Glossary

A

• Above the Fold - Viewable on the first load of a website, without scrolling.
• AI (Artificial Intelligence) - Computer-based learning that is able to build on itself, and even alter its own focus or priorities, as it makes decisions to improve its own efficiency and effectiveness.
• AJAX - AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It describes website code that creates an on-going communication with the server from within one page. New information is generally loaded on a page using expansion arrows, plus-boxes and other actions that signal the browser to request more information from the server.
• AMP - Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP is a protocol that offers rigid rules for HTML, CSS and JavaScript in order to make pages load as fast as possible, usually in one second or less.
• Android Auto (Android Automotive OS) - The OS is a built-in car operating system that runs on the car without needing a phone. The Android Auto platform is a phone-based software that can be pulled into non-Android screens and systems. Both are designed to provide an interactive infotainment and mapping platform. With the Automotive OS, it also shows screens related to the health and operation of the car, such as fuel levels, speed and oil temperature. In some cases, Android Auto Wireless Support can be built in, to auto-connect Android phones with the car OS.
• Android TV - Google's TV platform which allows publishers to release video, audio and game content to TV's using Android-based code. Android TV comes pre-loaded as the primary or secondary operating system for many smart TV's.
• Android Vitals - Android Vitals is a reporting platform to provide developers data about the performance of their Android Apps.
• AndroidX - A code library for Android Apps that works with Android JetPack and replaces the original Android Support Library.
• ANR - App Not Responding or ANR is an important app reporting metric that represents the number of app crashes that users experience.
• Answer Carousel - Answer carousels show a featured snippet with an answer, but then also give clickable buttons, filters or a side-scrollable set of topic cards that allow you to drill down into the topic to get to other answers that are related to the topic.
• App Description - An App Description, sometimes called an App Long Description is the 4,000 characters of information that is submitted to the iTunes AppStore or Google Play, to describe the features and benefits of the app.
• App Download Velocity - App Download Velocity is an ASO metric that describes how many times the app has been downloaded over a certain period of time. Higher Download Velocity is best.
• App Download Volume - App Download Volume is an ASO metric that describes the total number of app downloads.
• App Manifest - An App Manifest is a file associated with Native Apps or Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) that outlines the most important aspects of the app, including the app title and the location of critical app files on the server.
• App Pack - An App Pack is a type of result that Google shows in mobile search results - often at the top. It includes a colorful grid of app logos, with star ratings and names.
• App Promo Text - Promo Test is an iOS-only piece of app meta data that is meant to highlight time-sensitive information or attractions in the app. It can be updated at any time, so if there are sales, specials or other incentives that are time sensitive, they can be described here. While this can have a secondary impact on ASO by driving more downloads and improving download velocity, the text itself will not help with ranking for particular ASO keywords.
• App Ranking - App Rankings can reference how an app ranks in a search from the store or it can reference the over-all app rankings from the store, or from a particular category in the store, based on downloads and revenue. These rankings are country and store specific, so they will be different from iOS to Android, and different from one country to another within the same store.
• App Single - App Singles are when one single app gets a special display in a Google search result. They can include 'Install' buttons or sometimes the app logo. It is now also common for downloadable software to receive the same special treatment on desktop searches.
• App Star Rating - App Star Rating references the total star average from reviewers, from zero to five. Star ratings are an important ranking factor in both the iTunes AppStore and in Google Play.
• App Title - In ASO, the App Title references the title that is visible in the full listing in the iOS App Store or Google Play.
• ASO - ASO is an acronym for App Search Optimization. ASO is an on-going process, but should be considered upon the launch and with updates to the app to make it rank well in the app stores. It is an important process of iOS and Android apps.

B

• Bi-directional Annotation - A system for linking a mobile and desktop version of a page, for use when the page has similar or the same formatting, but mobile-specific design and URL for one page, and a desktop-specific design and URL for the other. The tagging uses a rel=alternate tag from the code of the desktop version of the page, pointing to the URL for the mobile version of the page, and a rel=canonical tag pointing to the desktop URL in the code of the mobile version of the page.

