SEO terms,
in normal words.
Every word your SEO consultant assumed you knew. Defined here in plain language with the “why does this matter to me” spelled out.
CTR (Click-through rate)
How many people click your search result out of everyone who saw it.
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CTR (Click-through rate)
How many people click your search result out of everyone who saw it.
If 100 people saw your page in Google and 5 clicked, your CTR is 5%. Higher CTR usually means your title and description are doing their job. Below 1% on a position-3 result is a sign the snippet isn't pulling weight.
Impressions
How many times your page showed up in search results, regardless of clicks.
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Impressions
How many times your page showed up in search results, regardless of clicks.
An impression counts every time your URL appears on a search results page, even if it's at the bottom of page 9. High impressions plus low CTR usually means you're ranking but not compelling enough to click.
Position
Where your page sits on the Google search results page.
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Position
Where your page sits on the Google search results page.
Position 1 is the top organic result. Positions 1 to 10 are page one. Anything past 10 is effectively invisible — about 95% of clicks happen on page one.
Keyword difficulty
A 0–100 score for how hard it would be to rank for a keyword.
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Keyword difficulty
A 0–100 score for how hard it would be to rank for a keyword.
Calculated from the strength of the sites currently ranking on page one. Below 30 is reachable for a small site. Above 70 means national brands and heavy domain authority are in the way.
Search volume
Roughly how many times per month people search this exact phrase.
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Search volume
Roughly how many times per month people search this exact phrase.
An average over the last 12 months. Volume below 100 is low intent (often technical or branded). 1,000 to 10,000 is the sweet spot for most small businesses. Above 100k is national-brand territory.
Backlink
A link from another site to yours.
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Backlink
A link from another site to yours.
Google treats every backlink as a vote of confidence. Quality matters more than quantity — one link from a well-known site outweighs fifty from forum comments. Lost backlinks usually mean someone deleted or rebuilt their page.
Referring domain
A unique website that links to you, regardless of how many pages on it link.
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Referring domain
A unique website that links to you, regardless of how many pages on it link.
Five backlinks from the same blog count as one referring domain. Google cares about how many distinct sites trust you, not how many pages on those sites mention you.
Core Web Vitals
Three speed and stability scores Google uses to rank your site.
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Core Web Vitals
Three speed and stability scores Google uses to rank your site.
LCP (largest piece of content loads), CLS (page doesn't jump around), and INP (clicks respond fast). Failing any of them on mobile hurts rankings, especially for competitive keywords.
Lighthouse
Google's tool that scores your site on performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices.
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Lighthouse
Google's tool that scores your site on performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices.
Each score is 0 to 100. Above 90 across the board is what every page should aim for. Mapseen runs Lighthouse on demand and stores every issue so you can fix them one by one.
Search Console (GSC)
Google's free tool that shows you how your site is doing in their search results.
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Search Console (GSC)
Google's free tool that shows you how your site is doing in their search results.
GSC tells you which queries you appear for, which pages get clicks, average position, and any indexing issues. Connecting GSC to Mapseen is the single biggest unlock — it's the only source of true click data.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page. The page Google shows after a search.
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SERP
Search Engine Results Page. The page Google shows after a search.
Modern SERPs include organic results, ads, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, image carousels, AI overviews, and local maps. Ranking #1 doesn't mean what it used to — you might be #1 organic but #6 visible.
Featured snippet
The boxed answer that sometimes appears above all other results.
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Featured snippet
The boxed answer that sometimes appears above all other results.
Often called “position 0.” Google pulls the snippet from a page it trusts. Winning one usually quadruples your CTR for that query. Format matters: short paragraph, list, or table.
Domain authority
An estimate of how trusted your whole website is to search engines.
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Domain authority
An estimate of how trusted your whole website is to search engines.
A 0–100 score derived from backlink quality and quantity. New sites start near zero. Above 30 is solid for a small business. Above 60 is competitive nationally. The number is an estimate, not a Google metric.
Content gap
A keyword your competitors rank for that you don't.
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Content gap
A keyword your competitors rank for that you don't.
If three competitors all rank top-10 for “property investment Sydney” and you don't appear at all, that's a gap worth filling. Content gaps are usually the highest-ROI ideas in any SEO plan.
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