Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website or a web page in search engine results pages (SERPs) through various techniques and strategies. Building a website is not enough if you want to be more visible on search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. In our opinion, you need to have both basic SEO and advanced SEO in place because your competition will have done so, and if you do not have advanced SEO done, you are effectively giving business to your competitor. We see SEO as a long-term investment, rather than a once-off, and the more you invest in SEO, the more visible your website should be for a greater variety of keywords or combinations of keywords.
If you are a relative novice to the topic, you will not have heard of all of the words on the list below, and some of the keywords which you have heard of you may not know what they mean. The purpose of this article is to give a description of as many SEO-related terms as possible so that this article can become your go-to resource. Alternatively, if you would like Agata Business Services to take care of your SEO for you, please get in contact with us.
86 important keywords associated with SEO include:
Keywords: These are the words or phrases people type into a search engine when looking for information. Optimizing a website for specific keywords can help increase its visibility in search engine results for those terms.
On-page optimization: This refers to the techniques used to optimize the content and structure of a website to make it more search engine-friendly. This includes things like optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags, as well as ensuring that the website's content is relevant, high-quality, and keyword-rich.
Off-page optimization: This refers to the techniques used to improve a website's visibility and ranking through external means, such as link building, social media marketing, and online reputation management.
Content optimisation: Content optimisation refers to ensuring that a website's content is optimized for search engines and users. This includes creating high-quality, unique, and relevant content that is keyword-rich and includes meta tags and descriptions.
Link building: Link building is the practice of acquiring backlinks (links from other websites) to a website. Backlinks help search engines understand the popularity and authority of a website, which can help improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results.
Social media optimization: Social media optimization refers to the process of using social media platforms to promote a website and increase its visibility and authority.
Analytics: Analytics refers to the process of tracking, measuring and analysing data from your website to understand how visitors interact with it and how to improve the user experience and search engine visibility.
Algorithm: An algorithm is a set of rules or instructions that search engines use to determine the relevance and ranking of a website or web page in search engine results. The algorithm takes into account a wide range of factors, such as the relevance and quality of a website's content, the number and quality of backlinks, and the website's overall popularity and authority.
SERPs: SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Pages, these are the pages that are displayed by search engines in response to a user's query. The goal of SEO is to improve the visibility and ranking of a website on these pages, making it more likely that users will click through to the website.
Meta tags: Meta tags are HTML tags that provide metadata about a webpage, such as its description and keywords, which can be used by search engines to understand the content of the page.
Headings: Headings are used to structure the content of a webpage and help search engines understand the hierarchy of the information on the page.
Sitemap: A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the URLs of a website, making it easier for search engines to crawl the site and understand its structure.
Robots.txt: Robots.txt is a file that can be used to specify which pages or sections of a website should not be crawled by search engines.
Canonicalization: Canonicalization is the process of choosing the most appropriate version of a webpage when there are multiple versions available. This can help prevent duplicate content issues and ensure that search engines crawl the correct page version.
Mobile optimization: Mobile optimization refers to the process of making sure that a website is optimized for users who access it on mobile devices. This includes things like responsive design and mobile-friendly content.
Local SEO: Local SEO refers to the process of optimizing a website for local search results. This includes things like optimizing for local keywords, creating local listings, and getting listed in local directories.
Voice search optimization: Voice search optimization refers to the process of optimizing a website for voice search queries, which are becoming increasingly popular with the rise of virtual assistants like Alexa and Google Home.
Featured snippets: Featured snippets are a type of rich result that appears at the top of the search results, usually providing a summary of the answer to the user's question.
Latent semantic indexing (LSI): LSI is a technique used by search engines to understand the context and meaning of the content of a webpage, by analysing the relationships between the words and phrases on the page.
Bounce rate: Bounce rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who leave a website after only viewing one page. High bounce rates can be an indication of poor user experience or irrelevant content.
Domain authority (DA): Domain authority is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages. It is based on a number of factors, such as the number of backlinks and the quality of the website's content.
