Glossary of SEO Terms
A formula or a set of steps for solving a particular problem. To be
an algorithm, a set of rules must be unambiguous and have a clear stopping
point. Algorithms can be expressed in any language, from languages like
English or French to programming languages like FORTRAN. We use algorithms
every day. For example, a recipe for baking a cake is an algorithm. Most
programs, with the exception of some artificial intelligence applications,
consist of algorithms. Inventing elegant algorithms- algorithms that are
simple and require the fewest steps possible-is one of the principal challenges
in programming
Abbr text is used for abbreviations which are shortened forms of words
like HTML, FBI or WWW.
Example: <ABBR>abbr text goes here</ABBR>
Acronym text is used for pronounceable abbreviations like NATO. It is
also used for shortened forms of word like Inc. for Incorporated or Lab.
for laboratory.
Example: <ACRONYM>acronym text goes here</ACRONYM>
Google provides website owners with a fast and effective way to display
related advertising on their web pages and site search pages and earn
money through profit sharing with Google. The Google's Adsense system
is based on topical relevancy of the ads shown on the publishers' web
pages while maximizing earning from each page Google Adsense ads are shown
on. Some webmasters can earn six figure monthly income with Adsense published
on their forum, or blogs.
Google earns the majority of their revenue from placing advertisements
next to natural search results. This type of advertising is called Pay-Per-Click
advertising or PPC. Advertisers bid on keywords and create small text
or image based ads in using Google Adwords. When a search query is typed
into the Google search box, AdWords finds ads that match the target keywords
and based on the bid amounts and ad relevance it shows a sorted list of
paid ads on the top and right hand side of the screen. You can sign up
for Google Adwords.
API is the short form for Application Programming Interface and it's
a set of predefined methods and protocols to build remotely hosted client
applications that interact with the main host application server. Google,
Yahoo and MSN have developed their own propriatery search APIs and made
them available to webmasters with basic programming skills. The query
results returned by the search APIs are further parsed and processed by
the client application to enhance the API results.
Body text is the text visible in the browser. Does not include links
and tool tips.
Example: <BODY>Body text goes here</BODY>
Bold text is used as a font styling element to signify important words
or sections in the web page.
Example: <B>bold text goes here</B>
Cite text is used for citations or reference to other sources.
Example: <CITE>cite text goes here</CITE>
A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain
name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names
are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the
URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD)
it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:
gov - Government agencies
edu - Educational institutions
org - Organizations (nonprofit)
mil - Military
com - commercial business
net - Network organizations
ca - Canada
th - Thailand
Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every
Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain
names into IP addresses.
A page made specifically to rank well in Search Engines for particular
Keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the
main content.
Em text is used for emphasis and is usually displayed in italic font.
Example: <EM>em text goes here</EM>
You can use your Google API license key to perform automated queries
on Google that complies with Google's term of service agreement. To access
the Google Web APIs service, you must have a Google API license key. Your
Google Account and license key entitle you to 1,000 automated queries
per day.
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using
its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value.
In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote,
by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume
of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts
the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important"
weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."
Headings (H1,H2,H3) are used as the topics of the website's sections.
Example: <H1>heading 1 goes here</H1>
Short for Hypertext Markup Language, the authoring language used to
create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML is similar to SGML, although
it is not a strict subset. HTML defines the structure and layout of a
Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes. The correct structure
for an HTML document starts with (enter here what document is about) and
ends with . All the information you'd like to include in your Web page
fits in between the and tags.
Html comments are not visible in the browser and are mainly used for
developers to document html code.
Example: <!-- comment goes here -->
HTTP is called a stateless protocol because each command is executed
independently, without any knowledge of the commands that came before
it. This is the main reason that it is difficult to implement websites
that react intelligently to user input. This shortcoming of HTTP is being
addressed in a number of new technologies, including ActiveX, Java, JavaScript
and cookies. Short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol
used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and
transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in
response to various commands. For example, when you enter a URL in your
browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing
it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page.
A word used by a Search Engine in its search for relevant Web pages.
How often a Keyword or Keyword phrase occurs in a particular HTML page
section.
Most search engines look for keyword density. Some will only look at
the first 200-400 characters of your site, and count the number of times
the keyword appears. Some index a small amount of text from the top, middle,
and bottom parts of your web page, and search them for keywords. Generally
keyword density should be in the 6-8% range. Simply repeating the keyword
will not work because some search engines consider grammar structure in
their calculations. For a very competitive keyword you could aim a little
higher perhaps targeting a 10% range, but you have to take into consideration
the search engine may consider this spamming.
Prominence is the ratio of the position of one keyword or keyword phrase
to the positions of the other keywords in an HTML section of the page.
For example in the text enclosed by the BODY tag is one of sections of
the page we measure keyword prominence in.
