Plain-English SEO glossary

The score bucket for your word count, image alt text, and how readable your text is.

Why it matters: Thin or unreadable content is the #1 reason service-business pages fail to rank.

The score bucket for your H1 and the overall heading outline of the page.

Why it matters: A clean heading structure tells Google what your page is about at a glance.

The score bucket for internal links, external links, and any broken links found.

Why it matters: Strong internal linking is a free ranking boost most sites ignore.

The score bucket for your title tag, meta description, canonical, viewport, and robots tags.

Why it matters: Easiest category to fix, small code tweaks, big ranking wins.

Your site’s A-F report card, blending every category. A = production-grade SEO, F = serious problems.

Score is out of 100. 90+ is an A, 80-89 is a B, 70-79 a C, 60-69 a D, below 60 an F. Each category contributes a weighted slice, see the Score Breakdown panel for details.

Why it matters: A single number you can show your business partner and track month over month.

The score bucket for how fast your page loads on a phone (LCP, CLS, INP, etc).

Why it matters: A slow page bleeds rankings and customers in equal measure.

The score bucket for site-wide things, robots.txt and sitemap.xml.

Why it matters: Get these right once and they help every page on your site.

The score bucket for JSON-LD schema and Open Graph tags.

Why it matters: Wins you rich results in Google and polished previews on Facebook and iMessage.

The score bucket for HTTPS, status codes, response time, compression, and redirects.

Why it matters: Technical issues silently kill rankings before anyone notices.

A label that tells Google which version of a page is the "official" one when several URLs show the same content.

Many sites accidentally have two URLs for the same page (with and without `www`, with a trailing slash, with tracking parameters). A canonical tag picks the winner so Google does not split your ranking power between duplicates.

Why it matters: Without it, your ranking authority can get diluted across copies.

A tag used when you have the same page in multiple languages or for multiple countries.

Most local service businesses do not need hreflang. It only matters if you serve customers in, say, both the US and Canada with different pages.

Why it matters: Prevents Google from showing the wrong language version to the wrong customer.

A small tag (`lang="en"`) on your HTML that tells Google and screen readers what language the page is written in.

Why it matters: Helps Google show your site in English-language results, not Spanish ones.

The two-line snippet of text Google shows underneath your blue link in search results.

It does not directly affect ranking, but it heavily influences click-through. Keep it 70-160 characters and write it like an ad, include the service, the area, and a reason to call.

Why it matters: A persuasive description means more clicks for the same ranking.

A flag that tells Google "do not include this page in search results." Almost always a bug when found on your homepage.

Developers use noindex on staging sites, admin pages, and thank-you pages. If it leaks onto a real customer-facing page, that page becomes invisible to Google overnight.

Why it matters: A stray noindex on your homepage can wipe you off the map.

A hidden instruction in your page that tells search engines whether they are allowed to list it.

It can say "index, follow" (please list me) or "noindex" (do not list me). Sometimes developers leave "noindex" on staging sites by mistake and forget to flip it after launch.

Why it matters: If it says noindex, you literally cannot show up on Google.

The blue link text that shows up as the headline for your page in Google search results.

Search engines read the title tag first and treat it as the single most important on-page signal. Aim for 50-60 characters that include your main service and city.

Why it matters: A clear title is the difference between someone clicking your listing or your competitor’s.

A tiny line of code that tells phones to render your site at phone size instead of zooming out the desktop layout.

Google indexes the mobile version of your site first. Without a viewport tag, your homepage looks like a shrunken desktop site on phones, bad for both rankings and conversions.

Why it matters: Missing it makes your site look broken on phones, where most of your customers are.

The big headline at the top of your page, the visible title customers see when they land.

Every page should have exactly one H1, and it should describe what the page is about ("Airport car service in Austin"). Multiple H1s confuse search engines about your topic.

Why it matters: A strong H1 tells Google and visitors in one glance what you do.

The outline of your page, H1 for the title, H2s for sections, H3s for sub-sections. Like a Word doc outline.

Why it matters: A clean outline helps Google understand your page and helps screen readers navigate it.

The share of your images that have a short text description attached for blind users and Google Images.

Alt text is a one-line description of what is in the photo. It helps screen readers, and it is how Google Images figures out what your photos show.

Why it matters: Good alt text gets your photos discovered in image search and keeps your site accessible.

A 0-100 score for how easy your text is to read. 60+ means an average adult can read it comfortably.

Low scores mean dense, jargon-heavy text. For service businesses, you want this above 60, your customers are skimming on a phone.

