SEARCH ENGINE JARGON GLOSSARY
Search Engine Jargon Often Used on the Internet Sometimes
Include More Than Obvious or Has More Than One Meaning.
#
301 Redirect
A server response code - a message that the URL has moved permanently.
A 301 redirect is commonly used to redirect sites when URL has a new location.
Usually the preferred method of redirection by search engines. Also useful
for dealing with canonical issues.
302 Redirect
A server response cod - a “found” message that the URL has temporarily
moved. Also referred to as a “temporary redirect.” This form
of redirection is commonly used - and in some cases abused by Black Hat
SEO.
403 Server Code
A “forbidden” message. Prevents access to a URL and displays
the reason for preventing access.
404 Server Code
A “not found” message. Server cannot find the URL requested.
Ad
Advertisements a searcher sees after submitting a query in a search engine
or website search box, commonly positioned at the top, above the natural
or organic listings, and on the right side of the search results page.
In PPC ads are usually text format.
AdWords
Google Pay Per Click contextual advertising program, a common way of basic
website advertisement on the search engines.
Agent Name
Names given to web browsers and programs related to the web.
The agent name for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 is:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98) or Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.1),
while for Gaggle spider it is: Googlebot/2.1+(+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)
Agent Name Delivery
Web server could be set up to deliver different web pages to different
website visitors, depending on what agent enters the page. As this technique
could artificially increase the relevancy of the websites it's treated
as spam on most search engines, and especially Google.
AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript & XML
Programing language that allows updating of specific sections of content
on a web page without completely reloading the page.
Alexa Traffic Rank
A measurement of traffic to a website from users of Alexa Toolbar (with
embedded tracking software). The results are not highly accurate as it
only measures visits from toolbar users, skewed toward sites that focus
on marketing and webmaster communities, and it's relatively easy to manipulate
the statistics. In short, Alexa toolbar users are rarely if ever a target
market, and the toolbar is often (by most anti-spyware software) viewed
as a possible security risk.
Algorithm (Algo)
Aspecific program used by search engines to determine which pages to suggest
for a rendered search query.
ALT Attribute
HTML Img tag is used to place images on your website. The ALT attribute
specifies alternate text that describes an image, for people that can't
see it. Search engine spiders also can't see the images. ALT attributes
should be used if you have images on your website, for people with disabilities
as well as for search engines spiders. They are also considered important
by the search engines.
Analytics
Program which assists in collecting and analyzing data about website's
usage.
Anchor Text
The text of a link that a user clicks upon to follow a link. Search engines
use anchor text to determine the relevancy of the referring site and of
the link to the content on the landing page.
Applet
A small program that is a part of a web page (often written in Java -
Java Applet)
ASP
Active Server Pages use a server based Microsoft scripting language to
provide dynamic and database driven content. Could be also used for cloaking.
Accessibility
Website accessibility stands for designing sites so that people with disabilities
can use them fully.
Authority (Reliance, Trust, Credibility)
The amount of reliance that a site is credited with for a particular search
query, derived from related incoming links from other expert sites, site
age, traffic trends, site history, and unique quality content.
Authority Website
An authority site has high credibility and high search results placement.
Websites may be considered topical authorities or general authorities
(Wikipedia, DMOZ, etc.). Topical authority websites are well trusted and
well cited by experts within their topical community.
B2B
Business to Business. Typically refers to the type of marketing when businesses
market products or services to other businesses.
B2C
Business to Consumer. Typically refers to the type of marketing when businesses
market products or services to the public or directly to the consumers.
Back Link (Incoming Link, Inbound Link)
A link to a site or page from another page or site.
Bait-and-Switch (Code Swapping)
Submitting one page to a search engine, and switching it with another
after search engine spider it (bait and switch) Changing the content after
high rankings are achieved.
Banning (Delisting)
Website/domain name removed from the search results by a search engine
for doing something that is against their terms of service, and most commonly
in response to being spammed.
Bid
The maximum amount of money that an advertiser is willing to pay each
time a searcher clicks on an ad. Bid prices vary depending on competition
from other advertisers and keyword popularity.
Black Hat
Search engine optimization techniques opposed to best practices such as
search engines' guidelines.
