The world of SEO is constantly changing and full of terminology, which is like learning a foreign language and can easily complicate you. If you are new to SEO or just need help updating your knowledge of this strategy, you can read a list of key terms to fully understand the basic terminology of search engines.
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and is the process by which the visibility of a website in organic search engine results is optimized. The higher your website pages are in search engines, the more traffic you will get from them.
This process may include, among other things, the optimization of SEO technical parameters, your texts, loading speed and the creation of new backlinks, i.e. links from other sites to yours.
Therefore, if you want your website to get more traffic, SEO should be a key part of your overall marketing strategy.
So, let’s analyze the following terms:
- Search engine – Search engine algorithm
It is an automatic system that locates web pages across the internet, allowing keyword searches across very large databases.
The search engine algorithm is a mathematical formula used by search engines to rank a website in the results.
- PageRank (PR)
It is a measure of the popularity of a website with possible values from 0 (it has a lack of inbound links) to 10 (it holds one of the top positions on the entire web).
However, PR additionally refers to how important these websites are, based on inbound links from other sites. Every link to a page on your site from another site adds to the PageRank of your website.
For your information, we mention that the algorithm is named after Google’s co-founder, Larry Page.
- Off-page SEO
It is the technique that consists of all the actions taken outside your website, with the aim of creating a good PageRank for your website.
- On-page SEO
It is the technique that consists of all the elements of SEO that you can control (e.g. technical part and content).
- Keyword (keyword)
It is a word (or phrase) with which a user performs a search.
This is used in the text of websites, helping search engines to identify pages that are relevant so that when a user enters a query, they appear in the organic search engine results.
- SERP (Search Engine Result Page)
It is a search engine results page in response to a specific query. It consists of several elements, such as the search bar and the organic results.
- Organic search
These are the unpaid listings that appear on a search engine results page (SERP). These natural results are based on factors such as: relevance to the query the user is searching for and inbound links.
- Paid Search
It is a digital marketing tactic used through search engines that allows advertisers to display ads for their products and services.
- Meta Description
It is the descriptive text (HTML code snippet) that appears in the header of a web page and relates to the content it deals with. They are used by search engines to also display preview snippets for a particular page in the SERPs, mentioned above.
- URL (Uniform Resource Locator)
Indicates the unique address that each page has on the web.
- Subdomain
It is a subdomain URL in addition to the main URL of a website, which organizes the content of websites into separate sections for a specific function or content. For example, a website may house its blog or store in unique subdomains.
The most common subdomain is www, which stands for World Wide Web.
- Time on Page
Indicates the time a visitor spends on a page before moving on to the next page. It is a very important indicator, as it provides you with information about how people interact with your website.
- Visibility
It is an indicator of how visible a website is in organic search results for the keywords we are interested in. This indicator also makes it possible to analyze problems as well as identify optimization opportunities.