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Search Engine Terms

Posted on September 10th, 2006 by Admin.
Categories: SEO, Web-Crawler, Page Rank, Googlism, Search Engine.

Hey ,

Here are some terms commonly used in Search Engine technologies. ..

Algorithm : The complex mathematical formulae that Search Engines use to determine the rank of a particular website for specific keyword. The algorithms evolve constantly to keep ahead of unfair practices and provide more accurate and relevant search results for user queries.

Alt Text : The text that is displayed when the mouse cursor is held static on an image. It is primarily used as a place holder in case the image on the web browser is unable to load.

Anchor Text : The text/copy written on the web page that works as a link

Back Link : A link from another page which links to your page. It is also called an inbound link.

BLOG : Web LOG is a journal kept on the internet. This journal is often updated daily and contains all information that the person maintaining the BLOG (Blogger) wishes to share with the world. Also applies to websites dedicated to a particular topic and being updated with the latest news, views and trends.

Broken Link : A link that no longer points to an active destination. It is also called a dead link.

Cloaking : A web optimisation technique used to serve a different version of the same page to Search Engine spiders and a different version to users. Sometimes separate versions of the page are created for different Search Engine spiders to promote rankings.

Crawlers : Programs created by Search Engines that go around the internet collecting information about the websites. The process of visiting a website and recording information is known as indexing. The information collected by these spiders is then used to rank the websites. Crawlers are also known as spiders and Robots .

Cross Linking : A simple process where two websites provide links to each other.

Deep Linking : Process of linking pages embedded in the directories of your website from your home page or other pages, to facilitate indexing of the page by the Search Engine spiders.

Description Tag : A Meta tag that provides certain Search Engines spiders/ crawlers with a description of the web page. This description is often displayed along the search result for your website.

Header Tag : The tag that defines the Title, Description and other Meta information of the web page.

Hidden Text The text on the webpage that is difficult to see because it is the same colour as the background. This technique is considered spamming and should be avoided.

Inbound Link : A link from another page that links to your page.

Indexing : The process by which a Search Engine spider visits your web page and collects information about it.

Keyword : A word entered into the search box of a Search Engine or Directory by a user to look for information pertaining to the word on the internet.

Keyword Density : A percentage calculated on the basis of the number of times a keyword occurs in your web page copy against the total number of words on your web page.

Keyword Stuffing : A technique where too many instances of the keyword are put into a web page without any context or use to make it keyword rich or increase keyword density. This practice is considered spamming and should be avoided at all times.

Keyword Tag : A Meta tag that defines the keywords that the web page is targeting. It is considered, in the current day and age, to be of little or of no use. Search engine spiders no longer assign any importance to this tag.

Link farms : A process by which independent websites create a complex linking structure to build their Link Popularity. Since websites participating in these link farms create links to each other without any context or genuine reason, they are considered an infringement by most Search Engines and if caught carry a penalty.

Link Popularity : It is defined by the quality and quantity of inbound and outbound links of your web page. By quality we mean the reputations of the websites that link to you, the titles of the pages that link back to you, the text used to link to your website and a few other factors. By quantity we simply mean the number of links on the internet which point to your website.

Linking Strategy : The planning process that goes into creating link popularity. Deciding who to form associations with, who to exchange links with and who to buy links from.

Meta Tag : A tag created to provide keyword, description and other information to Search Engine spiders and other user agents. This tag is invisible when the page is rendered on the web browser and can be seen by viewing the source of the web page.

Mirror Sites : Websites or web pages with the same or similar content as another. They could be used to target near same keywords as the other. As they provide no new and no useful information a Search Engine may penalize a mirror website.

Optimisation / Optimization : When used in the context of Search Engine Optimisation, it is a series of steps that promote a webpage or website on the internet and strive to achieve higher rankings on the Search Engines.

Outbound Link : The opposite of inbound link. An outbound link is a link from your web page to another page.

Paid Inclusion :The process of inclusion in a Web Directory or a Search Engine by paying a fee.

Penalty : A violation of Terms of Inclusion of a Search Engine or Web Directory can result in a penalty. The penalty is usually a ban on the website by the Search Engine. It effectively means that the banned web page or web site will no longer be included in the searches within the Search Engine for a particular period or until the violation is corrected. The violation can be triggered by any factor like spamming, participating in Link farms, using hidden text etc.

PPC (Pay Per Click) : A model of Website inclusion where you pay an agreed amount every time a user clicks to your website through a Search Engine. Usually you buy the position you want to rank at, for a particular keyword or keywords and pay the Search Engine every time it generates a hit to your website.

PR (Google PageRank) : A number of link popularity factors combine to produce a rating that Google assigns to your website. This rating is called PageRank and is a score between 0-10. It is an extremely important factor for ranking high in Google.

Query : A search conducted in a Search Engine using a keyword or key phrase.

Ranking : The position of a web page in the SERP, plus the number of results displayed prior to it on previous pages.

Reciprocal Link : A link to your web page by an associate site. When you create a link to another web page (Page B) from your own page (Page A) and the other website does the same, then a link from Page B to Page A is a reciprocal link.

Reciprocal Linking : The process of exchanging links with other websites is called Reciprocal Linking. Since both participating websites get an inbound link, it helps in building link popularity.

Referrer : When a user visits your website by clicking a link from another website, the other website is called a referrer. The referrer could be a Search Engine or an associate website that provides links to your web page.

Robot.txt : A file written and stored in the root directory of a website that restricts the Search Engine spiders from indexing certain pages of the website. This file is used to disallow certain spiders from seeing files that you not want them to see. You can also prevent a certain spider to look at any of the web pages through this file.

And many others …

Cheers,

Kyle

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