Updated: February 28, 2019
Novices to the world of search engine optimization, or SEO, can be overwhelmed by the new terminology they need to learn to be successful. Thankfully, Business 2 Community anticipated this language barrier and created an ABC list of some of the most common SEO terms and tips you need to know about.
Here, in part one of our multi-blog series, we aim to share some of this essential SEO lingo with you and offer our own unique take on what you absolutely need know.
See below for letters A through J:
- A. Average Visit Time – how long your visitors spend on your website. This data is key because search engines use visit duration to rank your website. Google works on a “quality over quantity” system, so more extended page visits are more valuable than many quick visitors.
- B. Bounce Rate – the number of visitors who land on your page and leave immediately. The lower your website’s bounce rate, the better.
- C. Click-Through Rate (CTR) – a calculation of the clicks an advertisement receives divided by how many times the ad is actually shown. CTR is another way Google gauges rank.
- D. Diversity – In the SEO world, this term relates to making sure you have a mixed selection of both inward and outward bound links. Link diversity can make your information more valuable and show that you are an authority on your subject.
- E. Engagement – the way your site interacts with your visitors. Your site should not simply be the end result of a web search, but you should also think about your customers and what they’d like to see when they arrive on your site.
- F. Fresh Content – It’s important to make sure you publish new content on your website regularly. Once you start to receive returning visitors, you don’t want them to find the same stale content each time they visit. That’s not very good incentive for them to return!
- G. Graphics – Make sure to incorporate images into your website. We live in a visual culture and incorporating photos, GIFs and videos into your site can breathe life into your message.
- H. Hosting – the methods used to optimize a website in such a way that your traffic and/or sales increase. Your focus can either be on the creation of new content or optimizing what you’ve already uploaded.
- I. Index – the mass of websites Google has catalogued. All searchable web pages have been indexed by Google.
- J. Javascrip – a common object-oriented programming language. It is the language used for interactive web page elements. A word of caution: Javascript does not always play well with search engine crawlers, which can lead to lower search rankings.
For further information and ideas for expanding your business’ SEO practices, check out our blog and knowledge center. And remember to check back for the rest of the alphabet!