Understanding SEO from Scratch (Part 1): SEO Terms You Need to Know

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For users to better understand SEO, including the basics and processes, they will be able to better choose and evaluate whether a service provider is reliable. We hope that our clients have enough understanding of SEO, as this will save communication costs and enable better collaboration. To help users gain a better understanding of SEO, we’ve prepared a “Understanding SEO from Scratch” series of SEO knowledge explanations. This article is the first in the series, serving as an introductory guide. Our aim is for users to be familiar with these terms when they hear SEO professionals present or discuss SEO projects and strategies, so they at least have a rough understanding of what is being discussed.

For individuals outside the SEO industry, Binomialtree SEO believes it is necessary to understand the following SEO-related concepts:

Search Engine Spider (or Crawler)

The English name is Spider. It is a program used by search engines to automatically crawl and fetch web page content from the internet.

The role of the spider is to collect information from web pages for the search engine and store it in the search engine’s database. This allows for further analysis, processing, and ranking calculations of the page data.

When SEO professionals refer to Technical SEO, part of it involves optimizing for spider accessibility, ensuring that spiders can smoothly and quickly crawl the content on a webpage. This includes elements such as the robots.txt file, page loading methods, page load speed, internal link structure, and more.

URL Staticization

A URL is a website address. URL Staticization refers to converting dynamically generated URLs into fixed, simple, and SEO-friendly static URLs that are easier for search engines to crawl and for users to understand.

For example: https://www.example.com/product?id=123&category=books, this is a dynamic URL with parameters. Using technical methods, it can be transformed into:

https://www.example.com/product/book_123.html 或 https://www.example.com/product/book-123/

Why should SEO use static URLs? Can't dynamic URLs be used for SEO?

1）Easy to understand and read

Static URL typically have a simple and clear structure, making them easy for both humans and search engines to understand. For example, www.example.com/products/red-shoes. This structure allows users to recognize the page’s theme immediately and also helps search engines identify and associate keywords.

2） Better Keyword Optimization

Static URLs often include meaningful keywords, which help improve the page’s ranking in relevant searches. For example, www.example.com/how-to-bake-cake. This type of URL structure is beneficial for SEO optimization.

3）Easier for search engine crawlers to crawl

Based on previous practical experience, search engine crawlers (spiders) can more easily crawl static URLs because they have a simple structure and no complex parameters, making them easier to parse. While dynamic URLs can also be crawled and indexed by spiders, they pose a risk of creating URL crawl traps (often referred to as URL “black holes”).

Indexing

Indexing refers to the process by which a search engine adds a webpage’s content to its database (index). Only webpages that have been indexed by the search engine can appear in search results. Therefore, indexed pages refers to the number of pages from a website that have been indexed by the search engine.

User Access Logs

Definition: User Access Logs are log files that record users’ actions on a website. They are typically used to track and record user behavior during visits. These logs generally include the following information:

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By filtering, analyzing, and processing user access log data, you can accurately understand website traffic, identify issues on pages visited by users, and track the status of search engine crawlers when accessing pages. It serves as indispensable foundational data for analyzing user behavior and the actions of search engine spiders on the website.

Valid Pages

For SEO, a valid page must meet three conditions simultaneously:

1）The page meets the requirements for being indexed (The URL is compliant, and the page content can be properly recognized by spiders).

2）The page contains the relevant keywords that users are searching for.

3）The page meets the user’s needs to some extent (whether it’s for displaying information, purchasing products, etc.).

The valid page count refers to the number of valid pages on the entire website. Binomialtree SEO believes that this data is crucial for a website’s SEO, as it determines the maximum SEO traffic the site can attract. It also serves as an important foundational data point for estimating the overall SEO traffic performance of the website.

Page Load Speed

Page Load Speed is the time it takes for a webpage to load completely and become interactive for the user, from the moment the link is clicked. The shorter this time, the better the user experience. Currently, page load speed is widely recognized as one of the key factors that affect search engine rankings.

There are many factors that affect page load speed, such as server bandwidth, the size of the page’s content, the number of elements included on the page, and the order in which the code is executed. Ensuring that page load speed meets search engine accessibility and user experience requirements is an important aspect of SEO optimization. Google Search Console also provides a dedicated tool to measure page load speed.

