SEO for Beginners: A Glossary of Key Terms to Get You Started
The jargon-filled world of SEO is packed with terms that leave many baffled, wondering, "Why can’t you just have a website and let the search engines do the rest? Does SEO even work?" Understanding SEO can feel like learning a new language, but it's crucial for improving your website's visibility and driving traffic.
We're here to break down a few technical terms you may encounter while mapping out your SEO strategy, helping you make sense of this complex but essential aspect of digital marketing.
Alt Tag
Alt tags are 'alternative' text for images or visual elements on a web page. They provide a description of the image if it doesn’t display properly and inform search engines about the content of the image, ensuring it is relevant to the page's content.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink, often highlighted and underlined. In older versions of HTML, it was referred to as the 'a element' or . Anchor text helps users and search engines understand the context of the linked page.
Backlink
A backlink is a link from one website to another, often used to reference content or provide additional information. For example, blogs often include backlinks to products they review.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of website visitors who leave without visiting another page on your site. While Google claims this is not a direct ranking factor, it is still a useful metric for understanding user engagement. Google Analytics 4 now tracks “engagement rate” instead of bounce rate.
Breadcrumb
A breadcrumb is a navigational element that helps users understand their location within a website and provides an easy way to return to previous sections. Think of it like the trail Hansel and Gretel left in the forest.
Broken Link
A broken link is a hyperlink that doesn't lead to its intended destination, resulting in an error. Although this might sound philosophical, a broken link can negatively impact user experience and SEO.
Cache
A cache temporarily stores web data, such as images, designed to reduce load times for future visits to the same page. Clearing your cache can often resolve many common browsing issues.
Citation
In Local SEO, a citation is any mention of a brand's name, address, or phone number. Citations, often found in directories and social media profiles, can significantly influence visibility and ranking in Google Maps.
Click Depth
Click depth refers to the number of clicks required to navigate from the homepage to a specific page on your website. Fewer clicks generally mean better accessibility and higher chances of the page being crawled and ranked by search engines.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is the percentage of users who click on a search result out of the total number of impressions. A higher CTR indicates that your page titles and descriptions are effectively attracting searchers.
Crawler
A crawler is a program used by search engines to visit and index webpages. These bots collect information and update the search engine’s index to reflect the latest content.
Crawl Error
A crawl error occurs when a search engine bot cannot access a URL or encounters a status code error. These errors can prevent your site from being properly indexed.
Call to Action (CTA)
A CTA is a prompt that encourages your audience to take a specific action, such as "Email us for more information" or "Download our free guide." Effective CTAs can significantly boost engagement and conversions.
Domain Authority (DA)
Domain Authority is a metric that indicates a website's trust and credibility in the eyes of search engines. It is built over time and often correlates with the domain's age. Higher domain authority usually means better chances of ranking well.
De-indexing
De-indexing occurs when a website or webpage is removed from search engine results, often as a penalty for violating guidelines. This can severely impact a site's visibility.
E-E-A-T
E-E-A-T stands for "Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness." These are signals Google uses to assess the quality of content, though they are not direct ranking factors.
Featured Snippet
A featured snippet is a special block that appears above organic search results, often providing a direct answer to a query. It is also known as "Position Zero."
HTML
HTML stands for "Hypertext Markup Language," the standard language for creating web pages and web applications.
HTTP & HTTPS
HTTP stands for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol," and HTTPS stands for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure." HTTPS encrypts data transferred between the server and the browser, enhancing security.
Inbound Link
An inbound link is a link from an external website to your site, boosting its credibility and authority.
Internal Link
An internal link connects different pages within the same website, aiding navigation and distributing page authority.
Keywords
Keywords are specific words or phrases that SEO professionals target to rank higher in search results. They help search engines understand the relevance of your content to user queries.
Keyword Cannibalisation
Keyword cannibalisation occurs when multiple pages on a website compete for the same keywords, potentially harming overall search performance. Consolidating such pages is often recommended.
Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to how often a keyword appears within a page's content. While it can influence ranking potential, there's no ideal percentage for higher rankings.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is an outdated SEO tactic that involves the excessive and irrelevant use of keywords to manipulate rankings. Search engines frown upon this practice, which can lead to penalties.
Link Building
Link building is the process of acquiring high-quality backlinks from other websites to improve your site's authority and search rankings. It can be time-consuming and challenging.
Local SEO
Local SEO involves optimising your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. This includes strategies like citation building and local keyword optimisation.
Meta Description
A meta description is a tag in the HTML of a webpage that provides a brief summary of its content. It often appears in search results and can influence click-through rates.
Meta Tags
Meta tags are snippets of text in the HTML that describe a page’s content to search engines. The title tag and meta description are the most used meta tags in SEO.
Noindex
A noindex tag tells search engines not to index a webpage, often used for pages meant for internal use only.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to activities outside your website that can improve search rankings, such as link building and social media engagement.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO involves optimising elements within your website, like content, HTML code, and meta tags, to improve search rankings.
Orphan Page
An orphan page is a webpage not linked to by any other pages on the site. Without internal links, these pages are hard to find and unlikely to be crawled by search engines.
Outbound Link
An outbound link directs users to a different website. Many websites set outbound links to open in a new window to keep users on their site longer.
Page Speed
Page speed is how fast a webpage loads completely. It's a crucial ranking factor and affects user experience.
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a file at the root of a website that instructs search engine bots on which pages to crawl and which to ignore.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
SEM is an umbrella term for strategies aimed at increasing a website’s visibility in search engine results, including both SEO and paid advertising.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The SERP is the page displayed by search engines in response to a query, listing both organic and paid results.
Sitemap XML
A Sitemap XML is a file that lists all the pages of a website, helping search engines to crawl the site more effectively.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
SSL encrypts data transferred between a website and a web browser, enhancing security. See HTTPS above.
URL Parameter
URL parameters are values added to a URL to track traffic sources and other information. They often look like this: utm_source=share-back-traffic&utm_medium=desktop-share-button&utm_campaign=twitter.
301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirection from one URL to another, ensuring users and search engines are directed to the correct page.
Now that you're up to speed, if you'd like to discuss how SEO can benefit your business, get in touch with our team of SEO experts. We're here to help you enhance your SEO and overall digital marketing strategy.
