Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
< Moderator Note: In addition, feel free to ASK for the
definition of any term whose meaning is not clear to you. >
ADAM LASNIK Google Search Team member whose focus is on broadening communications between Google and Webmasters.
ALT (IMAGE ATTRIBUTE) Text to be used instead of image for visually impaired, browsers that cannot display images (pretty rare), and can give the search engines an idea of what the image is about.
AUTHORITY, AUTHORITY SITE Debated topic, but generally a site that search engines view as an authority on given subjects. Among other considerations, determining factors could be incoming links, relevant content.
SEE [webmasterworld.com...]
BACK LINK, SEE INBOUND LINK
BOT (See spider)
CACHE In SEO, usually refers to the snapshot that the search engine stores and serves when it SPIDERS a webpage.
CLOAKING Generally used with a negative connotation, refers to the attempt to deliver different content to search engines than is delivered to the general public. This type of cloaking is a very effective way to have your site banned by search engines.
DATA CENTERS In SEO, and very simply put, the phrase 'data centers' usually refers to the different IP addresses that Google uses. Historically, groups of these IP addresses sometimes corresponded to different physical data centers.
DEDICATED SERVER / VIRTUAL DEDICATED SERVER Server that is only used by one client (webmaster). Client is usually allowed to run any operating system, a unique ip address, and usually has control over the server resources. On VIRTUAL DEDICATED SERVERS there is more than one client on the server, but the server is partitioned, and each client has allocated space and computing resources. SEE SHARED SERVER
DMCA (D)igital (M)illennium (C)opyright (A)ct As applies to SEO, usually referring to a provision in which a you can appeal to Google to have webpages removed from Google's index if the content on the webpages belongs to you. (Google has specific instructions/guidelines posted online.)
DUPLICATE CONTENT Content on two or more webpages that is similar enough to be considered redundant to search engines. Generally agreed to have a negative SEO impact on webpages if not websites.
EXTERNAL LINK a hyperlink in a webpage that points to another webpage NOT on the same website.
GOOGLEBOT (See spider)
HIJACKING occasionally accidental, but usually a malicious effort to 'steal' pages from another site, and make it appear that the pages are coming from the hijacker's site. This can mean that the hijacking domain takes over another domain's listing in the search results.
HTACCESS Actually, '.htaccess'. A file on your server that gives the server instructions regarding if, and how to serve your webpages. SEE STATUS CODES
IFRAME AN element used in a HTML document that allows another HTML document to be embedded within the original.
IMAGE LINK A hyperlink that uses a clickable image, as opposed to a clickable text hyperlink.
INBOUND LINK incoming hyperlink to a webpage. SEE OUTBOUND LINK.
INDEXED being added to a search engines list of websites.
INDEX PAGE Default webpage served on your website when someone types in your domain name. (A search request for (www.example.com) will take the searcher to your index page.)
INTERNAL LINK a hyperlink in a webpage that points to another webpage on the same website.
KEYWORD/KEYPHRASE The word or phrase a searcher uses when querying a search engine. Much study in SEO is dedicated to determining how to make webpages appear first in search engine results when a searcher performs a specific keyword or keyphrase search.
KEYWORD/KEYPHRASE DENSITY the amount of times a word or phrase is referred to in a document, compared to the total words in the document.
KEYWORD/KEYPHRASE STUFFING repeating a word or phrase in a document to the extent that search engines assume you are spamming.
LINK FARM Group of webpages linked to each other in an attempt to boost position in search results. Individual pages are usually of little quality the end user, and are sometimes computer generated.
LINK SPAM Links placed in forums, blogs etc. designed to boost rankings of the linked to page.
LONG TAIL In SEO, used to describe the substantial group of search queries, using longer, less competitive keyphrases.
MATT CUTTS Often quoted head of Google's webspam team.
META TAGS Tags, usually found in the header of a HTML document. Examples of meta tags are 'description', 'keywords' and 'robots'. The first two examples describe qualities of the document, the latter describes how ROBOTS should handle the document.
NOFOLLOW When used as an attribute of a hyperlink, instruction to search engine SPIDERS that the link is not a 'trusted' link and should not be passed PAGE RANK. When used in a ROBOTS META TAG, instructions to search engines to not follow links on page.
NOINDEX When used in a ROBOTS META TAG, instructions to not put the contents of the page in search engines public index.
ORGANIC RESULTS Search engine query results that are presented for their relevance, popularity, etc., unlike paid results, which are, well, paid results.
