SEO Jargon Buster (Additions) Part 2

Deepen Your SEO Knowledge

Homepage or Home Page

The index page of a website which is the initial page seen when visiting the domain name of a  website without any additional paths or query strings.

HTTPS

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, the secure protocol for transferring data from one point to  another over the internet. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP and means if it is in use that hackers  are unable to intercept communications between your browser and the website you are using.

Impressions

The number of times an advertisement is displayed either to a real human visitor or to bots and  other software accessing the site. Impressions are non-unique meaning one person refreshing a  page 20 times can cause 20 advert impressions.

Keyword or Keyphrase

A targeted word or phrase which is deemed of ‘high value’ or high importance to a website. Users of  search engines use keywords to indicate which type of website they are looking for, by targeting  these keywords by using them in your content you may receive a higher position for them on a  search engines index.

Keyword Research

The action of researching which terms are used by your target audience when looking for your  product or service on a search engine. Keyword Research can take the form of manual face-to-face  research in such settings as focus groups as well as online using tools and data provided by search  engines like Google and Bing.

Keyword Stuffing

The action of cramming keywords into your website content with the sole intention to deceive  search engines and improve your ranking for these words. Seen as a black hat form of SEO and has  the ability to get your website removed from a search engines index.

Landing Page

A page designed for a single purpose such as getting a visitor to click on a link, download a document  or fill out a form. Landing pages are often used to provide highly targeted information to consumers  clicking on PPC (Pay Per Click) links within a search engine.

Link Building

The process of generating links to your website or your own content from third-party websites.  Links play a large part in the ranking of your website with search engines, so generating high-quality  inbound links can help boost your position over time.

Load Speed

The time taken for your page to fully load and be visible to a user. Page loading speed is a ranking  indicator with many search engines, and slow loading pages can be penalised by search engines.

NoFollow

NoFollow is a protocol implemented by search engines which allow a webmaster to indicate which  links on a page should be following by a search engine robot. Links that are marked with the  NoFollow tag do not receive ‘Link Juice’ – a boost in search ranking.

NoIndex

Much like the NoFollow tag, the NoIndex protocol allows a webmaster to indicate which links should  be indexed (linked to) by a search engine and which should be hidden from its results. Pages with  little value to users or pages which contain duplicate content are often marked with NoIndex tags.

Responsive

A responsive site is a website which reacts to the size of a users screen or browser window making it  compatible with a whole host of devices from smartphones to tablets and desktop computers.  Responsive websites also rank better with search engines and help to increase conversions due to  their better usability.

SPAM

The term used by many to indicate unwanted or unsolicited marketing materials including, but not  limited to email and telephone communications. Websites, in general, can also be referred to as  spammy, often meaning they include black hat SEO techniques, misleading links and low-quality  content.