A guide to deciphering SEO terminology.
We all know the feeling of stumbling across ANOTHER blog on SEO that’s littered with acronyms and technical jargon. Almost as if it’s been written by robots… for robots?
Time for a clear cut, go-to guide. A comprehensive crib sheet for hopeful SEO experts that offers a what’s what of SEO terminology, and clears up that confusion for good.
Bookmark this page now (seriously, you’ll thank us later).
On-page SEO
We’ll start at the start, with on-page SEO.
On-page SEO refers to anything that can be done on a webpage to improve rankings, as opposed to anything that sits outside of a site – think backlinks, PR and social media.
There are a few central components relevant to it, each of which we’ll cover below.
Crawl and index: The search for meaning
Before content makes it onto search, search engines like Google tend to need a bit more information.
That’s where crawling comes in. By crawling through new content, Google downloads all accessible content, before adding it to their database.
From there, Google analyses the content and indexes the information to be served up when someone searches for something relevant.
Googlebot: It takes two
Googlebot is the generic name for Google’s two types of web crawlers, with the Googlebot Smartphone stimulating users on mobile devices, and the Googlebot Desktop stimulating desktop users.
Robots.txt and Robot Meta Tag: The bouncer of your website
Robot.txt acts as a directive to Googlebot on a site level, informing search engine crawlers which URLs can be accessed on a website level.
Robot meta tag acts as a directive to Googlebot on a page level, providing instructions to search engine crawlers on how to index, crawl and display a page in search results.
Simply put, a robot meta tag will only be discovered when the URL is allowed to be discovered through robot.txt rules.
Canonicalisation: When content goes alpha
When a set of duplicate pages is found, Google picks the most representative one, known as the canonical URL. It helps Google show only one version of the otherwise duplicate content in its search results.
Or you can tell Google your preferred content:
– Redirects: where the destination of the redirect is canonical.
– rel=”canonical” tags: the specified URL is canonical.
Mobile-first indexing: For the mobile generation
Google has been prioritising mobile-friendly websites since 2015.
For most sites, Google primarily indexes the mobile version of the content. As such, the majority of crawl requests will be made using the Googlebot Mobile.
Meta tags: The subliminal messages for Google
These hidden HTML snippets tell search engines what your page is about (metadata). Like the title cards you see in museums.
Sitemap: A Googlebot’s Google maps
A sitemap is like a map for Googlebot, categorising pages, images and other files on your website and the relationship between them.
SERP: Aim for the top spot
Short for Search Engine Results Page, what you see when you search something on Google.
Schema markup (structured data): It’s more than just keywords
Structured data is used to communicate both the meaning of your content and how users should see it in Google Search, in a language that the search engine can understand (JSON-LD or Microdata).
KD (Keyword Difficulty): Not your nemesis, just a metric
Keyword Difficulty measures how difficult it is to rank for a certain keyword, on a scale from 0 to 100. The higher the number, the harder the competition (but the sweeter the victory).
CTR (Click-through Rate): Are people clicking your site?
Click-through rate (CTR) is a common performance metric, used to gauge how well your keywords are performing. To obtain the CTR, divide the number of clicks on your landing page by the overall impressions.
Alt attribute: Beyond the pretty pictures
As Googlebots can’t see images like a human, alt attribute, recommended for image SEO best practices, allows you to describe your images in words, helping both SEO and accessibility.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages): Speeding passage for mobile users
Consider AMP a lightweight version of your website. AMP provides a faster and more reliable user experience on mobile devices, keeping mobile users from clicking away.
Core Web Vitals: The user experience trio
These are the three things that make or break your website’s user experience: loading speed, responsiveness and visual stability. It includes:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): Measures loading performance
- FID (First Input Delay): Measures interactivity. And from March 12th 2024, INP will take over as the key metric for website interactivity
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Measures visual stability
Link equity: Popularity points
Link equity, or “link juice”, is a level of value passed from a linking page to the page it links to. That value depends on several factors, such as the topical relevance and authority of the linking page and the authority of the site that the linking page is on.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO refers to activities completed outside of a site to improve rankings. It might include actions such as backlink building, and works to boost your site’s reputation.
Backlinks: Votes of confidence
Backlinks (same as inbound links) are links to a page from other web pages. The quality, quantity, relevance, authority, and anchor text of the backlinks is one of the many ranking factors for Google, and the best way to earn them is by creating high-quality content that people naturally want to link to.
Anchor text: Ditch the “Click Here”
Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. Making it as descriptive as possible benefits both the user’s experience and SEO, helping users and search engines understand the context behind the linked resource.
Link attribute: A secret handshake between websites
Webmasters use link attributes to tell Google the relationship with the linked page.
rel=”follow”: to pass on your link juice.
rel=”sponsored”: for advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid links).
rel=”ugc”: for user-generated content (UGC) links, such as comments and forum posts.
rel=”nofollow”: for websites that you’d rather Google not associate your site with, or crawl the linked page from your site.
DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority): Popular, but unofficial
Domain Authority indicates the overall strength of a website’s backlink profile. As Google doesn’t quantify a website’s authority as of yet, we’d recommend focusing on creating informative, people-first content – the numbers will follow.
GMB (Google My Business): Your digital storefront
If you have a local business, GMB is your (free!) golden ticket to boosting local audience engagement. It allows you to influence how your business appears on Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping.
NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number): Your business’s fingerprint
Make sure your NAP is consistent everywhere online. Google hates inconsistency, and it rewards authority when your information on other local directives matches the data in their indexes.
SEO is a journey, not a destination. Building good SEO takes time, effort and a strategic approach. And at the end of the day, what matters most is creating valuable content for your audience.
If you need help implementing your SEO strategy, we can support businesses of all sizes to achieve their online goals. Reach out today to discover how we can tailor a strategy to your specific industry and target audience.
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