SEO and growth glossary
A Terms and Definitions
89 plain-English definitions begin with A. Showing page 1 of 3.
All A definitions
- A record
- A DNS record that maps a domain name to an IPv4 address.
- AAAA record
- A DNS record that maps a domain name to an IPv6 address.
- AARRR
- A growth metrics framework covering Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral, also known as Pirate Metrics.
- Above the fold content
- Content visible on screen without scrolling, important for engagement and Largest Contentful Paint optimization.
- Accelerated Mobile Pages
- An open framework of HTML restrictions and a delivery cache designed to make mobile pages load near-instantly.
- Access log
- A server-generated record of every HTTP request made to a website, used for crawl analysis and diagnostics.
- Acquisition
- The marketing function or analytics report category covering how users first arrive at a website or product.
- Activation
- The point at which a new user takes a meaningful first action that signals initial product value.
- Active user
- A unique user who has visited a property within a specified period as defined by the analytics platform.
- Adaptive design
- A web design approach that delivers different fixed layouts based on the detected device or screen size.
- Add to home screen
- A browser feature that allows a Progressive Web App to be installed as an icon on a user's home screen.
- AdsBot Google
- Google's crawler used to evaluate the quality and policy compliance of advertising landing pages.
- Advanced guide
- A long-form, in-depth article aimed at experienced readers and covering a topic at expert level.
- Advertorial
- Sponsored editorial content presented in the style of a publication, typically requiring sponsored or nofollow link attributes.
- AEO
- Answer engine optimization, the practice of optimizing for direct-answer surfaces like featured snippets and AI responses.
- Affiliate SEO
- Search engine optimization for sites earning revenue primarily through affiliate commissions.
- AggregateRating schema
- A structured data type representing the aggregate rating of an item based on multiple reviews.
- Aggregator content
- Content that compiles links and summaries from multiple primary sources rather than producing original reporting.
- AhrefsBot
- The web crawler operated by Ahrefs to build its backlink and keyword databases.
- AI citation
- A reference or attribution to a source within an AI-generated answer, often shown as a linked footnote.
- AI content
- Content produced wholly or substantially by generative artificial intelligence systems.
- AI engine optimization
- The discipline of optimizing brand presence, content, and citations to perform well in generative AI answer engines.
- AI Mode
- Google's dedicated conversational search interface that returns generative AI responses across multi-turn queries.
- AI Overview
- A generative summary that appears at the top of certain Google search results, citing the sources it draws from.
- AI Overviews citation
- A linked source attribution displayed within a Google AI Overview that drives referral visibility.
- AI referral
- A site visit originating from a click within an AI assistant or AI-generated answer interface.
- AI search
- Search experiences powered by large language models that return generated answers in addition to or instead of links.
- AI snapshot
- An earlier name for the generative summary block in Google search, since replaced in usage by AI Overview.
- AI traffic
- Visits to a website attributed to AI assistants, AI search interfaces, or generative answer engines.
- AI training opt-out
- A directive or signal indicating that a site's content should not be used to train AI models.
- AI visibility
- A measure of how often and how prominently a brand or page appears within AI-generated answers.
- AI-generated content
- Text, images, or media produced by generative artificial intelligence rather than authored directly by a human.
- ai.txt
- A proposed text file at a domain root specifying which AI bots may train on or use a site's content.
- AIDA model
- A classic marketing funnel framework covering Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action stages.
- AIO
- Common shorthand for AI Overview, Google's generative summary feature in search results.
- AIO source
- A page cited as a reference within a Google AI Overview.
- AJAX crawling scheme
- A deprecated Google approach for indexing AJAX-driven content using hashbang URLs and escaped fragments.
- Algorithm update
- A change to a search engine's ranking algorithm that affects how pages are scored and ordered.
- Algorithmic penalty
- A loss of rankings caused by an algorithmic ranking change rather than by a manual review action.
- All directive
- A robots meta or X-Robots-Tag value indicating no restrictions on indexing or following links.