Blogs (Web Logs)
A journal available on the web - a website that presents content in chronological
series, updated and maintained by people with little or no technical background
through a Content Management System (such as WordPress software) that
allows it.
Someone who keeps a blog is a blogger. Blogging is the activity of updating,
typically daily, a blog. Blogs are are viewed as independent sources of
information by search engines.
Tool used to help make it easy to update and add information to a website.
Bot (Robot, Spider, Crawler)
See Spider
Bounce Rate
% of users who enter and leave the site without viewing any other pages.
Google definition: Bounce rate is the % of single-page visits,
or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing)
page. High bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't
relevant to your visitors.
Landing pages should provide the information and services that were promised
in the ad copy. Google is using a comprehensive measure of your pages
bounce rate and takes into account when calculating your overall rankings.
Bread crumbs
Navigational technique which helps the users and search engines to understand
the relationship between pages. Website navigation above the main content
in a horizontal bar help users determine their position on the site.
Bridge Page
See Doorway Page.
Browser
A browser is the software used to view websites.
Business (Corporate) Website Marketing
The process of utilizing generally accepted website marketing techniques
to promote a business/corporate website and its products. This typically
includes SEO, PPC campaigns, and other forms of internet advertising.
CGI
Common Gateway Interface is a standard interface between web server
software and other programs running on the same machine. CGI programs
could be used for processing forms, online orders, database queries on
web pages, and to provide dynamic web page content. A CGI websites could
cause problems for search engines, and may not be indexed correctly on
most search engines, so at least a few pages of the website should be
plain HTML.
Click Bot
A program used to artificially click on paid listings to artificially
inflate click amounts.
Click Fraud
Clicks on a PPC advertisement that are not motivated by a search for the
advertised product or service (i.e. to increase costs), which degrade
quality of clicks of the search engine.
Click Through
The process when visitor click on a link which leads to the indexed
site in a search engine listings to visit it.
Cloaking
The hiding of a page content, normally done to stop potential stealing
of well optimized pages, but also used for providing of one page for a
search engine or directory and a different page for other actual visitor.
As this technique could artificially increase the relevancy of the websites
and was abused in the past it's treated as spam on most search engines
and especially Google.
CMS - Content Management System
Programs that separate most of the technical tasks from content creation
so that effective publishing requires little or no sophisticated coding
skills - to provide effortless updating of a website. Blog software programs
(WordPress, etc.) are some of the most popular content management systems
currently used on the web. Most CMS have specific issues that make it
hard for search engines to index them.
Comment Tags
The HTML Comment tags are used to hide text from browsers. Some search
engines ignore text between these symbols but others index such text as
if the comment tags were not there. As this tag was abused too much in
the past, similar to Keyword tag, they could be used as the reason for
penalization on search engines, if not used properly.
Competitive Analysis
An analysis of strengths and weaknesses of competing websites, used in
SEO.
Content (Text, Copy)
The part of a web page that contains valuable information for the user
(standard expressions, advertising, branding, etc. are not usually considered
as valuable content).
Contextual Advertising
Advertising that is placed on a web page (not SERPs) based on the page’s
content, keywords and phrases.
Copyright
A collection of exclusive rights granted by governmental authority. You
own the copyright to the unique website you've created and published.
If someone copies it without permission, you have the right to take action,
according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Copywriting
The writing of compelling and creative text specifically for a website,
which can significantly influence search engine positioning, thus considered
a major part of search engine optimization.
CPC - Cost Per Click
The amount search engines charge advertisers for every click that sends
a searcher to the website.
CTR – Click Through Rate
The number of clicks that an ad gets, divided by the total number of times
that ad is displayed or served.
Crawler
See Spider
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
Designed to separate the structure of a web page (written in HTML, XHTML
etc.) from its style or the way it looks (written in CSS) to improve accessibility
and reduce complexity and repetition in web page structure. CSS is used
to define colors, fonts, layout, and other aspects of page presentation.
Dead Link
A link which is no longer functional. The ratio of good links to dead
links can be seen as a sign of website quality.
Deep Link
A link which points to an internal page within a website. When links grow
naturally typically many links point at interior page, most relevant to
the mutual topic.
