Algorithm
A set of rules that a search engine uses to rank the pages contained within its index in response to a particular query. No search engine reveals exactly how its algorithm works, to protect itself both from competitors and from those who wish to spam the search engine.
Back links
These are links to a website from external sources, including other web pages, directories, and advertising.
Banned
When pages are removed from a search engine’s index because the search engine has deemed them to be spamming, or violating one of the search engine’s other rules.
Click-through rate (CTR)
How many people clicked on a link, as a percentage of the total number of people that saw the link.
Cloaking
The act of serving content to search engine spiders that is different to what normal visitors would see. Search engines will ban you if they find you doing this.
Contextual links
Contextual links are displayed on web pages when the content on the page indicates to an ad server that the page is a good match for specific keywords or phrases.
Conversion rate
The percentage of visitors to a website who go on to complete a purchase.
Cost per click (CPC)
A system where an advertiser pays an agreed amount for each click someone makes on a link leading to their website.
Cost per mille (CPM)
A system where an advertiser pays an agreed amount for the number of times an ad is seen, regardless of how many people actually click through. Mille refers to one thousand viewings of the ad.
Crawler
A component of a search engine that gathers listings by automatically crawling the web, following links to understand how pages are connected.
De-listing
This is when pages are removed from a search engine’s index, usually because they haven’t been updated for a long time.
Directories
A type of search engine where listings are gathered by humans, rather than by automated web crawlers.
Doorway page
A web page created in the hope of improving another page’s ranking in a search engine’s listings. Doorway pages do not give much information to the people viewing them. To be avoided!
Index
The collection of information a search engine has that searchers can query.
Landing page
The web page that a visitor reaches after clicking your search engine listing.
Link popularity
A count of how popular a page is based on the number of other pages that link to it.
Link
A link is text that you can click on to go to another website, or another page on the same website.
Listings
The information that appears on a search engine’s results page in response to a search.
Meta-search engine
A search engine that returns listings from two or more other search engines, instead of using its own index.
Meta tags
Tags placed in a web page’s code that pass information to search engine crawlers, browser software and some other applications.
Meta description tag
This meta tag allows pages to provide descriptions to search engines.
Meta keywords tag
Allows authors to add text to a page to help with the search engine ranking process. Largely redundant.
Meta robots tag
Allows page authors to keep some web pages from being indexed by search engines. Similar to a robots.txt file.
Natural listings
The listings that search engines do not sell. Instead, sites appear solely because a search engine believes it is important for them to be included, regardless of payment. Note that paid inclusion listings are still treated as natural listings by many search engines.
Outbound links
Links on one website that lead to other websites.
Paid inclusion
An advertising program where pages are guaranteed to be spidered and included in a search engine’s index in exchange for payment.
PPC
Pay per Click is a popular online marketing method where the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on one of their adverts.
Paid listings
Listings that search engines sell to advertisers, usually through paid placement or paid inclusion programs.
Pay-for-performance
A term popularised by some search engines as a synonym for pay-per-click. It stresses to advertisers that they are only paying for ads that “perform” in terms of delivering traffic, as opposed to CPM-based ads, where ads cost money even if no-one clicks on them.
Paid placement
An advertising program where listings appear in response to particular search terms, with higher rankings typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers.
Rank
The order in which web pages are listed in search engine results.
Reciprocal link
A link exchange in which two sites link to each other. OK in small doses!
Results page
The page that appears after a user enters their search terms.
Robots.txt
A file used to keep web pages from being indexed by search engines.
Search engine
A service designed to allow users to search the web, or another database of information.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Marketing a website using search engines, whether you’re improving your ranking in natural listings, purchasing paid listings or some combination of the two.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
Altering a website so that it ranks higher in the search engines.
Search terms
The words a searcher enters into a search engine’s search box.
Spam
Any search engine marketing method that a search engine decides is detrimental to its efforts to deliver relevant search results.
Spider
See crawler.
Submission
The act of sending a URL to a search engine or directory, for inclusion in its index or listings.
XML feeds
A process in which information about a page is fed to the index without using a crawler, for example using RSS.
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