Glossary of SEO, web design, CRO & AI

As search, AI and brand merge, the language we use changes too.

Our glossary brings together the key concepts in web design, SEO and AEO, explained clearly and in line with how digital visibility works today.

Each term starts with a clear definition. Click through for a shorter or longer deep dive, and in some cases a complete guide – complete guides are marked with a book symbol in the list below. We update the content continuously and keep adding new terms.

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301 redirect

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that tells browsers and search engines that a URL has moved to a new address – and that the change is final.

A/B testing

A/B testing means showing two variants of a piece of content to different segments of an audience and measuring which one better meets a defined goal – judged on statistical significance rather than gut feeling.

above the fold

Above the fold refers to the content that is shown immediately when a page loads, before the user scrolls.

AEO

AEO (answer engine optimization), also called GEO, means optimising content so that it becomes the chosen answer in AI-driven search and answer systems such as Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT – through structured content, clear definitions and semantic clarity.

Agentic Commerce Protocol

The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is a protocol initiated by OpenAI that lets AI agents carry out commercial actions, such as purchases and bookings, on a user's behalf.

agentic search

Agentic search refers to AI systems that do not just answer questions but plan and carry out multi-step tasks on their own – such as comparing, booking or summarising – without the user having to steer them.

agentic web development

Agentic web development means AI agents independently carry out tasks on a website – such as updating content, fixing SEO problems and building new pages – based on natural-language instructions, without anyone having to work by hand in a CMS or a visual design tool.

AI agent

An AI agent is an AI system that can plan, make decisions and carry out multi-step actions on its own to reach a goal – without someone steering it at every step. Unlike a chatbot that answers one question at a time, an agent can take on complex tasks.

AI citations

AI citations are the sources an AI answer engine or AI chatbot refers to when it generates an answer. They show where the information came from, which makes the answer more credible and transparent.

AI hallucination

An AI hallucination is when a language model makes a claim that sounds credible but is invented or wrong. The model would rather guess than say "I don't know" – a business risk when AI gets your company, your prices or your service wrong.

AI Overviews

AI Overviews – sometimes called Google AI Overview – are Google's AI-generated summaries shown at the top of the search results, answering the user's question directly, often without requiring a click.

AI readiness

AI readiness (AI maturity) is a measure of how well prepared a company is to introduce AI and get real results from it. It is usually assessed across four layers: data, processes, skills and governance. High readiness means the basics are in place before an AI solution is built.

AI search engine

An AI search engine combines searching a web index with a language model that writes a summarised answer with source references, instead of just listing links. Examples: Perplexity, ChatGPT Search and Google's AI Mode.

AI SEO

AI SEO is an umbrella term for how search engine optimisation changes as AI systems play a growing part in search, both inside Google (AI Overviews) and as search interfaces of their own, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.

AI visibility

AI visibility describes how visible a brand, a piece of content or a product is in AI-powered search engines and chatbots, based on how often and how clearly it is used in AI-generated answers.

alt text

Alt text (alternative text) is the descriptive text in an image's alt attribute. It is read aloud by screen readers, shown if the image does not load, and gives search engines and AI context about what the image shows. Alt text is therefore both an accessibility tool and an SEO tool.

anchor link

An anchor link is a link that points to a specific place on a page via an ID in the URL (e.g. /page#section). It is used for tables of contents, deep linking and to let Google and AI cite individual sections.

Astro

Astro (Astro JS) is a web framework launched in 2021 that ships minimal JavaScript to the browser through islands architecture. It is particularly strong for content-heavy websites where performance and Core Web Vitals are the priority.

backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites to your own. They act as external signals that help search engines judge credibility, relevance and authority.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is Microsoft's free platform for monitoring and optimising your website's visibility in Bing – including how often your content is cited in AI-generated answers from Microsoft Copilot and Bing.

black hat SEO

Black hat SEO covers techniques that break search engines' guidelines to manipulate rankings. They can deliver results in the short term, but in the long term they risk manual penalties from Google, algorithmic sanctions and lost organic visibility.

brand mentions

Brand mentions are references to a brand online, with or without a link, in a relevant context. They act as a signal of authority, recognition and credibility for both search engines and AI systems.

canonical tag

A canonical tag is a line of HTML in the <head> that tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page when several URLs have similar or identical content.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is OpenAI's AI assistant. It answers questions, writes text and code, and searches the web. As one of the most widely used AI services in the world, it is also a channel where companies are found, compared and described – either from the model's memory or from a real-time web search.

