SEO Jargon Explained

As someone who works with the SEO team but not in the SEO team, I can sympathize with new clients or anyone just starting to learn about the mechanics of SEO. Despite having previously completed an SEO internship elsewhere, when I first started working at Howbiz Solutions, the sheer amount of SEO jargon was often more than my little writer’s head could handle.

My advice is this: take things slow, master one concept at a time, and check out the super simple glossary of SEO terms below!

301 redirect: Say you had a wonderful blog at www.fakeblog.co.uk. But now you’ve moved your blog to www.fakeblog.com.au. In order to permanently redirect any visitors from your old blog to your new blog, you’ll need to do a 301 redirect. From an SEO point of view, a 301 redirect is essential as it will pass any authority from your old website’s backlink profile to the new website.

302 redirect: Similar to a 301 redirect, a 302 redirect will send any visitors from one page to another. The difference is that it is a temporary redirect and authority will not likely be passed on.

Algorithm: A computer program used by search engines such as Google to decide which pages to show for a certain query. For example, you type ‘Toronto bike store’ into Google and magically, you are presented with a list of results. In reality, algorithms have been working in the background to bring you those results.

For Google, these algorithms now take into account over 200 ‘clues’, such as the freshness of your website’s content. Designed to improve the user experience, Panda, Pigeon, Hummingbird, and Penguin are the names of famous algorithms that have been introduced over the years and changed the SEO landscape.

Anchor text: The text that appears as a clickable hyperlink, directing a user to another page.

Backlink: An incoming link from one website to another. For example, someone credits your blog by linking to it. This link will appear in your backlink profile. If your profile contains numerous backlinks from quality blogs, this indicates to search engines that your website is popular and valuable.

Branded anchor text: The name of a brand or company name appears as the anchor text. For example Businesses such as Howbiz Solutions can take your website’s return on investment to the next level!

Canonical tags: When a page with duplicate content exists on a website, a canonical tag placed in the website’s code will tell search engines to ignore that duplicate page and point to the page with the original content.

Keyword research: The process of using online tools to research which keywords should be targeted for a certain webpage.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords Synonyms of keywords or words that are closely related to your keywords.

Meta description: A short description about a certain page that appears in search results underneath that page’s title. When you type ‘Toronto bike store’ into Google, check out the mini descriptions for each result.

Organic search results: A list of results that have been naturally produced by a search engine. Paid ads do not appear in organic search results.

Sitemap: A list of all the pages on a website that are accessible to both users (you and I) and crawlers or robots (search engine ‘feelers’). Sitemaps tell search engines how a website is organized and are particularly helpful for larger sites.

Webmaster Tools: A free service from Google that lets you monitor how your website is faring in Google’s search results. It also lets you see which keywords are being used when your site appears in search results.

Zero match anchor text: Refers to anchor text such as ‘click here or ‘read more.

Of course, there are dozens more terms that could appear above. However, my hands are quite sore from typing! If you’d like to learn even more about SEO, get in touch with the team at Howbiz Solutions and discover how SEO can make a difference to your website and business!

Toronto SEO Expert May 9, 2022 SEO Comments (1)

1 thought on “SEO Jargon Explained”

uchino shitsuji says:
January 18, 2023 at 5:05 pm
As someone who is new to SEO, this glossary was a great resource. It helped me to understand the technical terms and concepts used in the industry. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about SEO.
Reply

SEO Jargon Explained

1 thought on “SEO Jargon Explained”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply