FAQs

Additional pieces of information that can be added to Google Adwords ads, including reviews, address, pricing, callouts, app downloads, site links, and click-to-call. Ad extensions help advertisers create richer, more informative ads that take up more on- page real estate, which generally leads to higher Click-Through Rates.

An advertising account on Facebook that allows you to run ads on Facebook Ad Network.

A Google-owned program that is used by advertisers to place ads on Google search results pages, on Youtube, and on Google ad network sites. Adwords is the primary platform for PPC advertising.

An attribute added to HTML code for images used to provide vision-impaired website visitors with information about the contents of a picture. Best practice dictates that all images on a website should have alt text and that the text should be descriptive of the image.

A Google platform that allows webmasters to collect statistics and data about website visitors. Google Analytics (sometimes abbreviated as GA) allows webmasters to see where web traffic comes from and how visitors behave once on the site.

The clickable words in a hyperlink. In SEO, anchor text is a ranking signal to Google, as it provides context about the destination site. For example, if many websites link to one particular website using the anchor text “free stock photos”, Google uses that information to understand the destination site is likely a resource with free stock photos. Theoretically, that could help the stock photos website rank in Google for keywords related to stock photography.

A process or set of rules that computers follow to perform a task. In digital marketing, an algorithm usually refers to the sets of processes Google uses to order and rank websites in search results. The SEO industry gives various Google algorithms their own nicknames like Penguin (which analyzes the quality of links pointing to a website) and Panda (which assesses the quality of the content on a website). The main ranking algorithm is SEO is referred to as “The core algorithm”.

A change made to a Google algorithm. Updates typically affect the rankings of websites. Google makes hundreds of adjustments to their algorithms throughout the

Using computer programs to perform tasks that are repetitive, that would normally be completed by a human. Email programs can use automation to send email messages to people based on certain triggers (new customers, did or did not open the last email, etc). Marketers also use automation to nurture leads by sending relevant content to previous visitors of a website, in an attempt to get the visitor back to convert into a sale.

A metric in Google Adwords that helps advertisers understand where, on average, their ads are showing in Google search results pages. There are usually 4 available ad slots at the top of a search result page (where 1 is the first ad, 2 is the second ad, etc), so for the best results, advertisers typically want an average position between 1-4. Average position 5+ indicates that your ads are showing at the bottom of the search results page.

This is when one website hyperlinks to another website using HTML href code. Backlinks are a major factor used by Google in determining organic rankings. The basic idea being that if “website A” has incoming backlinks from other strong/relevant websites (websites B, C, and D), the links are votes of trust for website A. Website A will then gain authority from B, C, and D through those backlinks, which generally results in better rankings and a source of potential referral traffic.

Short for “weblog”, a blog is a web page or a website that is regularly updated with new written content. Blogs are an important section of a website in digital marketing, as they offer fresh new content on a regular basis which can help attract new visitors, engage existing visitors, and give authority signals to Google.

An automated program that visits websites, sometimes also referred to as a “crawler” or “spider”. Search Engines like Google uses bots to crawl websites so that they can be ranked and added to search indexes. Spambots visit websites for nefarious reasons, often showing in Google Analytics as spammy traffic.

The percentage of visitors to a website that leaves immediately without clicking or interacting with any portion of the page. For example, if 100 people visit a website, and 50 of them immediately leave, the website has a bounce rate of 50%. Websites aim to have as low of a bounce rate as possible, and averages tend to be anywhere between 40-60%.

A Facebook platform that allows marketers to manage multiple pages and ad accounts in one central location.

A series of advertising messages that share a theme, and market a product or service. In the context of digital marketing, campaigns can be run through search and display network advertising platforms (i.e. Google, Bing), social media, email, or other online platforms. Campaigns can also refer to a comprehensive digital marketing strategy or project.

A metric showing how often people click on an ad or search result after they see it. It can be calculated by dividing the number of clicks, by the number of impressions (how many times the ad or search result was seen). This ratio can be useful when determining whether the messaging matches what the consumer is searching for and if it resonates with them. A higher click-through-rate means more engagement, which generally leads to more quality conversions.

The languages used to build a website. The most commonly used languages in web design are HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP.

A section on a website with fillable fields that visitors use to contact the website owner. Most commonly used to collect names, phone numbers, and email addresses of potential customers. Contact forms are fast becoming a preferred method for reaching out to a business.

