Glossary

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Glossary

Algorithm

They are the rules and calculations used by search engines to calculate the rankings of the sites being indexed by it. The search engine algorithms are unique to a particular search engine.


Algorithmic (Organic) Results

Search engine rankings that are achieved organically; these are the results that are determined by the search engine algorithms as the most appropriate answer to any particular query. They are unlike Pay per Click plans where it costs money to get superior rankings.


ALT Tags

It describes the content related to a non-text based file, for e.g. images.


Banner Ads

They are necessarily the graphical images or small animation files embedded within web page and are meant to be used as advertising tool.


Click Through Rate (CTR)

It denotes the percentile of visitors to a web page who actually click on any displayed link.


Cloaking

As the name suggests, it’s a procedure whereby the actual content meant for users is hidden from the search engines and they are fed some other content. It’s an unethical SEO marketing practice meant to trick the search engines, while it decides the importance of that page.


Contextual Link Inventory

An additional feature of search engines; it involves the placement of targeted links by search engines on other websites/ web pages that they understand to have similar audiences.


Conversion Rate

It denotes the actual percentage of visitors who actually take the decisive step while surfing through a website, like buying/ ordering a product or taking part in an online survey scheme.


Cost Per Click (CPC)

An Internet marketing method of paying for targeted traffic to a website. It involves a small fee, and then websites like Google, Yahoo etc. will direct traffic to your site. The payment is made on the basis of the number of clicks.


Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)

The costs that an advertiser needs to pay is calculated on the basis per thousand views of his advertisement. This model in fact gives good returns to the advertisers as the costing is being done on the basis of number of views and not on the basis of the number of clicks.


Search Engine Crawler

They are the rules and calculations used by search engines to calculate the rankings of the sites being indexed by it. The search engine algorithms are unique to a particular search engine.


Delisting

The procedure where by a particular webpage is removed from the search engine listings. It may happen if that page gets banned due to use of scrupulous SEO techniques or when deemed out-of-date and irrelevant.


Directories

They are human reviewed source of information, something like a human search engine. And as the name suggests they contain the listings of relevant web and then categorized using human intellect unlike the search crawlers which are automated software.


Doorway Page/ Gateway Page

A low-content page created deliberately with a predefined purpose of getting good rankings on the search engines. They are very keyword intensive and can’t necessarily be called the correct technique for search engine rankings.


Graphical Search Inventory (GSI)

Index

It is a measure of the actual collection of data and websites in a search engines data base.


Keywords

It refers to the exact word/ phrase used by a person while searching for information on the web. Concurrently it may also denote the terms/ phrases targeted by a web site as part of the strategy to ensure high rankings on search engines.


Keyword Density

Denotes the percentage of keywords in a document in comparison to the total word count of the document. It’s an important variable used by search engines to determine the relevancy of a page.


Keyword Proximity

The relative distance between two important keywords (May or may not be same) in the visible text of a website.


Landing page

The actual page to which a user is directed after clicking on the search engine listing of that particular website.


Link Farm

They constitute illegal SEO techniques and are effectively pages that contain large numbers of links and that too without any groupings category wise and structure. They are often used to ensure fast indexing by search engines.


Link Popularity

It is the count of the number of links pointing to your website in the search engine index. A number of search engines use this as a determining factor while deciding on the webpage rankings.


Link Text

The text that gets displayed in the hyperlinks.


Meta Search Engine

It can termed as a hybrid search engines that doesn’t use its own algorithms to compile its search results, instead depends on two or more search engines to come up with a consolidated search result.


Meta Tags

Meta tags form an important part of search engine marketing and positioning applications. The Meta data includes page description, keyword sets etc. Generally, most search engines include these characteristics in their ranking determining process.


Meta Description Tag

It is the tag on the heading source code and has the basic description of the site. Helping the search engines to rank it accordingly, however it’s pertinent to note here that not all search engines depend on them for determining search rankings.


Meta Keywords Tag

This tag permits the page authors to incorporate a list of important keywords which they feel are appropriate for their page so as to help in achieving better search engine rankings.


Meta Robots Tag

Meant to help webmasters control the WebPages that get indexed by the search engines.


Mirror Site

They are a duplicate copy of an already existing website and are used to augment the response time for real high-volume websites.


Paid Inclusions/ Listings

An Internet marketing system whereby a website pays up in order to be included in the search engine database, without any guarantee on rankings.


PPC

Acronym of Pay-Per-Click


Pay-for-Performance

Considered a synonym of Pay-Per-Click


Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

It is a type of SEO/ Internet marketing application that involves paid advertisements displayed strategically above or beside the free listings on search engines. PPC services are offered by major search engines like Google and Overture. As a thumb rule, highest positions are awarded to the highest bidders for a particular keywords/ search phrase.


Rank

It is the relative positioning of a webpage on the search engines. That implies that higher your rank, the more visible is your page on the search engines.


Ramkings

The position of a website after it's registration with a search engine.


Rapid Inclusion

The per page fee method of indexing of websites in the search engines and directories. The indexing in rapid inclusion happens every 48-72 hours as opposed to free submissions where indexes are updated every few weeks.


Robot

Synonym for crawler.


Robots.txt

It is a small text file that is included in the source code of a web page to prohibit search engines from indexing that page.


ROI

Acronym for "Return on Investment." ROI can be defined as the percentage of profit leveraged from the Internet marketing activity.


Search Engine

A website that most probably uses proprietary software to allow users search the World Wide Web for any particular information.


Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

It pertains to solutions that can be cumulatively defined as including all that is done to market a website on the search engines. SEM includes all processes like improving organic and/or paid listings, rapid inclusion, link building, content development etc. SEM aims to increase the websites visibility across the search engines.


Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Website analysis and making adjustments in the current state of websites (source code and visible text) so as to make sure that the website/ webpage achieves the highest possible rankings on the search engines.


Search Terms (Keywords/ key phrase) It can be defined as the words/ phrases used by visitors while on the look out for specific products and services on the search engines.


SERPS

The most widely used acronym for Search Engine Results Page. See Results Page.


Spam

Termed as any SEO marketing effort that gets described as a hindrance to delivery of quality results by the search engines. It includes doorway pages, irrelevant keywords, keyword stuffing etc. The standards regarding what all constitutes as spam varies search engine to search engine. Broadly, spam is any technique employed that stands in violation to the policies of search engines and usually spamming leads to getting banned from that particular search engines rankings.


Style Sheet

It is the template used for signifying the layout of multiple pages within the structure of a web site.


Submission

The SEO marketing procedure employed for registering a website with the search engines. Submission can not guarantee inclusion, as it usually leads to the website being reviewed/ crawled by the search engines. Additionally, submission to a particular search engine does not in any way guarantee high rankings. The procedure is carried out manually, or done using commercial submission software packages available widely in the market.


Title Tag

They are a type of Meta data that is meant to help search engines in describing the title of a web page. Search engine ranking algorithms place considerable value in the use of title tags and generally take it as an important factor while determining what a site is all about and the relevancy of the content in relation to the title tag.


Website Title Placed near the top of the source code, website title defines the content of the page.


XML Feeds

A system whereby the search engines get relevant information via XML. XML is a technology using which information can be updated rapidly between two different websites or between a search engine and a website. This technology presents an alternative to the crawling procedure carried out by the search engines. XML is usually considered a paid form of inclusion.


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