Glossary
Jargon Explained
404 Error
Most commonly caused by accidentally bad linking, or deletion of pages, a 404 page or error is generated when the link clicked on doesn’t direct the user to a page that exists.
Algorithm
Search engines use different mathematical formulae to rank web pages. These algorithms are kept secret, however most search engines do provide some information about what they will not tolerate.
ASP
Active server page – is a server-side scripting technology that allows html and a scripting language to be used on the same web page to produce dynamic web pages.
Cloaking
Various methods of delivering to search engines content designed to rank pages higher, whilst hiding such scripting from the normal user there are various programs advertised on the internet that claim it is a legitimate practise provided you don’t abuse it. Be warned – stay clear of it cloaking can get you banned from many search engines.
CPC
Cost per click, see pay per click.
Frames
Frames display multiple pages in one browser window. Search engines do not index frame set based sites well, usually only indexing the first part of the page. Useless for high rankings.
Keyword
People use keywords and phrases in search engines and directories to find relevant web sites. For example, if you were looking classic cars, you would probably search for websites using the keyword phrase ‘classic cars’.
Meta-tag
The meta element within the header of a document is used to embed information about the document. Many search engines ignore this information because of wide spread abuse by unscrupulous internet marketers
eg:
<head>
<TITLE>online shoes</TITLE>
<META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”boots, shoes, sandals,”>
<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”Online store for the sale of foot ware such as boots, sandals and shoes.”>
</head>
PFI
Pay for inclusion. Lists your website in a database only if you pay a fixed amount. Most PFI databases refresh their list much more often than free-submission directories and crawler search engines.
PPC
Pay per click. Lists a website for certain searches, every time someone searches for the keywords in the advert and the displayed link is clicked, the owner gets charged an agreed amount for the referral by the search engine.
Pay for Ranking
Google adwords and espotting are a pay for ranking service, the more you pay the better ranking you achieve.
Page Rank
Google search engine specific, PR is short for Page Rank, so named after it’s creator Larry Page. Google’s indexed pages are given a ranking number of one to ten based upon its complex link analysis algorithm, this rank is displayed beside links in the ODP dmoz project, and in the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer.
ROI
Return on investment. The profit or loss made given a transaction or lead, often referred to when analysing pay-per-click data and results for an overall cost and profit of the campaign.
Robot
A program that automatically does pre-programmed things such as retrieve information. Spiders are a form of robot.
Search Engine
Software used to search an index and retrieve documents pertinent to the search query.
Search Engine Optimisation
The process of changing coding and wording to make pages easier for search engines to locate that information using specifically targeted keywords or phrases.
Spamming
Pages created to fool search engines into giving higher rankings using unethical methods. E.g. keyword stuffing, submitting multiple domain names which point to the same website, or small or invisible text etc.
Spider
Programs used by search engines to scan documents and add them to their index.