SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. In simple terms, it means the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business on Google, Bing and other search engines. Authority refers to the ability of a page to rank prominently in engine results. Bots are programs designed to index, collect, and analyze website information faster than a human.
Bots are estimated to account for 60% of online traffic. As SEO professionals, we may use bots to quickly collect and analyze information from our own website and others. Bots also allow updated content to be immediately shared with the online community. However, there are useful and harmful bots.
In addition to being an HTML element, title tags are crucial for SEO. They help companies accurately describe what their websites contain on search results pages and in. Optimizing title tags for each page allows users and search engines to quickly evaluate the content included, allowing pages to be easily linked and sorted. A meta description follows a title tag in terms of a page description.
It is a phrase or two that briefly describes what is contained in that page or website. The more relevant a meta description is to a search query, the more likely it is to appear on the search results page, below the title of the page. An accurate and SEO friendly meta description will keep your page relevant through the millions of searches performed every minute. As the name implies, long-tail keywords are keywords, only more.
They usually contain three to four words that are commonly used during the search. For this blog post, a good long-tail keyword could be “Top 25 SEO Terms” instead of just “SEO Terms”. Using the longer version allows you to better target users who are overwhelmed with too many options for a shorter keyword. Also on a 100-point scale is the measurement of the ranking of the page or the authority of the page.
Rather than ranking how an entire domain will rank in search engine results, this is a metric of how an individual page will rank in the results. The inherent relationship between page rank and domain rank is why every page of a website must be optimized. A 301 redirect refers to the method that a website uses to tell a search engine that the location of a page has been permanently moved to another place on the website. We can use this redirect to transmit the linking authority or ranking power to the new page.
However, it's also important to note that 301 redirects can take anywhere from a day to a month for a search engine to recognize them. Headers are another HTML tag that allows content to be optimized for SEO. Labels range from H1 to H6, with labels with lower numbers being the most important. When creating a page, it should only have one H1 tag, followed by other tags to structure the page as a whole.
Outbound links are places where you link to other sites. While outbound links aren't inherently important, you can still link from sites with higher authority to possibly increase your search rank. Some search engines calculate ranking with outbound links, and some websites may link to yours if you link to them. So it could be a win-win situation.
Once you've mastered these top 5 SEO terms, you're on your way to creating better organic search results, for your website and your bottom line results. SEO stands for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of taking steps to help a website or content rank higher on Google. In its simplest form, search engine optimization is anything you do to improve a website's ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).
The goal of most companies is to increase the visibility or traffic of their website, and ranking high for specific search terms or phrases in search engines like Google and Bing will do just that. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of targeting your website to rank higher on a search engine results page (SERP) so that it receives more traffic. Usually, the goal is to rank on the first page of Google results for the search terms that mean the most to your target audience. So, SEO is as much about understanding the wants and needs of your audience as it is about the technical nature of how to set up your website.
Confused with all the SEO-related terms and buzzwords you come across on a daily basis? Here is a glossary with more than 200 definitions to help you. Search engine optimization, like any specialty industry, has its own unique set of terminology, definitions and abbreviations. This SEO glossary collects more than 200 of the most common terms you're likely to hear that you'll definitely need to know during your SEO career. Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a type of programming that allows a web page to send and receive information from a server to change that page dynamically without reloading it.
A complex computer program used by search engines to retrieve data and deliver results for a query. Search engines use a combination of algorithms to deliver web pages ranked through a search results page based on a series of factors and ranking signals. HTML code that provides information used by search engines and screen readers (for blind and visually impaired people) to understand the content of an image. Since then, the AMP logo has been removed from search results and Google has announced that AMP is no longer a requirement to appear in top stories.
Emphasis is now placed on Core Web Vitals to measure faster page delivery and loading, and the influence of AMP is now questionable. The science of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data for future action based on what has worked (or hasn't) historically. The Science of Getting Computers to Perform Tasks That Require Human Intelligence. Instead of following a set of programmed rules (such as an algorithm), an AI computer system is basically a digital brain that learns.
