SEO conversations get much easier when the abbreviations stop sounding like secret passwords. Here are the terms you are most likely to encounter while working on a small business website, grouped by the jobs they describe.
Discovery: crawling, indexing, and sitemaps
Crawling is how a search engine discovers and retrieves pages. Indexing is the process of evaluating and storing information about them for search. A sitemap lists URLs you want search engines to know about. Submitting one helps discovery; it does not guarantee indexing. Robots.txt guides crawler access, while a noindex directive is used to ask supported search engines not to index a page. They are different tools.
Content: keywords, intent, and on-page SEO
A keyword is a word or phrase people search. Search intent is the need behind the query, such as learning, comparing, or buying. On-page SEO covers elements such as useful copy, titles, headings, and links. A title element is the page title supplied in HTML; a meta description summarizes the page, although search engines may show different snippet text. Neither needs to be stuffed with repeated phrases.
Connections: internal links, backlinks, and canonicals
An internal link connects pages on your own site. A backlink comes from another site. Anchor text is the clickable wording of a link. A canonical identifies a preferred URL among duplicate or very similar versions; it is a signal, not a redirect. A redirect sends a visitor or crawler from one URL to another. Use these tools according to the actual page relationship.
Measurement: impressions, clicks, and conversions
An impression records that your result was shown according to the reporting tool’s rules. Click-through rate compares clicks with impressions. A conversion is a defined useful action, such as a qualified inquiry or purchase. Search Console reports search performance, while analytics tools describe site activity. Their numbers may differ because they measure different things. Domain rating and similar authority scores are third-party metrics, not Google’s own scores.
Local search: Business Profile, NAP, and citations
Google Business Profile is the current name for the service formerly called Google My Business. NAP means name, address, and phone number. A citation is an online mention of business details. Local search visibility depends on several factors; updating a directory listing or adding a keyword does not guarantee a specific map position.
Your next steps
- Ask which business goal an SEO task supports.
- Distinguish discovery problems from content problems.
- Check the reporting tool behind any metric.
- Request plain-language explanations of proposed work.
For further guidance, see Google’s SEO starter guide.
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