Your most important keywords must appear in the crucial locations on
your web pages because search engines like pages where keywords appear
closer to the top of the page. They should preferable appear in the first
paragraphs of your page. Also keep in mind if you include keywords closer
to the bottom of your page it will have a negative effect on the overall
keyword prominence calculations.
Italic text is used as a font styling element to point out new terms,
book or article titles etc.
Example: <I>italic text goes here</I>
A global network connecting millions of computers. More than 100 countries
are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.
Ad blocking, banner blindness, buzzword, cookie, email spam, FFA, mouse-trapping,
opt-out, page-jacking, spam, Search Engine spam, trick banner.
HTML tag that provides alternative text when non-textual elements, typically
images, cannot be displayed. The image tag is a very important tag. It
directs the browser to either a gif or jpeg file. The browser then displays
that image file where the command is placed.
Image names are the names of the image files.
Example: <IMG SRC="image-name-goes-here.gif">
In database design, a list of keys (or Keywords), each of which identifies
a unique record. Indices make it faster to find specific records and to
sort records by the index field -- that is, the field used to identify
each record.
Link href is the attribute of the link and specifies the address of
another page.
Example: <A HREF="link-href-goes-here.html">text</A>
dered as a tool tip in the browser.
Example: <A HREF="page.html" TITLE="link title goes here">text</A>
A link farm consists of sites that link to other sites for the sole
purpose of increasing their link popularity score. Unlike perfectly valid
links to sites with related information, sites that participate in link
farming contain links to totally unrelated sites. This practice is also
referred to as link stuffing. Google hates link farms and labels the links
they generate as spam. In fact, Google gates them so much that some sites
get removed from the index if they're affiliated with link farms. Spooked,
some web masters are considering removing all outbound links from their
sites.
A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site.
A growing number of Search Engines use link popularity in their ranking
algorithms. Google uses it as it's most important factor in ranking sites.
HotBot, AltaVista, MSN, Inktomi, and others also use link popularity in
their formulas. Eventually every major engine will use link popularity,
so developing and maintaining it are essential to your Search Engine placement.
Link text is the clickable text which connects one web page to another.
The link text is also referred to as the Anchor text.
Example: <A HREF="page.html">link text goes here</A>
Link title is the attribute of the link and adds information about the
link, it is rendered as a mouse over text when a visitor hovers over the
link.
Visiting a search engine and adding a URL to the Search Engines individually
by hand.
A special HTML tag that provides information about a Web page. Unlike
normal HTML tags, meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Instead,
they provide information such as who created the page, how often it is
updated, what the page is about, and which Keywords represent the page's
content. Many Search Engines use this information when building their
indices.
Most search engines look for the keywords in the domain name, folder
name and page name. Keywords should be separated by hyphens.
Example: http://www.keyword1.com/keyword2-keyword3.html.
Short for Search Engine Optimization, the process of increasing the
amount of visitors to a website by ranking high in the search results
of a Search Engine. The higher a website ranks in the results of a search,
the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. It is common
practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search
results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing
more traffic toward the site.
Typically, a Search Engine works by sending out a spider to fetch as
many documents as possible. Another program, called an indexer, then reads
these documents and creates an index based on the words contained in each
document. Each Search Engine uses a proprietary algorithm to create its
indices such that, ideally, only meaningful results are returned for each
query.
The SERP is otherwise known as the Search Engines Results Page. This
is the page that users see after typing their search query into an engine.
Since conversion starts at the SERP, it is an important job of the search
marketer to obtain strong call-to-action listings that entice the click.
A program that searches documents for specified Keywords and returns
a list of the documents where the Keywords were found. Although Search
Engine is really a general class of programs, the term is often used to
specifically describe systems like Alta Vista and Excite that enable users
to search for documents on the World Wide Web and USENET news groups
Excessive manipulation of on-page and off-page search engine ranking
factors to influence search engine rankings. Spam websites are built for
the search engines and not for human visitors and they often contain little
or no relevant content to search queries.
Words that are common in a full-text file but have little value in searching.
Words in a stopword file will be excluded from the indexes, considerably
reducing the size of the indexes and improving search performance. For
example these are stopwords a about an are as at be by com for from how.
Strong text is used for stronger emphasis and is usually displayed in
bold font.
Example: <STRONG>strong text goes here</STRONG>
The act of supplying a URL to a Search Engine in an attempt to make
a Search Engine aware of a site or page.
Table summary is used for describing the table's contents and purpose
to non-visual media.
Example: <TABLE SUMMARY="summary goes here">
Table caption is used as a short description of the table's purpose
usually displayed below the table.
Example: <TABLE><CAPTION>caption goes here<CAPTION></TABLE>
HTML tag 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.
Example: <TITLE>title goes here</TITLE>
An individual who manages a website. Depending on the size of the site,
the Webmaster might be responsible for making sure that the Web server
hardware and software is running properly designing the website, creating
and updating Web pages, replying to user feedback, creating CGI scripts
or monitoring traffic through the site.
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