Niche Site Dictionary

I thought it might be useful to put together a Niche Site Dictionary, which is basically a collection of Internet Marketing definitions and terms used by people building websites.  This will be updated constantly, so if you see anything I left out, or is incorrect, please don’t hesitate to comment below and I will update.

Niche Site Dictionary

  • 200  –  Status OK – The file request was successful. For example, a page or image was found and loaded properly in a browser.
  • 301 – A permanent server redirect – a change of address for a web page found in the htaccess file on apache servers. Also useful for dealing with canonical issues.
  • 302 – Found – The file has been found, but is temporarily located at another URI.
  • 404 – Not Found – The server was unable to locate the URL.
  • Abbreviation Element – Used in HTML alongside the title attribute to denote the use of an abbreviation. It allows screen readers to spot abbreviations and, instead of trying to pronounce the abbreviation, it reads out the full title.
  • Absolute Link – A link which shows the full URL of the page being linked at. Some links only show relative link paths instead of having the entire reference URL within the a href tag. Due to canonicalization and hijacking related issues it is typically preferred to use absolute links over relative links.
  • Accessibility – Refers to the structuring of web content in such a way that it is easily accessible to all users, in particular users with
  • AC Rank – Standing for “A citation rank” this is a metric used by Majestic SEO to give a value to a particular page based on the number of domains linking to it. It is measured from 0 – 15 with 15 being the highest.
  • Advanced Search Query – A query that you can use to tell the search engines to return a specific set of results compared to standard keyword searches.
  • Adwords – Google Pay Per Click contextual advertisement program, very common way of basic website advertisement.
  • Adwords Site – (MFA) Made For Google Adsense Advertisements – websites that are designed from the ground up as a venue for GA advertisements. This is usually, but not always a bad thing. TV programming is usually Made For Advertisement.
  • Affiliate – An affiliate site markets products or services that are actually sold by another website or business in exchange for fees or commissions.
  • Age – Some social networks or search systems may take site age, page age, user account age, and related historical data into account when determining how much to trust that person, website, or document. Some specialty search engines, like blog search engines, may also boost the relevancy of new documents.
  • Algorithm – An algorithm is a set of finite, ordered steps for solving a mathematical problem. Each Search Engine uses a proprietary algorithm set to calculate the relevance of its indexed web pages to your particular Query. The result of this process is a list of sites ranked in the order that the search engine deemed most relevant. Search engine algorithms are closely guarded in order to prevent exploitation of algorithmic results. Search algorithms are also changed frequently to incorporate new data and improve relevancy.
  • Algorithmic Results – Algorithmic results are the ranked listings search engines provide in response to a Query. They are often referred to as Organic Listings in contrast to Paid Listings because their rank is based on relevancy rather than advertising revenue paid to the search engine. However, paid listings do appear alongside algorithmic results in many search engines, provided they are relevant. Improving a website’s unpaid algorithmic results is known as Natural Search Engine Optimization.
  • AJAX – Asynchronous JavaScript and XML is a technique which allows a web page to request additional data from a server without requiring a new page to load.
  • Alexa – Amazon.com owned search service which measures website traffic.
  • Alt Tag/Alt Text – An alt tag is the HTML text that appears while an image is loading or when a cursor is positioned over an image. Alt text is useful in Search Engine Optimization because it can include keywords that a search engine looks for in response to a query.
  • Analytics – Analytics refers to all the technology, programming, and data used in Search Engine Marketing to analyze a website’s performance or the success of an Internet marketing campaign.
  • Anchor text – Part of a link that is clickable text for the user, usually highlighted in a different color and underlined.
  • Anti-aliasing – Anti-aliasing is a feature of many design programs such as PhotoShop and Corel Photopaint. This feature creates a smoothing effect on the color edges of an image, providing a smooth transition from one color area within the image to the next color area in the same image. Without anti-aliasing the individual pixels would be more visible on the edges of the color areas.
  • API – Application Program Interface – a series of conventions or routines used to access software functions. Most major search products have an API program.
  • Astroturfing – (the opposite of full disclosure) attempting to advance a commercial or political agenda while pretending to be an impartial grassroots participant in a social group. Participating in a user forum with the secret purpose of branding, customer recruitment, or public relations.
  • AuthorRank – Also known as AgentRank, a value assigned to a document based on the reputation of it’s author, perhaps changing the way that document ranks and the amount of link equity it can pass to other pages.
  • Authority – Often used to describe a website or a person who is influential in their field of work.
  • Authority Site – A website which has many incoming links from other related expert/hub sites. Because of this simultaneous citation from trusted hubs an authority site usually has high trust, pagerank, and search results placement. Wikipedia, is an example of an authority site.
  • B2B – Business to Business
  • B2C – Business to Consumer
  • Backbone – A network backbone is a high-speed line or a series of connections. It is a major pathway within a network. Not all networks use a backbone component.
  • Backend – The backend of a web site refers to the HTML markup, code, files and server processes that make the web site work. The backend is what the web designer builds, the frontend is what the web site visitor sees.
  • Backlinks – Also known as back link, backward link, or inbound links, backlinks are all of the links on other websites that direct the users who click on them to your site. Backlinks can significantly improve your site’s search rankings, particularly if they contain Anchor Text keywords relevant to your site and are located on sites with high Page Rank.
  • Banned – Also known as delisted or blacklisted, a banned site is a URL that has been removed from a search engine’s Index, typically for engaging in Black Hat SEO. Banned sites are ignored by search engines.
  • Banner Ad – A banner ad is a rectangular graphic advertisement. Banner ads are one of the commonest forms of online advertising. Their sizes vary, but most measure 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Clicking on a banner ad will direct you to the advertiser’s website or a designated Landing Page.
  • Banner Blindness – During the first web boom many businesses were based on eyeballs more than actually building real value. Many ads were typically quite irrelevant and web users learned to ignore the most common ad types.
  • Black Hat SEO – Black hat SEO is the term used for unethical or deceptive optimization techniques. This includes Spam, Cloaking, or violating search engine rules in any way. If a search engine discovers a site engaging in black hat SEO it will remove that site from its Index.
  • Blacklisted – Also known as banned or delisted, a blacklisted site is a URL that has been removed from a search engine’s Index, typically for engaging in Black Hat SEO. Blacklisted sites are ignored by search engines.
