SEO Glossary

Here's where you will find our A-Z definitions for some of the words you may hear in the search marketing field. 

This is a work in progress, with many more definitions coming soon! 

404 Error - From Wikipedia: The 404 or Not Found error message is an HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with the server but either the server could not find what was requested, or it was configured not to fulfill the request and not reveal the reason why. 404 errors should not be confused with "server not found" or similar errors, in which a connection to the destination server cannot be made at all.

AdSense - Google's contextual advertising program.

AdWords - Google's paid search advertising program.

Aging Delay

Termed coined by search marketer, Scottie Claiborne, in regards to the period when a new website is stuck in Google's "sandbox." During this time period (has been 6-9 months in the past), new websites generally don't show up in the search results of Google for competitive keyword phrase search queries for which they may be highly relevant.

More info on Google's Aging Delay and Sandbox.

Algorithm - The "secret sauce" search engines use to determine which pages they believe are the most relevant to the searcher's keyword query.

Alt Attribute (aka Alt Tag)

From the WC3: "The alt attribute specifies alternate text that is rendered when the image cannot be displayed."

For SEO purposes, image alt attributes can be helpful when they utilize keyword phrases that best describe the page the image is pointing to.  They are akin to anchor text. 

Anchor Text - The words in the clickable part of a link. For SEO purposes, anchor text is important because search engines assume that the words used in a link will succinctly describe the page it's pointing to. Therefore, it is believed that search engine give anchor text words extra weighting when determining relevancy.

Ask

The search engine formerly known as "Ask Jeeves."  

According to Ask's website, "Ask.com's innovative search technologies deliver fast and relevant information for millions of people every day."

Automated Submitting - Using software to submit a URL to many directories or search engines at a time.

B2B - Business-to-Business

B2C - Business-to-Consumer

Backward Links (aka Back Links or Backlinks) - The links that point to any given web page.

Banned - The disallowing of a web page from being indexed or appearing in the search engine results pages. Generally bannings only happen to pages that have purposely attempted to manipulate a search engine's algorithm.

Black Hat SEO - One who uses techniques that run afoul of webmaster guidelines in order to gain an unfair advantage in the search engines.

Body Copy - The content one reads on any given web page.

Cloaking - Showing one thing to a search engine and another to the average person. Generally considered to be search engine spamming.

CMS - Content Management System

Comment spam - The posting of useless comments on others' blogs for the purpose of dropping a link. This can be done either manually or in an automated fashion.

Comment Tag

HTML code designed to allow various people who might be viewing the source code of any given web page to leave notes for each other.  Comment tags have no use in search engine optimization as they are completely ignored by all major search engines. 

Copy - The words a person can read on a web page via a web browser.

Copyediting - Making edits to existing copy.

Copywriting - Writing marketing or advertising copy.

CPA - Cost Per Action or Cost Per Acquisition

CPC - Cost Per Click

CPM - Cost Per Thousand

CSS - Cascading Style Sheet

Dead link - A web page link which points to another web page which no longer exists.

DNS - Domain Name System

Doorway Page - A web page created solely to rank high in the search engines and then direct actual human visitors to another web page. These have always been considered to be search engine spam by the search engines.

eCommerce - "Electronic Commerce." Selling products and services through a website, most often via the use of an online shopping cart.

External Link - A web page link that points to a website other than the one it comes from. Any given web page can have external links pointing to them, and/or can point their own external links at other sites.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

A page of information providing answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Forums

Interactive communities online where people can post questions and/or have discussions with like-minded individuals.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - From Wikipedia: "FTP is used to transfer data from one computer to another over the Internet, or through a network."

Google - The world's most popular search engine. According to their website, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Google AdSense - Google's contextual advertising program.

Google Dance

1. Years ago, Google used to do a major algorithm update every few months. When it happened, the search engine results for any search query would "dance" around and positions would constantly change. It was dubbed the "Google Dance" by forum members at Webmaster World.

2. An actual party/dance put on by Google, Inc. each year during the Search Engine Stragegies San Jose conference.  (Named after the original Google Dance definition.) 

Hidden Text

Words on a web page which the average person browsing the page would not see, but which a search engine would.  Hidden text has been used for search engine spamming since the dawn of search engines. It's much less effective than it used to be, but can still be found on many websites even today. 

