SEO Glossary of Terms:
Brainy SEO Jargon Buster

Introduction:

What You Need To Know About SEO
Terms & Meanings

SEO is an organic strategy that aims to improve the organic performance of a website in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). From the implementation of content on the page to increase the density of head term keywords to the off-page SEO strategies such as link building to improve the domain authority of the website, SEO covers a vast array of strategies that work harmoniously together. That is just the tip of the iceberg, there are numerous methods, techniques, and factors to consider when optimising a website.

This SEO Glossary aims to provide an insight into the multitude of SEO terms and processes under the SEO umbrella. Learn more about SEO terms and how that feeds into an SEO strategy.

A

all SEO terms starting with A

AMP

AMP, also known as Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open-source framework that helps users create mobile-friendly content that loads in an instant. Page speed is a distinct ranking factor, and with mobile indexing first, now the norm for Google, ensuring the pages load quickly and efficiently is paramount for the success of the website long term in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). Publishing websites are continuously relying on rich content like image carousels, videos, and plugins to encourage the website to be more interactive and stand out from competitors. These pages will need to work alongside ads, but this can result in increased processing power and load time resulting in a decreased page speed. AMP enables the mobile content to load instantly alongside ads.

ALT Text

‘Alt text’ is a contraction of ‘alternative text’. It is a short written description of an image that is not visible to the reader at first glance. Alt text provides better image context/descriptions to Google and other search engines that support website crawling.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the visible characters and words that hyperlinks display when linking one area to the next on the internet. It usually appears as blue underlined text and works as a connection between two sources online. It is an effective method of passing authority from one page to the next.

Authority

Authority describes the relevance a website has on a particular topic. The higher the authority of a website, the greater its authority is in the view of Google. This is true for page authority as well. If your website has a page that discusses with significant relevance on an individual subject, the more relevance the page has, the greater the page authority.

Algorithm

An algorithm is a complex set of rules that are followed to solve a problem or offer a solution. When considering Google’s algorithm, is a comprehensive system that pulls data from its search index to present accurate results for users of a particular search query. Google incorporates multiple factors to deliver websites ranked on the relevance of a particular search term in the search engine results pages.

Auto-Generated Content

Auto-generated content, also known as “programmatically generated” content is created through machine learning and AI. Its purpose is to generate substantial amounts of content in a short space of time with the intent of indexing copious quantities of content and gaining rankings quickly and efficiently.

Article Spinning

Article spinning is a method of content writing that uses artificial intelligence to strategically identify topics within a piece of content and repurpose those topics using semantic phrasing and entities. This is an effective way of creating multiple pieces of content however this method can be impacting a website’s performance if Google flags articles as duplicate content.

Above the fold

Above the fold is the area above the visible screen of a device. It is an area that provides information to users without having to scroll. The fold is the invisible line that divides content from what you can see before scrolling to what you can see after scrolling. In SEO, it is paramount to include valuable information about the website above the fold to engage traffic.

Absolute Path

An absolute path is a website URL that starts with the domain name. The benefit of an absolute path is it includes all the relative information necessary to locate a resource within a website.

B

all SEO terms starting with b

Backlink

A backlink is a link from one website to another, acting like an online referral. Each website is assigned a domain authority (DA). When one website with a high DA links to a website with a lower DA in the same niche, it signals to Google that this website is authoritative and therefore should be valued higher in the SERPs.

Black Hat

Black Hat is a method of SEO where you intentionally try to deceive Google’s algorithm to further benefit your website or maliciously impact a competitor. This could be through deliberately manipulating rankings in unethical ways such as keyword stuffing or sending bad links to competitors.

Blog

A blog is an online resource that discusses business news, sector information, and insightful pieces about your business. It can also include company updates. In SEO, they are an excellent method of creating topical relevance and encouraging you and your brand to be a thought leader in your space. This is due to blogs acting as a bridge between long-tail keywords and competitive head terms. As the blog builds authority on a less competitive term and links to a head term that is more competitive, as the blog builds authority, it passes that through to the page looking to rank for the head term. Blogs aren’t just for the purpose of night time reading, they offer strategic value in SEO.

