Do you ever sit and wonder what your SEO Consultant is going on about?
As many of you will know, sometimes speaking with an SEO consultant or online marketer can feel like talking to someone in a different language. In this blog post we have created a small glossary with some of the more common SEO terms so next time you speak to your consultant you can understand what they are saying a little better.
301 Redirect – A 301 redirect is used to direct one webpage to another on a permanent basis.
404 – A 404 error is the error message you receive when trying to reach a webpage that does not exist. This could be due to misspelling or the page you want has been deleted.
Algorithm – Algorithm is what Google uses to decide on which results to display in its search results page. An algorithm will take into account various aspects of a site to determine how relevant it is to what has been searched.
ALT Text – ALT Text is the snippet of code that goes with an image to describe to Google what the image is. For example the ALT Text for a photo of a Set of traffic lights would be something like ‘Traffic Lights at a crossroads Junction’.
Anchor Text – Anchor Text is the text that you click in a website link. For example if you have a link on a webpage that reads ‘Click Here for more information’ the ‘Click Here’ would be the anchor text. Anchor text is usually underlined or in a different font to regular text.
Black Hat – Black Hat is the term used for SEO practices that do not meet Google’s latest guidelines. This may for instance be something like extensive links from websites built purposefully for SEO. Or buying links from webmasters.
Citation / NAP – A citation or NAP listing for your business is where your Name, Address & Phone Number is listed on a website. These details should align directly with your website and other mentions of your website to provide the most benefit to your local SEO campaign.
Duplicate Content – Duplicate Content is when you have text on your website which is duplicate of that on another website. Often this may just been terms and condition pages on websites or when you are talking about a generic topic. Google will usually favour the website where the content was first found so if you have duplicate content it is worth getting it changed.
Keyword Density – Keyword Density is the percentage of words on the page which are or are related to the service you are trying to promote and optimise on your web page.
META Description – META Description is the general description on a page and most often than not the snippet of text you see for Google listings so it is important you make this descriptive.
Panda – Google Panda is one of Googles algorithms that targets low quality and ‘thin’ sites. This is usually blogs that have been built for the purpose of SEO and have generic, poor written blog posts that are often posted on multiple websites.
Penguin – Penguin is another Google algorithm which targets the links and offsite factors of a website. It identifies spam links where links have been built on poor and spammy websites.
Robots.txt – The robots.txt file is a file on your website where you can tell Google whether you want it to look at specific pages of your website or not.
SERP’s – A SERP is short for ‘Search Engine Results Page’. This is the page you are taken to when you have searched for something in Google.
Structured Data / Schema – Structured Data / Schema is specific coding you can put into your website to highlight certain data to make it more identifiable to Google. Common schema codes include mark up on the business address and logo.
White Hat – White Hat SEO is the term given to SEO which goes by Google’s latest guidelines. Typically these are strategies which focus on user engagement and the audience rather than target SEO to improve keyword rankings etc.
These are just a few of what we feel are some of the most commonly used SEO terms. Hopefully now you understand a little more about SEO and will be more comfortable in future conversions about your business. Do you have any other SEO phrases which you hear but have no idea what it menas? If so then drop a comment and let us know!