Home Page or HomePage

The top-level page of any website. It's usually found at www.example.com and is most effective when it describes what can be found at the rest of the website.  In terms of SEO, it's often the page of the site that is given the most weight by search engines because it generally has the most internal and external links pointing to it.

HTML - Hyper Text Mark-up Language

Image Links

Links to page's URL that are clicked to via a graphic image, as opposed to text. Some people believe that image links are given less weight by search engines than text links, but there's never been any proof of that.

The disadvantage to an image link is the lack of anchor text to place descriptive keyword phrases into.  However, this lack can be made up for by using a descriptive image alt attribute. 

Impressions - The number of times a web page ad is displayed.

Inbound links - Any link pointing to a given page's URL.

Internal Links - Links from within one website which point to other pages within the same website. Typical links in a website's navigation, would be considered internal links.

Keyword - A word that a person might type into a search engine's search box.

Keyword Meta Tag - See our Meta Keywords article.

Keyword Phrase aka Keyphrase - A few words that might be typed into a search engine's search box. For SEO purposes, you want to use the keyword phrases that best relate to what you offer on your website, in various, strategic places throughout your site.

Keyword Research (KWR)

Using tools to learn which keyword phrases that people type into search engines are the best ones to incorporate into a website.

Keyword Stuffing aka Keyword Spamming - Placing keywords anywhere and everywhere on a page, whether it makes sense (to people) to do so or not. Generally, this will hinder search engine rankings rather than help them.

Keyword-rich Copy - Copy on a web page that naturally uses the keyword phrases that people might be typing into a search engine to seek out the types of information, products or services offered there.

Keyword-rich Domain Name - A domain name that utilizes keywords in hopes that those words will be given some weight by search engines.

Keyword-rich File Name - A file named using keyword phrases in hopes that it will be given extra weighting in the search engines when someone uses those keywords in a search query.

Link Buying - Purchasing a link on another site for the purpose of increasing link popularity.

Link Exchange aka Reciprocal Linking - Providing a website with a link in exchange for them providing one back to you.

Link Farm - A set of web pages that all link to each other, often in an automated fashion, and usually created to subver the link popularity algorithms of search engines.

Link Juice - The link popularity that passes from any given link to the page it's linking to.

Link Popularity

A large part of all major search engine's ranking formula. The search engines believe the more frequently a web page is linked to, the more popular it is, and the more weight they will give it in their relevancy rankings.

Google's PageRank algorithm is a form of link popularity.

Link Text - Also known as "anchor text."  It's the words in the clickable part of any link.  Link text is important because those words tell your human visitors -- as well as the search engines -- what the page they're about to click to is all about. The search engines will give link text a lot of weight for this very reason.

Manual Submitting

Personally visiting a search engine's add URL page, and typing your URL into the add URL box. (As opposed to automated submission that would be done via a program or robot.) Submitting to spidering search engines, whether manually or automatically is not necessary, however.  Submitting to directories may still be a worthwhile practice, and this should always be done manually.

Meta Description Tag - See our meta description article for info on this tag.

Meta Keyword Tag - See our meta keyword tag article for information on this tag.

MFA Site - "Made for AdSense" site. This is a website that has little (if any) value to a user and is created solely for the purpose of displaying Google AdSense ads, hoping to make money from clickthroughs generated.

Mirror Site -

Misspellings - Words spelled incorrectly! For search marketing purposes, extra traffic can be generated to a website if there's a way for some pages to show up in the search results when someone misspells a word. Generally, it's best to simply bid on misspellings via paid search.

Navigation - The clickable links displaying throughout a website.

Nofollow Attribute

At this time, Google appears to be the only search engine who doesn't actually follow links using the nofollow attribute.

Google has also taken it upon themselves to expand the usage of the attribute beyond links that have not been reviewed, and recommends using nofollow on paid links, as well as any link on your own site that you'd rather not pass PageRank to.  Both of these usages for the nofollow attribute are controversial, with much being written about them. 

Optimization - Making a website be the best it can be.

Organic Listing - Any listing that shows up in the organic (or natural -- unpaid) results of a search engine. As opposed to the sponsored paid search listings.

Organic Search Marketing - Typically this would be the same thing as search engine optimization and/or SEO.

Overture - Yahoo Search Marketing's paid search program previous name. Before it was called Overture, it was called "GoTo."