Bookmark

A bookmark is a method of saving a website link for future browsing. Whether you are browsing your favourite clothing website or researching statistics for an important assignment, a bookmark is a simple method of saving a website link in a quick, efficient, and simple method for future access.

Bot

Google Bot or Bot is a generic name for Google’s web crawler. There are two kinds of bots that Google sends to websites. One is for crawling desktop websites and the other is crawling mobile sites. Bots are paramount for informing Google of what your website is about and for what your website should rank. These bots are assessing key things such as keyword density, on-page links, off pages links directed to your website among many other key ranking factors.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a key metric to assess user experience on a website. It is the percentage of users on a website who exit the website after only viewing one page. Our aim when optimising websites is to encourage a low bounce rate as we strive to encourage users to read the content, explore different pages and take an action. The lower the bounce rate the better for website performance. On the other hand, however, if you have a low bounce rate, high organic traffic but low conversions, it signals that you should consider the user experience on your website. Are your customers able to take action? Is your website simple? Is your website user-friendly?

Branded Keyword

A branded keyword is a keyword that generates organic traffic to your website by including your brand name in the keyword. For The Brains, this keyword could look something like ‘The Brains SEO’.

Breadcrumb

When considering digital marketing, a breadcrumb is a navigation format that simplifies the user journey on a website. Not only does a website breadcrumb help to simplify the user journey on your website, but it also helps Google to categorise your website as well. Breadcrumbs may be an oversight when optimising a website but in reality, they play a huge part in search engine optimisation and web development.

Broken Link

Websites are built up from many elements. They include areas such as visual design, content, and branding but the element that joins all these areas together are known as links. A broken link is when a hyperlink is linked to an empty or non-existing page. This is true when considering internal linking as opposed to external linking. If an external link to your website is broken, it could be that the hyperlink has changed, the referring URL has changed without being redirected or the page has been removed. Monitoring broken links are imperative to ensure you are maximising the crawl budget Google assigns to your website.

Browser

A browser is a web application that provides us access to the world wide web and the websites on it. There are several browsers to choose from including Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome.

C

all SEO terms starting with c

Cache

Cache or Caching is a method of saving assets and files of a website locally to reduce processing time on the server should you request to access the assets and files again. Google continuously crawls and searches for the latest content to index and use it to answer relevant search queries. It takes a cached version of your website and compares it to the latest version of your website. It then assesses updated content on the website to display answers to queries from users of the search engine.

Canonical

A canonical URL is a method of signalling to Google which page is the preferred page to be indexed. A canonical URL is used when a website has duplicate content. Implementing a canonical URL limits the risk of being penalised for having duplicate content on the website.

Cloaking

Cloaking is a method of presenting alternative content to users of search engines. This can include such factors as on-page content or URLs. This is a form of Black Hat SEO and goes against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Through on-page optimisation, we intend to provide users and Google alike with the best answers to queries people are asking in the search engine. By altering what Google reads as opposed to the user, it conflicts with the data which in turn will result in penalisation of the website.

Conversion Rate

A conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors that take an action on your website as a result of the activities generated through search engine optimisation. These actions could include completing a form, making a purchase, or booking an appointment. The higher the conversion rate, the more leads your business is generating resulting in greater success of the website over time. The average organic conversion rate across all niches is 2.4% meaning for every one hundred visitors to your website, 2.4 of them are taking action.

Crawler

A crawler is a web bot that scours websites for changes. Commonly referred to as web spiders, their goal is to identify changes on websites that will reflect the search engine results pages. The information crawlers identify is purposed for web indexing.

CSS

Websites are built from multiply facets of web programming languages. These can include but are not limited to HTML, JavaScript, and PHP to name a few but how are websites designed? This is through CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). It is a markup language similar to HTML that is used to define the display of what style certain elements of a website should have. CSS provides several benefits to web design. From its simplified coding language to its extensive formatting options, as well as its benefit to SEO. CSS reduces the code-to-content ratio. It provides a better organisation of pages and makes it easier for Google to crawl and index the code whilst also reducing the page load speed.

d

all SEO terms starting with d

Disavow

In SEO, a large part of the optimisation includes link building and linking from one site to another. Sometimes, harmful websites can link to your site which can encourage a negative flow of link authority which will impact the organic performance of your website. This is when it is best to consider disavowing these links. To disavow a link means to discard harmful links to your site. You will highlight all the toxic links pointing to your website and flag to Google that you want to discount the value these links are providing to your website. This, in turn, reduces the risk of link-based penalties.

