Special Thanks to <\/span>Mark Traphagen<\/span><\/a> for his editorial direction.<\/span><\/p>\n SEO\u2019s have their own language:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs SEOs, we study algo. correlations, to raise rankings on organic SERPs, reduce bounce rate, increase CTR, dwell-time, and hopefully conversions, in an effort to gain a greater ROI. \u00a0We do this by using Keyword analysis of Semantic baskets, creating linking strategies and socializing content to encourage backlinking and thus forging conduits for link-juice to flow to our desired target web page.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Yup, clear as mud. \u00a0So you either don\u2019t understand what this means, in which case read-on, all will be revealed, or you do understand this, and probably want to start an argument, but you can still use this article to give to your clients so they can understand at least half of what you say.<\/span><\/p>\n Algo. short for Algorithm<\/b> – this is the process that Google uses to determine the precision that a given web page satisfies a given user query. \u00a0There are many ranking factors taken into account within the algorithm. \u00a0The Google Algorithm is thought to contain some 200+ terms, that come into play depending on the type of query that is requested. \u00a0Google offers a short article: <\/span>Inside Search – Algorithms<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Alt tag<\/b> – Technically not a tag but text within the image tag. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Example: \u00a0<img src=\u201d<\/span>imagelocation<\/span><\/i>\u201d alt=\u201dyoung woman riding horse in Alberta, Canada\u201d \/> the alt=\u201d\u201d \u00a0should be representative of the image. \u00a0Used in accessibility for the seeing impaired, also displayed in browsers where images are not displayed and lastly by search engines to index the images in their image search results. Further reading by Catharine McNally: No More Excuses – <\/span>The Definitive Guide to the Alt-text Field<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Anchor, \u00a0Anchor Text or Anchor Hypertext<\/b> – see Links<\/span><\/p>\n Analytics<\/b> – the presentation of search metrics by a software program, also see GA<\/span><\/p>\n Authority and Trust<\/b> – a measure of the amount of the confidence a search engine has that a web page will satisfy a specific search query fully. \u00a0\u00a0This metric is calculated using all the ranking factors in a weighted algorithm. \u00a0also known as link juice or google love. \u00a0In this article and sound recording, Darren Dematas interviews David Amerland about <\/span>Why Trust and Authority is the Ticket To Brand Visibility in Google Search<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Backlinks or Inbound Links – <\/b>are links from other web documents \u00a0to a web page. \u00a0Search Engine Land explains a bit about <\/span>Link Building and Ranking in Search Engines<\/span><\/a> \u00a0as explained in the article the Link Quality, the Anchor Text and the Total Number of Links all play a role.<\/span><\/p>\n Blackhat –<\/b> describes SEO workers that use techniques that run counter to the best practices published by search engines. \u00a0So they\u2019re chaotic-evil orc-lovers. \u00a0Also see \u201cgaming the system\u201d and Negative SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n Bot or robot<\/b> – see crawling, also called spiders or crawlers<\/span><\/p>\n Bounce Rate –<\/b> is the ratio between how many times a result is clicked and the number of times the user returns to search to find a better answer. \u00a0High bounce rates signal Google that the web page may not be a good result to include in this specific query.<\/span><\/p>\n Causation – <\/b>is the reason something occurs, for example, a result will show up in a SERP because keywords in the title of the linked web page match those in the query. \u00a0The keyword in the title is the causation of the result showing up in the SERP. \u00a0Where in the result shows up in the SERP \u00a0is another story. see also Correlation \u00a0Here is a video with Mark Traphagen, Eric Enge and Rand Fishkin: <\/span>Correlations, Causation, and all that Jazz<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Canonical links –<\/b> many CMS create multiple links to a single document as a matter of course, like:<\/span><\/p>\n The problem comes because a search engine bot will see these as 3 different web documents and may treat them as duplicate content or merely divvy up the link juice among them thus not giving enough authority to any of the links for it to rise in SERPs. \u00a0Moz\u2019s article on<\/span> Canonicalization<\/span><\/a> for further reading.