Link builders and SEOs love jargon. That can be jarring for people trying to learn the ropes and start on their own link building projects. And, to make matters worse, we often assume other people know exactly what we’re talking about.
All of our acronyms, nonsense words, and words that mean something entirely different in the real world can be confusing to outsiders. These words also make people feel like outsiders, which is not really our intention.
Heck, I’m guilty of using jargon all the time, and I certainly don’t want to make someone feel like they’re not invited to the party.
So, before you go to your next SEO conference, make sure to read this article so that you’ll be fully armed with all the cool terms you need to sound like the smartest person at the hotel bar.
My aim with this little piece of content is to make it so you don’t feel left out of the conversation anymore– and maybe you’ll even enjoy a sensible chuckle along the way.
Anchor Text
Anchor text refers to the words that represent your link. They could say ‘click here,’ ‘learn more,’ ‘sign up now,’ or ‘discount Rogaine India.’ These are the words you see when you click a link. Be careful with your anchor text, and always be careful what you click on.
Anchor Text, Branded
Branded anchor text just refers to anchor text that’s composed of your brand, business, or website’s name. So, if your company is called ‘Dallas Cat Hypnotists,’ then some variation of ‘Dallas Cat Hypnotists’ would qualify as branded anchor text.
Anchor Text, Exact Match
Exact match anchor text refers to anchor text that exactly matches a keyword you want your website to rank for. If you are a llama groomer in rural Oregon, you might try to build some backlinks with the anchor text ‘llama groomers Banks, Oregon.’ You could also use ‘llama groomers in banks’ or ‘Oregon llama groomers.’
Search engines like Google tend to penalize websites that overuse exact match anchor text, so use caution. On the flipside, exact match anchor text can help you rank for your chosen keywords more quickly. Try to find a balance.
Anchor Text, Long Tail
This anchor text, yet again, refers to a type of keyword. ‘Long tail’ generally refers to an entire phrase– generally a phrase someone might actually search for. ‘How many pandas live in New Jersey’ or ‘how to get grape Jello out of shag carpet’ are examples.
So, if you rent covered horse wagons in Connecticut, you could use the phrase ‘where to rent a horse wagon in Hartford’ as long tail anchor text.
For more information on the different types of anchor text and how to use them, check out this guide by SEM Rush.
Authority
When we mention authority in the link building world, we’re not talking about police, teachers, or politicians. Instead, we’re talking about how trustworthy or popular a website is. National Geographic is an authority website. If you run a nature photography business, a link from National Geographic would be a game changer, because it’s such an authority website.
Bing
Bing is the second banana of search engines, although it’s perfectly serviceable and, by all accounts, a great search tool. Many people use Bing. Although it’s not as glamorous as Google, it’s still a factor in SEO and link building projects.
Bing is also who we go crawling to when Google is just too mean to us.
Content
Content refers to everything we actively search for and consume on the web. Conspiracy theory blog posts, cat photos, amateur karaoke videos, infographics about albino alligators, important research papers in PDF format, clickbait list articles, and prank call mp3s are all considered content.
Good content and content are two entirely different things, by the way.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the practice of using content to market your brand or website. This can include writing a guest post, making an educational video, or producing an infographic. In the content marketing world, teaching the reader/viewer something useful is seen as much more valuable than any self promotional outcome– including a link back to your website.
In general, content marketing costs a lot of time and money, but is a safe and effective way to promote your website.
It is, contrary to popular belief, not the opposite of link building.
Domain Authority
Domain Authority is the metric by which SEO software company Moz measures how trustworthy and authoritative a website is.
Many link builders and SEOs live their lives by this number alone. It’s an important metric, but there are other codes to live by.
Google is the number one search engine in the world and our king and ruler. We do everything for Google. We cast spells on our competition and others because of Google. If there was no Google, no one would be reading this article right now.
Also, they make thermostats.
Keyword
A keyword refers to the search term(s) you want your website to rank for. This keyword is what your potential customers are typing into a search engine. ‘Llama groomer,’ ‘cat hypnotist, ‘24 hour florist,’ and ‘scooter mechanic’ are all examples.
To determine your keywords, you’ll need to perform keyword research.
Keyword, Long Tail
A long tail keyword refers to a longer search term, generally what someone might actually type into a search bar. ‘How many fingers am I holding up,’ ‘how to make Mountain Dew flavored ice cream,’ and ‘why did the bowling alley burn down’ are all examples of these search terms.
If you know people are coming to your website based on these long tail search queries, it might be time to optimize for some long tail keywords.
(See Also: Anchor text, long tail)
Link Earning
Link earning can either refer to the act of link building, or just sitting on your hands and waiting for links to roll in because “your content is so good.”
If you want to know the real differences between link building and link earning, I have you covered.
Link Juice
“Link Juice” refers to the intangible, possibly imaginary power that’s passed from one site to another via hyperlink.
If you build a link on a high authority site, such as The BBC, it will probably pass on more link juice than a website such as WhyWontTheBBCHireMe.blogspot.com.
