SEO Glossary

Post By. FlansPage

Below are some of the most common SEO-related words, phrases, and definitions. Some fellow authors who have reviewed my book in the past have said that I’ve wasted valuable space in these pages with an "SEO Glossary". The glossary remains for the simple fact that I’ve heard from Literally Hundreds of individuals who appreciate the reference and use it on an ongoing basis.

Affiliate Marketing - An online marketing strategy that involves revenue sharing between online advertisers and online publishers. Compensation is typically awarded based on performance measures such as sales, clicks, registrations, or a combination of factors.
Alt Tag - The alternative tag that the browser displays when the individual does not want to or cannot see the pictures present in a web page. Using alt tags containing keywords can improve the search engine ranking of the page for those keywords.
Alt text - Short for alternative text, it is used with an image and has a number of purposes. Primarily it is a placeholder for an image, so that if the image is slow to load or not shown, there will be an indicator of the content.
Anchor - Refers to a link on a web page, often found at the top or bottom of the page that allows users to move to specific content on the web page.
Anchor tag - Code determining the destination of a link.
Anchor text - The text part of any link, and of vital importance to any SEO effort. for example, using anchor text will allow the same link to be displayed as Marketing Expert. The search engines will then index the page based on this keyword.
Backlink - A link from one site that points to another. When getting backlinks, always ask the person linking to you to use anchor text.
Banner ad - A graphic Internet advertising tool. Users click on the graphic to be taken to another website or landing page. Banner ads are typically 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall, but the term can be used as a generic description of all online graphic ad formats.
Black Hat - The use of unscrupulous methods to optimize a website. Discovery of these methods being used will often lead to a site being banned from major search engines.
Blog - A contraction of the term weblog, it is a form of Internet communication that combines a column, diary, and directory with links to additional resources.
Blogroll - A term used to describe a collection of links to other weblogs. Blogrolls are often found on the front-page sidebar of most weblogs. Various weblog authors have different criteria for including other weblogs on their blogrolls.
Browser - An individual searching the Internet for information. Also, a software package (Internet browser) used to view pages on the World Wide Web.
Caching - A computer process that stores web files to your computer for later access. These web pages are displayed without the need to re-download graphics and other elements of the previously visited page.
Canonical page - The preferred version of a set of pages with highly similar content.
Canonical tag – Html used to specify a <link> canonical page to search engines. This is done by adding a element with the attribute rel="canonical" to the <head> section of the non-canonical version of the page.
Cascading style sheets (CSS) - Used to manipulate and easily manage the design of a website.
Click - Each time a visitor clicks on a website or website link.
Click fraud - A form of theft perpetrated against advertisers who are paying per click for traffic, in which fraudsters may use automated means to click on your ads from spoofed IP addresses over random periods of time.
Click-through – A term used to measure the number of users who clicked on a specific Internet advertisement or link.
Click-through rate - The number of click-throughs per online ad impression, expressed as a percentage or exposure; a click on a link that leads to another website.
Click tracking - The use of scripts in order to track inbound and outbound links.
Cloaking - One of the most popular black hat methods, in which the visitor to the site is shown a page optimized to his search request, while the search engine spiders see a completely different set of pages designed to rank well.
Conversion rate - The percentage of targeted prospects that take a specified action within a given time frame.
Cookie - Computer code that is embedded in your Internet history file, allowing websites to recognize you as a returning visitor.
Cost-per-click - A specific type of cost-per-action program where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on an ad or a weblink.
Cost per thousand (CPM) - A simple and commonly used method of comparing the cost effectiveness of two or more alternative media vehicles. It is the cost of using the media vehicle to reach one thousand people or households.
Crawler - A program that goes through websites and gathers information for the crawler’s creator.
Dead link - A link that produces a 404 error, page not found.
Deep linking - Connecting to a web page other than a site’s homepage.
Deep submitting - Submitting all of your website’s URLs—in other words, every page of your site—to a search engine. Most search engines forbid this practice.
De-listing/de-indexing - If search engines detect that you are using unscrupulous methods to get your site ranked, or if they regard your site as "spammy," they will remove your site from their index and it will no longer appear when users search for it.
Directory - A database of websites. Yahoo! and Open Directory are major examples. They are similar to search engines, except that the database is organized in a meaningful way by human beings. Many search engines use a directory as well as their own robots.
