The Comprehensive A to Z of SEO Terminology

THE COMPREHENSIVE A - Z OF SEO TERMINOLOGY A Algorithm - A set of rules a Search Engine follows in order to effectively provide the most relevant, quality pages to the users search terma. Alt Text -A litle piece of code that wraps around an image that acts as an image description allowing Search Engines to understand what they are. Anchor Text - The clickable text found on web pages that navigate the user to another page on the site or to an external site. Authority - The level a site is trusted for particular search queries a well as an overall measure of trust Search Engines have in the she. Apeche - The software used on a websites server. This is contigurable to optimise site performance as well as handle resource requests. Authorahip - Anow romoved Google Update that added an articles author detail into Search Resulta. This was linked to Google+ profiles. Affilate - A sito which marketa a third parties products or services with commissione being paid either by sale or referral. Article Spinning- An outdated, considered spammy, SEO technique where an original articles are rewritten and posted multiple times to increase inbound liniks. API - "Application Programming interface'. A set of commands or rules allowing programmers to use predefined functions in their software or wabsite. hihl Bounce Rate - The parcentage of page entrances that roaultad in an exit from the site without any engagemant on other pages of the site, B Backlinks - A link navigable by a user between 2 separate sites. A large factor in Authority measurement. Backlink Audit -A detailed audit of all backlinks that point to a site to check their relevance and any risk to the sitos Authority / Vsibility. Blog -A section on a site which can feature regularly updated relevant content. A good opportunity to gat user angagement and can help build Authority. Bing - An intemational Search Engine owned by Microsoft competing for users with Google. Black Hat - A term commonly associatod with SEOs who do not follow Google Guidelines and look to unnaturally force increases in a sites visibility. Byte -A unit of measuring the size of a file. Bookmark - A location, either on a usors Browoor or on a Wobservice, that allows the saving of a websites Inka for revisita in the future. Below The Fold- Essentially any content on the screen that is below the immediately viewable area and can only be viewed by scrolling down the page. Browser - A piece of software used to request a sites resources and load them onto the users computer for them to see and engage with. B20 A D2C - Companies that sell /serve direct to the public as their customers (B2C) and those seling or servicing other businesses (028). Braken Link - When a link between pages or websites is pointing to a page or resource that no longer exists at that location. This usually produces a 404 error. Dlog Comment Linka - Another outdated SEO technique whereby pre-written blog comments are placed on sites (usually by software) that containa a link back to a website. Dreadcrumbs - Ahorizontal navigation chain that shows the user their location within a website and offers an easy way to navigate between sections Content Markating - A process driven by strategy that creates useful, quality, relevent content that users will engage with. This process helps to C improve Authority and works to increase extemal backdinks. Copywriting - Writing relevant and engaging content for a webpage that is designed to achieve a goal (sales or signups example. Conversion Rate - The percentage of visitors to a website that go on to complete a goal for the site owner such as a purchase or signup. CsS - Standa for Cancading Style Sheeta. These are flos that allow for content to be displayed in a conaistant way acrossa website that matches the design. Canonical Teg - This is a link placed in the code of a websites pages that help to direct Search Engines to the original version of the content. This mitigatos againet Duplicate Content Issues. Compression - A method of shrinking the file sizes of a sites resources allowing for a more speedy loading time for the user. Cache - Essentially a saved version of an entire page or page elements on he users computer that allows for a more speedy load time on retun visits. CMS - Content Management System'. This is a piece of soltware that allows users to create site content without needing to manually code pages. Cloaking -A Black Hat process whereby the content served to Search Engines is different to that served to the user. Crawler - One name for a Search Engine robot that crawis through a sites pagen following links and reading content in order to rank it. CTR - This is the percentage of Visits to a site against the number of times it was served to users as a choice in the Search Results. Code - The machine readable language that allows a users browser to read and render a web page. Caffeine - A Google Algorithm update that speeded up Googles raw speed as well as integrated Crawing and Indexing resulting in a fresher index. Cookles -A file left on your computer by a website that records things about the users engagement and