See definitions for commonly used Digital Optimization, Marketing & Analytics terms below. Don’t see a term that you’re interested in? Feel free to submit it to us & we will add it to our list of definitions!
3XX Status Code
A 3XX status code is returned when the destination URL re-directs to another URL automatically. Read more on 3XX Status Codes following the link above.
4XX Status Code
A 4XX status code is returned when there is a client error, meaning that the browser’s request is unable to be understood & responded to by the server. Learn more about 4XX Status Codes following the link above.
5XX Status Code
5XX status codes are returned when a server has an error responding to an acceptable client-request made in the browser. Learn more about 5XX Status Codes following the link above.
Alt-Img Tag
An ALT-IMG tag is a piece of descriptive text that is embedded within an image tag. Learn more by following the link above.
Accelerated Mobile Page AMP
Accelerated Mobile Pages are webpages that are built to load faster than regular HTML pages by design. Learn more about AMPs by following the link above.
Analytics Platform
Analytics platforms are centralized sources of data that enable users to view information associated with their web & app properties & their users. Learn more by clicking the link above.
API
API’s enable users to access data sets from larger sources, while using functions & bits of code to access them. Learn more about APIs following the link above.
Average Position
Average Position is a field used in the Google Search Console Performance report, in relation to a query or pages ranking. Learn more by following the link above.
Baidu
Baidu is China’s primary search engine & is essential for marketers to know about if they are targeting Chinese audiences. Learn more following the link above.
Benchmark
Benchmarks are performance measurements taken before pitching or beginning a new web optimization project. Learn more by following the link above.
Bing
Bing is a popular search engine that is owned by Microsoft. Marketers should always optimize their sites for Bing, as they also power Yahoo’s results. Learn more by following the link above.
Bing Search Console
Bing Search Console enables marketers & webmasters to gain insight into their organic search performance on their search engine. Learn more by following the link above.
Total Blocking Time
Total Blocking Time refers to the amount of time during a webpage’s loading sequence that the client was blocked from performing an action. Learn more by following the link above.
Breadcrumb
Breadcrumbs are links that appear of a page as a user ventures down content silos. Learn more by following the link above.
Cache
A cache is a system of saved files both on the client & server side that are meant to save larger files & resources. Learn more by following the link above.
Cannibalization
Canniblization occurs when a webpage on one domain begins to compete with & outrank another page from the same domain for the same query. Learn more by following the link above.
Canonical Tag
A Canonical Tag is placed on a webpage when it contains text that is copied from, or too similar to the text of another webpage. Learn more by following the link above.
Content Delivery/Distribution Network CDN
A Content Distribution Network or Content Delivery Network is a network of servers that are used to store cached versions of webpage content across numerous geo-locations, and serve users the piece of content that has the least amount of latency to the end user, thereby decreasing the load time for a web page. Learn more by following the link above.
Click-Through-Rate CTR
A Click-Through-Rate (CTR) is the rate at which users click through your SERP/Ad Impressions & is considered a metric of efficiency. Learn more by following the link above.
Compression
Compression refers to when files are optimized in a manner as to reduce the number of requests and bytes/request in order to reduce the time it takes to load them. Learn more by following the link above.
Conversion
Conversions occur when a user completes an action on your site that accomplishes a business or analytics goals. Learn more by following the link above.
Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate is the percentage of times that a conversion occurs when a user visits your website & completes an action that is defined in your analytics goals as being a conversion. Learn more by following the link above.
Cookies
Cookies are pixels used by marketers to keep track of users & their interactions with websites. Learn more by following the link above.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is a set of real world user data for websites that describes how they function & perform when users access them. Learn more by following the link above.
Coverage Report
The Coverage Report in Google Search Console is used to show which URLs on a given domain have been indexed, as well as which have been encountered but not indexed. Learn more by following the link above.
Crawl Budget
A website’s Crawl Budget is the amount of pages per day that Google will crawl on the site. Learn more by following the link above.
Crawl Depth
Crawl Depth refers to how many subfolders a URL was encountered at from the entry-point URL that the crawl began. Learn more by following the link above.
Cascading Style Sheets CSS
Cascading Style Sheets or CSS Files are used to describe how a browser should display the visual elements of a webpage. Learn more by following the link above.
