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Feb 19 2009
SEO Terms
Since this blog is starting from scratch I think a list of terms and descriptions are called for as a lot of beginners won’t know what I mean when I say things like SEO. 
SEO = search engine optimization
The process of ranking your sites number 1 in the search engine results pages.
SERP’s = the search engine results pages
The page Google presents to you when you search for a keyword in the search box.
Keyword = any term or phrase that you are searching for or others are searching for in the search box.
If you have a blog about “cats” then “cat” or “cat” is your main keyword. You want to rank number 1 in the search engines for that keyword in order to get traffic.
Long Tail Keywords = any keywords related to your main keyword.
“Siamese Cats” can be a long tail for your “cats” blog or it could be a main keyword for a “Siamese Cats” blog. “How to Feed Cats” would be a long tail for either blog.
PR = page rank.
A designation used only by Google to assign a value of trust to your pages. This has little relevance in ranking in the serp’s these days but a high PR page can impress people like advertisers or people looking to swap links.
Backlinks = a link pointing to your blog from another site.
The more backlinks you have the better.
Anchored Backlinks = backlinks that use your keyword (main or long tails) in the text portion of the backlink. The term “anchor” refers to the actual text used in the link. The link below is a backlink pointing from this blog to my Make Money Online with Grizzly blog. It is linked to a page on the site that I want to rank well in the serp’s for the term “niche support”. As you can see the text used (the anchor text) in the link is for the term I want to rank for. If I had just used the words “Grizzly’s blog” in the anchor then I would get help ranking for that term instead. I don’t want to rank for terms that people don’t search for - like “Grizzly’s Blog”. Who would use that term in the search query if they were looking for help with their niches?
(If you need backlinks then follow that link - a large group of like minded individuals await you - the service is free)
If you send someone a link then please do them the favor of adding the keyword they are targeting in the anchor. If Robin has a work at home blog then don’t do this;
do this
Robin’s Work From Home site.
or you can target the post page instead of the home page in order to help it in the serp’s for the post keyword (a long tail) like this;
Useful Work From Home Bloggers on Today.com
Check out Monika’s post The Best Way to Anchor Correctly for more info.
I will be adding more terms as they come up - or leave a comment if you need help with a term.
That Niche support section has just made me go WOW! I never thought of it that way. Man there are going to be so many changes with my blog’s now thanks to your great advice.