Page Ranking - The position a page/URL appears in the search results for a given search query.

Page Title

<Title>Title Goes Here</Title>

HTML code that belongs on every web page which best describes the information that will be found on that page.

This information should contain the main keyword phrases that best describe the page.  

Title tag info appears at the top of the web browser, and also as the clickable link to a web page if it appears in the search engine results page for a relevant search query. 

See our title tag article for more information. 

PageRank - Not to be confused with Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) which is an graph showing a number from 0-10 which Google claims represents the popularity of the URL in question. 

Paid Inclusion - Paying to have a URL included in a search engine or directory's database. Yahoo is the only major search engine that still offers the opportunity to pay for inclusion. Paid inclusion doesn't guarantee a keyword ranking, just inclusion in the database.

PR0 - PageRank Zero. This is a Google Toolbar PageRank number that used to mean the page potentially had a penalty applied to it. It doesn't appear that Google uses PR0 anymore to denote a penalty.

Query or Queries - The words that a person types into a search engine to find what they're looking for.

Rankings - The positions pages appear in the search engine results pages for any given search query.

Reciprocal Linking or Reciprocal Links - Providing a website with a link in exchange for them providing one back to you.

Referrer - The previous web page in which a person clicked on a link to find the current web page. This could be a search engine results page link, or any link on any other website.

Return On Investment (ROI) - The amount of revenue made after subtracting the initial investment. Basically, the profits.

SE - Abbreviation or acronym for Search Engine.

Search Engine Marketing or Search Marketing - The field of marketing a website so that it gains more targeted traffic and conversions from search engines.

Search Engine Optimization - Making a website be the best it can be for the search engines as well as the site visitors. (This is High Rankings official definition!)

Search Engine Results Page (SERP) - The page that shows up after typing a keyword or phrase into a search engine and clicking "Search."

Search Engine Spam - Creating pages designed to trick the search engines into believing they are relevant for a particular keyword query.

Search Query - The keyword or phrases typed into a search engine in hopes of finding relevant websites.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Site Audit - Reviewing a website to see how it needs to be fixed to be the best it can be for the search engines and its users.

Site Clinic - A public review of a website, usually at a conference or seminar.

Site Map or SiteMap

A clickable table of contents/index list all the pages (or all the main categories of pages) of a website.

There's also a Google SiteMap which is an xml file submitted directly to Google in hopes that they will index all the URLs listed. 

Site Review - See site audit and site clinic.

Spammer - One who attempts to trick a search engine into ranking a web page in a position it wouldn't otherwise rank in.

Spamming - Creating content designed to be indexed by search engines which doesn't accurately reflect the actual content of the website.

Splash Page - A introductory page of a website, usually all graphical and sometimes all Flash, which generally doesn't provide any information, but requests visitors click through to the next page to view the information they're looking for.

Text - The words on a page or web page.

Text Link - A clickable link that is made up of just words, not graphics.

Time on Page - The amount of time a visitor spends on a page, as calculated by server logs or web analytics software.

Title Tag

<Title>Title Goes Here</Title>

HTML code that belongs on every web page which best describes the information that will be found on that page.

This information should contain the main keyword phrases that best describe the page.  

Title tag info appears at the top of the web browser, and also as the clickable link to a web page if it appears in the search engine results page for a relevant search query.  

Toolbar PageRank - The little green bar graph you can view as part of the Google toolbar.  It shows a number from 1-10, or it can be gray or white.  Toolbar PageRank has only minimal resemblance to actual Google PageRank which is based on the number and quality of links pointing to a given web page.  Toolbar PageRank can sometimes provide clues as to a particular SEO problem on a site, but generally it doesn't have a lot of use in real life situations, especially as it's only updated by Google on an occasional basis.

Traffic - The people that browse a website.

Usability - The ease that a person browsing a page can find what they're looking for or complete any given task (such as making a purchase) on the website.

User - A person who visits any given web page.

Visitor - A person who browses a web page.

Website Audit - Reviewing a website to see how it needs to be fixed to be the best it can be for the search engines and its users.

White Hat SEO - Optimizing a website using only techniques outlined in search engine guidelines.

Xenu Link Sleuth - A free program to outline all the internal links within your website, as well as to find any dead links.

Yahoo!

A search engine/web portal that first started out as a web directory.