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Search Engine Optimization Glossary of Key Terms

A
Algorithm
– An elaborate formula utilized by a search engines to determine the ranking of web pages it finds by crawling the web.

ALT Tags – HTML script that allows alternative text when non-textual elements, typically images, are not able to be visible. Typically used to show a short description of an image when hovering the curser over it. ALT tags can improve your search engine rankings when you install keywords therefore increasing the overall keyword density.

Example:
<img src=”"images/logo.jpg" ALT="Ensuring Your Online Success!" width="210" height="168" hspace="11" vspace="7" align=”"right">

B
Backlinks (Incoming Links) – Sometimes referred to as incoming links. Links to your web page(s) from other web page(s).

Broken Link (Dead Link) – No longer functioning link due to the designated page having been renamed, moved or deleted from the server.

C
Click-Through
– When a user clicks on a link to go to a desired web page.

Click-Through-Rate (CTR) – The amount of times an online advertisement or link is clicked on divided by the number of times it is displayed (impression).

Cloaking – Content presented to the search engines that differs from content presented to a user’s browser. This technique is used to fool search engines in order to achieve higher page rankings while making sure the user continues to view a visually attractive and useful page.

Comment Tags – Used to insert a comment into the HTML source code to designate specific instructions or information about a part of the page code.

Example:<!—Example of a Comment Tag–>

Counter – Coding script that keeps track of the amount of unique visitors that view that web page or entire web site.

Crawler ( Web Crawler or Spider ) – A program utilized by search engines to search for information on the Web by following links from page to page. Most search engines use this for placing web pages in their index.

Cross Linking – Interlinking between sites with the same owner in order to achieve higher rankings.

D
Description Meta Tag – An informational description with in a meta tag pertaining to the content of which the web page is presenting. Can be optimized for by installing keywords or terms.

Example :<META NAME="Description" CONTENT=" MorePro Marketing Inc. provides specialized Website promotion and sales conversion services to companies targeting 1,000 to 1,000,000 website visitors per month. ">

Directory – Site listing constructed from submissions designed by website owners categorized hierarchically and managed by human editors.

Example: Yahoo

Domain – Internet address or URL of a website.

Example : In the URL – https://morepro.com, morepro.com is the domain.

Doorway Page – A web page strictly used for optimizing a specific keyword or term in order to achieve high rankings in search engines. Doorway pages should consist of good content related to the website.

Duplicate Content – When two or more web pages on a single site contain the exact or significantly similar content. Some search engines including Google have filters in line to penalize sites with duplicate content when crawled therefore lowering the page rank.

Dynamic Content – Generated web pages from database information initiated from queries set forth by others.

F
Filters – A program that search engines utilize to examine the copy on a website for spam. The use of spam on a webpage risks a ranking penalty.

G
Googlebot – The web crawler that Google uses to index new web pages.

Google Toolbar – An internet toolbar allowing a user to perform a Google Search without accessing the Google website. The toolbar provides a visual page ranking for each page visited. http://toolbar.google.com

H
Header Tags
– HTML tags that define your page’s organizational structure and lay out page navigation.

Hidden Text – Text that is visible to search engines but not to the visitors by using a text the same color as the background color. Most search engines and Google will penalize for the usage of hidden text.

Hits – A single access request made to the server for a file or a graphic. When a visitor visits a web page with 10 graphics, each graphic represents a hit along with the page itself therefore equaling 11 hits. The only virtual way to determine qualified traffic flow of a single website is to look at the average number of unique visitors and page views a site accumulates.

Home Directory (Home Page) – A website’s main index page.

I
Inbound Links – Links directing a user to another website.

Indexing – When a search engine crawls and ranks URLs using algorithms and places them in a database hierarchically.

IP Address – Internet Protocol Address. A unique number combination assigned to each computer that has access to the internet.

K
Keyword (term or phrase) – A term or phrase commonly typed into a search engine in order to pull up websites with related content. SEOs research keywords and optimize pages for these keywords.

Keyword Density – The amount of keywords or phrases used on a web page in correlation to the total number words altogether. Very significant when optimizing a page successfully.

Keywords Meta Tag – HTML code that designates a set of the main keywords and terms that are relevant to the page’s content. Search engines sometimes use these keyword meta tags to determine page rank. There has been a lot of abuse by Web sites in the past resulting in search engines reducing the significance of keyword relevance. It’s still an important factor when optimizing.

Example: <meta name="keywords" content="web site promotion services,website promotion company,seo,search engine optimization,online marketing,specialized marketing,internet marketing,morepro marketing inc">

Keyword Spamming – The repetitive usage of keywords or phrases on a single page using hidden text in order to have a high keyword density. Not accepted by search engines.

L
Link Anchor Text
– The clickable part of a complete link.

Link Exchange (reciprocal linking) – When two separate web sites put a link to the other on their own website.

Link Popularity – The measurement of the amount of other web sites that include a link to your website. Search engines often use this as a factor in their rankings.

Link Farms – Web sites designed and specifically used for the purpose of maintaining links between sites mainly for ranking purposes. Link Farms are penalized by most of the search engines.

Links – A clickable text or graphic placed on a web page that will take the browser to another web page when clicked on.

M
Mirror Sites
– Duplicated web site on two different domains. Search engines are not partial to this tactic and will penalize.

O

Open Directory Project (ODP or DMOZ) – Provides free listings for qualified sites. The ODP is the largest human edited directory on the internet. The editors are volunteers so the wait can be long.

Outbound Links – Links on your web site going out to another.

P
PageRank™ – A numerical rating from 0 – 10 that is assigned to every web page by Google in their index as part of its algorithms.

Page Views – A page view is when a web page on a site is accessed by a unique visitor representing a single page view. That same visitor can visit the same page, and it will register as another page view.

Paid Inclusion – A search engine will list pages from a website in exchange for payment. Will not guarantee pages will rank well for certain queries.

Pay Per Click (PPC) – Advertising opportunity where an advertiser gets a textual ad on a search engine site in exchange for payment only if a user clicks on the link.

R
Ranking
– Refers to where a web site or web page is ranked within search engine when a search query is performed. The results are based upon relevancy to the search term along with the algorithm.

Relevancy – Refers to how closely the content on a web page relates to the search term requested.

Robot – Program utilized by search engines to crawl the web to index and rank new web pages.

S
Search Engine – A database system that indexes and categorizes URLs.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Techniques used to improve search engine rankings for specific search terms and phrases.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) – A ranked listing that a search engine returns in based on a user’s search query.

Spam – Any attempt utilized to “trick” a search engine into giving your web page(s) with in an inaccurate position.

Stop Word – Common everyday words considered by search engines to be useless therefore left out of algorithms. Examples are “the,” “and,” etc.


T
Title Meta Tag – An HTML tag that is used to give search engines and web browsers a title of the page that is being displayed. It’s a good idea to incorporate keywords and phrases into your titles to help boost ranking.

Example: <title>Specialized Web site Promotion & Sales Conversion Services – MorePro Marketing Inc.</title>

Traffic – A Web site’s actual average rate of visitors with in a given time frame.

U
Unique Visitors – Web servers continually record the IP address of each individual visitor which is used to determine the amount of individuals who have visited the site. If a user visits 10 pages with in the same web site, the server will only count for one unique visitor.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – A web address mapped to IP addresses used to specify the address of web sites and web pages.

W
Word stemming – A technique used in which search engines will respond to search terms with words based upon a particular stem.

Example :
Manufacture may return pages with words like “manufacturer” or “manufacturing”.