<\/span><\/p>\n Client side <\/b>– refers to things that happen on a web page within a browser using the computing power of the user\u2019s computer and directed by the HTML, CSS, JavaScript and its derivatives, presented by the web page. \u00a0See also Server Side<\/span><\/p>\n Cloaking<\/b> – showing different content to bots than to users, like a bait \u2018n\u2019 switch.<\/span><\/p>\n CMS<\/b> – content management system, like wordpress, that contains a WYSIWYG editor.<\/span><\/p>\n Content<\/b> – refers mostly to written articles but can include other web documents like video, slideshows, images and sound files, the totality of which makes up the Content of your web page.<\/span><\/p>\n Conversion – <\/b>this is when a user performs a desired task, like following a link or sending an email. \u00a0The conversion is said to be the goal of the web page.<\/span><\/p>\n Correlation –<\/b> A correlation is seen when there is a high incidence of Event B occurring when Event A occurs. \u00a0Unfortunately, this does not mean that Event A is the cause for Event B to occur, even though it might seem like it is. \u00a0There are many correlations in SEO that are not the causation of higher rankings, there are other factors involved. \u00a0\u00a0see also Causation<\/span><\/p>\n Crawling<\/b> – this is when a search engine robot or bot (this is software on a real robot) follows hyperlinks to a web page and makes note of the address and relative keywords contained within the web page. \u00a0The web page can also be said to have been<\/span> indexed.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n CSS – <\/b>Cascading Style Sheet, a text document linked to by an HTML document that offers consistent styling for the HTML tags across a website. \u00a0Example #idname{color:red; text-decoration:underline} tells the browser that the HTML element with \u00a0id = \u201cidname\u201d should have a text color of red and be underlined.<\/span><\/p>\n CTR <\/b>– Click Through Rate refers to the number of times a link to the web page is clicked compared to the number of times the link is shown<\/span><\/p>\n Directory <\/b>– a website that offers business listings by category, like yellowpages.<\/span><\/p>\n Duplicate Content<\/b> – is content that is linked to using different URL\u2019s. \u00a0also see canonical links. \u00a0further reading: <\/span>What is Duplicate Content? <\/span><\/a>\u00a0by Moz<\/span><\/p>\n Dwell Time <\/b>– How much time a user \u201dDwells\u201d on a given web page. \u00a0A metric used by search engines but not publically accessible by analytics. Longer dwell times may indicate higher relevance for the query. \u00a0Further reading: Neal Patel, <\/span>What is Dwell Time?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Evergreen Content<\/b> – Content that does not have an expiry date. \u00a0Example: an analysis of Newton\u2019s First Law is a good today as it was in 1960 conversely who Miley Cyrus kissed last night will not matter in 3 weeks, this is time-limited content, its value expires rapidly. \u00a0Any business has content that will withstand the test of time, it is as valid today as it was yesterday and will continue to be so. \u00a0This is Evergreen Content. see also Informational Content.<\/span><\/p>\n GA<\/b> – Google Analytics, a code snippet, that sends Google information about the web page, who tracks it and offers it up to the webmaster for evaluation. \u00a0If interested, Google offers an Analytics Academy where you can learn about GA.<\/span><\/p>\n Gaming the System –<\/b> refers to using practices that work against the best practices published by search engines. \u00a0The aim is to exploit deficiencies in the search engine algorithm and create a shortcut to higher positions in SERPs. \u00a0The practice of creating copious numbers of low quality backlinks to a web page in order to make it rank higher, in the days before the Panda update, was considered by some as gaming the system.