C

• Caching - The ability to store and re-use assets in local storage files for a phone, browser or proxy. This allows web pages to re-use certain assets that appear on multiple pages or are accessed on a regular basis, to help the page load more quickly. When locally stored versions of an asset can be used, there is no server-latency associated with the asset.
• Caching Lifetime/Freshness Lifetime - Describes how long a proxy, phone or browser can keep a particular asset from a web page, before they need to fetch a fresh version of the asset from the server. The longer the freshness lifetime is, the better, because it means that assets that have already been downloaded can be re-used, rather than fetched from the server, cutting down on load time.
• Canonical Tag - Canonical tags express to Google, the preferred version of a URL when duplication of the page, the page content or the URL are available to crawl. Self-referencing canonical tags can be included in page code to prevent Google over-indexing multiple versions of the same page because parapeters or tracking codes are passed into the URL. Cross-domain canonical tags can reference a page on an entirely different domain that hosts the same content as another page on a different domain. These are often used when a news network publishes a story to multiple websites for local news outlets that are part of a larger conglomerate. In general, it is considered a Best Practice in SEO for all pages to at least have a self-referencing canonical tag, unless the page is canonical to an entirely different page. Canonical tags should be consistent, and should not conflict with other signals, such as server enforced URL rules, sitemaps and internal links. They should also not chained or inconsistent with other canonical tags on the site.
• Capitalization Normalization - Using server rules to enforce all lower-case rendering of a URL, to ensure that even when links include capital versions of a URL, the URL in the address bar is corrected to lower-case without a redirect. This helps consolidate link signals to a single version of the URL, even when internal or external links to the page are inconsistent.
• Carrier Data / Carrier Connection / Carrier Network - 'Carrier Data' or a 'Carrier Network' references access internet using a data plan with a mobile carrier, rather than using local Wi-Fi or a cabled connection to the internet.
• CDN / Content Distribution Network - CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. It is a service that websites can use to create mirror copies of their website assets around the world to remove latency, and make it faster for people from anywhere to access the site.
• Client-Side Rendering - This is a reference to JavaScript that executes in the browser, rather than on the server. The browser is considered the 'client'.
• Cloud Natural Language API - The Cloud Natural Language API is a utility that Google created to help then read, understand and translate a variety of language without having to base the translations on translations back to one language like English. It can be used to analyze sentiment and meaning for existing text, and diagram the meanings and relationships of the words in the text to each other.
• Coroutines - Coroutines are a feature of Kotlin that help convert callback-based code into sequential code, making code easier to read, write, and understand - Essentially, they are special functions in APIs that keep the main thread in a cloud function un-blocked by suspending and resuming cloud functions strategically.
• Crawling - Crawling describes the process that Google and other search engines follow to find and cache the most important information on a website. Crawlers are known to follow links on a site, from one page to another or from one site to another, but crawlers also access list of URLs that are included in XML sitemaps.
• Cross-Device - Web content that works or passes information over the internet that is intended to work on phones, tablets, computers and potentially more digital devices. It implies a flexibility in the design and the interactivity.
• CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - Cascading Style-Sheets, aka CSS, are files that control how the HTML of a page should look or be displayed to users.

D

• DART - Name of the code language used in Flutter to program native mobile apps once. This code is transformed by Flutter into native app experiences for iOS and Android without having to write the code twice.
• Database Markup/ Dataset Markup - Google now can understand schema that is associated with custom databases of information.
• Deep Links - Deep Links, especially in the context of native apps, refer to apps from a website to a specific screen or a particular part of a native app (iOS or Android).
• Deferred JavaScript Rendering - Deferred JavaScript rendering refers to a process by which Google crawls websites in two passes, first crawling the site without executing JavaScript, but in a second, deferred process, they will execute and crawl JavaScript, for the purpose of crawling and indexing.
• Direct Traffic - Direct traffic, sometimes called type-in traffic, is website traffic that does not begin with a click from a search result, but instead, begins when a user simply types the domain or a page URL into the address bar.
• Domain - A domain refers to a website or web resources that includes a TLD, such as '.com' or '.co.uk' and unique, identifying string of characters in between. Some examples of domains are mobilemoxie.com, twitter.com and google.com.
• Duplicate Content - Google prefers to only have one copy of a piece of content, and does not encourage whole-sale copying or plagiarism of content from one site to another. For this reason, they will index content the first time they see it in a crawl, but may not index or may suppress from ranking, duplicate versions of that content.

