtered URLs and any site with print/mobile/HTTPS variants.

Google's measurement of page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, how fast main content loads), Interaction to Next Paint (INP, responsiveness), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS, visual stability). Pages with poor CWV scores lose rankings. See our speed optimisation service.

The number of pages Googlebot will crawl on your site in a given period. For large sites (10,000+ pages), crawl budget management matters, you want Google spending it on important pages, not duplicates or junk.

Google's quality framework: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness. Especially important for YMYL topics (health, finance, legal). Content from named experts with credentials outranks anonymous content.

An HTML attribute (or sitemap field) telling Google which language and region a page targets, hreflang="en-AU" for Australian English. Critical for international sites to prevent the wrong country version showing in SERPs and to avoid duplicate-content issues.

200 OK · 301 permanent redirect · 302 temporary redirect · 404 not found · 410 gone · 500 server error · 503 unavailable. Audit your site for 4xx and 5xx errors regularly, they bleed crawl budget and link equity.

Encrypted HTTP. Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, and Chrome marks non-HTTPS sites as "Not Secure". Every Australian business site should be HTTPS, free via Let’s Encrypt or Cloudflare, and table stakes for trust.

The process where Google adds your pages to its searchable database. A page that isn't indexed can't rank. Check indexation status in Google Search Console.

Google’s open-source page audit tool, built into Chrome DevTools. Measures Performance, Accessibility, SEO, and Best Practices scores out of 100. Our free SEO audit tool uses Lighthouse data via the PageSpeed Insights API.

Since 2020, Google indexes the mobile version of your site by default, even for desktop searches. If your mobile site is missing content, schema, or links that desktop has, those signals are invisible to Google. Build mobile-first.

HTML meta tags or HTTP headers instructing Google: noindex = don’t include this page in search results · nofollow = don’t follow the links on this page. Powerful tools, a stray noindex on a critical page can erase it from Google overnight.

How fast a page loads and becomes interactive on a real device. Measured by Core Web Vitals + Lighthouse. Slow pages lose rankings AND conversions. Run a free audit to see your scores.

A server instruction that points one URL to another. 301 = permanent (passes ranking signals, use for site migrations and consolidations). 302 = temporary (Google treats it provisionally, passes fewer signals). Get this wrong on a site migration and you can lose months of SEO equity.

Scripts or stylesheets the browser has to download and process before it can paint the page. The #1 cause of poor LCP scores. Fix with defer/async attributes, preloaded critical CSS, and code splitting.

A plain-text file at the root of your domain telling crawlers which paths they can or can't visit. Misconfigured robots.txt files have nuked entire sites from Google's index. Audit yours regularly.

Structured data (usually JSON-LD) that tells Google what your page means, not just what it says. Powers rich results: star ratings, FAQs, recipes, events, products, local business info. Direct ROI on most pages.

An XML file listing all the URLs on your site you want indexed, plus metadata about each. Submitted in Google Search Console. Critical for large or new sites where Google might miss pages on its own.

A link from another website pointing to your site. Backlinks are one of Google's strongest ranking signals, they act as third-party endorsements. Quality matters more than quantity: one link from a reputable Australian news site is worth more than 100 links from low-quality directories.

Mentions of your business’s NAP (name, address, phone) on other websites, directories, industry sites, news mentions. Citations don’t need to link to you (unlinked citations still help). Consistency across major Australian directories (Yelp, Yellow Pages, TrueLocal, Hotfrog) is a foundational local SEO task.

Third-party scores (from Moz and Ahrefs respectively) estimating a domain's strength. NOT a Google metric. Useful as a rough comparison tool between sites but irrelevant to actual Google rankings.

Earning high-authority editorial backlinks via newsworthy content, original research, or expert commentary. The legitimate evolution of link building. A single placement in The West Australian, news.com.au, or ABC News can outweigh hundreds of low-quality links.

A text file you submit to Google Search Console listing toxic backlinks you want Google to ignore. Useful for recovering from negative SEO attacks or cleaning up legacy spam links from prior agencies. Use cautiously, most sites don’t need it.