  • Blog – A website which presents content in a more or less chronological series. Content may or may not be time sensitive. Most blogs us a Content Management System such as WordPress rather than individually crafted WebPages. Because of this, the Blogger can chose to concentrate on content creation instead of arcane code.
  • Branded keywords – Keywords that include the name of a brand, company or website.
  • Bot (robot, spider, crawler) – A program which performs a task more or less autonomously. Search engines use bots to find and add web pages to their search indexes. Spammers often use bots to “scrape” content for the purpose of plagiarizing it for exploitation by the Spammer.
  • Broken Link – A link that when clicked on or crawled by a search engine returns an error code such as 404, 410 or 503.
  • Bounce Rate – The percentage of users who enter a site and then leave it without viewing any other pages.
  • Bread Crumbs – Web site navigation in a horizontal bar above the main content which helps the user to understand where they are on the site and how to get back to the root areas.
  • Bug – A bug, in web design terms, is an error or a problem where the site does not behave as it should. For example if a form validation script incorrectly identifies completed fields as blank fields.
  • Cached Page – The version of a web page or document stored by the search engines on their servers.
  • Canonical Issues – (duplicate content) canon = legitimate or official version – It is often nearly impossible to avoid duplicate content, especially with CMSs like WordPress, but also due to the fact that www.site.com, site.com, and www.site.com/index.htm are supposedly seen as dupes by the SEs – although it’s a bit hard to believe they aren’t more sophisticated than that. However these issues can be dealt with effectively in several ways including – using the noindex meta tag in the non-canonical copies, and 301 server redirects to the canon.
  • CAPTCHA – A CAPTCHA is field in a web form, designed to differentiate between users and bots. Typically a CAPTCHA consist of an image containing letters that are difficult to read. The user must then enter those letters into a text box on the form. The goal is to reduce form spam by making the letters unreadable to bots, but readable to humans.
  • Click Fraud – Click Fraud is the illegal practice of manipulating Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) revenue sharing agreements. There are numerous types of click fraud, but in a typical scenario the webmaster of a site that earns money from each click of the advertising links it publishes pays individuals a small fee to click those links. Companies thus pay for advertising to clients who had no intention of buying from them. Some companies have filed class action lawsuits alleging that ad publishers such as Google and Yahoo! have failed to aggressively confront click fraud because they benefit from increased CPC revenue.
  • Click-Through – Click-through refers to a single instance of a user clicking on an advertising link or site listing and moving to a Landing Page. A higher Click-Through Rate (CTR) is one of the primary goals of Search Engine Optimization.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR) – Click-through rate is the percentage of users who click on an advertising link or search engine site listing out of the total number of people who see it, i.e. four click-throughs out of ten views is a 40% CTR.
  • Cloaking – Cloaking is the presentation of alternative pages to a search engine Spider so that it will record different content for a URL than what a human browser would see. Cloaking is typically done to achieve a higher search engine position or to trick users into visiting a site. In such cases cloaking is considered to be Black Hat SEO and the offending URL could be Blacklisted. However, cloaking is sometimes used to deliver personalized content based on a browser’s IP address and/or user-agent HTTP header. Such cloaking should only be practiced with a search engine’s knowledge or it could be construed as black hat cloaking.
  • CMS – Content Management System – Programs such as WordPress, which separate most of the mundane Webmaster tasks from content creation so that a publisher can be effective without acquiring or even understanding sophisticated coding skills if they so chose.
  • Code Swapping (bait and switch) – Changing the content after high rankings are achieved.
  • Comment Spam – Posting blog comments for the purpose of generating an inlink to another site. The reason many blogs use link condoms.
  • Common Gateway Interface (CGI) – Programs/scripts run on the server and are usually designed to add functionality to a web site.
  • Commercial Keywords – Keywords that include words that a particular website wants to rank for that are not it’s own brand name.
  • Content – The information on pages of a website, can include text, images, videos, audio files etc.
  • Contextual Advertisement – Advertising which is related to the content.
  • Contextual Link Inventory (CLI) – Search engines/advertising networks use their contextual link inventory to match keyword-relevant text-link advertising with site content. CLI is generated based on listings of website pages with content that the ad-server deems a relevant keyword match. Ad networks further refine CLI relevancy by monitoring the Click-Through Rate of the displayed ads.
  • Conversion – Conversion is the term used for any significant action a user takes while visiting a site, i.e. making a purchase, requesting information, or registering for an account.
  • Conversion Analytics – Conversion analytics is a branch of Analytics concerned specifically with conversion-related information from organic and paid search engine traffic, such as the keywords converts used in their queries, the type of conversion that resulted, landing page paths, search engine used, etc.
  • Conversion Rate – Conversion rate is the next step up from Click-Through Rate. It’s the percentage of all site visitors who “convert” (make a purchase, register, request information, etc.). If three users buy products and one user requests a catalogue out of ten daily visitors, a site’s conversion rate is 40%.
  •  Cookie – In web design, a cookie is a small text file that a web site saves on a user’s computer. The cookie stores information about that user. On the user’s next visit to the same web site, the web site retrieves the cookie to access the information. Cookies are useful for saving bits of information like user preferences.
  • Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) –  Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) is a return on investment model in which return is measured by dividing total click/marketing costs by the number of Conversions achieved. Total acquisition costs / number of conversions = CPA. CPA is also used as a synonym for Cost-Per-Action.
  • Cost-Per-Action (CPA) – In a cost-per-action advertising revenue system, advertisers are charged a Conversion-based fee, i.e. each time a user buys a product, opens an account, or requests a free trial. CPA is also known as cost-per-acquisition, though the term cost-per-acquisition can be confusing because it also refers to a return on investment model.
  • Cost-Per-Click (CPC) – Also known as pay-per-click or pay-for-performance, cost-per-click is an advertising revenue system used by search engines and ad networks in which advertising companies pay an agreed amount for each click of their ads. This Click-Through Rate-based payment structure is considered by some advertisers to be more cost-effective than the Cost-Per-Thousand payment structure, but it can at times lead to Click Fraud.
  • Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) – Also known as cost-per-impression or CPM for cost-per-mille (mille is the Latin word for thousand), cost-per-thousand is an advertising revenue system used by search engines and ad networks in which advertising companies pay an agreed amount for every 1,000 users who see their ads, regardless of whether a click-through or conversion is achieved. CPM is typically used for Banner Ad sales, while Cost-Per-Click is typically used for text link advertising.
  • Crawling – Refers to search engines bots (or spiders) that moving around the web, collecting information and storing it in a database for analysis, then this information may be added to an index.
  • Database – A database is a collection of data, organized into tables and records. In web design, a web site that writes to a database and/or displays information from a database is referred to as a dynamic web site. Databases are typically used to store information like user account information, product information etc.
  • Dedicated Server – A dedicated server is a web server that is used to host one web site only. All the resources on the server is available exclusively to the web site. This is in contrast to shared hosting where the resources are shared by multiple web sites hosted on the server.
  • Deep link – A link that points to any page except the homepage of a domain.
  • De-indexed – When a particular page is not in the index of a search engine, usually meaning it will not appear in search results.
  • Delisted – Also known as banned or blacklisted, a delisted site is a URL that has been removed from a search engine’s Index, typically for engaging in Black Hat SEO. Delisted sites are ignored by search engines.
  • Description Tag – Also known as a meta description tag, a description tag is a short HTML paragraph that provides search engines with a description of a page’s content for search engine Index purposes. The description tag is not displayed on the website itself, and may or may not be displayed in the search engine’s listing for that site. Search engines are now giving less importance to description tags in lieu of actual page content.
  • Dithering – Used in computer graphics, it is a method of creating new colors from ones that already exist in the image by interspersing pixels.
  • Directory – A website that collects and categories lists of links to websites.
  • Directory Page – A page of links to related WebPages.
  • DOCTYPE – A declaration at the top of an HTML document specifying the syntax used in the rest of the document. It is possible to publish an HTML document without declaring the DOCTYPE, but doing so could cause serious display problems especially if CSS is used.
  • Domain – A domain name is a name by which a web site or web server is identified, for example webdesigndictionary.com. Domains can include letters, numbers and hyphens only.
  • Domain authority – Refers to how strong a domain is by looking at the number of quality links pointing at it. Commonly referring to a metric used by SEOmoz to measure the strength of a domain, giving it a score between 0 – 100 with 100 being the highest.
  • Doorway Page – Also known as a gateway page or jump page, a doorway page is a URL with minimal content designed to rank highly for a specific keyword and redirect visitors to a homepage or designated Landing Page. Some search engines frown on doorway pages as a softer form of Cloaking or Spam. However, doorway pages may be legitimate landing pages designed to measure the success of a promotional campaign, and they are commonly allowed in Paid Listings.
  • Duplicate Content – Obviously content which is similar or identical to that found on another website or page. A site may not be penalized for serving duplicate content but it will receive little if any Trust from the search engines compared to the content that the SE considers being the original.
  • Dynamic Content – Dynamic content is web content such as Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) that are generated or changed based on database information or user activity. Web pages that remain the same for all visitors in every context contain “static content.” Many e-commerce sites create dynamic content based on purchase history and other factors. Search engines have a difficult time indexing dynamic content if the page includes a session ID number, and will typically ignore URLs that contain the variable “?”.Search engines will punish sites that use deceptive or invasive means to create dynamic content.
  • E Commerce Site – A website devoted to retail sales.
  • External Link – A link on a domain that points to another domain.
  • Feed – Content which is delivered to the user via special websites or programs such as news aggregators.
  • Free For All (FFA) – A page or site with many outgoing links to unrelated websites, containing little if any unique content. Link farms are only intended for spiders, and have little if any value to human users, and thus are ignored or penalized by the search engines.
  • Flash Optimization – Flash is a vector graphics-based animation program developed by Macromedia. Most corporate sites feature Flash movies/animation, yet because search engine Crawlers were designed to index HTML text, sites that favor Flash over text are difficult or even impossible for crawlers to read. Flash Optimization is the process of reworking the Flash movie and surrounding HTML code to be more “crawlable” for Search Engines.
  • Followed Links – Links that the search engines count in their link graph of the web.
  • Footprints – Often referring to patterns displayed by various links that are similar to each other. Can be used to identify link networks or automated links.
  • Frames – A web page design where two or more documents appear on the same screen, each within it’s own frame. Frames are bad for SEO because spiders sometimes fail to correctly navigate them. Additionally, most users dislike frames because it is almost like having two tiny monitors neither of which shows a full page of information at one time.
  • Gadget – Small applications used on web pages to provide specific functions such as a hit counter or IP address display. Gizmos can make good link bait.
  • Gateway Page – Also known as a doorway page or jump page, a gateway page is a URL with minimal content designed to rank highly for a specific keyword and redirect visitors to a homepage or designated Landing Page. Some search engines frown on gateway pages as a softer form of Cloaking or Spam. However, gateway pages may be legitimate landing pages designed to measure the success of a promotional campaign, and they are commonly allowed in Paid Listings.
  • Geographical Targeting – Geographical targeting is the focusing of Search Engine Marketing on states, counties, cities and neighborhoods that are important to a company’s business. One basic aspect of geographical targeting is adding the names of relevant cities or streets to a site’s keywords, i.e. Hyde Street Chicago apartments. Another important element of geo-targeting is increasing your site’s presence on Local Search engines.
  • Geographic Segmentation – Geographic segmentation is the use of Analytics to categorize a site’s web traffic by the physical locations from which it originated.
  • Gizmo (gadget, widget) Small applications used on web pages to provide specific functions such as a hit counter or IP address display. Gizmos can make good link bait.
  • Guest Posting – Writing a piece of content for a domain that is not yours and giving it to them in return for a link to the domain that you do own.
  • Google AdSense – Google AdSense is an ad-serving program operated by Google that provides relevant text, image, and video-based advertisements to enrolled site owners. Advertisers register via Google AdWords and pay for ads on a Pay-Per-Click, Cost-Per-Thousand or Cost-Per-Action basis. This revenue is shared with Google AdSense host sites, typically on a PPC basis (which sometimes leads to Click Fraud). Google uses its search Algorithms and Contextual Link Inventory to display the most appropriate ads based on site content, Query relevancy, ad “quality scores,” and other factors.
