Glossary of Search
Engine Optimization Terms

301 redirect
A file on the server indicating that the requested page has permanently (301) or temporarily (302) been moved to another location.

404 error
The 404 or Not Found error message, as commonly encountered when using a web browser on the World Wide Web.

Algorithm
The mathematical formula used by search engines to determine how any web page will rank in its search results.

ALT tag
The alternative text that the browser displays when the surfer does not want to or cannot see the pictures present in a web page. Using alt tags containing keywords can improve the search engine ranking of the page for those keywords.

Animated gif
A type of image file that can be animated (moves) by combining several images into a single GIF file. These are often used in banners to allow the banner to “rotate” through several images or text messages.

Article Syndication
The sharing of content among different Web sites. The term is normally associated with licensed content such as television programs and newspaper columns.

Banned
When pages are removed from a search engine's index specifically because the search engine has deemed them to be spamming or violating some type of guideline, such as keyword stuffing, page jacking, etc.

Banner Ad
Also referred to as a banner ad, a banner is a typically rectangular advertisement placed on a Web site either above, below or on the sides of the Web site's main content and is linked to the advertiser's own Web site.

Bots (aka: robots)
Short for robot, a computer program that runs automatically. Bots are used by the search engines to crawl the web pages on the Internet, retrieve data from those pages and compile a database of information about the web pages available. (Also see “crawler”.)

Click Through Rate
The effectiveness of Web advertisements are measured by their click-through rate - how often people who see a paid ad and click on it.

Cloaking
Also known as stealth, a technique used by some Web sites to deliver one page to a search engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else. It is generally an unacceptable practice and may result in the site becoming banned from the search engines.

Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors to a website who take a desired action (e.g. make a purchase, request more information or click an ad).

Crawler
A program that automatically fetches Web pages. Spiders are used to feed pages to search engines. It's called a spider because it crawls over the Web. Another term for these programs is WebCrawler.

Domain Name
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.

Domain Name Registrar
A registrar or "Domain Name Registrar" is any entity, organization that acts on behalf of a registrant regarding domain name requests or modifications. For .COM, .NET, and .ORG names domain name requests and modifications must be submitted through a registrar. There are several available such as www.nomonthlyfees.com or www.godaddy.com.

Doorway Pages (aka: Gateway or Hallway Pages)
Also referred to as a doorway page, a jump page, an entry page or a bridge page. A Web page designed specifically for the purpose of gaining high placement in a search engine’s rankings. An outdated (and now considered questionable) SEO technique, the doorway is meant to capture the attention of a search engine’s spider by containing keywords and phrases that the spider will pick up on.

E-commerce Cart
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet. An E-commerce Cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process. An example is www.instantestore.com. A sample of a website which uses e-commerce technology is Amazon.com.

Ezine
Short for electronic magazine, the name for a web site that is modeled after a print magazine. Some eZines are simply electronic versions of existing print magazines, whereas others exist only in their digital format. Most eZines are advertiser-supported but a few charge a subscription.

Ezine Distribution Service
A company which specializes in the distribution of eZines, such as Constant Contact, Ezine Director or Topica. (Also known as an Ezine Management Service.)

Flash
A browser-friendly, graphics program which allows users to view complex graphics and animation. It is most commonly used to create a strong visual impact, provide the user with an interactive experience and/or merging graphics, animation and sound in a media-rich format which can be seen on any computer system.

Frames
A format for web documents that divides the screen into segments, each with a scroll bar as if it were as "window" within the window. Usually, selecting a category of documents in one frame shows the contents of the category in another frame. Frame technology in web design is not recommended for sites serious about SEO efforts and no longer complies with website usability standards.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A very common method of moving files between two different locations on the Internet. It is typically used as a method for web programmers and web designers to load files from their computer on to a web server so that the websites that they have created can be seen by the general public.

Graphical Search Inventory
Banners and other types of advertising units that can be synchronized to search keywords. Includes pop-ups, browser toolbars, sounds, video, animations and other rich media. For example, if a search was performed on “silver spoons”, a banner or ad may appear for sites selling silverware or other table accessories.

Htaccess.txt file
When a visitor/spider requests a web page, your web server checks for a .htaccess file. The .htaccess file contains specific instructions for certain requests, including security, redirection issues and how to handle certain errors. For example, an .htaccess file can be used redirect a user to a new page in a website if the page they visited no longer exists or has been moved elsewhere.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language is the authoring software language used on the Internet's World Wide Web. HTML is used for creating World Wide Web pages.

Inbound Link
A link coming from an external source into a web site. A search engine listing to your site would be considered an inbound link. These links increase traffic and increase your site popularity according to search engines.

Index
The collection of information (contained in a large database) a search engine has that searchers can query against. With crawler-based search engines, the index is typically copies of all the web pages they have found from crawling the web. With human-powered directories, the index contains the summaries of all web sites that have been categorized.

