Feeling a bit lost when it comes to SEO?
93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. You can’t afford to not take your SEO seriously.
There are a lot of terms that are thrown around when it comes to search engine optimization. It can be hard to keep up with the constant changes in algorithms and all the confusing jargon.
Still, your website can’t thrive without SEO. Which means neither can your business.
The importance of SEO is universal to every industry in 2019. Here are 10 SEO terms everyone should familiarize themselves with.
1. 301 Redirection
Every once and a while you may upgrade your website or decide to change your business’ domain name. When this happens, your old pages will no longer be connected to the same links. This can be a problem for all the traffic and SEO that you’ve built up over the years.
It also means that any backlinks on other sites that are directed to your old pages are going to break. That’s where a 301 redirection comes in. What this does is redirects someone who clicks on the old link, to the location of the new page.
This is a permanent redirection. It allows you to keep the traffic coming and not lose your SEO ranking even when you want to change the domain name of your site.
This is opposed to a temporary redirection that would not keep its ranking and is only used for a period of time before returning users back to the original page.
2. Affiliate
This term can refer to a number of different business connections and agreements between companies. When it comes to SEO, affiliate programs are created to help different sites build traffic or sell products. This can be done by exchanging commissions or fees for doing a service.
For example, a company might have a blogger write an article on their site and include their product as a recommended purchase. If people click on the link within the blog and purchase the article due to the recommendation, the company provides the blogger with compensation for making the sale.
In this way, both the blogger and the business benefit from this transaction. This is just one example of how an affiliate could work.
Having an affiliate program on your website can help you earn extra money on top of ad revenue. If you are looking to become an affiliate, this can help you increase traffic to your website.
3. Backlinks
These refer to links that are on other websites that point back to your site. Having backlinks on high traffic websites can not only direct users to your site. It can also help your site rank higher the more backlinks you have.
That’s because backlinks show search engines that your site is a reliable source and recommended by other websites. Sometimes businesses will work together to either purchase backlinks or exchange them.
It’s a great way to improve your site’s SEO!
4. Algorithm
When you hear SEO experts talking about an algorithm or “algo” it is usually referring to what automated formula search engines use to rank your site and also how they determine what pages to suggest to users.
The reason an algorithm like Panda or Penguin is so important to SEO specialists is that this is what they use to build a strategy. Knowing what methods the algorithm uses to make your site appear first is key to good ranking and increasing traffic to your page.
5. Duplicate Content
This is referring to the amount of content on a website that is repeated. A search engine will actually search for duplicate content on a site. If your page has a lot of duplicate content on it, the search engine will penalize it. So you may not be ranked or approved by Google Adwords.
Therefore, an SEO expert may tell you to avoid or reduce duplicate content on your website.
6. Gateway Page
This is an SEO term that refers to a page that is meant to bring traffic onto your website from a search engine. It will then redirect users to other pages within your site. It is yet another tactic to increase the traffic to your website.
7. Impression
When used in an SEO context, an impression is any time a user views or visits a webpage one time. Impressions are also used when referring to someone viewing a digital ad.
8. Keywords/Key Phrases
If you’ve been in the world of SEO for even a little while, you’ll hear the term keyword and/or key phrases tossed around a lot.
A keyword is a search term that a user will type into a search engine in order to find information. Key phrases are also tracked by search engines, which are a string of words or a full sentence.
The reason they are so important in SEO is that these search terms are used to increase traffic to your website. This is done by researching which keywords or key phrases are searched most often.
If your website can rank for a popular search term and be the first website to pop up on a search engine, your site can gain a ton of traffic.
9. Internal Vs. External Links
When it comes to internal and external links, both are important parts of good SEO. Internal links are any links on your website that send users to other pages within the same site. These are recommended to keep users on your site and lead them to more of your pages.
The longer a user is on your site, the more likely they are to take an action such as purchasing a product or service, as well as clicking on an ad.
External links are ones that connect to pages on a different website. Search engines also look to make sure you are using external links on your pages. Both types of links are used to improve your ranking on search engines.
10. Alt Text
This refers to the text used to describe an image on your website. It’s important to provide alt text on all of your images. This is because it is used if the image is unable to load.
The alt text is also read by search engines to know what types of images you have on your website. It can contribute to your site ranking and help users more easily find your pages.
Discover SEO Terms
We hope this guide to essential SEO terms will help you and your business create a successful website!
If you’re looking for more ways to boost your SEO and enhance your site then check out our blog for more amazing tips and tricks.
