Website Design Townsville Flinders Street, Townsville City QLD 4810 0413 651 740
Website Design Townsville Flinders Street, Townsville City QLD 4810 0413 651 740
Plain English SEO terms for Townsville small businesses
This SEO glossary explains the words that turn up in reports, quotes and sales emails. No jargon in the definitions, just what each term means and why it matters to a local business.
SEO talk is full of shorthand
When I talk to Townsville business owners about SEO, the same words keep causing confusion. Reports from other providers often use them without explaining what they mean, which makes it hard to tell if any real work is happening.
So here are the terms I use most, explained the way I would explain them on a phone call. Bookmark the page and come back to it when a report or quote does not make sense.
Around thirty of the most common terms
The rules Google uses to decide which pages show for a search and in what order. Google updates it often.
A short description added to an image so Google and screen readers know what the picture shows.
The clickable words in a link. Natural anchor text describes the page being linked to.
A link from another website to yours. Good backlinks from trusted sites help you rank.
The share of visitors who leave after viewing one page. Analytics now often reports engagement rate instead.
A line of code that tells Google which version of a page is the main one when similar copies exist.
Any online listing of your business name, address and phone number, such as a directory entry.
How often people click your result after seeing it. Better titles and descriptions usually lift it.
A visitor doing what you want, such as calling, filling in a form or buying something.
Google’s measures of how fast a page loads, how quickly it responds and how stable it is while loading.
Google’s software visiting your pages to read them. Pages that cannot be crawled cannot rank.
A score made up by SEO tool companies to guess how strong a site is. Google does not use it.
A short answer box Google shows at the top of some results, taken from a web page.
Your free business listing on Google Search and Maps. It used to be called Google My Business.
The H1, H2 and H3 headings that structure a page. Each page should have one clear H1.
How many times your page appeared in search results, counted even when nobody clicked.
Google adding a page to its database after crawling it. Only indexed pages can appear in results.
Links between pages on your own website. They help visitors and Google find related pages.
A word or phrase people type into Google, such as ‘electrician Kirwan’.
Another name for the Map Pack, the three business listings with a map shown for local searches.
A longer, more specific search phrase. Fewer people type it, but they are often closer to booking.
The box of three local businesses with a map that shows above normal results for many local searches.
The short summary under your page title in search results. It does not affect rankings directly but it affects clicks.
A tag on a link telling Google not to pass trust through it. Paid and user submitted links should use it.
The normal search listings below the ads, which you cannot pay Google to appear in.
Pay per click advertising, where you pay each time someone clicks an ad. Google Ads is the best known example.
An instruction that sends visitors and Google from an old page address to a new one. A 301 is permanent.
Extra code that tells Google facts about your business, such as opening hours, services and FAQs.
A free Google tool that shows which searches bring people to your site and flags technical problems.
A business that goes to its customers, so its Google profile shows suburbs served instead of a street address.
The page title shown as the blue link in search results. One of the strongest on page signals.
A file listing the pages on your site so Google can find them all easily.
Where to focus if you only learn a few
For a Townsville service business, five terms do most of the heavy lifting. Google Business Profile, Map Pack, citation, title tag and conversion. Get those right and most of the rest follows.
Your profile and citations decide if you show on Maps. Title tags help your pages show in normal results. Conversions are the calls and forms that tell you it is working. The local SEO page explains how they fit together.
Phrases that often hide a weak offer
Some terms show up in sales emails more than in real SEO work. They are not always a red flag, but they are worth asking about before you sign anything.
Services and guides to read next
Common questions about SEO terms
Have a question that is not covered here? Ring me or send a message and you will hear back from me within one business day.
The Map Pack is the box of three local businesses with a map that Google shows for searches like ‘electrician Townsville’. It sits above the normal results and includes call and directions buttons, so it brings a lot of calls. Your Google Business Profile, reviews and citations decide if you appear in it.
SEO and Google Ads both put Townsville businesses in front of searchers, but SEO earns unpaid rankings while Google Ads charges for each click. SEO takes months to build and keeps working. Ads work straight away and stop when the budget stops. Many local businesses use both, especially in the first few months.
A citation in SEO is any online listing of a North Queensland business’s name, address and phone number, such as True Local or Yellow Pages. Citations help Google confirm your details are accurate, which supports Map Pack rankings. The details should match exactly everywhere, including how your street and phone number are written.
Website Design Townsville explains SEO reports in plain English, with Nick Fritzkowski writing every monthly report himself. Each one lists the work done, the main ranking changes and the calls and forms that came in. If a term is unclear, Nick explains it on a call or by email. This glossary covers the common ones.
Website Design Townsville does not use domain authority as a main SEO measure, because it is a score invented by tool companies and Google does not use it. Nick reports on things that affect your business directly, such as Map Pack positions, rankings for your suburb phrases and the calls and forms coming through.
Google Search Console shows a Townsville website owner which searches bring visitors, how often pages appear in results and any technical problems Google finds. It is free and every site I build has it set up at launch. It is the most reliable source of search data you can get.
Send me the report or quote you are puzzling over and I will explain what it says in plain English.
