SEO (search engine optimization) is an on-going process that requires constant analysis and reporting. For those of you hoping to get a better understanding of the technical jargon that comes with SEO, we have provided some helpful keywords and definitions. These are what we deemed to be the Top 10 need-to-know SEO terms:
Search Engines
These are software systems that allow you to search a term or phrase and receive a list of websites with information related to that phrase. Popular search engines include Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Keyword or Phrase
This is a word that best encompasses what you are searching for. It is used by a search engine in its search for relevant websites.
Organic
This refers to the natural or unpaid results on a search engine results page that appear because of their relevance.
PPC (Pay per Click)
This is the idea of paying to show up in non-organic search results, such as advertisements.
CTR (Click through Rate)
A ratio that shows how many of the people, who saw your ad, ended up clicking on it.
Traffic
This is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site.
Visits
When a visitor comes to your site it is counted as one visit. If they come back the next day, they are then counted as a second visit.
Bounce Rate
This is the number of times someone entered your site and left from the same page without clicking around.
Landing Page
A page on your website, which visitors may land on after clicking a link.
Referring Site
The website that a visitor comes from to get to your site. This is usually a search engine but may also be social media, blogs, or other websites that linked to yours.
If you are going to manage your company’s SEO campaign, you must be familiar with these terms. In addition, there are quite a few more terms to know. If you don’t want to worry yourself with all of the technical jargon, third party SEO teams can analyze and report on the data for you (such as Informatics, Inc.).
We hope these keywords helped to explain the basics of SEO! Also, look out for the next video in our “What’s in Your Online Marketing Toolkit?” series on the “Elements of SEO”.
