SEO Terminology Basics

Before you can get started in Search Engine Optimization, whether you’re doing it yourself or you’re planning on outsourcing the work, you need to familiarize yourself with the terminology used in the industry.

Knowing what each phrase means will ensure you feel in control of your marketing strategy. That being said, let’s begin with SEO terminology basics!

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List of basic SEO terminologies

On-Page Terminology

  1. Alt-text is simply an alternative text for an image. It’s purpose is to increase accessibility for those who cannot see, or are visually impaired. However, it’s also a way for search engines to decipher what your image is about. Your alt-text should describe, in detail, what your image is. You can also throw some keywords so that you can increase your rankings.
  2. Heading tags are important HTML tags that indicate how important a specific phrase is. H1 carries the most weight, while H6 carries the least amount of weight. Although, most websites these days only go down to H4.
  3. SSL stands for Secured-Socket-Layer and is a certificate your hosting company gives you to verify to a site user that their connection is secure via encryption. If your site isn’t secure, it will hinder your rankings.
  4. Site load time simply refers to how long your site takes to load. If your site load time is over 6 seconds, your users are more likely to bounce off and not want to engage with your website.
  5. Sitemap.xml is a file that Google and other search engines read to map out your site. This makes it much easier for them to crawl your site and index each page.

Keywords and Keyword Research Terminology

  1. Keyword Research. Keyword research simply refers to the process SEO experts take when looking for the most profitable keywords. Many SEO’s will say “what is your desired keyword?” Think about all the keywords you want to appear for. For example, if you’re a dentist in Brooklyn NY you may want to rank for “dental implants Brooklyn NY” or “child dentist Brooklyn NY”.
  2. Search Volume or Volume. Search volume or “vol” as you may sometimes see it, simply refers to the number of times a phrase is being searched up, usually on a monthly basis. The higher the search volume, the more likely you are to reach a larger audience if you’re ranking high for that term.
  3. Keyword Difficulty. The difficulty of a keyword is usually on a scale of 0-100, or 0-1.0. Simply put, it’s how difficult it would be to rank on the first page for your target keyword. For local SEO, most keywords will be between 0-20. Anything above 20 is going to be quite tricky to rank for unless your domain has a ton of authority. Most keyword research tools will give you an estimate of “easy” “medium” and “hard” difficulty. For beginners, and non-SEOs, it’s a good idea to follow up on your keyword research tools, but remember they aren’t 100% accurate. Many websites that look like they shouldn’t belong on the first-page end up on the first page by building up site authority.
  4. Cost-per-click (CPC). CPC is the estimated cost that a company will pay to have their ad clicked on when displayed for a specific term. When you’re doing your keyword research you can assume that if a keyword has a CPC of $2.00/click, that keyword is profitable. As a local business, you should be going after keywords with a CPC between $1-10.

On-Page Terminology

  1. Backlink. A backlink is a link from another site pointing to your site. Simple! The problem is you need to consider where your links are coming from. If your links are coming from spammy forums from China to your dental page, Google is going to spot that and penalize you for that. When looking at backlinks you want to check the site’s domain authority/rating, and what kind of content that site is known for. A backlink from the BBB, Yahoo Local, and Manta is great for local businesses. The more backlinks you have, the more authority your site will have. This is because search engines favor sites that have a lot of external signals.
  2. Internal Linking. So another way to build site authority is by building content, and link that content together. You’ll notice that in this blog there are links to other pages from JCSURGE. This is called internal or interlinking. It helps distribute page authority and really helps with the User Experience. In your service pages and blogs, anytime you reference another service or blog you want to create an internal link to that page so that you can increase overall site authority.

Have Any SEO or Marketing Related Questions?

Now that you know the basics of SEO terminology, you’re ready to begin increasing your site’s ranking. You can either do it yourself or have the SEO experts at JCSURGE do it for you.

JCSURGE LLC
401 E 74th St. New York, NY 10021
info@jcsurge.com
(917)-747-4234

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