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Demystifying SEO Terminology – A Beginners Reference

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Understanding Basic SEO

Every now and then we get so caught up that we can forget that there are many newbies to Internet Marketing and SEO that need a bit different of a perspective. Mike and I have been doing this for years, so unfortunately a lot of the lingo is just “assumed” to be understood – not a good idea. The other day we got some feedback from one of our readers and she pretty much told it straight up (thanks Patti).

What she said was that she was new to Internet Marketing and really just didn’t understand the entire linkbuilding concept and had not seen it explained at a beginners level. We tend to focus on more intermediate to advanced topics here, but I think it’s good that we step back every once in awhile and start from the ground up. This post intends to do just that and thoroughly explain a few key terms.

So we’re going to discuss onsite SEO and offsite SEO (linkbuilding) today and try to clearly define them for you. But before we dive in at that level, we really need to take it up a notch and discuss SEO in general. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is as much of an art form as it is a science. The reason for that is that there are no hard and fast rules in this game. Google controls the rankings and does so via a proprietary algorithm. That means it has a formula that it does not disclose to anyone and that formula is used to determine which site will rank higher than another for a given keyword. Despite the fact that it sometimes seems like Google is out to get you, this is all done programmatically – it’s not personal. Believe me at times it really feels personal, but the truth is it simply is a math formula.

The reason I say that SEO is part art, part science, is that the formula that Google uses to rank sites is not published anywhere. No one, outside of Google, knows what it is and besides that, they make several dozen small changes every year, if not more. Matt Cutts has said that they make hundreds of minor changes per year – that means the formula is ‘ever changing’ and evolving. So SEO is then the practice of aligning or optimizing your site to get you the best rankings possible. Now, because no one can, in certainty, tell you exactly what to do, there is some degree of educated guess work. That’s why working with an SEO specialist is so important because they have the experience of observing patterns and the effectiveness of certain strategies across many dozens or even hundreds of sites. Experience is truly the best way to learn SEO. You learn what works by doing and observing.

Does that mean that SEO is guesswork? Absolutely not. There are well established guidelines and then there are areas of “gray” in between. It is also very important to note that just because one person on one site has success with a particular strategy that does not necessarily mean it will work for you. It’s not that simple. You see there are lots of different niches out there and Google doesn’t treat them all the same. Some niches are known to attract spammers and so Google monitors them differently than other niches. Also there are many, many factors that affect how well your site will respond to a specific SEO strategy. For example, is your site brand new? Or has it been around for 10 years? Do you have three pages in the Google Index? Or perhaps thousands of pages of content already indexed? The factors go on and on and include such items as link count (we’ll talk about links in a bit, be patience), page rank (PR – we’ll discuss that in detail as well) and many other factors.

 

What Are Backlinks?

Before we get to Onsite and Offsite SEO and what they mean, we need to discuss links. Links (also known as one-way links, backlinks, or anchor text links) are vital to SEO so it’s very important that you understand them. I will show you what a link looks like technically in just a minute, but first I want you to understand it conceptually.

Okay, time for a flash back – we’re gonna time warp back to your high school years for a minute (sorry if it’s painful – LOL). Okay, we all remember the popularity contest – oh I mean prom queen and king. Well, they were probably determined by ‘voting’. The concept of a link is much the same – it’s a vote of popularity. If I create a link on my site to your site, well, in Google’s eyes I’m ‘voting’ for your site and endorsing it. If a lot of people link to your site well that means that your site must be popular and so Google takes notice of that and gives you better rankings. Now, with links, there is yet another dimension and that is the “context” of the link. What that means is what is this link about? Or what is this link related to? The way Google determines context is by the anchor text (the text that is highlighted that you click on).

So, let’s say that you have a keyword of “article submission” and you want to create a link for it. In the text it will usually be underlined (usually, though not always as site designers can alter this default behavior) and the cursor will change to a little hand when you hover over that link. The text that is underlined is called the “anchor” text and it is what Google uses to infer context. The thought goes like this. If someone is linking to this site using the words “article submission” then the site is likely about the topic “article submission” and that defines relevance. And while on the topic of relevance, we get so many people emailing saying they want relevant links to their site, related to their niche. In our experience and observations, that doesn’t make ANY difference. If you are trying to rank for cat toys and you use the anchor text of “cat toys” the word you’re linking with, well that just made your link relevant to cat toys. Not the fact that the website you are posting a link on is about cat toys. And that is the premise on how the popular networks such as BMR, Linkvana, BMR, Linxboss etc operate. All of the sites are of varied topics, and not relevant to one specific niche, but the anchor text you use is what defines your links relevance to your site.

