Quick answers to common questions
Short, direct answers to the questions SEO professionals, developers, and content teams ask most often.
What is Google Search Console and what is it used for?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that lets website owners monitor how their site performs in Google Search. It shows which queries drive impressions and click...
What is CTR in SEO and why does it matter?
CTR (click-through rate) in SEO is the percentage of users who click your search result after seeing it. It is calculated as clicks divided by impressions. A page ranking in positi...
What is keyword cannibalization and how do you fix it?
Keyword cannibalization happens when two or more pages on your site compete for the same keyword, splitting ranking signals and confusing Google about which page to show. The resul...
What are Core Web Vitals and how do they affect rankings?
Core Web Vitals are three page experience metrics Google uses as a ranking signal: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures loading speed, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures r...
What is schema markup and why does it matter for SEO?
Schema markup is structured data code (usually JSON-LD) added to a web page that tells search engines exactly what the content means - not just what it says. It uses the Schema.org...
What is UTM tracking and how does it work?
UTM tracking uses special parameters added to URLs to tell analytics platforms exactly where a visitor came from. The five standard UTM parameters are utm_source (e.g. newsletter),...
What is hreflang and when should you use it?
Hreflang is an HTML attribute (or HTTP header / sitemap tag) that tells search engines which language and region each version of a page targets. For example, hreflang='en-gb' signa...
What is a canonical URL and when should you use one?
A canonical URL is the preferred version of a web page that you want search engines to index and rank when multiple URLs serve the same or very similar content. You declare it usin...
What is Google's Page Experience ranking signal?
Google's Page Experience signal is a bundle of user-centric ranking factors that measure how comfortable it is to use a web page beyond pure content relevance. It includes Core Web...
How do you find quick SEO wins from existing content?
Quick SEO wins come from optimising content that already has traction but is not yet reaching its potential. The most reliable sources are: pages ranking in positions 5-20 with hig...
What is Base64 encoding and when should you use it?
Base64 encoding converts binary data (images, files, binary strings) into a plain text string using 64 printable ASCII characters. It is used whenever binary data needs to travel t...
What is a regular expression (regex) and how do you write one?
A regular expression (regex) is a sequence of characters that defines a search pattern. It is used to find, match, and manipulate strings in code, text editors, and command-line to...
What is JSON and why is it used in web development?
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a lightweight text-based data format used to store and exchange structured data between servers and clients. It represents data as key-value pa...
What is a JWT token and how does it work?
A JWT (JSON Web Token) is a compact, self-contained token used for authentication and information exchange. It consists of three Base64-encoded parts separated by dots: a header (a...
What is URL encoding and why is it needed?
URL encoding (also called percent encoding) converts characters that are not allowed or have special meaning in a URL into a safe format by replacing them with a percent sign follo...
What is a cron job and how do you write a cron expression?
A cron job is a scheduled task that runs automatically at specified times on Unix-like systems. The schedule is defined by a cron expression - a five-field string representing minu...
What is Lorem Ipsum and why do designers use it?
Lorem Ipsum is placeholder text derived from a 1st-century BC Latin work by Cicero, scrambled so it has no readable meaning. Designers and developers use it to fill layouts with re...
What is Markdown and how do you use it?
Markdown is a lightweight plain-text formatting syntax that converts to HTML. Created by John Gruber in 2004, it lets you write formatted content using simple punctuation: # for he...
What is a QR code and how is it generated?
A QR code (Quick Response code) is a two-dimensional barcode that stores data - most commonly a URL - in a matrix of black and white squares. Smartphone cameras read QR codes insta...
What is OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and how does it work?
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the technology that converts images of text - scanned documents, photos of signs, screenshots - into machine-readable, editable text. Modern ...
How do PDF compressors reduce file size without losing quality?
PDF compressors reduce file size through a combination of techniques: downsampling embedded images to a lower resolution, recompressing images using more efficient codecs (JPEG for...
What is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and how is it different from SEO?
Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so that AI-powered answer engines - including ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude - surfa...
What is a Google AI Overview and how do you get your content featured in one?
A Google AI Overview (formerly SGE - Search Generative Experience) is an AI-generated summary that appears above organic search results for certain queries. It synthesises informat...
What is E-E-A-T in SEO and how do you demonstrate it?
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness - the four dimensions Google's quality raters use to evaluate content quality. Experience refers to...
What is llms.txt and how does it help AI crawlers understand your site?
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file placed at the root of a website (yoursite.com/llms.txt) that provides AI language models and crawlers with a concise, structured summary of t...