Here is a glossary of some of the most popular search engine optimization terms. Each term is listed below linking to its definition. If you have any questions about these terms or how they relate to your website, feel free to Contact Us.
| Algorithm |
A set of rules used by a search engine to determine which web pages are listed in response to a query, as well as the ranking of those listings. The mathematical formulas behind these rules are trade secrets for many search engine companies.
Back to Top |
| Alt Tag |
Alt text is alternative text, used when an image is not being displayed. The ALT text is intended to be a suitable textual alternative to the image’s purpose.
Back to Top
|
| Backlinks |
Backlinks are defined as all of the links on other pages that, when clicked on, take the user to a specific web page. For that specific web page, call it Page A, each link linking to page A is called a backlink. Many search engines allow the user to view a page’s backlinks so that user’s can understand what web sites deem it a relevant web page. Also called Inbound Links.
Back to Top |
| Indexing |
When a search engine spiders and places a website into its database. the search engine will index all the pages it can access through its crawling phase. |
| Organic Listings Page |
The search result pages of a search engines that rank websites by the searched phrase relevancy and relevant backlinks to of the website. Being listed on the first page in Normally called the Top 10.
Back to Top |
| Keyword Density |
The number of times a keyword is used on a webpage divided by the total number of words on the page.
Back to Top |
| Keyword Phrase |
Two or more keywords combined to form a search query, such as “new homes Atlanta.” Keyword phrases are often simply referred to as keywords in SEO, as one keyword phrase makes up only one possible query that could be used to optimize a web page.
Back to Top |
| Link Popularity |
The raw number of backlinks to a web page, used in most search engines’ algorithms to determine ranking.
Back to Top |
| Meta Description Tag |
The Meta Description Tag contains a short paragraph describing the content of a web page. Search engine results generally use this tag’s content as the text snippet under the link if it contains the keyword of the search. A search engine’s crawler will also use the Meta Description Tag to deduce the topic of the page.
Back to Top |
| Meta Keywords Tag |
The Meta Keywords Tag contains a list of certain words and phrases (keywords) that are emphasized within a web page in order to improve search engine ranking. This tag should use keywords that best represent how the page’s content should be indexed. Excessive repetition of keywords in this tag may be considered spam by the search engine, and could result in lower ranking or penalties.
Back to Top |
| Meta Tags |
Meta Tags are tags meant to convey behind-the-scenes information about a web page, such as its keywords or page description information. Meta Tags tell a search engine’s crawlers whether a page is allowed to be indexed and whether the links on a page are allowed to be followed.
Back to Top |
| Organic Search |
Organic search listings are results based on factors such as keyword relevancy within a Web page. These are the listings generally found on the left hand side in search engines, and are not influenced by direct financial payments, only by effective search engine optimization.
Back to Top |
| PageRank |
A method of ranking results for a search engine, developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin while at Stanford University. PageRank gives a unique ranking to every web page on the Internet based on the number and quality of the page’s backlinks.
Back to Top |
| Sandbox |
When a website is trying to rank for a very competitive keyword, Google and other search engines will hold the website in a “Sandbox”. The site takes longer to rank because the algorithm is comparing it to other closely similar websites.
Back to Top |
| Search Engine |
A program that allows a user to search for information stored on a computer system or network, most commonly the Internet. A web search engine uses programs called spiders or crawlers to regularly search the Internet, create copies of all pages and index them in a database. When a user queries this database by entering terms into the search engine, he or she will receive a list of web sites ranked by relevancy (as determined by the engine’s algorithms). These are called organic listings. Many search engine databases also contain paid listings, which are typically purchased by commerce sites.
Back to Top |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
Creating or altering a webpage to increase the amount of traffic to the website by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a website ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that site will be visited by a user. A properly optimized website is important because many Internet usually do not click through many pages to find the object of their search.
Back to Top |
