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Glossary of Terms
Keywords – Words or phrases that search engines use to search for a website.
Keyword Stuffing – a Black Hat SEO technique that includes putting long lists of keywords on a site and in addition to or in place of real content. Sometimes these keyword lists are combined with a technique called Cloaking or Invisible Text.
Link Back – A link that connects back to a homepage or links to someone else’s site that is relevant to the content on the page.
Link Farms – Link farms are sites that link to more than 100 other sites to manipulate search results. Search engines can spot link farms very quickly, and it's recommended you stay away from them.
Link Building – The process of exchanging links with other relevant websites to increase a website’s visibility in SERPs. Link building is used for SEO.
LinkedIn – A business-oriented social networking site, mainly used for professional networking.
Most Desired Action (MDA) – a task asked to visitors when visiting a website. It can be anything from filling in an opt-in (by downloading a newsletter or a pdf document) or subscribing to an RSS feed. The objective is to have viewers to interact with the site and drive more traffic.
Microsite – See Minisite.
Minisite – A separately promoted website that is often temporary. Minisites are used in niche marketing.
Navigation Buttons – Click through buttons that lead to other pages on the site, usually on the top or left hand side of a web page.
Niche Marketing – A marketing tactic that targets a specific portion of the market, usually offering a product or service that is outside of the mainstream.
Off-page Marketing – A marketing technique that includes any marketing done outside of a website, such as off-site content, blogs, videos, social networks, article marketing, email campaigns, search engine submissions, and press releases.
Optimize – Writing concisely with a few keywords to minimize the time it takes for a search engine to rank a site.
One Page Wonder – A niche marketing website that acts as a sales letter. One page wonders often have anchor links to help viewers look through the lengthy content.
On-page Marketing – A marketing technique that includes any marketing done on the pages of a website, such as search engine optimization, keyword tagging and research, opt-ins, and special reports.
Organic Search Results – Listings or search engine results pages that are indexed by relevance instead of paid-inclusion and pay-per-click programs and advertisements.
PageRank – Google’s link analysis algorithm that determines the relative importance of each hyperlink on a document.
Page Title – The title of a webpage. It can be the same as an article title or different. They are used to help search engines rank a site under keywords.
Paid Inclusion – A search engine marketing product that allows a website to be included in the search engine’s index for a certain fee. Also known as paid for inclusion.
Pay-Per-Click – Also referred to as PPC, are advertisements placed on a website that accumulate revenue for each time a user clicks on it.
Ping – A utility used to update information or troubleshoot Internet connections across an IP network.
Podcast – A podcast is basically an audible RSS feed for users to download and listen to on an iPod or similar device.
Point of Action – Also known as call to action. It is a marketing technique that forces the viewer to take action by branded opt-ins, click-throughs, downloads, etc. The idea is to have the viewer interact with the website and make a decision
Psycho-demographics – The behavioral science that takes demographics to another level by looking at the psychological needs and wants of prospective customers, associating their buying patterns with personal and emotional needs.
Ranking – A website’s position for specific keywords.
Reciprocal Link – An agreement between two webmasters to link websites in order to increase search engine visibility and to provide easy access to extra information for viewers.
Relevance – Having a connection to something else, usually referring to a keyword’s relation to a website.
Robots Text File – Also known as robots.txt. Search engine spiders find this file and use it as instructions to index the content of a website.
RSS Feeds – Stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds are mainly used for blogs and podcasts. They give subscribers automatic, real-time updates.
Search Engine (SE) – A program that searches through websites and content that is guided by keywords such as Google, MSN and Yahoo.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – A type of marketing that increases a websites visibility often by using off-pages.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – A method of maximizing a website’s visibility on any given search engine for targeted keywords.
Semantic Web – is a web of data that enables people to share information beyond the boundaries of standard websites, applications, communities and enterprises, allowing machines to find information without human assistance. It is also known as the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C.
SEO Copy – Copy written for search engine optimization, usually on a site’s homepage.
SERP – Search engine results pages are the pages crawled for a specific keyword.
Search Operator – Terms used to help search engines narrow or broaden a search
Search Taxonomy – The classification of web searches into three categories: navigational, informational and transactional.
Shopping Cart – An online purchasing system that allows visitors to store item(s) that they may want to buy. Then, when ready, the customer may purchase the item(s) through the website.
Sitemap – A site’s table of contents that links to all parts of the site.
Site Validation – When a site concurs with the modern standards. This ensures that a site is read the way it is supposed to be read by search engines.
Spam – unwanted e-mail advertising sent to a mailing list or newsgroup.
Spamdexing – See Black Hat SEO.
Spiders – See Bots.
Social Network – Online communities that allow people to share and explore interests and activities. Examples of social networking websites are FaceBook, MySpace and LinkedIn.
Solopreneur – A self-employed entrepreneur. A solopreneur is an independent person who owns an organization or venture and is accountable for all potential risks. Like entrepreneurs, solopreneurs must combine labor and capital to provide a market for their goods and/or services
Target Marketing – See Niche Marketing.
