Resources
SEO Terms Glossary:
Prerender.io
Keep up to speed with what’s new in SEO and AI-driven search. This SEO and AIO glossary defines the latest concepts to fuel your optimization strategy.
A
Accessibility
The practice of making websites usable for all people, including those with disabilities.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
Optimizing content to appear as direct answers in search features like featured snippets, knowledge panels, and Google’s AI Overviews.
AI Crawler
Specialized bots used by AI platforms like ChatGPT and Claude to gather web content for training or real-time information retrieval.
AI Optimization (AIO)
Optimizing content for visibility and performance on AI-powered search and content platforms.
AI Snippets / AI Overviews
AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results, synthesizing information from multiple sources.
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
A web development technique that allows web pages to update content dynamically without reloading the entire page.
API (Application Programming Interface)
A set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate with each other.
B
Bot/Crawler
Software programs that automatically browse the web to collect information.
Browser Cache
Temporary storage of web page resources on a user’s device to speed up subsequent visits.
C
Caching
The process of storing copies of files in a cache, or temporary storage location, for faster access.
Canonical URL
The preferred version of a web page when multiple similar versions exist.
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A network of servers distributed globally to deliver web content faster to users based on their location.
Client-side Rendering (CSR)
When a browser uses JavaScript to generate HTML content, rather than receiving it directly from the server.
Core Web Vitals
Google’s metrics for measuring user experience, including LCP, FID, and CLS, and are part of Google’s ranking factors.
Crawl Budget
The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site within a given timeframe.
Crawl Limit
The maximum number of requests a search engine crawler will make to a website within a given period.
Crawl Rate
How quickly search engines crawl your website’s pages.
Crawling
The process of search engines discovering and scanning web pages.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
A Core Web Vital measuring visual stability by quantifying how much page elements unexpectedly move during loading.
D
DOM (Document Object Model)
The programming interface for HTML documents that represents the page as a tree structure.
Dynamic Content
Content that changes based on user behavior, preferences, locations, or other variables. For example, product recommendations and stock availability.
Dynamic Rendering
Serving different versions of content to users versus search engines.
E
Edge Rendering
Processing and delivering content from servers closest to the user’s location.
E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
Google’s expanded quality evaluation framework that now includes “Experience” alongside the original E-A-T factors.
Emerging SEO Concepts
Indexing API
Tools provided by search engines allowing direct notification when content is added or updated, accelerating the indexing process.
Entity-Based SEO
Optimization focused on how search engines understand concepts, people, places, and things rather than just keywords.
F
First Contentful Paint (FCP)
A Core Web Vital measuring the time it takes for the first piece of content to appear on screen.
G
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
A content optimization technique for AI search engines focuses on providing comprehensive, contextually relevant information that AI can easily understand and add to its generated responses.
Generative Search
Search experiences that produce AI-generated answers rather than traditional links, incorporating information from multiple sources.
H
Headless CMS
A content management system that handles content creation and storage but not presentation.
HTTP Status Codes
Standard response codes given by web servers to indicate the status of requests.
Hybrid Rendering
An approach that uses different rendering methods for different parts of a website based on content type and performance needs.
Hydration
The process where client-side JavaScript adds interactivity to server-rendered HTML, making static content dynamic after initial load.
I
Indexing
The process of storing and organizing web pages in a search engine’s database.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)
A Core Web Vital measuring how quickly a page responds to user interactions.
Isomorphic Rendering (Universal JavaScript)
A technique where the same JavaScript code runs on both server and client, combining benefits of server-side and client-side rendering.
J
JavaScript Dependencies
External resources and libraries required for JavaScript functionality that can impact rendering performance and search visibility.
JavaScript Framework
Libraries and structures used to build web applications (React, Vue, Angular, etc.).
L
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
A Core Web Vital measuring the time it takes for the largest content element to become visible.
Lazy Loading
A technique that defers loading of non-critical resources until they’re needed, improving initial page load performance.
Load Balancing
Distributing network traffic across multiple servers.
Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO)
A content optimization technique focused on making information easily understandable and extractable for large language models (LLMs) used in AI-powered search and content generation.
LLM.txt / LLMS.txt
An emerging standard file (similar to robots.txt) that specifies how AI models and large language models should interact with website content.
M
Meta Tags
HTML elements that provide metadata about a webpage.
Mobile-First Indexing
Google’s practice of primarily using the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking.
O
Open Graph Tags
Meta tags that control how URLs are displayed when shared on social media.
P
Page Speed
How quickly a webpage loads and becomes interactive.
Passage Indexing
Search engines’ ability to rank specific passages or sections of a page independently from the whole page.
Prerendering
Generating HTML content in advance instead of at request time.
Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
Web applications that can function like native mobile apps.
R
Ranking
How search engines order search results.
Rendering
The process of converting website code into the visual elements users see.
Rendering Ratio
The percentage of content successfully rendered compared to what’s available, indicating rendering efficiency for search engines.
Rich Snippets
Enhanced search results with additional information beyond the standard title and description.
Robots.txt
A text file that tells search engines which pages they can or cannot crawl.
S
Schema Markup
Code added to a website to describe its content to search engines, helping them understand and display it more effectively in search results, e.g., in rich snippets.
Search Intent Optimization
Tailoring content to match the specific goals behind user searches rather than just matching keywords.
Semantic HTML
Using HTML elements that clearly convey their meaning to both browsers and search engines, improving accessibility and SEO.
SEO Spiders
Crawlers used to analyze a website’s structure, content, and technical elements for SEO issues and opportunities.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page displayed by search engines in response to a query.
Server-side Rendering (SSR)
Generating HTML content on the server rather than in the browser.
Single Page Application (SPA)
A web application that loads a single HTML page and dynamically updates content.
Sitemap
A file that lists important pages on your website to ensure search engines can find them.
Streaming SSR
An advanced server-side rendering technique that sends HTML in chunks as it’s generated rather than waiting for the entire page.
T
Time to First Byte (TTFB)
How long it takes for a browser to receive the first byte of response from a server.
Token Economy
How AI models process and “understand” content by breaking it into smaller units (tokens), affecting how content is interpreted and presented.
Twitter Cards
Meta tags that control how URLs are displayed when shared on Twitter.
Z
Zero-Click Search
Search results that provide answers directly in SERPs, eliminating the need for users to click through to websites.
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