Domain name - The name assigned to a particular website MarketingScoop.com.
Doorway page - A web page with content that’s meaningful or visible only to the search engines; also called a bridge page or a gateway page.
Dynamic page - A page that generates content "on-the-fly" as a user requests the page.
eCommerce - An Internet-based business model that incorporates various elements of the marketing mix to drive users to a website for the purpose of purchasing a product or service.
Gateway page - A method once used to enable a site to rank well for a variety of keywords. It is frowned upon by the search engines and is no longer useful, as the search engines now base much of their algorithms on linking strategies.
Google - One of the most important spidering search engines by far, Google plays a dominant role in the search engine market.
Googlebot - The crawlers that index pages into Google.
Google Places – Previously referred to as Google Local. A search that produces local results based on proprietary algorithm.
Google Preview – The ability see a website thumbnail image from the primary search page of a Google search result.
HTML – Stands for hypertext markup language. The coded format language used for creating hypertext documents on the World Wide Web and controlling how web pages appear.
HTML e-mail - An e-mail that is formatted using hypertext markup language, as opposed to plain text.
Header tag - An HTML tag that is commonly used for page headers.
Hidden text - Text that is invisible to the human eye because it is the same color as the background.
Hit - When a person visits a web page, that web page receives a number of hits - one hit for the page itself, and one for every graphic on the page. The number of hits is not regarded as an accurate measurement of a website’s popularity.
Hit rate - Also considered the conversion rate, it is the percentage of the desired number of outcomes received by a person relative to the total activity level.
Homepage - The main page of a website.
Impressions - The actual number of people who’ve seen a specific web page. Impressions are sometimes called page views.
Inbound link - A link from another website to your website.
Indexing - Behind-the-scenes creation of an ever-changing database based on the contents of web documents; search engines and filtering software use indexing to find and/or block documents containing certain words or phrases.
Internet - A worldwide network of computer networks. It is an interconnection of large and small networks around the globe. The Internet began in 1962 as a computer network for the U.S. military and over time has grown into a global communication tool.
IP address - A unique number that identifies a computer or system.
ISP - Short for Internet service provider, an ISP is a company that provides access to the Internet.
JavaScript - A scripting language developed by Netscape and used to create interactive websites.
Keyword - A word that is entered into the search form or search "window" of an Internet search engine to search the web for pages or sites about or including the keyword related to it.
Keyword density - Keywords as a percentage of text words that can be indexed.
Keyword marketing - Placing a marketing message in front of users based on the keywords they’re using to search.
Keyword stuffing - Placing excessive keywords into page copy and coding such as meta tags; this may hurt the usability of a page but is meant to boost the page’s search engine ranking. Hiding keywords on a page by making them the same color as the page background and loading tags with repeated keyword phrases are examples.
Keyword weight - Refers to the number of keywords appearing in the page area divided by the total number of words appearing in that area. Weight also depends on whether the keyword is a single word or a multi-word phrase.
Lead generation - The process of collecting contact information and identifying potential sales leads.
Link checker - A tool used to check web pages for broken links.
Link farm - A series of websites linking to each other in order to increase rankings.
Link popularity - Often used as one of the criteria to determine rank on search engines, the measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your website.
Meta search engine - A search engine that displays results from multiple search engines.
Meta tags - HTML coding that is used to describe various features of a web page and appears in search result listings.
Navigation - Elements of a website that facilitate movement from one page to another.
Online marketing - A term referring to the Internet and e-mail-based aspects of a marketing campaign, which can incorporate banner ads, e-mail marketing, SEO, eCommerce, and other tools.
Open Directory Project (DMOZ) - A large directory of websites run by volunteers. Their database is used by many websites across the Internet.
Opt-in - A program where membership is restricted to users who specifically request to take part.
Opt-out - A program that assumes inclusion unless stated otherwise. The term also refers to the process of removing one’s name from a program.
Optimization - Fine-tuning a website or web page with the ultimate goal being to ascertain a higher position in all or a specific search engine’s results.
Organic listings - Listings that appear on a search engine solely because of merit, applicability, etc. In other words, listings that are not paid for; also called natural listings.
PageRank - Part of Google’s search algorithm, it measures a page’s popularity and is calculated in part by analyzing the number of links to a page from other sites and factoring in the importance of those pages. The highest rank is a score of 10 out of 10.
