Introduction to SEO
Learn about the basic terms of SEO here. These foundational concepts are essential for understanding how search engines work and how to optimize your website for better visibility.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
A digital marketing strategy that focuses on a website's presence in search results on search engines. The goal is to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to your site through organic search engine results.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page)
The page that a search engine returns with the results of its search. The major search engines typically display three kinds of listings on their SERPs: pay-per-click (PPC) results, organic results, and local listings or maps.
Keywords
Phrases in your web content that help people find your website via search engines. They are the bridge between what people are searching for and the content you provide.
Keyword Density
The number of times a keyword is used on a webpage compared to the total number of words on the page. While important, modern SEO focuses more on natural language and user intent.
Long-Tail Keywords
Keyword phrases that typically consist of three or more words. They're important for SEO because they're more specific and often less competitive than singular keywords, leading to higher conversion rates.
Backlinks
Links from one website to a webpage on another website. They are important for SEO because they can represent a vote of confidence from one site to another, thus affecting the site's rank positively on the SERPs.
Internal Links
Links that go from one page on a domain to a different page on the same domain. They are used for website navigation and can help spread link equity (ranking power) around websites.
On-Page SEO
All measures that can be taken by website owners within their own website to improve their search engine rankings. These include optimizing HTML tags, headlines, images, improving website structure and URLs, and producing high-quality content.
Off-Page SEO
All measures that can be taken outside of the website to improve its position in search rankings. These include link building, social media marketing, and influencer marketing.
Technical SEO
The process of optimizing your website for the crawling and indexing phase to improve organic rankings. It involves aspects like improving website speed, mobile-friendliness, data structure, security, etc.
Anchor Text
The clickable text part of a link. SEO best practices dictate that anchor text be relevant to the page you're linking to.
Alt Text (Alternative Text)
Text that describes an image and is beneficial for website visitors and search engines. It is used when the image cannot be displayed and helps search engines understand the context of the image.
XML Sitemap
A file where you can list the web pages of your site to inform Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
Also known as a web address, it's a specific character string that refers to a resource. Clean, descriptive URLs are important for both users and search engines.
Google Analytics
A free Google tool that tracks and reports website traffic. This service offers insights into how users find and use your website.
Google Search Console
A free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence in Google Search results.
Crawling
The process by which search engine bots (like Googlebot) discover and read pages on your website. Making your site easily crawlable is fundamental to SEO success.
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