SEO and SEM Terms

Conventional SEO / SEM TERMS

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1) Search Engine Marketing (SEM) � Pay Per Click Marketing
2) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) � Designing a site in a fashion to rank high
3) Algorithm � Formula used by the Search Engines to rank sites.
4) Keyword � What people type in the search box.
5) Domain Name - How most people find your site.
6) Domain Registration � Where people buy domain names
7) Webhosting � The place to 'put' your website
8) ICANN � Authority that controls the Domain name registration process.
9) Google Sitemaps � an XML / RSS feed to Google.
10) Statistics � Tracking Visitors and how they came in and left your site
11) Blog � Easy to update web pages
12) RSS / XML � Really Simple Syndication
13) Directory � Listing of sites that is human edited.
14) Google � Search Engine / Portal
15) Yahoo � Search Engine / Portal
16) MSN � Search Engine / Portal
17) Tier 2 Search Engines � Smaller Search Engines
18) DMOZ � Open Directory Project
19) Yahoo Directory � Directory Run by Yahoo
20) Link / Backlink Popularity � How many sites and what kinds of sites are linking to you.
21) Anchor Text � What is the 'keyword' they are linking to you with.
22) Title Tag � Part of the website that shows up in Search Engines as the 'anchor text' to your site.
23) Text Link � A non complicated link that does not use images.
24) Image Link � A non readable search engine link
25) Flash � A programming language not fully readable by the search engines
26) Redirects � A method of moving visitors from one URL to another
27) URL - uniform resource locater or Internet Address
28) IP � Internet Protocol (normally a number)
29) Keyword Density � How many times a keyword is on a webpage
30) H Tags � Used to define the start of a topic on a page.
31)CSS � Cascade Style Sheets (used to create look and feel of websites)
32) Code 301 � Permanent Redirect
33) Code 302 � Temporary Redirect (Can get your site delisted)
34) Code 404 � Page not found
35) SearchGuild.Com � SEO forum
36) ROI � Return on Investment (Not really an SEO term, but very necessary to say the least.)
37) Pages Indexed � How many pages the search engines see of a website
38) Spider � Search Engine Robot that goes out and checks websites to find new content.
39) Robots.txt � File that tells the Robots where they are not allowed to go.
40) SERP(S) � Search Engine Results Pages
41) Pagerank � Patented Method (of many) on how Google ranks Websites.
42) Trustrank � Patented Method (of many) on how Google ranks Websites.
43) URL variables - '?','&' and '%' and other non standard outputs in the URL.
44) Adsense � Google Ad program for webmasters
45) Adwords � Google bid program for webmasters
46) Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing) Yahoo bid program for webmasters
47)Yahoo Publisher � Yahoo Ad program for webmasters
48)Static Page � Page output is just normal html
48)Dynamic Page � Generally the website is Database Driven
49)Database � a method of storing data into tables
50)MySQL � Opensource Database
51)MSSQL � Microsoft Standard Database
52) Trackback � Method used to notify another blog that you wrote in your blog about them
53) Ping (Blogging) � Method used to notify Blog Search Engines that you updated your site.
54) Submission � Outdated process of getting indexed, rarely produces rankings.
55) Alt Tag � Image Tag description.
56) local search � Search Engine search for local businesses.
57) Google Guidelines � Google's very incomplete guidelines on how to build a website to rank.
58) Blog Search � Google new RSS search engine.
59) Video Search � Searches Video Content.
60) Google / Yahoo / MSN news � News Search Engine.
61) PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion � Web Languages (Server Side)
62) HTML, Javascript � Web Language (Client Side)

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Controversial Terms:

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1)Google Bomb � Using massive text links to increase rankings
2)Sandbox Theory � Auto penalizing of new sites in Google
3)Google Bowling - Using Massive text links to penalize competitors.
4)Banned � Not showing up in the index
5)Penalty - Google, Yahoo or MSN inspired punishment in the Rankings.
6)Scrapers � Sites that steal content from others simply to get higher in search engines.
7)Spamdexing � Filling the SERPS with garbage results.
8)Google Dance � Differing Data Centers reporting differing SERPS.
9)BlackHat � Using unapproved methods of gaining higher SERPS.
10)Whitehat � Using approved methods of gaining higher SERPS
11)Link Farm � A page that has no purpose other than to link out.
12)Cloaking � Serving differing content to the Search Engines than to normal visitors.
13)Comment Spam � posting in someone's blog for the purpose of attracting traffic to your site (via search engines)
14) Reciprocal links � linking 2 sites together, both ways.
15) Code Swapping � changing content when good rankings are made.
16) nofollow tag � tag added to tell search engines not to follow link.
17) Doorway pages � Pages designed only to rank in the search engines with no real content.
18) White on White text � very old method of 'cloaking'.
19) keyword stuffed alt tags � very old and crude method of ranking higher.
20) Click Fraud � Clicking on competitors ads just to drive up their PPC costs.