Domain

A domain name is a text that is mapped to a particular IP address on the internet. All websites are associated with an individual IP address. To simplify the process of finding websites on the internet, they are given a domain name. For example, the domain name for The Brains is “thebrainsmarketing.co.uk”.

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all SEO terms starting with e

External Link

There are two types of links within a website. One on hand there are internal links that are ways of linking one or more of your website pages to another page within your website. On the other hand, there are external links. This is where you link from one website to another. Not only does it simplify the user journey when finding answers on the internet, but it also offers significant value to SEO. As we know, each website is assigned an authority score. The higher the domain authority, the greater value it has in the eyes of Google. When you receive an external link from a website with higher domain authority, it is acting as a beneficial referral in the eyes of Google. Through an external link, it is telling Google that your website is of value if a website with high authority is linking to it.

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all SEO terms starting with f

Featured Snippet

When you land on the Google search results page, you may be presented with highlighted text samples, usually holding the ‘position 0’ space. These are known as featured snippets. They offer users an immediate response to their search query without the need of clicking on the website itself. Featured snippets are most likely to be used if users are asking informational search queries. Being featured at position zero of the search engine results pages suggests you will receive more organic traffic over time. You will have a greater advantage over other your competitors in the SERPs as the featured snippet takes up more space on the page. As the featured snippet answers user queries directly in the SERPs, people are more likely to click on it instead of scrolling down to other search results.

Fold

The fold on a website in the space below the visible content and content that you need to scroll to read. When you consider above the fold on a desktop, it is all the content visible on the screen whereas below the fold is anything that you must scroll to reach. The fold is paramount in conversion rate optimisation. Should your page’s goal be to drive conversions, it is essential to have calls to action above the fold to encourage immediate action. As a result, optimising content above the fold can significantly improve the conversion rate.

g

all SEO terms starting with g

Google My Business (GMB)

Google My Business is a service Google offers to help users find products or services from businesses in their local area. It acts as a profile for your business that shows information about location, reviews, telephone numbers, and additional contact information. GMB offers a multitude of benefits. These include increasing your brand visibility on the SERPs, allowing your business to appear in Google Maps, and providing a space for your customers to write reviews. As we know, the higher positive reviews your business has, the great response you will have from new customers.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a tool created by Google that allows SEOs and webmasters to assess website performance. This could include indexing performance, what queries people are searching to find particular pages online, any crawling errors as well as assessing core web vitals. The data Google Search Console offers is excellent for those looking to further optimise their website. Utilising Google Search Console data can result in a positive correlation in organic traffic increases. If you can see the exact searches that users are inputting to find your website, you can further optimise these terms to encourage a greater amount of people to find your website using that term. This, in turn, increases the performance of that keyword.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a content marketing and SEO approach where someone writes and publishes a blog or piece of content on a third-party website to promote their brand. Guest blogging offers multiple benefits, these include increasing brand awareness, increasing the opportunity of building valuable links, and improving your website’s domain authority.

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all SEO terms starting with h

Headings

When content is implemented on a website, it can be divided in many ways. One of which is headings. Headings are ranked in numerical order from lowest to highest. An H1 heading offers the greatest value for SEO. This should be the top heading on the page and should signal to Google and the reader alike what the content below is about. The additional headings from H2 to H6 are used to break up and organise large pieces of content.

HTML

To display content on the internet, you need to implement HTML. HTML or Hyper Text Markup Language is the standard language used to display content, assets, and resources on the internet. It is a simple, efficient language that partners with languages such as CSS and JavaScript. The limit to web design does not exist with HTML.