  • Google AdWords – Google AdWords is the Keyword Submission program that determines the advertising rates and keywords used in the Google AdSense program. Advertisers bid on the keywords that are relevant to their businesses. Ranked ads then appear as sponsored links on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) and Google AdSense host sites.
  • Google Bomb – The combined effort of multiple webmasters to change the Google search results usually for humorous effect. The “miserable failure” – George Bush, and “greatest living American” – Steven Colbert Google bombs are famous examples.
  • Google Bowling – Maliciously trying to lower a sites rank by sending it links from the “bad neighborhood” – Kind of like yelling “Good luck with that infection!” to your buddy as you get off the school bus – there is some controversy as to if this works or is just an SEO urban myth.
  • Google Dance – The change in SERPs caused by an update of the Google database or algorithm. The cause of great angst and consternation for webmasters who slip in the SERPs. Or, the period of time during a Google index update when different data centers have different data.
  • Google Juice (trust, authority, pagerank) – Trust / authority from Google, which flows through outgoing links to other pages.
  • Googlebot – Google’s spider program
  • Graphical Search Inventory (GSI) – Graphical Search Inventory is the visual equivalent of Contextual Link Inventory. GSI is non-text-based advertising such as Banner Ads, pop-up ads, browser toolbars, animation, sound, video and other media that is synchronized to relevant Keyword queries.
  • Gray Hat SEO – Gray hat SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization strategies that fall in between Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO. Gray hat SEO techniques can be legitimate in some cases and illegitimate in others. Such techniques include Doorway Pages, Gateway Pages, Cloaking and duplicate content.
  • GYM – Google – Yahoo – Microsoft, the big three of search
  • Hidden Text – Hidden text is a generally obsolete form of Black Hat SEO in which pages are filled with a large amount of text that is the same color as the background, rendering keywords invisible to the human eye but detectable to a search engine Crawler. Multiple Title Tags or HTML comments are alternative hidden text techniques. Hidden text is easily detectable by search engines and will result in Blacklisting or reduced Rank.
  • Hit – Hit is a somewhat misleading measure of traffic to a web site. One hit is recorded for each file request in a web server’s access log. If a user visits a page with four images, one hit will be recorded for each graphic image file plus another for the page’s HTML file. A better measure of traffic volume is the number of pages/HTML files accessed.
  • HTML – The acronym HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create pages on the World Wide Web. HTML is a set of codes or HTML tags that provide a web browser with directions on how to structure a web page’s information and features.
  • .htaccess file – A file with one or more configuration directives placed in a web site document directory. The directives apply to that directory and all subdirectories.
  • HTTP Status Code – The response code returned to a search engine crawler or web browser when a page is loaded. Most common codes include 200, 301, 302, 404 and 500.
  • Hub (expert page) – A trusted page with high quality content that links out to related pages.
  • Hyperlink – Also known as link or HTML link, a hyperlink is an image or portion of text that when clicked on by a user opens another web page or jumps the browser to a different portion of the current page. Inbound Links with keyword-relevant Link Text are an important part of Search Engine Optimization Strategy.
  • Inbound Link – a link from another domain pointing at your domain.
  • Index – An index is a Search Engine’s database. It contains all of the information that a Crawler has identified, particularly copies of World Wide Web pages. When a user performs a Query, the search engine uses its indexed pages and Algorithm set to provide a ranked list of the most relevant pages. In the case of a Directory, the index consists of titles and summaries of registered sites that have been categorized by the directory’s editors.
  • Infographic – A visualization of data or information into an easy to consume form than text content.
  • Impression – Also known as a page view, an impression is a single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Search engines and ad networks use impression statistics to charge advertisers on a Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) basis.
  • IndexNoun – a database of WebPages and their content used by the search engines.
  • Index Verb – to add a web page to a search engine index.
  • Indexed Pages – The pages on a site which have been indexed.
  • Inlink (incoming link, inbound link) – Inbound links from related pages are the source of trust and pagerank.
  • Internet Marketing – On a fundamental level, Internet marketing is using the Internet to advertise, communicate and sell goods and services. On an advanced level, Internet marketing is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the use of targeted keywords, crawler-friendly site architecture, Search Engine Submissions and a well-developed link network to improve a site’s Position, Page Rank and Click-Through Rate.
  • Internet Marketing Consultant – Also known as SEO professionals or SEO specialists, Internet marketing consultants use their knowledge of Search Engine Optimization Strategy to improve their clients’ Position and Page Rank.
  • Internet Promotion – Also known as search engine promotion, website marketing or website promotion, Internet promotion refers to all methods employed by a company or individual to promote a website and increase its Position and Page Rank.
  • IP address – Stands for Internet Protocol address. Every computer connected to the Internet has a unique number assigned to it that is known as an IP address.
  • Keyword – Also known as search terms or query terms, keywords are the word(s) or phrase(s) a user enters into a search engine’s Query box. A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranks indexed sites according to how relevant the Search Engine deems them to the searched keywords. One of the most important SEO Strategies companies can employ is to optimize their site pages with content that contains targeted keywords relevant to their products or industry.
  • Keyword Cannibalization – The excessive reuse of the same keyword on too many web pages within the same site. This practice makes it difficult for the users and the search engines to determine which page is most relevant for the keyword.
  • Keyword Density – The percentage of words on a web page which are a particular keyword. If this value is unnaturally high the page may be penalized.
  • Keyword Marketing – Keyword marketing is the use of keyword-optimized content and keyword-specific Link Text to emphasize a site’s relevancy to those terms and thereby increase Rank for related web queries. Keyword marketing can also be done through keyword-based ad programs such as Google AdSense. Keyword marketing is an essential component of Search Engine Optimization.
  • Keyword Research – The hard work of determining which keywords are appropriate for targeting.
  • Keyword Submission – Keyword submission is an all-inclusive term for the keyword research/selection, bid cost assessment and budgeting that companies undertake to begin Pay-Per-Click keyword campaigns with advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Sponsored Search and Microsoft AdCenter.
  • Keyword Stuffing (keyword spam) – Inappropriately high keyword density.