Cumulative Layout Shift
Cumulative Layout Shift or CLS is the measurement of all layout shifts that take place as a webpage loads. Learn more by following the link above.
Dashboard
A Dashboard is a centralized source of data where marketers can view health & performance metrics on their sites. Learn more by following the link above.
Directives
Directives are used by webmasters to tell crawler bots how to access & index their content. Learn more by following the link above.
Duplicate Content Penalty
Duplicate Content refers to when a piece of web content is copied on multiple URLs & warrants a penalty from search engines. Learn more by following the link above.
External Outlinks
External OutLinks are links that occur on a webpage that point to URL on a different domain. Learn more by following the link above.
First CPU Idle Time
First CPU Idle Time measures how long it takes a page to become minimally interactive during its loading sequence. Learn more by following the link above.
First Meaningful Paint
First Meaningful Paint is a measurement of when a user is able to view the most important part of a webpage. Learn more by following the link above.
Follow Links
Follow tags are on-page directives that tell bots to count the link equity directed to an inbound URL from a destination domain. Learn more by following the link above.
Font
Fonts are the styles of text that appear on a webpage or computer. Learn more by following the link above.
Footer
Footers are the bottom pieces of a webpage, which typically have links to commonly looked for areas of the site. Learn more by following the link above.
Google is the world’s largest search engine. Learn more by following the link above.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is an website measurement platform that tracks how users interact with your site content. Learn more by following the link above.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is a website performance measurement tool, that focuses on how sites perform in organic search, as well as technical site health items. Learn more by following the link above.
Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a tracking pixel wrapper that enables marketers & webmasters to use less individual tracking tags on their sites. Learn more by following the link above.
H1 Header Tag
Header 1 tags, known as H1 Tags are meant to serve as the headline of your website in HTML. Learn more by following the link above.
H2 Header Tag
Header 2 tags, known as H2 Tags are meant to serve as sub headers to your page’s content. Learn more by following the link above.
H3 Header Tag
Header 3 tags, known as H3 Tags are meant to serve as sub headers to your page’s content. Learn more by following the link above.
H4 Header Tag
Header 4 tags, known as H4 Tags are meant to serve as sub headers to your page’s content. Learn more by following the link above.
H5 Header Tag
Header 5 tags, known as H5 Tags are meant to serve as sub headers to your page’s content. Learn more by following the link above.
Hash Fragment
Hash is a value in Screaming Frog that is used for detecting duplicate content. Learn more by following the link above.
HTML Header
A page’s header is the portion of source code contained within the <head></head> section, appearing at the top of an HTML document. Learn more by following the link above.
HREF-LANG Tag
HREF-LANG tags are used to show a web crawler what a URLs target audience is from a language & location standpoint. Learn more by following the link above.
HTTP Version
HTTP Version refers to the level of Hypertext Transfer Protocol that is being used on a given web based resource. Learn more by following the link above.
HTTPS
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure is used for secure computer communication across the internet. Learn more by following the link above.
Image File
Images are files that a browser displays to an end user, typically found saved as .png or .jpeg. Learn more by following the link above.
Impression
An impression occurs when a listing appears as a search result for a users query. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Index
An Index is a list of URLs that is collected by search engines, ranked in order of priority. Learn more by following the link above.
Indexation
Indexation refers to a URL being picked up by a search engine crawler bot & being added to their index. Learn more by following the link above.
InLinks
InLinks are links on a given domain that point to a specific URL. Learn more by following the link above.
InURL: Search
InURL: command is used on search engines to find results that include a specified string within its file path. Learn more by following the link above.
JavsScript File
JavaScript or JS files are files that power interactive elements of webpages. Learn more by following the link above.
Keyword
Keywords refer to the words contained in the queries that a user uses to find your website. Read more by following the link above.
Keyword Planner Tool
Googles Keyword Planner Tool provides useful data about how keywords perform in search for AdWords & PPC, and can be used to find keywords related to certain queries or websites. Learn more by following the link above.
Key Performance Indicator KPI
Key Performance Indicators are metrics that are used to measure the impact of marketing goals. Learn more by following the link above.
