Glossary

The words SPIOUN uses, in plain language. The same texts appear inside the app.

404 (not found): The server's answer when a page does not exist at that address. Expected for deleted pages; a problem when the address is still linked or listed in your sitemap.
Alt text: A short description attached to an image. Screen readers read it aloud, and Google uses it to understand the picture. Decorative images can have an empty one.
Average position: Where your page sits in Google's results, averaged over all the searches it appeared in. 1 is the top result. Positions after 10 usually mean your page is past the first ten results.
Canonical: A line in the page's code that says "this is the main address of this page". It matters when the same content can be reached through several URLs, for example with and without www. Google uses it to decide which address to show.
Clicks: How many times someone clicked from Google's results to your site.
CTR (click-through rate): Clicks divided by impressions. If your page is shown 100 times and clicked 5 times, the CTR is 5%. A low CTR often means the title or description does not make people want to click.
Google Search Console: Google's free service that shows site owners how their site performs in search. SPIOUN reads from it; it never changes anything there, except re-submitting a sitemap when you ask.
H1 heading: The main heading on the page, usually the visible page title at the top. One per page, saying what the page is about.
hreflang: Tags that tell Google which language or country version of a page to show. Only needed when a page exists in several languages.
Impressions: How many times one of your pages appeared in Google's results. Someone searched, your page was on the page of results they saw. They did not have to click.
Indexed: Google has read the page and stored it. Only indexed pages can appear in search results.
Language attribute: A small mark in the page code (lang="fr") that says which language the page is written in. Browsers, screen readers and Google rely on it.
Meta description: The short text under your page title in Google's results. Google does not always use it, but when it does, a good one gets more clicks. Aim for one or two sentences, up to about 155 characters.
noindex: An instruction in the page (or in a response header) that tells Google not to store the page. Useful for thank-you pages or internal pages. A mistake if it ends up on a page you want people to find.
Not indexed: Google knows the page exists but has not stored it, or has decided not to. Google gives a reason for each page; SPIOUN shows it in the Indexing tab. Not every reason is a problem: a page that redirects or a duplicate with a correct canonical is fine.
Open Graph image: The picture that appears when the page is shared on social networks or in messaging apps. Without it, links look bare.
Redirect: An address that forwards to another address. Normal after a page moves. A problem when sitemaps or links still point to the old address, because every visit takes a detour.
Rich results: Search results with extras: star ratings, prices, FAQs, breadcrumbs. They come from valid structured data.
robots.txt: A small text file at the root of your site that tells crawlers which parts they may visit. One wrong line (Disallow: /) can hide the whole site from Google.
Sitemap: A file, usually at /sitemap.xml, that lists the pages you want Google to know about. Site builders create it for you. You submit it once in Search Console.
Structured data (JSON-LD): A small block of code that describes the page to Google in a standard way: this is a product, its price is X; this is an event on this date. It can earn richer results, such as stars or prices, under your listing.
Title: The page's title tag: the blue link text in Google's results and the name of the browser tab. The most important line on the page for search. Keep it under about 60 characters so it is not cut off.