Glossary of Search Engine Ranking Terms
By Sumantra Roy
Here is a glossary of commonly used terms in the search engine
ranking world.
Alt Tag: The alternative text that the browser displays when
the surfer does not want to or cannot see the pictures present
in a web page. Using alt tags containing keywords can improve
the search engine ranking of the page for those keywords.
Bridge Page: See Doorway Page.
Cloaking: The process by which your site can display different
pages under different circumstances. Primarily used to show
optimized page to the search engines and a different page to
humans. Most search engines will penalize a site if they
discover that it is using cloaking.
Comment Tag: The text present within the tags in a
web page. While most search engines will ignore the text within
the Comment Tags, some, like Excite, will index the text
present within them. Hence, using Comment Tags containing
keywords can improve the search engine ranking of the page in
Excite for those keywords.
Crawler: See Spider.
Direct Hit: A system which tries to measure the relevance of
each site by noting which sites are clicked on most and how
much time users spend in each site. Hotbot uses Direct Hit in
order to determine the search engine ranking of web sites. For
more information, see http://www.directhit.com.
Directory: A site containing links to other sites which are
organized into various categories. Examples of directories are
Yahoo, Open Directory, LookSmart, Snap etc.
Doorway Page: A page which has been specially created in order
to get a high ranking in the search engines. Also called
gateway page, bridge page, entry page etc.
Dynamic Content: Information in web pages which changes
automatically, based on database or user information. Search
engines will index dynamic content in the same way as static
content unless the URL includes a ? mark.
Entry Page: See Doorway Page.
Frames: An HTML technique allowing web site designers to
display two or more pages in the same browser window. Most
search engines do not index framed web pages properly - they
only index the text present in the NOFRAMES tag. Unless a web
page which uses frames has relevant content in the NOFRAMES
tag, it is unlikely to get a high ranking in the search engines.
Gateway Page: See Doorway Page.
Hallway Page: A page containing links to various doorway pages.
Heading Tags: A paragraph style that is displayed in a large,
bold typeface. Having text containing keywords in the Heading
Tags can improve the search engine ranking of a page for those
keywords.
Hidden Text: Text that is visible to the search engines but is
invisible to humans. Mainly accomplished by using text in the
same color as the background color of the page. Primarily used
for the purpose of including extra keywords in the page without
distorting the aesthetics of the page. Most search engines
penalize web sites which use such hidden text.
Image Map: An image containing one or more invisible regions
which are linked to other pages. If the image map is defined as
a separate file, the search engines may not be able to index
the pages to which that image map links. The way out is to have
text hyperlinks to those pages in addition to the links from
the image map. However, image maps defined within the same web
page will generally not prevent search engines from indexing
the other pages.
Inktomi: A database of sites used by many of the larger search
engines like Hotbot, MSN etc. Yahoo also uses Inktomi when no
site in its directory matches the keyword being searched for.
For more information, see http://www.inktomi.com.
Javascript: A scripting language commonly used in web pages.
Most search engines are unable to index these scripts properly.
Keyword: A word or phrase that you type in when you are
searching for information in the search engines.
Keyword Frequency: Denotes how often a keyword appears in a
page or in an area of a page. In general, higher the number of
times a keyword appears in a page, higher its ranking in the
search engines. However, repeating a keyword too often in a
page can lead to that page being penalized for spamming.
Keyword Prominence: Denotes how close to the start of an area
of a page that a keyword appears. In general, having the
keyword closer to the start of an area will lead to an
improvement in the search engine ranking of the page. However,
in some cases, having the keyword in the middle or the end of
an area may lead to an improvement in the search engine ranking
of the page.
Keyword Weight: Denotes the number of times a keyword appears
in a page as a percentage of all the other words in the page.
In general, higher the weight of a particular keyword in a
page, higher will be the search engine ranking of the page for
that keyword. However, repeating a keyword too often in order
to increase its weight can cause the page to be penalized by
the search engines.
Link Popularity: The number of sites which link to a particular
site. Most search engines use link popularity as a factor in
determining the ranking of a web site.
Meta Description Tag: The tag present in the header of a web
page which is used to provide a short description of the
contents of the page. Some search engines will display the text
present in the Meta Description Tag when the page appears in
the results of a search. Including keywords in the Meta
Description Tag can improve the search engine ranking of a page
for those keywords. However, some search engines ignore the
Meta Description Tag.
Meta Keywords Tag: The tag present in the header of a web page
which is used to provide alternative words for the words used
in the body of the page. The Meta Keywords Tag is becoming less
and less important in influencing the search engine ranking of
a page.
Meta Refresh Tag: The tag present in the header of a web page
which is used to display a different page after a few seconds.
If a page displays another page too soon, most search engines
will either ignore the current page and index the second page
or penalize the current page for spamming.
Pay Per Click Search Engine: A search engine in which the
ranking of your site is determined by the amount you are paying
for each click from that search engine to your site. Examples
of pay per click search engines are GoTo, ePilot, Kanoodle etc.
Robot: In the context of search engine ranking, implies the
same thing as Spider. In a different context, it is also used
to indicate a software which visits web sites and collects
email addresses to be used for sending unsolicited bulk email.
Robots.txt: A text file present in the root directory of a site
which is used to control which pages are indexed by a robot.
Only robots which comply with the Robots Exclusion Standard
will follow the instructions contained in this file.
Search Engine: A software that searches for information and
returns sites which provide that information. Examples of
search engines are AltaVista, Google, Excite, Northern Light
etc.
Search Engine Placement: the practice of trying to ensure that
a web site obtains a high rank in the search engines. Also
called search engine positioning, search engine optimization
etc.
Spamdexing: See Spamming.
Spamming: Using any search engine ranking technique which
causes a degradation in the quality of the results produced by
the search engines. Examples of spamming include excessive
repetition of a keyword in a page, optimizing a page for a
keyword which is unrelated to the contents of the site, using
invisible or tiny text, etc. Most search engines will penalize
a page which uses spamming. Also called spamdexing. In a
different context, spamming is also used to mean the practice
of sending unsolicited bulk email.
Spider: A software that visits web sites and indexes the pages
present in those sites. Search engines use spiders to build up
their databases. Examples: The spider for Altavista is called
Scooter, the spider for Excite is called ArchitextSpider, the
spider for Northern Light is called Gulliver.
Stop Word: A word that often appears in pages, yet has no
significance by itself. Most search engines ignore stop words
while searching. Example of stop words are: and, the, of etc.
Title Tag: The contents of the Title tag is generally displayed
by the browser at the top of the browser window. The search
engines use the Title tag to provide a link to the sites which
match the query made by the user. Having keywords in the Title
tag of a page can significantly increase the search engine
ranking of the page for those keywords.
URL: The Uniform Resource Locator is used to specify the
address of web sites and web pages. Having keywords in the URL
can improve the search engine ranking of the page in a few of
the search engines. However, most search engines do not give
any preference to a page which has the keyword in the URL.
Article by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is a search engine
positioning specialist. For free articles on search engine
placement, subscribe to his 1st Search Ranking Newsletter by
going to
http://www.1stSearchRanking.com
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