Straight talk – Writing for SEO’s Glossary

I try to be straightforward when I write and speak to people. But I still drop into jargon when I feel it’s appropriate.

I hope this list helps clarify some of the posts on Writing For SEO. And, if I’ve left out something from this list, please tell me.

Algorithm – mathematically, a step-by-step procedure for calculations. On the web, how search engines determine the order of search results

Blog (originally weblog) – a website with sequential posts, normally dated and sometimes timed as well

Content Management System (CMS) – an application, normally running on a web server that enables you to publish, edit and modify content easily from a central interface

Content writing – writing copy for websites

Copy – what professional writers produce for websites, advertising, brochures, books and magazines

Copywriting – commercial, marketing, advertising and sales writing (never, never ‘copy writing’. If anyone ever tries to sell you ‘copy writing’, run. Don’t hesitate. Get the hell out of there! They don’t know what they’re doing)

CSS – cascading style sheets, a standard for formatting web pages

HTML – hypertext markup language. The programming language of the Web

key phrases – the words (more than one) that people type into search engines

key words/keywords – the words people type into search engines. Strictly single words, but Google calls key phrases keywords

Natural/Organic Search results – results on the search engines that come naturally from that search engine’s algorithm

Organic SEO – strategies to enable a website to rank higher on SERPs

Organic traffic – visitors to your site from the natural/organic search results

PPC – Pay Per Click or paid search such as Google AdWords

SEO (search engine optimisation) – the art and science of making your website perform well on the search engines

SEO Copywriting – writing content that contributes to a website’s performance on SERPs

SERPs – short for Search Engine Results Pages

Traffic – people coming to your website

URL (uniform resource locator) – otherwise, web address. Typically www.domain.com, blog.domain.com/index.html

Voice – writing style. Particularly applicable to the kind of personal copy used on websites