Any form of online media that can be read, watched or provides an interactive experience. Content commonly refers to written materials, but also includes images and videos.

The completion of a predefined goal. This is often used to track the number of site visitors that have been “converted” into paying customers, though sales are not always chosen as the metric. Other common goals are newsletter subscriptions and content downloads from the website.

The rate at which visitors to a website complete the predefined goal. It is calculated by dividing the number of goal achievements by the total number of visitors. For example, if 100 people visit a website and 10 of them complete the conversion goal (like filling out a contact form) then the conversion rate is 10%.

A metric in paid advertising platforms that measures how much money is spent in order to acquire a new lead or customer. It can be calculated by dividing the total spent by the number of conversions, for a given period of time. For example, if in a month a PPC account spends $1000 dollars and gets 10 conversions (leads), then the cost per acquisition is $100.

A delicious baked…err… A small item of data sent from a website, that is stored on the user’s device. Cookies help the user’s device remember useful data like items in a shopping cart, which pages have already been visited or form field information.

The amount of money spent for a click on an ad in a Pay-Per-Click campaign. In the Adwords platform, each keyword will have an estimated click cost, but the prices change in real-time as advertisers bid against each other for each keyword. Average CPCs can range from less than $1 dollar for longtail or low-competition keywords, to upwards of $100 per click for competitive terms, primarily in legal, insurance, and water damage restoration industries.

Stands for “Cost Per Thousand” (M stands for mille, meaning one thousand in French, Italian, and Latin). This is the amount an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions of their ad. For example, if a publisher charges $10 CPM, and your ad shows 2000 times, you will pay $20 for the campaign ($10 x 1000 impressions) x 2. Measuring ad success with CPM is most common in awareness campaigns, where impressions are more important than conversions or clicks.

An automated program that scans websites to determine their content and purpose. The name reflects how the software “crawls” through the code, which is why they are sometimes also referred to as “spiders”. Crawlers are used by Google to find new content and to evaluate the quality of webpages for their index. Webmasters and SEOs can request additional scans through Google Search Console.

A branch of digital marketing that aims to improve the conversion rate of web pages, thus making the pages more profitable. Conversion rate optimization combines psychology with marketing and web design in order to influence the behavior of web page visitors. CRO uses a type of testing called “A/B split testing” to determine which version of a page (version A or version B) is more successful.

Stands for “Cascading Style Sheets”. CSS is a document of code that tells the website’s HTML how it should appear on the screen. CSS is a time-saving the document for web designers, as they can style batched-sections of HTML code, rather than styling individual lines of code one-at-a-time.

An element on a web page used to guide visitors towards a specific action or conversion. A CTA can be a clickable button, an image, or standard text. They typically use imperative verb phrases like: “call today” or “buy now”.

The ratio of how many times an advertisement was clicked on, versus how many times it was shown. It is calculated by dividing the ad’s clicks by the ad’s impressions. For example, if an ad is shown to 100 people, and 10 of them click the ad, then it has a click- through rate of 10% (10 clicks / 100 impressions = 10%)

A web page that contains and displays aggregate data about the performance of a website or digital marketing campaign. A dashboard pulls information from various data sources and displays the info in an easy-to-read format.

A catchall term for online work that includes specialized marketing practices like SEO, PPC, CRO, web design, blogging, content, and any other form of advertising on an internet-connected device with a screen. Traditionally, television was not considered digital marketing, however, the shift from cable television to internet streaming means that digital advertising can now be served to online TV viewers.

A website that categorically lists websites with similar themes. Some directories like chambers of commerce (a list of businesses in one geographic area) can be helpful for SEO, however widespread abuse of spam directories led Google to discount links from directories whose sole purpose was selling links.

Ads on a display network include many different formats such as images, flash, video, and audio. Also commonly known as banner ads, these are the advertisements that are seen around the web on news sites, blogs, and social media.

A network of websites and apps that show display ads on their web pages. Google’s display network spans over 2 million websites that reach over 90% of people on the internet. Businesses can target consumers on the display network based on keywords/topics, placement on specific webpages, and remarketing.