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all SEO terms starting with i

Image Compression

Image compression is a type of data compression where you aim to minimize the size in bytes without reducing the quality of the image. When we reduce the size of the images, in turn, we are reducing the load time on websites which resultantly, increases the site speed. As we know, page speed is a key ranking factor so the quicker the load time, the better the website will perform in the eyes of Google.

Indexing

Indexing is the term in which Google has crawled your website using ‘Google Bot’, analysed the content on the page and stored the results successful in the Google index. When making optimisation changes on a website, it is important to allow Google to index your website. This will result in Google displaying the results in the SERPs more accurately. If you have made positive changes to your website, the likelihood is that after Google indexes your website, your rankings will be higher, therefore, increasing online engagement.

Inbound link

An inbound link, like external links, is a link from an external website coming to your website. They are great for increasing the flow of authority, improving brand awareness, and referencing content to support your own.

Internal Link

As we have discussed with external links, internal links are the method of linking one of your web pages to another of your web pages. Internal linking is paramount to improving the user journey and experience on your website. In addition to the user journey and experience, internal linking offers excellent opportunities for SEOs and webmasters to create in-depth internal linking strategies to ensure optimal flow of authority from external link-building efforts. Internal linking is something many overlook when optimising websites however the benefit of structured internal links is far superior to unstructured, and we recommend them to never be overlooked.

Indexed Page

Indexed pages are the pages in which Google Bot has crawled and stored the information of changes implemented on your website and is now displaying said changes in the SERPs. There are numerous benefits to indexed pages. The key benefit is helping a website of the individual page appear in the search engine for a particular search query. As we know when optimising a page for a target keyword, we will reap the rewards of the optimisation once the page or website is crawled and indexed.

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all SEO terms starting with j

JavaScript

Like HTML and CSS, JavaScript is a web-based text programming language that communicates on both the client side and the server side of a website. This means that through the implementation of JavaScript, you can not only improve the visual, usability of a website but also enhance the interactive behaviour of the website. An example of this would be changing the colour of a button on your website when you hover your cursor above it. This makes the page interactive and encourages the visitor of the page to take an action.

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all SEO terms starting with k

Keyword difficulty

When looking to optimise a website, it is important to determine what keywords you are wanting to optimise for. As we know, there are many hundreds of thousands of websites on the internet and many operate in the same space. As a result of this, there will be many websites that are looking to rank for the same keyword which in turn, will make it more challenging to rank high. The more websites looking to rank for one term increases the keyword difficulty for that term. On the other hand, if you consider a website that is operating in a sector with minimal competition, the keyword difficulty could be quite low resulting in that website finding it easy to rank for the keywords. Regardless of the keyword difficulty, there is always a method to rank for them. Keywords and keyword difficulty feeds into your on-going SEO strategy. It could just mean it will take a greater length of time, more SEO efforts and increased link building before you can reap the rewards of ranking for a keyword with high keyword difficulty.

Keyword Research

As with any optimisation of a website, whether it is content optimisation or link building, research is imperative. When looking to rank for keywords, we must ask, what is keyword research? This is the method of identifying appropriate keywords to rank your website. We need to determine the intent for several keywords and what keywords are going to be mapped to which page. If, for instance, your website consists of a lot of blogs, it may be more appropriate to research long-form keywords that answer questions your prospective visitors will be asking. Alternatively, if you run an e-commerce website, it may be more appropriate to identify keywords that have more of a commercial intent which in turn, when optimised, will be attracting visitors who are looking to make a purchase.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is a negligent SEO tactic in which you forcefully include keywords within content where it does not warrant it. When you practice keyword stuffing, it is essentially forcing Google crawl bots to identify your target keyword on the page nevertheless, if that page does not warrant that keyword or better yet, that keyword does not naturally read correct, it is a form of keyword stuffing and in essence, is a black hat SEO tactic that will result in Google penalising your website.

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all SEO terms starting with l

Lazy Load

Lazy loading is a method in programming, particularly website development where you delay the load or initialisation of assets on the page until the user requires them. It is an excellent method of improving the speed and performance of the website. If properly implemented, it can significantly improve the website’s performance.

