Search Engine Marketing Useful Terms

Algorithm. The defined set of rules put in place by a search engine to measure and sort the Web page listings that will be displayed in response to a search query.

Backlink. A hypertext link on a Web site other than your own that points to your Web site. Inbound links are an important part of Web site marketing as they can deliver targeted visitors directly from another Web site and can help improve the ranking position of your Web site on engines that use link popularity as a part of their algorithm. (Also known as IBL for inbound link.)

Blog (aka Web log.) A style of Internet publishing that uses content management software to allow for quick and easy posting of articles, personal journals and news stories.

CSS (aka Cascading Styling Sheets.) Coding option that allows Webmasters to apply simple display styles to each page of a Web site by setting up templates. A preferred method by up-to-date Webmasters because it improves the "crawl-ability" of a Web site.

Cache. The act of storing a Web site on either a computer's hard drive or in a search engine's index. On personal computers, cache is used to save a copy of Web sites' images, text and code to help speed up download upon future visits to the site. On search engines, cache serves as a record of the content of a Web page when a search engine last visited and indexed it.

Click thru. The act of a visitor clicking on a link displayed within a set of search engine results in order to reach the Web page represented by that link. Click thru amounts related to each keyword search can be tracked as a method of determining if a particular keyword will entice visitors to a Web site.

Cloaking. The act of hiding true page content from either a human or robot visitor. This technique is used both to camouflage actual page content from page thieves and to artificially present a more search engine friendly Web site to visiting spiders. Frowned upon by Google, in particular.

Conceptual search (aka Latent Semantic Indexing.) The act of searching for a document based on words that are related to a concept rather than a document that contains an actual search word or phrase.

Content rich. Refers to a Web page that contains relevant content to the topic at hand. Search engine algorithms give higher rankings to a site that contains the keyword phrase that a user is searching for.

Search engines today downplay the overuse of keyword phrases, aka "keyword stuffing." (Google considers it to be spam.) A rule of thumb is to have a Keyword Density Ratio of no more than 1-2% of the word count on any page. For Google, err on the side of caution or risk being penalized.

Conversion rate. The mathematical equation that determines what percentage of visitors to a site completes a specified action.

Crawler. An automated robot program that follows links to visit Web sites on behalf of search engines or directories. Crawlers then process and index the code and content of a Web page to be stored in the search engine's database.

Cross browser. A reference to the need to test and adjust Web site code, java script and CSS so that it displays properly on multiple browsers.

Cross linking (aka internal linking.) The act of linking to content contained on a Web site from elsewhere in that Web site.

De-listing. The removal of a Web page from a search engine or directory's index. Removal can occur as a result of a cleanup of dead links, as a penalty for spamming or because of server issues at a site's host.

Dead link. The name given to a link that leads to a Web page or site that has either moved or no longer exists. Search engines and directories continually work to remove dead links from their indexes in order to improve the overall quality of search results.

Deep link. The act of linking to a page (deep) within a Web site rather than linking to the main URL.

Description. The descriptive text associated with a Web site or page's listing on a search engine results page.

Descriptions that appear in results pages from search engines usually consist of the text of the Meta Description tag or a snippet of relevant text taken from the Web page.

Descriptions that appear in results pages from directories usually consist of an assigned snippet of text created by the editor who has reviewed the Web site or page in question.

Directory. Searchable subject guide organized by topical subject or geographical region and consisting of Web sites that have been reviewed and compiled by human editors. Directories are often provided as a browse-able alternative to the searchable indexes of search engines.

Yahoo! and Best of the Web are some of the most popular directories on the Web.

FTP (aka File Transfer Protocol.) The protocol used to upload and download content from Web servers.

Frames. A coding style that is used to combine multiple HTML documents into a single Web page. Frames are often used to allow certain areas of a Web site to remain in place (i.e. navigation, header graphic) while other areas of the site are scrollable.

Framed Web sites are more difficult to optimize for high search engine rankings because most spiders are unable to read and index the content within a <FRAMESET> tag. Sites that are designed using frames need to place optimized content in the <NOFRAMES> in order to provide the search engine spiders with something to index.

Headline tag. An HTML tag that designates headlines in the body copy of a Web site. These tags use the format and are designated in importance by the numbers 1 through 6. (One being the largest headline.) Headline tags are important to SEO efforts because most engines will give extra weight to keywords contained within these tags.

Inbound link (aka a Backlink.) A hypertext link on a Web site other than your own that points to your Web site. Inbound links are an important part of Web site marketing as they can deliver targeted visitors directly from another Web site and can help to improve the ranking position of your Web site on engines that use link popularity as a part of their algorithm.

Index. The database of Web pages that is maintained by a search engine or directory. This phrase can also refer to the Home page (the Index page) of a Web site.

Indexed. The act of being reviewed and stored in a database by a visiting spider from a search engine.

Keyword. A word or phrase that is used in a search engine query. Optimizing a site entails researching the keyword or keyword phrases that users enter in order to find Web sites and optimizing a Web site around those terms.

Keyword density (aka Keyword rich.) Refers to a Web page that contains relevant content to the topic at hand. Usually used to refer to the need to repeat keyword phrases within the body copy of a Web site. Search engine algorithms give higher ranking to a site that contains the keyword phrases that a user is searching for.

Keyword research. The act of researching what particular words and phrases are used to search for Web sites. This is one of the most important aspects of SEO as it allows a Webmaster to write the content of their site in a manner that will help them rank highly on these particular phrases.

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). In addition to recording which keywords a document contains, the method examines the document collection as a whole, to see which other documents contain some of those same words. LSI considers documents that have many words in common to be semantically close, and ones with few words in common to be semantically distant.

Link popularity. The act of a search engine counting the number of inbound links to a Web site. Many search engines now use this information as part of their ranking system.

Link popularity is measured by a combination of factors that are designed to weigh the importance of each incoming link. Links from sites with high link popularity will have more weight in a search engine algorithm than links from unpopular sites. In addition, links from sites with complimentary content count more than links from sites that have no relevance.

Meta tag. An HTML tag placed within the header area of code for a Web site. This information is visible only to spiders and does not appear as a visual part of the Web site. These tags were originally used by Webmasters to provide information about the content of a Web site in order to assist search engines in indexing the content.

Optimization. The changes that are made to the content and code of a Web site in order to increase it's rankings in the results pages of search engines and directories.

On-page optimization (SEO). The practice of creating a Web site in a manner that allows it to be properly read and indexed by search engines. This includes on-page content, behind the page coding, such as Title or Meta tags, removal of Frames or Flash content and the seeking of incoming links.

Off-page optimization (SEM). Employs methods of drawing traffic through link building strategies such as paid directory listings, article and press release links and search engine pay-per-click advertising.

Ranking. The placement of a Web site within a particular search engines' results pages. A ranking within the top 20 listings is generally considered to be a strong ranking.

Referrer. The URL of the Web site that a visitor has come from. This information is stored in the server's referrer log file and can be used to discover which search engine or Web sites are delivering traffic to your Web site.

Spider. An automated program that follows links to visit Web sites on behalf of search engines or directories. Robots then process and index the code and content of a Web page to be stored in the search engine's database.

Web log. A style of Internet publishing that uses content management software to allow for quick and easy posting of articles, personal journals and news stories.