AI can also make and carry out decisions without human intervention. The combination of signals used by search engines to evaluate websites and web pages for ranking purposes. Authority is a concept of using the reputation and credentials of a person writing online content as a ranking factor. Originally, Google tested this in combination with Google+, but despite several patents filed, there is no evidence to support the author's authority as a ranking factor.
Google places emphasis on E-A-T to reduce online misinformation, especially in YMYL niches such as health and finance. In these spaces, it is recommended to build an author's authority for a brand to demonstrate credibility, even if it does not currently influence the ranking. In B2B SEO, the buying cycle is longer, products and services are more expensive, and the public is responsible for professional decision-making. In B2C SEO, the buying cycle is usually shorter (although it varies by industry), products and services are (mostly) cheaper, and consumers are the audience.
China's most popular search engine, Baidu, was founded in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. A complex computer program that is not well understood. Entries and exits can be observed, but there is no access to the process itself due to its confidential nature. For example, Google's algorithm is a black box.
Risky Tactics That Go Against Google's Webmaster Guidelines. The percentage of website visitors who leave without visiting another page on that website. Bounce rates vary widely by industry and niche. Although the bounce rate may indicate possible problems with the content or the website, it is not a direct ranking factor, according to Google.
A navigational element that helps users easily discover where they are within a website. A technology that temporarily stores web content, such as images, to reduce page load times in the future. A snapshot of a web page as it appeared when a search engine last crawled it. An HTML code element that specifies the URL of a preferred website, when multiple URLs have the same or similar content, to reduce duplicate content.
In local SEO, an appointment is any online mention of a brand name, address, or phone number (NAP). Citations are usually found in directories, social media and community profiles, lists of website resources, or any mention of an online brand that does not include a link to the website. NAPs can influence ranking and visibility on Google maps. Pages that are closest to the homepage are considered the most authoritative and those that are most likely to be crawled and indexed by Google.
Show different content or URLs to people and search engines. Violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. A web-based application that allows people to create, upload and manage digital assets. How often a third-party website mentions two websites (or web pages) together, even if those first two elements are not linked (or referenced) to each other.
This is one way that search engines can establish similarity. For example, imagine that Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Roundtable never linked or mentioned each other. However, other websites and blogs would probably mention both SEJ and SER in the lists of popular news posts from search engines. The amount of text that is displayed on a page compared to the amount of code used to build the page is called the code-to-text ratio.
A higher text-to-code ratio is considered to provide a better user experience, but it is not a direct ranking factor. A phrase commonly used by conference speakers and writers of popular SEO (and digital marketing) publications. In this context, “content is king” generally means that content is essential for you to have any SEO, digital marketing or business success. The process of improving the number or quality of conversions that occur on a website.
Some popular CRO tactics include testing changes to website design, text, images, price, call to action, and messaging. When Google makes extensive updates to its main algorithm. Google sometimes announces a specific topic in its updates, such as updating the page experience, but major updates are not specific and occur several times a year. Google confirmed that Core Web Vitals is a ranking factor, but said relevance and other factors may be more important.
The extent to which there is a relationship between two or more elements. It is often used in SEO research to infer relationships of variables in search rankings due to the black box nature of algorithms. Always remember, however, that correlation ≠ causality. The total number of URLs that search engines can and want to crawl on a website over a specified period of time.
A program used by search engines to crawl the web. Bots visit web pages to gather information and add or update a search engine index. The process of collecting information, using a crawler, from billions of public web pages to update, aggregate, and organize web pages in a search engine index. Cascading style sheets describe how HTML elements (e.g.
All potential moments (or touchpoints) when a prospect is exposed to or interacts with a brand. All of these interactions are designed to persuade, influence, and eventually convert that prospect into a customer, customer, or subscriber. All the concrete numbers representing real customers (who, what, where, when, why and how) are needed to make informed decisions about SEO strategies and tactics. A web page that does not link to any other website.
It's called that because once a user or bot arrives on this page, there's no place to go ahead. When an internal link points directly to a page that is not the main page of a site, this is known as a deep link. The ratio of deep links to links to your homepage is known as the deep link ratio. Linking directly to deep pages on a site is considered to indicate the quality of the site's content.
