Technology Blog

Rank, ranking: a website’s actual position in the free (unpaid) section of a search engine results page for a search term. It is meaningless to speak of website rank without specifying what search word or phrase you are ranked for. When someone says to you “My website is #1 on Google”, you need to ask “OK, but for which search term?”

PageRank: Google’s patented system for specifying a web page’s importance, PageRank (PR) is a single, albeit important, factor that influences ranking. Many people confuse a page’s rank (what position they are on a search results page) with a page’s PageRank (PR) value. They are totally separate.

Keywords: Keywords for those words and phrases that define what a web page is all about. When someone enters a search term or phrase into Google, Google tries to find those web pages that match the search phrase best. Some people confuse keywords with the META “Keywords” tag. They are not the same thing.

Page title: The title of a web page is the text contained between the tags at the beginning of an HTML file and is displayed in the top bar of a browser. It is not the first heading of a web page or any other large text that may be displayed at the top of a web page. This is an important distinction to know.

On-page factors: SEO factors influencing rank that are associated with elements on YOUR website, such as content, title tags, navigation links and code.

Off-page factors: SEO factors influencing rank that are associated with elements on OTHER websites, primarily links that point to your website.