This refers to instances where portions of the text are found in at least two different places on the web. When the same content is found on multiple websites, it can cause ranking issues for one or all of the websites, as Google does not want to show multiple websites in search results that have the exact same information. Generally, the site that indexed the content first is considered to be the original content and would not be penalized. Duplicate content can result from plagiarism, automated content scrapers, or lazy web design. Duplicate content can also be a problem within one website — if multiple versions of a page exist, Google may not understand which version to show in search results, and the pages are competing against each other, this is also known as keyword cannibalization. Issues like this can occur when new versions of pages are added, without deleting or forwarding the old version, or through poor URL structures.

Stands for Electronic Commerce, it is a classification for businesses that conduct business online. The most common form of e-commerce business is an online retailer that sells products direct to the consumer.

A marketing system that uses software to automatically send emails based on predefined triggers. Multiple automated emails in a sequence are used to create user funnels and segment them, based on behavior. For example, an automation funnel could be set to send “Email A” when a person provides their email address, then either “Email 2a” or “Email 2b” would be sent based on whether or not the person clicked on the first email.

A collection of email addresses that can be used to send targeted email marketing campaigns. Lists are typically segmented by user classification, so a list of existing customers can receive one type of communication, while potential customers can receive more promotional communication.

The use of email with the goal of acquiring sales, customers, or any other type of conversion.

A summarized piece of information that Google pulls from a website and placed directly into search results, in order to show quick answers to common and simple queries. Featured snippets appear in a block at the top of search results with a link to the source. Featured Snippets cannot be created by webmasters; Google programmatically pulls the most relevant information from an authoritative site. Most featured snippets are shown for question queries like “what is _____” or “who invented _____”. Some featured snippets even feature tools like calculator or conversion apps.

Facebook allows advertisers to reach their users through their ad networks. A range of ad types can be created to reach various goals set by companies. Facebook advertising is unique in that audiences are set up based on vast demographic information that Facebook has about its users, as compared to Google advertising that uses keywords.

A public web page on Facebook created to represent a company. Using a business page gives users access to the Facebook Ads Manager. It also allows businesses to engage with users (i.e. page likes, message responses, post content).

Ads Manager is a tool for creating Facebook ads, managing when and where they’ll run, and tracking how well campaigns are performing on Facebook, Instagram or their Audience Network.

The platform on which businesses can input information to appear in the search results, map packs, location searches, and more. Name, address, phone number, website link, hours of operation, reviews and more can all be managed through this tool. GMB is crucial to local SEO campaigns and is directly related to location-based searches.

An agency that is certified by Google for meeting certain requirements. To be a Google Partner, an agency must have an Adwords certified employee affiliated to the company profile, meet spend requirements, and Meet the performance requirements by delivering overall ad revenue and growth, and maintaining and growing the customer base.

In early 2018, Google announced that it was beginning to roll out its mobile-first updates. Mobile-first refers to the Google initiative that encourages developers to build sites with a mobile view focus. Mobile-first requires responsive websites that work on any smart device and are optimized for fast loading speeds. Sites that are not mobile- friendly will lose rankings or not be listed in mobile search results.

In July 2018, Google followed up on their announcement to use page speed as a ranking factor for mobile devices. This update is only supposed to affect the slowest mobile sites.

Reviews left using Google My Business platform. Reviews are on a 1-5 star scale and include a brief message written by the reviewer. Reviews can show up in the knowledge graph in Google searches and have been shown to positively correlate with SEO rankings.
(See also: Google My Business)

Search Console is a free tool that Google offers to webmasters. Within the tool are several areas that include data on how a site is performing in search. Search Console differs from Analytics does not measure traffic, it measures a site’s visibility on search pages, and indexability by Google crawler bots. Metrics Search Console measures are Click-Through Rate, Number of Indexed Pages, Number of Dead Links (AKA 404 pages), and more. (See also: Google Analytics, Click-through rate, Index, Crawler/Spider)

GTM is a tool that is designed to manage JavaScript and HTML tags that are used for tracking and analytics on websites. It allows webmasters and SEOs to add snippets of code and tracking pixels, without having to modify the onsite script.

A phrase beginning with the symbol “#” used in social media as a way for tagging content for users to find. Adding hashtags to a post allows users to find that post when searching for that topic. This can be used for finding users looking for broad topics on social media, as well as niche, detailed topics.

It can refer to either the top portion of a webpage that typically contains the logo and menu, or the section of HTML in a website’s code that contains important information about the site.