If you want to sound smart and important, tell someone how the last link you built had “so much link juice, man.”
(See also: No-Follow Links)
Linkable Asset
A linkable asset refers to a good piece of content on your website. You know, the kind that another webmaster might actually link to. Willingly.
Product pages and category pages are not linkable assets, no matter how much we wish they were.
What does qualify as a linkable asset? I’m glad you asked.
Niche
Niche is a word we bandy about all the time. It’s just a fancy, concise way of talking about your market, vertical, or industry. If you’re a divorce lawyer, you’re in the legal niche. If you sell vintage clothing, you’re in the fashion niche. If you sell fake mustaches for box turtles, I’m not sure which niche you’re in.
No-Follow Link
A no-follow link is a hyperlink that contains the “rel=nofollow” attribute in its HTML. This means the link does not pass on “link juice,” and is considered inferior for link building purposes. Some link builders will never accept a no-follow link
No-follow links are, of course, a natural part of any backlink profile, so those link builders are a bit silly.
Link are usually made no=follow when they are promotional, or when one site doesn’t implicitly trust another website. Many social media sites and large, content-heavy websites make all of their links no-follow by default.
(See also: Link Juice)
On-Page Optimization
Link building is basically off-page optimization. Therefore, on-page optimization refers to all the behind-the-scenes stuff you do on your website to help the search engines understand (and rank) your page.
This includes placing keywords into content, URLs, titles, and meta descriptions. It also includes URL structure, site speed, navigation, title tags, and anything else that helps Google really get what you’re going for.
Organic Search
Organic search is the opposite of paid search. Google makes most of its money from Pay Per Click ads posted in the search results (See Also: SERPs), which appear at the top of most results pages.
If you skip past the ads and click on a website that has the content you’re looking for, you arrived at that site via organic search.
Outreach
Outreach, also known as manual outreach (because there are a lot of robots in the link building word, apparently), is the process of emailing a target website and asking for a link. Outreach needs to be well planned, polite, and not too pushy. Here’s a guide.
Some absolute maniacs also conduct outreach over the phone. I can’t even imagine.
Prospect/Prospective
This is different than prospecting, believe it or not. Link builders and SEOs use the term ‘prospect’ or ‘prospective’ all the time. This can mean a site you want to link to your site, a potential client, a potential sale, or a potential case of heartburn. Basically, it refers to anyone (or anything) you have a crush on, but hasn’t yet agreed to go on a date with you.
Prospecting
In the link building world, prospecting has nothing to do with gold or the 1840s. It simply refers to finding good target sites (See also: Target Websites) you want links from.
So yes, “link prospecting” is just our way of saying “looking for good websites on Google,” but for link building purposes.
Relevance
In our case, relevance means building links that make sense. If you own a website that sells castles recycled from cardboard boxes, for example, you’ll want links from sites that talk about kids, crafts, and fun activities for birthday parties. You won’t want links from sites that talk about celebrity gossip or worker’s compensation law– that just wouldn’t be relevant.
Search Algorithm
A search algorithm refers to the magic formula the search engines use to help you find what you’re looking for and rank websites. They take many things into account such as user location, user intent, website authority, the amount of trustworthy backlinks a website has, a site’s loading speed, how often a site is updated, and more.
At least, that’s what Google tells us. Most SEO professionals are pretty sure it’s actually magic, and that computers have nothing to do with it.
Search Intent and Volume
Search Intent refers to what a search engine user had in mind when entering a search term. If they were searching for ‘pistachio ice cream in Columbus,’ they intend to find that ice cream– if they instead find a website listing pale green knockoff Air Jordans, that goes against their search intent.
Search volume just refers to how often any term is searched for in a given period of time.
Here’s a nice guide to both.
SERPs
SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Pages. This refers to the pages of results you see when you type anything into Google, Bing, or any other search engine.
It’s also fun to say out loud.
SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Link building is a discipline of SEO. Basically, SEO aims to help connect your website with the people who will be interested in your website.
In an ideal world, SEOs team up with search engines to make the search results a better place. Be an Ideal World SEO.
Target Website
A target website refers to any website you want a link from. The target site was the subject of your prospecting, and will become the subject of your outreach. If everything goes well, you might build a link!
To be honest with you, “target website” is one of the most useful pieces of link building jargon, because no one wants to say “this one website I want to get a link from, hopefully” every single time.
Traffic
Traffic can refer to a few different things for our purposes, and none of them have to do with cars.
Traffic basically just refers to how many people visit your website. Search traffic more specifically refers to how many people come to your website directly from search engines.
Buzzfeed, for better or for worse, is an example of a website with high traffic levels.
Final Thoughts
There, don’t you feel better about all of these link building related terms?
This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope I helped to show you how generally simple all of this jargon is. Anyone can learn it, and anyone can put it into practice.
So, at your next SEO conference, don’t get overwhelmed by the jargon or feel left out of the conversation– just start flinging it out there yourself!
And remember that if someone speaks almost exclusively in link building jargon, they probably know way less than you do.
Have questions about any jargon I didn’t cover in this article? Let me know in the comments.
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