 

The Structure of a Backlink

Now, here is what a link looks like in HTML. HTML is the code or markup language that is used for creating websites. We’re not going to attempt to define and explain HTML in this post but HTML uses < > (less than and greater than symbols) to separate instructions on how to display the page from the actual content on that page. NOTE: If you really want to get a look at HTML, right click on a page in your browser and click on “View Source” – trust me, you’ll see more HTML that you ever wanted! So, for a link, the <a> tag is used along with some parameters to define that link. Here is what a sample link would look like in HTML (Note: it wouldn’t be displayed in red color, I have just added that here to make the samples standout more):

This is a sample link for article submission to show you how links look like in text.

and to see what it would look like when rendered by the web browser it would be this like:

This is a sample link for <a href=”http://articlesubmissionreview.com”>article submission</a> to show you how links look like in text.

 

What Is PageRank?

Before we get into onsite and offsite SEO, let’s first briefly discuss Page Rank (PR). Google needed a way of mathematically assessing the importance or authority of a page (this is not for just the root domain, but for every page on the Internet). Remember, all of their rankings are programmatically calculated so they needed this numerical representation of “value” or “importance” of a page. The formula is very complex and understanding it is not really that important. Today Page Rank does not carry the same weight as it once did, but it is still relevant. The page rank goes from PR n/a, to PR0 thru PR10. The only PR10 that I know of is Google.com itself (yes, they’re a little full of themselves). PR n/a just means that it is not even calculated for that page or is just currently not available. The higher the number, the more Rank that Google has assigned to your page. It doesn’t directly mean that a PR7 site will rank better than a PR0 site, but it does have some impact on the overall trust and authority of your site in Google’s eyes.

One big misconception is that PageRank only applies to the domain. Many newbies make that mistake. The name says is all – PAGE RANK. It is calculated at the individual page level. So your domain might be a PR3 but have many pages that are PR0. If, however, you’re doing good internal linkbuilding for your inner pages, you might have a dozen PR2 inner pages on your PR3 site and a handful of PR3 inner pages.

 

How To Check PageRank

For checking your PR you can use a site such as http://www.prchecker.info or a tool such as the SEOBook toolbar or Googles pagerank toolbar. Personally I would recommend the SEOBook toolbar as it gives other pertinent SEO information as well. Keep in mind there is such a thing as “fake” page rank as well. Scammers have tricks to make the PR appear to be something it is not, so you’ve got to be careful.

 

How To Detect False Pagerank

To detect false page rank, here’s what you do. Go to Google.com and enter “info:yourdomain.com”. You will get one of three responses:

• Nothing is found or returned – In this case, you still don’t know. But this is pretty rare, usually you’ll get one of the two answers below.

 

• Confirmation of Valid PR – Here you will see the exact same domain as what you entered returned back in the search results. This means the PageRank is valid.

 

• Confirmation of Fake PR – If you get a different domain back in the search results than what you entered that is the tell tale sign that the PR is fake. You have to be very careful with this, because scammers will sometimes have two very similar looking domains with just one letter different and when you check them, you will at first glance think they are the same, when indeed they are not. We get emails daily from people offering link exchanges from their high Pagerank site for a link from one of our sites. When we check, they are almost always fake Pagerank site scammers trying to steal a link from you.

 

What is PageRank Good For?

The reality is that lots of people have their opinions on this. Many will say it has no value, others will say it means everything. We tend to be pretty pragmatic about it and fall somewhere in the middle. First, we do not believe that it is irrelevant. If it were not being used in some way by Google I highly doubt that they would continue to update and support it. However, we don’t believe it is the holy grail either. We’ve seen thousands of sites with great PageRank but no rankings, no traffic and making no money. So, it’s just another variable in the formula, but we do feel that it is in some way indicative of what degree Google trusts and respects a given site. We also do believe that PR is still relevant for linkbuilding. Higher PR links and links from higher PR sites do still carry more weight in SEO – that is something that simply cannot be disputed from the results we see daily in our SEO campaigns and those of our clients. In general you shouldn’t worry too much about PR of your own site and just focus on solid SEO fundamentals. In time you will likely be rewarded with PR increases.