The more deep links you have, the better the site will be. There is no evidence to support that the deep linking relationship has a direct impact on ranking. When Google removes a website or web page, either temporarily or permanently, from search results, specifically from its search index. Google provides a URL removal tool in Search Console for voluntary cases; however, a website can also be deindexed as punishment for violating Google's Webmaster Guidelines, in the form of a manual action.
If your link profile includes a large number of spam, artificial or low-quality incoming links that may be damaging your ranking, and you cannot delete them for a legitimate reason (e.g. A link that doesn't use the “nofollow” attribute. It was once considered that a higher domain age gave more authority to a domain, but this idea of domain age as an influence on classification has since been discarded. Any activity, including backlinks and the website previously created on a domain, is known as domain history.
If a previous website for a domain received a penalty, this will remain attached to the domain and cause problems for the new owner. It is recommended to always check the history of the domain before buying a domain. When a significant amount of content on a web page matches, or is incredibly similar, to content that exists elsewhere on the same website or on an entirely different website. Expertise, Authority, and Reliability was a concept borrowed from Google's Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines and became known as E-A-T.
E-A-T represents signals that Google uses to determine quality content, but is not a direct ranking factor. Google is committed to stopping the spread of disinformation, especially anywhere that operates in Your Money Your Life (YMYL) niches, such as finance or health. The purchase and sale of products, all done online. A link that is given from one website to another without the recipient asking for it or paying.
Education-focused institutions have a top-level domain (TLD) of. edu. A link from such a site is known as. link edu.
Links from. Edu sites were considered “hard to come by” and were thought to have more value for link building. As a result, link builders targeted. edu links until many of the lesser known.
The edu sites were devalued by Google and any benefits of the link were ignored. People, places, organizations, websites, events, groups, facts and other things. How easily you can discover the content of a website, both internally (by users) and externally (by search engines). One concept of internal links is that Google treats links differently if there are two links on a web page that point to the same page.
It was thought that Google would consider the anchor text of the first link to have more influence. There is no definitive evidence of how Google treats the same link on a page. When adding links to a page, it is recommended to do so first for the user and apply the link to the anchor text when relevant. Links that appear in the bottom (or “footer”) section of a website.
Freshness refers to the age of content posted online. Google is considered to prioritize fresh content in some niches for some queries based on certain factors. For example, searches related to COVID ads or sports results. Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) is part of Google's algorithm that determines when a query should display up-to-date information, especially in breaking news, recurring events, information queries, and product queries.
A free web analytics program that can be used to track audience behavior, traffic acquisition sources, content performance, and much more. A practice aimed at making a website number one for a surprising or controversial search phrase. This was achieved by having a large number of websites that link to a certain web page with specific anchor text to help it qualify for that term. For example, in 2003, President George W.
Bush's White House Biography Ranked First in Quest for 'Miserable Failure'. The web tracking system Google uses to find and add new websites and web pages to its index. A term used since 2002 to refer to the volatile period during which Google updated its search index, approximately every month. A “waiting period theorized and debated (but never confirmed by Google) that prevents new websites from seeing the full benefits of their optimization efforts.
Usually, this effect is most often seen on new sites that target competitive keywords and can only be overcome when the site gains sufficient authority. Google's Search Console offers several useful features, including the ability to monitor sites for indexing errors and site speed. These pages are also used to communicate notifications of manual actions. Google uses a guidelines document for its internal quality evaluators to refer to when they manually review websites.
The original internal document was confidential and then Google published the Search Quality Rater Guidelines online, which are updated from time to time. The information in the document is a guide to creating quality content and introduces the concept of E-A-T. The guidelines are not a list of direct ranking factors. A website where you can explore data visualizations on the latest search trends, stories and topics.
Government organizations have a top-level domain (TLD) of. gov. gov link. Only U.S.
government entities. UU. can request and obtain a. gov TLD.
Other countries have their own country-specific version, such as. gov, united kingdom. Government TLD domains are strictly regulated and reliable sources of information. For this reason, we have included a link to a.
the.gov domain is considered to have significant value and has been the target of link spam. A supposed “gray area” among techniques that adhere to Google's webmaster guidelines, but then add an element that bends the rules a little. A popular link building tactic that involves developing content for other websites in exchange for a backlink that points to your own pages. HTML header tags (H1-H) separate content into sections, depending on their importance, with H1 being the most important and H6 the least important.
