SEO Glossary Terms
Adwords- Google's Pay-Per-Click program.
Algorithms- An SEO
Term meaning a proprietary set of rules that search engines
utilize to rank searches on their index pages for users' queries.
The algorithms are proprietary secrets of search
engine companies to keep websites from cheating to get top
results for search queries.
Alt Tags- These are textual attributes
given to web graphics.
Anchor text- refers to the visible
text for a hyperlink; the visible link text given to a link that
points to another website or web page.
Austin Update- refers to Google's
complex algorithmic changes in Jan. 2004 that saw many websites
disappearing from the search engine result pages (SERP). The update
upended free subdomains and sites with spam-type links pointing
back.
Backlinks-
are links that point back to a website; also known as inbound
links.
Banned- An SEO
term used when a site has been removed from a search engine's
index due to terms of violations.
BlackHat SEO-
is generally referred to as search engine optimization that abuses
and goes against the terms of servic set forth by each inidividual
search engine's policy.
Blind Ads- also called "banner
blindness"- A Search
Engine Optimization term that refers to how users may see
banner ads or flashing ads by just naturally ignoring them. Generally
Banner Ads that are vague in content and ask users to sign up
or click through for some enticing benefit. Many of these ads
are seen through free email accounts that internet users procure.
Blog- short for weblog that is a
journal or newsletter that is regularly updated and often reflects
the personality of the author.
Bot- Abbreviation for a robot or
spider that scans the web. Bots are geared toward different functions
from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail
addresses for spammers.
Broken or Dead Link- a link that
does not actually point to a web page on the internet.
Clickthrough Rate- Also known as
CTR, refers to the number of people who view
a link versus the number of people who actually click on that
link; the rate is represented in a percentage.
Cloaking- Cloaking is presenting
a page to a search engine spider that is not what a human sees.
The technique is abused by spammers for keyword stuffing. Cloaking
is a violation of the Terms Of Service of search engines and may
lead to banning.
Conversion- an action where a user
buys a product, fills out a form or signs up for a newsletter
for example. Analytical software can help determine visitor's
actions within a website to increase performance for a more productive
ROI.
Conversion Cost- a term representing
the total cost of adverstising or investment divided by the number
of sales conducted during the advertising campaign. An example
would be 10 sales where $1,000 spent on the campaign would result
in $100/ sale.
Clustering- techniques search engines
use to report more than one web page from a single domain in a
results query; this prevents single domains from dominating an
entire results page.
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)- This is the
figure used to determine how much an advertiser pays when a potential
buyer cliks on the ad to be taken to the advertiser's site.
Crawlers- the search engine bots
that crawl web pages for indexing.
De-listing- is when a web page or
domain is removed from a search engines index; usually occurs
because of a violation of a search engines' TOS.
Directory- an organized collection
of internet sites; some directories are related to specific topics
called niche directories.
Drill Down- refers to clicking through
categories and subcategories to get to specific topics.
Dynamic Pages- refer to web pages
that change on a regular basis versus static pages that rarely
change or add content. Users actions or selections may change
the page with content delivered from a database.
Everflux- a Google term that refers
to its algorithm adjusted in small increments, on a daily/regular
basis versus major algorithmic changes where sites may be upended
across the spectrum of natural topics/searches.
FFA- stands for free-for-all; these
are websites that are primarily just stuffed with any links, with
no categories or content structure and offering little to no value
by search engines.
Florida Update- referes to a big
change in Google's algorithm in Nov. 2003.
Frames- an html tag that allows for
multiple web pages to be displayed simultaneously. Most search
engines cannot properly index pages with frames which does not
compliment search
engine optimization.
Google Bombing- An SEO
term meaning a technique used to influence keywords or keyword
phrases. This can happen when several sites use consistent anchor
text when referencing a particular subject. One of the most famous
examples was when "miserable failure" was linked to
President George Bush. Google claims it has fixed this technique
and it is no longer valid.
Googlebot- Google's spider that crawls
web pages and indexes them.
Google Supplemental Results Pages-
Google maintains several search databases. Some are specialty
databases such as blogs, news services, etc., however the main
two databases are the primary databases and the supplemental databases.
The determination to these databases responsibilities' is that
primary results are always returned alone unless few results are
available in which supplemental results will also be returned.
Heading or Header Tag- An html tag
for headings and subheadings where up to 6 headings are allowed
on a page. The search engines consider them important when keywords
are contained in the (sub)headings.
Hidden Text- is text that is not
visible to humans but is visible to search engines. Most often
the text is cloaked from view by assuming the same color as the
web page.
Hit- a hit is often confused with
page views or visitors but it is the number of requests on a server.
For example, a web page with 3 images would deliver 4 hits, one
for the webpage and 3 for the images.
ICANN-
the description on their sites states that it, "is responsible
for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique
identifiers. These include domain names (like .org, .museum and
country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety
of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach
each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources
is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders
meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's
ongoing security and stability."
Inbound Link (IBL)-
An SEO term that refers to a link on another page (b) that points
to another web page (a); web page "a" has an inbound
link while web page "b" has an outbound link. Also called
inbound links or IBL's.
Indexable- the ability for web pages
to be indexed by the search engines. Locked .pdf files and text
within graphics are examples of content not able to be indexed.
Java Script- a relativley simple
programming script that is not search engine optimization friendly.
Keyword- An SEO Term meaning a single
descriptive word entered into a search engine query.