On a website, certain code is placed in the universal header section so that it can be accessible across all pages of the website. Typically in the header code, you’ll find things like Schema Markup, Analytics Code, Adwords Code, and other tools used for tracking data across a website. These are placed in the header code so that they can be rendered and start tracking information as the site loads.

Header tags are used in HTML for categorizing text headings on a web page. They are, in essence, the titles and major topics of a web page and help indicate to readers and search engines what the page is about. Header tags use a cascading format where a page should generally have only one H1 (main title) but beneath can be multiple H2s (subtitles) and every H2 can have H3s beneath (sub-sub titles) and so on.
H1 is typically used only once on a webpage and is used to display the most important title.
H2 is used to display the major subtopics of a certain webpage
H3 is used to display the major subtopics underneath an H2 tag.

A heatmap is a graphical representation of how users interact with your site. Heat Mapping software is used to track where users click on a page, how they scroll, and what they hover over. Heatmaps are used to collect user behavior data to assist in designing and optimizing a website.

Stands for Hypertext Markup Language. HTML is a set of codes that are used to tell a web browser how to display a webpage. Each individual code is called an element, or a tag. HTML has a starting and ending element for most markups.

A hyperlink is an HTML code that creates a link from one webpage to another web page, characterized often by a highlighted word or image that takes you to the destined location when you click on that highlighted item.

A term used in Pay per click advertising that represents how many times an ad was shown.

Used in Pay per click advertising, this metric refers to the percentage of times viewers have seen an advertiser’s ad, in relation to the total possible amounts that ad could have been seen. If an ad campaign’s impression share is 70%, then the ads showed 7 out of 10 possible times.

Inbound marketing refers to the activities and strategies used for attracting potential users or customers to a website. “Inbound” is a more recent euphemism for what has traditionally been called “SEO”. Inbound marketing is crucial to having a good web presence, as it’s used as a way to attract prospective customers by educating and building trust about your services, product and/or brand. (See also: organic)

When used as a noun, index refers to all of the web pages that Google has crawled and stored to be shown to Google searchers (eg: “The Google index has billions of websites”). When used as a verb, it refers to the act of Google copying a web page into their system (eg: “Google indexed my website today so it will start appearing in their search results”).

Java is a programming language that is used to create applications that can run on a digital device. Java can be used on its own, while Javascript can only be used in web browsers.

Javascript is a scripting language. Javascript is used on web browsers to provide interactive elements to web pages that are difficult or impossible to achieve with just HTML or CSS.

A word or phrase indicative of the major theme in a piece of content. When you search for something in a search engine, you type in a keyword and the search engine gives you results based on that keyword. One major goal of SEO is to have your website show in searches for as many relevant keywords as possible.

A group of two or more words that are used to find information in a search engine. Sometimes, when searching for something, one single keyword does not provide the information you seek, where a keyword phrase allows you to string multiple words together to find better information.

Keyword density refers to the percentage of how often a keyword appears on a webpage in relation to the total words on the webpage.

When a web page uses a keyword too often or superfluously, with the intent of manipulating search engines. This type of behavior is frowned upon and can lead to either algorithmic devaluation in search or a manual penalty from Google.

Like the Knowledge Graph, this box appears at the top of the search results on the search results page. This tool is designed to display when users search for a business on Google; it can help users get quick information about a business like phone numbers, reviews, and location. Much of the information is pulled from sources like Google My Business and Google Maps.

The destination web page a user lands on after clicking on a link (either in an ad or anywhere else). Some landing pages are designed with the purpose of lead generation, while others are used to direct the flow of traffic throughout a site.

A potential customer in the sales funnels who has communicated with a business with the intent to purchase through a call, email, or online form fill.

The cumulative grouping of all links pointing to a particular website. A link profile can be used to determine a website’s power, trust, subject matter, and content. Link profiles are important in determining where a website ranks in Google search results. If a website has a high number of links from websites that are not trusted, adult in nature, spammy or against guidelines, the link profile will have a negative effect on rankings. If a website has a high number of links from websites that are strong providers of content or reputable sources of information it will have a positive effect on rankings.

A keyword phrase that is longer in length and hyper-specifically matches a user search query. A long-tail keyword gets fewer searches per month but has a higher search intent and typically less competition by companies looking to serve up content to that search query. For example, a regular keyword might be “Austin web designer” but a long-tail keyword would be “affordable Austin web designer that makes WordPress sites”.