Largest Contentful Paint
Largest Contentful Paint is the time that it takes for the browser to load the largest content on the screen, ready for the user to interact with it. Learn more by following the link above.
Last Modified Date
The Last-Modified Header is part of an HTTP response that contains the last time that a page was modified on the server. To learn more, follow the link above.
Latency
Latency refers to how long a web page takes to load on a users browser. Learn more by following the link above.
Links
Links are references to your website that caLinks are references to one web page that direct a user to another webpage when they click on it. To learn more, follow the link above.
Main Thread
The Main Thread is the part of the browser that is responsible for processing paints & user events, making it highly important for webpage speed. To learn more, follow the link above.
Manual Action
Manual Actions are penalties that Google & other search engines give overly spammy websites, by removing one or all of their pages. To learn more, follow the link above.
Media
Media files are files that hold 2 or more forms of multimedia elements, including audio, video & text. To learn more, follow the link above.
Meta Description
Meta Descriptions are pieces of text that appear beneath the links on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). For more information, click the link above.
Meta Refresh
Meta Refresh is a web development technique that instructs a page or element of a page to refresh after a pre-set time. To learn more, follow the link above.
Code Minification
Code Minification is the process of streamlining source code in order to remove the white space, making it able to be parsed faster by browsers & bots. To learn more, follow the link above.
Mobile Connectivity
Mobile Connectivity is the strength of your mobile network when browsing the mobile web. To learn more, follow the link above.
Naver
Naver is the largest search engine in South Korea. Click the link above to learn more.
Network Connectivity
Network Connectivity is the level of how fast your devices are able to exchange packets on the internet. To learn more, follow the link above.
Next-Gen Image
Next-Gen images are image files saved in formats that are able to compress into smaller than average file sizes, while not sacrificing image quality. To learn more, follow the link above.
No-Follow Links
No-Follow links contain a “nofollow” tag, which is designed to not pass link equity from the linking domain on to the destination domain. To learn more, follow the link above.
No-Index Tag
The No-Index tag is an on-page directive that instructs crawler bots not to add the webpage they encountered to their index. To learn more, follow the link above.
On-Page Directives
On-Page Directives are pieces of source code that instruct crawler bots on how to navigate & index your website. To learn more, follow the link above.
Outlinks
OutLinks refer to links on a webpage that send the user to a different domain. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Page Size
Page Size is the number of Bytes that a webpage & all of its resources were when loading, uncompressed. Learn more by following the link above.
Pagination
Pagination is the process of breaking up website content to be served in a series of unique pages, using the rel=”next” & “prev” commands. To learn more, follow the link above.
Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click or PPC refers to a paid online advertising method, where users bid on their target keywords, paying only when a user clicks their paid search ad. To learn more, follow the link above.
Performance Score
Performance Score is a webpage speed metric that rates the loading speed of websites compared to other sites across the web. To learn more, follow the link above.
Personalization
Personalization is a web development & optimization strategy, where each user’s experience is custom to them & their preferences. To learn more, follow the link above.
Pixel
Tracking Pixels are bits of code that marketers use to track their audience & gather data on their visits to their websites. To learn more, follow the link above.
Podcast
Podcasts are digital audio files that store recordings of content that are downloaded on mobile devices or computers. Learn more by following the link above.
Press Release
Press Releases are articles featured on websites that are large content hubs that can be used to boost awareness & referral traffic to your website. Learn more by following the link above.
Private Browser Window
Private Browser Windows are sessions that are not tracked with the rest of a user’s session, including history, cookies & cached files. Learn more by following the link above.
Query
A Query is a keyword or series of keywords that a user uses when completing a search. Learn more by following the link above.
Ranking
Rankings refer to where a URL is presented on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for a query. Learn more by following hte link above.
Re-Direct Chain
A Re-Direct chain is a series of URLs that re-direct to other URLs that are re-directs. Learn more by following hte link above.
rel=”next” Directive
rel=”next” is an on-page directive that signals a URL is part of a sequence, which is referred to as pagination. Learn more by following the link above.
rel=”prev” Directive
rel=”prev” is an on-page directive that signals a URL is part of a sequence, which is referred to as pagination. Learn more by following the link above.
