INTERNET MARKETING RESOURCES
SEO Glossary
AdWords - Google’s paid search marketing program, which allows advertisers to display an ad on Google and target an audience with specific keywords.
[ Googling your way to increased sales ].
Algorithm – A set of rules that search engines use to rank and display search results in response to a particular keyword search.
ALT Image Text – Text displayed when a mouse hovers over an image. Originally used to indicate the presence of a graphic (for slower loading pages), the Meta tag is also used to place keywords onto a Web page, since search engines can read image text.
Anchor Text - The clickable text in a hyperlink. It usually gives visitors or search engines important information about the page’s relevance.
Blogs – Short for “Web log.” An online journal of thoughts and opinions, experiences and Web links. It’s intended for general consumption and visitors are typically allowed to comment or ask questions. [ How many blogs or other social media link back to your site? Check with our free social media SEO tool. ]
Clicks – Number of times a hypertext listing was clicked.
Click Through Rate (CTR) – The percentage of clicks on a link in relationship to the number of times it was viewed.
Cloaking - Showing one version of Web content to users and a different version to a search engine. Often considered unethical, cloaking could result in a website being banned from a search engine.
Content Management System (CMS) – A Web application system used to post, organize and manage digital content for a website.
Cost Per Click – The dollar amount charged for each click on a paid listing. The price varies depending the demand for the keyword within the current bid system of many search engines.
Crawler – An automated program used by search engines to “crawl” the Web. Also known as a spider or robot, the crawler reads page text content and Web page coding and follows links to other pages. Copies of the pages are then stored in the search engine’s index. The index categorizes Web pages based on the words that appear in source code and on the page. [ How many pages have search engines crawled and indexed? Check using this search saturation SEO tool. ]
Dead Link - A URL or hypertext link that no longer points to the information it was written to reach. Usually happens because the document has been moved or deleted.
Doorway Page - A Web page created specifically to rank highly in search engines. Search engines frown at most doorway pages, which are usually artificially created by software and not by a human editor. Today, doorway pages are considered a form of spam.
Dynamic Content – Web page content that changes frequently or automatically, based on the database or user information.
Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language (DHTML) – An extended set of HTML commands used by Web designers to create greater animation and interactivity.
H Tag – On page markup of text that indicates headlines. Available as H1, H2 and so on. Some search engines place emphasis on H tags, so that text used in H tags is important.
Hidden text - Text that is visible to the search engines but hidden to a user. One unethical method is to indicate the text as the same color as the background of a webpage. Most search engines penalize or ignore URLs from websites that use this practice.
Hit – A single request from a browser for a particular item on a Web page. When someone visits a site, all elements of the page – images, Flash movies, pdf files, javascript, css feeds and so on – are counted as hits. While hits can be a measure of your page load or page weight, the number of hits is not a measure of visitor traffic.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) – The programming language used to create documents for display on the World Wide Web.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) – The set of rules for exchanging files on the World Wide Web.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) – A version of HTTP that includes data encryption for security purposes.
Impression – A single appearance of a message on a Web page.
Inbound Link - Any link from a website to your website. Inbound links are helpful in determining link popularity, one of the important factors in Search Engine Optimization. The higher the inbound links – especially when the links originate from websites that operate in the same content arena as your site – the better. [ Who is linking to you? Use this free SEO tool. ]
Index – When search engines crawl a website, they create an index of Web pages found. Concurrently, the engines also create a database of the website, to help determine relevancy within search queries.
JavaScript – A programming language used for creating interactive features within Web pages, such as navigation menus and online tools. Javascript is typically not spidered, therefore not indexed by a search engine.
Keyword - A word or phrase entered into a search engine’s search box.
Keyword Density – The percentage of words on a Web page that match a specified set of keywords. Keyword density is one aspect in determining a Web page’s relevance to a specific keyword or phrase and is usually expressed in the form of a percentage.
Keyword Discovery or Research – The process of identifying and selecting search terms or keywords to target in a website SEO plan. Research findings include objective metrics such as monthly search volume and number of competitive listings as well as subjective findings such as relevancy of a website within a given set of search results. Typically, SEO professionals look for higher monthly search volume (how often a keyword is searched across the Internet) and lower competitive listings (how many results are shown in a keyword search engine’s search results page). Higher volume can mean bigger potential traffic for a site once ranked in the top 30 of search results. Lower competitive listings increase the chances for attaining a higher ranking. [ What keywords might offer the best potential traffic for your website? ]
Landing Page – The page a visitor is sent to, typically after clicking on a paid advertisement. It’s used to track arrivals and determine the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. Landing pages are often rich in a set of keywords for paid campaigns or for organic, or earned listings (so that the visitor clicking the listing will find what he/she is looking for).