Deep Link Ratio
The ratio of links pointing to internal pages to overall links pointing
at a website.
High deep link ratio is typically a sign of a natural link growth.
Description
Descriptive text which appears in a search engine listings of pages.
Some search engines take this description from the Description Meta tag
while others generate their own description from the text on the page.
Directories use text supplied at registration or modified by editors.
Description Tag
Refers to the information contained in the Description META tag.
Directory
A server that indexes Internet web pages and provides lists of pages suitable
for particular queries. Web pages are usually collected manually, by user
submission, and commonly selected and categorized by editors (ODP -dmoz.org,
Yahoo, etc.)
Domain
Domain is a subset of Internet addresses. Typical top level domains are
.com, .edu, .gov, .org (divide into areas of use). There are also various
geographic top level domains for particular countries (.us, .uk, .ca,
.de, etc.). Keyword rich domain names should be used if possible, and
not too many level deep sub folders, as they could achieve better positioning
on search engines than websites.
Doorway Page
A page specifically made to target specific keywords or phrases. As this
technique could artificially increase the relevancy of the websites and
was abused in the past it's treated as spam on most search engines. Also
known as bridge pages, gateway page, entry pages, portals or portal pages.
Duplicate Content
Content similar or identical to the content on another website or page.
A site serving duplicate content may be penalized or receive little or
no credibility/authority from the search engines compared to the websites
with original content.
Dynamic Content
The information on web pages change automatically, on the basis of database
content or user information (.asp, .cfm, .cgi, .shtml). Dynamic content
could cause problems for search engines, and may not be indexed correctly
on most search engines, especially if URL contains the ? (or other special)
character. At least a few pages of the website should be plain HTML if
possible.
Ecommerce
Commercial transactions on the Internet where goods, information or services
are bought and sold.
Entry Page
The page which a user enters your site.
External Link (Outbound Link)
Link which references another related resources. While outbound links
to relevant resources help search engines understand the site topic, and
may improve site credibility and its relevancy score, a site with many
low quality external and reciprocal links may not rank well on some search
engines.
FFA (Free For All)
FFA sites or pages have many outgoing links to unrelated websites, containing
little or no valuable content. Produced for spiders, FFAs have little
or no value to users, and are penalized or ignored by search engines.
Frames
An HTML technique used to make a more effective web pages, with multiple
windows or sub windows. A framed websites could cause problems for search
engines, and may not be indexed correctly on most search engines. Search
engines will usually index just the part within the <NOFRAMES> section,
so this section should include the text relevant to the thematic of the
web page. In general, they should be avoided if possible.
Flash
A program for creating interactive websites with video, graphics, and
animated content. If not used sensibly it may degrade user experience.
Search engines are unable to index Flash so websites with excessive usage
can hardly get ranked high in the listings.
Gateway Page
See Doorway page
Geo-Targeting
Specifying where ads will/won't be showing based on the geographic location
of the searcher, ensuring more localized and personalized search results.
Google PageRank
Google PageRank (PR) is a method of calculating a web page relevance and
importance through the quality of sites linking to it.
Heading
The text found inside HTML heading sections is accounted by most
search engine algorithm to ordered web pages suitably in their query results.
Hidden Text
Text on a web page which is visible to search engine spiders but not
visible to human visitors (e.g. the text is the same or very similar color
as the background of the web page, extremely small font is used, usage
of multiple
s, the text in HTML comment, etc.). As this technique could artificially
increase the relevancy of the websites and was abused in the past it's
treated as spam on most search engines.
HTML
HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language - the coding language used for
all websites. HTML document allows text, images (including animation)
to be positioned on a web page. HTML is now followed by XHTML and XML.
HTTP
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol - the protocol used for communication
between web servers and web browsers.
HTTPS
HTTPS is the Internet protocol used for secure servers, usually used by
ecommerce sites with personal data exchange and credit card transactions.
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are used to link pages of the website, documents, etc. together.
Links are used to move through the website and/or to other websites, portals,
search engines, etc. on the www.
Image Map
The image map consists of a set of hyperlinks attached to areas of an
image. Although most search engines should have no particular problems
following the links, it is better to provide text links as well.
