There are plenty of great resources out there to help people understand the purposes, techniques and benefits of SEO. As with many areas in which a technological subject is talked about by those in the know, many SEO articles have a special language that can be difficult for the average reader to penetrate.

While there are slight deviations from form when it comes to terms bandied about the internet, common terms, on the whole, are the same wherever they are used. The technological world loves to speak in code, and search engine optimisation experts are no different. Lest any information pass you by, here is a list of terms for some of the more commonly used SEO methods.

Inbound links/backlinks – Links which lead to your website from another website. These can contribute to the perception of your page’s popularity and boost your search engine ranking. Bad inbound links, however, from disreputable sites, can do your ranking damage.

Deep linking – Linking within a website to pages that are several steps removed from the home page. It is thought that deep linking has a positive effect on search engine ranking.

Keyword research – Essential to SEO, keywords are words or phrases that are commonly typed into search engines when a search is being performed on a certain topic. Search engine optimisation aims to feature enough mentions of these keywords to make the web page the most specific for that search. Keyword research is the process of selecting a list of terms to use for your site which are the most relevant in your field. For help with keyword selection and optimising your site, contact us at SEO Consult.

Keyword density – The percentage of times a keyword is mentioned on a web page. SEO aims to achieve the best keyword density for your subject, while avoiding keyword stuffing. When keywords are over-present on a page to the detriment of the content, search engines class this as keyword stuffing and penalise the offending site.

Reciprocal links/link exchanges – Linking between websites by agreement. This is one of the methods to build links in a search engine friendly way.

Paid inclusion – The practice of a search engine or directory charging a fee for a site to have its pages listed. The main advantage of paid inclusion services is that they ensure a website is crawled swiftly, usually within two days or less, and regularly.

URL submission – One sure way to attract the attention of the search engines is to contact them yourself. A good SEO consultant will submit your URLs directly to the search engines to notify them of changes. Contacting the search engines directly is also one of the necessary steps when your site has been dropped off the index.

These are just a few of the more basic techniques commonly used by SEO experts. The choice of search engine optimisation tactics will depend on your industry and your business, and no one tactic is a sure-fire certainty for every site. Talk to your SEO consultant about the best approach for your business.

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