Why it matters: Easier-to-read pages keep visitors on the page longer, which Google notices.

How many words of real text are on the page (not menus or footers).

Pages under 300 words almost never rank for competitive searches. The cure is not stuffing keywords, it is answering the questions your customers actually ask.

Why it matters: Thin pages get out-ranked by competitors with more useful content.

A 0-100 grade for how usable your page is for people with disabilities, color contrast, alt text, keyboard navigation.

Why it matters: Accessibility issues hurt rankings, alienate customers, and increasingly expose you to lawsuits.

A 0-100 grade for whether your page follows modern web safety standards, HTTPS, no console errors, secure libraries.

Why it matters: A low score usually means an old plugin or a security gap is bleeding trust.

A measure of how much your page jumps around as it loads. Under 0.1 is good.

Caused by images without dimensions, ads that drop in, or fonts that swap mid-load. It is the reason you tap a button and accidentally tap a different one a second later.

Why it matters: A jumpy page is the fastest way to make customers misclick and leave.

How long until the very first piece of content (any text or image) appears. Under 1.8 seconds is good.

Why it matters: A long blank screen is the #1 reason mobile visitors hit the back button.

How quickly your page responds when someone taps a button or fills out a form. Under 200ms feels instant.

Replaced FID in 2024 as one of Google’s Core Web Vitals. Heavy JavaScript is usually the cause of slow INP.

Why it matters: A laggy contact form means lost leads.

How long until the biggest thing on your page (usually the hero image or main headline) is visible. Under 2.5 seconds is good.

It is one of Google’s three Core Web Vitals. If it is slow, the most common fix is making your hero image smaller, serving it as WebP, and preloading it.

Why it matters: Slow LCP means visitors stare at a blank screen and bounce.

Whether your page is usable on a phone, text big enough to read, buttons big enough to tap, no horizontal scrolling.

Why it matters: Google ranks the mobile version of your site first; a desktop-only design is a non-starter.

Google PageSpeed’s overall 0-100 grade for how fast your page loads on a phone.

90+ is green and fast. 50-89 is yellow and middling. Under 50 is red. The score blends LCP, CLS, INP, TBT, FCP, and Speed Index.

Why it matters: A red performance score is a red flag to Google and a bounce magnet for customers.

Google PageSpeed’s 0-100 grade for whether your page has the basic SEO essentials in place.

It checks for things like a title tag, meta description, valid robots, mobile-friendly viewport, and crawlable links. Not the full picture, but a useful smoke test.

Why it matters: A low SEO score means easy wins are still on the table.

A score that estimates how quickly the visible parts of your page fill in as it loads.

Why it matters: Lower is better, it measures how fast the page feels, not just when it is technically "done."

How long the page is frozen and unresponsive to clicks while it is busy loading scripts. Under 200ms is good.

Why it matters: High TBT means customers tap and nothing happens, they assume the site is broken.

How long after the browser asks for the page until the server sends back the first byte of response. Under 800ms is good.

TTFB is mostly about your hosting and database. If it is high, the fastest fix is usually upgrading your host or adding a CDN.

Why it matters: High TTFB drags down every other speed metric on every page.

Structured data that tells Google your site’s navigation path so it can show "Home › Services › Drain cleaning" under your search listing.

Why it matters: Breadcrumbs in search results increase click-through and make your listing look more trustworthy.

A small block of structured code that hands Google a machine-readable fact sheet about your business.

It is invisible to visitors but lets Google show extras in search results, your phone number, hours, star rating, and breadcrumbs. Think of it as labeling the parts of your page so Google does not have to guess.

Why it matters: Unlocks rich results that make your listing bigger and more clickable.

A JSON-LD block that spells out your address, phone, hours, and service area for Google.

This is the most valuable schema for limo and black-car operators. It feeds the data Google uses for local pack results and Maps.

Why it matters: Critical for showing up in the local 3-pack on Google Maps.

Tags that control the preview image and headline when your page is shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, iMessage, or Slack.

Without them, a shared link shows a random image or just the URL. With them, your link gets a polished card with your logo and headline.

Why it matters: Branded share previews drive more clicks from social and word of mouth.

A type of JSON-LD that identifies your company name, logo, and website to Google.

Why it matters: Helps Google build the Knowledge Panel that appears when someone searches your business name.

A link on your page that goes to a 404 page or a dead URL.

Broken links erode visitor trust and waste Google’s crawl budget. Most appear because the target site moved or deleted a page.

Why it matters: Dead links make your site look neglected, fix or remove them.