Render
Render refers to when an image appears on a webpage during its loading sequence. Follow the link above to learn more.
Render Blocking Resource
Render Blocking Resources are files that delay a webpage from rendering to the user despite not being needed yet. Learn more by following the link above.
Request
Requests take place when a client/web browser wants to load a webpage, and it calls a server asking for data packets to return. Learn more by following the link above.
Request Size
Request Size refers to the size of the packets being requested & returned during a webpage loading. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Request Time
Request Time refers to the time that it takes for a request to be placed from a client to a server & for it to be fulfilled. Learn more by following the link above.
Rich Result
Rich Results are search results that appear directly on the SERPs, typically above the organic search results. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Robots.txt File
Robots.txt files are a type of directive that show crawler bots where they are and aren’t allowed to go on a website. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
ScreamingFrog crawls any domain or URL(s) placed into it, returning raw data from the pages source codes. Learn more by following the link above.
Search Engine Marketing SEM
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is a marketing method where rankings are bid on, such as AdWords, Sponsored Social or PPC. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Search Engine Optimization SEO
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of making web content more accessible to users, primarily through ranking well in organic search. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Search Engine Results Pages SERPs
A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the page that displays the results for a users search engine query. Learn more by clicking the link above.
Site: Search
A Site: Search enables you to browse a given website’s indexed pages on a search engine. Learn more by following the link above.
Size (Bytes)
Size (Bytes) is the size of a webpage or file that is returned in a ScreamingFrog crawl. Learn more by following the link above.
Sponsored Social Media Posts
Sponsored Social Media Posts are a paid means of marketers to get more exposure on social media sites, similar to Google’s AdWords. Follow the link above to learn more.
Status Code
Status Codes are number codes that are returned to a browser after a server can or cannot honor a clients request. To learn more, follow the link above.
Status Code 0
Status code 0 is delivered to a user when there is no connection to retrieve the desired data from their requested URL. Learn more by following the link above.
Status Code 200
Status code 200 refers to when a URL is Live & can load when requested by a browser. Click the link above to learn more.
Structured Data Markup
Structured Data Markups are pieces of code that are placed around the most important bits of information on a page. Learn more by following the link above.
Tag
Tags are pixels & bits of code used by marketers to measure & record website performance & interactions. To learn more, follow the link above.
Tag Manager
Tag Managers are tools that can be embedded into a pages source code to store tracking tags. To learn more, follow the link above.
Text Ratio
Text Ratio is a number that ScreamingFrog returns that takes into account the number of characters on a page that are not HTML & divides them by the total number of characters that are.
Time To Interactive
Time To Interactive or TTI is the total time that it takes for a website to become interactive for the end user during a page load sequence. Follow the link above to learn more.
Title Tag
Title Tags are the text that appears in the clickable link on a SERP listing, as well as in your browser tab. To learn more, follow the link above.
Tracking Pixel
Tracking Pixels are data packets that are sent when a user accesses a webpage or completed a desired action. To learn more, follow the link above.
Unique InLinks
Unique InLinks are unique links on a domain that point to a specific URL. To learn more, follow the link above.
Unique OutLinks
Unique OutLinks refers to the number of OutLinks on a webpage or site that point to a unique URL. To learn more, follow the link above.
URL
A URL or Uniform Resource Locator is the address of a webpage or resource. To learn more, follow the link above.
URL Parameter
A URL parameter is a string of text added to a URL for tracking purposes. Follow the link above to learn more.
User Experience UX
UX is one of the most important parts of a site’s optimization process as it helps to satisfy the user’s needs. To learn more, follow the link above.
Voice Search
Voice Search is when a user enters a query to a device vocally, such as Siri, Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa. To learn more, follow the link above.
Word Count
Word Count is a field used by Screaming Frog that tells you how many words appear on a given URL’s page once it has rendered. To learn more, follow the link above.
XML Sitemap
An XML site map is an XML file attached to your website that is used as a map for search engine crawler bots. To learn more, follow the link above.
Yahoo
Yahoo is a search engine that is now powered by Bing results. To learn more, follow the link above.
Yandex
Yandex is the primary search engine used in Russia. To learn more, follow the link above.