  • Landing Page – The landing page is the page on which a visitor “lands” after clicking a search engine listing, email link, Banner Ad, Cost-Per-Click ad, or other ad/link. The landing page can be a site’s homepage, but is usually a page designed to appeal to users who Click-Through a specific ad or link. Landing pages are also used to monitor site traffic and measure an advertising campaign’s success. Well-designed landing pages that are relevant to a user’s keyword query will improve Conversion Rates and play a critical role in Search Engine Marketing.
  • Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) – This mouthful just means that the search engines index commonly associated groups of words in a document. SEOs refer to these same groups of words as “Long Tail Searches”. The majority of searches consist of three or more words strung together. See also “long tail”. The significance is that it might be almost impossible to rank well for “mortgage”, but fairly easy to rank for “second mortgage to finance monster truck team”. Go figure.
  • Link – Also known as hyperlink or HTML link, a link is an image or portion of text that when clicked on by a user opens another web page or jumps the browser to a different portion of the current page. Inbound Links with keyword-relevant Link Text are an important part of Search Engine Optimization Strategy.
  • Link Bait – A piece of content created with the specific purpose of attracting inbound links or attention.
  • Link Building – The process of acquiring links from other domains to your own, usually through some intentional or passive activity.
  • Linkerati – Internet users who are the most productive targets of linkbait. The Linkerati includes – social taggers, forum posters, resource maintainers, bloggers and other content creators, etc – who are most likely to create incoming links or link generating traffic (in the case of social networkers).
  • Link Exchange – A link exchange is a quid pro quo arrangement or reciprocal link exchange between two sites. Reciprocal links usually lead to the home page of the associate site.
  • Link Farm – A link farm is a webpage or group of webpages that exist solely to increase the number of Backlinks in a site’s link network. A link farm is meant to increase a site’s PageRank or popularity and thus improve its search engine Position. However, link farms are considered a form of Spam and sites that rely on them are penalized by search engines.
  • Link Juice – Trust, Authority, Pagerank
  • Link Love – An outgoing link, which passes trust, unencumbered by any kind of link condom.
  • Link Partner (Link Exchange, Reciprocal Linking) – Two sites which link to each other. Search engines usually don’t see these as high value links, because of the reciprocal nature.
  • Link Popularity – Link popularity is the measure of how popular a webpage is by the number of Backlinks it has. However, link popularity is not solely a matter of quantity. Page Rank is achieved when Backlinks are located on reputable, relevant sites rather than so-called Link Farms. Most search engines use link popularity as a factor in their Algorithmic Results.
  • Link Profile – A list of links pointing at a single domain.
  • Link Removal – The process of removing links to a domain.
  • Link Spam – (Comment Spam) Unwanted links such as those posted in user generated content like blog comments.
  • Link Text – Also known as anchor text, link text is the visible, clickable text between the HTML anchor and tags. Clicking on link text activates a Hyperlink to another web site. Link text is very important in Search Engine Optimization because search engine algorithms consider the hyperlink keywords as relevant to the Landing Page.
  • Listings – Listings are the indexed sites that appear in ranked order on a Search Engine Results Page in response to a user Query.
  • Local Search – Local search refers to both the addition of geographical keywords (cities, streets, etc.) to Search Terms and the use of Yellow Pages-type Search Engines such as Google Maps, Yahoo! Local and AskCity to find business services in a particular zip code. Search Engine Placement Services use local SEO to help traditional “brick and mortar businesses” connect with customers in their community.
  • Long Tail – Longer more specific search queries that are often less targeted than shorter broad queries. For example a search for “widgets” might be very broad while “red widgets with reverse threads” would be a long tail search. A large percentage of all searches are long tail searches/
  • Made For Advertisements (MFA) – Websites that are designed from the ground up as a venue for advertisements. This is usually, but not always a bad thing. TV programming is usually MFA.
  • Marketing Analytics – Marketing analytics is a branch of Analytics concerned specifically with marketing-related information from organic and paid search engine traffic, such as Unique Visitors, keyword-generated sales, Cost-Per-Click advertising, Click Fraud, Search Engine Marketing, etc.
  • Meta Description Tag – Also known as a description Tag, a meta description tag is a short HTML paragraph that provides search engines with a description of a page’s content for search engine Index purposes. The meta description tag is not displayed on the website itself, and may or may not be displayed in the search engine’s listing for that site. Search engines are now giving less importance to meta description tags in lieu of actual page content.
  • Meta Keywords Tag – A meta keywords tag provides search engines with a list of keywords that are relevant to a webpage. This can improve search engine Rank for a page by ensuring it’s properly indexed. However, search engines are now giving less importance to meta keywords tags in lieu of actual page content.
  • Meta Robots Tag – A meta robots tag (named for a search engine Crawler or Robot) lets page authors prevent their webpages from being added to a search engine’s Index. Alternatives to a meta robots tag are Robots.txt files and password protection.
  • Meta Search Engine – A meta search engine derives its listings by running user queries through multiple other search engines and then summarizing the results. A meta search engine does not maintain its own Index. Listings are displayed by meta search engines either in aggregate or categorized by search engine source. An example of a meta search engine is Dogpile.com.
  • Meta Tags – Meta tags are HTML tags placed in a webpage that contain information for Crawlers and web browsers. Types of meta tag information include page descriptions (Description Tag), page-relevant keywords (Meta Keywords Tag), whether a page can be indexed (Meta Robots Tag), copyright, page refresh dates and redirection instructions.
  • Mirror Site – An identical site at a different address.
  • Monetize – To extract income from a site. Adsense ads are an easy way to Monetize a website.
  • MozRank – A metric used by SEOmoz to determine the strength of a domain based on the quantity and quality of links pointing at it.
  • Natural Listings (or Natural Optimization) – Also known as organic listings, natural listings are webpage listings that appear on a Search Engine Results Page solely because the search engine Algorithm deems them relevant to the Query. Natural listings can contain Paid Listings, but only if they fulfill the same requirements as natural listings. The best way to improve a site’s natural listing Position is through Natural Search Engine Optimization.
  • Natural Search Engine Optimization – Also known as natural optimization, organic search engine optimization or white hat SEO, natural search engine optimization is the use of keyword-focused copy and tags, Crawler-friendly site architecture, Search Engine Submissions and a quality Backlinks network to improve a site’s Position, Page Rank and Click-Through Rate. Because about 80% of web users look at Natural Listings first, natural SEO offers a much greater chance of long-term business success than Paid Listings or Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns.