Title tags should be used naturally and incorporate target keywords where relevant, as doing so can provide a small benefit to SEO. A popular keyword with a high search volume that is usually difficult to rank for. Hyperlink induced topic search is a link analysis algorithm that evaluates a value not only based on content and incoming links (authorities), but also on their outgoing links (hubs). The default or introductory web page for a website.
A server configuration file that can be used to rewrite and redirect URLs. HTML tags are specific code elements that can be used to improve the effectiveness of SEO for web pages and websites. Hypertext transfer protocol is how data is transferred from a computer server to a web browser. The Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol uses a secure socket layer (SSL) to encrypt data transferred between a website and a web browser.
HTTPS is a lower ranking factor for Google. An authorized central resource (for example,. A link to a web page that originates from an external website. For example, if Search Engine Journal had a link to Google, it would count as an incoming link from Google; if Google had to link to Search Engine Journal, it would be an inbound link from SEJ.
Database search engines use it to store and retrieve information collected during the crawl process. How easily can a search engine bot understand and add a web page to its index. A web page that has been discovered by a crawler, has been added to a search engine index, and is eligible to appear in the search results of relevant queries. How is a website organized and where are the different contents and navigation elements found on web pages.
The process of searching for information (for example,. Neither will help you rank better; however, a dedicated IP address can increase the speed of the site. A programming language that allows you to dynamically insert content, links, metadata or other elements into websites. JavaScript can make it difficult for search engine robots to crawl and index web pages and increase the time it takes users to load the web page.
The word, words or phrase that an SEO professional or marketer is targeting in order to match and rank what users are looking for. The words used in web pages can help search engines determine which pages are most relevant to display in organic results when a user enters a query. Keywords usually represent topics, ideas, or questions. A type of self-competence that occurs when multiple pages of a website are classified for the same query in a SERP.
This can result in lower CTR, decreased authority, and lower conversion rates than having a well-ranked consolidated web page. How often a word or phrase appears in the content of a web page. At best, this unproven concept is outdated, if it ever really mattered to search engines. There is no ideal percentage that will help a website to rank better.
The process of discovering any relevant topic, subject and term that search engines enter into search engines, as well as the volume and level of competence of those terms. This practice is made possible by a variety of free and paid tools. When a keyword is placed as high as possible on a web page to influence the ranking of a search term. Using a keyword inserted at the beginning of a page, for example, in the first paragraph, sends a strong signal to Google about the page.
Keyword saliency works as a ranking signal if the topic of the page is aligned with the keyword. In language and grammar, words are constructed around a variation of a root or root. For example, shopping, shopped, shops are all variations of the root 'shop'. Keyword derivation is Google's ability to understand variations of a keyword and is part of its algorithm.
Adding irrelevant keywords, or repeating keywords beyond nature, to a web page in the hope of increasing search rankings. This spam tactic goes against Google's webmaster guidelines and may result in manual action. A database of entities that Google uses to display facts and information about people, places, and things (a, k, a. A box that appears at the top of page 1 of Google search results or in the right lane (for computers only) for relevant queries.
This dashboard contains data and information about people, places and things, as well as links to related websites or Google searches. A measurement method that companies use to assess whether business and marketing objectives, goals and goals are being achieved. Information retrieval method designed to help search engines identify the correct context of a word. Nowadays, LSI doesn't play a useful role in SEO.
A connection between two websites created with HTML code. A link allows users to navigate to websites, social networks and applications. Links play a critical role in how search engines evaluate and rank. Intentionally provocative content that aims to capture people's attention and attract links from other websites.
The value of inbound links, in terms of relevance, authority and trust. When a group of websites are linked to each other, usually by automated programs, in the hope of artificially increasing search rankings. A term you should never use in public or online. Each type of link that points to a particular website.
The quality of a website's link profile can vary widely, depending on how they were purchased and the anchor text used. When a link remains on a page consistently for a period of time without changing or updating it. Google did file for a patent that referred to the loss of links and the frequency with which links on a page were changed, but there is no evidence that link stability has any influence on ranking. How fast (or slow) a website accumulates links.