Claude

Claude is a family of large language models (LLMs) developed by Anthropic, known for following complex instructions, writing and reviewing code and producing well-structured content. It is a central tool in SEOS Design's web development and content production.

CLS

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a web performance metric that shows how much the content on a page moves unexpectedly while it loads. It is one of Google's three Core Web Vitals; a value of 0.1 or lower counts as good.

CMS

A CMS (content management system) is a system that lets you create, edit and publish content on a website without programming. It acts as the website's admin interface, where you manage text, images, pages and structure.

consent management platform

A consent management platform (CMP) is a tool that shows the cookie banner, collects and documents the visitor's consent and passes the signals on to analytics and advertising tools – so that no tracking cookies are set without approval.

Consent Mode v2

Google Consent Mode v2 is Google's technical framework that lets a website pass a visitor's consent choices to Google's tags through four signals – so that Google Ads and GA4 can adapt measurement and advertising to what the visitor has accepted.

content marketing

Content marketing is a marketing method in which a company creates and publishes relevant, valuable content – articles, guides, video – to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, instead of interrupting it with direct advertising.

Contentful

Contentful is an established headless CMS founded in Berlin in 2013, known for robust governance, internationalisation and an enterprise-ready platform. It is also the most expensive solution in its category.

conversion rate

Conversion rate is the share of visitors who complete a desired action, such as a purchase or a form submission, expressed as a percentage. It is calculated as the number of conversions divided by the number of visitors, multiplied by 100.

cookies

Cookies are small text files that a website stores in the visitor's browser to remember information between visits – such as login status, basket contents or tracking data for advertising.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are three metrics from Google – LCP, INP and CLS – that measure how fast a page loads, how quickly it responds to interaction and how visually stable it is. They are part of Page Experience and a confirmed ranking signal.

CPM

CPM, cost per mille, is what it costs to show an ad a thousand times. You work it out by dividing the cost by the number of impressions and multiplying by 1,000.

crawlability

Crawlability describes how easy it is for search engines to find, reach and crawl the pages on a website.

CRO

Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the process of increasing the share of visitors to a website who take a desired action – such as filling in a form, making a phone call or completing a purchase.

CTA

A CTA (call to action) is a clear prompt that guides the user to the next step, such as getting in touch, buying or signing up.

CTR

CTR (click-through rate) is the proportion of people who click a search result out of all those who see it. A CTR of 5% means that 5 in every 100 people who see the link actually click it – a key measure of how attractive and relevant a search result appears.

data-driven marketing

Data-driven marketing means that decisions about message, channel, timing and audience are based on measured data instead of assumptions. At its core is an iterative loop – measure, analyse, adjust, repeat – in which data drives the decisions and people interpret what it means.

digital presence

Digital presence is the sum of all the ways a company is seen, found and experienced online – from its website and search engine rankings to AI answers, social media and external mentions.

Disavow

Disavow is Google's tool for rejecting backlinks: a text file of links or domains that Google should disregard when it assesses the website. It is used only when many spam links have led, or risk leading, to a manual action. Most websites never need it.

Display advertising

Display advertising is paid image and banner advertising online, on websites and in apps, shown while people read, watch or scroll. In Google Ads, the placements are bought in the Google Display Network, and the Display campaign type is being moved into Demand Gen.

dofollow

Dofollow is jargon for a link that does not have the attribute rel=nofollow, ugc or sponsored. There is no HTML attribute called dofollow – links are dofollow by default.

domain authority

Domain authority is not something Google calculates itself. It is an umbrella term for how strong and credible a domain is seen to be, and when people talk about "authority" they usually mean a specific number from an SEO tool.