Free Google product (previously "Google My Business") that controls how your business appears in Google Maps and the local 3-pack. Optimising your GBP is the highest-leverage activity for local SEO.

The process of acquiring backlinks from other websites. Legitimate tactics include digital PR, original research, guest content on relevant sites, and broken-link reclamation. Buying links from PBNs is risky and against guidelines.

The three local business listings that appear (with a map) for location-relevant queries, "plumber Joondalup", "dentist Fremantle". Getting into the 3-pack is the single highest-value local SEO outcome.

Name, Address, Phone. NAP consistency across directories, your GBP, and your website is a foundational local SEO signal. Inconsistent NAP (different phone formats, old addresses) confuses Google and degrades local rankings.

Link attributes that tell Google how to treat outbound links: rel="nofollow" (don’t count as endorsement) · rel="sponsored" (paid/affiliate, required by FTC and Google) · rel="ugc" (user-generated, e.g. blog comments). Mark sponsored content correctly or risk a manual action.

Google's original algorithm for ranking pages by the quality and quantity of links pointing to them. The public PageRank toolbar score is long gone, but the concept (link equity flowing through the web) is still core to how Google ranks.

A drop in rankings caused by violating Google's guidelines. Manual actions are issued by humans at Google and appear in Search Console. Algorithmic suppression is automatic and harder to diagnose. Recovery from either can take months.

In Universal Analytics: the percentage of sessions with only one pageview. In GA4: replaced by "engagement rate" (the inverse). Not a direct ranking signal, but a useful diagnostic, a high bounce rate on a high-intent page often signals a content/intent mismatch.

The percentage of search impressions that result in a click. CTR is a ranking signal: pages that consistently get more clicks than expected for their position tend to move up. Improving titles and meta descriptions improves CTR.

The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (form submit, phone call, purchase). The metric that actually matters more than traffic. Doubling your conversion rate is usually cheaper than doubling traffic.

A boxed answer at the top of Google's results that pulls content directly from a webpage. Position zero. Getting featured snippets requires answering questions directly, using structured formatting (lists, tables, definitions), and matching the search intent.

The current version of Google Analytics, replacing Universal Analytics in July 2023. Event-based rather than session-based. Properly configured GA4 is the foundation of measuring SEO ROI.

Free Google product showing how your site performs in Google Search: impressions, clicks, average position, indexing status, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability. The single most important tool for any SEO. If you don’t have GSC set up, set it up today.

Unpaid search results, i.e. not ads. The pages Google's algorithm chooses to surface based on relevance and authority. The opposite of paid search.

A search result with enhanced visual treatment, star ratings, FAQ accordions, recipe cards, sitelinks, knowledge panel data. Powered by schema markup. Rich results massively increase CTR for the queries they appear on.

Search Engine Results Page. The page Google returns for a query, increasingly crowded with ads, featured snippets, People Also Ask, video carousels, knowledge panels, and the 3-pack. Understanding the SERP layout for your target queries is critical.

Google's category for topics that could materially impact someone's wellbeing, health, finance, legal, safety. YMYL queries demand the highest content quality bar and the strongest E-E-A-T signals.

Optimising content to be the answer surfaced by AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) and Google’s AI Overviews. Different discipline from traditional SEO: answers reward direct, structured, citation-worthy content over keyword-stuffed pages.

Google’s AI-generated summary that appears above traditional search results for many queries. Pulls from a small set of authoritative sources. Being cited in an AI Overview is becoming as important as ranking #1 organically.

Practitioner-coined term for the same discipline as AEO, optimising content so generative AI engines cite, paraphrase, and recommend your brand. Tactics: clear factual statements, original data, named experts, schema markup, fresh content.

The underlying AI technology powering ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc. Trained on huge text corpora. For SEO purposes, LLMs decide which sites get cited in AI answers based on authority, freshness, and clarity, the same signals as traditional SEO, weighted differently.

A proposed standard text file at the root of your domain (/llms.txt) telling LLMs how to crawl and use your content. Like robots.txt but for AI. Adoption is early, major LLMs don’t all honour it yet, but easy to deploy and forward-compatible.