SEO Jargon buster and SEO acronym definitions
- 301 redirect
- 404 page
- Analytics
- Anchor text
- Backlink
- CPC
- CPM
- Conversion rate
- Pagerank or PR
- Keyword density
- Keyword research
- Link bait
- Long tail keywords
- Offsite SEO
- Onsite SEO
- Reciprocal links
- SEM
- SEO
- SERPS
- SMM
301 redirect
A permanent redirect. This is a header which is passed to the user agent (typically a browser or bot) to inform that a specific page has been permanently moved i.e. it is at a new url. 301 redirects can be useful for dealing with canonical issues, restructuring a website or changing urls.
menu404 page
A web page that does not exist. This is a header passed to the user agent to inform that a page does not exist and there is no alternative content. A good 404 page should ideally direct the user to some alternative content via a sitemap and website search form.
menuAnalytics
Analytics is the science of analysis, which in SEO terms generally refers to the gathering of historical data related to visitors and traffic to a website; analysing the effects of certain decisions, events and marketing campaigns. This is essential to evaluate the return on your investment and create a plan for future development and campaigns. Google Analytics is a powerful and free analytics program which we recommend, we also would advise using a number of other tools and backend website administration tools and tracking systems.
menuAnchor text
Anchor text is text displayed on a link. Appropriate anchor text will help search engines and users understand what the content of the page you are linking to includes.
menuBacklink
A link to a webpage, when talking about backlinks people are often referring to links from other websites and can be referred to as incoming links or inlinks.
menuCPC
Cost Per Click refers to the price an advertiser pays for a single click through to their website, when using a pay per click campaign.
menuCPM
Cost Per Thousand is the average price the advertiser pays for 1000 clicks in a pay per click campaign.
menuConversion rate
The conversion rate is the number of users that are converted into customers or make contact when browsing your website.
menuPagerank or PR
A term defined by Google that describes the algorithm that determines the importance of a webpage by looking at what other pages link to it. Pagerank works on a scale of 0-10, the higher the number the more authoritative the page. See google page rank.
Pagerank video from Matt Cutts of GoogleÂ
menuKeyword density
Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page compared to the total number of words on the page. Keyword density is important since too much repetition of keywords can be damaging and with too few your page will not be seen by the search engines as you want it to.Â
menuKeyword research
The process of deciding what keywords you should target when populating and promoting your website. Your keyword research is one of the first and most important tasks to carry on when SEOing a website. Many tools and techniques are used in this process. Do not underestimate the time and hard work that is required to compile your keyword list.
menuLink bait
Link bait is content on a website who's purpose is to attract incoming links. The idea is that you create content or resources that people like enough to add a link on their own website or social media profile that points to your page.
menuLong tail keywords
Long tail keywords are keyword phrases are more specific and usually consisting of three or more words. The advantages of targeting long tail keyword phrazes include: they are less competitive than single words or double word phrases; better quality trffic, i.e. users searching for long phrases are more likely to be converted since they are more likely to find the content they are searching for. The main disadvantage is that there will be less searches. An example would be to include geographic location in your keywords, sometimes referred to as regional long tail. Examples: "seo services in tamworth" or "seo services in stafforshire" as oppose to "seo services".
menuOffsite SEO
Offsite search engine optimisation is the process of promoting your site from external sources, primary linkbuilding to increase your website's pank rank and position in the SERPS.
menuOnsite SEO
Onsite search engine optimisation is the process of optimising the actual website. This is achieved by creating a website with a good internal link structure; a decent amount of text content opitimised with suitable keywords and keyword density; tailoring of h1 page headings, meta keywords, meta descriptions and alt tags for images. The important thing to consider when creating a website is that you have a suitable content management system that will give you full control over these features.
menuReciprocal links
Is where two parties link to each others website. This is also referred to as link exchange. A reciprocal link devalues the original link in the eyes of the search engines. The preferred kind of backlink would be a oneway link.
menuSEM
Search Engine Marketing
menuSEO
Search Engine Optimsation or Search Engine Optimzation. SEO is the art of making your website more authoritive and attractive to search engines. SEO can be categorised into two distinctive groups: onsite SEO and offsite SEO.
menuSERPS
Search Engine Results Page
menuSMM
Social Media Marketing is the promotion of a website or webpage using socail media websites