SEO Glossary Definitions You Need to Know About
SEO is evolving so fast to even catch up with it. Nonetheless, there is no need to cram all the jargon in the book used by SEO geeks. Here is an SEO glossary of the most essential words to know and get through the day just fine.
-ALT (Tag, Text or Attribute): search engine descriptions used for reading HTML images. Search engines cannot read the image per se, so alt tags help interpret what the image is about.
-Anchor Texts: underlined words that when clicked direct the user to a specific page. Search engines use anchor texts to define the destination website, while to the reader anchor texts give a clue of what the link is about.
-Blog: A page where website owners can post new content about products or services. Blogs generate a lot of traffic each time fresh content is indexed by search engines. Always ensure your blog is attributed to a private domain; its faster for web ranking.
-Bookmark: bookmarks help the reader save a page to their browser for later reference. When bookmarks are shared among online readers, crawlers pick on it and boost the ranking of the respective website.
-Canonical URL: Canonical URLs direct the reader to the true site. They also help search engines channel traffic to the real website where the content was first published.
-Cascading Style Sheet (CSS): A code that differentiates all elements on sites; example, the title from the content or alt text from the image.
-Conversion Forms: that pop up window that requests you to sign up for a newsletter or so you can access the full features of a website. Websites use conversion forms to generate leads from traffic, or to follow up on consumers via email lists.
-Domain: the permanent address for your website is your domain. It has an expiry date after which you are required to renew it. Search engines are fond of websites with longer domain registration because those sites tend to stick around longer.
-Directory: the Yellow Pages of the internet. By submitting your articles (with valid links) to directories, it helps users find your site and content faster. You only need to post fresh informative content to directories like Yahoo or Dmoz to pull in more traffic to your site.
-Fold: the part of a webpage that is cut off from the screen and can be viewed through scrolling up or down. Always keep the important stuff above the fold and push Ads to the bottom of the fold; makes it easy for search engine interpretation.
-HTML: the code language used by search engines to define websites. Strive to keep a clean HTML code so crawlers and bots are able to find your site easily. You can do this by using more layout codes for your CSS vs HTML.
-Headers/Headings: title placed within tags and denoted as h1, h2 or h3 in the coding circles. These headings are normally written in bold and large fonts.
-Indexed Page: this is where search engines store saved pages for ranking purposes… or more.
-Inbound Links: links used on other sites to bring traffic to your page (like in directories). Inbound links boost SEO, especially if the traffic is coming from a reputable website.
-Internal Links: they direct the user to another page on the same website. It could be a link on the homepage that takes the reader instantly to the products or sign-up page.
-Javascript: this is scripted language used by web designers to modify information provided to readers during peak and off-peak hours. Search engines find it hard to interpret Java, a hurdle that is slowly being overcomed by modern day technology.
-Keywords: specific words used to find content on the internet. It’s important to use keywords regularly on web content to boost traffic. Go with specific keywords used by your target group for better results.
-Long-tail Keywording: any popular keyword with extra wording to it is defined as long tail. Example, long-tail for “Galaxy Tab Prices” will be “cheaper Galaxy Tab Prices”. Long-tail keywords are under-utilized, but often used by those consumers with a readiness to buy a product.
-Link building; creating inbound links to bring in more traffic. Done solely to improve rankings
-Meta Keywording: back in the 90’s meta keywords were used by search engines to find content. This method is however outdated.
-Meta Descriptions: That brief paragraph below a link that gives a peak at what an article will be about. Most users use this sample extract to determine whether to click a link or not, so your meta descriptions should be award winning.
–Meta Data– Basically data used by search engines to interpret the content from your website.
-MozRank: ranking system provided by SEOmoz on a scale of 0-10.0. A website with a 10.0 ranking has the best active inbound links while a rating of 0 denotes poorly linked websites.
-No Follow: this is used to restrict your links from passing SEO credits to sites where they links have been used. They are effective when you don’t want to endorse a website.
-Panda: An algorithm used by Google to admonish and punish sites that generate mediocre content to unlawfully earn SEO rankings.
-Page Title: Simple the name given to a webpage or content. Words at the start of the title or more important, because they are weighted, compared to those at the end.
-Page Ranks: or Toolbar PageRank is the rating given by google depending on how well SEO is utilized on your website. Page Rank is rated from 1-10.
-Pay Per Click (PCC): placing an Ad on your website and getting paid each time a new visitor clicks on that Ad.
-Referrer Strings: bits of information sent by your browser to web owners. Web owners use this data to establish your browsing path so they know how you found their site.
-Rank Factor: the option a search engine uses to determine your site’s ranking. It could be inbound links or submitting to directories.
-Really Simple Syndication or RSS Feed: it’s an add-on that gives visitors updates whenever new content is posted on websites or blogs they follow.
-Social Media: online platform where individuals interact with each other like Facebook or Twitter
-Search Engine Ranking Page or SERP: the first 10results that appear on search engines after typing a keyword.
-Spider: software that browse the internet collecting information from various websites.
-Sitemap: a digital map of all pages in a website used by search engines for easy indexing.
-Title: the headline for a page on a website. It appears as a link on SERP and on the top part of your browser when the page is opened.
-Traffic: online visitors to your website
-Traffic Rank: estimation of how much traffic is coming to your webpage
-URL: address of a webpage, normally appears below the title of the page.
This SEO glossary is the Holy Grail for successful SEO marketing. Not really, but it will help you understand confusing SEO stuff.