Glossary

Quick definitions for common SEO, performance, and web terms.

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

How CDNs deliver static and cached content from edge locations to improve speed and reliability.

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

A measure of how much unexpected layout shift occurs while a page loads.

CSP (Content Security Policy)

A security header that controls which resources a page is allowed to load.

CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery)

An attack that tricks an authenticated user into unknowingly submitting requests to another site.

Canonical Tag

rel=canonical is used to indicate the preferred version of a page to search engines.

Clickjacking

An attack that overlays invisible iframes to trick users into clicking unintended targets.

Compression (Brotli / Gzip)

Server-side encoding that reduces text-based file transfer sizes for faster page loads.

Core Web Vitals

A set of performance metrics (Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift) that measure user experience.

Crawl Budget

The number of pages a search engine will crawl on your site within a given timeframe.

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

An email authentication method that uses digital signatures to verify message integrity.

DMARC

A policy that tells receiving mail servers what to do when SPF or DKIM checks fail.

DNS

The Domain Name System maps human-readable domain names to IP addresses and other records.

DNS A Record

Maps a hostname to an IPv4 address.

DNS AAAA Record

Maps a hostname to an IPv6 address.

DNS CAA Record

Specifies which certificate authorities are allowed to issue SSL/TLS certificates for a domain.

DNS CNAME Record

Aliases one hostname to another hostname.

DNS MX Record

Specifies mail servers responsible for receiving email.

DNS NS Record

Specifies the authoritative nameservers for a domain.

DNS TXT Record

Stores arbitrary text data for a domain, often for verification.

DNSSEC

DNS Security Extensions provide a way to verify DNS data integrity and authenticity.

E-E-A-T

Google's quality framework: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.

FCP (First Contentful Paint)

The time until the first text or image is painted on the screen.

FID (First Input Delay)

A legacy responsiveness metric measuring delay before the browser handles user input.

HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security)

A security policy that forces browsers to only access a site over HTTPS.

HTTP/2

The second major version of HTTP, introducing multiplexing and header compression for faster connections.

HTTP/3

The third major version of HTTP, built on QUIC for faster and more resilient connections.

HTTPS

How HTTPS encrypts web traffic using TLS to protect data in transit.

INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

A responsiveness metric measuring how quickly a page responds to user input.

Keyword (SEO)

A word or phrase that people use to find content in search engines.

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

The time it takes for the largest above-the-fold element to render.

Lab Data

Performance data measured in a controlled environment.

Lighthouse

Google\

Meta Description

An HTML tag summarising a page content, shown as the snippet in search engine results.

Open Graph

Meta tags that control how pages appear when shared on social media.

RUM (Real User Monitoring)

Performance data collected from real users in production.

Redirect (301 / 302)

How HTTP redirects work and when to use 301 (permanent) vs 302 (temporary).

SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

A DNS record that specifies which mail servers are authorised to send email for a domain.

SQL Injection

An attack where malicious SQL code is inserted into queries via user input.

SSL/TLS

The cryptographic protocols that secure data transmitted over the internet.

Structured Data (Schema.org)

Using Schema.org and JSON-LD to add machine-readable context to your pages.

TBT (Total Blocking Time)

A lab metric estimating how much the main thread is blocked during load.

TTFB (Time To First Byte)

The time it takes for the first byte of a server response to reach the browser.

TTL (Time To Live)

A DNS record property indicating how long a resolver may cache that record.

URL

What a URL is and its parts (protocol, domain, path, parameters).

WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)

A simple guide to WCAG and the four POUR principles.

XSS (Cross‑Site Scripting)

A web security vulnerability where attackers inject malicious scripts into webpages.

hreflang

How to use hreflang annotations to target content by language and region.

llms.txt / ai.txt

Site guidance files for LLMs and AI crawlers — how you want your content to be used.

noindex

A directive that prevents a page from appearing in search engine results.

robots.txt

Small text file that tells crawlers which parts of a site to crawl or avoid.

sitemap.xml

What a sitemap is and how it helps crawlers discover your important URLs.