Do you ever find yourself nodding in conversations about digital marketing, secretly wondering what those SEO terms mean?

You’re not alone. Understanding SEO terms isn’t just for tech experts anymore.

It’s crucial for marketers like you and me to grasp these terms to craft effective strategies.

Knowing them can drive traffic and increase visibility, ultimately impacting our bottom line.

Below are the 12 most common SEO terms every marketer should know.

Understanding Basic SEO Terms

Diving into the fascinating SEO world can feel like a treasure hunt. Like a map, understanding SEO terms can lead to online success.

Let’s break down these basics and see why they’re essential for any marketer.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the art and science of making your content more attractive to search engines like Google.

Imagine SEO as the spotlight on your website amidst a sea of others.

It helps search engines understand your content and rank it higher in search results.

Why does this matter? Because users rarely scroll past the first page of search results.

It’s like window shopping; if you’re not visible in that first row, your chances of being found decrease.

SEO involves using specific strategies and SEO terms to improve how search engines index your content.

It’s about speaking the same language as search algorithms, proving your worth, and ultimately drawing more eyes to your site.

The Importance of Understanding SEO Terms for Digital Marketers

For digital marketers, SEO is the backbone of online presence and visibility. Imagine hosting a grand party, but nobody knows about it.

That’s what happens when your online presence isn’t optimized.

SEO ensures that your target audience notices and attends your digital “party”.

Here’s why it’s crucial:

• Visibility: Well-optimized SEO terms help your content pop up in relevant searches, making you more visible to potential customers.
• Credibility: High search rankings build trust and credibility. Consumers tend to trust search engine results, and appearing at the top suggests you’re a leader in your field.
• Traffic: More visibility means more visitors, which can lead to higher sales and engagement. SEO is like inviting more guests to your party—and who wouldn’t want that?

Think of SEO as your 24/7 marketing assistant, tirelessly working to improve your brand’s presence.

If you’re serious about digital marketing, you can’t afford to overlook SEO.

It’s the key to unlocking your online potential and ensuring your message reaches the right audience.

Do you feel Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has too much technical jargon? It is expected that you will think like that if you are a beginner in SEO.

But don’t let that stop you from making progress on your website.

Below are some of the most common terms for those just getting started with SEO.

SEO Term Backlinks

These links from one website lead to another location on the web.

They can be in the form of citations or references. Google sees backlinks as a vote of trust in a website.

High-quality backlinks significantly boost a website’s search engine result page (SERP) ranking.

However, low-quality or spammy backlinks can hurt rankings.

Dofollow and Nofollow

These terms describe a link type. Dofollow links tell search engines to crawl and count backlinks as a vote of quality.

This is why many webmasters strive to get do-follow backlinks from more authoritative websites. These backlinks often affect a website’s ranking.

Nofollow is the opposite of do-follow. NoFollow links tell search engines not to count a backlink.

They are mainly used for linking unrelated pages and do not affect ranking.

Internal Links

This is the process of inserting links to a different web page on the same website.

It is different from backlinks (which come from an external website).

An example of an internal link is when you are on page A and find a link to Page B of the same website.

For example, when I link to this dental SEO post on my own site, that is an internal link.

Anchor Text

Anchor texts are hyperlinked visible words and characters that link to another location on the Internet or another document.

They are usually blue and underlined but change to purple when clicking the link.

Due to internal links and backlinks, you will find anchor text on almost all web pages.

Anchor texts tell search engines what the link is about and influence clicks from humans; they give users a hint of what to expect after clicking on a link.

Know When to Use the SEO Term Disavow

Google Search Console tool can be used to disavow toxic links.

This means telling the search engine to ignore a backlink.

Disavowing becomes necessary when a website has too many spammy backlinks that can cause damage.

Therefore, the website must have been audited before the disavowing process can be considered.

CTR – Click-Through Rate

CTR is the ratio of users who click on your website on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) to the total number of people who saw the website (impression).

Calculate the percentage by dividing the total number of clicks by the impression multiplied by 100.

Free tools such as Google Search Console and Analytics can help you track your website CTR.

Organic Traffic

The SEO term Organic Traffic refers to unpaid traffic and can come through a search engine, direct visit, or social media.

It describes the number of people who visit your website organically (without running ads or paid campaigns).

Keywords

A keyword is a phrase you type into Google whenever you want to search for information.

Keywords can be longtail (more lengthy and specific) or short tail (general).

Web admins optimize their websites for particular keywords to rank high for them on search engines.

Meta Tags

The meta tags are meant for search engines to understand your website contents better.

These are snippets of text on SERPs that describe the actual page content.

Some common meta tags include; meta description, Title Tag, Header Tag, Alternative Text Tag, and Robots Meta Tag.

On-Page & Off-page SEO

On-Page SEO helps improve rankings and the user experience.

Practices include keyword placements, site speed improvements, navigation, meta tags, and internal links.

On the other hand, off-page SEO is an SEO practice outside the website.

The most common Off-Page SEO practices include link building, guest posting, and social media promotion.

Black Hat & White Hat: SEO Terms

White Hat SEO is the standard and safe way to do SEO as it strictly follows the rules.

On the other hand, black hat SEO is an aggressive form of SEO some people use to achieve a fast result. And it goes against search engine policies.

Some black hat SEO practices include; keyword stuffing, hiding text on a site, cloaking, content automation, and spam link building.

The type of SEO that falls in between Black Hat and White Hat is the Grey Hat SEO.

User Experience (UX)

This means designing a website so that users can interact better with your website.

Website design, navigation, site speed, and website content all contribute to a website user experience.

A poor website user experience will negatively affect the site’s overall performance by increasing bounce rate (the rate at which people enter and leave a site) and hurting search engine rankings.

Final Thoughts About SEO Terms

Understanding SEO terms is like holding a key to online visibility.

Without these, navigating the digital landscape can feel overwhelming and aimless.

Mastery of such terms empowers marketers to make precise and confident decisions, ultimately leading to better-targeted strategies and improved results.

Keep exploring and learning about SEO terms to stay ahead and adapt to ever-changing search algorithms.

The more you know, the more you can influence the online presence of any brand or business.

Originally published April 8, 2022. Republished August 19, 2024, to update content and add video.