Continuing our Redcliffe Marketing Labs SEO Glossary, today we look at D to J and explain all the key terms you are likely to come across.
Dead Link
One to avoid! These are links that go nowhere, either because of an incorrect URL or because that page has been taken down. Removing dead links is good practice because it shows that your site is up to date to your users as well as the search engines. Also called a broken link.
Deep Link
This is one to acquaint yourself with. Deep links are links to pages on your site other than your home page; you should be encouraging this because it shows depth to your site and will appear as more natural to the search engines if you have links to pages besides the home page.
Directory
This is a catalog of websites arranged in categories, such as DMOZ and Yahoo!Directory. It’s a good idea to submit your site to these directories as these back-links do have SEO value. Directories used to be the way that most people found sites on the Internet before the search function was introduced.
Duplicate Content
Another one to avoid, because duplicate or “recycled” content is often filtered out by search engines and may get your website penalised by Google. Keeping content fresh, original, current and updated will usually get you rewarded.
External Links
This is a link pointing to another domain outside of your own. Linking to other sites can be a good way of letting search engines know what your site is about; some webmasters prefer not to give free links away, especially to sites in the same field as theirs. If you use external links just make sure that you are linking to quality sites or it may actually damage your ranking.
Favicon
Not really SEO, but it’s good for your branding. It is a little logo next to the URL in your web browser address window.
We have to include Google in any SEO glossary since it drives most business’s SEO strategy and dominates global search results. It is interesting to note that the second largest search engine is YouTube – also owned by Google!
Google’s search engine spider responsible for “crawling” your website is called “GoogleBot.”
Google Dance
This was the name given to monthly shake ups in the Google algorithms that shaped search results. Since Google has moved to a more constant updating system (which they call “Everflux”), big “dances” are far rarer.
Google Keyword Tool
This is a great free tool you can use to estimate competition for a keyword, recommend related keywords and tell you what keywords may be relevant to your site.
Headings
Headings are important on your web pages – not only for the readability of your pages but also for SEO. Heading elements run from H1 to H6 with the lower numbered headings being most important. One H1 heading per page is advisable, but you may have multiple H2 or other heading elements.
Hidden Text
Some websites use hidden text written especially for search engine spiders, which humans cannot read: not advisable. Cheating the search engines will get you penalised in the end.
Home Page
Most people reading will know this one! It’s the main page of your website; it positions your business and acts as a navigational “hub” for the rest of your pages, but other pages on your site may actually rank higher with search engines for other keywords.
HTML
HyperText Markup Language – the language used to create pages on the Web.
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol – the protocol used to communicate between servers and web browsers.
Inbound Link (Back-Link)
A link that points to one of the pages on your website from another website. You want these – and plenty of them – as they provide credibility and authority for your website. It also doesn’t hurt of course that these bring human visitors into your site to, which is the whole point of all of this.
Internal Link
This is a link from one page of your website to another internal page. They improve navigation of your site and are useful for both human visitors and SEO; they show relationships between different pages and help “tie” a site together.
IP Address
Internet Protocol Address. This is a unique number that shows the “address” of every computer connected to the internet.
Javascript
Java is a scripting language that can be embedded into HTML documents to add dynamic features. Not indexed by search engines but your visitors may find it expands the functionality of your site.
Have we missed any important SEO definitions in the D to J section? Let us know in the comments below and we can add them!