Inbound Link
A hypertext link pointing to a particular website. Inbound links as a
measure of the web popularity are used by search engines for positioning
of web pages in search engines indexes.
Index
Database of web pages used by the search engines.
Adding a web page to a search engine index.
Indexability (Crawlability, Spiderability)
Indexability refers to the potential of a web site or its contents to
be crawled or indexed by a search engine.
Indexed Pages
The pages of a website that have been indexed.
IP
Internet Protocol Number - a unique number which consist of 4 parts separated
by dots (e.g. 64.132.199.2. Each and every machine on the Internet has
a unique IP number.
IP Delivery
Web server could be set up to deliver different web pages to different
website visitors, depending on the IP address of the client. As this
technique, similar to agent name delivery, could artificially increase
the relevancy of the websites it's treated as spam on most search engines,
and especially Google.
Internal Links
The links within a site that point to other pages in website.
Java
A programming language. Programs in Java can run on different types of
computers and/or operating systems.
JavaScript
The Javascript is a simple computer language compatible with most browsers,
used for small programming tasks within HTML web pages, and normally interpreted
on the client computer by the web browser. Although some search engines
could index this scripts, they can't follow the links in them.
Keyword
A word used in a search engine query. This term is also used for targeted
main words on a web page in search engine optimization.
Keyword Density
The percentage of a keyword in the text of a web page. To be treated as
the keyword on the search engines, a word should be used more than once
on a web page. This feature is used by search engines for positioning
of web pages in search engines indexes.
Keyword Domain Name
Or keyword rich domain name. Usage of keywords as part of the URL
to a website to improve search engine positioning.
Keyword Phrase - Keyphrase
A phrase used in a search engine query. This term is also used for targeted
main phrases on a web page in search engine optimization.
Keyword Research
Thorough investigation to determine the relevant keywords and keyword
phrases appropriate for targeting within a SEO and PPC marketing campaigns.
Keyword Stuffing (keyword spam)
The repetition of keywords and/or phrases in META tags or anywhere else
on the website. As this technique could artificially increase the relevancy
of the websites and was abused in the past it's treated as spam on most
search engines.
Keyword Tag
Refers to the META Keywords tag within a web page.
landing page
The page that a user lands on when clicking on a link in SERPs or
advertisement.
Link
A web page element that can be clicked on to cause the browser to jump
to another page or another part of the current page.
Link Building
The process of gathering high quality incoming links to a site that search
engines will evaluate to determine your website as authoritative, relevant,
and trustworthy.
Link Exchange
Reciprocal linking scheme which often allow links to sites of low or no
quality, and add no value themselves.
Link Farms
Group of sites that all link to each other, produced for spiders, with
little or no value to users, penalized or ignored by search engines.
Link Popularity
A measure of the value of a particular website based on quantity and quality
of links pointing to it (inbound links) from other sites. This feature
is used by search engines for positioning of web pages in search engines
indexes. For competitive search queries link quality counts much more
than link quantity.
Local Search Results
The page on which the search engines show the results with relevan local
information for a search query related to a specific location.
Log File
A file with all details of file accesses are stored, which is kept on
a server. Log files analyze can reveal many useful data on website traffic.
Long Tail Keyword
Longer (three or more words), more specific search queries. A large percentage
of all searches are long tail searches. Long tails often draw lower traffic
so they are cheaper than shorter, more competitive keyword phrases, but
have good conversion ratios.
Meta Search Engine
A server which submits queries to many search engine and directories,
sorts them and remove duplicates, and then summarizes all the results
(Ask, Metacrawler, Dogpile, etc.).
Meta Tags
Meta tags are placed in the HTML header of a web page to provide information
not visible to browsers, but represent the first impression that users
get about web page within the SERPs, and are taken into consideration
by search engines to determine the topic of the page. The most commonly
used meta tags are Title, Description and Keywords tags. Because of the
abuse in the past, the keywords tag is very rarely taken into consideration
for search engine positioning, but search engines might reduce the ranking
or even penalize the website if there are repetitions of keywords in keywords
tag.
Minimum Bid
The least amount that an advertiser can bid for a keyword or keyword phrase
and still be active on the search ad network.