technology used. It cane used to improve subsequent viaits or aid markating Citation Flow - This is a number that predicts how authoritative a URL or site is by the number of Backlinks pointing to it. Citation Basicall references to your site, brand and business details on third party websites. This is a driver of Authority. Domain - This is a subset of an intemet address such as mysite.com the letters after the denote things like location, organisation type or industry. D Duplicate Content - This is where a pages content appears on another page on extemal sites or the site itself. Google devalues duplicated content and it can cause visibililty loss and algorithmic penaltlies. Doorway Page - These pages redirect users (not Search Engines) to an altemative page. This is part of the SEO technique "Cloaking'. Domain Authority- The overall authority given to a domain based on the sites inbound links. A Moz derived metric. DNS - Domain Name System' this translates domain names to IP addresses and visa versa to direct visitors to the websites resources. Dofollow Backlink - Simply put, this is a backink that points to another page or site that does not have a nofollow attribute added to it. Directory -A library of websites categorised into sections containing links and information about extemal websites. Dynamic Content - Content that changes based on a users interactions, location or previous visits. Not ideal for SEO and ranking specific pages. Data Highlighter -A Google developed tool that helps site owners to highlight their structured data (such as addresses) without needing to add code. Deep Linking - Creating a Backlink that points to a page deep within the sites architecture. Usually pages within a category level. Disavow -A tool created within Googie Search Console that allows Webmasters to submit links to disavow if they are casing harm or to mitigate the risk of harm. E Evergreen Content - SEO written contont which is continually relevant and always staya fresh for uners. Ecommerce - Commercial sales conducted online through a website built as an online storefront. Engagement - When a visitor interacts with an olement on a website, shares or adds to content or completes a goal. Embed (ed) - When content such as a video is added to a page through code provided by the content owner. Exact Match - The term used to signify that the user has searched for the exact phrase targeted. Less relevant than in the past. EMD - 'Exact Match Domain'a Google update to prevent poor quality wobaites from ranking woll becaune they uned the terma they were targeting in their Domain Name. Event Tracking -A method of tracking specific interactions such as a button click or video playing on a site for analytical purposes. Expired Domains - A domain that no longer has hosting or is currently used. Sometimes bought in order to incresse a webaites link profilo by redirecting the expired domain to it Fresh Content - The term used to identity new content on a website that will be crawled and indexed by Search Engines. FTP - File Transfer Protocol. A protocol used to directly add, remove or update files on a websites server through a structured filing system aimilar to that of the users computer. Faceted Navigation - An approach to site navigation that reduces large amounts of content or results into a more narrowly focused display. Flash - Animation software used on marny older websites. Search Engines (and many usern) don't like websites built in Flash. Forum - A user generated content part of a website allowing for open discussion. Sometimes abused by poor SEO's looking to build bacidinks. G Gzip Compression -A type of website file compression set at the server level that allows for faster page load times and file transfers. Google Search - Google's Search Engine. Google Analytics -A powerful analytical tool for measuring hundreds of different metrics relating to a websites use by its visitors. Google Bomb - The combined effort of multiple poople with too much time on their hands to maripulate the Search Rosults. Usualy with humorous intentions. Google Dance - Rapid fluctuations in the Search Results usually following an algorithm update in which many sites see their rankings change fairly often in a short period. Googlebot - The name of Google's website robot that visits sites and crawis their pages and content. GIF - Stands for 'Graphic Interchange Format often used within website Ad banners with animated designs. Slowly filling up the intemet with Cats doing funny things. H. Homepage - The first page of a webaite. Unually describing the webeitos intentions or seting the tone of the weboite. HTML - Stands for Hypertext Markup Language' and is the standardised website coding language for creating elements of webpages. Hyperlink - Aink from one Hypertext document (webpage) to another on the intemet or within the same website. HTTP A HTTPS Stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and the Secure (SSL) version that sets the rules for the transfer of a webaites pages and resources. Honting - The way individuals and organisations are able to make their webaites and their content available on the wab. Hummingbird - A recent Google algorithm that is designed to help Google understand conversational search queries and retum more precise results lfor the user. Hender Tag - An HTML tag that denotes part of a pagea structure. The H1 tag for example is like the first heading of a pages contant after the title. htaccess - An Apache Websarver conliguration file that is usod to set rulea for a sorvers behaviour and handlen things lika comprossion and caching as well as page redirecta and URL rewrites. Impressions -A metric used to measure the number of times a page from your site appeared in the Search Results. Internal Links -A clickable link within one website that points to and navigates the user to another page on the same site. Index -A Search Engine Equivalent to a library index with URLS and page detalls stored based on Googlebat Crawis. Index Status - Data provided by Google in its Search Console regarding the URLS Googlebot was able to index over a period of time. ISP - An "Internet Service Provider' is a company that provides individuala and other companies accena to the internet. IS - nternet infomation Services' is the name for a configurable Wiebserver that was created and is owned by Microsoft. International SEO - The process of working to improve a websites visibility across multiple countries. IFrame -A piece of HMTL code that effectively embeds 3rd party content trom another website or resource onto a webpage. JSON Markup - This is a markup language that can be used to code structured data on a website such as locations and product information. Javancript - ls a popular programming language uned to create interactive effects within a web browser. IQuery- This is a lightweight way to une Javascript features on a wobnite. K Keyword - A word or short string of words that are relevant to your product or service that uners are performing nearchen with. Keyword Research - Researching the most relevant Kaywords to a product, service and page on a site looking for relevant terms of value to the business with search demand. Keyword Stuffing- An outdated spammy SEO practice that involved using a Keyword multiple times on a pege in order to manipulate a pages rankings. Keyword Density - The number of times or percentage of use of a particular Keyword on a page. Knowledge Graph - Google's Knowiedge base used to enhance search results with semantic-search information trom multiple trusted sources. Keyword Cannibalisation - When multiple pages on a site compete for the same Keyword which in itself works to reduce both pages visibility. L Linkbulding - The process of increasing the number (and quality) of Extemal Links pointing to a site with a view to increasing its Authority and Visibility. Landing Page - The page a user first reaches when then enter a site. The one they "Land on. Link Pyramid - This is an outdated SEO tactic that worka by building linka in a layered approach to build authority toward the pyramid top. Link Wheel - Another older SEO tactic that works by linking Site A to Site B and to Site C which alno linka back to Site A. Lossless -A term used when compressing files on the web without losing their quality. Long Tail -A Keyword of more than a few words that are more specific to a users needs. Le. "Buy a Red Hat Online UK" rather than "Buy a Red Hat". hth Local SEO - The process of working to improve a websites local visibility in one or multiple local areas. Local Listinge- This is the list of business locations within Search Results including a map marker and local contact info. Link Juice - A horrible nounding term meaning any Equity or Authority passed on through a link from one nite to another. Link Velocity - A term meaning the speed at which links are acquired by B site. Faster speeds suggest unnatural actions. Link Exchange - An out of date practice whereby you get a link trom one site for linking to them from yours. LSI - Latent Semantic Indexing' is a process used by Google to better understand web page content analyse and correlate them to semantically relevant other terms. M Meta Tag-An HTML markup statemant that describes some aspects of a pages contents such as the Title or Description. Mobile Friendly -A Google Aigorithm update that now ranks websites in its Moblie Search Results differently depending on how well the site performs on a Mobile Device. Microdata - This uses an HTML specification to nest metadata within existing web pages content to provide a richer Search Result or browsing experience. Manual Actiona- Something nobody wante to see. This is when Google manually act to penaise a ste that breaches its Webmaster Guidelines. Money Site - The main or important site. You would want more Authority and Visibility for your Money Site becaune it makcos sales or generates leads. N Niche-A subset within an industry, group or interest that some businesses try to target their products or sarvices to. Nginx - This is the name of an open source Webserver created by igor Sysoev. It is pronounced 'Engine-X. Nofollow - An attribute added to a link or in the head of a page telling a Search Engine robot not to follow links on the page or pass any Link Authority/ Equity through them. Noindex - An attribute added to the head of a page teling a Search Engine that you don't want that page to appear in the Search Index and Resuts Pages. NAP - Stands for 'Name Addrens and Phone Number' and is a typical anpect of Local SEO. Non-Recinrocal Link -A linik that points to your site that you have not reciprocated by pointing a link back to. Negative SEO - A shady practice of intentionally working against the Webmaster Guidelines with a view to harming someone else's website. 