SEO and AI search,
in plain English

AI Overviews AI Overviews are AI-written summaries Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to the sources. Read more → Anchor text Anchor text is the clickable words in a link. It tells readers and search engines what the linked page is about. Read more → Backlinks A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Search engines treat good ones as votes of trust. Read more → Click-through rate (CTR) Click-through rate is the share of people who click your result after seeing it in search. Read more → Content decay Content decay is the gradual drop in traffic and rankings of a page that was once performing well. Read more → Crawling and indexing Crawling is how search engines discover your pages; indexing is how they store them so they can appear in results. Read more → Digital PR Digital PR is getting your brand mentioned and linked by news sites, blogs and journalists online. Read more → E-E-A-T E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness, qualities Google looks for in helpful content. Read more → Featured snippet A featured snippet is a short answer Google pulls from a page and shows above the regular results. Read more → Generative engine optimization (GEO) GEO is the practice of making your brand more likely to be mentioned and cited by AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity. Read more → Google Search Console Google Search Console is Google's free tool that shows how your site performs in search and flags problems. Read more → Internal links Internal links connect one page on your website to another page on the same website. Read more → Keyword cannibalization Keyword cannibalization is when several pages on your site target the same search and compete with each other. Read more → Keyword difficulty Keyword difficulty is an estimate of how hard it is to reach the first page of Google for a keyword. Read more → Keyword research Keyword research is finding the words and questions people type into search engines, so you know what to write about. Read more → Meta description A meta description is a short summary of a page that search engines may show under its title in results. Read more → Schema markup Schema markup is structured data added to a page so search engines understand exactly what it contains. Read more → Search intent Search intent is what someone actually wants when they type a search: to learn, compare, buy or find a specific site. Read more → Search volume Search volume is the estimated number of times a keyword is searched in a month. Read more → SERP (search results page) A SERP is the page of results a search engine shows for a search, including links, ads, AI answers and other features. Read more → Title tag A title tag is the page title shown in the browser tab and, usually, as the blue headline in search results. Read more → Topic cluster A topic cluster is a group of related articles around one main page, linked together to show depth on a subject. Read more →