E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T (EEAT) stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness and is used by Google to assess the credibility, quality and reliability of content – especially important for content that can affect people's health or finances.

earned AEO

Earned AEO means getting your brand mentioned and cited in external sources – earned media – that AI systems draw on when they generate answers, rather than in content on your own website.

entity profile

An entity profile is the combined picture that search engines and AI have of an entity, based on content, structure, mentions and external signals.

entity SEO

An entity is an identifiable concept, object or idea that Google and AI systems can understand semantically and relate to other information – beyond individual words or phrases. Entity SEO is the work of establishing your company as such an entity.

featured snippets

Featured snippets are excerpts that Google shows at the top of its search results to answer a question directly, often as text, a list or a table.

Figma

Figma is a browser-based design tool for UI/UX – used to create wireframes, visual designs and clickable prototypes. It is the industry standard for web design and is often used by design teams that hand their work over to a developer.

Framer

Framer is a design-led website tool that lets designers and startups build responsive, visually advanced websites without code. The platform is known for its Figma-like workspace, AI-generated layouts and a fast route to publishing.

Gemini

Gemini is Google's family of multimodal AI models and the name of the company's AI assistant. Gemini also powers the AI answers in Google Search – both AI Overviews and AI Mode – making the model decisive for how companies appear in Google's results in 2026.

generative AI

Generative AI refers to AI models that create new content – text, images, audio, video or code – based on patterns learned from large amounts of data. Unlike analytical AI, which classifies and predicts, generative AI produces something that did not exist before.

GEO

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is an academic and practical discipline concerned with optimising web content so that it is cited and used by generative AI systems – primarily large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is Google's free analytics tool for measuring web traffic, user behaviour and conversions – and a standard tool in every serious SEO workflow.

Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is Google's free tool for managing how your company appears in Google's search results and on Google Maps – and the single most important factor in local SEO.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is Google's free tool for monitoring how a website performs in Google's search results – and an essential tool in any serious SEO workflow.

GSAP

GSAP (GreenSock Animation Platform) is a JavaScript library for high-performance web animations. Webflow acquired GreenSock in October 2024, and since April 2025 GSAP and all its plugins have been free for everyone.

heading structure

A semantic heading structure means the headings on a page – its header tags H1, H2 and H3 – are organised by meaning and logical hierarchy, not by which keywords you want to fit in. The aim is for the structure itself to tell you what the content is about.

headless CMS

A headless CMS manages content separately from the website's design and code. You publish in one place and reach the web, apps and other digital channels – without being locked to a specific platform.

hreflang

Hreflang is an HTML attribute that tells search engines which language and geographic area a page targets – crucial for showing the right language version to the right user in international SEO.

image caption

An image caption is the visible text placed next to or below an image that explains it or puts it in context. In HTML it is often written with figure and figcaption. Unlike alt text, the caption is visible to every reader and is not an accessibility requirement.

indexing

Indexing – or search engine indexing – is the process by which search engines store and organise content they have crawled, so that pages can be shown in search results and used in AI-generated answers.

information architecture

Information architecture, sometimes called information structure, is the way the content on a website is organised, connected and presented – so that it makes sense to users, search engines and AI.

INP

INP (Interaction to Next Paint) is Google's interactivity metric in Core Web Vitals. It measures the time from a user interacting with a page – clicking, tapping or typing – until the browser shows a visible response. INP replaced FID (First Input Delay) on 12 March 2024.

internal linking

Internal linking is when pages on the same website link to each other. Internal links guide the reader onwards and help search engines and AI systems find the pages and understand how they fit together.

keyword cannibalisation

Keyword cannibalisation occurs when several pages on the same website compete for the same keyword and search intent, so that they weaken each other's rankings instead of strengthening them. It is only a problem when rankings are actually harmed – not as soon as two pages mention the same word.

keyword research

Keyword research means finding and prioritising the search terms your audience uses – and matching them to the right content, pages and structure on your website. It is the foundation of strategic SEO and decides what you write, how the website is structured and which landing pages you need.

keyword targeting

Keyword targeting is the process of identifying relevant keywords and then adapting a page's content, headings and metadata to match the searcher's intent – so that search engines rank the page higher for the right queries.

landing page

A landing page is a standalone web page with a single purpose: to get the visitor to take one specific action – fill in a form, book a meeting or buy a product. Everything on the page is optimised for that goal.