Keyword Phrase-
An SEO Term, meaning a set of multiple
words entered into a search engine for a query.
Keyword Stuffing- is when search
engine optimizers overuse keywords heoping to get better placement
in the search results.
Latent Semantic Indexing-
Link Farms- websites that have a
huge amount of unorganized links and are designed to get as many
links as possible without regard to the quality of site and what
it offers human visitors.
Link
Popularity- An SEO term that refers to the number
of inbound links and the quality of those links as far as page
ranking (PR).
Link Swapping (Reciprocol Links)-
Refers to one website exchanging links with another website.
Link Validator- a program that scans
a website for broken links then generates a report.
Log File- Each website has a log
file that is stored on the server that has various information
such as search terms that internet users entered into search engines
to get to the site, other websites that brought traffic to the
site, inbound links a user followed, how much time the user spent
on pages, unique visitors, visitor geographic locations, etc.
Long Tail Phrases- An SEO
term that refers to less commonly used keyword
phrases that clients may target in order to have quicker success
in SERPs, however, the targeted traffic would naturally not be
as great using broader keyword phrases. This phrase has its origination
in statistics from the Bell Curve statistical model.
Made-for-Adsense (MFA)- A term that
refers to websites that are made to simply bring in traffic that
will be directed to click on Adsense ads to deliver pay to the
web owner. These sites usually have no user value but are highly
optimized on-page and off-page for search engines.
Manual Submission- refers to submitting
a site to a directory mannually, by hand, versus submissions using
software programs.
Meta Description- one or two sentences
hidden within the html code describing the webpage.
Meta Keywords- the sets of individual
keywords or keyword phrases grouped by commas that are relevant
to the webpage and hidden with the html coding.
Meta Search
Engine- A search engine that retrieves indexed pages
from other search engines such as Google and Yahoo then presents
them to users with their own proprietary algorithms versus Google's
or Yahoo's algorithms.
Meta Tag- An html tag that is entered
within the head of a webpage that describes the content of the
webpage. Many webmasters have abused this tag which search engines
used to help index the page properly along with keyword descriptions;
it is becoming less important as far as SERP's.
Negative SEO- a blackhat
technique that uses bad text links with negative connatations
linking back to a competitors site, linking competitors to link
farms and free-for-all sites, etc.
Off-page Ranking- An SEO term that
refers to factors considered by the search engines when ranking
a web page such as number of backlinks, quality of backlinks,
actual linking text, etc.
On-page Ranking- An SEO term that
refers to factors considered by search engines to rank a web page
such as number of inbound links, outbound links, text headings,
quality of content, unique content, number of worded text, etc.
Ontology- a search engine term that
refers specifically to a file that defines relationships between
words.
OutBound Link- is when web page "a"
links to web page "b" then web page "a" is
said to have an outbound link and "b" has an 'inbound
link' from "a".
Page Rank (PR)- A Google term given
to a particular web page. That factor is now updated often if
not daily and given a ranking score upon a multitude of variables
known mostly to Google. The primary factor of PR is link popularity.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)- an advertising
term where advertisers only pay for the ad if a user clicks the
ad which takes the user to the advertiser.
Query- a word or group of words entered
into a search engine's search box.
Ranking- refers to
the position of a webpage when a query is entered into a search
engine. An example would be "SEO"
entered into a search engine with a site listed in the fourth
position' the site would be considered to rank 4th for that particular
keyword or phrase.
Robot- refers to the search engine
mechanisms that crawl sites to index information.
Robots.txt- An SEO term that refers
to a simple notepad file where webmasters ask the bots or search
engine spiders which pages they may access and index within a
website.
ROI- means 'return of investment'
where the return comes from an investment of cash value or labor
or a combination of both.
Score- web pages are assigned scores
while the "best", most relevant page should fall into
the top of the search results and is assigned a score while the
other pages are scored in reference to the top listing and are
listed in scored order.
SEM- Search Engine Marketing which
SEO is a smaller or separate part.
SEO-
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization which is a technique
to have web pages rank as high as possible using on-page optimization
and off-page optimization.
Search Engine Result Page (SERP)-
Refers to the page(s) of the search results.
Spam- An SEO term that is referred
to in the search engine world of manipulating search engine results
in order to achieve a higher position. Several techniques may
be used such as keyword stuffing, useless content generated by
software with keywords stuffed in the document, etc. This violates
Terms of Service of search engines and will generally get sites
banned.
Spamdexing- refers to a cross between
spamming and indexing where blackhat SEOers attempt to get listed
high in the SERPs.
Spiders- Spiders are search engine
robots or bots that crawl web pages on sites to index them and
gather the content on the site.
Splash Pages- An introductory, beginning
page on a website that generally uses Flash or another type of
heavy graphics that usually has little value in SEO and can easily
have no value to search engines but esthetic value to human visitors.
Splog-
Three-way Linking- An SEO term that
refers to a technique used to deceive the search engines where
one site links to the second site who links to a third site which
in turn links back to the first site. A technique not endorsed
by SEO Metro.
Upperfold-- refers to the viewable
text on a folded newspaper; the upper half of a newspaper.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)- an
internet address such as http://www.seo-metro.com/search-engine-optimization.html
where the http is the access protocol, the domain name seo-metro.com
and the file name or resource, in this case search-engine-optimization.html
whith html as the file extension.
Yahoo! Slurp- Yahoo!'s bot that crawls
web pages for later indexing and in the end, search results.

SEO Glossary Terms