SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING GLOSSARY

 

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200

Status OK – The file request was successful

301 Redirect

Moved Permanently – The page or file has moved permanently to a new location. Often used to redirect a web page URL that has ranking to point to a new page that could benefit from this ranking.

302 Redirect

Moved Temporarily  – The page or file has moved temporarily to a new location.

404

Not Found – The web page or file no longer exists.

 

A

 

Above the Fold

Originally used to describe the part of the newspaper that shows before being unfolded, this term can also describe the content of a web page visible once navigated to, before scrolling.

AdSense

The name of Google’s contextual advertising network. These ads appear on websites that owners have signed up for this service. Typically the advertisements are relevant to the page that they show up on.

Anchor Text

This is typically used to describe the text that shows with a hyperlink attached to it.

B

 

Banner Blindness

During the first Dot Com Boom ads were shown to get eyeballs, rather than showing relevant ads to the content of the page. Web users typically ignored these ads.

Behavioral Targeting

Using the search habits of the web user to serve up ads based on history and implied intent. Also called BT.

Bing

Bing is the search engine for Microsoft.

Bing Ads

Bing’s paid search feature, similar to Google AdWords.

C

 

Cache

The copy of a stored web page within the search engine data centers of Google, etc.

Canonical

This term describes the issues that might arise with the URL www.example.com versus example.com. Some issues might include duplicate pages, broken navigation, etc. In Webmaster Tools the practice of indicating which URL was the primary used to be a practice by people doing SEO.

D

 

Dayparting

This is the term that describes the manipulation of ad campaigns based on time of day, bid price, or budget limitations so that your ads target your audience during optimal times.

Dead Link

A link that no longer goes to an active page or file.

Deep Link

Also called “Deep Linking”, this is an internal link on a website that points to another page on the same website. The practice of deep linking is typical done so that there are multiple entry and exit links on a website, helping the search engine bots to crawl more often.

Dedicated Server

A server that is dedicated to one persons use. Often for the use of one website or a collection of websites by a single person or company. Dedicated servers are often times more reliable than shared or virtual servers, but cost more than other server setups.

E

 

Emphasis

An HTML tag used to emphasize text.

Entry Page

The web page that a web user first visits on a particular website

F

 

Favicon

The small icon that appears on the tab of an internet browser next to the title of the page.

Feed

Relating to RSS Feeds and XML Feeds, these are update notifications that allow subscribers to get notice when there is new content available.

G

 

Google

The global leading search engine in terms of reach. Google was created by Sergey Brin and Larry Page on September 4, 1998, in Menlo Park California.

Googlebot

The web crawling spider for Google.

Google Base

A free database of semantically structured information that was created by Google.

H

 

Headings

Similar to a heading in a newspaper, headings are a tag used to describe or introduce the content of the section following the heading. Heading tags are 1 thru 6, with the H1 tag being most important. Typically there is only one H1 tag per page, with tags 2-6 for the remainder of the content headings.

Hidden Text

Text that humans cannot see but are present in the source code of a website. For example: White text on a white background. This is a strategy that will get you penalized by search engines and should not be used.

I

 

inbound Link

A link from an external website that points to yours. Sometimes these links will have anchor text with a hyperlink This is a strategy that is still within search engine guidelines, however the quality of these should be considered. Sometimes others may link to your site, these links can sometimes affect your search engine rankings in a positive or negative manner.

Index

Similar to a library index, this is a collection of data used by search engines to serve up information and web pages based on a search query by its users.

J

 

JavaScript

A client-side scripting language embedded into HTML to add dynamic features.

K

 

Keyword

A word or phrase that a user would type into a search engine to find information.

Keyword Density

A dated strategy that measures the use of a targeted keyword or phrase within the content of a page.

L

 

Landing Page

The page that a visitor lands on after clicking on a link.

Link

A gateway to a predetermined section of a website or document.

Link Baiting

A strategy used to gain more links to a piece of content, web page or other document. Typically a high quality piece of information in social media or articles and blog posts.

M

 

Manual Penalty

A penalty enforced manually by an engineer that determines a guideline violation.

Manual Review

Verification of guidelines that are performed by humans to assess the algorithm performance and relevance.

N

 

Navigation

A link that allows a user to navigate a website to other pages of the website.

Negative SEO

An attempt to game the system or manipulate the search engine ranking. Often called Black Hat SEO.

O

 

Open Source

Software that allows for source code modifications.

P

 

PageRank

An internal rank used by Google to determine the quality of a particular web page.

Q

 

Quality Content

Content that is of high quality that could be considered link-worthy.

R

 

Reciprocal Links

The trading of links between website owners.

Redirect

A method used to notify browsers that a page has moved to another location.

S

 

Safari

Apple’s web browser.

Search History

The history of web pages that you visit that is stored for future use by the user or also search engines delivering targeted ads.

T

 

Term Frequency

The measurement of a term within a collection of web pages or documents.

U

 

Update

A change in search engine algorithms and data sets to provide the most relevant information to its users.

V

 

Viral Marketing

The technique of creating content that is shared organically by word of mouth.

W

 

Whois

The record of website ownership and other data pertaining to a specific website.

X

 

XHTML

Extensible HyperText Markup Language, designed to conform HTML to XML format.

Y

 

Yahoo

A search engine, similar to Google.

Z

 

Zeal

Non-commercial directory bought by Looksmart, then shut down abruptly