Glossary

A vote of confidence from one site to another, and why quality beats quantity.

The boxed “position zero” answer Google lifts from a page.

Improving a site to rank higher and earn more relevant organic traffic.

A 0–100 estimate of a whole site's ranking strength (and where it comes from).

The results page itself, and why its features matter as much as your rank.

The clickable words of a link, and how to use them without over-optimising.

Structured data that tells machines what your content actually means.

Getting stored in the search database, the prerequisite to ranking at all.

How much of your site engines will crawl, and when it actually matters.

The roadmap file that helps engines discover your pages.

The file that controls which crawlers, including AI bots, can read your site.

The “master copy” you nominate when duplicate URLs exist.

How many people search a term each month, and why bigger isn't always better.

How hard a term is to rank for, and how to find winnable ones.

The real goal behind a query, and why matching it beats keyword-matching.

Specific, high-intent phrases that are easier to win and convert better.

When the answer is on the SERP itself, and how to still win from it.

Google's Experience-Expertise-Authority-Trust quality lens, and how to prove it.

A link that drives traffic but passes no ranking authority, and when to use it.

Sending users and engines from one URL to another, 301 vs 302, done right.

The written description that makes images accessible and searchable.

When your own pages compete for the same term, and how to consolidate.

A pillar page plus interlinked subtopic articles that prove topical depth.

When ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini names your site, the new #1 ranking.