Glossary of terms

First introduced in 2015, RankBrain is a machine learning algorithm which helps Google better understand search queries and intent so it can show searchers the most relevant results. RankBrain is Google's third most important ranking signal. Instead of trying to match the exact keywords in your search query with websites, RankBrain instead tries to understand what searchers are looking for and show them the results for that. It also measures user satisfaction from the results it shows, learning and tweaking its algorithm to perform better. 

Ranking means the position of a page or website on the search engine results page (SERP). The higher the ranking the better because the top results receive the largest volumes of traffic. The exact ranking factors and weightings that search engines like Google use to determine rankings are kept secret, but some of these factors include the number of backlinks, page loading speed, sitemap and internal linking, relevance of keywords and content, click through rate (CTR), bounce rate, and more. 

Ranking factors are factors that search engines use to decide how to rank search results. Google uses over 200 ranking factors and nobody outside Google knows the exact list. However, we do know that factors include backlinks, site speed, mobile-friendliness, site security, internal links, and keywords in content and title and header tags. Search engines use these factors and multiple algorithms to determine rankings, weighting different factors in relation to the type of search query to rank the most relevant content highest. 

Ranking opportunities are opportunities for websites to appear in search results for certain keywords. Your website may already rank moderately on Google for some keywords so these represent opportunities to increase your ranking to reach higher results. Search engine results page rankings are determined by many different ranking factors: Google uses more than 200 factors to decide where to rank your pages.

Reciprocal links are where two sites will link to each other, perhaps because they offer similar industry expertise or complementary products or information. While a few reciprocal links can be beneficial to website visitors and SEO because they act as backlinks, Google warns against excessive reciprocal linking. Google says that 'excessive link exchanges' that try to manipulate PageRank violate Webmaster Guidelines. Therefore, it's a good idea to limit reciprocal links to those that will be beneficial to readers and where the sites have real relationships. 

If Google has identified problems in a manual action or security issues notification, you can send a reconsideration request to ask Google to review your site and reinstate it in search results and the Google index. A reconsideration request is an email send to Google explaining that you have fixed the issues with the website and reassuring that they won't happen again in the future. 

A redirection is a way of sending users from an old URL to a new one. This may be because the site owner has deleted the page or has temporarily moved it to a new location. An HTTP redirect status code tells search engines to display a new page instead of an old one. Users will not even notice that they have been redirected. For permenant redirection, you may use a 301 redirect, while 302 redirects are temporary redirections. 

Referral traffic refers to the visitors that come to your site from other websites and social media platforms, instead of from a search engine like Google. Referral traffic is good for your business and your SEO because it brings new and relevant visitors to your website and the backlinks tell search engines that your site is a source of quality and trustworthy content. // The other types of traffic your website might see include direct traffic (traffic where users type in the URL of the website or access the site another way without coming through another website or search engine), organic traffic (where visitors come via a search engine's unpaid results), and paid search traffic (where visitors come from PPC ads). 

Regional keywords are the keywords that SEOs use when they want to target a small and specific group of people. These keywords will be specific to the local area - for example, they might be the colloquial name for a neighbourhood or area, or a type of slang that is used in that location. For example, if you're trying to target specific American audiences for your sandwich shop, it's important to research their regional slang terms for sandwich such as sub, hoagie, hero, grinder, or even spuckie! // Because regional keywords tend to have far lower search volumes, it can be hard for marketers to find the right keywords. However, if you get it right, regional keywords can do wonders for your hyperlocal SEO.

Using a rel-canonical tag tells search engines that this is the master copy of a page and the version that you want to appear in search engine results pages. This avoids the problems that can arise with duplicate content appearing on multiple URLs. This is also referred to as canonicalisation and it's important because it helps you control the duplicate content that appears on the site and potentially damages your rankings. // Even if you haven't consciously duplicated content on your website, a rel-canonical tag can be useful because mulitple URLs can point to the same page, causing search engines to see this as duplicate content. For example, people might link to your homepage in different ways, so it's useful to canonicalise the page to avoid issues. 

At the bottom of Google's search results page are eight related searches. These are suggestions for other searches created by Google's algorithm. As well as helping searchers find out more, they're useful for SEOs who are looking for additional content ideas to cover in blog posts. These related searches help you understand users' search intent and therefore create pages that are relevant and useful to them.

Rich snippets refer to search engine results that feature more information that previews the website, such as thumbnails, recipe details, or star ratings depending on the type of web page. Some also come with carousels. These features make them more attractive to users and have a higher click-through rate.

Robots.txt, also known as the robots exclusion standard or robots exclusion protocol, is the standard used to give instructions to bots and tell them which pages of a website to crawl. The robots.txt file can be viewed by adding /robots.txt to the end of the homepage URL.