Medium is the general category of traffic to a website tracked in google analytics. Some examples of the common medium are:
organic
CPC
email
referral

HTML snippets added to a webpage’s code that add contextual information for web crawlers and search engines. Search engines use metadata to help decide what information from a webpage to display in their results. Example meta tags include the date the page was published, the page title, author, and image descriptions.

One of the meta tags that give a description of the page in 160 characters. The meta description is an important aspect of a webpage because it is what appears in Google searches and other search engine results.

A specific meta tag that displays the specific keywords addresses on a page. After meta keyword markup was abused on some websites, listed keywords no longer apply to how a page is categorized by google and other search engines.

An acronym for local citations. Consistency in name, address, and phone number citations is an important piece of a local SEO Campaign. To build local SEO authority, a business’s name, address, and phone number should be listed across local citation websites like Yelp, Google Business, Angie’s List, Yellowpages, Better Business Bureau, Foursquare, and more.

A source of the traffic to a website that comes through clicking on a non-paid search engine result. Organic traffic is a primary measurement of an SEO campaign and will generally grow as a site ranks better for relevant keywords in search engines.

An online advertising model in which advertisers are charged for their ad once it is clicked. The PPC model is commonly associated with search engines and social media advertising like Google Adwords and Facebook Ads.

The placement in a search engine’s (Google, Bing, etc) search results, where a site ranks for a specific query or keyword.
Featured Snippet: When content within a web page is pulled into google search results to instantly give the information a user is looking for.
First Page: when a site ranks on the first page of google search results.
Map Pack: the first through third result on a google SERP result page that serves up local businesses for a query.

An infraction issued by Google, to a webmaster, for breaking Google’s guidelines. The penalty is issued by Google through Search Console and can result in a sites’ removal from search engine results. The issues that caused the penalty will need to be fixed before the penalty is lifted, and once the penalty is lifted it may still take some time to return to the previous rank in Google search results. Penalty may also refer to an “algorithmic penalty” which is actually a misnomer; a website may be doing poorly in search results because of an issue that Google’s algorithm has found on the site. This, however, is not really a “penalty” but a ranking problem. For there to be a true penalty, there would have to be a manual action from Google, as denoted by the message sent to the webmaster in Search Console.

Google Adwords’ rating of the relevance and quality of keywords used in PPC campaigns. These scores are largely determined by the relevance of ad copy, expected click-through rate, as well as the landing page quality and relevance. Quality score is a component in determining ad auctions, so having a high score can lead to higher ad rankings at lower costs.

The term is given for what a user types and searches using search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Examples of queries include “Austin electrician,” “how do I know if I have a raccoon in my attic,” “distance to the nearest coffee shop,” and many more.

A general term for where a website appears in search engine results. A site’s “ranking” may increase or decrease over time for different search terms, or queries. The ranking is specific to each keyword, so a website may have keywords that rank on the first page, and others that don’t.

A way by which a web browser takes a user from one page to another without the user clicking or making any input. There are various types of redirects (the most common of which is the 301 redirect), which serve different purposes. Typically, this helps improve user experience across a website by helping the user find what they are looking for or avoiding dead ends like 404 (Not Found) errors.

A medium denoted in Google Analytics that represents a website visit that came from another website (as opposed to coming from a Google search, for example). When users click on a link to another, external webpage, they are said to have been “referred” there.

Also known as retargeting, a type of paid ad that allows advertisers to show ads to customers who have already visited their site. Once a user visits a site, a small piece of data called a “cookie” will be stored in the user’s browser. When the user then visits other sites, this cookie can allow remarketing ads to be shown. Remarketing allows advertisers to “follow” users around in attempts to get the user back to the original site.

A philosophy of creating a website that allows all of the content to show correctly regardless of screen size or device. Your website will “respond” to the size of the screen each user has, shrinking and reorganizing on smaller screens, and expanding to fill appropriately on large ones. Responsive websites that are deemed mobile-friendly are prioritized to show up in Google searches on mobile devices.

ROAS stands for Return On Ad Spend. A PPC marketing metric that demonstrates the profit made as compared to the amount of money spent on the ads. Similar to ROI.

