SEO Glossary

A9
A search engine from Amazon.com

Adword
A system used by Google to drive its cost-per-click advertising system

AJ
Ask Jeeves (Search Engine)

Alt Tag
Alternate text associated with a webpage graphic that gets displayed when one hovers the mouse over the graphic

Alexa
Amazon.com subsidiary providing traffic statistics for websites

Analyticals
See “Web Anlytics”

Anchor Text
Usually clickable text element representing a hyperlink

Announce
Announce a website to the engines by adding a link to it from another website that is already indexed by the search engines

AOL
America Online (Search Engine)

API
Application Program Interface, a set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications

ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASP
Active Server Pages, a Microsoft-invented, proprietary programming language for building dynamic websites; also Application Service Provider

ASPX
Active Server Page Framework (Microsoft)

ATF
Above the Fold

ATW
All The Web (Search Engine)

AV
AltaVista (Search Engine)

Backlink
A link received by a webpage from an external page

Banned
Blocking of a website by a search engine

Bid
Price that an advertiser is willing to pay on a pay-per-click search engine

Bid Management Tool
Software or an ASP service used to manage bids on pay-per-click search engines, such as Overture

Blackhat SEO
SEO by unethical means

Blog/Weblog
An online publication of a personal thoughts

Bloglines
A web-based RSS reader and search engine

Blogosphere/Blogsphere
A collective term for all weblogs or blogs

Bot
Abbreviation for robot. Usually refers to a program which automatically retrieves and indexes data from the web (e.g., a search engine spider)

Blacklist
A list of search engine spammers

Body Copy
Textual content of a web page

Bridge Page/Doorway Page
See "Doorway Page"

CGI
Common Gateway Interface

CMS
Content Management System

CPC
Cost Per Click

CPL
Cost Per Lead

CPM
Cost Per Thousand impressions

CPS
Cost Per Sale

CRM
Customer Relationship Management

CSS
Cascading Style Sheet(s), used to manipulate the design of a website

CSV
Comma Separated Values

CTA
Content Targeted Ad(vertising)

CTR
Click Through Rate: the rate at which people click on a link, such as a search engine listing or a banner ad

CWO
Chief Web Officer

Cache
Copies of web pages stored locally on an your hard drive or within a search engine's database

Cloaking
Serving different (keyword-rich) content to search engine spiders than to human visitors to get a webpage higher in search results

Conversion
Turning a website visitor into a client

Cookie
Information placed on a visitor's computer by a web server

Crawler/Spider

Counter
A PHP or Java Script program that tracks the total number of webpage impressions

DHTML
Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language

DMOZ
Directory Mozilla (also known as the The Open Directory Project)

DNS
Domain Name System

DOM
Document Object Model

Dead Link
A hyperlink which no longer exists

Database-Driven Website
Website with a part of the content extracted from databases to which it is connected

Database-Generated/Dynamic Webpage
Webpage created dynamically 'on-the-fly' from a database, in contrast to a static HTML page

Deep-Submitting
Submitting to the search engines URLs of pages deep inside your website

Doorway Page/Bridge Page
Any page created for the sole purpose of driving website traffic from the search engines, and not a functional part of the website

Dynamic ebpage
See database-generated

Error Page
Also referred to as a 404 page

EPV
Earnings Per visitor

FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions

FFA
Free For All

FTP
File Transfer Protocol

Feed Reader
Synonym for news aggregator

Firefox
A popular standards-compliant web-browser which supports a high level of customization through "extensions"

Flash
A technology developed by MacroMedia Corp. that allows a web designer to embed interactive multimedia into web pages

Frames
A webpage made by combining several webpages, each with its own scrollbar

Frameset
A webpage made up of frames

Fresh
The term that Google uses to refer to frequently changing home pages

G
Abbreviation of Google

GG
Google or Google Guy

Gmail
A free web-based email service from Google

Google
A search engine

Google AdSense
A contextual ad network that gives publishers the option to serve adverts on their website in return for commissions on a cost-per-click basis

Google Base
A Google service offering a searchable repository of virtually any type of user-contributed content

Google Images
A Google service offering search for image content

Google Maps
A Google service providing directions, interactive maps and satellite/aerial imagery from across the world

Google Ranking
SEO term referring to a URL's ranking in the Google search engine

Google Reader
A web-based feed reader from Google that makes use of AJAX technology

Google Toolbar
A downloadable toolbar from Google, available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers

Googol
10100 , 10 multiplied by 10 a 100 times

Google Bombing
A group of websites/blogs joining forces to link to an unflattering page about a company in order to raise the ranking of this page to the top of the search results in Google

Googleware
An assortment of tools created by Google to search, report, play, research, e.g., AdWord, AdSense, BlogSearch, Froogle, Google Maps, Google Images, Google Earth, etc.

