Glossary of Terms for Search Engine Positioning

Affiliate marketing

Revenue sharing between two web sites. Affiliate site normally provide free advertising for an ecommerce site and compensation is based on performance i.e. sales, clicks, registrations, or a combination of all.

ALT tag

Alternative text embedded in the HTML tt for graphic files. Useful for robot (search engine) indexing, people who surf with graphics turned off and those on slow connections.

Bookmark

A link stored in a Web browser for easy reference.

Click through

Clicking on a banner ad from one site to the advertiser's home page is counted as one click-through.

Cookie

Information stored on a user's computer by a Web site so preferences are remembered on future requests.

CPM

Online media buy terminology. Refers to cost per thousand impressions.

Description tag

HTML tag used to by Web page authors to provide a description for search engine listings.

Directory

Organized, categorized listings of Web sites. Directories employ teams of people, who follow strict guidelines, to review a submitted site and determine its inclusion and ranking.

Flash

Multimedia technology developed by Macromedia. Flash allows for interactive web pages whose file sizes are relatively small.

Frames

Embedded in HTML tt of web pages. Frames divide a Web page into parts and allow easier viewing and navigation.

Hit

A request of a file from a Web server. Total hits to a site/page are the combination of all downloads.

Home page

The main page of a Web site.

Impression

A single display of an online advertisement.

Inbound link

A link from a site outside of your site.

Keyword Meta Tag

The HTML META tag used to help define the primary keywords of a Web page in order to achieve a ranking on search engines against those keyword queries.

Link Popularity

A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. Aids in search engine positioning and ranking.

Outbound link

A link to a site outside of your own.

Page view

A request to load a single HTML page.

Pay- per-click

An online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on click-through.

Pay per click search engine

Search engine where web sites are ranked according to the bid amount, and advertisers are charged when a searcher clicks on the search listing. Go.com is one such engine.

Permission marketing

Obtaining customer consent to receive information from the company. Permission marketing in the online world takes the form of email promotions and newsletters.

Portal

A site that serves as a starting point and gateway to the World Wide Web e.g. AOL.com.

Manual submissions

Submitting a URL (keywords, descriptions etc.) to each search engines by hand.

Meta search engine

A search engine that displays results from a multitude of other search engines and directories.

Reciprocal links

Outbound links exchanged for inbound links.

Search engine

An automated system that relies on a software agent (otherwise known as spiders, robots or crawlers) that explores the World Wide Web following links from site to site (see importance of Link Exchange) and catalogues relevant text and content into the search engine's database.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

This is a newer term and separates what was once part of the function of a Search Engine optimizer, Search Engine Marketing specifically is the function of locating, researching, submitting, and positioning a web site within the proper search engines for maximum exposure and effectiveness. SEM may also include the function of choosing the target keywords and keyword phrases for the web site's meta tags

Search engine optimization (SEO)

The process of updating HTML tt and choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keywords are queried on search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves the careful optimization of corporate web sites to effectively increase their visibility in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Alta-Vista, Inktomi and many others. It makes the difference between a web site that has very little visibility and one that will be seen and found by millions of people.

Search engine Spam

Excessive manipulation to influence search engine rankings, often for pages which contain little or no relevant content. Can result in penalization of a web site.

Search engine submission

Inserting a URL into a search engine "submit" form in order make the search engine aware of a site or page for indexing and positioning.

Title tag

An HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings and for bookmark identification.

Unique visits

Individuals who have visited a Web site (or network) at least once in a fixed time frame, typically a 30 day period.

Viral Marketing

Encouraging visitors to an online site to pass along a marketing message by providing an incentive for doing so.

Web site traffic

The amount of total visitors and unique visits to a Web site.