Search Engine Optimization Cheat Sheet
The core ideas of Search Engine Optimization distilled into a single, scannable reference — perfect for review or quick lookup.
Quick Reference
Keyword Research
The process of discovering and analyzing the search terms that people enter into search engines, in order to use those insights for content strategy and page optimization. It involves evaluating search volume, keyword difficulty, and user intent.
On-Page SEO
The practice of optimizing elements within a web page to improve its search rankings. This includes title tags, meta descriptions, heading hierarchy, content quality, keyword placement, image alt text, and internal linking structure.
Backlinks
Incoming hyperlinks from one website to another. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of confidence, where links from authoritative and relevant sites carry more weight in improving a page's ranking potential.
Technical SEO
The optimization of a website's infrastructure and server-side elements to help search engine crawlers discover, render, and index content efficiently. It includes site speed, mobile responsiveness, XML sitemaps, robots.txt, structured data, and HTTPS.
Search Intent
The underlying purpose or goal behind a user's search query. The four main types are informational (seeking knowledge), navigational (finding a specific site), transactional (ready to purchase), and commercial investigation (comparing options before buying).
Domain Authority
A metric developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages. It is scored on a scale of 1 to 100, based on factors like the number and quality of backlinks pointing to the domain.
SERP Features
Any element on a search engine results page that goes beyond the traditional organic blue link listings. These include featured snippets, knowledge panels, local packs, image carousels, People Also Ask boxes, and video results.
Crawling and Indexing
The two-step process by which search engines discover and store web content. Crawling involves automated bots (spiders) following links to find pages, while indexing involves analyzing and storing page content in a massive database for retrieval.
E-E-A-T
An acronym for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. It is a framework from Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines used to evaluate the quality of web content, especially for Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) topics.
Core Web Vitals
A set of specific metrics defined by Google that measure real-world user experience on web pages. The three metrics are Largest Contentful Paint (loading performance), Interaction to Next Paint (interactivity), and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
Key Terms at a Glance
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