Link Building

Link building is the practice of building links from a website with higher authority and linking them to your website. Focusing on link building is paramount when looking to increase the domain authority of your website. Link building strategies, in the eyes of Google, work as a reference where when a website with higher authority links to your website, it passes part of its authority to your website in turn improving the overall performance of your page and website.

Link Juice

Leading on from link building, link juice is a common term for the authority the link passes from one website to another. It is the value or equity passed from one page or website to another. As mentioned previously, the greater the authority of the website, the greater the value to your website meaning the link juice is more significant.

Longtail Keyword

Long tail keywords can be viewed as keywords that directly answer questions that customers ask in the SERPs. They are more specific and usually longer too. They will have much less search volume but also be less competitive to rank for. The method of targeting long tail keywords is that should you rank position one for five long tail keywords with a volume of twenty each, is the same value of ranking for one keyword with a search volume of one hundred. Whilst it may take more content to rank for five individual terms, they will also be less competitive so you will reap the rewards in less time than trying to rank for a higher search volume term with great keyword difficulty.

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all SEO terms starting with m

Meta Data

Metadata is the code that provides insight as to what your page is about. It is divided into two sections, the meta title, and the meta description. When browsing the search engine results pages, they are the links that attract users to click on the page. They function as the blurb of a book and are used to encourage clicks to the page. In addition to this, as they are well known to be a key ranking factor within SEO, it is also important to include the keyword for the page you want to rank for.

Meta Description

A meta description is a brief description of the page. It is displayed under the blue links on the search engine results page. It should be brief, informative and include relevant keywords appropriate to the page.

Minification

Minification is the process of shortening code to reduce the time it takes for search engine spiders to crawl your website. It involves removing unnecessary characters, empty spaces, and long name variables among other coding elements. Minification offers many benefits. The main benefit of minification is that it dramatically approves the page load speed and accessibility which directly translates to an enhanced user experience. Google’s focus is improved user experience to encourage people to use their search engine. As a result of this, the better the page speed loads, the more Google will reward it which results in better organic results.

Mobile First

Over time, there has been a dramatic shift of people browsing the internet on desktops as opposed to mobiles. As a result of this, Google now takes a mobile-first approach when indexing websites. What this means is the indexed results will be formed because of the mobile version of the website. Historically, Google used the desktop version of your website to index the results however, over time, the value of mobile has made a positive shift resulting in mobile indexing becoming the norm. We, at The Brains, recommend always optimising for mobile-first including optimising content, metadata, CRO and usability to appease the mobile-first index response.

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all SEO terms starting with n

No Follow

When you include a No Follow tag on a webpage, it is instructing search engines to not visit that page. In terms of link building, a No Follow tag will result in an instruction to Google to not pass the link juice and credibility that link would have should it be a follow link.

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all SEO terms starting with о

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is the number of visitors who reach your website because of search engine optimisation activities. It is a free traffic and offers significant value for websites looking to grow their brand awareness, exposure, and business online.

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all SEO terms starting with p

Page Speed

Page speed, or page load time, is the length of time a website takes to display its content. The time is measured from the user’s first click to when the last asset is loaded. The slower the page, the weaker the page will perform in the organic results. Page speed is a key ranking factor in SEO and is paramount in ensuring the page loads in efficient time. This is because, when a page is slow, it can frustrate the user who is looking to that page for results to a query they have searched for. The site speed will directly correlate with the bounce rate. As a result of this, Google will not want their users landing on websites with slow speed as they will be unable to fulfil the need of the user looking to answer a question on their service. Therefore, Google will reward websites that load quickly and efficiently.

Page Title

A page title is the HTML element of a webpage that should specifically describe what that page is about. It should describe the content and the purpose of the page. As we know, page titles offer significant value to Google in terms of improving ranking factors, as such, they should include the relevant keyword you are wanting that page to rank for.

Pagination

Pagination is the method of separating content into separate pages on a website. This is a strategy used for several practices, for example, on an eCommerce website, it is a way of separating products on individual pages.

People Also Ask

People also ask is a rich snippet on the SERP that provides web users with alternative questions and answers that relates to their initial search term. In SEO terms, the people also ask feature allows SEO’s and webmasters to better understand the search engines algorithm and help you assess what Google deems relevant to the initial search query. Not only is it viable to understanding the search engine, but it also helps when investigating long tail keywords.