A link from your site that points out to someone else’s site.

Why it matters: Linking to credible sources in moderation builds trust with both visitors and Google.

A link from one page on your own site to another page on your own site.

Internal links spread your "ranking authority" across the site and help Google discover every page you care about.

Why it matters: Good internal linking lifts the ranking of every page you connect.

A link that explicitly tells Google "do not pass any ranking credit through this one."

Used for paid links, untrusted user comments, and affiliate links. The link still works for humans, it just does not pass SEO juice.

Why it matters: Using it correctly keeps you out of trouble for paid-link policies.

A feature that shrinks your page before sending it over the internet, so it downloads faster.

Modern servers turn this on by default. If your audit says it is off, your host is shipping uncompressed HTML, a quick fix on the server side.

Why it matters: Compression alone can make pages load 60-80% faster.

A three-digit response your server sends, 200 means "OK," 404 means "not found," 500 means "server error."

Google will only rank pages that return 200. A status that is 301 or 302 means the page redirects somewhere else; 4xx and 5xx mean the page is broken.

Why it matters: Anything other than 200 on important pages is a ranking emergency.

The padlock icon next to your URL, meaning the connection between visitors and your site is encrypted.

Google has used HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014, and browsers now flag non-HTTPS sites as "Not Secure." If you do not have it, you are losing both rankings and trust.

Why it matters: No padlock = lower ranking and a scary warning to your customers.

When a URL redirects to another URL, which redirects to another, instead of jumping straight to the final page.

Why it matters: Each hop wastes a fraction of a second and a fraction of your ranking authority.

A small file at the root of your site that tells search engines which areas they can and cannot crawl.

Most sites should have one even if it allows everything, it is the official place to point Google at your sitemap.

Why it matters: A misconfigured robots.txt can accidentally block your entire site from Google.

How many milliseconds your server takes to send back the first byte of the page after the browser asks for it.

Anything under 200ms is great, 800ms is borderline, over 1.5s is a problem. Slow hosting is the most common cause.

Why it matters: A slow server makes every other page-speed metric worse.

A directory file that lists every page on your site so Google can find them all.

Especially important for new sites or sites with pages buried behind menus. Submit it to Google Search Console once and Google will check it automatically.

Why it matters: Helps Google discover new pages within hours instead of weeks.

What advertisers pay per click for that keyword on Google Ads. A proxy for how much each visitor is worth.

A keyword with a $30 CPC means competitors are paying $30 every time someone clicks. If you rank organically, you get those clicks for free.

Why it matters: High CPC means high commercial intent, those searchers are ready to buy.

A 0-100 estimate of how hard it would be to crack the top 10 for that keyword. Lower is easier.

Why it matters: Low-difficulty keywords are the fastest path to your first rankings.

Our proprietary 0-100 score blending search volume, click value, and difficulty into a single "go after this one" rating.

High opportunity = a keyword with enough searches to matter, enough commercial value to pay for itself, and low enough competition that you can actually win it. We sort the keyword table by this so the best targets are always on top.

Why it matters: It is the shortcut to picking the right keywords without staring at three columns of numbers.

What someone actually wants when they type a query, to learn, to compare, or to buy.

Service businesses care most about "transactional" intent, keywords like "airport car service near me" mean the searcher needs you right now.

Why it matters: Targeting the wrong intent gets you traffic that never converts.

The estimated number of times people search a given keyword on Google each month.

High volume is not always better, "limo" gets searched a lot but most of those people are not in your city.

Why it matters: Volume tells you the size of the prize for ranking on that keyword.

A rough bucket, low, medium, or high, for how popular a keyword is.

Why it matters: Tiers make it easier to mix a portfolio of safe, mid, and ambitious targets.

Your position in the unpaid (non-ad) part of Google’s search results for a given keyword.

Rank #1 gets roughly 30% of clicks, #2 gets ~15%, and by #10 you are down to 2-3%. Anything past page one (#11+) is essentially invisible.

Why it matters: Climbing from #11 to #5 can quadruple your traffic from that keyword.

The specific page on your site that Google is showing for a given keyword.

Sometimes it is not the page you would expect, Google might pick your blog post over your service page. That is a clue that you need to strengthen the page you actually want to rank.

Why it matters: Knowing which page ranks tells you which page to optimize.

Top 10 means page 1 of Google, where customers actually click. Top 100 just means Google knows you exist.

Why it matters: Page-1 keywords drive traffic. Page-10 keywords are a roadmap of what to work on next.