 

Onsite Versus Offsite SEO

Basically you can break SEO down into two categories – onsite SEO and offsite SEO. Remember that SEO is merely the practice of optimizing your sites ability to get ideal rankings in the search engines. Onsite SEO, is the application of this optimization applied to the content and structure of your own site. Offsite SEO, much more powerful these days, is commonly referred to as linkbuilding because it largely revolves around the process of getting links to your site. We focus most of our attention (and we recommend you do the same) on offsite SEO because that is what matters most. Now, that being said, you should have a basic understanding of onsite SEO and enforce some of the basics as well, but getting overly carried away with onsite optimization just doesn’t have the ROI that offsite SEO does.

 

Onsite SEO – Just the Basics

Onsite SEO is a catchall phrase that encompasses a lot of topics. I’m not going to make any attempt to cover advanced topics like page rank shaping, internal linking strategies or link silos – were just going to focus on the basics here. The fundamental items that you need to concern yourself with are:

• Design Each Page for 3 Keywords – Each page should really only be targeting 1 to 3 keywords. If you want to target more than that, you should create another page. There should be one primary keyword and maybe 2 more additional keywords that you’re targeting.

 

• URL Optimization – Using your primary keyword in the URL is recommended.

 

• Title Optimization – Using your primary keyword in the Title is recommended.

 

• Meta Tags & Description – Using your top 3 to 5 keywords in the description and meta tags is also recommended.

 

• Optimize Heading Tags – It’s a good idea to fit your 3 keywords for the page into the heading tags like <h1>, <h2> and <h3> tags.

 

• Optimize The Content – You should include your keywords in your content as well, but do NOT get carried away here. We recommend a 1% keyword density. What that means is that if you have 400 words of content, use your keyword 4 times – not more. So just use your keyword one time for each 100 words of content on your page – that’s a good general rule to follow.

 

• Create Some Internal Links – You want to link some of your keywords as well in that keyword rich content. Again, don’t go overboard here. For a 500 word article 3 or 4 links is fine. But if you do a 1000 worder don’t do 10 – that’s just too many links – I would not go above maybe 6 or so. It’s really a gut decision, you just don’t want the page to look spammy because of too many links, keep it natural.

 

What this does is creates a structure of the content on your site that is ideal for SEO rankings with Google and thus will allow you to achieve rankings easier. A few years ago, you could do a lot with just good Onsite SEO – but that is really not the case today. Today, competition has ramped up dramatically and most of your ranking gains will come through Offsite SEO tactics and that is why we don’t recommend that you get carried away with Onsite SEO. Do the basics, yes, but don’t spend tons of time or money on it. So let’s move on to Offsite SEO, the essence of this post…

 

Offsite SEO – Linkbuilding 101

Offsite SEO is generally thought of as simply linkbuilding. And in essence that is true, however, there are lots of different types of strategies for offsite linkbuilding, some more indirect than others. For example, holding contests, creating free giveaway eBooks, creating free downloadable toolbars and widgets, doing guest blog posts on related niche sites – all are examples of Offsite SEO but are probably not thought of by many people as “linkbuilding”. The reality is, however, that each of these activities is marketing work that you are doing with the ultimate goal of getting more links and traffic back to your site. For now, however, we’re just going to focus on core linkbuilding techniques in this Offsite SEO basic overview.

In the United States, we live in a world where everyone is trying to ‘outdo the Jones’. Meaning, competition is pretty fierce and this extends to SEO as well. Like I said earlier, many years ago offsite SEO (linkbuilding) was not as important as it is today. You could spend some time really optimizing your Onsite SEO and get great rankings. Today that simply is not the case and if you want to compete online you need a strong Offsite SEO strategy. The simple fact is that if you are not aggressively engaging in linkbuilding you are not only not making forward progress, but you’re going backwards because you can be assured that your competitors are.

Remember, SEO is not a one-time endeavor. This is marketing that you will actively need to continue indefinitely. The real goal when you’re first getting started with SEO is getting it to pay for itself. If you’re spending $400 a month on SEO and it is generating $400 a month worth of new sales that is terrific. Now just continue and expand it. We have clients that started out with us spending just $247 a month on SEO and after 18 months of continued growth and expansion are now happily spending $3,000 or more per month. Why? Because their traffic and sales have continued to increase and justify the increased marketing which just leads to further growth.

Now, in the beginning, SEO is just like any other form of advertising – it’s an investment. At first you will not have ROI (return on investment) on your SEO expenditures. It is very likely that it will take 3 to 6 months of consistent SEO to create that ROI. Some people hear that and run for the hills – that’s okay. Business people realize that any business will take time and investment in order to take off. Unfortunately many new online entrepreneurs seem to think that simply because their business is an online business that it somehow defies the laws of business. But the reality is the more you treat your online venture as a business the faster it will take off. And any offline business owner will tell you that marketing is key. Without it, you don’t have the foot traffic and without the foot traffic you don’t have the sales. Online business is no different – you need traffic – whether organic traffic from SEO, or paid traffic from pay-per-click or other paid traffic mechanisms.

