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SEO Glossary - P
Page
A page is the short name for a webpage.
Page Speed
The time it takes for a page to load, in SEO terms the faster the better as Google does prefer sites it sends traffic to to have load fast.
PageRank (PR)
PageRank is an algorithm that was invented by Google co-founder Larry Page in 1996. It is the original algorithm that set Google apart from other early search engines in the quality of its search results.
In very basic terms PageRank considers that a link from one webpage to another can be considered a citation (or vote) as to the quality of the page receiving the link. Links have value and pass value through to the pages they link to, therefore web pages can be scored not just on the number of links they have but also the value of the links.
While Google’s ranking systems now include many other algorithms to determine how a webpage will rank it is still likely a key part.
For more see our guide PageRank - What it is & How it works.
Paid Link
A link that you have paid a third party site for. If paid links are not flagged as nofollow or sponsored then they violate Google's Guidelines and can lead to your site being penalised.
Paid Traffic
Paid traffic is any traffic where a website pays the site sending them for the visits, commonly on a cost per click basis. This traffic will be shown in analytics services as being paid.
Panda
Panda was a series of Google Updates that rolled out over several years starting in February 2011. Panda targeted thin and low quality sites and pages.
Combined with the Penguin algorithm of 2012, the two updates ushered in significant changes as to how sites ranked and how SEO had to evolve to reflect it.
Parasite SEO
A technique to rank content by posting it on a third party website which has more authority and will more likely rank quicker and higher than on your own website.
The third party website may be one which charges you to post on their website or it may be a site that allows user generated content such as Reddit.
The content posted most often is monetised by posting affiliate links within the content.
Google announced in March 2024 they would take action on sites that took payment in return for parasite content which was posted without full editorial oversight.
PBN (Private Blog Network)
Private Blog Networks (PBNs) are a Blackhat link building technique where a person (or company) builds a network of outwardly independent websites that are built purely for the purpose of linking to other websites in the hope of manipulating search rankings.
PBNs are often built on expired domains as these often have backlink profiles from their original incarnation and if these links haven’t been discounted by Google will increase the value of any links built from them.
Some PBNs are kept solely for the private use of an individual or company, some PBNs are built with the intention of selling links to third parties.
When Google discovers a PBN it will usually penalise both the websites in the PBN and often also sites linked to from the PBN.
Penalty
A penalty occurs to a web page or entire site when Google determines that you have broken their guidelines. See Manual Penalty and Algorithmic Penalty.
Penguin
Penguin was a Google ranking update that first launched on April 24th 2012 that specifically targeted websites that broke the link building part of Google’s Guidelines.
Penguin had a devastating effect on many websites that had previously been buying links and building spam links for many years without ill effect.
To this day it remains one of the most well known Google Updates.
People Also Ask (PAA)
People Also Ask (PAA) is a search feature in the Google search results that displays questions that people ask related to your search query.
These questions are based on real questions that Google receives around a topic area and the most popular related to your query are shown.
PAA questions shown by Google can be very dynamic and respond to trending news and events very quickly.
They are a great source for keyword research, we offer very powerful People Also Ask search tool at KeywordsPeopleUse.
Personalisation
Google may personalise the results it shows any one user depending on factors such as location and previous search history, meaning that no two search results for the same keyword can be guaranteed to be the same.
Pillar Page
A pillar page is a piece of content on a website that covers a topic at a broad level, it will link to (and be linked back from) a cluster of sub-pages that explore the subtopics of the pillar page in detail.
Podcasts
Many prominent SEO’s appear on, or publish their own, podcasts. Finding, subscribing to and regularly listening to SEO podcasts is a great way to learn new things in the world of SEO and keep up to date with the latest news in the sector. My own podcast can be found at SEO Is Not That Hard.
Press Release
A Press Release is a communication put out by an organisation or business, usually to promote some newsworthy item they are involved with.
These Press Releases are often put out via networks that push them to news organisations and others.
Press releases are often used as part of some link building strategies such as Digital PR or as basic link building tactic in itself.
Programmatic SEO (pSEO)
Programmatic SEO (or pSEO for short) is the use of databases of content and common templates to generate large amounts of pages of content algorithmically.
Done badly then Programmatic SEO can be seen as (and indeed actually is) spam and will be penalised by Google. However, done well it can be genuinely helpful and useful content and be well indexed by Google.
Proxy Services
A proxy service is one that allows you to access the web as if you were in another location to that which you actually are.
Why would you want to do this? Well Google will change the results it shows depending on your location, so if you want to see what the SERPS look like for someone in New York but you are in London then a Proxy Service will allow you to do this.
Some proxy services are available that provide proxy rotation which are designed to work with software so you can make repeated requests to Google and other services at a rate much faster than they will allow from a single IP address.
Python
Python is a programming language popular amongst those SEO’s who like to produce software to automate certain SEO tasks.