Keywords

For SEO, a keyword is the target term to be optimized. It can be a single word, a phrase, or even a sentence. It represents the core content that the page’s theme is intended to convey.

What is the difference between keywords and search terms?

Many times, when we talk about keywords and search terms, we treat them as interchangeable. However, strictly speaking, keywords are primarily for website operators or SEOs. Keywords can be terms that have search traffic or none at all—they represent the core content of a page and are the target terms for SEO optimization. On the other hand, search terms come from user search behavior, so a search term must have some traffic (at least one person must have searched it to be defined as a search term). In SEO, most of the time, search terms with a certain amount of search volume are directly used as page keywords.

Long-tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are in contrast to core keywords, with long-tail keywords being generally longer in length. Compared to core keywords, long-tail keywords have the following characteristics:

1）User search traffic is much lower

2）The competition is much lower

3）The search intent is more precise

For example, the core keyword ‘website development’, could have long-tail keywords like “B2B website development for foreign trade”, “Recommended website development services in Shanghai”, “What is the cost of website development in Shanghai?”

Therefore, for a new website’s SEO optimization, ranking results typically start with long-tail keywords.

Ranking

Ranking refers to the position of a webpage in the search results when a user searches for a specific keyword. The “Top 10” commonly mentioned by SEO professionals refers to the top 10 positions in the search results (also called the “first page” ranking, because 10 results are displayed per page). Similarly, “Top 20” refers to the top 20 positions.

External Links and Internal Links

External Links refer to links from other websites that point to your website.

Internal Links refer to links between different pages within the same website.

For example:

There are the following three pages:

Page A：www.aaaa.com/aa1.html

Page B：www.aaaa.com/aa2.html

Page C：www.bbb.com/bb1.html

If a link is configured on Page A that points to Page B, this link is an internal link from Page A to Page B, as it is a link between pages within the same main domain.

If a link is placed on Page A that points to Page C, this link is an external link from Page A to Page C, as it is a link from a different main domain.

Anchor Text

Anchor Text refers to the visible text of a hyperlink (for a link to work, it requires both the target URL and anchor text). For example, in the link Binomialtree SEO, the target URL is “https://www.binomialtree.com,” while the anchor text of the link is “Binomialtree SEO.”

Weight

Search engines do not have a formal concept of website weight. Based on experience, it can be understood as a comprehensive evaluation of a website or webpage’s quality by the search engine. Currently, third-party tools can provide weight scores, but these scores should only be used for reference and comparison, as they do not represent the true evaluation score in search engines (because third-party tools typically calculate weight scores based on the quality and quantity of backlinks, which is a somewhat narrow view).
When SEO professionals talk about weight optimization, they are often referring to the optimization of external links. However, website weight is more like an individual’s reputation—it involves optimizing various aspects that affect search engine friendliness, including the proportion of high-quality pages, spider crawling experience, user satisfaction, content expertise, high-quality backlinks, brand influence, and more.

CTR

CTR (Click-Through Rate) refers to the frequency at which your website link is clicked in the search engine results page (SERP). Simply put, it shows how many people clicked on your website link after seeing it in the search results. The formula for calculating CTR is:
CTR = Clicks / Impressions

CTR is an important factor for keyword ranking. Search engines (such as Google) not only determine rankings based on page content but also consider user click behavior. The more people click on your website link in the search results, the higher the match between your page and the search query. As a result, the search engine is likely to assign a higher ranking to your page.

GA

GA stands for Google Analytics, a free web analytics tool provided by Google. It helps website owners understand and analyze their website traffic, user behavior, and overall site performance.

This article is an original work by Binomialtree SEO. Please credit the source when reprinting.

Hi, I am Andy, the founder of Binomialtree SEO.

With over 12 years of hands-on SEO experience, I have been responsible for driving organic traffic growth for several medium to large-scale websites in China. Since 2020, I have focused on Google Search Engine Optimization, helping multiple B2B companies achieve their organic traffic growth goals within a year. If you need professional SEO optimization, feel free to contact us.