August 21, 2010

14 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Terms

Search Engine Optimization
Terminology

1. Back Link - A back link is a link that points back to the a web page, also known as IBL's (inbound links). They can be placed almost anywhere such as a blog, forum, social media platform like Facebook or Twitter and if placed carefully, as a published comment.

2. Cloaking - Cloaking involves delivering a page to the search engine spider that is different from what the human visitor sees. Cloaking is a violation of the Terms Of Service (TOS).

3. Conversion - The term conversion refers to the ROI with traffic visiting each web pages and judges based on the pages (or websites) individual goals. Traffic that flows to the website and then converts into a customer or client by registering, wants to receive your monthly newsletter or buying a product and/or using your services. Conversion is measured so techniques can be altered, as necessary, if the ROI is low.

4. Gateway Page - A gateway (doorway) page has one purpose, to drive traffic to another page. They aren't designed for humans more so for search engines to achieve higher rankings. One key phrase is generally optimized and a violation of TOS. Varies from a Splash Page because it has very little text and is used as eye candy to entice visitors further...

5. Keywords & phrases - Both keywords and keyword phrases are the words a user uses to search for what they are looking for. As a webmaster, the end goal is to know and use these same search terms or queries within their web pages to increase page ranking with search engines.

6. Keyword Stuffing - When you are adding unnecessary keywords and keyword phrases that are of no use the the human visitor, you are keyword stuffing. They may not even be visible to the naked eye, only to 'search spiders' and is considered SPAM and against TOS! (Even when the stuffed keywords and phrases do pertain to the content, it takes away from the end users experience and is a pain in the ars to read ;)

7. Link Farm - A link farm is a group of separate yet highly interlinked websites created for the purposes of inflating link popularity (otherwise known as Page Rank). Engaging in link farms is a violation of the Terms Of Service with most search engines and could be grounds for banning.

8. Mirror Site - A mirror site is considered a duplicate site that implements the use of similar, yet different, keywords and phrases in an attempt to attract all types of search engine queries. It is usually considered a violation of TOS.

9. Non-Organic Search - The term non-organic search refers to websites and their content. These sites are brought up by search engines as a result of a search by the end user. Most of these types of web pages retrieved in this manner have rrelatively little content, could consist of a link farm feeling and are stuffed with overused keywords and phrases. These pages are popular but, in the end seem to lose out to websites with true, organic content. 
 
10. Organic search - Organic search results are those web pages retrieved by search engines, due again to particular keywords and/or keyword phrases but, they are relevant content usable to the end user! Unique, well written and informative content = A+ organic search results! When I surf for information it's more than frustrating to come across page after page of irrelevant crap before I find what I need.

11. Page Rank - Page rank (PR) is used to describe where your web page link appears on the long list of pages brought up by the search engines after a pertinent term is queried. Ideally, you want your page to be #1 or as close to it as possible and yes, over the long run counts too!

12. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Search engine optimization is the process of making your web page, website, blog etc. a 'sprider' friendly zone. From what I gather is done best by creating pages with usable, relevant content and keywords (once again ;)

13. Search Engine Results Page/Positioning (SERP)  - The term SERP refers to organic search results and where they appear in results after a query. SERP's do not include paid listings.

14. Spider - A Spider is also known as Bot or Robot and is a software program that scans the web for various purposes of both good and evil. They can index web page for search engines or they can harvest e-mail addresses for spammers!


...for more SEO cartoons, see seoz87

No comments: