Anyone can quickly become overwhelmed by the extensive vocabulary / jargon affiliated with search engine optimization (SEO). As with any specialty, there are seemingly an infinite number of SEO terms to learn (many of which are seem to be used by single individuals!). However, there are not that many you need to know to become an SEO expert.
Taking the time to define a proper SEO strategy can transform not only your online traffic, but also your entire business. SEO is the practice of employing certain qualitative content principles and following simple technical enhancements to increase online traffic and SERP (search engine results page) rankings.
Quantity also plays a major role.
Writing more content, generating links from social media, and using a broader variety of longer, niche keywords (regardless of the number of words, this is still referred to as a keyword) is a fantastic way to increase your ranking over time.
This is a list of the most important search engine optimization (SEO) terms that will assist you in either communicating with developers or how to optimize your own website.
3-Pack: The Google 3-Pack is how Google displays the best local business search results. It contains three local businesses that Google considers to be sufficiently prominent, relevant, and close to the user. In addition to the three Google Business Profile listings, the results also include a map of the three results.
10 blue links: These are the organic search results that you see when conducting an online search, thus excluding the paid results. A Google search for "blue links" returns only organic results. If you add "blue links" to any search, paid advertising will be omitted.
Anchor text, or link text, is the visible, interactive text of a hyperlink. It is frequently highlighted and typically appears in a distinct color than the surrounding text. Good link text describes the destination of the reader's action. The appearance of anchor text on a website can be modified by web designers. In most cases, anchor text is blue and underlined.
Black hat refers to search engine optimization techniques that contravene Google's quality guidelines.
Business Profile on Google: Creating a Business Profile on Google is free. Create a free profile and administer your business on Google Search and Maps to begin attracting more customers. Headings
Crawling: Google employs crawling to find new or updated pages to include in their SERP.
Featured snippets: Google's search results may display listings in which the excerpt describing a page appears prior to the link to that page. These results are referred to as "featured snippets." You may discover featured snippets within the overall search results, the "People also ask" section, or in conjunction with Knowledge Graph information.
Headings are a form of HTML tag used to organize content for both humans and search engines. It is preferable to have one H1 tag per page and to organize the content using as many H2 tags and beyond as necessary.
HTML: HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the standard markup language for documents intended for display in a web browser.
Images: Image SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your images for search engines by using alt text and captions that are relevant and considerate. Ensure that every image has alt text!
Indexing: The process of preserving and organizing content discovered through crawling. When a search engine discovers a new page, it indexes it so that users can find it when they conduct a relevant keyword search.
Keyword: This term refers to a phrase (as opposed to a single word) that a user inputs into a search engine, such as Google, in order to locate the desired information. To enhance a page's ranking on a SERP, you must include relevant keywords in its title tags, headers, and body content.
Keyword cramming refers to the excessive use of a specific keyword. It is always detrimental to a page's ranking, so you must be mindful of how frequently you use keywords.
Links are extremely essential in the world of SEO. The more referrals your website receives from high-authority websites, the higher it will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). These connections are known as inbound links or backlinks because they originate from other websites and lead to yours. Outbound links are also crucial for SEO, as search engines use them as a signal to determine the usefulness of your content to consumers. When creating external links, it is essential to use pertinent anchor text.
KPI: A "key performance indicator" is used by businesses to evaluate the efficacy of their website in organic search results.
Meta description: Similar to the title tag, a meta description is an HTML tag associated with a particular page. A meta description tag typically informs and engages users with a concise, pertinent summary of a page's content. They serve as a sales presentation to persuade the user that the page is precisely what they are seeking. It is frequently advantageous to include a compelling call to action to encourage users to engage.
Organic: The organic search results are calculated strictly algorithmically and are not influenced by advertiser payments.
The 'People Also Ask' (PAA) box is a Google SERP feature that provides answers to queries related to the user's search query. Each answer is sourced from a website, and Google provides a link to the source beneath each answer.
Ranking: A ranking factor is any element that a search engine employs to determine how a page is ranked in search engine results pages (SERPs). Common ranking factors include the number of inbound links from authoritative websites, the use of relevant keywords, and title tags that have been optimized, among others.
Search engine: An information retrieval program that searches a database for items that match the user's request. Google, Bing, and Yahoo are examples of search engine companies.
SERP: A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the page that appears when a search query is entered into a search engine such as Google. The better a page ranks for a specific search query, the higher its rank.
Title tag: A title tag, also known as a page title, meta title, or SEO title, is one of the most essential components of any website. As its name implies, this.html tag is the identity of a specific web page and can be found in one of two places on the internet: the top of your browser window and in search engine results pages. A title tag should contain keywords pertinent to the page's content and be limited to 50 or 60 characters.
Traffic: Traffic refers to the quantity of visitors to your website; the more traffic your site receives, the better. However, it is of greater importance that this traffic originates from genuine individuals who are interested in your niche. This is the traffic that will perform a desired action, such as clicking advertisements, perusing content, and, ideally, purchasing your products and/or services.
URL: Uniform Resource Locators are the locations or addresses of specific web-based content. Each of your webpages will have a unique URL, which you can customize. The URL of a page is displayed at the head of the search results.
Webmaster guidelines: Guidelines published by search engines such as Google and Bing to assist site proprietors in developing content that will be discovered, indexed, and perform well in search engine results.
White hat: Search engine optimization techniques that adhere to Google's quality recommendations.
Although search engine optimization is a complex process, you should always keep in mind the following points. If you want to enhance your search engine rankings, you should always do the following:
Never underestimate internal linkage. Ensure that every page on your website links to something else and that every page has a link to itself.
Create content centered on your niche; search engines despise content that does not relate to the remainder of the website; they consider it spam.
Google will not rank pages that don't look good online, particularly on mobile devices.
Provide users with the information they seek; this is what Google rewards.
Connect all of your social media activity to a page on your website!