Learning Center
SEO Glossary
We have compiled a list of SEO terms to help translate the jargon into meaningful vocabulary for your business.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ajax
ALT Tag
an attribute added to image source tags in the html of a website which add alternate text to images. This is useful for visitors who cannot or do not want to view images. It also helps search engine optimization as spiders cannot read or see images.
Atom
a web feed format
Authority Page
a web page that search engines see with a large amount of credibility - a lot of times judged by the amount of inbound links.
Bid
the amount an advertiser offers to pay when a user clicks on an ad – used in pay-per-click advertising.
Black Hat
a methodology in search engine optimization which includes techniques that are not in compliance with the search engines’ guidelines for webmasters.
Blacklists
lists of IP addresses, domain names, email addresses or content of the headers or the body, or some combination of these different types that can be used to help identify spam.
Blog
a regularly updated online journal which presents in a reverse-chronological order with the most recent entries at the top of the webpage and allows users to post comments.
Blogroll
a list of links from a blog.
Blogosphere
the community of web users whom write blogs.
Bounce
a site visitor who merely hits one page of the website and leaves or is only on the website for about 10 seconds or less.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
a coding method which separates style attributes from content (most often in different files altogether), making it easier to edit different parts of a website.
Client
in reference to a client-server relationship. This is when a program or computer requests information from another computer or network.
Cloaking
a technique used to show different content to search engine spiders than would be seen by regular website visitors accessing a webpage through a standard web browser.
Content Management System (CMS)
software installed as part of a website which enables site administrators to make edits in a user-friendly format without having to meddle with any other code.
Cookie
information placed on a user’s hard drive by a website that can accessed only by the site that placed the cookie. Information stored in cookies are usually that of geographical data or preferences of a certain user so that the user does not have to continually set preferences.
Crawl
the act by a search engine spider of following links and gathering content from websites. After a spider crawls a website, it is said to be included the search engine’s database. Also called indexing.
Directory
a categorized list of links to websites – mostly created and maintained by human editors, not by technology.
Doorway Page
a web page that is used as a destination page for search engine traffic but is not part of the parent navigation of the full website.
DNS
Domain Name System, a place to register a domain name for a website.
Elevator Speech
marketing slang for a speech given about a business which gives all the important things to be mentioned in the duration of a short elevator ride.
Exit Page
the last page a user views before leaving a website.
Feed
an XML file created by a website owner to be retrieved and displayed by other websites or software. Generally used for blogs and news content as a feed includes summary information and a link to the original web page in which the information was posted.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. Used to upload and download files between computers over a network.
Flash
a high-performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones, and devices.
Geotargeting
part of pay-per-click services that allow advertisers to choose the geographic region(s) that their ads will run in.
Global Navigation
a set of internal website links that are listed on every page of a website.
Graphical Text
text contained in image files like JPEGs, GIFs, or PNGs. Sometimes used for advertising or navigation. Generally cannot be read by search engines.
G.U.I
Graphical User Interface
Hit
a signal made from a web browser to a website server requesting an element of a web page. Each item on a web page, when viewed, will log one hit to the server.
HTML Page Title
contained in an HTML document that describes the content of a web page. This is displayed in the title bar of the browser when a user visits a web page.
Invisible Text
text on a website that is not visible to website viewers. For example, white text on a white background.
JavaScript
a scripting language used for a variety of effects on the web from link rollovers to pop ups.
Keyword
a word or phrase describing a product, service, or other content on a website. Keywords are entered into search engines as queries.
Keyword Density
the number of times a keyword or phrase appears on a web page divided by the total number of words on the page expressed as a percentage.
Link Equity
link equity is like a currency and is measured by the quality and quantity of inbound links to a webpage. Link Equity is how search engines measure the value and credibility of a web page.
Link Validator
software that checks the validity of links within a website.
Masked Domain
a web page which redirects visitors to another website but hides the fact they’ve been redirected by keeping the original domain name in the browser address bar.
Media RSS (MRSS)
an RSS feed which lists media files (videos or audio) along with specifically formatted information about those files including titles, descriptions, locations, authors, and text transcript.
Metadata
data formatted in documents, images, music and videos which describe characteristics such as author, file structure, or keywords.
Meta Search Engines
search sites that display results from several different search engines.
NoFollow
an HTML attribute value used to instruct search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target's ranking in the search engine's index.
Online Marketing
marketing through the internet using techniques such as search engine optimization, direct e-mails, and banner advertising.
Organic SEO
optimizing a website for searches that do not require payment.
Page View
a group of his that make up a single viewing of a web page.
Participation Marketing
marketing oneself through participation in forums or commenting on others' blogs.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
advertising in which the advertiser chooses certain keywords for which its listings will appear in the search results and pays a fee to the search engine each time a listing is clicked.
Podcasts
similar to blogs however in video or audio format.
Ping
a method of checking the validity of a link or connection between two computers by sending a small packet of data and waiting for a reply.
Ping Server
a service which receives notification every time a blog is updated.
Robots.txt
a text file web developers can place on the root directory of a website in order to exclude a certain web page or folder from being indexed by search engine robots.
Root Directory
the top directory within a file structure which contains all other directories.
RSS
stands for Really Simple Syndication which is a web feed format.
Search Marketing
marketing with the intention of improving website ranking and listing quality among both paid and unpaid results in search engines with the goal of increasing targeted traffic to a website.
Search Query
keywords entered into a search engine by users performing a search.
SERP
abbreviation for Search Engine Results Page
Server-Side Tracking
setting up software on a server which hosts a website to track information used for web analytics.
sIFR
A JavaScript and Flash based technology which allows web developers to incorporate fonts that are unfriendly to the internet without using images or sacrificing search engine optimization. sIFR stands for 'Scalable Inman Flash Replacement'.
Snippet
portions of text taken from a web page and used as a summary or description of a page's content, usually used in search engine listings.
Social Bookmarking
shared internet bookmark lists created and categorized by individual users.
Social Networking
creating connections with people through participation on social websites. Example: dating sites, profile sites, and social bookmarking sites.
Source Code
the HTML text and tags that make up a web page.
Spiders
see robots.
Spider Simulator
software attempting to simulate what a search engine spider or robot would see a web page.
Topical Community
a group of websites which share a certain topic or subject matter.
Trackbacks
a method for web authors to request notification when somebody links to their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking, and so referring, to their articles.
Traffic Source
the originator of a website visit. Most often a search engine, referring website, or email link.
Trusted Feed
a service offered by some search engines which allows website owners to give a list of pages to be indexed or crawled. This is usually a paid service and does not guarantee an improvement in ranks.
Unique Visitors
the number of different individuals (or computers, based on IP address) who visit a website one or more times during a given period.
Usability
the elements of a website's layout and content which affect a site visitor's ease of use and navigation.
User-Generated Content (UGC)
content on web pages, forums, or blogs that is created by the users.
Visible Text
text on a website that is visible to users through a standard web browser (opposite of Invisible text).
Web Syndication
the act of making content available to other websites using web feeds.
White Hat
a methodology in search engine optimization which includes techniques that are in compliance with the search engines' guidelines for webmasters.
Widget
applications created for distribution across the Web and reuse on other websites' widgets are usually free. Mac or Windows Vista users will know widgets as the applications on their dashboard.
Wiki
a website in which the content is contributed and can be edited by anyone who has access to it. Example: Wikipedia