A text file stored on a website’s server that includes basic rules for indexing robots that “crawl” the site. This file allows you to specifically allow (or disallow) certain files and folders from being viewed by crawler bots, which can keep your indexed pages limited to only the pages you wish.

Stands for Return On Investment. In order for a business to receive a positive ROI, they must earn more money using marketing channels than they are spending on the marketing itself.

Stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is a way for users to keep track of updates to multiple websites (news sites, blogs, and more) in one place, as opposed to having to manually check in on every single site individually. An RSS Feed is a place where all updates are tracked together, in an easily viewable format.

Code that is added to the HTML of a website to give search engines more relevant information about a business, person, place, reviews, product, or thing. Proper schema markup can help your site display rich snippets in the search results page, making your search result stand out and improve clickthrough rates.

A group of websites in which ads can appear. Google’s Search Network, for example, is a group of Google & non-Google websites that partner with Google to show text ads.

The process of improving a website’s performance and positioning in organic search engine results through a variety of methodologies including content production or improvement, technical and code improvement, and link acquisition.

Stands for Search Engine Results Page, the page featuring a list of search results that are returned to the searcher after they submit a keyword search.

A metric in Google Analytics that measures one user interacting with a website during a given period of time, which Google defaults to 30 minutes. A session is not dependent on how many pages are viewed, so if a person goes to a website and looks around at different pages for 20 minutes, it would count as 1 session.

An ad extension in Google Adwords that appears below the main ad copy which links to a specific page on the website (i.e. Contact Us, About Us, etc.). Ads can have from 2-6 site links.

An XML file or page on a website that lists all of the pages and posts for search engines to see. This document helps search engines quickly understand all of the content that they should be aware of on a particular website.

A term in Google Analytics that helps webmasters classify where traffic is coming from (ie. the “source” of the web traffic). Source can be a search engine (for example, Google) or a domain (website-example.com)

An automated program that visits websites, sometimes also referred to as a “crawler” or a “bot”. A spam spider visits websites for nefarious reasons, often showing in Google Analytics as junk traffic. However, Google uses a bot to crawl websites so that they can be ranked and added to Google search.

Shortened term for Cascading Style Sheet (CSS). CSS a document of code that tells the website’s HTML how it should appear on the screen. CSS is a time-saving document for web designers as they can style batched-sections of HTML code, rather than styling individual lines of code one-at-a-time.

In WordPress, a tag is an identifying marker used to classify different posts based on keywords and topics. Similar to WordPress categories, but the tags are more granular and specific, whereas categories are broad and thematic.

An HTML element that is used to describe the specific topic of a web page. Title tags are displayed in the tabbed top bar of a web browser. In SEO, it is best practice to have descriptive title tags featuring your main keywords, rather than something basic like “home”.

A metric used in web analytics to show how many different, unique people view a website over a period of time. Unique visitors are tracked by their IP addresses. If a visitor visits the same website multiple times, they will only be counted once in the unique visitors metric.

stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is the address of a web page. The URL refers to what specific web page a web browser is viewing.

Stands for User Interface. The user interface is the area with which a user interacts with something through a digital device. Good UI should be fluid and easy for most people to understand.

stands for User Experience. UX refers to how a user interacts with a website or app (where they click, which pages they visit). UX can be shaped by testing differences in page layouts, CTAs, colors, content, etc to improve conversion rates. Having a good UX is crucial to having a good business, as it drives repeating users and engagement.

An old term in Google Analytics which was recently changed to “sessions”.

A metric in Google Analytics that quantifies a user of a website over a particular period of time. Visitors are often broken down between “new visitors” who are browsing for the first time in the allotted time period, or “returning visitors” who have already browsed at least once in the given time frame.

The second major phase of development of the World Wide Web, marked by a shift from static web pages to dynamic content, as well as social media and user-generated content.

One or a group of documents, content and/or media that are accessible on the World Wide Web. Websites are typically identified with a domain name and published on a web server.

An online seminar used to train, inform, or sell to an audience of viewers who signed up to view the presentation.

A cursory layout drawing of a webpage that acts as the first step in the design process.

Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing the visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine. SEO refers to the improvement of unpaid results and excludes direct traffic/visitors and the purchase of paid placement.

The practice of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.

Off-page SEO refers to actions taken outside of your own website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). These are measures that help create as many high-quality backlinks (incoming links) as possible.