SEO Glossary Of Terms
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This is a Glossary of terms used in SEO (Search engine optimisation). SEO has its own unique set of terminology, definitions, and abbreviations such as 301 Redirect or Redirection. A page that when visited, immediately sends users to a different page. Read on for a glossary of commonly used SEO terms and expressions – explained.
Above the Fold
Content that appears on a website before the user scrolls.
Alt Text
Alternative text is used to describe an image on a web page. It is used by search engines to understand the content of the image and improve the website’s accessibility.
AnchorText
In search engine optimisation (SEO), anchor text refers to the clickable words or phrases that are hyperlinked to another webpage or document. Anchor text helps search engines understand the context and relevance of the linked page by providing descriptive text. It also helps users navigate through different pages on a website. Effective anchor text is often optimised with relevant keywords that accurately describe the linked content, while also maintaining a natural and user-friendly experience.
Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is a practice against search engine guidelines, used to get a site ranking higher in search results. These practices can lead to penalties or bans from search engines.
Backlink
A link from one website to another. Backlinks are seen as votes of confidence or authority and can help improve a website’s search engine rankings.
Bing
Microsoft Bing, commonly referred to as Bing is a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. While Google still dominates the market, providing additional search features and taking a mobile-first approach to indexing, Microsoft Bing has vastly improved its offering to differentiate itself from competitors, heading towards a more visually immersive search experience.
Bing the search engine owned by Microsoft is reported to control around 25% of the market share in the UK, with over 900 million monthly searches performed. Researchers reported that those who used Bing were at least 35 years old, most commonly within the 55-64 bracket, whilst their children, who fell into the younger age bracket, would be the ones to use Google. However, compared to Google the search volume on Bing is small. Google accounts for just over 92% of all searches with Yahoo / Bing achieving 6%.
Bing Places For Business
Bing Places for Business helps customers easily find your business when they search on Bing for it and can provide an important boost to your online visibility. In addition to potential customers finding you more easily, claiming your business listing on Bing Places for Business also provides an additional layer of trust.
BounceRate
Bounce rate is a metric used in website analytics that refers to the percentage of visitors who leave a website after only viewing a single page. In other words, it measures the rate at which visitors “bounce” away from a site without exploring any further or engaging with any other content.
A high bounce rate typically indicates that visitors are not finding what they are looking for or are not interested in the content presented on the landing page. It could also suggest that the website’s design, user experience, or load time is poor, leading to a quick exit.
Bounce rate is an important metric for website owners and marketers as it provides insights into how well a website is performing in terms of engaging and retaining visitors. Lowering the bounce rate is often a goal for improving website performance and conversions. However, it is important to note that bounce rate alone does not always indicate poor performance as it can vary depending on the type of website and its objectives.
Business Directory
A business directory is a website or printed listing of information that lists businesses within niche-based categories. Businesses can be categorised by niche, location, activity, or size. Business may be compiled either manually or through an automated online search software. An example is Yell.com
Canonical URL
A tag is used to inform search engines about the preferred version of a web page’s URL, especially when there are multiple URLs with similar content. A canonical URL is an HTML link element that helps search engines and other web crawlers understand which version of a webpage should be indexed and displayed in search engine results. It is important because it helps prevent duplicate content issues that can harm a website’s search engine visibility.
Crawler
Crawler – Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them. (Ref: Google.com/seo-starter-guide )
Crawl Budget
Taking crawl capacity and crawl demand together, Google defines a site’s crawl budget as the set of URLs that Googlebot can and wants to crawl. Even if the crawl capacity limit isn’t reached, if crawl demand is low, Googlebot will crawl your site less.
Crawling
The process by which search engine bots visit and go through web pages on the internet to discover and index new content. Google discovers URLs by following links, by reading sitemaps, and by many other means. Google crawls the web, looking for new pages, then indexes them (when appropriate). (Ref Google.com/seo-starter-guide )
Crawl Frequency
Crawl frequency refers to how often a website is crawled by search engine spiders, otherwise known as web crawlers.
