SEOntology
An open ontology for expressing SEO concepts and relationships in machine-readable form. Created by the WordLift team from 2023, with contributors including Andrea Volpini, David Riccitelli, Emilija Gjorgjevska and Milos Jovanovik.
What it actually is
A formal vocabulary: definitions of the concepts the field uses and the relationships between them, published so that machines and tools can exchange them without ambiguity.
It is infrastructure rather than technique. Nobody optimises a page with an ontology; tools, agents and knowledge graphs use it to mean the same thing by the same word.
Why an open ontology matters here
This A to Z is a demonstration of the problem it addresses. Sixty-odd terms, several naming the same work, a few colliding with established meanings elsewhere, and no shared definitions.
Being open and versioned is the important part. A vocabulary owned by one vendor becomes a lock-in; one published openly can be adopted, argued with and corrected.