  • Natural Search Results – The search engine results which are not sponsored, or paid for in any way.
  • Negative SEO – The practice of building low quality links to a domain that you do not own, with the goal of reducing it’s organic search rankings.
  • Niche Site – A website oriented towards a very specific topic or audience. Niche sites often have high traffic and items can bring higher prices than on general purpose sites because they serve customers looking for unique content.
  • Niche Market – A focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector.
  • Nofollow Link – A link that is not counted by the search engines in their link graph.
  • Noindex – A command found in either the HEAD section of a web page or within individual link code, which instructs robots to not index the page or the specific link. A form of link condom.
  • Non Reciprocal Link – If site A links to site B, but site B does not link back to site A, then the link is considered non reciprocal. Search engines tend to give more value to non-reciprocal links than to reciprocal ones because they are less likely to be the result of collusion between sites.
  • Optimization Services – Also known as Internet promotion, site optimization, or search engine placement service, optimization services are all of the methods a Search Engine Optimization Company uses to improve a site’s Position and Page Rank and increase its Click-Through Rate and Conversion Rate.
  • Organic Link – Organic links are those that are published only because the webmaster considers them to add value for users.
  • Organic Listings (or Organic Optimization) – Also known as natural listings, organic listings are webpage listings that appear on a Search Engine Results Page solely because the search engine Algorithm deems them relevant to the Query. Organic listings can contain Paid Listings, but only if they fulfill the same requirements as organic listings. The best way to improve a site’s organic listing Position is through Natural Search Engine Optimization.
  • Outbound Links – Outbound links are all links from a particular webpage that lead to other pages, including pages in the same domain. An excessive number of outbound links can damage a site’s Search Engine Positioning because a Spider may perceive it as a Link Farm.
  • Page Authority – The strength of a single page on a domain, commonly referring to a metric created by SEOmoz which assigns a score between 0 – 100 based on the quantity and quality of links pointing at it.
  • PageRank – Invented by Larry Page, this is what Google use to measure the strength of a page, based on the quantity and quality of links pointing at it.
  • Paid Inclusion – Paid inclusion is an advertising program offered by some search engines in which a page is guaranteed inclusion in the Index in exchange for a fee. Unlike Paid Placement, the rank of paid inclusion pages is determined solely by the search engine Algorithm. Paid inclusion sites may or may not be labeled as advertisements depending on Search Engine policy.
  • Paid Links – Links that are acquiring by exchanging money.
  • Paid Listings – Paid Listings, as opposed to Natural Listings or Organic Listings, are sites that appear on a Results Page because money was paid to the search engine for inclusion and/or position. Paid listings is used as an all-inclusive term for the practices of Paid Inclusion and Paid Placement.
  • Paid Placement – Paid placement is a program in which advertisers’ listings are guaranteed to appear on a Results Page when particular Keywords are searched. The ranking of paid placement listings is determined by competitive bidding. Unlike Paid Inclusion listings, paid placement listings are usually displayed separately from Natural Listings and are labeled as advertisements or sponsored links. Google and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) are two of the largest paid placement search networks.
  • Pay For Inclusion (PFI) – The practice of charging a fee to include a website in a search engine or directory. While quite common, usually what is technically paid for is more rapid consideration to avoid Googles prohibition on paid links.
  • Pay-Per-Click (PPC) – Also known as cost-per-click or pay-for-performance, pay-per-click is an advertising revenue system used by search engines and ad networks in which advertising companies pay an agreed amount for each click of their ads. This Click-Through Rate-based payment structure is considered by some advertisers to be more cost-effective than the Cost-Per-Thousand payment structure, but it has at times led to Click Fraud.
  • Pay-Per-Action (PPA) – Very similar to Pay Per Click except publishers only get paid when click throughs result in conversions.
  • Penalty – Refers to the search engines reducing the rankings of a particular page or domain because of violating their guidelines. Can be manual or algorithmic.
  • Penguin – A Google update first launched in April 2012 focusing on reducing the rankings of websites that had been over-optimised.
  • Portal – A web service which offers a wide array of features to entice users to make the portal their “home page” on the web. Google, Yahoo, and MSN are portals.
  • Position – Also known as rank, position is the place a website occupies relative to the first listing on an Algorithmic Results page in response to a Keyword query. The first page displays Listings in the one through ten positions, the second page eleven through twenty, etc. Businesses trying to get their site into a top ten position will often employ Professional Search Engine Optimization company. Consumer studies have shown that most search engine users click only on sites that occupy the top ten positions.
  • Position Reporting – Position reporting is the monitoring of daily changes in search engine Position for indexed URLs that have been optimized for specific keywords by a Search Engine Optimization Company. Position reporting is also used to generate a Search Engine Ranking Report.
  • Professional Search Engine Optimization – Professional search engine optimization is the modification of a website by an SEO company in order to increase its Position and Page Rank and improve its Click-Through Rate and Conversion Rate.
  • Proprietary Method – Sales term often used by SEO service providers to imply that they can do something unique to achieve “Top Ten Rankings”.
  • Query – A query is a question or instance of questioning. A search engine query is a user’s request for the information (i.e. webpages) in a search engine’s Index that is most relevant to a Keyword or set of Search Terms. Query is sometimes used to mean the actual keywords a user enters in a search box.
  • Rank – Also known as position, rank is the place a website occupies relative to the first listing on an Algorithmic Results page in response to a Keyword query. The first page displays Listings in the one through ten positions, the second page eleven through twenty, etc. Businesses trying to get their site into a top-ten rank will often employ a Professional Search Engine Optimization company. Consumer studies have shown that most search engine users click only on sites that occupy a top-ten rank.
  • Reciprocal Link Exchange – A reciprocal link exchange is a quid pro quo arrangement or link exchange between two sites. Reciprocal links usually lead to the home page of the associate site.
  • Reconsideration Request – Sent by a Webmaster to Google if their website has had a penalty applied to it, in the hope of having that penalty lifted.
  • Redirect – Used to direct users and search engines to a different location to the link they originally tried to visit. Usually with a HTTP status code of 301 or 302.
