SEO Passion

Absolute link

Specifies a transfer protocol and domain name as well as a file name in most cases.

Accessible site

Refers to a site that is more easily readable by the search engines. Sites with excessive use of flash, little text and lots of pictures tend not to get ranked as highly by the search engines.

AdSense

Run by Google, Ad Sense allows the serving of relevant money-making ads on your site’s content pages, matching to user characteristics, interests or specific in-site content.

AdWords

Run by Google, AdWords is a text based Cost Per Click ad service. Google gives the ad a position in the paid search results based on a weighting factor of click-through rates, site quality and the submitting bid to secure a relevant position.

Agent name

Spider that is currently crawling a page.

AJAX

Asynchronous Java Script and XML for a more user-friendly site development, preventing page reloads and speeding up overall usage.

Algorithm

Pattern or rules by which a search engine indexes the content from websites and displays it to the requester.

AllTheWeb

Search engine bought and owned by Yahoo.

AltaVista

Early successful search engine now bought by Yahoo (in the form of Overture).

ALT Attribute

Gives a text alternative to images.

ALT tags

The tag that is displayed when a user rests the cursor over an image.

Analytics

e.g. Google Analytics that lets you track results i.e. page views, conversions, users, regions etc.

Anchor text

The text found in a link. Key for the search engines in matching a page and providing a higher ranking for that site.

Announce site

Refers to when a site is announced to the search engines by adding a link to it from another site that is already announced itself.

API

An Application Programmme Interface is the rules or routines by which software functions are accessed.

Arbitrage

The buying and re-selling of a commodity for profit as a result of market inefficiencies.

ASP (1)

Active Server Pages. Microsoft programming language for building dynamic websites.

ASP (2)

Application Service Provider. Hosted internet service.

Automated submitting

Badly regarded technique of using automated software to submit web pages to the search engines.

Back links

Inbound links that point to your site from another.

Bait and switch

A spam technique of displaying a page, seen to be for one purpose to get indexed and linked to before switching the purpose of the site, usually for commercial gain.

Banned

When a search engine blocks your site from appearing in the search results.

Banner Ad

An online ad, usually a Jpeg or gif image that can be served at a variety of sizes to a webpage inc skyscrapers, tiles etc to create awareness and click-through to your site.

Banner blindness

When a banner ad gets totally overlooked by visitors due to poor placement, content etc.

Beacon

Also referred to as a web bug, this is an invisible line of code that tracks a users movements on a site or ad.

Behavioural targeting

Banner ads targeted and served based on a users past online habits and implied intentions e.g. A person who has visited a site for credit cards could be served a relevant ad from that site when they are searching for flights at a later date.

Beyond the banner

Ads that are not banner ads e.g. Pop-ups etc

Bias

Can refer to search engine favouritism e.g. Where they may be biased towadrs sites that have been around for a long time and are heavily linked and referenced.

Bid management tool

Software service used to manage bids on pay-per-click search engines like AdWords.

Bidding

Refers to price submitted by the advertiser on a pay-per-click (PPC) search engine. Highest bids achieve top spots in the PPC results.

Black hat SEO

The process of optimisations carried out against search engine guidelines that give a site a rank that is higher than its content suggests it should be. Also known as spamdexing and involves techniques like hidden text, keyword stuffing etc.

Blacklist

Search engine list of spammers who can be monitored for banning from the search engines.

Block level analysis

A technique of breaking down a page into smaller blocks to help determine page specific content.

Blog

Originating from ‘weblog’, basically meaning an online diary. Comments are updated regularly by the authors of a blog.

Blog comment spam

A frowned upon process of adding low value or no value comments to sites in order to gain links. Can be done manually or automatically.

Blogroll

List of links on a blog, most commonly linking to other blogs owned by the same company or alliances of that blogger.

Body copy

The core written content of a web page or site.

Bold

Highlighting words in a bolder font can draw users attention to important areas and search engines sometimes place marginally greater weighting on bolded words.

Bookmarks

Feature in an internet browser which allows you to save a page you want to revisit.

Boolean search

Search term that describes search engines that allow you to include ‘formulas’ such as ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘not’ in your search request.

Bot

Short for robot and also meaning spider, refers to the search technology of trawling the internet for most relevant match to your query.

Branded keywords

Keyword phrases that include the brand or association with the brand.

Breadcrumb navigation

Navigational technique used to help search engines and web users understand the relationship between the pages in a website.