Page view - A request to load a single HTML page. Indicative of the number of times an ad was potentially seen or gross impressions. Page views may overstate ad impressions if users choose to turn off graphics (often done to speed browsing).
Paid inclusion - Paying to be included in a search engine or a directory index. May not improve search rankings but guarantees inclusion of pages a spider might have missed and "respidering" of pages periodically.
Pay Per Click - An online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs.
Pay Per Sale - An online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely based on qualifying sales.
Pop Under - An online advertisement that displays in a new browser window behind the current browser window and is seen when an individual closes his current browser window.
Pop up - An online advertisement that displays in a new browser window without an overt action by the website user.
Popularity - One of several criteria used by search engines to determine ranking in search results.
Public relations - The form of communication management that seeks to make use of publicity and other unpaid forms of promotion to influence feelings, opinions, or beliefs about the company, its products, or services.
Query - A search phrase submitted to search engines.
Ranking - The position of your website within the search engine indexes for a particular keyword.
RSS - Stands for really simple syndication. A lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other web content. Typically, an RSS newsreader or aggregator is used to subscribe to syndicated RSS feeds.
Reciprocal links - An agreement where two website administrators agree to link to each other’s websites. Refresh tag - A tag that defines when and to where a page will refresh.
Robot - Any browser program that follows hypertext links and accesses web pages but is not directly under human control. Examples are the search engine spiders, the "harvesting" programs that extract data from web pages.
Robots txt - If you wish to control which parts of your site a search engine spider indexes, you can use a robots.txt file to prevent the spider from indexing certain parts. Not all spiders will follow it, but it can be a useful tool if parts of your site are not ready for indexing.
SEO - Stands for search engine optimization. The process of developing a marketing and technical plan to ensure high rankings across multiple search engine results lists.
SERP - Stands for search engine results placement. Essentially, where your website is ranked on a given search engine for a chosen search term.
Search engine - A server or a collection of servers dedicated to indexing Internet web pages, storing the results, and returning lists of pages that match particular queries. The indexes are normally generated using spiders.
Search engine submission - The act of supplying a URL to a search engine in an attempt to make a search engine aware of a site or page.
Shopping cart - Software used to make a website’s product catalog available for online ordering, allowing visitors to select, view, add/delete, and purchase merchandise.
Site search - A program providing search functionality across a single website or blog.
Skyscraper - A type of online ad that varies from a traditional banner size (468 x 60) and is significantly taller than the 120 x 240 vertical banner.
Social Media – Online resources developed for interaction among individuals using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues.
Spam - Unwanted, unsolicited e-mail, typically of a commercial nature.
Spider - A program that visits and downloads specific information from a web page.
Splash page - A branding page before the homepage of a website.
Stickiness - The amount of time spent at a website, often a measure of visitor loyalty.
Submission - Putting forward a site to a search engine or directory.
Thumbnail - A rough sketch or snapshot, usually of a website, that provides a small view of what a web page looks like in the form of a .jpg, .gif, or .png file.
Title tag - HTML code used to define the text in the top line of a web browser; also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.
Traffic - The visitors and page views on a website.
URL - Stands for uniform resource locator; an address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet.
Unique visitors - A measurement of website traffic that reflects the number of real individuals who have visited a website at least once in a fixed time frame.
Universal search - The integration of various media types into search result listings, including but not limited to websites, blogs, video, news, etc.
Viral marketing - A phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message about a specific product, service, or company.
Web analytics - The process of using web metrics to extract useful business information.
Web browser - A software application that allows for the browsing of the World Wide Web.
Web design - The practice of selecting and coordinating available components to create the layout and structure of a web page.
Web directory - An organized, categorized listings of websites.
Web metrics - Statistics that measure different aspects of activity that transpire on a website.
Website - A site (location) on the World Wide Web. Each website contains a homepage, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The site might also contain additional documents and files. Each site is owned and managed by an individual or company.
White hat - A reference to proper SEO methods that are approved by the search engines. Using these methods increases your chances of your site being permanently indexed in the search engines.
Whois - A utility that returns ownership information about second-level domains.
World Wide Web - A portion of the Internet that consists of a network of interlinked web pages.
XML feed - Simplified version of HTML that allows data (including product databases) to be sent to search engines in the format they request.