SEO Glossary

I often get questions on terms used around the blogosphere and in general Internet Marketing context... so here it is, the SEO Glossary:

Adsense - Google Adsense is a way for any website to display relevant Google ads anywhere on their web pages and earn money from clicks.

Adwords - Google Adwords is a way to advertise online. Your ads are seen in the Google Search Engine Results or on a network of other search engines and content based websites. You are charged Per Click. So it only costs you money if a visitor clicks on your ad and comes to your website.

Algorithm - This is a mathematical formulae that search engines use to rank websites. It's based on a number of different factors that weigh a web page's importance.

Anchor Text - Anchor text refers to the visible text for a hyperlink. For example the following will show up as "This is the Anchor Text" within the webpage and it would take you to www.alltheinfoyouneed.com/ezine/... This is the html code for it: < a href="http://www.alltheinfoyouneed.com/ezine/" >This is the anchor text< /a >

Back Link - This is also referred to as an Inbound Link (IBL). These are links that come from one website to another. If you have 50 Back Links, then you have 50 links pointing to your website.

Bot - This is also referred to as a "Spider" or "SpiderBot". These are programs that scan (or Crawl) the World Wide Web. Their main purpose is to index web pages for the search engines.

Click-Through - This is just a term used to refer to the click that occurs on a hyperlink and as a result leads to another web page.

Click Through Rate - This is the ratio of impressions shown to the number of clicks you're getting.

Cloaking - This is a way to trick Search Engine spiders (it can get you banned so don't do it!). It's a way to show or hide optimized content specifically for the purpose to make a page look good to a search engine.

Comment Tag - This is a tag that is only found in the "source code" in HTML. It is not meant to be viewed by visitors. It's just for the programmer.

Conversion - A website that is designed to sell a product or do some kind of action like filling out a form is concerned about converting their visitors. When the action of buying or filling out a form is performed, this is called conversion. It is used in combination with how much it costs to bring traffic to that page or product. You will then ultimately be able to figure out a product or website's ROI. ROI is your Return on Investment. How much are you making in comparison to what you're spending.

Counter - This is a program or script that counts hits or visits to a web page.

CPA - (Cost Per Action) - This is how much you pay for some kind of action. This can be purchasing something, filling out a form, signing up for something, etc..

CPC - (Cost Per Click) - This is simply how much you are charged for a click on a link to your website from another location.

CPL - (Cost Per Lead) - How much you are charged for a lead. A lead is where someone does something like filling out a form.

CPM - (Cost Per Thousand) - How much you pay per 1000 impressions.

Crawler - It is a program used to go through a website to get information from the website and take it back to the originator.

Cross Linking - It's simply linking multiple websites together. Excessive cross-linking can get a website banned from a Search Engine.

CSS - (Cascading Style Sheets) - It is a feature that is added to HTML that helps website developers and users have more control over fonts, colors, layout, etc..

CTR - (Click Through Rate) - It is the ratio of impressions shown to the number of clicks. It's often used in Pay Per Click Advertising like Google Adwords.

Dead Link - It simply a link that doesn't work. It will normally produce an error called a "404 error (page not found)".

Directory - It's just a list of websites that are split into multiple categories for people to search.

Domain - (Domain Name) - This is a name for a website. As an example: www.alltheinfoyouneed.com

Doorway Page - This is another way to get banned by a Search Engine. These pages are not designed for the visitors. The are usually optimized for one keyword and only exist to get high rankings in the Search Engines Results Pages. They are sometimes called a Gateway Page.

Dynamic Page - This is a page that is generated automatically by a hosting server at the time it is requested (on-the-fly).

Google Everflux - It's a phenomenon that refers to the continuous changes in the Google search results pages at specific times (during the "Google Dance" for instance).

FFA Free For All - There is no content on these pages. They are just full of links added by visitors.

Freshbot - It is a Google crawler that is known to add pages to the Google index a little quicker than other Bots.