Link Building - The process of researching and requesting links to build up a site’s link popularity in an effort to increase a Web page's position in the search engines. The higher the volume of links a site has pointing towards it, the better. However, the quality of the links is also important – it’s best to have incoming links from larger sites that are credible. [ Which incoming links might be ideal for your website? ]
Link Popularity – Link popularity generally refers to the total number of links pointing to any particular URL. Link popularity is a factor in search engine rankings. (The higher the better). [ What is your website's link popularity? ]
Meta Tag – Information placed in a Web page to describe content to engine crawlers, browser software and other applications. Some search engines use the information to index pages by subject. [ How thorough are your meta tags compared with the competition? Find out with our SEO tool. ]
Meta Description Tag – website source code that allows page authors to influence the description of their page and help categorize their material when listed by search engines. Typically, it’s keyword-rich but readable and describes the highlights of the Web page. In some cases, it’s displayed in search results underneath the Title Tag, so the wording can be very important.
Meta Keywords Tag – website source code that helps summarize keywords to be found on a page. Most search engines now ignore keyword tags and instead look closer at on-page content.
Meta Title Tag – website source code that contains the title of your page. This meta tag appears within the top of your browser window. In many cases, the title tag also appears as the title of your listing within search results listings, so the keywords used in the title are very important.
Organic Search – A method by Web users to find sites with unpaid search engine listings, rather than using pay-per-click advertisements.
Organic Search Listings – Earned or unpaid listings that appear within search results. The sites shown are ranked by the search engine’s index, regardless of payment, and appear because they are deemed relevant to the keyword searched. [ How well is your website ranked in search engine results. Discover your rankings with this SEO tool. ]
Outbound Link - A link from your website out to another website. It’s important to link to those in like industries or fields, to help build relevance.
PageRank – One of the variables Google considers to determine the relevance or importance of a Web page. The PageRank algorithm measures the page’s importance on a 0 to 10 scale and analyzes the quality and quantity of links that point to that page. Originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google.
Paid Listings – The opposite of organic listings, these are listings that search engines sell to advertisers in PPC campaigns.
Page Views – An online metric of a website that indicates how many times a specific Web page was viewed over time. The more relevant the content, typically the higher the page views.
Pay Per Click (PPC) - A type of pricing model where advertisers buy listings to ensure their listings appear nearer the top of search engine results. The advertiser is charged a fee every time the PPC listing is clicked. Two examples of this are Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords. The price per click is determined within a bidding environment, where the bids vary depending on demand for the keyword searched.
Rank – The number order in which a website appears within search engine results pages. A #1 rank appears at the top. Since many Internet users don’t venture beyond the first three pages of results, it’s crucial for a site to rank within the top 30 listings.
Reciprocal Link – A link exchange between two websites, where site A links to site B, and vice versa. (The site reciprocates by adding a link back.)
Relevance – A measure of how close the listings shown in search results are to the user’s expectations. It’s also a measure of how close a site is related to the keyword at hand, and can be expressed in several metrics, such as Keyword Density.
RSS Feeds – Short for Really Simple Syndication, RSS feeds are a family of Web feed formats used to distribute frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news or podcasts.
Search Engine - A database of websites that helps users find Web pages on a particular subject based on their query. A search engine generally “ranks” the results according to a specific set of parameters within algorithms. Each search engine – Google, Yahoo, Bing and others – has their own set of algorithms.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The process of changing elements of a website to boost its presence on the top search engines. Since more than 85 percent of all Internet users rely on search engines to locate websites, high rankings for commonly searched phrases are key to garnering new customers.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – The page of results that is displayed by a search engine in response to a particular query. Both paid ad (sponsored) and organic listings are shown in varying positions or rank.
Spamming – A method referring to manipulation techniques designed to trick search engines and achieve higher rankings for a Web page. These tactics – such as hidden text, doorway pages, content duplication and link farming - generally violate a search engine’s guidelines.
Tracking URL – A unique Web page often created to identify paid advertising clicks. The referring search engine, keyword, ad listing and landing page could be included in the results.
Viral Marketing – Marketing techniques that use social networks – such as email, Twitter, Facebook, or other sites – to increase brand awareness. Spread word-of-mouth or through the Internet, viral marketing encourages people to pass along a particular message in an effort to either expose them to a company’s name or website. The messages come in a variety of forms including video clips, interactive Flash games, images and text messages.