E

• Entity Understanding - Entity Understanding is a process by which a machine learning system builds out information on a certain topic, both laterally and vertically - meaning, how does this entity fit in with similar entities, what are the related entities, what larger entities include this entity, and what entities are included, related or a part of this entity.
• Entity-First Indexing - Entity-First Indexing is a secondary name for Google's core update that is traditionally called Mobile-First Indexing.

F

• Featured Snippets - Featured Snippets are bits of information that are lifted from a webpage and featured at the top of a Google search result.
• Flutter - Software platform to help make Native Apps cross compatible between iOS and Android.
• Fraggles - A combination of the word 'fragment' and 'handle' to describe assets in a search result that lift text from a page and scroll directly to that text when a link is clicked.

G

• Google Analytics (GA) - Google Analytics is a free utility for webmasters that allows them to measure a large variety of information about traffic to their website over time. It can track success of Paid, Social, Organic and Email campaigns.
• Google Search Console (GSC) - Google Search Console is a utility that provides webmasters vital information about how their website is indexed and understood, as well as how it is performing in search.

H

• Hops - The number of URL requests necessary for a browser to reach the page that will be rendered.
• HREF Lang - HREF Lang tagging allows webmasters to associate different translations of one page with each other, so that they can share SEO value and be included in search results when language settings indicate that they might be useful.
• HTML Header & Head Tag - The HTML Header, often just referred to as the head tag is included at the top of the HTML, before the body tag. The head tag contains information that is not displayed directly on the page, but may be displayed in different places in association with the page, including most SEO meta data.
• HTTP Header - The HTTP Header is a piece of code that is passed before webisite code is passed, in order to share information about the browser, the page and the server, to make sure that things are parsed correctly.
• HTTPS - HTTPS is a more secure version of the HTTP protoco that browsers use to transfer information from servers to the browser. The 'S' in HTTPS stands for the word 'secure'.

I

• Image Optimization - Image Optimization is the process that websites must do to ensure that images are not causing excessive slow-down in the load time of a page, but also that the right images have the opportunity to rank well in image search.
• Indexing - The process by which a search engine organizes and stores the information that it discovers in a crawl.
• Indexing API - Google & Bing have both announced the launch of an Indexing API that will make it easier for webmasters to connect their databases and information directly to Google, for faster more efficient indexing. Currently the Google Indexing API can only be used for Jobs and Video Live Streams, but we expect this to change.
• Interesting Finds - Interesting Finds are a hosted inclusion that Google has begun including in search results pages. They are generally clusters of 4 article listings that often include images, and are sometimes location-specific.

J

• Jank - In some cases, loading style sheets too slowly or without place-holders in the template can cause the page to appear to wiggle or flash once or twice, as the styles are applied. This is often referred to as 'jank',
• JetPack - A set of libraries for Android Apps
• JumpLinks, Bookmarks, Anchor-Links & Handles - JumpLinks, Bookmarks & Anchor-Links are all the same thing. they reference links passed at the end of a a URL, after a # symbol. Clicking link will scroll the user to a specific spot on the page, where anchor text is generally present.

K

• Knowledge Graph - Google Knowledge Graph is the architecture and information that Google uses to understand and relate information on the web to other information on the web.
• Kotlin - Google cloud platform for managing APIs. Kodlinx is an experimental version of the platform.

L

• Lighthouse - A tool created by Google to help webmasters evaluate the performance and speed of websites and web apps, especially Progressive Web Apps, (PWAs).