TCP – Transmission Control Protocol is more defined version of IP that creates a virtual connection between the information sender and receiver.
Testimonial – An advertising effort that is positive review by a customer, celebrity or other company. Testimonials are usually used in branding to boost a company’s credibility and assure customer’s of the quality offered.
Title Tag – An HTML tag that describes a specific web page and is not visible on the page. Title tags usually contain one to three keywords and often become text links. Search engines use title tags to help index pages. They are also known as a page titles.
Tweet Penguin – a new Twitter tool that enables users to organize their interests and follow people with similar ones. Tweet Penguin is gaining popularity with its promise to expand users’ social networks.
TweetDeck – a beta program that allows users to organize updates from Twitter and FaceBook with real-time notifications and personalized dashboards
Twitpic – a new Twitter widget where users can share photos.
Twitter – A free social messaging tool that lets people stay connected through brief text message updates up to 140 characters in length.
Twitterverse – Simply put, the universe of twitter or the span of Twitter's network. It is also known as Twittersphere, a spin-off word of blogosphere, since Twitter is essentially microblogging.
USP – Unique selling proposition is what makes a company stand out from the competition.
Vanity URL – A domain name created to describe a page. Vanity URLs are meant to make it easier for users to remember. Sometimes these URLs have one or two optimized keywords to help search engines index the page.
Video Optimization – Writing short, keyword rich written content for videos so that search engines can find and rank them.
Video Sitemap – A sitemap for video content.
Visibility – A term used to describe how frequently a site is seen on search engines and through link backs.
W3 – An abbreviation for the World Wide Web, also known as www.
Web Content – See Content.
Web Copy – See SEO Copy.
Web Marketing – A type of sales marketing that promotes a business through the Internet.
Webmaster – Someone who manages a website and handles web server software and hardware as well as does a variety of other things to maintain the website.
Widget – A small tool, application or icon that performs simple functions such as news and website updates.
White Hat SEO – Also called Ethical SEO, refers to the usage of SEO strategies, techniques and tactics that completely follows search engine rules and policies.
Wiki – A website that allows users to add, edit and link pages, other sites and content.
Wolfram Alpha – An ongoing project with the goal of making all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible in order to provide definitive answers to factual queries. Wolfram|Alpha is the next step toward the Semantic Web.
XML – Stands for extendable markup language. XML is used to allow information systems to share data through the Internet.
Yelp – Yelp, Inc. is a Web 2.0 company that operates a social networking, user review, and local search web site of the same name.
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# A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
301 – HTTP error code indicating that the site Moved Permanently
302 – HTTP error code indicating that the site Moved Temporarily.
400 – HTTP error code indicating that the user typed in a Bad Request, usually due to a syntax error.
401 – HTTP error code indicating that the page access is Unauthorized. Sometimes occurs when user types in incorrect password.
402 – HTTP error code indicating that a Payment is Required to access the site.
403 – HTTP error code indicating that the site is Forbidden.
404 – HTTP error code indicating that the File is Not Found.
405 – HTTP error code indicating that the Method is Not Allowed.
408 – HTTP error code indicating a Request Timeout.
500 – HTTP error code indicating that there is an Internal Server Error due to configuration problems.
501 – HTTP error code indicating that the action is Not Implemented or not supported.
502 – HTTP error code indicating that there is a Bad Gateway or that the server is congested due to a high amount of traffic.
503 – HTTP error code indicating that the Service is Unavailable because the site may have moved, the connection dropped or the server is busy.
504 – HTTP error code indicating a Gateway Timeout
Affiliate Program – A marketing recruiting program where webmasters receive a referral/commission payment for user clicks, leads or sales on a banner ad. Pay-per-click is a commonly used affiliate program.
Aggregator – Also known as feed reader or news reader, aggregators are software programs that syndicates content such as blogs, vlogs, headlines, news updates and podcasts. FeedBurner is one example.
Alexa Ranking – Alexa is a web information company that creates tools for web developers and ranks websites based on traffic internationally.
Algorithm – A set of programming rules that determines how search engines index content and present results to users.
Alt Tags – Words or phrases used as an explanation for links or a pictures that appear when a cursor hovers over either.
Analytics – Web software that indicates user activity on a site such as how many users visited the site, how they got there, how long they stayed, when they left, what keywords they used to search for the site and what links were clicked.
Anchor Links – Links that direct a viewer to another part of the same page. Anchor links are often used for One Page Wonder sites.
API – Stands for application program interface. An API is tools and protocols used to build software applications to make it easier to develop a program. Social applications also access information and update feeds.
Atom – XML language used in RSS and other web feeds.
Authority Site – A website that the search engines deem as an authority in its subject matter. Authority sites are gauged by size, relevance and importance. Linking to relevant authority sites is valuable in increasing your search engine results pages (SERPs).
Backlink – A hyperlink that links from one website to another, also known as inbound links. Backlinks are used in SEO because some search engines use them to determine ranking on SERPs.
Black Hat SEO – refers to the use of aggressive SEO strategies, techniques and tactics that do not obey search engines rules. This type of SEO offers short term gains and a high risk of being penalized by search engines. It is also known as Spamdexing.