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all SEO terms starting with q

Query

A search query is a keyword or question that is used to find answers on Google. With Google’s algorithm, they index multiple websites in order of relevance to the query or question asked. This numbered list of websites is how Google determines how well that website has answered the user’s query. It is imperative to implement structured keyword research to determine which queries users are asking and optimise your website and or pages to answer those questions most appropriately.

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all SEO terms starting with r

Ranking Factor

A ranking factor is the criteria in which search engines use to determine how high to rank a page on the search engine results pages. These ranking factors consist of elements such as technical, content and link building. To improve your organic performance in the SERPs will determine how well you optimise these ranking factors.

Redirection

A redirection is when a user lands on page but is taken to an alternative page. This is usually because of the website owner deleting the page and setting up a redirect to ensure the user can still get to a page with some content on it. The benefit of a redirection is to improve user experience. You would much rather want to deliver content to your website visitor as opposed to a 404 page.

REL=Canonical

A canonical link element is a HTML element that specifies to Google page is the canonical or preferred page. It is a method of reducing the impact of duplicate content. Specifying the canonical page helps Google to consolidate the link equity from duplicate pages whilst also improving site speed and performance.

Responsive Design

A website should be able to look stylish on all screen sizes. This includes desktop, tablet and mobile. Responsive design is the method of ensuring web pages render appropriately on a variety of screen sizes. Responsive design is known to reduce the bounce rate, improve user experience and offer a better overall customer experience on your website.

Robots.txt

A Robots.txt file is a way in which websites communicate with search engine crawlers and other website robots. The file specifies which area of the website should be crawled and indexed vs what area of the website should be blocked from crawling. An example of this for instance would be blocking expired offers on your ecommerce website that you no longer require Google seeing.

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all SEO terms starting with s

Search Intent

When considering keyword research, as mentioned earlier in this glossary, we need to consider the search intent. Search intent is what describes the purpose of an online search. For instance, if a keyword has transactional intent, it is considered that the keyword will encourage transactions whereas an informational keyword will provide information to the user.

Search Volume

Search volume is the average number of people who are searching for a keyword per month. The higher the search volume, the more opportunity to generate organic traffic to your website. When targeting a keyword, it is beneficial to target a keyword with a search volume of over one hundred nevertheless, there is still a significant opportunity to capture rankings with low search volume if they have the right search intent.

Seasonal Trends

Seasonal trends are the term used to describe the influence of various times of year on the performance of a website. An excellent example of this would be how consumer behaviour changes in the run-up to Christmas. This seasonal change impacts several businesses, especially for products associated with Christmas nevertheless, the demand can diminish as we fade out of season. It is important to use seasonal trends to your advantage in SEO. As such, we recommend assessing the seasonal trends that could influence your organic performance building them into your SEO strategy. For example, producing content associated with that seasonal trend in enough time to allow that content to rank.

Seek Keyword

A seed keyword, as opposed to a long-tail keyword, is a keyword made up of one or two keywords. Seed keywords tend to have a high monthly search volume and increased keyword difficulty. As the seed keyword begins to rank, you will be able to identify several other keywords like the seed keyword which will usually be long tail keywords that include your seed keyword.

SEO

Hopefully, by this length of the SEO Glossary, you have been able to gain a fundamental understanding of SEO. For reference, SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the method of optimisation of websites for many ranking factors to encourage online exposure, and brand awareness, and increase organic traffic and conversions. It is a long-term strategy to increase online exposure but offers significant advantages for business owners wanting to grow their business or brand online.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

The search engine results page, or SERPs is the area on the search engine that displays the websites that will answer the questions users have asked on the search engine. The higher a website appears on the search engine, the greater chance of that website providing results to that question in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Statistically speaking, the higher the website is on the search engine, the greater the CTR (Click through rate).

Sitemap

A sitemap is a file that contains the list of web pages associated with your website. It showcases what files and file types are visible to the search engines as well as the users of the website. An optimised sitemap will result in an increased user experience of your website.

