Why Your SEO Strategy Needs an Industry Glossary & How to Create It in 7 Steps

If you’re like me and over the age of 22, you might not have picked up a textbook for a while.

So let me refresh your memory on glossaries.

A glossary is a list of terms, words, or phrases related to a particular subject, accompanied by definitions or explanations. It is an invaluable reference tool that helps readers understand and use the specific terminology associated with a particular field, industry, or discipline.

You may be thinking, “So what does that have to do with SEO“

Well, I’m glad you asked. Adding a glossary section to your company’s website is a powerful way to rank for more industry terms. It will attract more backlinks organically and supercharge internal linking.  Creating a glossary for SEO can be a highly effective strategy.

Allow me to expand.

Table of Contents:

1. The Benefits of an SEO Glossary
2. Natural Landing Pages for Backlinks
3. Rank for Industry Keywords
4. Internal Linking Opportunities
5. Establish E-A-T and Topical Relevance
6. How to Create an Effective Glossary
7. In Conclusion

The Benefits of an SEO Glossary

Natural Landing Pages for Backlinks

You may already know that backlinks are one of the most significant SEO ranking factors. However, not just any page can gain many links without active outreach or paid placements. But lots of websites reference definitions of terms.  That means if you define a term in your industry, and another website wants to reference that term, they’ll link to you. When you do your own active link building, it’s also much more natural to reference these pages than your homepage or product pages.

Just take a look at Ahref’s “Best by links” page report for websites with well-built glossaries. You’ll see these pages can rack up a huge number of linking domains. See an example of Investopedia below:

Rank for Industry Keywords

What better way to rank for all your industry keywords than to simply have a list of pages for each term defined? Yes, it would be nice if your product page ranked instead but you have to follow the SERP (search engine results page). If the top results for your target keyword are informational, such as “what is”, “defined”, and “beginner’s guide” type pages, you must follow suit if you hope to rank.

Look at the results for a broad search like “blockchain,” and you’ll see most of the top results are glossary-type pages. This is the case for most broad head searches.

Internal Linking Opportunities

Not only can you help your website visitors by providing definitions of industry jargon, but you can also build rich internal link networks. Glossary pages are natural places to point internal traffic to when defining terms. They can then pass their link juice on by linking out to more transactional pages like your product or service pages.

See how effortlessly Investopedia links across pages naturally with a glossary list of terms page and in the content of each glossary page.

Another example is Split, a feature flags software company with relevant internal links to each glossary term page, and that glossary term page then links to transactional pages.

Establish E-A-T and Topical Relevance

E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. It is a set of guidelines that Google uses to evaluate the quality of web pages. Websites with high E-A-T scores are more likely to rank higher in Google’s search results.

One of the most effective ways to establish E-A-T is to comprehensively cover a topic with multiple pages on the subject matter. A glossary section rapidly expands your content coverage of key topics in your industry, which will elevate your more transactional pages.

Here is an example from Influxdata’s glossary pages. It shows how they cover dozens of data and metric-related topics that would be difficult to cover with other page content formats than a glossary.

How to Create an Effective Glossary

Now that you know what a glossary can do for your on-page and off-page SEO, let’s touch on the process of creating it.

Compile a list of industry terms to define in your glossary. You probably know many of these off the top of your head. However, expand your list by researching competitors’ keywords, looking at your Google Search Console ranking head terms, and collecting more ideas from your team.

Create a content template for the glossary term page. It’s best to define the term at the top of the page to capture the snippet. Check other glossary pages for the sections they include to determine your own, then write one term page to test and refine it.

Design and develop the glossary site section. Keep it simple and clean. There are helpful WordPress glossary plugins and templates to consider that provide out-of-the-box designs and features.

Write the glossary page content. Don’t just launch with a single glossary, make sure you have a substantial batch completed when activating your glossary. This content is an excellent candidate to outsource if you’re limited on time since it’s not brand specific. Be sure to check out Upgrow’s SEO content writing service if you want it done effectively and efficiently.

Create internal links. Link the glossary under resources and in your footer, as well as where keywords are referenced. I highly recommend Link Whisper as an automated internal linking plugin for WordPress. It will automatically create an internal link when the target keyword is mentioned throughout your website.

Create backlinks. Whenever you’re guest posting or creating content for another website, you can naturally include links wherever industry terms need to be defined. The goal is to create a snowball effect since once your glossary pages move up to the top of rankings, they’ll start earning links naturally as other web content creators reference them to define terms.

Keep building. Keep a running list of new keywords to add to your glossary so it continues to grow.  You’ll also want to update and maintain definitions if the industry evolves quickly (e.g., technology)

In Conclusion

Glossary pages can pay huge dividends over time, and they aren’t complicated to create. Yes, it takes some work to get on the ground, and you or someone on your team will need to be knowledgeable about industry terminology, but once a glossary is built, it is fairly low maintenance to add a few new terms as they arise and maintain legacy pages. Furthermore, defining industry terms makes sense for nearly every vertical and company, big or small.

Get started today by starting a Google Sheet where you can compile keyword ideas — and book a free strategy call with a growth expert at Upgrow if you’d like to learn more about our SEO and content writing.