Glossary
Website & SEO Terms, Explained Clearly
Clear explanations of the website, SEO, performance and conversion terms you may encounter while planning or improving a website.
12 terms
Foundational Terms
A short starting set for planning websites, SEO and conversion.
- View DefinitionCMSContent Management System
A CMS is the system your team uses to create, edit, organize, and publish website content without rebuilding the whole site for every change.
Website Foundations
- View DefinitionConversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of relevant visits that complete a defined action — such as a purchase, booking, or inquiry.
Website Foundations
- View DefinitionCore Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a set of user-experience metrics that focus on loading, interactivity, and visual stability — commonly discussed as LCP, INP, and CLS.
Performance
- View DefinitionSEOSearch Engine Optimization
SEO is the work of helping search engines discover, understand, and surface your website for relevant searches — through useful content, clear structure, and technical accessibility.
Search & Technical SEO
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C
- View DefinitionCanonical URL
A canonical URL is the preferred address you signal for a page when similar or duplicate URLs could otherwise compete or confuse indexing.
Search & Technical SEO
- View DefinitionCLSCumulative Layout Shift
CLS measures unexpected layout movement — when content shifts on the page without a matching user action, making interfaces feel unstable.
Performance
- View DefinitionCMSContent Management System
A CMS is the system your team uses to create, edit, organize, and publish website content without rebuilding the whole site for every change.
Website Foundations
- View DefinitionConversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of relevant visits that complete a defined action — such as a purchase, booking, or inquiry.
Website Foundations
- View DefinitionCore Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a set of user-experience metrics that focus on loading, interactivity, and visual stability — commonly discussed as LCP, INP, and CLS.
Performance
- View DefinitionCTACall to Action
A CTA is the clear next step you ask a visitor to take — such as book, call, buy, or inquire — usually expressed as a button, link, or form prompt.
Website Foundations
S
- View DefinitionSEOSearch Engine Optimization
SEO is the work of helping search engines discover, understand, and surface your website for relevant searches — through useful content, clear structure, and technical accessibility.
Search & Technical SEO
- View DefinitionStructured Data
Structured data is machine-readable markup that explains what a page or entity is — such as an organization, article, product, or local business — in a consistent format.
Search & Technical SEO
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Website Foundations
Core building blocks of websites and conversion.
- View DefinitionCMSContent Management System
A CMS is the system your team uses to create, edit, organize, and publish website content without rebuilding the whole site for every change.
Website Foundations
- View DefinitionConversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of relevant visits that complete a defined action — such as a purchase, booking, or inquiry.
Website Foundations
- View DefinitionCTACall to Action
A CTA is the clear next step you ask a visitor to take — such as book, call, buy, or inquire — usually expressed as a button, link, or form prompt.
Website Foundations
Search & Technical SEO
Discovery, indexing signals and technical search foundations.
- View Definition301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent move from one URL to another, telling browsers and search engines that the content now lives at the new address.
Search & Technical SEO
- View DefinitionCanonical URL
A canonical URL is the preferred address you signal for a page when similar or duplicate URLs could otherwise compete or confuse indexing.
Search & Technical SEO
- View DefinitionSEOSearch Engine Optimization
SEO is the work of helping search engines discover, understand, and surface your website for relevant searches — through useful content, clear structure, and technical accessibility.
Search & Technical SEO
- View DefinitionStructured Data
Structured data is machine-readable markup that explains what a page or entity is — such as an organization, article, product, or local business — in a consistent format.
Search & Technical SEO
- View DefinitionXML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a machine-readable list of URLs you want search engines to know about — a discovery aid, not a ranking guarantee.
Search & Technical SEO
Performance
How pages load, respond and stay visually stable.
- View DefinitionCLSCumulative Layout Shift
CLS measures unexpected layout movement — when content shifts on the page without a matching user action, making interfaces feel unstable.
Performance
- View DefinitionCore Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a set of user-experience metrics that focus on loading, interactivity, and visual stability — commonly discussed as LCP, INP, and CLS.
Performance
- View DefinitionINPInteraction to Next Paint
INP measures how quickly a page responds visually after a user interaction — such as a tap, click, or key press — reflecting responsiveness during use.
Performance
- View DefinitionLCPLargest Contentful Paint
LCP measures how quickly the main visible content on a page appears for the user — typically a large image, video, or text block in the viewport.
Performance
Resources
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