Search Engine Glossary
Posted on | November 24, 2006 | No Comments
When discussing search engine positioning or search engine optimization, sometimes we can get confused by the specialized language or lingo being used. That’s why we’ve created a Search Engine Glossary that can hopefully put us both on the same page when discussing your search engine optimization project. For definitions not contained in our Search Engine Glossary, or to discuss your positioning project, please Contact Us today.
Search Engine Glossary Quick Navigation:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Affiliate programs
Revenue sharing between two web sites. Affiliate site normally provide free advertising for an ecommerce site and compensation is based on performance i.e. sales, clicks, registrations, or a combination of all.
ALT texts
Alternative text embedded in the HTML code for graphic files. Useful for robot (search engine) indexing, people who surf with graphics turned off and those on slow connections.
Blog or Web Log
A Blog (short for weblog) is a journal or newsletter that can be instantly updated and is intended for public viewing. Blogs generally represent the personal opinions of the author(s) of the Web site. A good example of a blog is the Search Engine Watch Blog.
Bookmark
A link stored in a Web browser for easy reference. Here is a good website on How to Bookmark a Page.
Boolean searching
Uses operators such as AND, NOT and OR within the search engines to allow for the inclusion or exclusion of documents containing certain words.
Browsers
Browsers are software programs “translate” HTML-encoded files into the text, images, sounds, and the other features you see that enable you to view and use WWW documents. Microsoft Internet Explorer (called simply IE), Netscape, and Mozilla Firefox are examples of browsers through which you can use the search engines.
CGI
CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface and is the most common way to create dynamic web applications that interact with users. The CGI to process consists of submitting data that is then passed onto a background program such as JAVA, or another programming language, and then this data is integrated into the response displayed as an HTML page.
Click through
Clicking on a banner ad from one site to the advertiser’s home page is counted as one click-through.
Cookie
Information stored on a user’s computer by a Web site so preferences are remembered on future requests.
CPM
Online media buy terminology. Refers to cost per thousand impressions.
Description tag
HTML tag used to by Web page authors to provide a description for search engine listings.
Directory or Search Directories
Organized, categorized listings of Web sites. Directories employ teams of people, who follow strict guidelines, to review a submitted site and determine its inclusion and ranking.
Extension or File Extension
Refers to several letters following the file name, usually preceded by a “dot” or “period”. For example, index.html is an HTML file for the index or home page of a website. Example.txt is a text file with the name “example”.
Flash
Multimedia technology developed by Macromedia. Flash allows for interactive web pages whose file sizes are relatively small. Download the Macromedia Flash Player here.
Frames
Embedded in HTML code of web pages. Frames divide a Web page into parts and allow easier viewing and navigation. Learn more about Frames in HTML documents.
Fuzzy search
A search that is used to find matches even when words are partially or misspelled.
Hit
A request of a file from a Web server. Total hits to a site/page are the combination of all downloads.
Home page
The main entrance page of a Web site.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. The standardized computer language that can be read by web browsers to display web pages. HTML code contains all the formatting instructions for display of the web page on the screen. Click your right mouse button on any web page and select “view source” to see the HTML code for that web document. Learn more on the W3C HTML Home Page.
Impression
A single display of an online advertisement.
Inbound link
A link from a site outside of your site.
Javascript
Developed by Netscape, javascript is a simple programming language that interacts with HTML to enable dynamic content and motion. Get free Javascripts for the JavaScript Source.
Keyword Meta Tag
The HTML META tag used to help define the primary keywords of a Web page in order to achieve a ranking on search engines against those keyword queries.
Link Popularity
A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. Aids in search engine positioning and ranking.
Manual submissions
Submitting a URL (keywords, descriptions etc.) to each search engines by hand.
Meta search engine
A search engine that displays results from a multitude of other search engines and directories.
Meta-Tag
Refers to invisible information in a webpage that search engines use to help determine their search results. Meta-tags often include keywords and descriptions of the web document. Learn how to use HTML meta tags.
Nesting
Used in Boolean searching, nesting indicates the sequence in which operations are to be performed. For example, enclosing keywords in parentheses identifies a group or “nest.” Operations will be performed from innermost to outermost and then left to right.
Outbound link
A link to a site outside of your own.
Page view
A request to load a single HTML page.
Pay- per-click
An online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on click-through.
Pay per click search engine
Search engine where web sites are ranked according to the bid amount, and advertisers are charged when a searcher clicks on the search listing. Go.com is one such engine. Learn more about Pay Per Click Search Engines.
Permission marketing
Obtaining customer consent to receive information from the company. Permission marketing in the online world takes the form of email promotions and newsletters.
Portal
A site that serves as a starting point and gateway to the World Wide Web e.g. AOL.com.
Precision
The degree to which a search engine lists documents matching a query. The more matching documents that are listed, the higher the precision.
Reciprocal links
Outbound links exchanged for inbound links.
Search engine
An automated system that relies on a software agent (otherwise known as spiders, robots or crawlers) that explores the World Wide Web following links from site to site (see importance of Link Exchange) and catalogues relevant text and content into the search engine’s database.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
This is a newer term and separates what was once part of the function of a Search Engine optimizer, Search Engine Marketing specifically is the function of locating, researching, submitting, and positioning a web site within the proper search engines for maximum exposure and effectiveness. SEM may also include the function of choosing the target keywords and keyword phrases for the web site’s meta tags.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
The process of updating HTML code and choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keywords are queried on search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves the careful optimization of corporate web sites to effectively increase their visibility in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Alta-Vista, Inktomi and many others. It makes the difference between a web site that has very little visibility and one that will be seen and found by millions of people.
Search Engine Spam
Excessive manipulation to influence search engine rankings, often for pages which contain little or no relevant content. Can result in penalization of a web site.
Search engine submission
Inserting a URL into a search engine “submit” form in order make the search engine aware of a site or page for indexing and positioning.
Spider
Specialized software that scans web documents and adds them to an index by following links.
Title tag
An 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 and for bookmark identification.
Unique visits
Individuals who have visited a Web site (or network) at least once in a fixed time frame, typically a 30 day period.
Viral Marketing
Encouraging visitors to an online site to pass along a marketing message by providing an incentive for doing so.
Web site traffic
The amount of total visitors and unique visits to a Web site.
XHTML
A variant of HTML. Stands for Extensible Hypertext Markup Language.
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