A sudden increase in link speed could be a sign of spam, or it could be due to viral marketing or doing something newsworthy (either intentionally or unintentionally). Links that navigate from one page to another on the same domain. Internal links can be inserted on a page, in the main navigation menu or in the sitemap. Internal links are important because Google robot crawlers follow internal links to navigate your site and find new pages.
On a hyperlink, Rel%3d nofollow is an attribute added to the link to show that you are not giving any credit or approval to the page you are linking. Google originally introduced Nofollow to limit comment spam and devalued all nofollow links, but they have since changed how the directive works. Nofollow is now considered a “clue”, meaning they can still use some information about link patterns, but generally, they still accept that no weight should be passed through the link. External links to authoritative sites were considered to add value to a page because they demonstrate that the page is well researched and uses reliable sources.
External links are not considered to have any influence on the classification and should only be used to cite sources where relevant. The process of exploring data contained in a log file to identify trends, administer the site, track users' movements around the site, gather demographic information, and understand how search robots crawl the website. A subset of Artificial Intelligence in which a system uses data to learn and adjust a complex process without human intervention. A tag that can be added to the “head” section of an HTML document.
Adding a bunch of keywords here won't help you rank: search engine algorithms have ignored this tag for ranking purposes for years due to abuse (in the form of keyword stuffing). Information that appears in the HTML source code of a web page to describe its content to search engines. The title tag and meta description are the most commonly used types of meta tags in SEO. A way to measure activity and performance to assess the success (or lack of success) of an SEO initiative.
A rare but malicious practice in which web spam techniques are used to damage the search rankings of another website, usually a competitor. A specific market or area of interest consisting of a small group of highly passionate people. A meta tag that tells search engines not to cache a copy of your page. A meta tag that tells search engines not to index a specific web page in their index.
A meta tag that tells search engines not to display a description in your ad. Demand generation and brand recognition activities that take place outside of a website. In addition to link building, promotion tactics may include social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, and even offline marketing channels (e.g. All these activities are carried out within a website.
In addition to publishing relevant and high-quality content, on-page SEO includes HTML code optimization (e.g. The natural or unpaid listings that appear in a SERP. Organic search results, which are analyzed and ranked by algorithms, are designed to give users the most relevant result based on their query. Any web page that is not linked to by any other page on that website.
A link that directs visitors to a page on a different website than the one they are currently on. The amount of time it takes for a web page to fully load. A web page loads in a browser. Supports for portable document format file.
PDFs can contain text, images, links, videos and other elements. A fictitious representation of an ideal visitor or customer of the website (their demographics, behavior, needs, motivations and objectives), all based on real data. When search engines use search history, web browsing history, location, and relationships to create a set of search results tailored to a specific user. Hypertext Preprocessor is a scripting language used to create dynamic content on web pages.
When, after entering a query, a search engine goes back and forth between a SERP and the pages listed in those search results. Query acronyms deserve freshness, where a search engine might decide to show newer web pages in search results (rather than old pages) if a particular search term is trending, perhaps because a news event has led to an increase in searches on that topic. An inbound link that originates from a reputable, relevant or trusted website. The word, words or phrase that a user enters into a search engine.
Where does a web page appear in the organic search results for a specific query. An individual component that contributes to a complex series of algorithms that determine where web pages with organic search results should appear for a specific query. For years, Google has said that its algorithms “rely on more than 200 unique signals to help users find the most relevant website or answer. When two websites agree to exchange links with each other.
URL data that identifies the source of a user's web page request. The process of asking a search engine to return a website or web pages to its search index after deindexing. One way search engines measure how closely connected the content of a web page is aligned to match the context of a search query. The practice of creating a positive online perception of a brand or person, including search results and social media, by minimizing the visibility of negative mentions.
A website designed to automatically adapt to the user's screen size, whether viewed on a desktop computer or mobile device. Structured data can be added to the HTML of a website to provide contextual information to search engines during crawling. This information can be displayed in the SERPs, resulting in an improved list, known as a rich snippet. The Robot Exclusion Protocol (or Standard) is a text file, accessible from the root of a website, that tells search engine crawlers which areas of a website should be ignored.