0 OpenaSE - The 'Open Google Serviet Engine' is a configurabie Websrever created and run by Googie. Open Graph Protocol - This in coding language that allows elements of a web page to become a rich object within Social Media. La. Large imagen and descriptions on Facebook. Over-Optimisation - When you have overdone things and a page looks unnaturally optimised causing potential risks to Visibility. Off-Page SEO - Another term for increaning Authority through Linibuilding. Citations and Social Engagement. P Penguin - A Google Algorithm Update that targeted and penalised websites with unnatural link proflies both manually and aigorithmically. Panda - Another Google Algorithm Update that targeted and penalised websites with poor quality, duplicated or thin content. Penalty - When your siten Vinibility is affected by one of Google's Algorithm Updatos that wan designed to devalue sites not adhering to their guidelines. Plonon - A Google Algorithm Update denigned to provide more uneful relevant Local Results. PageRank -A metric created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google to rank a pages Relevance and Authority on the wab. Popup -A coded element of a site that in essence 'Pops Up' in front of the content to drive the user to perform an action. PHP - This is a server side programming language suited well for web development and can be embedded into HTML. Parameters - Seen within a URL after the "?" sign. It usually denotes a variation in a page baned on a user interaction or dynamic content based on a rule. Pagination - A way of dividing content into different pages and providing a better uner experience, Neads handing appropriately for SEO purposes. Pageview - A metric used to count the number of views to a page. Proxies -A Proxy Server can be used to anonymise a users location and can act as an intermediary between the user and the resources they need. Press Release - A document containing a business specific announcement that is then sent to online press outiets and sites for publishing. Shouldn't be used to build links. Plugio -A specifically written piece of software designed to add further functionality to a site such as update page Meta Tags. POO - Recently coined, humorous phrase within the SEO community following "The Apprentice 2014" meaning 'Pecking Order Optimisation' in relation to a lack of SEO awareness. 0 Querles - Meaning either a Searchers Query or a Machine Query when it requests a webeite resource from its server. Query Parametera - See Parameters above. QDE - Stands for 'Query Deserven Freshneas' and is part of the Google Algorithm that pays attention to Search Queries that may need frequent updates such as news reports. Rich Snippet -A Search Result with added information such as prices, reviews and dates. Helps to improve CTR. R Beal Time -A reporting element in Google Analytics allowing the user to see Real Time interactions and engagement on a site. Responalve - The term used for a webaite that scales to fit browsers on devices of different sizes such as Mobile and Tablets. Referrer - The location that a websites traffic originated from either through a link on another site or from a source like a Search Engine. Referring Domain - The domain that containa a link to your site. The ratio of linka to Referring Domainn in something to consider when Linkbuilding. Robot - See Crawler. Robots.txt -A file at the root of a domain or subdomain that tells a Search Engine which pages it is to ignore and the location of the sitemap(s). RSS - "Rich Site Summary' or 'Realy Simple Syndication' is a coded page that is used to fed frequently published content to other stes or platforms. Redirect - When a user or link is redirected from its intended destination page to an alternative page. Reviews - Ether on aite or axtemally, Reviews help to add credibility to a site and aid in increaning Conversions. Resource - The name for a file on a server Reciorocal Unk - See Link Exchange above. Begex - Stands for "Regular Expression' and is a string of special text like a wildcard. SEM -A broader term "Search Engine Mariketing' encompassing SEO and PPC. Schema -A Structured Data format that helps to highlight elements like Addresses, Products and People in a structured way to a Search Engine. Server - The location where a sites files and data is housed. Site Speed - Essentially, the apoed of a site. This is vital in modem SEO to get resulta. Shared Hosting - When your site is hosted on the same server as other wabsites that share the bandwidth and storage. Submission -A less important element of SEO whereby a sites page is manually submitted to Google for indexing Solit Testing - The optimisation process whereby