Page speed: Page speed is a metric that measures how quickly a webpage loads for users. Slow page speeds can negatively impact user experience and search engine visibility.
User experience (UX): User experience refers to the overall experience of a user when interacting with a website, including factors like ease of navigation, content relevance, and the overall design of the site.
Alt text: Alt text is a text description that is added to an image to provide information about it for search engines and users who are unable to view the image.
Structured data: Structured data is a type of code that can be added to a webpage to provide additional information about the content to search engines. This can include things like product information, event details, and reviews.
Schema markup: Schema markup is a specific type of structured data that is used to provide additional context to search engines about the content of a webpage.
Keyword research: Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases that people use to search for information related to a particular topic. This information can be used to optimize a website for those keywords and improve its visibility in search engine results.
Internal linking: Internal linking refers to the process of linking to other pages within a website, which can help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of the site, and make it easier for users to navigate.
External linking: External linking refers to the process of linking to other websites, which can help improve a website's visibility and authority.
Bounce rate: Bounce rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who leave a website after only viewing one page. High bounce rates can be an indication of poor user experience or irrelevant content.
Click-through rate (CTR): Click-through rate is a metric that measures the percentage of users who click on a link or a result in search engine results pages. High CTR can indicate that the website is relevant and valuable to the users.
Organic traffic: Organic traffic refers to the traffic that comes to a website from search engines, as opposed to paid traffic from advertising.
Long-tail keywords: Long-tail keywords are more specific and longer phrases that are less common in search queries, but they can still drive targeted traffic to a website
Siloing: Siloing is the process of grouping similar content together on a website, creating a hierarchy that makes it easy for search engines to understand the site structure and for users to navigate.
Redirect: Redirect is a technique that automatically directs users from one URL to another.
301 redirect: 301 redirects are permanent redirects that are used when a webpage has been permanently moved to a new URL.
302 redirect: 302 redirects are temporary redirects that are used when a webpage has been temporarily moved to a new URL.
404 error page: A 404 error page is a page that is displayed when a user requests a page that cannot be found. It can be optimized to redirect the user to other relevant pages on the website.
Rich snippets: Rich snippets are a type of rich result that includes additional information, such as reviews or pricing, that is displayed in search engine results pages.
Title tag: A title tag is an HTML element that specifies the title of a webpage, which is displayed in the browser's title bar and as the clickable headline for a webpage in search engine results.
Meta description: Meta description is a summary of the content of a webpage that is displayed in search engine results. It is intended to provide a brief summary of the page's content to help users decide if it is relevant to their search query.
Breadcrumb: Breadcrumb is a navigation element that shows the user's location in relation to the website's hierarchy and can be used to help search engines understand the structure of the site.
Rich media optimization: Rich media optimization refers to the process of optimizing multimedia content such as images, videos, and audio to improve their visibility and ranking in search engine results.
Social signals: Social signals are the metrics that measure the engagement and popularity of a webpage on social media platforms, which can be used as a ranking factor for search engines.
Custom 404 page: The custom 404 page is a custom-designed page that replaces the default 404 error page. It could be used to provide useful information to the user and also to reduce the bounce rate.
HTML sitemap: HTML sitemap is a webpage that lists all the URLs of a website in a hierarchical structure, making it easy for users and search engines to navigate the site.
XML Sitemap: XML sitemap is a file that lists all the URLs of a website in a structured format, making it easy for search engines to crawl the site and understand its structure.
Crawlability: Crawlability refers to the ease with which a search engine can crawl and index a website.
Indexability: Indexability refers to the ability of a search engine to add a webpage to its index.
Duplicate content: Duplicate content is the same or similar content that appears on multiple URLs or pages on a website, which can negatively impact search engine visibility.
Hreflang: Hreflang is a tag that can be added to a webpage to indicate to search engines the language and regional targeting of a webpage.
Pagination: Pagination is the process of dividing content into multiple pages, which can be helpful for both users and search engines.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages): AMP is an open-source framework that allows developers to create fast-loading pages for mobile devices, which can improve user experience and search engine visibility.