<\/span><\/p>\n Geo-location –<\/b> refers to the Geographic Location of the trade area of the website and can be set by a meta-tag. \u00a0Google boosts ranking for some local web pages over others because it assumes you would rather buy the service closer to home, or in the case of mobile, your current location. \u00a0If you are searching for \u201cauto repair\u201d on your phone and you are located 500km from home, Google tends to return the geographically closest results. \u00a0<\/span>Bill Slawski talks about Local Inter-Connectivity in his article: The Incomplete Google Ranking Signals, Part 1<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Googlebot<\/b> – a robot or bot employed by Google to crawl web pages. see crawling<\/span><\/p>\n Google Loving<\/b> – see authority<\/span><\/p>\n Google Review<\/b> – User generated reviews posted by users on to a business\u2019s Google+ business or brand page, usually accessed through the Local Search results presented in Google SERP. Here\u2019s a video showing <\/span>How to Write a Google Review to Help Local Business<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Grey hats<\/b> – SEO\u2019s that are chaotic neutral. \u00a0Sometimes it is just not easy to colour inside the lines, especially when the lines keep changing.<\/span><\/p>\n HTML<\/b> – Hyper Text Markup Language uses tags to denote the elements of a web page. \u00a0Each element has a different set of attributes. \u00a0An example of which is <p>Some Text<\/p>. \u00a0the <p> element tells the browser that \u201cSome Text\u201d should be treated as a paragraph, the styling of which can be taken care of with CSS.<\/span><\/p>\n Inbound links <\/b>– see backlinks<\/span><\/p>\n Inbound Marketing <\/b>– marketing initiatives that entice customers to visit a web page. \u00a0It gives customers a reason to visit. Denver Prophit Jr. writes a good article on<\/span>\u00a0What is Inbound Marketing?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Indexed<\/b> – this is the process where the search engine collects and stores relevant information about a web page so the information can be quickly retrieved. \u00a0Google\u2019s <\/span>Inside Search – Crawling & Indexing<\/span><\/a> has further information on this subject.<\/span><\/p>\n Informational Content – <\/b>content geared to inform users on a topic. \u00a0Search Engine Land has an interesting article on this and why you want to write it: <\/span>The Informational Content Advantage<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n IR<\/b> – Information Retrieval, which is the basic function of search engines. \u00a0SEO\u2019s study IR systems to better understand how search engines work, what the limitations are, and the processes used. If you really, really want to know more about IR you can read Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan & Hinrich Sch\u00fctze: <\/span>Introduction to Information Retrieval<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Keywords <\/b>– the words the search engine uses to match the query to a web page. Short Tail Keywords are \u00a0can be a single word like \u201cshoes\u201d or short phrase like \u201cblack shoes\u201d both of these would be considered short tail keywords. \u00a0Long Tail Keywords \u00a0are keywords that are phrases that narrow the search results in some way, like \u201cblack sling-back shoes\u201d which returns 1.5 million results today, whereas the previous search for \u201cblack shoes\u201d returned 464 million results. \u00a0Even longer tail queries cut the number of results down further like \u201cblack slingback shoes rome\u201d returns only 293,000 results.<\/span><\/p>\n Keyword Density<\/b> – an outdated metric that is a ratio of a specific keyword to the total number of words in a web document. \u00a0In the past a perfect keyword density would raise a web page in SERPs.<\/span><\/p>\n Keyword Research –<\/b> is the determination of what keywords to target in web pages in general and in specific marketing campaigns. \u00a0It looks at many factors like Keyword competitiveness, the value to the client, the current authority of the client, the cost of acquisition and many other factors. \u00a0See also Semantic Baskets. Further reading by Moz: <\/span>Keyword Research – \u00a0a Beginner\u2019s Guide<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Landing Page –<\/b> the page a user is brought to when they click a link, it is where the user \u201clands\u201d. \u00a0Landing pages are important because specific user behavior metrics can be tracked for specific marketing initiatives. \u00a0Several landing pages can have the same conversion goal but users are brought there through differing web marketing initiatives, in this way the effectiveness of a specific web marketing initiative can be measured relative to the others. \u00a0Oli Gardner & Carlos Del Rio write a great article about Landing Pages in <\/span>35 Beautiful Landing Page Design Examples to Drool Over [With Critiques]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Links<\/b> – hyperlinks are the foundation of the internet. \u00a0It was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in the early 1980\u2019s. \u00a0They are a word or group of words known as an <\/span>anchor <\/span><\/i>or <\/span>anchor hypertext<\/span><\/i> that, when clicked, will open a whole new document. \u00a0Here is a \u00a0fuller discussion on <\/span>hyperlinks<\/span><\/a> from Wikipedia. \u00a0Note the anchor hypertext \u201chyperlink\u201d in the previous sentence, represents a link to another article on the Wikipedia domain. \u00a0Also see Backlinks.