more than one variation of a page or Ad is served to a user in order to improve results. Also known as AB testing. ? Site Audit - An On-Page and Technical SEO audit of a site to identify areas for growth and improvement. Social Signals - Shares, Likes, Votes from Social Media piatforms that can be (or arej used in judging a websites Authority. SSL - Stands for Secure Socket Layer that encrypta the link between a Server and Browser. Search Terma - The Keywords used when performing a Search. Can be used in reporting or Keyword Research. Spam - Irrelevant or Unaolicited electronic communicationa. Within SEO It encompasses the widespread distribution of linka and poor content for visibility gain. Spam -A tinned meat from the 1930's meaning "Spiced Ham - Nothing to do with SEO Spider - See Robot & Crawier above, Session - A metric used to count an individual users visit to a site and their engagement. Sitemar - Both XML and HTML versions are essentially was to further ensure a Search Engine Robot finds all the pages on a website. Search Console -A powertul tool created by Google to manage many different aspects of a websites Search Engine health and Wsibilty. SQL - Stands for Structured Query Language' and is used in websites to communicate with databases and render page elementa SERP - Standa for "Search Engine Resulta Page". Scrape - A harmful SEO practice whereby a page or entire site is copied entirely and placed on another domain to cause duplication issues. Social Bookmarks - An outdated SEO technique to buld links and Authority through Social Platforms public bookmarking functionality. T Technical SEO - An area of SEO centred around improving elements off of the page but within the site itself such as Site Speed and Crawl Rates. Traffic - A term meaning visitors to your site. Te Tog- An HTML tag that tells Search gines and Brows at the title of a n SEO targeting opportunity. Time To First Dyte -A metric used to measure the speed of a site as it loads ita first bit of data. Trust Flow - Similar to Citation Flow, this is a number that predicta how trustworthy a page is but the trust in the sites that link to it. Toolbar PageRank - This is a ranking metric oreated to emulate Google's own PageRank. It is no longer being updated. TLD - Stands for Top Level Domain' and is denoted by the letters immediately folowing the first final dot in a URL such as com or'org'. Tiered Linkbuliding - is an SEO Linkbuilding practice similar to a Link Pyramid that adds Authority at each tier. URL - "Uniform Resource Locator' and is a synonym for a web address using the HTTP or HTTPS protocol. URI - "Uniform Resource identifler is a generic term for all names and addresses on the Web. UTM - This is a method of tagging a link that points to your site for more in depth tracking of engagement in Google Analytics. Univernal Analyticn - This is a new Croas Platform, Croas Device tracking code for Google Anaiytics which also allows offine data import. Unique Visitor/Sesnion - A metric that meanures the number of unique visitors/sesions without grouping returmers. UGC - "User Generated Content' encompasses many different things from Blog Comments to Forum Posts and Reviews. Essentially any content on a site added by a user, uX - Stands for User Experience and is an essential part of SEO and all online marketing to promote better engagement and Conversions V Venice - This was another Google Aigorithm Update aimed at providing a better quality Local Search Result for the user. Visitor - A user that comes to your website. Viaibility -A term used to describe a websites reach within Search Engines based on its Keyword Rankings and other elements. Validation - A procens whereby a tool will check a sites code to check that it meeta the correct standarda. VPS -A 'Virtual Private Server allows the use of software and tools on a virtual computer. SEO's use them for running any automated tasks and checking visibility. W White Hat -A tem used for an SEO that follows the Webmaster Guidelines. Web Page - A page on a website. Wordpress - The most used CMS in the world by personal users, businesoes and organisations to build and manage their websites content. Webmanter - A person or people responsible for the health and management of a webeite. Widgets - A specific element, often 3rd party coded that adds some additional content or functionality to a webpage. Web 20 - The second stage of development of the internet mainly categorised by the change from static to dynamic User Generated Conternt and Social Media. Wiki - A collaborative website or database allowing any user to add or edit content for informational purposes. XML Sitemap - A coded list of all the pages on a site and their priority for a Search Engine Robot to crawi them. </> Y Yoast- A very popular Wordpress plugin developer famous for the Yoast SEO plugin alowing users to better manage SEo elements of their site. YouTube - World tamous video sharing website and the worids second most used Search Engine. Z Zeitgeist -A Google produced list detaling the year through the searches performed on its Search Engine. Optus Digital Search Engine Optimisation & Pay Per Click Advertising