Mirror Sites
Identical copies of websites on different servers. Treated as spam on
search engines, as it could artificially increase the relevancy of the
websites.
Multiple Keyword Tags
The usage of more than one Keywords META tag. As this could artificially
increase the relevancy of the websites and was abused in the past it's
treated as spam on search engines.
Multiple Titles
The usage of more than one Title in the header section of a web page.
As this could artificially increase the relevancy of the websites and
was abused in the past it's treated as spam on search engines.
Natural (organic) search results
The search engine results which are not paid or sponsored in any way,
organized by relevancy, based on link, content, usage, age and trust related
data. Most clicks on SERPs are on the organic search results.
Niche
A topic or subject which a website is focused on.
NoScript Tag
HTML element used to define an alternate content (text) if a script is
NOT executed.
NoFollow attribute
Used on links to tell search engines not to count the link as a vote or
not to send any trust to that site. Search engines will follow the link,
yet it will not influence search results. NoFollows can be added to any
link with this code: “rel="nofollow"."
Optimization
Quality changes of a web page's content to improve its search engine positioning
thus helping potential customers to find a website more easily.
PHP
A scripting language used to create dynamic websites, which runs on the
web server rather rather than on the user's PC (like JavaScript). PHP
can be used for the same kind of applications as ASP and .NET but is free
and open source.
Placement
See Positioning
Positioning
Search engines and directories order websites so that the most relevant
websites appear first in search engine results for a particular query.
This process is called search engine positioning. This term is also used
to describe various techniques used by search engine (website) optimizers
to help the website rank higher in search engines.
Positioning Algorithm
Each search engine or directory use some method to compare the keywords
or phrases in a query with the content of each web page in their indexes,
to ordered them suitably in the query results. Most search engines use
different algorithm, as well as develop it further or change their algorithms
in time to improve their listings.
Positioning Techniques
Various methods of modifying websites content so that it would be more
relevant for to a queries on search engines.
PPC Advertising – Pay Per Click Advertising
Online advertising model in which advertisers pay only for each click
on their ads that directs searchers to a specified landing page on the
advertiser’s web site.
Query
A word, or more often a group of words or phrase used on a search engine
or directory to find web pages or sites with appropriate content and information
on that thematic.
Quality Score
A number assigned by Google to paid ads in an auction that, together with
maximum CPC, determines each ad’s rank and SERP position. It depends
upon ad's CTR, keyword relevance, landing page relevance, etc. Yahoo!
uses the term Quality Index.
Ranking
See Positioning.
Refresh Tag
Meta tag used to refresh page content after a given number of seconds.
As this technique was often abused in the past to force browsers to a
different page or site (Gateway pages), it should be avoided. Most search
engines will index only the final page, but might reduce the ranking as
well or even might penalize the website.
Robot
See Spider
robots.txt
A text file which restricts robots' access to certain pages or sub directories
of the website, but only robots following the Robots Exclusion Standard
will read and obey the commands written in this file.
ROI - Return On Investment
The amount of money made on ads (or any other kind of marketing campaign)
compared to the amount of money spent on ads.
RSS – Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication
A group of web feed formats that uses XML for distributing and sharing
headlines and information from other web content (also known as syndication).
Relevance
A measure of how closely the Ads/Landing page (title, description, keywords,
etc.) for PPC advertising, and web page Tags/Content (title, description
tag, keywords, copy) for SEO are related to the search query and the searcher’s
expectations.
Saturation - Search Engine Saturation
The number of pages included from a specific website into any search engine.
The higher the saturation (number of pages indexed), the higher the potential
traffic and rankings.
Scrape
Copying content from sites, often automated.
Search Engine (SE)
A server that indexes Internet web pages and provides lists of pages
suitable for particular queries. The indexes are usually generated using
spiders.
Search Term
See Query
Search Visibility
The extent to which a website can be found in SERPs across all queries.
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
The process of achieving maximum exposure of a website within search engines,
thus increasing the number of visitors to a website (comprising of search
engine optimization, sponsored listings, etc.).
