QDF
1: Query deserves freshness, where a search engine might decide to show newer webpages in search results (rather than older pages) if a particular search...
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In a world ruled by algorithms, SEJ brings timely, relevant information for SEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs to optimize and grow their businesses — and careers.
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Meta Tags
1: Information that appears in the HTML source code of a webpage to describe its contents to search engines. 2: The most commonly used types...
Metric
1: A way to measure activity and performance in order to assess the success (or lack thereof) of an SEO initiative.
Natural Link
See: Editorial Link
Negative SEO
1: A rare but malicious practice where webspam techniques are used to harm the search rankings of another website, usually a competitor.
Niche
1: A specific market or area of interest consisting of a small group of highly-passionate people.
Noarchive Tag
1: A meta tag that tells search engines not to store a cached copy of your page.
Nofollow Attribute
1: A meta tag that tells search engines not to follow one specific outbound link when a website doesn’t want to pass authority to another...
Noindex Tag
1: A meta tag that tells search engines not to index a specific webpage in its index.
Nosnippet Tag
1: A meta tag that tells search engines not to show a description with your listing.
Off-Page SEO
1: Demand generation and brand awareness activities that take place outside of a website. 2: This includes link building, promotion tactics like social media marketing,...
On-Page SEO
1: These activities all take place within a website. 2: On-page SEO includes relevant, high-quality content, optimizing HTML code (e.g., title tags, meta tags), information...
Organic Search
1: The natural, or unpaid, listings that appear on a SERP. 2: Organic search results, which are analyzed and ranked by algorithms, are designed to...
Orphan Page
1: Any webpage that is not linked to by any other pages on that website.
Outbound Link
1: A link that directs visitors to a page on a different website than the one they are currently on.
Landing Page
1: Any webpage that a visitor can navigate to. 2: A standalone webpage that is designed to capture leads or generate conversions.
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI)
1: An information retrieval method designed to help search engines identify the correct context of a word. LSI doesn’t play a useful role in SEO...
Lead
1: A person who may or may not be interested in your product(s) and/or service(s).
Link
1: A connection between two websites built using HTML code, enabling users to navigate to websites, social networks, and apps. 2: Links play a critical...
Link Bait
1: Intentionally provocative content that is meant to grab people’s attention and attract links from other websites.
Link Equity
1: The value of inbound links, in terms of relevance, authority, and trust.
Link Farm
1: When a group of websites link to each other, usually using automated programs, in the hopes of artificially increasing search rankings. 2: A spam...
Link Juice
1: A term you should never use in public or online. Did you mean: Authority or PageRank
Link Profile
Every type of link that points to a particular website. The quality of a website’s link profile can vary widely, depending on how they were...
Link Velocity
How quickly (or slowly) a website accumulates links. A sudden increase in link velocity could potentially be a sign of spamming, or could be due...
Log File
1: A file that records user’s information, such as IP addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of...
Log File Analysis
The process of exploring the data contained in a log file to identify trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, gather demographic...
Long-Tail Keyword
Highly specific multiple-word terms that often demonstrate higher purchase intent. Less popular keywords that have low search volume that are usually easier to rank for.
Machine Learning
A subset of Artificial Intelligence in which a system uses data to learn and adjust a complex process without human intervention.
Manual Action
1: Google’s term for a penalty.