CTR
CTR stands for Click-through Rate and is a metric used in digital advertising and marketing to measure the rate at which users click on an advertisement or a specific link. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on an ad or link by the number of impressions it receives. CTR is used to evaluate the effectiveness of an ad or campaign, as a higher CTR generally indicates that more people are engaging with the content and clicking on the desired links.
Domain Authority
A metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine results pages. It is based on factors such as backlinks, domain age, and social signals. Scores between 40 and 50 are considered average. Domain Authority between 50 and 60 must be rated as good. Scores above 60 rate the Domain Authority as excellent.
Featured Snippets
Featured snippets are brief descriptions or summaries of information from a web page that are displayed at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). They provide users with a quick answer to their query without having to click on a search result, often saving time and effort.
Featured snippets aim to provide users with the most relevant and useful information directly in the search results. They typically appear for query-based searches that have a clear answer, such as questions starting with “how to,” “what is,” or “why does.”
The content of featured snippets often varies, but they typically include a summary of the information, a list, a table, or a step-by-step guide. They can also include images, videos, or other media elements to enhance the answer.
To optimise content for featured snippets, it’s important to provide clear and concise answers to commonly searched questions. Using headings, bullet points, and structured data markup can also increase the chances of appearing in a featured snippet.
Having your content featured in a snippet can significantly increase visibility, traffic, and credibility for your website. It’s a valuable opportunity to present your information as the go-to source for quick answers and can ultimately drive more organic traffic to your site.
Google Ads
Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users.
Googlebot
Googlebot – The generic name of Google’s crawler. Googlebot crawls the web constantly.
Google My Business
Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organisations to manage their online presence across Google. The Google My Business tool lets business owners manage their online presence on Google Maps and search easily and for free. A Google Business Profile helps ensure that people find your business when looking for products and services like yours in their local area. Your Google My Business listing shows searchers where and how to visit your business. A Google Business Profile also improves your local SEO.
Google Search
Google Search is a search engine provided and operated by Google. Handling more than 3.5 billion searches per day, it has a 92% share of the global search engine market. It is the most-visited website in the world. Additionally, it is the most searched and used search engine in the entire world.
In April 2023, Google was the most popular search engine in the UK, holding a market share of 93.69 percent across all devices. Bing had a relatively large market share of approximately 3.75 per cent in second place, followed by Yahoo! with approximately 1.47 percent. ( Ref: https://www.statista.com )
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a web service by Google that allows webmasters to check indexing status, search queries, and crawling errors and optimise the visibility of their websites. Until 20 May 2015, the service was called Google Webmaster Tools. ( Ref: Google Search Console )
Google Stacking
Google Stacking (also known as Google entity stacking)is an authoritative SEO strategy that allows you to build backlinks on several Google platforms to other entity assets like the company’s website.
Indexing
The process of adding web pages into a search engine’s database, making them available for retrieval and display in search engine results pages. Google stores all web pages that it knows about in its index. The index entry for each page describes the content and location (URL) of that page. To index is when Google fetches a page, reads it, and adds it to the index: Google indexed several pages on my site today.
Local SEO
Local SEO is SEO strategies and tactics aimed at improving a website’s visibility and ranking in local search results, particularly for businesses targeting a specific geographical area.
Meta Tags
Meta Tags are HTML tags used to provide information about a web page to search engines. The two primary types of meta tags for SEO are the meta title and meta description.
Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising is an online advertising platform where advertisers bid to display brief ads, service offers, product listings, and videos to web users, it provides pay-per-click advertising on search engines as well as on other websites, mobile apps, and videos.
Customers search: People enter search terms called keywords into search engines like Bing.
Customers see your ad: If the keywords in your ad match a search, your ad appears next to or above search results on Bing.
Customers contact you: You can configure your ad so people can call you, visit your website, or go right to your door.
Mobile Optimisation
Mobile optimisation is the process of optimising a website for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to provide a better user experience and improve search engine rankings.
Moz SEO
Moz Pro is an all-in-one SEO suite of tools. It allows businesses to improve rankings, increase traffic, and gain more visibility in search results. Its main features include keyword research, rank tracking, backlink analysis, and site audit. A powerful digital marketing strategy and Moz Tools grant you the power to optimise your website by measuring, evaluating, and monitoring the onsite and off-site aspects. It helps businesses track various aspects of SEO campaigns.
