When those of us in search marketing talk and write about link
building, we tend to use terms that we think are very commonly
understood. We bandy around phrases like "CTR on page 1 of the SERPs is
better than on page 2" and "god help me if my content gets deindexed."
However, for the new guys and gals out there (and that includes
people who are both learning about building links and clients who seek
link services) this link building guide will help define and explain
some of the more common link building terms, from A to Z.
A - Anchor Text, AC Rank, Actual PageRank
Anchor text
The content inside of the anchor element ( < a>anchor text</a>) and
is designed to give you an idea of what the content you are pointing to
is about. The anchor element contains an href attribute where the
target of the link is designated. The anchor element is, many times,
called an anchor tag.
AC Rank
Majestic SEO's measure of a page's importance, on a scale of 0 to 10.
It can be considered an alternative to Google's PageRank and is used in
various link tool programs. The
AC Rank stands for A Citation Rank.
The Actual PageRank
Google's value for your page, and it's not what you see on a tool or
your toolbar, as that isn't updated frequently enough to reflect the
true value.
B - Backlink Profile, Blog Network, Bing, Blekko, Bait
Backlink profile
A term used to describe the links coming into a site from sources other than the site itself.
Blog networks
Exactly what they sound like: networked blogs. Their importance in
link building has recently been compromised as several high-profile and
large networks (e.g.,
BuildMyRank) have been devalued.
Bing
The most popular alternative to Google's search engine at the current time, owned by Microsoft.
Blekko
Also a great alternative to Google and prides itself on being a
spam-free search engine. It has some great features that can help you
when link building.
Bait [link bait]
Content that is specifically designed in order to naturally attract links.
C - Conversion, CTR, Content
Conversion
A term used to describe an event where a user performs a certain
action that is valuable to you as a site owner. Some webmasters view a
contact email as a conversion, for example, while others simply view an
actual sale as one.
CTR [click through rate]
A term associated with PPC but becoming more popular in the general
SEO vernacular as some speculate that it may become more important in
ranking. Your CTR is the number of times your listing is shown
(triggered by a search and referred to as impressions with PPC) divided
by the number of times it's clicked upon, calculated as a percentage.
Content
The subject matter, in text and images, of your site and its pages.
Content is also used to describe anything that your brand produces,
whether it's a guest post on another site, an article that you
distribute, a press release, or an infographic.
D - Deep Link Ratio, Directories, Drain Rank, Deindexed
Deep link ratio
The percentage of links that go to your subpages vs. just your home
page. Many different views abound about what number is ideal.
Directories
One of the most consistent ways that people have built links
throughout the years. There are paid and free versions, directories that
accept all submissions and many that are quite picky about what they'll
accept, and while they have fallen out of fashion somewhat recently,
they are still a valid source of traffic.
Drain rank
This refers to the idea that linking out to other sites drains your PageRank.
Deindexed
Refers to being thrown out of a search engine and removed from their database.
E - External Link, Equity
External links
Links that go from your site to someone else's site. Some people
nofollow them in order to prevent them from receiving any link juice.
Equity
The group of links pointing to your site at a point in time.
F - Followed Link, Footer Link, Footprint
Followed links
Links that are allowed to send link juice to their targets. For
ranking purposes, these are the kind of links that you want. A link
without a rel=nofollow is a followed link.
Footer links
Links that appear in the footer of a site, generally on every page.
These were originally so abused that many SEOs now consider a footer
link to be very poor. However, there are still legitimate footer links.
Footprints
Ways of identifying patterns that you're using to build links. For
example, if 75 percent of your links come from non-U.S.-hosted sites and
are all on blogrolls, that's a big footprint. A "natural" backlink
profile should not have many obvious footprints due to its organic
nature, therefore having easily identifiable footprints is a potential
bad sign for your site. However, you can have a good footprint too (such
as if you had a lot of great and authoritative links from respected
news sources because your site was constantly being cited there.)
G - Google, Guest Posting, Graph
Google
So powerful, it's now a verb. No matter what anyone says, almost all of us market to what Google wants.
Guest posting
A popular way of building links and creating new content. Many sites
actively recruit for new guest posters and some are amenable to the idea
when contacted. The whole idea of a guest post is to raise exposure for
a brand on another site, but it's quickly becoming a spammy and abused
method. However, when done correctly, guest posts can bring you some
fantastic traffic.
Link graph
Generally speaking, the link graph is a representation of links for
sites. It can be thought of as being the "normal" for a niche of sites
but may also refer to links for a certain market
sector/keyword/locality/etc. You can use a link graph for competitive
research to define what everyone else is doing and see where you stand
in relation to that. A complicated thing to define, as it's not a
discrete concept.
Href, Hashtag, Hidden Link
href
An HTML attribute that lists the target of a link. An example is <
a href="http://www.w3schools.com">Visit W3Schools < /a>.
Hashtags
Widely used on social network platforms in order to associate a
tweet/comment with something. They begin with #. On Twitter, hashtags
are used to help trend certain ideas. For link building purposes,
hashtag searches on Twitter are useful for finding good potential link
targets.
Hidden link
A link that is intentionally coded in order to not appear as a link.
It can be hidden using a text color that is the same as the background,
placed inside an irrelevant image, font size 0, etc. These are viewed as
manipulative and deceptive and can cause Google to remove your site
from their index.
I - Image Link, Internal Link, Inbound Link
Image link
An image that is linked to a target. Image links are part of a
natural link profile and can pass link juice, but they do not include
anchor text as regular text links do. Instead, they use an alt text
(which is also used by screenreaders) to give information about the link
target.