  • Registration – Also known as search engine registration or search engine submission, registration is the submission of a URL to a Directory or Search Engine for inclusion in its Index. Registration is usually free but can also require payment. Registration is a basic but important part of Search Engine Optimization.
  • Results Page – Also known as search engine results page, the results page is the collection of ranked Listings displayed in response to a search engine Query.
  • Robot – Also known as Crawler or Spider, a robot is a search engine program that “crawls” the web, collecting data, following links, making copies of new and updated sites, and storing URLs in the search engine’s Index. This allows search engines to provide faster and more up-to-date listings.
  • Robots.txt – Also known as robots exclusion protocol, Robots.txt is a text file stored in a site’s root directory that tells a search engine Crawler which site pages and sub-folders should not be included in the search engine Index. However, there is no guarantee that a Crawler will comply with this request. Robots.txt is an alternative to a Meta Robots Tag or password protection.
  • ROI (Return On Investment) – One use of analytics software is to analyze and quantify return on investment, and thus cost / benefit of different schemes.
  • Scrape – Copying content from a site, often facilitated by automated bots.
  • SEO Professional – Also known as Internet marketing consultant or SEO specialist, SEO professionals use their knowledge of Search Engine Optimization Strategy to improve their clients’ Position and Page Rank.
  • SEO Services – SEO services are all of the tools used by a Professional Search Engine Optimization company, including Analytics and Keyword Marketing.
  • SEO Specialist – Also known as Internet marketing consultant or SEO professional, SEO specialists use their knowledge of Search Engine Optimization Strategy to improve their clients’ Position and Page Rank.
  • SEO Strategies – SEO strategies are the techniques used in Search Engine Optimization to improve a site’s Position and Page Rank and increase its Click-Through Rate. A few SEO strategies are keyword research and content writing, optimized HTML code, and improved Geographical Targeting.
  • Search Engine (SE) – A search engine is a website that enables users to Query an Index of stored webpages gathered by a Crawler for information relevant to specific criteria expressed via a Keyword or Search Terms. The Rank of information/websites on the corresponding Search Engine Results Pages is determined by relevancy as measured by the search engine’s Algorithm and/or payment made to the search engine by indexed sites. Sites ranked solely by relevancy are known as Natural Listings or Organic Listings in contrast to Paid Listings.
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Search engine marketing is an inclusive term for all techniques used to market a website via search engines, including Pay-Per-Click advertising and Natural Search Engine Optimization.
  • Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) – The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) is a non-profit professional association founded in 2003 to increase awareness of the benefits of search engine marketing and provide educational resources to members and consumers.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Search engine optimization is the modification of a website for the purpose of improving its natural Rank on Search Engine Results Pages. This is done through a combination of SEO strategies such as directory and search engine Submission, website optimization, content writing and improved Link quality.
  • Search Engine Optimization Company (SEO Company) – A search engine optimization company employs SEO Strategies to improve a website’s Search Engine Placement.
  • Search Engine Optimization Consultants – Also known as SEO professionals or SEO specialists, search engine optimization consultants analyze a website’s Position and Keyword strength and offer solutions for improvement.
  • Search Engine Optimization Software Systems – Search engine optimization software systems enable marketers to generate site data and automatically customize Submission schedules. However, automated submissions should generally be avoided in favor of submissions catered to each search engine’s rules.
  • Search Engine Optimization Strategy – Search engine optimization strategy refers to the specific optimization plan an SEO company employs for the site promotion of an individual client.
  • Search Engine Placement – Search engine placement means the tactics used by Site Optimization firms to improve their clients’ Rank. The term search engine placement is sometimes used to mean the Position of a website on a Results Page.
  • Search Engine Placement Services – Also known as Internet promotion, optimization services or site optimization, search engine placement services are all of the methods a Search Engine Optimization Company uses to improve a site’s Position and Page Rank and increase its Click-Through Rate and Conversion Rate.
  • Search Engine Positioning – The term search engine positioning can be used in two different ways. The first is to describe the ordering process of indexed websites being ranked by a search engine Algorithm in response to a Query. The second refers to the use of Search Engine Optimization to achieve a higher search engine Position.
  • Search Engine Promotion – Also known as Internet promotion, website marketing or website promotion, Internet promotion refers to all methods employed by a company or individual to promote a website and increase its Position and PageRank.
  • Search Engine Ranking Report – A search engine ranking report is a monthly, weekly or daily report of the Position of a company’s website Listing in relation to their top Keywords. Position Reporting enables companies to monitor the success of an SEO strategy or Cost-Per-Click advertising campaign.
  • Search Engine Results Page (SERPs) – Also known as a results page, the search engine results page is the collection of ranked Listings displayed in response to a search engine Query.
  • Search Engine Spam – Pages created to cause search engines to deliver inappropriate or less relevant results. Search Engine Optimizers are sometimes unfairly perceived as search engine Spammers. Of course in some cases they actually are.
  • Search Engine Submission – Also known as search engine submission or web submission, search engine registration is the submission of a URL to a Directory or Search Engine for inclusion in its Index. Registration is usually free but can also require payment. Search engine registration is a basic but important part of Search Engine Optimization.
  • Search Terms – Also known as keywords or query terms, search terms are the word(s) or phrase(s) a user enters into a search engine’s Query box. A Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranks indexed sites according to how relevant the Search Engine deems them to the search terms that were queried. One of the most important SEO Strategies companies can employ is to optimize their site pages with content that contains targeted search terms relevant to their products or industry.
  • Shopping Search – Shopping search engines or search engines with a shopping feature (such as Google Product Search, formerly known as Froogle) allow users to comparison shop by providing lists of sellers and prices in response to a product Query. Some shopping search sites require Paid Inclusion or offer Paid Placement.
  • Site Map – A page or structured group of pages which link to every user accessible page on a website, and hopefully improves site usability by clarifying the data structure of the site for the users. An XML sitemap is often kept in the root directory of a site just to help search engine spiders to find all of the site pages.
  • Site Optimization – Also known as Internet promotion, optimization services or search engine placement service, site optimization refers to all of the methods a Search Engine Optimization Company uses to improve a site’s Position and Page Rank and increase its Click-Through Rate and Conversion Rate.
  • Sitewide Links – External links that are placed on every (or the majority) of pages on a website. Common examples include blogroll links or footer links.