Java
Programming language developed by Sun Microsystems that creates code for interactive applications that is executable on web pages by web browsers. These Java applications can execute on any platform--Mac, PC, etc. Java is also a mini “program” that doesn’t require other programming code to operate. An example of Java in action would be the applets contained in websites where you can design a business card such as offered at iPrint.com

Java Script
A scripting language produced by Netscape for use within HTML Web pages. Don't confuse JavaScript with Java. JavaScript is used for applications such as drop down menus within a website’s navigation.

Key Phrase Stuffing
Creating content within a website that consists of nothing other than lists of key words or key phrases in hopes that the technique will boost a page’s ranking in the search engines. This is considered a questionable SEO technique and will typically result in a site becoming banned from the search engines.

Keyword
A word (or group of one or more words) with particular importance to the theme of a site. This is what people searching for information use to find information in the search engines. (Also known as a “key phrase”.)

Keyword Density
The ratio of the number of occurrences of a particular keyword or phrase to the total number of words in a page. One element of search engine optimization.

Keyword Prominence
Denotes how high, within the web page’s programming code, relevant key phrases are located. For example, key words contained in the Title tag typically have a higher prominence than a key word located in the content area of a website. Prominence is important for SEO efforts because relevant key phrases should be strategically placed within the website’s programming code and page content.

Keyword Proximity
Describes how close keywords are to one another. This is one of many measurements search engines use to gauge a web site's relevance. For example, “Our spoons are created with the finest quality silver materials” – notice how “spoon and silver are located near, but not next to one another. This would be an example of proximity if someone was searching for the phrase “silver spoons.”

Landing Page
The specific web page that a visitor ultimately reaches after clicking an advertisement. Often, this page is optimized for a specific keyword term or phrase.

Link Farm
A set of web pages that have been built for the sole purpose of increasing the number of incoming links to a web site. This is done in order to increase link popularity and search engine rankings. Link farming is discouraged when seriously trying to promote a website on the Internet.

Link Popularity
Link Popularity refers to the number of sites that link to your web pages from various search engines such as Google, MSN, HotBot, etc. Many search engines use Link Popularity as a factor for determining how a page will rank. For example, the more links your site has to it from external websites, the more likely it is to rank well in the search engines.

Link Text
Also known as anchor text, or a hyperlink. The clickable portion of text displayed for a link.

Listings
Refers to the report or result of a engine or directory search, usually 10 to 20 per page. (Where your site appears in the listing is the 'rank' of that page on that search engine.)

Mail Server
A host server which holds e-mail messages for clients. The client (the program you use to get your e-mail, such as Outlook or Eudora) connects to the mail server and retrieves any messages that are waiting for you.

META Description Tag
The tag present in the header of a web page which is used to provide a short description of the contents of the page. Some search engines will display the text present in the Meta Description Tag when the page appears in the results of a search. Including keywords in the Meta Description Tag can improve the search engine ranking of a page for those keywords. However, some search engines ignore the Meta Description Tag.

META Keyword Tag
A Meta tag that defines the keywords that the web page is targeting. It is considered, in the current day and age, to be of little or of no use. Search engine spiders no longer assign any importance to this tag. However, it is still necessary for some search engines to determine whether or not the web page was created properly and if the site is considered “complete.” (Incomplete sites rank poorly in the search engines as a general rule.)

Mirror Site
A server which contains a duplicate of another WWW or FTP site. Mirror sites are created when the traffic on the original site becomes too heavy for a single server. Often mirror sites are located in different geographic areas allowing users to choose the site closest to them. Federal Express, for example, uses mirror sites.

Organic Listings (aka: Natural Listings)
Listings that are not pay-for-placement or pay-per-click. They are Web sites that appear in a search engines index or listings because the search engines have deemed them significantly important for them to be included. Paid inclusion, not to be confused with paid placement, is the process required by some search engines to index a website in their directory. Paid inclusion sites are generally deemed as “organic listings” because how the sites will be ranked is still determined by “organic” processes using algorithms.

PageRank
Google’s patented method for measuring page importance on a scale from 0 - 10, where 10 is the highest. The PageRank algorithm analyzes the quality and quantity of links that point to a page. Some argue that PageRank is no longer a requirement for good rankings in the search engines.

Paid Inclusion
The process of paying to be included in a search engine or directory. Paid inclusion does not maximize search engine rankings but rather guarantees inclusion of any page or pages that a search engine robot or spider might have missed.

Paid Placement
A listing in search engine results where advertisers pay for a guaranteed high ranking, usually dependent on specified keywords being used in a search.

PHP
The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically used for developing web based software applications. Some websites use PHP as a method to organize highly complex web pages as to easily update the entire site look or design.

Podcast
Podcasting, is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost. This is considered today’s version of radio broadcasting.

PPC or Pay-Per-Click
An advertising model in which advertisers pay for click-throughs to their website. Ads are served based on keywords or themes.