M

• Map Pack / Local Pack - When Google determines that a particular search query has 'local intent' and the person searching is likely looking for a business or location in their area, or in an area specified in their query, Google will include a map in the search results, with multiple businesses or locations that are highlighted in the map, with details about those locations below the map.
• Mobile Subdirectory - A mobile sub directory is a folder in the site architecture that is dedicated to mobile versions of each page.
• Mobile Subdomain - A mobile subdomain is a separate section on a website that is dedicated to hosting mobile versions of each page. The most common mobile subdomain structure is https://m.example.com, where the 'm' is the mobile subdomain.
• Mobile-First Design - Mobile-first design is a concept that was developed to help web designers and developers improve mobile experiences by designing with the mobile use-case in mind first, and then adding functionality or content as the screens get bigger. The idea is to avoid crowding the mobile screen by retrofitting desktop pages to fit into the smaller mobile screens. Often sites that are built to a Mobile-First Design standard are also built to be in Responsive Design, which means that they adapt the same page to work well and re-format the page, based on the screen size that is requesting it.
• Mobile-First Indexing - Mobile-First Indexing is the name of a Google Core Update that was first announced in 2017, and officially started rolling out in 2018, to be completed in 2020. The update focused on using mobile pages, rather than desktop pages, as the primary source of information to index.
• Moxie Score - Moxie Score is a comprehensive evaluation of how much you own any one particular search result or SERP - How much Moxie you have. The Moxie Score gives you credit not just for rankings on your domain, but rankings on other websites, and rankings that are not traditionally counted as SEO, such as PPC, Knowledge Graph, Interesting Finds, Maps, Apps and more. SEO is changing, and we want to provide a more meaningful metric that really gives SEOs credit for all the work that they do to get a brand ranking, and visible in the SERPs.

N

• Native App - Native apps are apps that are OS-specific, generally developed for Android or iOS devices, and accessed through app stores.
• Non-www - Non-www is a phrase that describes how a domain is set to resolve on the server. The non-www version of the domain renders without using the 'www' subdomain. This could mean that the domain is written with just the domain and the ccTLD, or it could mean that the domain is set up with some other subdomain before it.

O

Coming Soon!

P

• People Also Ask (PAA) - Clusters of questions that are included within Google search results. Questions are shown, and answers with links to the website of origin are shown below the question in expansion arrows.
• Product Listing Ad (PLA) - PLA is an acronym for Product Listing Add. These are a certain format of Google Ads which feature images of products.
• Position-Zero - Position -Zero is a term that SEO's use to describe content that tends to rank at the top of a search result, like Knowledge Graph, Direct Answers, Definitions, Utilities, and sometimes Featured Snippets.
• Progressive Web App (PWA) - Progressive Web Apps, or PWA’s are websites that look and behave like apps, and progressively gain more app-like elements as users engage with them more. PWAs may begin as websites or web apps, and with the addition of an app manifest, service worker and app shell design, they become PWAs. Once something is a PWA, it can be installed to the home screen, and run without a traditional browser bar, very similarly to a native app. The presence of a ServiceWorker also allows some elements of the experience to work, even without internet connectivity, again, like many native apps.

Q

Coming Soon!

R

• Referral Traffic - Referral Traffic is traffic that comes into a website from other websites rather than from an organic search result, paid search result or an ad.

S

• Schema - Schema is a word that broadly means a way to tag or organize information. In SEO, Schema generally refers to Schema.org markup, which helps webmasters tag information on their websites to make it easier for Google and other search engines to understand.
• Search Engine Crawler/Bot - A Search Engine Crawler or Bot is something that moves around the web, clicking on links and caching text and images that it finds, as well as other information about the website and the page, so that it will be able to rank in a search result.
• SEO Traffic - Traffic that was referred to a site from a search result.
• SERP - SERP is an acronym that stands for Search Engine Results Page. So a SERP is the entire landing page that the search engine gives you once you submit a query.
• ServiceWorker - A ServiceWorker is a script that manages pre-loading and caching of content locally, to the phone or computer where the ServiceWorker is installed. ServiceWorkers are often associated with Progressive Web Apps, (PWAs), but can be added to any site to speed up the experience. ServiceWorkers are what allow PWAs to support offline experiences, by loading previously accessed content, instead of requiring content from the server.
• SPA (Single Page App) - A web-app, generally created with JavaScript, that uses on-going communication and information from the server to populate new information to the page, rather than using links to other HTML pages to get users to the information. Single-page apps have historically been difficult or impossible for Google to crawl and index, because of their limited execution of JavaScript when crawling, but this may improve with Google's improved Deferred-JavaScript Rendering process.
• Spotlight Search - Spotlight Search is a search platform native to Apple and iOS devices. It allows cross-device searching, pulling in, mixing and prioritizing information from a user's cloud-managed assets like contacts, as well as web-content like Apple Maps, Wikipedia, Yelp and Bing Search.
• Static App Ranking Factors - Text, image and video elements of an app submission that impact rankings but are not changeable until an app update is submitted to the store. These ranking factors are not impacted by on-going engagement ranking factor metrics like download volume, download velocity, star rankings reviews and other elements of an app listing that change dynamically, over time, during the life of the app.