Spider

A spider in SEO terms, unlike like the feared arachnids, is a bot that crawls links and pages to identify changes on your website. The spiders store information of your website for the search engine to index. The better optimised your website is, the more information the spider can store and as such, when your site is indexed, the higher your website will rank.

SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate is an online digital certificate used to authenticate the identity of a website. An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a method of encrypting the links between a web server and a web browser. It is a security protocol to increase protection for websites on the internet. When a website includes an SSL, it changes the http:// (Hypertext transfer Protocol) to a https:// (Hypertext transfer Protocol Secure) meaning that your website is encrypted and secured.

Status Code

A status code, about digital marketing and SEO, is a server’s response to a browser’s request. These responses take shape in multiple ways. An example of a status code could be a 404 status code. This refers to a page that does not exist but is still trying to be accessed by the user.

Structured Data

Structured data is how data is organised on a webpage. When considering structured data in SEO, it is when the data is organised and tagged with specific code and text to help Google and other search engines understand the context of the data and information. In return, it will help to provide accurate results to web users.

Sub Domain

A subdomain is a name given to a sub-brand of your domain. It acts as an extension of your domain. It allows you to separate and organise the files on your website efficiently. There are several benefits to a subdomain, these include allowing you to target specific market segments, reading groups or even countries.

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all SEO terms starting with t

Traffic

Traffic is the metric that measures the number of visitors to your website because of organic or paid activities on your website. The higher the traffic, the greater the number of people visiting your website.

Title Tag

A title tag is a code that allows you to give a webpage its title. It is important to ensure this element is optimised effectively ensuring the character limit is not too long and includes the relevant keyword to your page. In addition to this,

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all SEO terms starting with u

Unnatural Links

Unnatural links, also known as toxic links, are links that were not editorially built for your website. They are considered a direct violation of Google’s community guidelines. The purpose of these links is simple, to manipulate the rankings in favour of your website or disservice a competitor.

URL

A URL, (Uniform Resource Locator) or more commonly known as a website address, is a method of specifying the location of assets and resources on the internet. This can include such information as content, videos, and images on a web page. A well-crafted URL offers a multitude of benefits. These include an improved user experience, an opportunity to improve a key SEO ranking factor and optimising the internal link structure of your website. On one hand, a URL is merely a location on your website, on the other hand, it offers an array of SEO opportunities that should not be overlooked.

UX (User Experience)

UX or user experience is a paramount factor for SEO. UX is the focus of how users interact with your website. When making UX a focus of your website, can offer a significant benefit for SEO. Google assesses several ranking factors, one in which being bounce rate. If people are quickly leaving your page, it is signalling to Google that the content and experience of your website are substandard in comparison to competitors. With an improved user experience, it will encourage users to remain on the website. This will then be a signal to Google that your content is valuable and in turn, increase your website in the SERPs. With a strong UX, not only does it make your website look and feel fresh and professional, but it can also improve your customer’s user experience meaning they will be more inclined to explore your website.

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all SEO terms starting with w

White Hat

White hat SEO, in contrast to black hat SEO, is a search engine optimisation technique approved by Google’s community guidelines. They are approved methods that ensure every website on the internet has the same opportunity to rank competitively should they implement white hat SEO. An example of White Hat SEO is creating engaging, informative content that appeals to the user’s suggest query. In addition to this, it is improving the site speed, and mobile friendliness, and implementing key ranking factors such as metadata, and H1 optimisation among many other techniques and strategies. If you want to succeed long-term at Google, White Hat SEO is the only way to achieve this.

Website Navigation

Website navigation, also known as internal link architecture, is the links on your website that connect pages. A website navigation’s purpose is to help users navigate your website to find content with ease. Not only is website navigation imperative for a user but also the search engine spiders. Clear website navigation will simplify the crawl experience for Google and improve its efficiency when indexing your website.

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all SEO terms starting with x

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that specifies all of the significant and relevant webpages for Google to crawl and index. An XML sitemap helps Google to and other search engines understand your website structure. When you are continuously updating content on your website, you want Google to be able to find, crawl and index your content so you can reap the rewards of your SEO efforts.