LCP

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is a web performance metric in Core Web Vitals that measures how long it takes for the page's largest visible element – often the hero image or the heading – to render. Under 2.5 seconds counts as good, over 4 seconds as poor.

link juice

Link juice is an informal expression for how a link passes strength from one page to another. The image is simple: authority flows through links much as liquid flows through pipes.

LLM

An LLM (large language model) is an AI model trained on large amounts of text to understand, generate and summarise natural language, for example in chatbots and AI-based search services.

llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed file format that is placed in the root of a website and describes its content in markdown for AI systems. The format is a community proposal, not an official standard adopted by any AI provider.

local SEO

Local SEO is the process of optimising a website and wider digital presence to show up in location-based search results – when potential customers search for services or products in a specific area.

long-tail keyword

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search phrases with lower search volume but higher relevance, often tied to a clear intent and a higher conversion rate.

marketing attribution

Marketing attribution means working out which channels and touchpoints actually contribute to a conversion, a sale or another desired outcome – across the whole user journey.

marketing engineer

A marketing engineer is a hybrid role that combines marketer, strategist and developer – a person who builds the systems behind the marketing themselves: automations, AI agents and AEO. Not to be confused with the Swedish "marknadsingenjör", an older technical B2B sales role.

MCP

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard protocol that lets AI systems communicate with external tools, data sources and services in a standardised way – rather than each integration having to be built from scratch.

meta description

A meta description is the short text summary of a web page shown under the page title in the search results. It acts as an ad for the page – it decides whether the user clicks or scrolls past.

metadata

Metadata is defined as "data about data" and refers to information about a web page that is not visible in the content but helps search engines, social platforms and AI understand what the page is about. Title tags, meta descriptions, schema markup, canonical and hreflang are all SEO metadata.

Next.js

Next.js is an open-source framework for React-based websites and applications, developed by Vercel since 2016. It is the de facto standard for serious React-based product websites.

nofollow

Nofollow is an HTML attribute (rel=nofollow) that indicates that a link should not count as an editorial recommendation from the linking page.

off-page SEO

Off-page SEO covers all the SEO work that happens outside your website but still affects how high you rank – primarily building authority through backlinks, brand mentions and other mentions on external websites.

on-page SEO

On-page SEO means optimising everything that sits directly on the web page – content, heading structure, metadata and internal linking – to make the page more relevant and easier to understand for search engines and users.

organic traffic

Organic traffic is the visitors who reach a website through unpaid search results in Google and other search engines. It differs from paid traffic, direct traffic and traffic from social media – and is built mainly through SEO and content that answers real search queries.

owned AEO

Owned AEO is the part of answer engine optimization that happens on the digital assets you own and control yourself – above all your website – so that AI understands, trusts and cites your content.

page speed

Page speed is how quickly a web page's content loads and is displayed to the visitor. It is one of the most directly measurable links between technical quality and business results in web development.

Paid social

Paid social is paid advertising on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok. The advertiser pays to appear in the feed of a chosen audience, and the price is set in an auction. Unlike search ads, paid social reaches people who are not yet looking for the product.

Performance marketing

Performance marketing is digital marketing steered towards measurable actions – clicks, enquiries or purchases – usually through search ads, social media and affiliate marketing. The budget is continuously moved to whatever delivers results at the right cost.