T

• Tensor Flow - Online Machine Learning platform created by Google
• Trailing Slash Normalization - Using server-rules to ensure that there the URL presented in the address bar of the browser is standard, without any variation, including variation on the presence or absence of a trailing slash at the end of a url. Rather than redirecting the incorrect version of the URL to the correct version, most sites can be configured to correct or re-write an incorrect version of a URL when it is submitted in the address bar.
• TWA (Trusted Web Activity) - An app or activity in an app that securely connects to web content to display it within an app. Different from web-view, it is fast and secure. TWA technology allows webmasters with PWA's to submit them to the Google Play Store, like a native app.

U

• Universal JavaScript/ Isomorphic JavaScript - Universal JavaScript, also often called Isomorphic JavaScript is JavaScript code can be run on the server or in the browser using the same rendering engine, as opposed to running one place or the other with different rendering engines.
• URL & URI - URL stands for 'Universal Resource Locator' - it basically means a specific page on a website. URI is similar but less commonly used - it stands for Universal Resource Identifyer, and is similar, but URI is a broader term that can include a variety of types of location information for website or apps.
• User Agent - The phrase User-agent simply refers to the specific type of device that is being used to request a site. User-agents pass specific 'user-agent strings' that can help the server responding to the request, understand what is needed and what is happening. Mobile phones, tablets and computers all have user-agents strings, as do search engine bots.
• UX & UI - UX stands for User Experience, and describes how visitors perceive a website or app. UI stands for User Interface, and it is the utility that visitors interact with in a website or app - the user-facing offering.

V

• Voice Navigation - Voice Navigation is a process that allows users to control an application using only their voice.
• Voice Search - Voice search is the process of using your voice to submit a search query to a search engine like Google.

W

• Web App - Web apps allow simple things like continuous scrolling, and interactive menus and elements that can be filled in by the server, based on the clicks and scrolling of the user. People like these kinds of web experiences because they don’t have to wait for a web page to load, each time more content is required for interaction. In essence, they use the web page like a perpetual template for content, minimizing the time users must spend waiting to interact with the content.
• Web Assembly - Web Assembly or WASM for short is a system that allows web developers to build faster apps, that work like native apps, in any code base, but live on the web. It is often used for performance-intensive use cases such as games, music streaming, video editing, and CAD applications that are not programmed in JavaScript but will live on the web as web apps.
• Web Font - Web Fonts are shared font libraries that are loaded into a website from somewhere else on the web.

X

• XML - XML stands for eXtensable Markup Language. It is a file type that indicates a list or a feed, and in SEO, is often used for sending structured data in the form of a sitemap.
• X-Robots Tag - The XRobots Tag is a control that can send instructions limit a search engine's access to content in a programmatic way, directly from the server. It is like a robots.txt file, but it is sent from the server.

Y

Coming Soon!

Z

• Zero-Click Searches - As Google gets better at classifying and understanding queries, they also get better at designing results and utilities that are useful to rank well for searchers, These often rank at the top of a result, in Position-Zero, but they also make it much less likely that users will need to click into a website to get the answer. These are often referred to as zero-click searches, or zero-click search results.

1-9

• 2G/3G/4G/5G - A numeric representation of how quickly data can be sent over a particular mobile carrier data network.