 

Common Offsite SEO Link Types

This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but just a quick listing of some of the most common types of links that you could and should be getting for your site in your SEO campaign. Again, we are not going to go in-depth explaining each of these link types. We review numerous products in each of these categories here on the site so please check out the Best Page for more details on the products in these categories.

• Article Marketing – This is the process of sending out articles about your site or product to other sites for publication. They want content, you want links, so it’s a win-win solution. Each of the articles you send out has one or more links pointing to your site.
  
  Recommendations: Article Demon and Article Marketing Robot.

 

• Public Link Networks – These networks usually consist of people that submit their own sites to the network to get free content. They can be very large networks of sites – sometimes up to 10,000 or even 20,000 sites.
  
  Recommendations: Article Ranks and Unique Article Wizard.

 

• Press Releases – Press releases work great for getting your name and site out there and syndicated as well as getting some authority links.
  
  Recommendation: SEO Press Release by ArticlesOnTap.com

 

• Profile LInks – Profile links are setup on sites that have forums where you can participate as a user. You register as a user to their forum and are generally given an area where you can create a profile to talk about yourself, etc… In that profile, they usually allow you to place a couple of links.
  
  Recommendations: Sick Submitter or Backlinks Philippines.

 

• Social Bookmarking Links – Getting social bookmarking links just helps your overall SEO effort by showing that your site is “talked about” in the social media sites.
  
  Recommendations: The Link Juicer, Bookmarking Demon, Social Maximizer, or Synnd.

 

• Directory Submissions – Not nearly as powerful as they once were, but still useful. Directory submissions are just links into online directory sites that have a listing of services where people drop a brief description of their site. These won’t do a lot for you, but they are good to have to round out the natural appearance of your SEO campaign.
  
  Recommendation: Directory Maximizer

 

• High PR Blog Links – These come from private networks and usually have PR2 thru PR6 sites on them that you can get links from via providing content for publication. As these sites have higher PR and authority, the links carry more weight and will elevate your rankings quicker.
  
  Recommendations: Build My Rank or Linkbuilding Services by ArticlesOnTap.com.

 

• Forum Links – There are many forums online where people talk about different topics. When you register for a forum, many of them allow you to put a link in your signature. This way every time you make a post on the forum you get a link back to your site. Again, these are not super powerful, but they are good to have.

 

• Blog Comment Links – Blog comment links, similar to Forum Links, are not super powerful links, but they are good to have as they appear natural. A blog comment link is obtained when you leave a comment on a site that is open for comments and allows you to put a link in your comment or signature.
  
  Recommendation: Blog Comment Demon

 

Keeping It Natural

Okay, so we’ve talked a lot about the mechanics of SEO, but we haven’t really touched much on the strategy. First of all, if you haven’t already, grab a copy of our acclaimed eBook entitled “Article Marketing Lies – Cutting Through the BS”. It is about sixty pages of very in depth coverage on SEO and what does and does not work and has been downloaded over 4,000 times so you can’t go wrong.

If you read above in the link types, you’ll see that many of them I flat out tell you are not that effective. So why use them? Remember that SEO is all about manipulation. You’re trying to positively manipulate the search engines to give you better rankings. Also remember that I said that SEO is part “art” and part “science”. Well, here’s where it all ties together. You want the linkbuilding profile of your site to appear natural. It’s not natural, for example, to get 1000 links one day and none for the next 3 months. It’s not natural to have 90% of the links on your site be “blog comment links”. It’s not natural to have thousands of links in the social sites yet no traffic to your site. I could go on and on and on, but you get the idea. Keeping it looking natural is important and that is why we recommend a blend of a lot of different link types and anchor text variation. Remember that Google rankings are determined programmatically. We’ve seen firsthand that when your site has a very unnatural link profile Google can drop you back 100 spots in your rankings overnight. Yet another reason for “keeping it natural” looking as much as possible.

 

Summary

Okay, this has turned into a mammoth post at this point, so I’m gonna wrap it up here. Hopefully at this point you will have a more informed approach to your SEO and linkbuilding efforts and I hope that we have clarified some of the concepts that have perhaps eluded you in the past. If there is a certain area that you would like to see covered more, please leave a comment below and ask and we’ll queue up a follow up post or add on to this one.

 

Tags: beginners guide to seo, checking pagerank, how to detect false pagerank, learning seo, what is pagerank