SEO Glossary

SEO lingo may be rather intimidating for the average person. This glossary is an effort to make seo more accessible. The definitions are not always complete since they are predominantly related to search engine optimisation.

Search tips: Use 1) ctrl+f to find a keyword, 2) Internet Explorer excluded, alt+n is available for leading browsers to find the next instance of a keyword while alt+p can be used to find the previous instance of a keyword.

Alt attribute

HTML attribute for the img tag. It renders an alternative text when an image is not found. Belongs to HTML emphasis.

Alt tag

Actually, it doesn´t exist. When mentioned, alt attribute is what is really meant.

Anchor tag

HTML definition of a link. Belongs to HTML emphasis.

ASP (Active Server Pages)

Microsoft technology to render websites. It is usually realised through the combination of HTML (client-side), VBscript (server-side) and the Microsoft access database application.

Attribute

See HTML attribute.

Browser

A client-side program like Internet Explorer or FireFox that interprets HTML to render websites.

Call-to-action

A visual or textual invitation to convert.

Canonical link/url

In the head section of the source code of a website page with an ugly URL such as
http://www.domain.tld/product.htm?cid=9854,
the following may be specified:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.domain.tld/product.htm"/>.
This tells search engines that the preferred location of the website page (the canonical URL, in search engine speak) is
http://www.domain.tld/product.htm
instead of
http://www.domain.tld/product.htm?cid=9854.
According to Matt Cutts "this is much like a 301/permanent redirect that only flows within a site. PageRank/anchortext flows to the canonical url".

Clean link

See hard link.

Client-side

Term to designate something that resides or is executed on the computer of the client, like your pc or laptop. For instance, Javascript is executed on your (client-side) computer and your online registration data is stored in a database or alternative storage through a server-side script.

CMS (Content Management System)

A system to build and maintain the content of a website for people that will not be bothered with detailed web development knowledge.

Community Link Building

Technique to increase traffic on and between websites through (reciprocal) links with local companies and organisations.

Content

Either visual (and audible) or textual (and audible) website content.

Conversion

Goal of a website (often commercial) like subscribing for newsletters or ordering a service or product.

Conversion friendliness

The succes rate of a website to direct her visitors to her (commercial) goal.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

See SEA.

Cross browser compatible

Effectively prepared for correct rendering by multiple browsers.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

Technique to render the layout (like colors, fonts, positions and dimensions) of a website.

Database

Digital data storage system.

Description metatag

Metatag which describes the web page for search engines. Is not rendered on the web page but does appear as the description (under the title) in the search results. Belongs to HTML emphasis.

Duplicate content

Content (usually text) that is identical to the content of other web pages. Search engines may penalize your site when it contains duplicate content resulting in lower positions in the search results or even completely ban your site from their index.

ePR (electronic Public Relations)

Promotion through newsletters, forums etc.

Google

Leading search engine.

H1 header/tag

Strongest header tag. Belongs to HTML emphasis.

Hard link

Link created using an anchor tag without supplying a nofollow. Is also called clean link.

Header tag

HTML tag <h1> - <h6>. Used to emphasise article headings. Correct application is recognised by both visitor and search engine. Belongs to HTML emphasis.

Hotlinking

Linking to an object like a file or a film on a different domain to minimise data traffic on the executor's own domain server. A form of theft according to author.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)

Programming language which is interpreted and executed by browsers to render a website.

HTML attribute

Attribute of an HTML tag. Is sometimes confused with HTML tag.

HTML Emphasis

HTML code to emphasise text. This is always visible to search engines and often for visitors like bold, underlined or iterated text. The correct application is an important aspect of seo.

HTML tag

HTML definition.

Img tag

HTML definition of an image. See also alt attribute.

Internet

A world wide web (www) of computers.

Javascript

Client-side script which is interpreted by browsers. This technique is often used to render a website interactive.

Javascript link

Link to another web page which is created through javascript. Since this code is executed client-side, it is not read by search engines that collect their data from servers. Therefor, it can be (and often is) used to prevent transmission of link popularity to the destination site.

Keywords metatag

Metatag which supplies the search engines with keywords supposed to be relevant to the page. Even though the impact of this HTML definition has weakened somewhat in recent years, it still belongs to HTML emphasis.

Link

Link to a web page. See also hard link, javascript link and nofollow.

Linkbait

Website content inviting/generating inbound links.

Linkbuilding

Strategy to increase linkpopularity.

Linklove

See linkpopularity

Linkpopularity

Popularity of a website expressed by the amount of inbound links. It is an important factor in the algoritme of search engines to determine your position in the search engine result pages. See also linkbuilding, linkbait and viral linking.

Meta tag

HTML tag that provides information for search engines about the relevant web page like description, language, the author etc. Belongs to HTML emphasis.

MVT (MultiVariate Testing)

Technology to increase the efficiency of web pages through rendering multiple versions. A test might be conducted to discover whether a green coloured call-to-action delivers more conversions than a red coloured one.

Nofollow

Relation attribute of either the robots metatag or the anchor tag.

Online marketing (Also eMarketing or internet marketing)

Promoting services and products through the internet.

Online reputation

Reputation on the internet. If many negative articles appear when searching for your company, it is high time to employ a SERM specialist.

Open source

Freely accessible software like PHP. Its flexibility is often superior compaired to payed or protected software. However, its use often requires advanced knowledge.

Organic or unpayed search results

Search results which do not depend on payment to search engines.

Payed or sponsored search results

Search results achieved through payment to search engines. See also SEA.

PHP (Originally: Personal Home Page. Now: Hypertext Preprocessor)

Open source server-side script. Author started using it in 2003 as an alternative for Microsofts Active Server Page (ASP) technology, enabling him to develop and test interactive database driven sites without connection to the internet. These days it appears to be possibe to do the same using an updated version of ASP. Wasseo is developed using php/mysql.

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