Gateway Page - See Doorway Page above.

Google Bot - These are Google's "crawlers". They crawl web pages to index them into the Google Search Engine.

Google Dance - Refers to the period of time when Google is performing the update to it's index. Google has multiple datacenters that have different results during this period. This occurs about every month or so.

Header Tag - This is an HTML tag which is most often used for page headers. For example:

The Header Tag

Hidden Text - It is text that is invisible on a web page because it is the same color as the background. You can be penalized by search engines by doing this.

Hit - This occurs when a file is loaded on a webpage.

HTML - (Hyper Text Markup Language). This is a popular language used to format webpages.

HTML Link - This is a link from one page to another.

IBL - (In Bound Link) - This is also referred to as a back link. These are links that come from one website to another. If you have 50 IBLs, then you have 50 links pointing to your website.

IP Address - This is a unique number that is assigned to a computer or system.

JavaScript - This is a scripting language (client side).

Keyword - This is a single word that is used to identify the subject or purpose of a web page.

Keyword Density - This refers to how many times a keyword or keyword phrase is repeated on a web page. It is based on a percentage.

Keyword Phrase - This is a group of two or more words that are used to identify the subject or purpose of a web page.

Keyword Stuffing - This is when a page is stuffed with all kinds of keywords. There is a lot of repetition in the Meta Tags or anywhere else on the website. It is meant to increase the websites importance to the Search Engine. It is considered spamming by most search engines.

Link Farm - This involves a set of web pages that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing the number of incoming links to a web site. This type of activity will get you banned from Search Engines.

Meta Search - This type of search will search multiple databases and combine the results for you.

Meta Tags - This is content that is found in the code of a website. It is not seen by visitors. It's only purpose is to give information to search engines etc..

Open Directory Project - This is a large directory of websites run by volunteers.

Optimization - This is something webmasters do to their websites to try and get higher positions in the Search Engines Results.

Outbound Link - These are links going from your website to others.

Page View - This is for the number of times a page is loaded.

PopUp - This is a window that "pops up" in front of you while viewing another window. It can be triggered numerous ways. Either by an action of yours or something predetermined by the person that programmed it.

PFI - (Pay For Inclusion) - It's simply paying for your website to be listed.

Pop Under - This is the same as a PopUp except it's another window that loads under the page you are viewing. You normally don't see it until you close the page you're on.

Portal - This is normally a term used to describe a website that is the first place people see when using the web.

PPC - (Pay Per Click) - It is a way of advertising in which you only pay when someone clicks on your ads.

PR - This is Google's Page Rank. It is part of the formula that Google uses to determine your position in the Search Results Pages.

Query - This is simply a search word or phrase submitted to a search engine.

Reciprocal Link - This is where 2 websites will exchange links from one to the other.

Referrer - This is the page from where a user has come.

Refresh Tag - This is a tag which defines how a page will refresh.

Robot - This is basically the name given to a search engine spider or crawler.

Robots.txt - This is a file that tells the search engine spiders how to crawl a website. It is often used to tell a spider not to include a page.

Search Engine - They are used to search the web.

SEM - (Search Engine Marketing) - This type of marketing includes SEO and various paid advertising like banners and PPC.

SEO - (Search Engine Optimization) - This is what is done to make a website search engine friendly. It is practiced to get the best positions possible in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

SERP - (Search Engine Results Page)

Spam - This is when various techniques are used to manipulate the search engines to rank better. One example is keyword stuffing. Websites will be banned for spamming.

Spider - This is also called a "Bot" or "SpiderBot". This is a program used to visit web pages and bring information about that web page back to the source.

Stop Word - These are just common words that the search engines ignore when indexing a web page or when processing search queries.

Submission - This is simply submitting a website to a search engine or directory.

Traffic - These include the unique visitors and page views that a website gets.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator. The address at which a specific resource can be found. As an example: http://home-made-online-income.blogspot.com

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