Ranking(s)
The position of a website, as listed in the search engine results, after someone has completed a key phrase search.

Robots
Programs that are designed to automatically go out and explore the Internet for a variety of purposes. Robots that record and index all of the contents of the network to create searchable databases are sometimes called Spiders. WebCrawler and Lycos are popular examples of this.

RSS feed
RSS is a family of XML files formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. They are used to provide items containing short descriptions of web content together with a link to the full version of the content. This information is delivered as an XML file called RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel.

Search Directories (aka: Directories)
Websites that list other sites by category, e.g. Yahoo Directory.

Search Engine
A database of information retrieved from indexing web pages from all over the Internet. A user can use a search engine's interface to search for information by key phrases to find links to web sites that provide information relevant to their search criteria. Examples of leading search engines are Google, Yahoo Search and MSN (Live).

Search Engine Marketing (aka: SEM)
The act of marketing a website via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities.

Search Engine Optimization (aka: SEO)
The process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. SEO is essential for directing more traffic toward the site.

Search Query
A search for a word or term in a search engine.

Search Results
A list of items displayed on a computer screen, representing the matching items found as a result of a successful search in a database or Web search engine. This is also known as the "hit list" or” results list".

SERPs
Search Engine Result Pages. These are the pages generated by the search engines after a search query has been performed. Typically, an SERP will list 10-20 sites per page.

Shopping Cart
A shopping cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process. Typically, a shopping cart is the interface between a company's Web site and its deeper infrastructure, allowing consumers to select merchandise; review what they have selected; make necessary modifications or additions; and purchase the merchandise. Do not confuse a shopping cart with e-commerce as shopping carts have more limited functionality, but are ideal for businesses where quick purchases can be made. Example: 1ShoppingCart.com

Signature Line
An e-mail signature is a block of text that is appended to the end of an e-mail message you send. Generally, a signature is used to provide the recipient with your name, e-mail address, business contact information, or Web site URL.

Site Map
A special page on a web site that contains a tree-like representation of the link structure of the site. It allows a search engine spider to index all the most important pages of the site with ease because it can access them all from one page.

Source Code
Programming code necessary for a website to be viewed on the Internet. The source code also contains important elements such as METAdata, title and ALT tags.

Spider
A spider (also known as a bot) is an automated function established by the search engines to search for web pages on the Internet which can be included in the search engine’s index of websites. Spiders work by scanning the programming code of a site, extracting relevant information and following any links that are contained on the page to continue the indexing process.

Squeeze Page
A squeeze page is a page designed to force a visitor to provide information, such as an email address, in order to access additional information on a website. Many webmasters and web marketers use squeeze pages to capture someone's email address so that ongoing contact, such as additional information, may be sent out at regular intervals. Currently, it is a highly effective marketing tactic.

Streaming Audio
Audio that is transmitted over the Internet and played in real-time.

Streaming Video
A sequence of "moving images" that are sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by a viewer program as they arrive.

Style Sheet (aka: CSS or cascading style sheet)
A set of formatting or style commands that are kept separate from the actual content of a web page. This makes formatting easier as it can be defined globally, rather than each time a particular element occurs. An example of CSS in action can be found by visiting csszengarden.com

Submission (aka: registration)
Submitting your domain name to the search engines so that their ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ will crawl your site.

Title Tag
An HTML tag with text describing a specific Web page (but not visually displayed on the page). The title tag should contain strategic keywords for the page and be constructed following specific guidelines. The title tag is important because it usually becomes the text link to the page found in search engine listings, and because search engines pay special attention to the title text when indexing pages.

URL
An acronym for "Uniform Resource Locator," this is the address of a resource on the Internet. World Wide Web URLs begin with http://. Each page, image, document, etc. located within a website has its own URL.

Web Analytics Software
Software which measures the behavior of visitors to a website. In a commercial context, it especially refers to the measurement of which aspects of the website work towards the business objectives; for example, which landing pages encourage people to make a purchase. Many different vendors provide web analytics software and services, such as Website Traffic Report.

Web Host (aka: web hosting company)
A company that uses a web server to provide storage space for many web sites. A good hosting company allows you unlimited access to your web site files and has their server online (up and running) 99% of the time.

Web Server
A Web Server is a computer on the World Wide Web (connected to the Internet Backbone) that stores HTML documents that can be retrieved via a Web browser.

Webinar (e.g. online web-based seminar)
A Webinar is a seminar which is conducted over the World Wide Web. In contrast to a Webcast, which is transmission of information in one direction only, a webinar is designed to be interactive between the presenter and audience. A webinar is 'live' in the sense that information is conveyed according to an agenda, with a starting and ending time.

XML
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C initiative that allows information and services to be encoded with meaningful structure and semantics that computers and humans can understand. XML is great for information exchange, and can easily be extended to include user-specified and industry-specified tags.

Glossary of Search Engine Optimization Terms

Glossary of Search
Engine Optimization Terms