A Quick SEO Glossary For You, New Mexico

Post Author: Adam Vincent

Every now and then when we’re talking to our clients we can see their eyes glaze over. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of SEO jargon and we get excited and start speaking faster when we get into the details of local SEO – 301 redirects, on-page optimization, anchor text, bounce rate…it all sounds like another language if you’re just a small business owner focused on what you do well. It’s why you are looking to hire someone to do the heavy SEO lifting.

But, if you are interested in learning a little more about what some of these terms mean, here’s a quick SEO glossary for your reading pleasure (and thank you to Hubspot for the valuable resource):

301 Redirect – A way to make one web page redirect the visitor to another page if/when you change the web address of a page to ensure they don’t end up on a dead page. For example, if TractionWorksSEO.com/blog changes to TractionWorksSEO.com/newsandevents, you would need a 301 redirect. This keeps Google from penalizing your site for broken links.

3-Pak – Not a new way to buy packaged beer. The 3 pack is the three businesses that show up in the map pack on Google search results. Google 3 Pack

Anchor Text – The actual text of a link to a web page. In this case New York Deli Santa Fe is the anchor text and it generally appears in blue (though we’re using a different color.) Anchor text helps search engines understand what the destination page is about; it describes what you will see if you click through.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – The part of your code that defines how different elements of your site look (examples: headers, links).

The Fold – While this used to refer to newspapers that came folded, the “fold” is the point on your website where the page gets cut off by the bottom of a user’s monitor or browser window. Anything below the fold isn’t seen right away. Content “above the fold” is seen as more important by the search engines

Headings – Text on your website, inside a heading tag like H1 or H2 (and so on), that is often presented in a larger and stronger font than other text on the page. Heading tags show the search engines that your content is more relevant.

Inbound Link – Any link from one site to your site, AKA “Backlink.” A link from another site will improve your SEO, especially if that site has a high PageRank. As an example, MediterraniaHome.com, one of our clients, also advertises on SantaFe.com. This ad links back to the Mediterrania website, which is a back link. (But backlinks don’t have to be paid.) Ask TractionWorks SEO about our inbound linking strategy.

backlinking example

Internal Link – A link from one page to another on the same website, such as from your “About Us” page to your product page. An important part of the overall SEO strategy.

Keyword – a word (or even a phrase) that someone enters into the search engine, aka “Googling.” Good SEOs optimize every page and meta description to attract visitors who have searched specific keywords.

Link Building – Getting more inbound links to your website for improved search engine rankings. One of the hardest things to do in SEO.

Metadata – Data that tells search engines what your website is about. Much of the metadata on a website is never seen by the end user, but is very important for the search engines.

Organic Search – Non-advertising search results that are found by the user entering in specific terms.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) – Online advertising method that advertisers pay for per click. The most common example is Google Adwords.

SERP (Search Engine Ranking Page) – The page you are sent to after you run a search. Typically there are 10 organic results per page.

URL – The web address of a page on your site (example: https://tractionworksseo.com/lets-chat/).