Perplexity

Perplexity is an AI-driven answer engine that searches the web in real time and writes a summary answer with source citations instead of showing a list of links. Founded in San Francisco in 2022, it is available as a free version, a Pro subscription, the Comet browser and an API for developers.

pillar page

A pillar page is an in-depth main page that covers a broad topic at an overview level and acts as the hub for a topic cluster of deeper pages – a cornerstone of modern content strategy for building strong topical authority.

PPC

PPC (pay-per-click) is an advertising model in which the advertiser pays for each click – usually in Google Ads, Meta or LinkedIn. It gives immediate visibility but requires an ongoing budget and a strategy to generate a positive return.

programmatic SEO

Programmatic SEO (pSEO) is a method for systematically creating large numbers of search-optimised pages using templates, structured data and automation – instead of writing each page by hand. The goal is to rank efficiently for many terms.

prompt

A prompt is the instruction you give an AI model – the text that steers how ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini responds. The clearer the role, context, task and format in an AI prompt, the better the answer.

QR code

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that a phone camera can read, usually holding a link to a web page. It is a grid of dark and light modules with built-in error correction, so it can be read even when part of it is damaged.

query fan-out

Query fan-out describes how search engines and AI systems automatically expand a search query into several related queries to better understand the user's intent.

RAG

RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) is an AI technique in which a language model first retrieves relevant information from external sources and then uses that information as context to generate a more accurate, up-to-date and verifiable answer.

Remarketing

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is advertising – in Google Ads and Meta, for example – aimed at people who have already visited your website or app. Visitors are collected in a list via a tag or pixel, and in Sweden they must, in principle, have given consent to end up there.

responsive design

Responsive design – also called responsive web design or a mobile-friendly website – means a website automatically adapts its layout, content and interaction to the screen size and device, with a single codebase that works properly on mobile, tablet and desktop.

ROAS

ROAS (return on ad spend) measures how much revenue an advertising campaign generates for every unit of currency spent on it. It is calculated as ad revenue divided by ad cost – a ROAS of 4 means every SEK 1 of ad budget returned SEK 4 in revenue.

robots.txt

robots.txt is a text file used to control how search engine robots may crawl a website by allowing or blocking access to specific URLs or directories.

Sanity

Sanity is a headless CMS launched in 2017 that stands out for being structured from the ground up – content is defined as schemas in code, and editorial work happens in a customisable Studio.

schema markup

Schema markup is code that describes what the content on a page actually is. It translates text into a machine-readable format so that search engines and AI systems do not have to guess.

search intent

Search intent describes the underlying purpose behind a user's search – for example learning something, comparing options or making a purchase.

seed keyword

Seed keywords are the 5–20 base terms that describe your business, product or service. They are used as the starting point in tools such as Ahrefs or Semrush to find related keywords.

SEM

SEM, or search engine marketing, is the umbrella term for all marketing in search engines aimed at active searchers – both paid ads (PPC) and organic SEO. In everyday use it is often treated as a synonym for Google Ads, but strictly speaking SEM covers the entire strategy for search visibility.

semantic chunking

Semantic chunking means splitting content into meaningful, logical blocks of text that are easy for both people and AI to understand, interpret and reuse.

SEO

SEO – search engine optimisation – is the process of making your website easy for search engines and AI answer engines to find, through technical structure, relevant content and digital authority. The goal is not more traffic but the right traffic – the kind that turns into business.

SEO copywriter

An SEO copywriter writes text that gets found in search engines and persuades the reader at the same time. The role combines a copywriter's craft with an understanding of search intent, structure and technical SEO – so that the content both ranks and generates business.

SERP

The SERP is the results page shown after a search in a search engine. It contains organic results, ads and special features such as AI answers, featured snippets and local results.

share of voice

Share of voice measures how much of the visibility in a given area a brand holds compared with its competitors – in search results, advertising or AI answers, for example.

Shopify

Shopify is the world's leading e-commerce platform and a hosted all-in-one solution for online stores. The platform handles hosting, payments, stock and SEO basics – and is what we recommend when e-commerce is at the core of the business.

sitemap

A sitemap is a file that lists the important URLs on a website to help search engines discover and crawl the content more efficiently.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder known for its visually polished templates and simple interface. The platform suits creatives, freelancers and small businesses with low technical demands – but it is not built for advanced SEO or scalability.

