SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is effectively the process of improving a websites visibility on search engines like Google – an essential part of a business’s success in the digital world. Its focus is getting your website higher in the rankings for certain keywords.
Keywords
Keywords are at the centre of SEO. They're the words and phrases people type into search engines when they're looking for something. By identifying the right keywords, you can tailor your content to match what your target audience is searching for. Keyword research consists of taking a topic and discovering all the terms that people are searching for relating to that topic. This list is then analysed to determine focus keywords to include, depending on search volume, keyword difficultly and intent.
What are the terms you need to know?
In order to enhance your SEO skills, it's crucial to understand the unique language that comes along with it.
SERP
Search Engine Results Page is the page displayed by the search engine.
Backlink
A backlink is a link from another website to yours – crucial for SEO as search engines use this as a way to understand if you have a good reputation on the internet. The more high-quality backlinks you earn, the better your chances of ranking highly.
Meta Title and Meta Description
When you see search results on Google, the meta title is the clickable headline, and the meta description is a brief summary of the page's content. These elements should be optimised and contain keywords to improve click through rates.
Crawl
When a search engine “crawls” your website it follows the code to understand the user journey and what pages are relevant to each other. An easy-to-follow site structure helps google show your webpages to the correct audiences.
Indexing
A sitemap should be generated when you create a website, this is effectively a map of all the pages on the website and how they link together. Indexing is the process in which Google collects and organises this information, making it easier for your website to show up in search results.
Alt text
This is an accessibility feature to describe the image to the user but it also helps Google identify what is in the image as it can’t (currently) identify the image without reading the code. It is a great place to add keywords.
These terms are key to navigating SEO and optimising your website for better visibility and success in the digital world. If you would like help understanding your SEO strategy and boost your online rankings then get in touch with our team.
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