150+ SEO Acronyms & Abbreviations
This guide includes over 150+ SEO acronyms used by professionals.
One of the most common acronyms used in digital marketing is SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a practice of Search Engine Marketing that seeks to improve search engine rankings. This primarily includes Google, but can also include other search engines like Bing.
There are a few specific areas of SEO, which include the following:
- On-page SEO – Refers to “on-page” copy edits.
- Off-page SEO – Refers to “off-page” efforts like building.
- Content Marketing – The publishing of content to improve SEO.
In addition to these basics, there are over 150 other SEO acronyms and abbreviations that you should know…
Acronym | Description |
---|---|
AJAX | Asynchronous Javascript and XML |
AOV | Average Order Value |
API | Application Program Interface |
B2B | Business to Business |
B2C | Business to Consumer |
BH | Blackhat |
BHW | Blackhat World |
BL | Backlink |
BL | BrightLocal |
BR | Bounce rate |
ccTLD | Country Code Top-Level Domain |
CF | Citation flow |
CGI | Common Gateway Interface |
CMS | Content Management System |
CPA | Cost Per Acquisition |
CPC | Cost per Click |
CPL | Cost Per Lead |
CPM | Cost Per Impression |
CPO | Cost Per Order |
CPV | Cost Per View |
CR | Conversion Rate |
CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
CRO | Conversion Rate Optimization |
CSS | Cascading Style Sheet |
CTA | Call to Action |
CTR | Click-through Rate |
DA | Domain Authority |
DFO | Data Feed Optimization |
DKI | Dynamic Keyword Insertion |
DLP | Directory Listings Page |
DLR | Deep Link Ratio |
DMCA | Digital Millennium Copyright Act |
DMP | Data Management Platform |
DNS | Domain Name System |
DR | Domain Ranking |
DR | Direct Response |
DSRP | Directory Search Results Page |
eCPC | Enhanced Cost Per Click |
EMD | Exact Match Domain |
EMQ | Exact Match Query |
EPC | Earnings Per Click |
EPM | Earnings Per Impression |
ERD | Educational Referring Domain |
ESP | Email Service Provider |
FB | |
FTP | File Transfer Protocol |
G | |
GA | Google Analytics |
GAP | Google Advertising Professional |
GIS | Google Image Search |
GKP | Google Knowledge Panel |
GRD | Governmental Referring Domain |
GSC | Google Search Console |
GTM | Google Tag Manager |
GUI | Graphical User Interface |
GWT | Google Webmaster Tools |
H1 | Heading Level 1 HTML Markup |
H2 | Heading Level 2 HTML Markup |
H3 | Heading Level 3 HTML Markup |
H4 | Heading Level 5 HTML Markup |
H5 | Heading Level 5 HTML Markup |
H6 | Heading Level 6 HTML Markup |
Href | Hypertext Reference |
HTML | Hypertext Markup Language |
HTTP | HyperText Transfer Protocol |
HTTPS | Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure |
IBL | Inbound Links |
IG | |
IP | Internet Protocol (Address) |
ISP | Internet Service Providers |
KW | Keyword |
KWR | Keyword Research |
LB | Link Building |
LPO | Landing Page Optimization |
LSA | Local Service Ads |
LSEO | Local SEO |
LSI | Latent Semantic Indexing |
LTV | Lifetime Value |
NAP | Name Address Phone Number |
NLP | Natural Language Processing |
OBL | Outbound Link |
ODP | Open Directory Project |
OG | Open Graph |
ORM | Online Reputation Management |
OS | Open Source |
OS | Operating System |
OSE | Open Site Explorer |
PBN | Private Blog Network |
Portable Document Format | |
PHP | Hypertext Preprocessor |
PNG | Portable Networks Graphic |
PPC | Pay Per Click |
PPL | Pay Per Lead |
PPR | Pay Per Rank |
PPS | Pay Per Sale |
PR | Press Release |
PR | Page Rank |
PV | Pageview |
QA | Quality Assessment |
QS | Quality score |
RD | Referring Domain |
RM | Reputation management |
ROI | Return on Investment |
RSS | Really Simple Syndication |
RTD | Real-time Data |
SaaS | Software as a service |
SB | Social Bookmark |
SD | Semantic Distance |
SDTT | Structured Data Testing Tool |
SE | Search Engine |
SEJ | Search Engine Journal |
SEM | Search Engine Marketing |
SEO | Search Engine Optimization |
SERM | Search Engine Results Management |
SERP | Search Engine Results Page |
SEW | Search Engine Watch |
SI | Supplemental Index |
SMM | Social Media Marketing |
SMO | Social Media Optimization |
SMP | Social Media Platform |
SNS | Social Networking Service |
SQL | Sales Qualified Lead |
SSI | Server Side Includes |
SSL | Secure Sockets Layer |
SVG | Scalable Vector Graphic |
TF | Scalable Vector Graphic |
TLD | Top Level Domain |
TLP | Top Level Page |
TOS | Terms of Service |
TF | Trust Flow |
UCD | User-centric design |
UI | User Interface |
UR | URL Rating |
URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
USP | Unique Selling Proposition |
UTM | Urchin Tracking Module |
UV | Unique visitor |
UX | User Experience |
VA | Virtual Assistant |
W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
WH | Whitehat |
WMT | Webmaster Tools |
WP | WordPress |
WWW | World Wide Web |
XHTML | Extensible HyperText Markup Language |
XML | Extensible Markup Language |
YML | Your Money Your Life |
YoY | Year over Year |
YT | YouTube |
YTD | Year-to-Date |
301 | 301 Redirect (Resource Moved Permanently) |
302 | 302 Redirect (Resource Moved Temporarily) |
401 | 401 Status Code (Resource Requires Authentication) |
403 | 403 Status Code (Forbidden Access) |
404 | 404 Error Status Code (Resource Not Found) |
503 | 503 Error Status Code (Server Unavailable) |
You don’t need to know all of them, but at least half of these are used on a weekly basis.
Being familiar with the list will put you ahead of most traditional marketers, and enable you to have better conversations.
Happy SEO-ing 🙂