If you’re confused by terms like “PPC” and “CTR” – and completely baffled by “tags” and “bounce rates” – this beginner’s guide to key SEO terms is for you.
Whether you’re a small business owner with your own website or you work in a large marketing department, it’s essential these days to be au fait with basic SEO terminology.
Even if SEO isn’t your specific responsibility, familiarisation with key SEO terms will help you talk to others in the same language.
This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive – I’m sure I’ll add to it over the coming months – but it should give you a good starting point.
General SEO terms
Anchor text = visible, clickable text in a hyperlink
Keyword/keyphrase = words or phrases someone types into a search engine to find what they’re looking for
Keyword density = percentage of times a keyword appears on a web page compared to the page’s total word count
Landing page = any web page that a visitor can ‘land’ on, usually created around a focused keyword
Optimisation = to achieve maximum number of conversions at minimal cost
Organic (or natural) search = free web page listings that most closely match the user’s search query based on relevance
PPC (pay per click) = form of online advertising where the advertiser pays a pre-determined amount each someone clicks on their ad in the search results
SEO (search engine optimisation) = process of improving the ranking of a website or web page in a search engine’s organic search results
Types of tags
Alt tag = every image on your website should be given a description incorporating the relevant keywords
HTML header tags (H1, H2 etc) = help readers and search engines by breaking up your content into digestible sections
Meta description = gives search engines a bit more insight into what your page is about and appears in search results, underneath the title tag
Title tag = tells search engines what the page is about (e.g. Freelance Copywriter | Warwickshire | Every Word Counts)
Link building
There are three types of links: inbound/outbound, internal/external and hyperlinks
Hyperlinks = usually underlined and in a bright colour, these allow users to click from one web page to another
Internal links = help search engines learn more about your website by internally linking to other pages on your website
Inbound external links (also called backlinks) = links pointing to your site from other websites
Outbound external links = links from your website to other sites
Website analytics
Bounce rate = percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page
Click through rate (CTR) = percentage of people viewing a web page who click on a specific advert or link that appears on the page
Conversion = when a visitor to your website takes the desired action (e.g. buys product, downloads a white paper, completes an enquiry form)
Conversion rate = number of conversions divided by number of visitors
The next step
If you’d like to put some of these SEO terms into practice, this Kissmetrics blog provides a great step-to-step guide. And if you’re looking for some help with SEO copywriting, give me a shout. I’ve lots of experience in this area and would be happy to be of assistance!
(image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)
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