<\/span><\/p>\n Link Juice<\/b> – see authority<\/span><\/p>\n Local Results or Google Local –<\/b> is a special section of the SERP that is tied to the Google Maps property that lists results geographically close to the user\u2019s location. \u00a0It includes a map with pins marking the location of the business and other information drawn from the businesses Google+ Business Listing. see also Google Reviews. Here is <\/span>How to Claim Your Local Listing<\/span><\/a> by yours truly.<\/span><\/p>\n Long Tail<\/b> – see keywords<\/span><\/p>\n LSI – Latent Semantic Indexing<\/b> – is a system used by search engines to associate certain keywords with other commonly found keywords within a web document. \u00a0For Example in a query \u201chorses\u201d other keywords like ranch, riding, veterinarian, may also be indexed using LSI. In the absence of additional terms the search engine may return results containing all these keywords in the web page. \u00a0But add \u201csick\u201d to the query and the search engine may raise those web pages with the word \u201cveterinarian\u201d in them. \u00a0LSI has associated horse, sick and veterinarian with each other. \u00a0see also Semantic Basket. Further Reading by Zara Altair <\/span>What is Semantic Writing?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Meta Tags –<\/b> are located in an HTML document in the head, i.e. between the <head> and <\/head> tags. \u00a0They are statements that give information about the document, like description, geolocation, character set, etc. see also title tag. More about Meta Tags by Matt Cutts: <\/span>Meta Tags that Google understands<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Metric<\/b> – a measurement of something, as in \u201cconversion metric\u201d measures how many times a desired action is performed in relation to the offering.<\/span><\/p>\n MIrror<\/b> – identical site located at a different URL. \u00a0Often employed by sites that offer large downloads so the different servers can service multiple users at the same time easily and a single server is not monopolized at any given time.<\/span><\/p>\n Negative SEO –<\/b> the process of sending negative ranking signals to competitor websites in order to diminish authority \u2026 \u00a0and raise one\u2019s own relatively. \u00a0\u00a0Also posing as a competitor in social media to cast dispersions on the competitor thus lower the authority of the brand in the eyes of the public.<\/span><\/p>\n nofollow<\/b> – a meta tag that tells bots not to follow outbound links from a page. \u00a0It can also be included as an attribute on a specific link in which case it will only affect that link.<\/span><\/p>\n noindex<\/b> – a meta tag that tells bots not to include this web page in its index. \u00a0\u00a0It can also be included as an attribute on a specific link in which case it will only affect that link in that the link will not pass along link juice to the target.<\/span><\/p>\n Organic or Organic Search Results<\/b>: The page returned by Google \u00a0is cut up into different sections, though this may not be obvious at first. \u00a0There are advertisements at the top and right-hand side of the page. \u00a0There may be an \u201canswer box\u201d on the right side. \u00a0Local Listings (currently a pack of 3) with a map, may dominate position 1 or 2 of the organic results. \u00a0There may be more ads at the bottom of the screen. \u00a0What is left over are \u201corganic results.\u201d \u00a0These are results that are found and returned by the search engine based upon the \u201cbest\u201d answer to the query. \u00a0It should be noted that organic results still get clicked about \u00a094% of the time (see Danny Goodwin: <\/span>Organic vs. Paid Search Results: Organic Wins 94% of Time)<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Page Rank of PR<\/b> – is an analysis of the links, used by Google, to determine the importance of a web page to a specific user query. \u00a0The scale is exponential from 0 to 10. \u00a0Further reading by Bruce Clay: <\/span>What is Google PageRank and How is it arned or Transferred?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nUnderstanding SEO terms<\/span><\/h1>\n
and links to further SEO wisdom<\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n
General Terms Used in SEO<\/span><\/h2>\n
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