Glossary of terms

Lazy loading is the process of delaying the loading of non-critical resources on a webpage until required in order to speed up load times. In the case of an image, lazy loading will utilise a placeholder until it is needed. This allows webpages to load more quickly and efficiently. 

The goal of link baiting is to generate backlinks for a web page through informative, engaging content. To create effective link bait, this content needs to be topical, unique and visually attractive. The overall goal of link bait is to grab and hold the user's attention by presenting your information well, and in doing so, creating content that is worthy of sharing. It increases the likelihood that this web page will be shared by other blogs, for example, thus creating backlinks. If it is not presented well to users or is difficult to read, then the web page is unlikely to be able to generate backlinks. 

Link building refers to the practice of gaining links from other websites to your own, otherwise known as backlinks. Link building is an excellent way of ranking higher on search engines, as the more links a page has from other high-quality websites, the better. It will inform search engines that this page is of importance and significance, and as a result, it will rank more highly.

Link equity refers to the concept that some links have more value and authority than others, and that these links can pass on this authority to others through inbound links. This ultimately helps a page to rank higher on a search engine. When a page receives backlinks from another page that the search engine has deemed as high-quality, the link equity will then be passed on. Link equity can be passed on by both internal and external links, however external links will provide more equity long-term compared to internal links. It is also important to remember that search engines do not reward quantity, but rather quality. Search engines will reward web pages that may have have fewer, more high-quality links as opposed to flooding with page links that have little to no link equity. 

Link Exchange involves websites agreeing a deal whereby they will exchange links to each other's websites. This helps to boost each other's organic traffic and rankings on Google. Link exchanges can also involve more than one website that this agreement is made with. The main point of link echanges are to drive more organic traffric to a web page, so it is important that link exchanges are relevant to increase the authority of your web site, therefore helping it to rank higher. 

Link Explorer is a tool that analyses the pages that link to your website for Page Authority, linking domains, external links, and other information. It can show you the anchor text, the link target page, and the scam score for all these links. 

A link farm is a group of websites that are setup with the sole intention of linking to each other, regardless of their relevance. This SEO technique is often frowned upon, as having inbound links is a key measure that search engines use to boost a web page’s ranks. Link farms are therefore used to manipulate rankings by using unrelated links to boost a page’s amount of inbound links.

Link juice is a colloquial term used commonly in SEO to describe the value that is passed on from one link to another. This is also known as link equity. A web page that is deemed to be of high-quality will pass on its link juice to another through backlinks. In turn, this will make that page receiving the backline to then rank higher as it is being linked to by a high-value web page.

Search engines, such as Google, are able to determine the quality of a web page by looking at the amount of high-quality inbound links. Link Popularity is an important measurement built into search engine algorithms that can help pages rank higher. The better a web page's link popularity, the more likely it is to rank higher. 

A web site can have a multitude of inbound links from different web pages. A Link Profile is entire makeup of all of these many different inbound links. 

Link reclamation is the process of finding any broken or lost links and fixing or replacing them altogether. Link reclamation helps ensure that you are not losing out on any link equity, and that your rankings are not being hurt. It's important to note that this includes both internal links and links from other websites. 

Link rot is the colloquial term given to a broken link. Link rot can occur when a web page is changed, moved, or removed from the internet entirely. Often, clicking on a link that has decayed or undergone link rot will lead the user to a 404 error page. Link rot happens all over the internet, and it occurs fairly often as pages are altered. 

When a user types a search query with local intent, Google shows a local pack. This is a SERP feature that displays a map of the local area and revlevant business listings. If a local pack is shown on a search results page, it's almost always featured in the number one spot. Therefore, it's advantageous to optimise your website to appear in this local pack. // Side note: Google recently updated local packs so they can show a paid result above the organic local search results. 

Local SEO helps your website appear higher in the local rankings on search engines like Google. Nearly half of searches are made with local intent, so local SEO is an important strategy. To optimise for local searches, you might claim and manage your Google Business profile and do local link building. 

Longer and more specific than short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords may be made up of 3-5 words and are a good indication that a person is ready to make a purchase. For example, somebody who searches 'laptop' is probably less likely to be ready to choose and buy a laptop than the person who searches 'Samsung Galaxy Chromebook'. Because these keywords have lower search volumes, your business is more likely to be able to rank highly for them. This means that long-tail keywords are useful to optimise for.