In the big wide world of SEO, or search engine optimisation (see, we’re getting started already), there are a few technical terms that you might not hear much elsewhere. That can be a daunting thing for anyone looking to learn more about the industry! So, we’ve compiled a quick list of the most-used jargon and explained what it all really means.
Algorithm: A system used by computers to complete a given task. Google uses algorithms to decide which websites are ranked in what order for each keyword. In SEO, we try to understand these and use them to our benefit.
Backlink: A hyperlink back to your site from another website.
Bots: Short for robots (not real ones), bots are used by search engines to collect data about websites.
Bounce rate: Bounce rate measures the number of users who click onto your site and then click off again before visiting any other pages. A high bounce rate can indicate issues with your site.
Crawling: The way search engines visit each website and process the information found on each page.
CTR: Click-through rate (CTR) measures the number of users who click on a specific link (to your site or content) after seeing it. Conversion rate measures the number of users who perform your desired outcome (e.g. purchase something from your site)
CR(O): CR(O)/conversion rate (optimisation) measures the number of users who perform your desired outcome (e.g. purchase something from your site) out of those who visit your page.
DA: This stands for “domain authority”, which is a score of how influential/powerful a website is, as estimated by Moz (a type of SEO software). This has a large impact on how well a page may rank.
Engagement: How audiences interact with your site, its pages and content.
Featured Snippets: Also known as an ‘answer box’, a featured snippet is a search result that sits in a box above all other organic results. Google lists pages in this box that effectively answer the searcher’s question.
GSC/GA: Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics (GA) are two Google tools which provide us with the data and information needed to optimise our sites more efficiently.
HTML: This stands for “Hypertext Markup Language”. It’s a common programming language used to create web pages.
Indexing: How search engines add your site to their indexes (which are databases of all the content search engines have found online).
Internal link: A hyperlink that takes you from one website page to another page on the same site.
KD: This stands for “keyword difficulty”, which shows how hard it may be to rank for a keyword. This can be estimated by many SEO programs.
Keyword: A word or phrase that users enter into a search engine.
KPI: This stands for “key performance indicator”, which is a way to measure your goals and success.
Long-tail/Short-tail: These are types of keywords. Quite simply, short-tail keywords are often one or two words long, while long-tail keywords are lengthier phrases.
Meta tag/Meta title: These contain information about the page, which search engines can then read. They should contain your chosen keywords and will show up on SERPs.
Nofollow link: A link with an HTML tag telling search engines not to provide any authority to the page it leads to. Nofollow links, therefore, have no impact on a page’s rankings.
Organic search results: Search results that are not paid for (i.e. not adverts), but which appear on search engines as a result of the hard work of SEO professionals everywhere!
Ranking: The position in which websites appear on SERPs.
Search intent: The reason why someone has used a certain search term. We aim to understand this so that we can make our sites more relevant to what they are looking for.
Search volume: The number of people who have searched for that term/keyword.
SERP: This stands for “search engine results page”, which is where all of the websites relevant to the search term are listed for the user to browse through.
If you’re looking to learn all these terms, be sure to bookmark this page so you can refer back to it whenever you need to. To find out more about SEO, remember to check out some of our other helpful blog posts, too.