26 Essential Search Engine Optimisation Terms You Should Know

When it comes to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) there are a number of terms that you will see again and again. Here’s my A to Z Guide to SEO terms that I see and use every day as a Digital Marketing Apprentice.

The anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. In most cases, the text is often blue and underlined. Here at Zelst we went the extra mile and made our anchor text green, such as this link to our blog.

A blog is a part of your website that should be regularly updated with high quality content (See Below). Search engines crawl the new pages you add to your site, so regularly publishing content will improve your search engine rankings and also keep your users updated with information on your business.

Every piece of information on your website is content – text, images, videos and animations etc. are all forms of content that are crawled be search engines. Having high quality content is important for both your SEO and user experience.

Duplicate content is the content that appears on the internet in more than one place (URL). When there are multiple pieces of identical content, it is difficult for the search engine to differentiate which is the original and which piece will be the most beneficial to the user. Therefore having duplicate content on a site can effect rankings and can also result in a loss of traffic.

These are links that come from other website to your own. Building quality external links is not only positive for your Search Engine Optimisation it will improve your website reputation as it has trustworthy links.

Top Tip – It is important to focus on quality external links rather than quantity.

The ‘fold’ refers to the point on your website where the page gets cut off by the bottom of the user’s monitor or browser window. Anything that is below the fold can be scrolled down to but is not initially seen by the user. Search engines therefore place some priority on the content above the fold, as it is the first thing the user will see.

The analytics tool not only lets you measure sales and conversions, it also gives insights into how each visitor finds and then goes on to navigate around your site. Google Analytics will allow you to improve your website, increase conversions and increase your websites effectiveness which are all factors that affect your search engine ranking.

Headings refer to the text that is placed inside a heading tag, such as a H1 or H2 and are often presented in larger or bolder fonts than other pieces of text on the page. Headings are both beneficial for the reader/user and search engines as they are used to break up the text and usually define what the text will be about making it easier for the search engine to crawl.

An internal link is a link that connects pages together on the same site. For an e-commerce website for example you will have links that go from your home page to specific product pages throughout your website.

JavaScript is a scripting language that can be embedded it to HTML documents to add dynamic features to a website. Search engines do not index most content in JavaScript. However the extra features that can be added to a site using JavaScript can improve user experience.

Keywords or keyword phrases are words that visitors use to find your site when using a search engine. Keywords are important in terms of creating content as they should be used to throughout your site to ensure you rank highly for that search query (keyword).

The landing page is the first page a visitor views during a session. A landing page is often a content-rich page focused on providing information on a particular topic, product or conversion goal.

Meta descriptions are short descriptions of a blog, page and are widely used by search engines. Search engines use the specified Meta description if it matches the searchers query.

All the links a page acquires naturally without actively building them. Natural links occur when other bloggers or website owners link to your content (blogs, images, products, video’s etc.) because they think is useful for their readers and adds value to their websites and pages.

These are the search results that are shown by a search engine that are not paid advertisements. The results are shown in a specific order depending on their search engine rankings.

Panda refers to a series of updates that were released by Google, which is a new search engine ranking algorithm that is intended to discourage people who create large amounts of mediocre content in an attempt to claim many keyword rankings without actually creating relevant and useful content.

It is important that the content you produce is of a high quality, having lots of content that is of a lower quality will make it less likely to get natural links and will affect your overall search engine rankings. To read more on why quality content is important for Search Engine Optimisation.

A redirect alerts browsers and search engines that a page location has moved. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect whereas a 302 redirect is a temporary redirect and, in most cases, should not be used.

A site audit is a full analysis of a site’s performance, in order to see if it’s meeting a variety of goals. For example, if the goal is to ensure that customers are provided with a good experience when they visit your site, a business might want to ensure that all backlinks are working correctly.

Traffic in terms of Search Engine Optimisation is the total number of visits to your website. Within Google Analytics, traffic can be divided into multiple categories including, referral, direct, organic and paid.

The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a unique address of any web document. The URL is commonly known as a web address.

Visits refer to the amount of times your website is accessed. This type of data allows you to see how effectively your website is being promoted and as it allows you to watch trends in your visits, they allow you to better target you marketing.

WordPress is web software you can use to create a website and blog. It now offers a full content management system and also gives you the opportunity to download thousands of widgets, plugins and themes to make your ideas come to life on the web.

An XML sitemap is a document that helps Google and other major search engines better understand your website while crawling it.

YouTube is a video-sharing website. It is a powerful marketing tool as video advertisement and display ads can now be feature within YouTube. Both amateur and professional videos can be posted on YouTube and shared globally.

Here at Zelst SEO is our pride and joy. We’ll show your website the respect it deserves, developing tailored, integrated strategy to help you achieve the result you really want. For information on search engine optimisation visit our information pages.

Have any questions? Leave a comment below or visit our contact page and one of our marketing guru’s will be in touch.