SEO Glossary
Below we have created a glossary of SEO terminology.
Adwords
Adwords is the main advertising system offered by Google. With this system you pay them an agreed amount for your website link to appear in Google’s sponsored results when someone searches for keywords you have selected.
Algorithm
An algorithm is a mathematical term used for a process of solving a problem based on a decision making process. In computing an algorithm is a logical way of examining a problem and arriving at a solution based on logic. In the context of this document the problem is to decide what is the best order to display search engine results for any given search term.
Anchor Text
(See Hypertext)
Browser (or Web Browser)
Software used to display the World Wide Web and often the Internet in general. Examples include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome.
Cache
In the context of SEO a cache is a location on a computer server where data is stored in a way that it is easier to find and from whence it can be delivered faster when required. Search engines need caches so that they can serve their results almost instantaneously.
Call to Action
A call to action (sometimes known as a CTA) is a marketing term used by web marketers. A typical CTA on a web page is a prominent link inviting visitors to make an enquiry or to visit an online shop.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
This is the protocol used to exchange or transfer files over the Internet. In the context of this document FTP is the process of uploading or downloading files to/from a website’s hosting space.
Googlebot
Google’s robotic indexing system (see "Robot" below).
Hyperlink or Hypertext
A hyperlink is the text link (usually highlighted in some way) that links to another location on the Internet or another page or location on the same website. For example "Homepage", "About us" and "Contact Details" menu options are typical hyperlinks.
Inbound Link
A link from another website to your website.
Indexing (of websites)
The search engines "index" websites. In other words they read the text information that is on them and store it in their own databases. It is worth noting that the information that a search engine stores is what it finds when its robot last visited your website. If you make regular changes to your website this information may not necessarily be the same as what is there now.
Keywords or Key Phrases
Keywords are the words that people type into Google’s search window when searching for information.
Meta Tags (or Meta content)
Meta elements are HTML or XHTML elements used to provide structured metadata about a Web page. Such elements must be placed as tags in the head section of an HTML or XHTML document. Meta elements can be used to specify page description, keywords and any other metadata not provided through the other head elements and attributes. (Definition from Wikipedia)
Onsite and Offsite Optimisation
Search engine ranking is influenced by both onsite and offsite factors. Onsite factors are those that the website owner can change and influence.
A few years ago the search engines realised that clever SEO experts were finding it quite easy to modify websites so that they would rank highly. They realised that they would have to make it harder for them and the solution was to take many of the ranking factors out of their hands. They did this by using offsite factors to rank the websites. Off site factors include the number of and quality of inbound links to the website and the keywords in the hypertext linking to them.
Open Directory Project (ODP)
The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.
Organic Traffic
Organic Traffic to your website is generated through being found in a search engine’s free results (organic results) as opposed to those displayed on pay per click systems like Google Adwords.
Pay Per Click (or PPC)
Pay per click systems are advertising systems where search engines and other websites will display adverts for your business on a PPC basis. The primary example of this is Google Adwords. With PPC you only pay if someone clicks the advert and visits your website.
PPC is usually based on paying (or bidding) for a keyword search phrase or phrases. When someone searches for this phrase your advert will be displayed. In Google the PPC adverts are displayed as the "Sponsored Results" at the top and the right hand column of the results pages.
Placement
The position in which you appear in a search engine’s results page for any given keyword or phrase search.
Robot
The search engines use automatic programs to surf the Internet looking for text content from websites to add to their databases. These programs move from link to link examining the content of the pages and storing it as they go along. Since this is all done without human intervention they are known as robots (or crawlers).
Search Engine
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing offer a facility to search the Internet for your chosen search keyword or key phrase. When you type a search expression into the search box the search engine looks at the information it contains that is related to that expression and displays them in order ranked by relevance.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
SEO is the process of maximising the chances of getting your website to be listed in a top position in a search engine for any given key word or phrase search.
SERPS
Search Engine Results Pages - the list of results that Google displays when you search for a word or phrase.
Source Code
Source code is the code used by programmers to specify the actions to be performed by a computer. In the context of this document source code is the code used to create web pages.
Sponsored Results
Sponsored results are basically advertising links related to search terms entered into a search engine.
Traffic (or website traffic)
Traffic is the amount of visitors that you receive through your website pages.
URL
Uniform Resource Locator – an indication of the address of something on the Internet. For example http://www.toucher.co.uk/portfolio.htm is a URL.