Noindex: Noindex is a meta tag that can be added to a webpage to indicate to search engines that the page should not be indexed.
Nofollow: Nofollow is a link attribute that can be added to a link to indicate to search engines that the link should not be followed or used to determine the authority of the linked webpage.
Domain age: Domain age is the length of time that a domain has been registered and active. A domain with a long history is generally considered to be more authoritative and trustworthy by search engines.
Content marketing: Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing high-quality, valuable content with the goal of attracting and engaging a target audience. It can be used to support SEO by providing relevant, keyword-rich content for a website.
Landing page optimization: Landing page optimization refers to the process of optimizing the design and content of a landing page to improve conversion rates and increase the effectiveness of paid advertising campaigns.
Bounce rate optimization: Bounce rate optimization refers to the process of identifying and addressing the factors that contribute to a high bounce rate on a website, in order to improve user engagement and search engine visibility.
SERP features: SERP features are the additional elements that can appear on a search engine results page, such as rich snippets, answer boxes and featured snippets that are intended to provide users with more relevant and direct information.
Google My Business: Google My Business is a free tool offered by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence across Google, including search and maps. It can be used to optimize visibility and engagement with local search queries.
Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a web service provided by Google that allows webmasters to check the indexing status and optimise the visibility of their websites.
Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. It can be used to monitor traffic, user behaviour, and other data to improve SEO.
Google Tag Manager: Google Tag Manager is a tool that allows users to add and manage marketing and analytics tags on a website without modifying the code.
Google PageSpeed Insights: Google PageSpeed Insights is a tool that analyses the performance of a webpage on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides suggestions for improvements to speed up page load times.
Google Trends: Google Trends is a tool that allows users to explore and compare data on search volume for different keywords over time.
Google AdWords: Google AdWords is an advertising service offered by Google that allows businesses to display ads on the Google search engine results pages and on other websites.
Google AdSense: Google AdSense is a program that allows website owners to display ads on their site and earn money from clicks or views.
Google Tag Manager: Google Tag Manager is a tool that allows users to add and manage marketing and analytics tags on a website without modifying the code.
LSI keywords: Latent Semantic Indexing keywords are related keywords that search engines use to understand the context and meaning of a webpage's content, they can be used to improve the relevance and ranking of the webpage.
Keyword density: Keyword density is the percentage of times a keyword or phrase appears in a webpage's content, in relation to the total number of words on the page.
Keyword stuffing: Keyword stuffing is the practice of including an excessive number of keywords in a webpage's content in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings.
Black hat SEO: Black hat SEO refers to techniques that are used to manipulate search engine rankings and violate search engine guidelines. These techniques can result in penalties or even a ban from search engines.
White hat SEO: White hat SEO refers to techniques that are used to improve search engine rankings in a way that follows search engine guidelines and provides a good user experience.
Gray hat SEO: Gray hat SEO refers to techniques that are on the border between white hat and black hat SEO, they may or may not violate search engine guidelines.
Organic search: Organic search refers to the unpaid or non-promoted results in a search engine, as opposed to paid search results.
Search engine results page (SERP): SERP is the page that is displayed by a search engine in response to a user's query, it includes organic search results, sponsored ads, and other features.
Search engine spiders: Search engine spiders are software programs that crawl websites to index their content and gather information for search engine results.
Search engine submission: Search engine submission is the process of submitting a website to a search engine to be indexed.
Search engine ranking: Search engine ranking is the position of a website or web page in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Search engine penalty: A search engine penalty is a punishment issued by a search engine to a website that has been found to have violated its guidelines.
Search engine index: A search engine index is a database that stores all the information that a search engine has gathered from crawling websites.
Search engine algorithm: A search engine algorithm is a set of rules that a search engine uses to determine the relevance and ranking of a website or web page in search engine results.
Search query: A search query is a phrase or set of keywords that a user enters into a search engine when looking for information.
Search volume: Search volume is the number of times a keyword or phrase is searched for on a search engine over a specified period of time.
Search intent: Search intent is the purpose or goal of a user's search query, it can be used to create more relevant and valuable content for a website.