Blog – An online catalogue of content. There are many forms of blogs such as video, journal, article content, etc.
Bots – Search engine robots that search through a website’s content. They determine which websites go under which keywords.
Branding – A method of positioning a company and its products and services to create awareness in the market.
Brand Image – A marketing tactic that gives consumers a specific image or impression of how the brand’s products and services are positioned.
Brand Loyalty – Consumer purchase and repurchase of a product or service under a brand name because they feel it is the best despite competition.
Campaign Site – A minisite that is targeted for a specific audience.
Cloaking – See Invisible Text.
Click Fraud – When individuals continuously click on banner ads or program software to do so in order to increase revenue from a pay-per-click program. Click fraud is illegal.
Content – Information supplied on the web about a company’s products, services or related industry topics to help consumers make educated decisions.
Content Integration – Also known as sponsored content. Advertising within an editorial or article, usually on large destination sites.
Copy – Written text on a website.
Copywriter – A hired writer to write copy, content or advertisements for the web.
Cost Per Action (CPA) – The cost in which an advertiser will pay a site publisher for each consumer/viewer action, usually a click through or a completion of sale.
CSS – Cascading Style Sheets is a new feature of HTML that allows users and web developers to control how web pages are displayed.
Crawlers – See Bots.
CTR – Stands for click through rate. It is the amount of times surfers click through to a website
Digg – A Web site that accepts links and brief descriptions to news articles, videos and podcasts from members, all of which are voted on by other members who "digg it!" Members can also cast a "bury" vote if they feel the material is inaccurate or dull, and the site may eventually remove it.
Direct Response Marketing – A marketing program that elicits a call to action from consumers.
Doorway Pages – a Black Hat SEO technique that uses false pages, or pages that viewers never see, to trick search engine spiders into giving the site a higher rank.
Drip Marketing – A direct response marketing technique that involves sending promotional materials (articles, press releases, advertisements, etc) during a given time period to your sales leads. http://marketing.about.com
Drop Down Menu – Navigation buttons that drop down to show more links. These buttons help consolidate links into categories.
EBook – A downloadable, online book, often used as a special offer.
Email Blast – An email newsletter, press release or other type of content sent to everyone in an address book.
Eyetracking – Market research done by the Nielson Norman Group to determine where Internet users look on a given website. Findings where that users look at text and bolded subheads more often than graphics.
Facebook – A free website (referred to as a "social networking site") that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them.
Feed – A short website or document that is frequently updated. These documents end in .xml or .rss and are also known as web feeds and RSS feeds.
Feedback – Comments on a site’s content.
FeedBurner – A media distribution service company developed in 2004. FeedBurner offers tools, feeds and advertisements to bloggers, podcasters and other web content providers. It became a part of Google in June 2007.
Flash – Also known as Adobe Flash or Macromedia Flash. It is a type of multimedia software programming that is used for adding animation to a website.
Flickr – An online sharing site for storing, sharing and commenting on photos.
Flux – occurs when there is a major search engine updates. It is essentially a mixing of search engine positions.
Friendfeed – A social platform that enables you to keep up-to-date on the web pages, photos, videos and music that your friends and family are sharing.
Google AdSense – Google’s pay-per-click affiliate program that places relevant ads on a website. The bots crawl through a site’s content to match both text or image ads with the content.
Google AdWords – Google’s advertising program where a company creates an ad with relevant keywords and submits it to Google. When a surfer searches the chosen keywords, the ad may appear next to the search results.
Google Cache – A snapshot of each page examined as it crawls the web. To view your page as Google indexed it, type in cache:http://www.yourdomain.com. The cached content is the informations Google uses to judge whether this page is a relevant match for your query
Google Alerts – A function Google and many other Internet search engines use to notify users of any new search results when they specify keywords, phrases or tags.
Google OpenSocial – Google’s application program that enables users to create social APIs in JavaScript or HTML for social networking websites.
Google Reader – An aggregator for Atom and RSS feeds both on and offline meant for users to view all sites at a glance as well as a variety of other functions to consolidate information searching.
Google Webmaster Tools – A free API service that allows webmasters to share website information to increase its visibility in Google searches.
Gigya – A new widget that allows surfers to share or bookmark content on a specific page through a variety of networking websites. It also gives publishers a wider range of distribution and real time tracking.
Hacker – A programmer who searches for sensitive material in order to break into computer systems to steal, change or destroy information. Hackers are experts which is why it is important to keep your computer protected and to not keep sensitive information in your email.
Homepage – The main page of a website.
HTML – HyperText Markup Language. This is the programming language most commonly used for webpages. It includes codes for links, paragraphs, headings, images, etc.
HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a coding system that formats and transmits messages through the Internet.
Invisible Text – a Black Hat SEO practice where long keyword lists in white text on white background (or black on black) on websites with the purpose of attracting search engine spiders and increase rankings.
IP – Internet Protocol was one of the first protocols used to create the Internet. It is used to allow information to be sent anonymously into the system. IP is often combined with TCP.
