SEO Glossary - Top SEO and AI Search Visibility Terms

A list of terms and definitions related to search engine optimization, digital marketing, and the Indexly toolkit.

You can use this SEO glossary to understand the most common technical terms in the industry as well as some of the metrics and features unique to Indexly. 

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AI Mentions
References to a brand, product, or website that appear inside AI-generated answers, summaries, or recommendations produced by large language models. These mentions influence brand recall, trust, and discovery even when no traditional click occurs.

How Indexly helps: Track AI mentions across platforms → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-mentions

AI Search Visibility
A measure of how often and how prominently a brand or website appears within AI-powered search experiences, including generative answers and overviews. It extends beyond rankings to citations, recommendations, and implicit references.

How Indexly helps: Measure AI visibility holistically → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility

Auto-Indexing
The automated process of submitting URLs to search engines immediately after publishing or updating content. Auto-indexing reduces discovery delays and ensures important pages enter the index faster.

How Indexly helps: Auto-submit URLs at scale → https://indexly.ai/features/auto-indexing

Backlink Intelligence
Analysis of inbound links to assess authority, trust, and ranking impact.

How Indexly helps: Analyze backlink quality → https://indexly.ai/features/backlink-intelligence

Brand Mentions
Unlinked references to a brand across the web and AI systems.

How Indexly helps: Monitor brand mentions → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-mentions

Content Indexing
The process of making content discoverable and stored in search indexes.

How Indexly helps: Ensure content gets indexed → https://indexly.ai/features/instant-indexing

Crawl Budget
The number of URLs a search engine is willing to crawl on a site.

How Indexly helps: Optimize crawl efficiency → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Deindexing
Removing URLs from search indexes intentionally.

How Indexly helps: Submit deindex requests → https://indexly.ai/features/url-deindexing

Duplicate Content
Identical or similar content across multiple URLs.

How Indexly helps: Detect duplication → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Entity SEO
Optimizing content around entities instead of keywords.

How Indexly helps: Strengthen entity visibility → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility

External Links
Links pointing from your site to other domains.

How Indexly helps: Audit outbound links → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Freshness Signals
Indicators that content is current and relevant.

How Indexly helps: Trigger recrawls → https://indexly.ai/features/instant-indexing

Featured Snippets
Prominent answer boxes in search results.

How Indexly helps: Optimize snippet eligibility → https://indexly.ai/features/keyword-opportunities

Google Indexing
Inclusion of URLs in Google’s index.

How Indexly helps: Monitor index status → https://indexly.ai/features/google-indexing

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
Optimizing content for AI-generated answers.

How Indexly helps: Track GEO visibility → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility

Health Score
Overall technical SEO health metric.

How Indexly helps: Unified site health view → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

HTTP Status Codes
Server responses like 200, 301, 404.

How Indexly helps: Monitor crawl errors → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Index Coverage
Report of indexed and excluded URLs.

How Indexly helps: Centralized index tracking → https://indexly.ai/features/google-indexing

Instant Indexing
Rapid submission of URLs for crawling.

How Indexly helps: Reduce time-to-index → https://indexly.ai/features/instant-indexing

JavaScript Rendering
How search engines process JS-heavy pages.

How Indexly helps: Detect rendering issues → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Keyword Opportunities
High-potential keywords based on intent and competition.

How Indexly helps: Discover actionable keywords → https://indexly.ai/features/keyword-opportunities

Keyword Tracking
Monitoring keyword ranking changes.

How Indexly helps: Track keyword performance → https://indexly.ai/features/keyword-monitoring

LLM Visibility
Presence within large language model responses.

How Indexly helps: Track LLM exposure → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility

Link Authority
Ranking power passed via links.

How Indexly helps: Evaluate link equity → https://indexly.ai/features/backlink-intelligence

Mention Tracking
Monitoring brand mentions across web and AI.

How Indexly helps: Unified mention dashboard → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-mentions

Metadata Optimization
Optimizing titles and descriptions.

How Indexly helps: Detect metadata issues → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Noindex Tags
Directives preventing indexing.

How Indexly helps: Identify accidental noindex → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

News Indexing
Fast indexing for publisher content.

How Indexly helps: Index news URLs → https://indexly.ai/features/news-indexing

Organic Visibility
Presence in unpaid search results.

How Indexly helps: Track visibility trends → https://indexly.ai/features/google-indexing

On-Page SEO
Optimizing page-level elements.

How Indexly helps: Audit on-page issues → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Prompt Tracking
Monitoring prompts that surface brand mentions.

How Indexly helps: Discover influential prompts → https://indexly.ai/features/prompt-tracking

Page Health Ratio
Healthy vs unhealthy page ratio.

How Indexly helps: Prioritize fixes → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Query Intent
Purpose behind a search or prompt.

How Indexly helps: Map intent to keywords → https://indexly.ai/features/keyword-opportunities

Ranking Signals
Factors influencing rankings.

How Indexly helps: Correlate signals → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility

Recrawl Requests
Requests for reprocessing URLs.

How Indexly helps: Trigger recrawls → https://indexly.ai/features/instant-indexing

Sentiment Analysis
Positive, neutral, or negative perception.

How Indexly helps: Analyze AI sentiment → https://indexly.ai/features/sentiment-analysis

Structured Data
Schema markup for better understanding.

How Indexly helps: Audit schema issues → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

Topical Authority
Depth of subject expertise.

How Indexly helps: Identify content gaps → https://indexly.ai/features/keyword-opportunities

Technical SEO
Infrastructure optimization.

How Indexly helps: Full technical audits → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

URL Submission
Submitting URLs for indexing.

How Indexly helps: Bulk submit URLs → https://indexly.ai/features/auto-indexing

Visibility Score
Combined SEO and AI visibility metric.

How Indexly helps: Unified visibility view → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility

Website Audit
Comprehensive site analysis.

How Indexly helps: Identify critical SEO issues → https://indexly.ai/features/website-audit

XML Sitemap
List of important URLs for crawlers.

How Indexly helps: Validate sitemap coverage → https://indexly.ai/features/google-indexing

Yield Keywords
Keywords that drive outcomes.

How Indexly helps: Identify revenue-driving terms → https://indexly.ai/features/keyword-opportunities

Zero-Click Results
Answers that resolve intent without clicks.

How Indexly helps: Measure visibility beyond clicks → https://indexly.ai/features/ai-search-visibility