Glossary
Search Engine: A search engine is a database that helps people find information
on websites based on a keyword search. Search engines generally
use robots called "spiders" or "crawlers" to scan and catalog websites.
AdWords:
The popular paid-advertising system offered by Google.
AdSense: A program under
which a webmaster gives Google permission to display AdWords advertising
on his or her site for a cut of click-through charges.
Algorithm:
A mathematical formula used to perform a task or function. Search
engines use various algorithms to sort and rank documents.
Algo: Abbreviation for algorithm.
Anchor Text: The text used
to phrase a link. For example: Back
to Home - the blue text is the "anchor text".
Body Text: The text that appears on a website.
Content (General): The information
contained in a document.
Content (Active Content): Content that changes
from time to time.
Content (Fresh Content): New information posted
to a document.
Content (Long Term Content): Content that is
not expected to change over time. An example used in this whitepaper
is the US Constitution.
(back
to top)
Content (Static Content): Non-changing content.
Context: An understanding
of the topic or meaning of a document.
Contextual Advertising:
Industry term describing the delivery of paid advertising across
multiple platforms based on information contained in the document
the advertisement appears on.
Crawler: A crawler is much like a
spider except it is programmed to constantly surf the web, following
any and all links it comes across. As it visits new websites, it
checks its own database to see if the site is listed. If the site
is already listed, it makes note of any changes and calculates a
search engine ranking for the site. If the site has not been previously
listed, the crawler will record all important information, add the
website to the database, and assign a ranking to it.
Database: A database is a repository
or storage area for information. In reference to search engines,
databases are measured by the number of websites listed on that
particular search engine. A database is a collection of information
organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select
desired pieces of data.
Directory: Directories are very
much like search engines except they often use live human editors
to review and catalog websites submitted to their databases. Most
directories sort websites based on topical categories such as Arts & Humanities, or Business & Economics. Yahoo! is the most
well known directory.
Document Profile: A set
of characteristics assigned to a unique document based on historic
data gathered and compiled over time.
Domain Name: The digital
address of a website as expressed in hypertext transfer protocol
code.
.dll: Dynamic Link Library,
a set of functions that can be executed, or data that can be used
by a Windows application.
Document: A unique web-file
of any type being examined by Google.
(back
to top)
Frames: A website design technique used to split the screen
into two or more sections. Websites designed using frames are notoriously
difficult to promote to search engines without effective website
optimization work.
FTP: File Transfer Protocol
Googlebombing: A method of
forcing a document to rank in the Top position at Google by having
multiple links with the same anchor text pointing to that document.
Googlebot: The proper name
of Google’s search spider.
HTML: Acronym: Hypertext Markup
Language. A semi-universal protocol language for creating web documents.
Historic Data: Information
compiled over time to provide accurate record of unique events over
time.
Historic Profiles: A
set of characteristics ascribed to a document after analysis of
Historic Data.
Host Server: The computer on which a
website resides and is made available via the web. Generally host
servers are associated with Internet Service Provides.
HTML: - Hyper Text Mark-up Language is the basic programming
code for the web.
Image: An image is a graphic used in a website. Not every
image is a picture. Images can include photos, buttons, banners,
and other non-text elements.
(back
to top)
IT: Information Technology, Intelligent
Technologies or Internet Technologies (depending on the context
used).
Index (Search Index):
The term describing the entire database of documents known to a
search engine.
Index (Page): The first document found on most
websites is known as the index page. It can also be named the default
page or referred to as the home page.
Keyword: Words input by
search engine users when looking for documents containing information
relevant to those words.
Keyword Phrase: Two or
more keywords that might be input by search engine users when looking
for documents containing information relevant to those words.
Keyword Query: A search conducted using keywords.
Keyword Ratio: The number of keywords in your body text
measured against the total number of words in the body text.
Link: A connector written into
the source-code of a document that, when triggered by the site-user,
leads to another document on the web. Links generally appear as
coloured underlined text however they might also be triggered by
images, FLASH, java scripts and drop down menus.
Link Density: The number of links directed to your website
originating from outside sources, combined with the number of links
on your website pointing to outside sources.
Link Popularity: A measure of how many other websites link
to your website.
(back
to top)
Link (Backlink): A link
directed to a web document from another web document. When plural
(backlinks), the term may refer to a list of all links leading to
a document or a domain.
Link (Internal): A
connection between two documents in the same web site or domain.
Link (External): A
connection between two web documents housed at separate domains.
Link (Reciprocal): An agreed upon exchange of
links between two web documents or domains. (Site A places a link
to Site B so Site B places a link to Site A to reciprocate)
Meta Tags: Found in the source code
(or invisible background) of each web page, meta tags are sets of
instructions and/or identifiers for search engine spiders to read
which describe the content that is included on your web page. At
one time, search engines used this information solely to decide
where your web site should be placed within their database. Now
search engines use Meta Tags only in part when calculating your
web site's ultimate placement. There are two commonly used meta
tags, the description and the keyword tags.
Meta Tag (Description):
The description meta tag is used to offer search engines a short
paragraph of topical or thematic data. The description is often
used to contextualize information found on the page. It might also
appear as the descriptive text appearing below the active link on
search engine results pages. The description meta tag is considered
an essential component of a good SEO campaign.
Meta Tag (Keywords): The
keywords meta tag may or may not be important. While it once carried
a great deal of weight, misuse of the tag has led most search engines,
including Google to take this tag much less seriously. Nevertheless,
it may provide a minor benefit, which in a game of inches might
prove extremely important.
