A newbie is someone who is unfamiliar with something. If this describes you, you should be familiar with the following terms.
SEO was not even a concept a few years ago. Some are just more recent than others.
Although this list is not exhaustive, it is intended to provide a basic overview of the terms used in SEO. As new terms are constantly being invented, you’ll probably find a new term after you finish reading this list. But at least you’ll have the basics. Let’s get started.
Above the fold
This is derived by the reference to the top of a newspaper. The Internet uses the above fold to describe the top portion of the page that a visitor can see without scrolling.
AdSense
Google’s contextual-based ad program. AdSense allows you to place ads on your site and earn revenue when people click on them.
AdWords
Google’s advertising program that charges per click (PPC). You can use AdWords to purchase advertising to send traffic to a specific location.
algorithm
Algorithms can be complex, mathematically-based sets of rules. The algorithm in SEO refers to how search engines rank web pages within its search results. Some SEO experts believe that if they can understand the algorithm, they will be able to achieve higher search engine rankings.
Anchor text
Also known as link text. The blue underlined text that appears on web pages and can be clicked to take you to another site or page. Note: Although the link doesn’t necessarily have to be underlined or blue, this is the standard.
Backlink / backlink
Link on another site that links to the page you’re viewing. Also called an inbound link.
Click through rate (CTR).
This term is often used in Internet marketing to indicate the percentage of users who click on an advertisement or link. If a page receives 100 visitors, and 12 people click on the link, then its CTR is 12%.
Cloaking
Some web sites use this technique to send one page to a search engine for indexing and serve another page to everyone else. The search engine and you will see two things. Cloaking your site can result in it being removed from search engines.
Conversion rate (CR).
Percentage of site visitors who provide your most desired response (MWR). Your online sales efforts will be judged by your CR. Your site can have a 3% CR if it sells an e-book. If 3 out of 100 people buy your book, then you have a successful online sales campaign.
CPC
Cost per click. The cost of an advertisement campaign divided by the number of unique visitors.
CPM
Cost per 1,000 impressions (M= Roman numeral equivalent to 1000). This pricing system is often used in banner advertising.
Dead link
A link to a page that is no longer available or has been moved elsewhere. Search engine spiders remove dead links regularly.
Deep linking
Linking to inner pages of a website, as opposed to the homepage.
Google bombing / Google bombing
Anchor text is used to show a page in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), under keywords that are not relevant to the page. Google is working to stop this practice.
Hand submission
It is a practice to visit each directory and search engine by hand, rather than using software programs. Some systems won’t accept automated submissions. Similar to Manual Submission.
Heading tag
An HTML tag that is represented by?, etc, to H6. These tags indicate the text size, with H1 being largest. Search engines may place more emphasis on heading tags in SEO, as they tend to give more weight to keywords contained within them.
hidden text
A web page should contain text that is visible only to spiders, but not to humans. It is important to load the page with keywords, but not deter visitors from their experience. This is usually done by using a background color to highlight the text. Hidden text is now considered spam by most search engines. Hidden text can lead to pages being removed from the search engine results page.
Hit
A request to a file on a server is only one hit. A visitor will open a page that has 3 images and get 4 hits.
Hot linking
A practice that displays images, videos and other files. When files are located on another server (usually another person’s), they can be displayed on a website. The site shows content that consumes bandwidth of another person. If you do not have permission, hot linking is considered unethical.
HTML
Hypertext Markup language is the main language for writing web sites. It consists of tags
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the most widely used protocol to allow communication between browsers and servers.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. A newbie is someone who is unfamiliar with something. If this describes you, you should be familiar with the following terms.
SEO was not even a concept a few years ago. Some are just more recent than others.
Although this list is not exhaustive, it is intended to provide a basic overview of the terms used in SEO. As new terms are constantly being invented, you’ll probably find a new term after you finish reading this list. But at least you’ll have the basics. Let’s get started.
Above the fold
This is derived by the reference to the top of a newspaper. The Internet uses the above fold to describe the top portion of the page that a visitor can see without scrolling.
AdSense
Google’s contextual-based ad program. AdSense allows you to place ads on your site and earn revenue when people click on them.
AdWords
Google’s advertising program that charges per click (PPC). You can use AdWords to purchase advertising to send traffic to a specific location.
algorithm