A form of microdata that, once added to a web page, creates an improved description (commonly known as a rich snippet) that appears in search results. A technique used to copy the content or information of the website using a computer program or script. Search engines, such as Google, extract data to create an index of searchable websites. A computer program that allows users to enter a query to retrieve information (for example,.
A search index is created and updated using a crawler, and items are analyzed and classified using a series of algorithms. A general term for increasing the visibility of a website on search engine results pages, encompassing both paid and organic activities. The process of optimizing a website, as well as all the content of that website, so that it appears in top positions in organic search engine results. SEO requires understanding how search engines work, what people are looking for (i.e.
Successful SEO Makes a Site Attractive to Users and Search Engines. It's a combination of techniques (on-page SEO) and marketing (off-page SEO). How many impressions a brand receives on the SERPs for search terms compared to the total impressions that the brand's competitors receive for those same search terms. Up to six algorithmically chosen links that appear below the same website listing of a top-ranked organic search result.
You can prevent pages from appearing as sitelinks in Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. A link that appears on every page of a website, usually in a sidebar or footer of blogs or websites that use templates. Platforms (websites and applications) where users can interact with each other, as well as create, share and consume content. Any factor that demonstrates authority and influence on popular social media websites.
For example, the social authority of a user on Twitter. A controlled experiment used to compare at least two web pages to measure the effects of a different variable on conversions. After pages are displayed for a period of time long enough for site visitors to collect an adequate amount of performance data, a “winner” can be declared. A digital certificate used for website identity authentication and for encrypting information sent to the server using Secure Sockets Layer technology.
Organize and classify a website to maximize content search capability and help users complete desired on-site tasks. An inaccurate estimate of how much time a user spent looking at a particular web page. Pages with high output rates can significantly distort this data. There are also many more industry- and country-specific options.
The people (and sometimes bots) who visit your website. It is generally applied to the history of a domain (for example,. A link analysis technique used to separate “reputable” seed pages from web spam. When search engines extract data from multiple specialized databases for display in the same SERP.
Results may include images, videos, news, purchases, and other types of results. Any link that Google identifies as suspicious, misleading or manipulative. An unnatural link can cause Google to take manual action on your website. How easy it is for people to use your website.
Site design, browser compatibility, improvements for the disabled and other factors contribute to improving usability and making your site accessible to as many people as possible. A bot that uses natural language processing to perform tasks, such as searching the web. For example, Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana. The prominence and positions that a website occupies within organic search results.
A type of voice-activated technology that allows users to speak to a device (usually a smartphone) to ask questions or perform an online search. A document that exists on the World Wide Web and can be viewed in web browsers. A collection of web pages hosted together on the World Wide Web. Tactics that meet Google's webmaster guidelines.
The total number of words that appear in the copy of the content. Content that is too low (or thin) can be a poor quality signal for search engines. A popular content and blog management system. Extensible Markup Language is a markup language that search engines use to understand website data.
A list of all the pages on a website that search engines should know. Russia's most popular search engine, Yandex, was founded on September 23, 1997 by Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich. What SEO comes down to is the use of all these SEO techniques to maximize the number of i. The term SEO is generally used when referring to organic SEO, but it is also sometimes used in a broader sense to encompass PPC services for which different optimization techniques are required.
The key difference between SEO and paid advertising is that SEO involves an “organic ranking”, meaning you don't pay to be in that space. Shelley Walsh is the SEO content strategist at SEJ & produces The Pioneers, a series on the history of SEO. Social media and SEO marketing work well together, so don't neglect the social aspect because it can give your SEO efforts a good boost. SEO covers many aspects of site design and that's why the worst mistake you can make is waiting for your website to be finished before contacting an SEO company.
In order to be most effective in terms of search marketing, a website must have both its on-site SEO factors and its off-site SEO factors optimized. Track your site's SEO progress, find hidden link opportunities, conduct competitive research, discover high-value keywords, and more with Moz Pro's robust suite of SEO tools. . .