  • Spam Links – Links that are not editorially controlled, produced in large numbers and automated by software. Usually add no value for real users.
  • Spider – Also known as Crawler or Robot, a spider is a search engine program that “crawls” the web, collecting data, following links, making copies of new and updated sites, and storing URLs in the search engine’s Index. This allows search engines to provide faster and more up-to-date listings.
  • Social Bookmark – A form of Social Media where users bookmarks are aggregated for public access.
  • SMM (Social Media Marketing) – Website or brand promotion through social media
  • SMP (Social Media Poisoning) – A term coined by Rand Fishkin – any of several (possibly illegal) black hat techniques designed to implicate a competitor as a spammer – For example, blog comment spamming in the name / brand of a competitor
  • SMWC (Slapping Myself With Celery) – Indicates an extreme reaction similar to a “spit take” but more vegan-trendy. Often combined with other exclamatory acronyms. – WTF/SMWC, or perhaps ROTFL/SMWC.
  • Sock Puppet – An online identity used to either hide a persons real identity or to establish multiple user profiles.
  • Spam Ad Page (SpamAd page) – A Made For Adsense/Advertisement page which uses scraped or machine generated text for content, and has no real value to users other than the slight value of the adds. Spammers sometimes create sites with hundreds of these pages.
  • Spamdexing – Spamdexing or search engine spamming is the practice of deceptively modifying web pages to increase the chance of them being placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned in a dishonest manner. – Wikipedia
  • Spammer – A person who uses spam to pursue a goal.
  • Spider (Bot, Crawler) – A specialized bot used by search engines to find and add web pages to their indexes.
  • Spider Trap – An endless loop of automatically generated links which can “trap” a spider program. Sometimes intentionally used to prevent automated scraping or e-mail address harvesting.
  • Splog – Spam Blog which usually contains little if any value to humans, and is often machine generated or made up of scraped content.
  • Static Page – A web page without dynamic content or variables such as session IDs in the URL. Static pages are good for SEO work in that they are friendly to search engine spiders.
  • Submission – Also known as search engine registration or search engine submission, submission is the providing of a URL to a Directory or Search Engine for inclusion in its Index. Submission is usually free but can also require payment. Submission is a basic but important part of Search Engine Optimization.
  • Text Link – A plain HTML link that does not involve graphic or special code such as flash or java script.
  • Title Tags – A title tag is an HTML tag which contains a sentence of text describing the contents of its associated webpage. Title tags are a very important part of Search Engine Optimization because they are frequently used as the text links that lead to sites from a search engine’s Results Page. The best title tags contain strategic keywords that will help a site be indexed properly and appeal to human search engine users.
  • Three-Way Link Exchange – A three-way link exchange is a Reciprocal Link Exchange established between three domains. However, unlike a two-way link exchange, not all three sites link to each other. Page A links to Page B and Page B links to Page C and Page C links to Page A. Page B does not post a reciprocal link to Page A and Page C does not post a reciprocal link to Page B. Three-way link exchanges are used by owners of multiple websites to increase the Link Popularity and Page Rank of new or smaller sites.
  • Toolbar PageRank – The PageRank seen by users, not the actual PageRank of a page. Usually updated by Google every few months.
  • Unique Visitor – Unique visitor is a web traffic measuring term which means the registering of at least one hit on one page of a web site from a unique IP address during a specified report period (typically anywhere from twenty-four hours to a month). A subsequent hit(s) by the same IP address is not counted as a unique visitor during that report period. Unique visitor count can be an effective way of measuring the success of an SEO strategy.
  • Unnatural Link Warnings – Messages sent by Google to Webmasters to inform them of the presence of what they believe to be unnatural (also known as low quality or spam) links.
  • URL – Uniform Resource Locator  AKA Web Address
  • Web 2.0 – Is characterized by websites, which encourage user interaction.
  • Web Analytics – Web analytics is a branch of Analytics that uses web traffic records to study the behavior of website visitors. Data such as Unique Visitors, Hits, page views, and the connection between Landing Pages and Conversion Rates are used to improve a website or marketing campaign.
  • Website Marketing – Also known as Internet marketing, website marketing is using the Internet to advertise, communicate and sell goods and services. On an advanced level, website marketing is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the use of targeted keywords, crawler-friendly site architecture, Search Engine Submissions and a well-developed link network to improve a site’s Position, Page Rank and Click-Through Rate.
  • Website Optimization – Also known as search engine optimization, website optimization is the modification of a website for the purpose of improving its natural Rank on Search Engine Results Pages. This is done through a combination of optimization strategies such as directory and search engine Submission, Keyword Marketing and improved Link quality.
  • Website Promotion  – Website promotion refers to the marketing aspects of Search Engine Optimization, such as Keyword Submission, Paid Inclusion, and other techniques to increase a site’s exposure.
  • Website Promotion Services – Also known as search engine marketing, website promotion services is an inclusive term for all techniques used to market a website via search engines, including Pay-Per-Click advertising and Natural Search Engine Optimization.
  • Website Submission – Also known as search engine registration or search engine submission, website submission is the submission of a URL to a Directory or Search Engine for inclusion in its Index. Registration is usually free but can also require payment. Website submission is a basic but important part of Search Engine Optimization.
  • White Hat SEO – Also known as natural search engine optimization or organic search engine optimization, white hat SEO is the legitimate use of keyword-focused copy and tags, Crawler-friendly site architecture, Search Engine Submissions and a quality Backlinks network to improve a site’s Position, Page Rank and Click-Through Rate. White hat SEO does not involve the use of Cloaking, Spam or any other Black Hat SEO techniques.
  • Widget – 1) (gadget, gizmo) small applications used on web pages to provide specific functions such as a hit counter or IP address display. These programs can make good link bait. 2) a term borrowed from economics which means “any product or commodity.”
  • XML – XML is an acronym for Extensible Markup Language, a simple and flexible text-based programming language used in conjunction with HTML. XML is useful for data exchange and the creation of customized tags.
  • XML Feed – An XML feed is a form of Paid Inclusion or Search Engine Submission in which an XML document is used to provide a search engine with information about multiple web pages. An XML feed is particularly useful for multimedia sites or database sites that draw a variety of relevant search queries.