Our SEO glossary defines common terms used in search engine marketing. Have a term that you would like defined? Email SEO glossary suggestion using our Contact Us form.
3-way link exchange - a link exchange agreement when there are no two sites pointing to each other.
Algorithm - the mathematical formula in a search engine used to rank sites.
Anchor text - the text that is clickable
Backlinks - incoming links to a website
BLs - backlinks
Black Hat SEO - The practice of using spam techniques (link farms, cloaking) to increase search engine positions.
Cloaking - A search engine spam technique that shows users one version of a page and search engines an entirely different version.
Directory - A website with categorized listings of website links and other resources. Directories are often human-edited and topical (i.e. theBubbler.com, a directory of Wisconsin websites).
dofollow - standard incoming links that do not have the nofollow attribute
Doorway Pages - A page with keyword-rich text created specifically for search engine rankings. Doorway pages are often not linked to the rest of a website and are seen as spam by search engines.
Frames - website design using multiple, independent sections to create a single webpage. Each frame is built as a separate HTML file, but with one "master" file to identify each selection. Not recommended for use because it may be unfriendly to search engine crawlers
Free-For-All Pages (FFAs) - A massive webpage with links to other websites. The links on FFA pages are usually not categorized, have no relevancy to each other and often link to adult content. FFA's are seen as spam by search engines.
Hits - In most logs analysis programs, a "hit" is registered for every component that makes up a webpage. A page with five images will register six hits, one for the page and five for the images. Hits numbers are often very large and used by Black Hat SEOs to inflate the amount of traffic a website gets.
IBL - in bound (incoming) link
Inside pages - the non-home pages of a website
Internal pages - inside pages
Keyword Density - The number of times a word or phrase appears within the content of a page. Good keyword density should not cause the page's content to read awkwardly.
Keyword Stuffing - Excessive repetition of keyword or phrase in a page's title, meta tags and content.
Link Farms - Similar to FFA pages, link farms are massive webpages links to other websites. Link farms are seen as spam by search engines.
Link Popularity - A count of the number of pages a website has linking to it. The number of quality, relevant links is more important than the quantity of links.
Matt Cutts - worker at Google, specializing
in SEO issues. Known for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and
cutting down on link spam. The best place to see his literature is at
his SEO Blog.
Meta Tags - Code placed on a webpage that is not seen by visitors but can be read by search engines. The most common meta tags display a site description and list of keywords. Most major search engines do not use meta tags as ranking factors because they have been abused by spammers.
Mirror Sites - Multiple websites that use the same content, often changed slightly to target a different keyword or geographic area.
nofollow - an HTML attribute used to instruct
search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target's
ranking in the search engine. Used to cut down on spam to improve
search engine quality.
One-way link - a link that has been obtained without a link exchange
 Organic Listings - When a search is performed, a search engine returns a list of matches to the user's query. Paid ads and "organic" listings are returned. The position of the paid ads (shown in orange) is determined by the advertiser's payments. The organic listings (shown in yellow) are determined by the search engine's ranking algorithm.
Organic SEO - techniques used for unpaid high ranking results on search engines.
PageRank (PR) - The value Google assigns to a page based on its ranking algorithm. Factors include the page's text and quality incoming links. A high PageRank does not guarantee a high position in search results.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - A paid advertising program offered by search engines. In pay per click, you pay a fee to the advertiser every time a user clicks on your ad. Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing are popular pay-per-click programs.
Search Engine (SE) - A website that allows users to search for information. The information in a search engine is collected by spiders or automated programs that travel through websites via links.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - Marketing efforts specifically directed towards traffic and ROI from being found in search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The process of tweaking a webpage to get it to rank higher in search engines. Techniques include placing keywords in a page's title tag and text.
Search Engine Registration (SER) -The process of submitting a website to search engines and directories. Also known as "search engine submission."
SERPs - Acronym for "search engine results pages."
Spider - The automated program a search engine uses to scan and index a website.
Splog - Short for "spam blog," a splog is a blog offering no unique content that is set up soley to attract search engine spiders.
Title Tag - A tag placed in the coding of a webpage that calls out the text you see at the top of a browser window. The text in a title tag should match the content of the page.
White Hat SEO - The practice of using positive techniques (keyword-rich text, optimized title tags) to increase search engine positions.
|
|
){kind=link}
){kind=link}