Storyblok

Storyblok is a headless CMS from the Austrian company Storyblok GmbH (founded in 2017) that stands out for its visual editor with live preview. It is often the strongest choice when editors need to work independently.

structured data

Structured data is information presented in a predefined, machine-readable format – the basis for schema markup, rich results in Google and a better chance of being cited in AI answers.

technical SEO

Technical SEO means optimising a website's technical structure so that search engines and AI systems can easily find, crawl, understand and correctly index its content.

title tag

The title tag is the HTML element that defines a page's title and is shown as the clickable headline in the search results. It is one of the strongest on-page SEO signals and decides whether users click.

topic cluster

A topic cluster is a content structure in which several related pages are organised around a central main topic to build topical authority.

topical authority

Topical authority means that a website is seen as an expert in a specific subject area because of consistent, in-depth and interconnected content – and it is a decisive factor in how Google ranks websites against their competitors.

UCP

Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open standard initiated by Google to make commercial information machine-readable and enable purchases, bookings and transactions directly through AI-driven interfaces.

UI

UI – user interface – is the visual and interactive part of a website or app: typography, colours, buttons and layout. UI decides how an interface looks; UX decides how it works.

URL

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the unique address that points to where a page or resource is located on the web. It is how both people and search engines find their way to the content.

URL structure

URL structure is how the web addresses on a website are built and organised. A well-planned structure helps search engines and users alike understand what a page is about and where it belongs.

UTM parameters

UTM parameters, also called UTM tags or UTM codes, are added to the end of a link, for example utm_source=linkedin, so the analytics tool can see where a visit came from. GA4 uses them to sort traffic into channels such as Email, Paid Social and Organic Social.

UX

UX is the overall experience a user has when interacting with a website – and a measurable factor in SEO rankings, AI citability and conversion rate.

vector database

A vector database is a specialised database system that stores and searches data as numerical vectors – mathematical representations of text content or images – and returns results based on semantic similarity rather than exact words.

WCAG

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the international standard for digital accessibility, developed by the W3C. The guidelines define how websites and digital content should be designed to be usable by people with disabilities.

web analytics

Website analytics (web analytics) is the collection, measurement and analysis of data on how visitors find a website and what they do there. The purpose is to understand what works and what does not – so that decisions about content, design and marketing are based on data rather than gut feeling.

Webflow

Webflow is a Website Experience Platform – a term Webflow coined itself – for creating, managing and optimising the whole web experience: from content and design to performance, conversion and visibility in search and AI.

WebMCP

WebMCP is a W3C proposal and Chrome API that lets websites expose functions as tools that AI agents can call directly in the browser – without a separate server.

white hat SEO

White hat SEO is search engine optimisation that follows the search engines' guidelines and puts the user's needs at the centre – with high-quality content, natural link building and E-E-A-T as the foundation.

Wix

Wix is a cloud-based website builder with a drag-and-drop interface that lets users create and publish websites without technical knowledge. The platform is easy to use and suits small businesses that want to get online fast – but it hits clear limits once your SEO and scalability ambitions grow.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is an open-source e-commerce plugin for WordPress that turns a WordPress website into a fully functional online store. It gives maximum technical flexibility but leaves you responsible for hosting, security and maintenance – and it brings the same plugin problems as WordPress in general.

WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) used to create and manage websites. It is the world's most widely used web platform and powers everything from simple blogs to advanced corporate websites and e-commerce solutions.

YMYL

YMYL is a term coined by Google that stands for "Your Money or Your Life". It refers to content that can affect a person's health, finances and safety, or society at large, and which Google therefore holds to especially high standards of quality and credibility.

zero-click search

A zero-click search is a search that ends without the user clicking through to any website – the answer is delivered directly in Google's search results via AI Overviews, featured snippets or knowledge panels.