Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Glossary
Accessibility
Accessibility is just how easy the website is to access for disabled people, such as the blind. A site that is accessible is generally higher up on search results as flash and images are not seen by search engines.
AdSense
Google AdSense is an advertising application from Google that gives relevant ads depending on the content of the page. It is a quick and easy way to earn revenue as viewers of the page will see things advertised that relate to their interests.
AdWords
A CPC (cost per click) form of text advertising made by Google. It ranks an ad by the amount of clicks, as well as the amount being paid by the advertiser. This is so that those ads that are more popular, and therefore more successful, are viewed more.
Agent Name
The agent name is the name of the crawler or spider that a search engine will send out to get information off your website in order to index it in their catalogue.
Algorithm
An algorithm is how search engines catagorise websites and rank them accordingly based on their content. Algorithms vary between search providers and a good website will account for the most popular engines' algorithms.
Alt tag
An Alt tag is what will display when a cursor is placed over an image, giving the image’s name (e.g. “New York Cityscape”). It aids in the accessibility of the page as some visually impaired people may have their browser set to read the text and the Alt Tag of images out to them.
Anchor text
The Anchor text is the actual text that comprises a hyperlink (e.g. “Anchor Text” above). Usually underlined, search engines usually rank these as high priority key words, especially Google.
Announce site to search engines
Announcing a site to search engines requires setting a link to a site previously indexed by that engine. The engine will find your site and index it too.
Automated submitting
A practice that is disliked by search engines; having a program automatically submit your web pages to an engine.
Back links
A back link is a link that points to a particular page.
Banned
If a page is banned from a search engine it will not turn up in search results for that engine.
Bid management tool
A piece of software that manages the bid given out to ‘CPC’ (cost per click) style advertising services.
Bidding
Bidding is telling how much you are willing to pay for a ‘CPC’ (cost per click) advertisement. The top bidder for certain keywords will show first when that search is made.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat Search Engine Optimising, sometimes called ‘Spamdexing’, is the name given to shady methods looked down upon, or even banned from certain Search Engines. Using these techniques can result in the engine removing your pages from their index. They can range from using hidden text, changing the page viewed depending on the IP address attempting to access the page, to using an excessive amount of keywords on the page.
Blacklist
A list kept by search engines to keep track of Black Hat site makers and potentially ban them.
Cache
A copy of a website stored on a user or search engine’s hard drives. Caches are why hitting back takes little to no time compared with the initial load of the page.
Clickthrough rate
This is the rate at which people click on a link. It is much higher for search engine results than advertisements.
Conversion
Conversion is making a person who visits your page into a person who buys something from your page.
Conversion rate
The rate at which conversion happens.
Cookie
A cookie is the information put on a viewer’s computer by a web server. They are usually used to distinguish between different user’s actions, or to remember log-ins.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
What is paid per clickthrough of a link to your site, if that link is a CPC link.
Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
What is paid per thousand clickthroughs.
Counter
A program which counts the number of times the page has been accessed.
CSS
The CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) is used to decorate and organise the content of a webpage.
Dead link
A link that doesn’t lead anywhere. May be because the site it is linking to is down, doesn’t exist any more, or the page has been moved.
Findability
Your findability is how easy it is to find your site with a search engine.
Flash
A Macromedia corp. program that lets web page designers include interactive and animated elements in their sites. Search Engines do not recognise them, so it is best not to go overboard with flash elements.
Heading tag
A heading tag is what is given to headings of pages, and marks them as more important than block text to a Search Engine.
Hidden keywords
Hidden keywords are phrases picked up by search engines that are not viewable by the user. This is a Black Hat process and frowned upon.
Hits
A hit is how many times something is downloaded from a site, including graphics and sound. For instance, a page with 16 images would have 17 hits per visit. 16 from the graphics, and 1 from the web page.
Homepage
The front page of a web site. They are usually light on information, with links to other pages that contain more information.
HTML
HTML is the basic language of web design. It tells a web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer how and what to show as the front-end content of a page.
Impression
The count of times an ad is displayed online.
Inbound links
A link that points to your site from someone else’s. They increase the rank of a page.
Index
The database in which search engines store their cached sites.
Key phrase (or keyword phrase)
A group of keywords.
Keyword
A keyword is a word that a user is likely to type into the search field when looking for a certain topic of website. A page with a high number of keywords will appear high on the rankings.
Keyword density
How many times a keyword appears on a certain page.
Keyword prominence
Where a Keyword is inside a web page’s HTML code. The closer to the top it is, the more important search engines will regard it.
Keyword stuffing
Putting an excessive number of keywords in a page, despite loss of readability in order to advance in search rankings. Frowned upon and a Black Hat method.
Links
A link, when clicked on, takes the user to a different page. They may be text or images.
Meta description
A short description of the page hidden in the HTML. It has no effect on page rankings.
Mouseover
Something that happens in the page when the mouse is placed over certain elements without clicking the link.
Pop-up
A web page that is opened in a new window over the top of the content the user is trying to access, typically advertising something. Annoying to consumers, and most modern browsers have some sort of pop-up blocker.
Pull-down list
A pull-down list consists of a default option listed in a white box, with an arrow next to it. Clicking the arrow will bring down a list of other options. These cannot be indexed by search engines.
Query
What is typed into a search engine. The question of the user, if you will.
Reciprocal linking
When two sites trade links, in order to mutually increase each other’s rankings.
Redirect
When a user is taken directly and automatically from one page to another.
Referrer
The page that contained the link your user followed to get to your page.
Relevance
How relevant a web page is to the search terms.
Search engine
A web site that indexes the many pages on the internet, and allows a user to search those indexes by submitting key words. If a site is strong with those key words, it will appear higher on the list of sites than others.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Methods of making a site more visited by using search engines.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Methods of making a site higher on the rankings of a SERP
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
The results page a user sees when his query has been processed at a search engine.
Sniffer script
A program inserted into html code to ascertain what browser is reading the page, and alter the formatting accordinly.
Spamming
Normally associated with email spam, in search optimization terms, it means using shady and disreputable tactics to get a site higher on the rankings.
Spider
A spider is a program used by search engines to sour the net for pages to ad to their library of pages.
Spider trap
When a spider gets caught in an infinite loop of links.
Standards compliant
A website that uses all the current web standards (or is ‘Standard Compliant’) is likely to be higher on rankings than other sites, due to increased usability.
Streaming media
When content such as video or music starts to play before all has been downloaded.
Theme
The few keywords a web page will focus upon.
Title tag
The title tag is considered the most important by search engines, and as such should be carefully worded.
Traffic
How many visits a site gets.
Unique Visitor
One physical person visiting your site. Their IP is logged, so a unique visitor viewing 15 of your pages will show as one visitor, and not 15 separate people.
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