SEO & GEO Glossary: key terms explained in brief

SEO optimization

The process of improving a website’s technical foundation, structure and content in order to earn higher positions in the organic results of search engines, especially Google.

SERP

Search Engine Results Page — the results page a search engine displays for a query. It includes organic results, ads, maps, images and, increasingly, AI-generated answers.

On-page SEO

All the optimizations made inside the pages themselves: content, meta titles and descriptions, H1–H3 heading structure, images and internal links.

Off-page SEO

Optimizations outside the website that increase its authority — mainly earning quality backlinks from other sites through advertorials, mentions and digital PR.

Technical SEO

Optimization of the site’s infrastructure: loading speed, indexability, URL architecture, HTTPS, mobile version and structured data.

Backlink

A link from another website to yours. Backlinks from relevant, authoritative sources act as votes of confidence in Google’s algorithm.

SEO advertorial

An editorially written article published on an authoritative external site, containing links to the promoted website. A scalable link building method widely used on the Romanian market.

Keyword

The term or phrase users type into a search engine. Keyword research identifies the terms with commercial value for a business.

Long-tail keywords

Long, specific keywords (usually 3+ words) with lower search volume but precise intent and usually lower competition — a good starting point for new sites.

Search intent

The purpose behind a search: informational (wants to learn), commercial (comparing), transactional (wants to buy) or navigational (looking for a brand). Google aims to rank the pages that best satisfy the intent.

E-E-A-T

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness — the framework in Google’s quality guidelines for assessing the quality and credibility of content and its authors, especially important in sensitive (YMYL) niches such as health and finance.

Core Web Vitals

Google’s set of metrics measuring real user experience: LCP (display speed), INP (responsiveness to interactions) and CLS (the page’s visual stability).

LCP

Largest Contentful Paint — the time until the largest visible element of the page is displayed. Google’s “good” threshold: 2.5 seconds or less.

CLS

Cumulative Layout Shift — how much page elements “jump around” while loading. Google’s “good” threshold: 0.1 or less.

INP

Interaction to Next Paint — measures how quickly the page responds visually after user interactions (clicks, taps, key presses), taking into account interactions throughout the visit. Since March 2024 it replaced FID among the Core Web Vitals. Google’s “good” threshold: 200 ms or less.

Indexing

The process by which Google analyzes and stores a page in its index. A page that isn’t indexed cannot appear in the results, no matter how good it is.

Crawl budget

The resources Google allocates to crawling a website. Large sites must manage it carefully so that the important pages are crawled first.

Canonical

An HTML tag that points to the main version of a page when similar or duplicate URLs exist, helping to consolidate authority.

Structured data (schema.org)

Standardized markup added to a page’s code that explicitly describes its content (business, service, article, FAQ) for search engines and AI. It can generate rich results.

Rich results

Google results enhanced with extra visual elements — rating stars, prices, product details, breadcrumbs — generated from the page’s structured data.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

Optimizing your online presence for AI-based answer engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) so that they use and cite your website as a source in the answers they generate.

AI Overviews

AI-generated answers that Google displays above the classic results, built from the content of sites it considers trustworthy sources, with citations.

llms.txt

A text file placed at the root of a website that gives AI models a structured summary of the content and links to the important pages — a proposed convention in GEO optimization (see llmstxt.org); not every AI provider says it uses the file.

Local SEO

Optimization for searches with geographic intent (“service + city,” “near me”): Google Business Profile, NAP citations, reviews and local pages.

NAP

Name, Address, Phone — a business’s identifying details. Keeping them consistent across all online sources is an important trust signal in local SEO.

White-hat SEO

Optimization techniques that comply with search engine rules: real content, editorial links, legitimate optimizations. The opposite of black-hat, which risks penalties.

Google penalty

The demotion or removal of a site from the results, through a manual action or an algorithmic demotion, for breaking the rules (link schemes, spam content, cloaking).

Want to go deeper? Read the guides on the SEO blog: what SEO optimization is, how GEO works and Core Web Vitals.