Hallway Page
A page serving as an index to the pages that you would like the search engine spiders to locate

Heading Tag
An HTML tag used to denote a page or a section heading on a web page

Hidden Keywords
Keywords that are placed in the HTML source in such a way that they are not visible to human visitors

Hit
A download of a file from a web server

HTML
HyperText Markup Language

HTML Source
The raw, unrendered programming code

HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol

Hotbot
A search engine

Hypertext
Underlined text that points to another page

IBL
Inbound links

Impression
The number of times your Ad-copy is displyed by search engines in sponsored listing

InLinks/Inbound links
Links pointing to your site from sites other than your own; they improve your site’s PageRank

Index
A search engine’s datsbase in which it stores textual content from every web page that its spider visits

Ink
Inktomi (Search Engine)

Invisible Web
Information on the web that is not indexed by search engines

IP
Internet Protocol

ISP
Internet sevice provider

Java Applets

Small programs written in java programming language to be embedded into web pages; they run on internet user’s computer rather than on web server’s

JavaScript (JS)
A scripting language; JavaScripts run on Internet user’s computer rather than on web server’s

Junk Pages
Meaningless documents that serve no purpose other than to spam the search engines with keyword-stuffed pages

KDA
Keyword Density Analyzer

KEI
Keyword Effectiveness Index

Keyword (KW)
A word that a search engine user might use to find relevant web page(s)

Keyword Density (KD)
Indicates how often a keyword appears on a webpage: KD=number of keyword occurences/total number of words on a webpage

Keyword Popularity
Number of searches performed using a given keyword over a period of time

Keyword Prominence
Placement level of a given keyword in the HTML source code of a webpage

Keyword-rich
Text full of meaningful keywords

Keyword Stuffing
Force-feeding keywords into the page copy for boosting the page ranking in the search engines, at the cost of readabilty

Keyword Research
Determining the words and phrases that people use to find information

Landing Page
The web page that opens when a visitor clicks through from a banner ad, or from search engine result or from clicking on a text link

Link
Text or graphics that when clicked on take the Internet user to another web page location; links are expressed as URLs

Link Building
Requesting links from webmasters of other sites for increasing the link popularity and/or PageRank of your website

Link Exchange
The practise of exchanging links with other websites, often with the purpose of increasing link popularity

Link Popuparity
A measure of total inbound links from external pages pointing to the subject page

Log File
A web server file containing date and time, file name accessed, user's IP address, referring webpage, user's browser software and version and cookie data

Link Bait
Useful or entertaining web content that compels users to link to it

Meta Description
A meta tag hidden in the HTML that describes the page's content

Meta Keywords
A meta tag hidden in the HTML that lists keywords relevant to the page's content

Meta Search
Search results derived from several sources and consolidated into a single search-engine-results page

Meta Tag
Meta-information (information about information) that is associated with a webpage and placed in the HTML but not displayed on the page for the user to see

Mirror
See “Replica”

Mod-rewrite
A module in Apache servers that can be used to rewrite requested URLs on-the-fly

Mouseover
Display of something new by simply hovering the mouse over a text or graphic link, without having to click on itMSN
Microsoft network and their search engine

Navigation Bar
A website's navigation icons that plays a crucial role in getting site visitors to view more than just the home page

Negative SEO
Demoting a page or site from the SERPs (Search engine results page). Most often used against a competitor that is above your site in the SERPs but can be used purely for fun

News Aggregator
A hosted or desktop application that collects and aggregates content syndicated into a consolidated view; e.g., Bloglines, Google Reader and NewsGator

On-Theme
Content specific to a particular theme

Outbound Links (OBL)/Outlinks
Links that direct a user from your website to another website

Overture
A search engine

PDF
Adobe's Portable Document Format, a file format that displays a page exactly as intended regardless of the computer/web browser software used, unlike HTML

PFI
Pay For Inclusion

PHP
An open-source programming language for building dynamic websites

Pop-Under
A pop-up that appears underneath a webpage and is viewable only when the current page is closed

Pop-Up
A small box that appears over a current webpage to give information or display an ad

PPC
Pay Per Click, a pay-for-performance advertising pricing model where adverts (such as banners or paid search engine listings) are priced based on the number of clickthroughs rather than on impressions or other criteria

PR
Google PageRank

Page Inclusion
Paying a search engine to have your web pages included in that search engine's index