OUTBOUND LINK outgoing hyperlink to a webpage. SEE INBOUND LINK
PAGE RANK Calculation used by Google as one of the factors in search results. Calculation is based on the number of incoming links, or 'votes', to any given webpage.
PR SEE PAGERANK
RECIPROCAL LINKS You link to me, I like to you. Variations include A links to B, B links to C, C links to A.
ROBOT (See spider)
RSS FEEDS (R)eally (S)imple (S)yndication Web feeds are used on websites that have information that is frequently updated, such as news agencies or blogs. The content is in XML format. The content is automatically updated and put into a more human-readable format by a RSS reader.
SANDBOX Term used to describe a specific Google phenomenon in which new websites do not rank very well for a varied period of time.
SEO (S)earch (E)ngine (O)ptimization. The art of increasing volume and improving the quality of traffic from search engines. Usually this refers to organic search results, as opposed to paid placement in search results.
SERP (S)earch (E)ngine (R)esults (P)age The results of a query to a search engine. Most often refering to only the ORGANIC RESULTS.
SHARED SERVER With a shared server, each client shares disc space, IP addresses and computing resources with other clients on the same server.
SITEMAP (GOOGLE SITEMAP) Part of Google's Webmaster Tools. A sitemap enables you to tell Google the relative importance of pages on your site, and how often they change content.
SPIDER Automated programs, or scripts that search the world wide web for a number of reasons. Examples of 'good' spiders are googlebot, MSNbot and Yahoo Slurp, which search the web for pages to place in their respective search results. 'Bad' spiders are those that search for vulnerabilities in server configurations, web content to steal, etc.
STATUS CODES (HTTP) Following a HTTP request to a server, the server responds with a three digit code to denote the outcome of the request. If your website runs Apache server, you can use an .HTACCESS file to set the response code and action for any given webpage. Below are some of the more common response codes. w3.org has complete list. SEE HTACCESS
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200 'OK' This response is the most common and is sent back with the requested items. Most common requested items can be 'HEAD', which is a request from the client for only the headers of a file, 'GET' which is a request for entire file, or "POST" which is in response of a form being posted to server.
301 'MOVED PERMANENTLY' This is a response from server that the requested file has been permanently assigned a new URI. (This is the code you usually want when attempting to redirect search engines to new URI.)
302 'FOUND' This is a response from server that the requested file has been temporarily assigned a new URI. (This is the code you usually DO NOT want when attempting to permanently redirect search engines to new URI.)
304 'NOT MODIFIED' Resource has not been modified since last accessed or cache.
403 'FORBIDDEN' Server refuses to send request.
404 'NOT FOUND'
500 'INTERNAL SERVER ERROR' Server encountered a problem and could not comply with request. (You might see this one when testing scripts.)
503 'SERVICE UNAVAILABLE' Usually means server is overloaded and cannot perform requested action.
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SUBDOMAIN foo.example.com is a subdomain of examplee.com. Note that, technically speaking, www.example.com is also a subdomain of example.com
SUPPLEMENTAL RESULTS In SEO refers to individual pages in Google's index that are treated differently than pages in the 'main' or primary Google index. These pages are spidered less often, and usually show up in search results after all non-supplemental results, or not at all.
TEXT LINK A hyperlink that uses clickable text <link>Go to page two</link> as opposed to a clickable image hyperlink.
URI (U)niversal (R)esource (I)dentifier is what most people mean to say when they say URL. URI is the identifier that combines 1) method to access an internet resource (http://) and 2)specific identifier for the resource (mysite.com). (Always use URI when you are unsure of which to use, you will be right most of the time, and avoid unnesessary flaming.)
URL (U)niversal (R)esource (L)ocator refers to common protocols that are a subset of the URI protocols, namely [,...] ftp://, and mailto: term is considered deprecated SEE URI.
WEBMASTER TOOLS Services provided by Google that, according to Google, can "make your site more Google-friendly". Services include search analysis and SITEMAP. SEE SITEMAP
WWW The prefix on your domain name; www.example.com. Of interest to SEOers because even if www.example.com and example.com resolve to the same content, they are still two different URLs. This can lead to DUPLICATE CONTENT problems. Making sure your server performs a 301 permanent redirect from non-www to www, or vice versa, usually solves the problem. SEE DUPLICATE CONTENT, STATUS CODES
[edited by: tedster at 11:35 pm (utc) on July 29, 2007]
WHOIS: A word that prefixes "your daddy" to suggest you and I are related.
(To go with the webmaster, Brett Tabke and Wikipedia definitions earlier in the thread :))