Organic Traffic
Organic Traffic is the traffic that comes to a website from search engine results pages, without the use of paid advertising.
On-Page Optimisation
This is the process of optimising individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant organic traffic. It includes optimizing content, meta tags, headers, URLs, and other elements on the page.
Off-Page Optimisation
This is the process of improving a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages through activities done outside of the website, such as link building, social media marketing, and influencer outreach.
Page Rank
PageRank is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term “web page” and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages
Page Speed
Page Speed is the time it takes for a web page to fully load and display its content. Slow page speed can negatively impact a website’s search engine rankings. Faster loading times in addition to other important signals can contribute to higher rankings. A good page speed for search engine optimisation(SEO) is 3 seconds or less. A fast-loading page speed will help your SEO efforts, as Google rewards fast sites over slow ones. Keep in mind mobile page speed as well in your optimisation efforts.
Pay-per-click
Pay-per-click is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked. Pay-per-click is usually associated with first-tier search engines.
Keyword
A “Keyword” is a word or phrase used by internet users to search for specific information or websites on search engines.
Keyword Difficulty
Keyword Difficulty – Refers to how competitive a keyword is and how difficult it will be to rank for it.
Keyword Positioning
Google keyword ranking is the position that your website is listed in Google when a user searches that phrase or keyword. A ranking of 1 means that you are at the top. If you are number 11, that means that you are on page 2 of Google as most search results have 10 listings per page.
Keyword Research
Keyword Research – The process of searching for keywords to target in your content based on volume, keyword difficulty, and other factors.
Keyword Spamming
Keyword spamming often referred to as “keyword stuffing” is the method of “overloading a website content” with keywords and phrases in an attempt to get the content to rank higher on search engine results pages.
Rank Math SEO
Rank Math is a Search Engine Optimisation plugin for WordPress that makes it easy for anyone to optimize their content with built-in suggestions based on widely accepted best practices. Easily customise important SEO settings, control which pages are indexable, and how you want your website to appear in search with Structured data. With 2.18 Million Users Rank Math offers both free and a premium plugin.
Rank Tracking
Rank tracking is the monitoring and tracking of the positions of a website’s pages in search engine results pages for specific keywords, to measure SEO performance.
301 Redirect
301 Redirect – A permanent redirect from one URL to another. It is used when a web page has been permanently moved to a new location.
Search Engine
A search engine is a software program that helps people find the information they are looking for online using keywords or phrases. Search engines are huge databases of web pages that have been assembled automatically by machines. There are two types of search engines: individual and meta. Search engines even with millions of websites online can return results quickly—by scanning the internet continuously and indexing every page they find.
SEO metrics
SEO metrics are quantitative measures that help evaluate the performance and effectiveness of a website’s search engine optimization efforts. These metrics provide insights into a website’s organic search visibility, keyword rankings, traffic, user engagement, and conversions.
SEO Plugin
A WordPress SEO plugin is a tool that can tell you what formatting changes you need to make, and how to optimise your posts and pages for search engines. SEO plugins provide you with guidance on how to improve your content, so it’s more search-engine friendly. Yoast is one of the most famous SEO plugins for WordPress.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
SERP is the page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s search query, which includes a list of relevant websites with their titles, descriptions, and URLs.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
SEO is the process of improving a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
URL Parameters
URL Parameters help you control which URLs on your site should be crawled by Googlebot, depending on the parameters that appear in these URLs. This functionality provides a simple way to prevent crawling duplicate content on your site.
Web Directories
Web directories are databases that have been created by humans and are used to organise websites into subject categories.
XML Sitemap
This is a file that lists the URLs of a website’s pages, allowing search engines to crawl and index them more efficiently. An XML sitemap is a file that lists a website’s essential pages, making sure Google can find and crawl them all. It also helps search engines understand your website structure. As site owners, managers want Google to crawl every important page of their website.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a search engine optimisation tool plug-in for WordPress and has over 13 million users. Yoast SEO has many different features that help you set up your site to help search engines like Google understand your website better. Yoast SEO offers a free and premium plugin.
