Aug 20, 2012
SEO Definition: Refers to the visual space on top of a website that is viewable by the user without having to use the scroll bar on the browser.
SEO Explanation:
“Above the fold” originated from the newspaper business that referred to a “top spot” where most eyeballs are in front of an important news article or editorial section. It is now most commonly used in the SEO world to talk about content that user see right away when visiting a site. Usually it refers to the most valuable real estate on a website.
There has been analysis and comments (From Google itself) that an overly spamming placement of ads above the fold could affect a drop in SERPs. Again, coming from “focusing on the end user” perspective, it is important to assess the usability of a site if ads take up all the space above the fold.
Above the fold depends on screen resolution, screen size, and default font size of the user’s computer. Thus, while one user can see everything on a page, a user with a higher font size may need to scroll down more to see the rest of the site’s content.
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Related SEO Definitions: CTR, Link Priority, Link Dilution, PageRank, SERPs
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Aug 16, 2012
SEO Definition: The actual number of user clicks divided by the total impressions of the website served by a search engine on its results page.
SEO Explanation:
A client’s CTR from the SERP is very important. There’s no use in ranking highly (even on the first page) if the CTR is really low. That means the way the website appears in the SERPs did not match the user’s original expectations based on their keyword search.
CTR on the search results pages is dependent on 3 on page factors: title tag, the meta description, and the URL string:
Off page CTR factors include ranking and competing paid ads. Users are generally more likely to click on the top 3 results, and results on the first page, and overall CTR will be higher. A large user base will likely see click dilution if there are a lot of paid ads that some users may click instead of the organic search results
Related SEO Definitions: Meta Description, Title Tag, SERPs, Bounce Rate. Organic Search
Related Tools: Google Webmaster Tools
Aug 15, 2012
SEO Definition: A process that involves 2 websites that link directly to each other.
SEO Explanation:
The concept of reciprocal linking developed back in the 90′s as webmasters discovered a way to trade links in order to rank highly on Google. While there are legitimate uses of reciprocal linking, especially in the same verticals where the resources may be useful for the user, Google has drastically devalued the link juice passed on when 2 websites link to each other directly.
The evolution of webmasters to solve this problem (or to continue gaming the Google metrics, depending on your perspective) is to link from one site to another, and ask for a link back from another domain. Eventually, it is likely that Google may start identifying registrar owners to dilute this type of linking as well.
The ideals behind Google’s philosophy of de-valuing link value from reciprocal links is to give value to genuine links placed by people referencing another site. Similar to the original PageRank’s concept of the professor citing another thesis or work, links are supposed to reference valuable references.
As such, reciprocal linking these days usually constitutes mediocre SEO. The value of reciprocal links that do exist differ depending on the SEO you speak you. Generally speaking, there is consensus that reciprocal links still receive some value, however the best way to optimize link value is to link between sites that are not related.
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