Pagejacking
Stealing high-ranking webpage content from another site and placing it on your site in the hope of increasing your own site's search engine rankings

PageRank
A Google measure of link popularity

Page Title
See “Title Tag”

Page Placement
Paying a search engine to have your listing show up prominently. These listings are usually denoted as sponsored listings

Pay-For-Performance
An advertising pricing model based on delivering sales, contrary to traditional banner advertising based on impressions

Pageviews
See “Impression”

PermaLink
A permanent link that readers can bookmark, or link to, with a fairly explicit guarantee that the URL won't move or disappear in the future

Pull-Down List/Select List
A menu-like list that appears under an on-screen button when it is pressed

Rank
A website’s position in a search engine for a certain keyword or key phrase

Redirect
To take the Internet user to another page automatically without her/him clicking on anything

Referer
A webpage that sends a visitor to your site because of the link it has to your website

Relevance
The likelihood of a webpage to be of use to a search engine user for a keyword search

Render
To format and stylize HTML source code into the final format for viewing by a visitor

Replica/Mirror
A copy of a dynamic website or a group of webpages from a dynamic site, saved as static HTML files

Robots.txt
Text file placed in a website’s root directory and linked in the HTML code

Reciprocal Linking
The practice of trading links between websites

ROI
Return on investment

SEMPO
SEM professional organization to educate people on the value of SEM

SEO Company
A company offering SEO consultancy services

SEO Tools
Web-based or desktop software for monitoring/automating SEO campaigns

Search Engine
A web site that offers its visitors the ability to search the content of numerous web pages on the Internet

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Strategies and tactics employed to increase the number/quality of leads generated by the search engines

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Strategies and tactics employed to improve webpages in order to gain higher rankings in search engines

Search Engine Positioning
Strategies and tactics employed to increase a website's rankings in the search engines for particular keywords

Search Term
A keyword or phrase used to conduct a search engine query

Skype
A peer-to-peer VoIP network that allows Skype users to make and receive free calls among themselves

Sniffer Script
A small program or script that detects which web browser software an Internet user is using and then serves up the particular browser-specific cascading style sheet to match

Spamglish
Keyword-rich gibberish used as search engine fodder

Spamdexing
Using blackhat techniques to fool the search engine spiders in order to achieve high search engine rankings

Spider/Bot/Crawler
A program used by a search engine to browse and explore the WorldWideWeb in a systematic automated manner for indexing purpose

Spider Trap
An infinite loop that a spider may get caught in if it explores a dynamic site

Splash Page
Introduction page to a website showcasing advanced graphics or animation, but containing no real content

Standards-Compliant
See “Web Standards”

Static Webpage
A webpage not created dynamically from a database, but created earlier and stored as HTML file

Stop Character
Characters such as &, = and ? that if present in URLs discourage a search engine from indexing that website

Stop Words
Common words like the, a, an, of, etc., that are ignored from search criteria

Submitting
Presenting a webpage address to a search engine in the hope that it will index it

Supplement Pages
Pages indexed in Google but not existing currently

SERP
Search Engine Results Page that opens in response to a search engine query

Search Engine Algorithm
Operational programming rules that determine how a search engine indexes content and displays the results to its users

Stemming
Ability of a search engine to search for variations of a word derived from the basic root word

Technorati
A search engine that specifically indexes weblogs

Text Link
A text-based hyperlink

Theme
Main focus of a site

Title Tag
Text displayed in the topmost bar in the browser window

Traffic
Number of visitors to a site

Trulia
A vertical search engine for real estate

URL
Uniform resource locator

Unique Visitors
Individual visitors accessing your site, regardless of the number of user sessions

User Session/Visit
One sitting of browsing through your website; one user session/visit is considered over only if the user inactivity period exceeds 30 minutes or so

Visibility
A measure of how well placed your website is in search engines for relevant keyword search

Visit
See User Session

Web Browser
Software installed on your computer that allows you to view web pages, e.g., Firefox, Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.

Web Standards
The practice of using XHTML and CSS coding in a website to separates content from presentation; such a site id said to be standards-compliant

Web Analytics/Analyticals
A methodology to analyze a site’s activity in terms of performance and visitor behavior,in order to increase site visibility

WWW
WorldWideWeb, or the Internet

Xenu
A software tool to check broken links

XHTML
Extensible hypertext markup language

XML
Extensible markup language, a scripting language that allows the programmer to define the properties of a document

Y!
Abbreviation for Yahoo search engine

Yahoo!
An Internet portal and one of the top three search engines

Zip
A file compression format

SEO Glossary

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