20 SEO Terms or Acronyms Every Business Owner Should Understand

As a business owner, understanding search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial for enhancing your online visibility and attracting potential customers. However, the SEO world can be complex, filled with various terms and concepts. 

Let’s delve deeper into 20 essential SEO terms every business owner should know, along with detailed explanations to empower you to make informed decisions about your online strategy.

1. YMYL: Your Money or Your Life

YMYL pages are those that could significantly impact a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. Examples include pages related to financial advice, medical information, legal advice, and more. Google holds YMYL pages to higher content and quality standards due to their potential impact on users’ lives.

2. SERP: Search Engine Results Page

SERP refers to page search engines, such as Google, that display information in response to a user’s search query. It includes various elements:

• Organic Results: These are unpaid listings that match the user’s search intent.

• Paid Ads: These are advertisements that appear at the top or bottom of the SERP, marked as “Ad” or “Sponsored.”

• Featured Snippets: These are concise answers or summaries displayed at the top of the SERP, providing quick information to users.

• Knowledge Graph: This is a box that appears on the right-hand side of the SERP, providing information about a specific topic or entity.

3. Meta Tags

Meta tags are HTML elements that provide information about a webpage’s content to search engines. Meta tags consist of:

• Meta Title: This is the title of a webpage that appears in search engine results. It should be concise, descriptive, and include relevant keywords.

• Meta Description: This brief summary of a webpage’s content appears below the meta title in search results. A well-crafted meta description can entice users to click through to your site.

Optimising meta tags improves your site’s visibility in search results and encourages higher CTRs.

4. CTR: Click-Through Rate

CTR measures the percentage of users who click on a specific link compared to the total number of impressions (times the link was shown). A higher CTR indicates that your meta title and meta description are compelling and relevant to users’ search queries.

5. CMS: Content Management System

A CMS is a software application that enables you to create, edit, and manage digital content on your website. Popular CMS platforms include WordPress, Shopee, and Wix. Using a CMS makes publishing content, managing updates, and maintaining your website easier without extensive technical knowledge.

6. ALT Text: Alternative Text

ALT text is a brief description of an image used within the HTML code of a webpage. It serves several purposes:

• Accessibility: ALT text is read by screen readers to describe images to visually impaired users.

• SEO: Search engines rely on ALT text to understand the content of images, which can improve your website’s rankings in image search results.

• User Experience: When an image fails to load, the ALT text appears in place of the image, providing users with context.

7. XML Sitemap: Website Map

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the pages of your website, along with additional metadata, such as when each page was last updated. It serves two main purposes:

• Crawling: Search engines use XML sitemaps to discover and index all the pages on your site more efficiently.

• Indexing: By providing a roadmap of your site’s structure, XML sitemaps help search engines understand the organisation and hierarchy of your content.

8. ROI: Return on Investment

ROI in SEO refers to the revenue generated from your investment in SEO strategies compared to the cost of those strategies. Calculating SEO ROI involves tracking metrics such as:

• Increased organic traffic
• Conversions (e.g., form submissions, purchases)
• Revenue from organic search
• Cost of SEO efforts (e.g., agency fees, content creation)
• Understanding your SEO ROI helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns and allocate resources more efficiently.

9. NAP: Name, Address, Phone Number

NAP consistency is crucial for local SEO, especially for businesses with physical locations. It ensures that your business’s name, address, and phone number are consistent across all online platforms, directories, and your website. Inconsistencies can confuse search engines and potential customers, impacting your local search rankings.

10. Local SEO

Local SEO optimises your website to appear in local search results, particularly for location-based queries. Key components of local SEO include:

• Google Business Profile optimisation
• Local keyword targeting
• Local citations and directory listings
• Customer reviews and ratings
• Location-specific content

Optimising for local SEO helps businesses attract nearby customers and drive foot traffic to physical locations. Find out how to elevate your local SEO with 7 key on-page optimisations and get more insights on local SEO strategies for small businesses to enhance visibility.