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
The process of achieving high rank, for targeted keyphrases, in the search
results of a search engine, thus increasing the qualified search engine
traffic of a website. The higher a website ranks in SERPs, the greater
the chance that users will visit the site.
SEO Best Practices: The primary goal of SEO is not just to rank
high - but to rank high exclusively for those terms that will generate
qualified search engine traffic, which convert into sales.
SERP(s) - Search Engine Results Page(s)
The page on which the search engines show the results for a search query.
Spam, Spamming, Spamdexing, Search Engine Spam
Spamming is a term used for sending of unsolicited bulk electronic
mail.
Search engine spamming, spamdexing, is any search marketing technique
that artificially increases the relevancy of the websites, thus increasing
the potential position of a site on the search engines listings, but at
the same time decreasing the quality of the search engine's database,
resulting in inappropriate or less relevant results.
In short, any method that a search engine deems to be detrimental to its
efforts to deliver relevant, quality search results. Both types of spamming
are generally frowned upon and will usually result in the opposite to
the desired effect.
Spider
Browser programs that are parts of search engines, which are not under
human control. They surf the web, finding and indexing websites, their
content, keywords, text, links, etc. while storing their URL as well.
Social Media
Various highly accessible online technologies, intended to help communications,
used by people to share information and perspectives (blogs, wikis, forums,
social bookmarking, user reviews, rating sites).
SMM - Social Media Marketing
A set of methods for generating website or brand promotion through social
media, online communities and community websites.
Splash Page
Animated or graphics laden pages without significant textual content,
intended to look showy (but often annoying) to users, but without attention
to search engines.
Sponsored (Paid) Listing
A term used as a title on SERPs to identify paid advertisers and distinguish
between paid and organic listings.
SSI
Server Side Includes are used to add dynamically generated content to
a web page. If SSI command is used within HTML code, the web server will
execute them, and they will be replaced with the results of the SSI program.
Generally, this is considered better solution for search engine indexing
and positioning than more complicated PL/ASP database queries.
Static Page
A web page without dynamic content or variables such as session IDs in
the URL. Static pages are search engine friendly.
Stop Word
Words which are ignored in search engines query because they are so commonly
used that make no contribution to relevancy (web, get, the, etc. ).
Targeting
Focusing keywords, ads/tags, landing pages/content, etc. (for SEM/SEO)
to attract a specifically chosen (by geo, demographic, behavioral, etc.
targeting) searcher and potential customer.
Text Link
A plain HTML link that does not involve graphic or special code such as
Flash or Java script.
Title
The text in the Title is displayed at the top of the window by the
web browser. Title text is important both because it is displayed in search
engine listings, and because it's taken into consideration for search
engine positioning. Not to be confused with heading text within the web
page.
Traffic
The number of visitors that come to a website over a given period of time.
Traffic Analysis
The process of analyzing traffic to a web site to understand what visitors
are searching for and what is driving traffic to a site.
Trust Rank
A method of differentiating between valuable pages and spam by quantifying
link relationships from trusted human evaluated seed pages.
UGC - User Generated Content
UGC refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that
are produced by end-users. Social Media, wikis, blogs, etc. rely heavily
on User Generated Content.
Unique Visitor
An actual web visitor (not a crawler), counted as one unique visit whether
he/she clicks on 1 or 100 links of the website
URL
Universal Resource Locator (URL) is an address which can uniquely specify
any Internet resource (e.g. http - for web pages, ftp - for file transfers,
mailto -for e-mail addresses, etc.)
Usability
This term refers to how "user friendly" a web site and its functions
are. Usable website makes it easy for visitors to find the information
they are looking for and/or to perform the action they desire. Easy, intuitive
navigation and clear, informative text enhance website usability.
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium
W3C is an international group who aim to devise agreed, workable standards
for web design.
Web 2.0
Websites that encourage user interaction.
White Hat
SEO techniques that conform to best practice guidelines, and don't attempt
to manipulate SERPs.
Wiki
Web publishing software/technology similar to blog that allows people
to contribute knowledge on a particular topic, and allows for collaboration
with multiple people.
Wikipedia
A multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, written
collaboratively by volunteers.
XHTML - Extensible HyperText Markup Language
XHTML is designed to eventually replace HTML.
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