SEO – Web Optimisation

The trouble with building SEO knowledge quickly and easily though is that SEO has more than its fair share of specialist terms, definitions and acronyms – commonly known as ‘geek speak’. The language of SEO is littered with dedicated industry terminology. This language that can, to the outsider, muddy the waters, confuse and complicate. It’s not just SEO either – technology is rife with weird and not so wonderful new terms.

Try these from the BBC…

Plugthug – someone who’d kill for access to recharging facilities

Or:

Memail: the e-mail you send to yourself to remind you to do things.

In part 2 of our SEO 101 we’ll continue to take a quick look at some more commonly used SEO expressions and hopefully help decode them for you.

Keyword Density

Some SEO ‘experts’ may recommend a percentage of keywords that should be included in your copy. Don’t pay too much attention. Whereas once keyword density may have unlocked the gates to Internet nirvana, these days you should focus on high quality copy content aimed at human readers and not just the search bots.

Keyword Stuffing

This relates to the old keyword density advice. Some SEOs still labour under the misapprehension that you should try to cram as many of your keywords into your copy as possible. Not only will you look amateur and non-native to any human readers unfortunate enough to be exposed to your keyword crammed copy, but Google will take a dim view of your efforts and your site will founder in P-Nowhere on the listings.

Back-link

Your SEO and Internet presence is largely defined by how successful you are in attracting backlinks or simply… links. The number and more importantly the quality of your backlinks directly impacts the PageRank and search placement of any site. Regularly updated sites with plenty of useful and appealing information tend to attract most links. Links, like people, are drawn to quality. The name of the back link game is to inspire as much interest in your site as possible. They way to do this? Quality content. Hence the explosion in quality content provision and ‘content marketing’ over the last couple of years.

PageRank

PageRank is the relative importance that Google assigns to pages online. Google sees links as votes of confidence. Trust passed on from one page to another. This trust is rewarded with stronger placements. The higher the number of (weighted) links, the higher the likelihood that the page is relevant.

We’ve got plenty more SEO de-mystifying to come so keep checking. In the meantime if you are unsure about something and could do with a little clarity, talk with an SEO expert.