11. GBP: Google Business Profile

GBP (formerly Google My Business) is a free tool provided by Google that allows businesses to manage their online presence on Google Search and Maps. Features of GBP include:

• Business Information: Update and verify your business details, such as name, address, phone number, and hours of operation.
• Reviews: Monitor and respond to customer reviews to build trust and credibility.
• Posts: Share updates, events, promotions, and offers directly on Google Search.

A well-optimized GBP helps your business appear prominently in local search results, attracting more local customers.

Read our guides here to optimise your GBP:

• 5 optimisations you shouldn’t ignore in GBP listing
• How to create and edit a post in GBP?
• How to add a product to your Google Business Profile?
• What are the Google Business Profile (GBP) attributes? 
• 8 benefits of responding to reviews on your Google Business Profile (GBP)
• How to get more reviews for your Google Business Profile (GBP)?

12. DA: Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. It’s based on factors such as:

• Quality and quantity of backlinks
• Website age
• Content quality
• Social signals

Websites with higher DA are likely to rank better in search results. Improving your DA involves building quality backlinks, creating quality content, and maintaining a technically sound website.

13. UI/UX: User Interface / User Experience

UI/UX refers to the design and overall experience users have when interacting with your website. It encompasses:

• User Interface (UI): The visual elements of your website, including layout, colour scheme, buttons, and navigation.

• User Experience (UX): The overall feel and usability of your site, focusing on ease of navigation, page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and content accessibility.

A positive UI/UX enhances user satisfaction, encourages longer site visits, and can contribute to higher search engine rankings.

14. CRO: Conversion Rate Optimisation

CRO focuses on converting website visitors into customers or leads. It involves optimising various elements on your site to encourage desired actions, such as:

• CTAs (Call-to-Actions)
• Forms
• Landing pages
• Checkout processes

By continuously testing and refining these elements, you can improve your conversion rates and maximise the value of your website traffic.

15. Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate may indicate several issues, such as:

• Irrelevant content
• Slow page load times
• Poor user experience
• Misleading titles or meta descriptions

Monitoring and reducing your bounce rate can improve user engagement and better search rankings.

16. Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific search phrases that target niche audiences. Unlike broad keywords, which have high competition, long tail keywords:

• Attract highly targeted traffic
• Have lower competition
• Improve your chances of ranking for specific queries
• Drive qualified leads and conversions

Incorporating long-tail keywords into your content strategy can diversify your keyword portfolio and capture valuable search traffic.

17. LSI: Latent Semantic Indexing

LSI keywords are terms related to your main keywords but not exact matches. They help search engines understand the context and relevance of your content. For example, if your main keyword is “digital marketing,” LSI keywords could include “SEO,” “content marketing,” or “social media strategy.”

Including LSI keywords in your content signals to search engines that your content is comprehensive and relevant.

18. Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. They serve as “votes of confidence” for your site’s authority and relevance. Quality backlinks from reputable sites:

• Improve your site’s credibility
• Increase organic search rankings
• Drive referral traffic
• Enhance your online reputation

Building a diverse portfolio of backlinks through outreach, content partnerships, and quality content creation is essential for SEO success.

19. Mobile-First Indexing

Mobile-first indexing means that Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking. With the increasing number of mobile users, having a mobile-friendly site is critical. Mobile-indexing:

• Ensures a seamless user experience on mobile devices
• Boosts mobile search rankings
• Helps Google understand and rank your content for mobile searches
• Improves overall site performance and accessibility

20. E-E-A-T: Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness

E-E-A-T is a concept from Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. It emphasises the importance of demonstrating experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) in your website content. Key factors for improving E-E-A-T include:

• High-quality, well-researched content
• Author bios and credentials
• Positive user reviews and testimonials
• Secure website (SSL)
• Accurate and up-to-date information

Prioritising E-E-A-T signals to Google that your website is a reliable source of information, leading to better search rankings and user trust.

Conclusion

By understanding and applying these essential SEO terms, you’ll be equipped to optimise your website effectively, improve search engine rankings, and attract more qualified traffic to your business.

Sign up for SEO services in Malaysia with an SEO agency in KL or Selangor, like Newnormz, to drive your website’s growth and success online.