Search Engine Optimisation is a phrase which many who work in the business industry find quite intimidating. But in fact, although there might be a lot of complicated jargon and terms in this field of marketing, the concept of SEO is pretty straightforward.
The premise of search engine optimisation is that you can increase your rank on a search engine by optimising your website. In other words, when someone searches for something on google, you will be more likely to show up on the first page of search results. It is a method of marketing which can put you in front of thousands more people and you can gain a huge hike in interest for your business.
If you have trouble understanding search engine optimisation and the terms which come with it, this list of terms made easy should give you the perfect insight into the mysterious world of SEO.
Link Profile
There are many different links contained within your website. A link profile will catalogue all of these links so that you can see what is link to and from your website. Some of the different types of links you will see are:
Follow links: these will send ranking equity
Nofollow links: these do not send ranking equity
Anchor text: this refers to words within your website which contain a hyperlink
Back links: these are links from other websites back to you
All of these links together form a web in which your website sits. It is an outline of the connections you have across the wider web. Ideally you will want your link profile to be a balance between internal and external links.
rel= “canonical”
Canonical is a word which many who start out with SEO struggle to understand. However, it is used when you have multiple pages on your website which are pretty much identical. The issue with having multiple pages which are almost identical on your website is that it confuses Google and it won’t know which of the pages to rank. By describing one of these pages as canonical, you are telling google that this is the page which should be ranked.
If you have ever watched TV or film and heard the term ‘canon’: it means that what happens is true in the story and not a fan made side plot. So in other words it tells you that this part of the plot is true. The same applies to your website, you are telling google that this page is ‘true’.
To do this you need to add rel=’canonical’ to the header of your NON CANONICAL pages. This will tell google to refer to the true page.
rel=”author”
Rel=”author” is a type of link which is essential for you to use if you have a Google Plus account. It tells google to relate the content on your site to your G+ profile. This can increase your ranking and also add that element of personality to your website. This is a great way to make you seem more human and will often attract more readers to your site.
301 Redirects
This is the term you will use if you ever change your website to a new domain and need to redirect users. Adding a 301 to your old website will mean that when visitors search for your website they will automatically be redirected to the new one and notified that your website has changed. If you don’t add this into your website’s code, any user who visits the site will insteade get a 404 error. This means they will not know you have updated your site and they won’t know where to look for you. This can damage the number of viewers you gain on your site.
Search Algorithm
The word algorithm reminds many of us of mathematics and because of this many people simply don’t want to know what it really means. The idea of a search algorithm is that a search engine will calculate a range of different factors on your website, and use the final result to place you on the search results. This will be measuring things like broken links, slow loading time, keywords, canonical pages and 404 errors.
To ensure that your site runs smoothly and you can rank as high as possible on the search engine, you need to undertake an SEO audit to identify any issues and be able to solve them. Once you have done this you will be able to rank higher on a search engine when the keyword is searched.