Internal Link
A link from one page of your site to another page on your site.
Inbound links
Links coming to your site from a site other than your own. The anchor
text of an inbound link supposedly tells the search engines what your
page is about, thus helping you rank for that term.
J - Juice
Juice
A term used to describe the benefit received from a link, also referred to as link juice.
K - Keyword
Keywords
Words or phrases for which you want to rank in the search engines.
They should be present in your copy and in links pointing to your site.
L - Link Profile
Link profile
The collective group of sites that link to you.
M - MozRank
MozRank
A method of measuring the link popularity of a webpage by SEO
software provider SEOMoz. Becoming a more important metric by the day,
almost akin to PageRank.
N - Nofollowed Link
nofollowed link
These are indicated by placing a rel="nofollow" into the link code. A
nofollow is designed to tell Google that the link should not pass value
to the target. Nofollows are also used internally for PageRank
sculpting and to indicate that a link is sponsored/paid. Nofollow links
are not good for ranking purposes but they can be good for traffic.
O - Outbound Linking
Outbound linking
The practice of linking from your site to another. Many people
nofollow these links in an effort to conserve link juice, but that
practice is becoming a bit more frowned upon recently.
P - PageRank, Panda, Penguin, Paid Links
PageRank
Google's measure of a page's importance. There's a difference in what you can see as your PageRank and what Google thinks it is.
Panda
A Google algorithm update that can make grown men cry. It first
struck fear into our hearts in February 2011 and was an effort to force
higher quality sites higher up in the SERPs. After the first update,
we've seen several more. There's way, way too much to go into here but
you can read all the SEW articles about it
here.
Penguin
A new search algorithm designed to detect, and boot out, spam. Like
Panda, it made us cry and several sites were "accidentally" affected by
it, so badly that there's actually a form to fill out if you think
you're one of those accidental cases. Again, there's too much to go into
so read about it
here.
Paid links
Refers to links that are bought and placed on a website, with the
intention of helping the buyer's website rank better. When not indicated
as such, are a violation of Google's guidelines and are a risky tactic.
Paid links can be problematic both for the site selling them and for
the webmaster buying them as both practices can get you penalized. If a
link has been purchased, it should be indicated as such with a nofollow
according to Google.
Q - Query
Query
Simply a question that you ask a search engine or a database, whether
or not it's in the form of a question. We refer to queries in terms of
how many times someone searches for a keyphrase, and in manners related
to seeing where you rank in an engine.
R - Rel, Robots, Redirects, Rot, Rank
Rel
An element that gives the role of a link. Current uses critical for
link building are to say whether a link should be followed (the default)
or nofollowed (rel=nofollow).
Robots
Search engine bots, but robots can be slang for the robots.txt file,
which gives instructions to engines about what to do with your site. If
you don't want certain pages to be indexed, you block them in the robots
file. There are also meta robots tags (< META NAME="ROBOTS"
CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">) A robots.txt file is also found at
url.com/robots.txt.
Rot
A term used to describe what happens when there are links pointing to
pages that are no longer available and not properly redirected or
handled.
Rank
Where you show up on the SERPs.
S - Sitewides, Social Signals, SERPs, Spam
Sitewide links
Links that are on every page of a site. You commonly see them in
sidebars and footers, and while they once were a pretty easy way to get
good rankings quickly, they're no longer viewed so positively. You do
tend to find them in almost any backlink profile though, as they are
part of a natural profile.
Social signals
Signs that your site/post/article is doing well socially, on the main
social network platforms. Social signals are thought to be an
ever-increasing method of measuring importance in the search engines and
may become a bigger part of algorithms.
SERPs [search engine results pages]
The pages Google, Bing, and others show you after you've performed a search.
Spam
Jokingly referred to as being "sites positioned above mine", but is
defined as being anything that clutters the web and makes for a poor
user experience. Spam links are considered to be links that are
irrelevant and low-quality but pursued simply to improve rankings.
T - Twitter, Toolbar Pagerank (TBPR)
Twitter
A social media platform where users communicate through 140
characters or less. It's becoming more and more useful for finding good
information as it happens.
Toolbar PageRank [TBPR]
The number from 0 to 10 that you can see that reflects the most
recently updated idea of how important your site is to Google. It is not
Google's true value of your site.
U - Underline, Unnatural Link Warnings
Underline
To signify most links, the linked keywords will be underlined. Links
are commonly coded with underlining; style manipulations that do not
underline a link can be considered to be a hidden link.
Unnatural link warnings
Like lice, nobody wants to see them. They are messages received in Google's Webmaster Tools that indicate that some potentially
unnatural links have been detected for your site.
V - Velocity
Velocity
Your link growth speed. It can be measured with Link Research Tools.
W - Webmaster Tools
Webmaster Tools
Google's free platform that you can use to keep an eye on your site
in Google's eyes. It can be a first line of defense when you notice any
negative changes with rankings and traffic.
X - Xenu
Xenu's Link Sleuth
One of those old-school things that anyone who's been involved in SEO for more than a few years probably loves.
Xenu's Link Sleuth identifies broken links on sites.
Y - Yahoo
Yahoo
The other search engine. Many link builders will refer to being
listed in the Yahoo Directory, which used to be one of those things that
we all recommended. Today, Bing provides the search results you see on
Yahoo.
Z - Zzzzz
Zzzzz
Sleep, which you definitely need if you're going to link build. It's tiring work!
Sources : http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2172916/Link-Building-A-Z-Guide-Definitions-Terms
