Stephen Hockman

What Is An SEO-Friendly URL? An SEO-friendly URL is a URL that is optimized for search engines by including relevant keywords for the web page. SEO-friendly URLs are usually short in length because they don’t have special characters or long ID numbers. SEO-friendly URLs are beneficial because they meet the needs of both users and … Read more

What Is An SEO Content Brief? An SEO content brief is a document that compiles all the information a writer needs to produce a piece of content that is structured and optimized for the target SEO keywords for a particular topic. Also known as an SEO brief. SEO content briefs help streamline content production by … Read more

What Is Semantic SEO? Semantic SEO is the practice of optimizing content for a topic instead of a keyword. This is done by including semantically related phrases, entities, facts, and information to establish relational relevance to a topic. The goal of semantic SEO is to provide a comprehensive answer about a topic to readers rather … Read more

What Is A Semantic Keyword? A semantic keyword is a keyword that is conceptually related to the primary keyword. The purpose of semantic keywords is to deliver additional information about the page’s topic to a web crawler and help the search engine to determine an appropriate ranking for that page. Google introduced the use of … Read more

What Is A Seed Keyword? A seed keyword is a word or phrase that is used as the starting point in the keyword research process to discover more related keywords. Seed keywords usually consist of one or two words to help generate the broadest results. Seed keywords are important for keyword research because they help … Read more

What Is A Secondary Keyword? A secondary keyword is a keyword that is closely related to the primary keyword being targeted on a web page. Secondary keywords typically consist of keyword variations and synonyms that match the same user search intent. Secondary keywords add context to a web page and increase the topical relevance for … Read more

What Is Search Volume? Search volume is the number of searches a specific word or phrase receives in a search engine within a given timeframe. This metric is only an estimate of the average search volume for a keyword and can be subject to seasonal, regional, and thematic fluctuations. Search volume is reported in keyword … Read more

What Is Search Intent? Search intent is a term used to describe the purpose of an online search. Most contemporary SEO strategies revolve around understanding the motivation behind a query and matching the searcher’s expectations. Also known as user search intent. Internet users commonly start a search for four reasons. They’re either looking for information … Read more

What Is A Search Engine Spider? A search engine spider is an Internet bot that systematically browses the World Wide Web in order to create an index of data. Also known as a web crawler or search engine crawler. Crawlers are called spiders because they crawl the Internet in the same way spiders crawl on … Read more

What Is Search Engine Ranking? Search engine ranking is the position a web page ranks in the search engine results pages for a target keyword. Search engine rankings are determined by algorithm systems that use mathematical calculations to determine the popularity, importance, and relevance web pages have to search queries. The goal for every website … Read more

What Is A Search Engine Crawler? A search engine crawler is an Internet bot that systematically browses the World Wide Web in order to create an index of data. Also known as a web crawler or search engine spider. Search engine crawlers analyze a web page’s content so they can store that information in the … Read more

What Is A Search Algorithm? A search algorithm is a procedure a search engine uses to retrieve information stored within the index. It includes a collection of other algorithms that have their own purpose and task to deliver relevant results to the user. Amazon, Bing, Google, and other major search engines utilize different search algorithms, … Read more

What Is A Schema Markup? Schema Markup is a form of microdata that helps search engines better understand the information on a website. It’s often confused with the SEO terminology for Structured Data. Schema Markup only presents the data in a way search engines can understand, while the term Structured Data refers to the website’s … Read more

What Is Robots.txt? Robots.txt is a file on a web server that tells search engine crawlers which URLs the crawler can access on the site. The robots.txt file contains a set of instructions that allow or prohibit bots from spending crawl budgets on specific documents. Adding a robot.txt to a website will tell a bot … Read more

What Is A Rich Snippet? A rich snippet is enhanced information that is displayed for a search results listing, such as ratings, reviews, event details, and recipe information. Rich snippet information comes from structured data in the web page’s source code with the help of markups. Also known as a rich result. Depending on their … Read more

What Is Referral Traffic? Referral traffic is traffic that comes to a website from sources outside of the search engines. For example, visitors that arrive on a web page through a link on another domain get reported in Google Analytics as referral traffic. Referral traffic is important to track for websites because it is a … Read more

What Is A Reciprocal Link? A reciprocal link is a link that is created when two parties agree to link to each other’s websites. Reciprocal links are used by the site owners to increase the authority of their domains by strengthening the backlink profiles. Also known as a link exchange. Reciprocal linking without proper attribution … Read more

What Is A Ranking Algorithm? A ranking algorithm is a set of mathematical systems of calculations that ranks web pages and documents in search engine results pages according to specific criteria. Bing, Google, and other search engines use different ranking algorithms to serve results to users, but most platforms keep the details about their ranking … Read more

What Is A Query? A query is a word or phrase that is entered into search engines to find relevant information. Also known as a search query. Search engines generate results based on queries users submit to the system. A search query can be about any person, place, organization, or thing, and have any number … Read more

What Is A Primary Keyword? A primary keyword is the main SEO term you are targeting on a web page for search engine optimization. Also known as the main keyword. Primary keywords can be any length, such as one to two words (short-tail keywords), three to four words (medium-tail keywords), or five or more words … Read more

What Is Pogo-Sticking? Pogo-sticking is the act of a searcher going back and forth between web pages that are listed in the SERPs. It indicates that the searcher is not finding what they are looking for on a web page and immediately bounces off the site by hitting the back button and then clicking on … Read more

What Is A Phrase Match Keyword? A phrase match keyword is a keyword match type offered by pay-per-click advertising platforms that allow ads to be displayed for searches that include the meaning of the target keyword. Phrase match keywords allow your ad to reach more searches than exact match keywords but fewer searches than broad … Read more

What Are Pageviews? Pageviews are metric in Google Analytics that reports the total number of views a web page receives in a given time period. It is different from unique pageviews, which aggregate views that are generated by separate users during the same session. The pageview metric registers a single pageview whenever a page is … Read more

What Is PageRank Algorithm? PageRank algorithm is an algorithm used by Google to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term “web page” and co-founder Larry Page. The PageRank algorithm analyzes all incoming links to a web page to determine the popularity and authority. It then regulates the … Read more

What Is PageRank? PageRank is a metric used by Google to assign a value of importance to a web page that is based on the quantity and quality of other web pages linking to it. The PageRank metric is a very important ranking factor for websites because it measures the popularity of the web page … Read more

What Is Page Speed? Page speed refers to the amount of time it takes for content on a web page to load in the browser. The page speed metric is a verified Google ranking factor for mobile and desktop searches. Page speed value depends on different factors, such as hosting, display advertisements, on-page animations, the … Read more

What Is An Orphan Page? An orphan page is a web page that is not linked to from any other page on the website. Orphan pages are completely isolated, and the only way users can get to the page is by using a direct link. Problems with the site’s architecture, a CMS creating new URLs … Read more

What Is Noreferrer? Noreferrer is an HTML attribute (rel=” noreferrer”) that can be added to external links to prevent the external sites from seeing the originating domain as referral traffic in analytics reports. Traffic sent to the external site will be reported as direct traffic in analytics. The attribute informs the browser to refrain from … Read more