Moore’s Law: An observation
made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 that states the number
of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double
every 18-months. This observation has generally held true over the
years and continues to dictate assumptions about growth in all facets
of the IT industry.
No Frames: A meta tag used to provide readable information
for search engine spiders when a site is designed using frames.
Optimization: The process of making your website or web
page search engine friendly
(back
to top)
Optimize (Website or Document):
To alter a document in order to make the document rank well on search
engines under specific keywords or keyword phrases.
Overture: Overture was
the first search tool to use pay-per-click as a business model.
Purchased by Yahoo early in 2004, Overture has been integrated into
Yahoo Search Marketing Service. They provide contextually driven
paid-text advertising on Yahoo and partner sites. At the time this
paper was written, the division was still referred to as Overture.
Pay-per-Click: Pay-per-click search tools allow website
managers to bid for placement. Bids are most often measured as an
amount per click-through, or each time a user visits a website,
the bid amount is extracted from the bidder's account.
PPC: Acronym: Pay per Click
(each time users click a paid advertisement, the advertiser is charged
a fee)
PageRank: A score assigned
by Google to document profiles based on what is assumed to be an
over-all evaluation of document content and the content of all associated
documents.
Paid Search Advertising:
Keyword driven advertising paid for by advertisers. By definition,
this may include banner advertising, text-links and other forms
of commercial placement however it tends to refer to programs such
as Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing Services.
Placement (SEO): The positioning
of an optimized web document or website in the Top10 rankings.
Portal: A website that offers
users access to a number of topic based references. Yahoo and AOL
are commonly defined as Portals.
Promotion Map: Promotion Maps enable search engine spiders
and live-directory editors to easily and quickly move through a
website. The Promotion Mapping technique is an essential part of
the Corporate Placement Packages.
Rankings (Search Engine Rankings):
Order of placement of a web document or web site on search engine
results pages.
(back
to top)
Robot (Search): Another name
for search spider. Also referred to as ‘bots’.
Roll-over Image: An image that changes as your mouse moves
over it.
Search: Search describes
the act of looking for information using a search engine.
SERP: acronym: Search Engine
Results Page.
SEO: Acronym: Search Engine
Optimization/Search Engine Optimizer. The process or person performing
the process of altering a document or website in order to improve
search rankings of that document. SEO tends to focus on the organic
(natural) or free listings.
SEM: Acronym: Search Engine
Marketing/Search Engine Marketer. Where SEO tends to refer to a
process performed for benefit in organic rankings, SEM tends to
focus on paid aspects of search advertising.
Site Map: A set of text links used to direct human visitors
or search engine spiders throughout the site.
Source-code: The computer
language, generally modeled from HTML or a derivative, used to create
a web document. Source code is often identifiable by the use of
the < & > symbols.
Spam (SEO): Named after the
infamous canned luncheon meat, SPAM is the term that refers to search
engine optimization techniques that grossly violate the Terms of
Services Agreements published by the major search engines. As a
term, SPAM can be applied to any unwanted or unwelcome product of
Internet Marketing including but certainly not limited to email.
Spider: A spider is a tool used by
search engines to view and rank websites submitted to its search
engine. Spiders are electronic robots programmed and used by search
engines to find web documents and record information about web documents.
(back
to top)
Spidering: When a spider
visits a document it is said to be spidering the document.
Spidering cycle: The
term describing the time between visits by spiders to a document.
Static Content: Content that
tends to remain constant over time.
Stickiness (Document Elements): Term describing
document elements that do not change over time.
Stickiness (Search): Term
describing a document’s tendency to remain in a constant place
on search engine results pages.
Submitting to Search Engines: The process of posting websites
to search engines.
Technology: Any non-human device
constructed or augmented whose use is dictated by design.
Theme Site/s:
Themed sites are individual web sites that consist of useful, original
and relevant content on a specific product or service.
Theme Engines: - Theme Engines are the newest generation
of search engines. Basing their site ranking formulas on multiple
factors such as relevancy, link densities and textual continuity,
theme engines are designed to produce better search results.
Title: The words or phrases
placed in the <title> tag of the document source-code. The
title is the text that appears as the active link on search engine
results pages. The title appears across the very top of your search
browser window, (in the area the minimize/maximize buttons are placed.)
(back
to top)
Top10: Industry term describing
the first ten results found on a search engine results page.
Top 20 Listing: Being in the top 20 generally means that
you will be found on one of the first two pages of reference links
returned when a set of keywords is entered into a search engine.
The majority of search engine users will switch to another search
engine if they do not find the results they are looking for in the
first 20 references.
Traffic: A term measuring
the number of users who visit a document or URL.
Trust Rank: A term used
to describe a score assigned by Google to document profiles based
on link-evaluation.
URL: Acronym: Uniform Resource
Locator, also known as Domain Name.
User: The person visiting a website or using a piece of
technology.
Vehicles: Modes of transport
from point A to point B.
View-Source: - "View-Souce" means to look at the
source-code of a website. To do so, point your mouse to the View
option in the top menu bar. Choose source from the drop down menu.
The text that appears is the source code of the website.
Web Page: A single document
contained in a traditional W3C defined document
format and found on the web.
Web Site: A collection of
web pages or other content assembled to form a unique entity and
housed at the same basic URL.
Web: A network of servers linked
together using common protocols. The World Wide Web has become a
vast repository of human information and has also provided its billions
of users with the instant ability to communicate with other users
via networks established using common protocols.
W3C: (acronym) World Wide Web
Consortium, the body that sets official standards for coded-content
on the web.
(back
to top)
|