Bridge page

Also known as a doorway page i.e. A page designed to be read by the search engines but offering no user value. Creates a link through to another page, often a money making site.

Broad match

A form of keyword matching that allows flexibility in matching a search term or keyword i.e. The search engines will display variations of your search query e.g. Words in any order, similar words, plurals or singulars.

Broken link

Any clickable text that should take you somewhere else but doesn’t.

Bulk submission services

Automated system that submits multiple URLs to the search engines for you. Likely to get you banned.

Button

Graphic that links through to another website or page or performs an action i.e. Submit form etc.

Cache

Copies of webpages stored on a users hard drive or within a search engine’s database.

Canonical URL

This is the URL that gets chosen by the search engine when there are several similar URLs to choose from. Most commonly refers to home pages which have inconsistent links to the domain name. One consistent URL should be chosen to strengthen that result, divided URL links will result in none of them being as strong as they could be.

Catch all listing

Pay Per Click search engine listing used to monetise long tail terms that are not yet targeted by the marketers.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface refers to the interface software between a web server and other machines/software running on that server. Denotes database or dynamic websites.

Click-within/Click-down ad

Ad that allows you to stay on the same page while you view the ad content rather than being redirected.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Rate at which people click on a certain link.

Cloaking

Also known as ‘bait and switch’ and refers to a web page which displays differently to the search engines than it does to the user. The search engines will read it as relevant and rank it high but the user will see unrelated content. A bannable offence.

Clustering

Refers to the listing results of an individual site. Number of displayed results are limited and grouped together to keep the results list clean and diverse.

CMS

Content Management system. The tool through which updates and information can be added to a site with simplicity.

ColdFusion

A web scripting language used mostly in database access.

Comments

An area on blogs and other content management systems where you can add thoughts and responses. Leaving high quality comments can help get your own site noticed and linked to.

Concept search

Type of search which tries to match to the concept of a search to what it views as a related keyword or phrase.

Conversion

The process of converting a visitor of a website into a customer or similar depending on the final requirement.

Conversion rate

The rate at which visitors are converted to customers or similar.

CPA

Cost per action. Refers to the price paid for a desired action generated by an ad e.g. Site registration etc.

CPC

Cost per click. The price paid for each click-through to your site or landing page from an ad.

CPL

Cost per lead. Price per genuine lead generated by your ad.

CPO

Cost per order. Price paid per order placed as a direct result of the ad.

CPS

Cost per sale. Price paid per sale generated by the ad.

CPM

Cost per thousand ad impressions.

Counter

Progamme tha tracks the total number of impressions on a webpage.

Crawler

The crawler or spider is a programme used by the search engine to automatically search the internet’s HTML content and deliver what it believes is relevant to the search request.

Crawl depth

Term to describe how deeply a website is crawled and indexed.

Crawl frequency

How often a website is crawled i.e. Frequently updated and well linked sites will be crawled more often.

CSS

Cascading style sheet which is used to control the design of a website, adding styles to web documents.

Custom error page

The default page used when a website is not found. A 404 error page allows you to create a message and redirection while the site is being updated/fixed etc, keeping visitors with you.

Cybersquatting

The registering of domains related to other brands to cash in on the value created by that trademark.

Database-driven

A database-driven website is connected to a database and the page content utilises all or some information from said database.

Database-generated

A database-generated page is created ‘dynamically’ from the database it’s connected to as opposed to being a static HTML page.

Daughter window

An ad that runs in a separate window and is associated with a concurrently displayed banner.

Dayparting

Refers to the starting and stopping of ad campaigns in line with peaks and troughs in audience activity. This could include changing the ad bid price to reflect demand/competition at these times.

Deep submitting

Refers to the submission of URLs to the search engines from deeper within your site.

De-listing

Also known as de-indexing, is the removal of a website listing on a permanent or temporary basis, perhaps due to bad practice.

Dead link

A link that no longer leads anywhere.

Dedicated server

Private server owned by a single person to serve one or more of their own sites.

Deep link

A link that points to an internal page in your website.

Deep link ratio

Refers to the percentage of links that point to internal pages of your site. A high deep link ratio suggests a legitimate natural link profile.

Description

Short explanation that is included in directories and search results to add context to the title found.

Digg

This is a popular social news site where users vote on articles that should get the most coverage. An article with the most Diggs will be the most popular.

Directory

A catalogue of categorised websites.

DMOZ

The largest manually edited online directory, Directory MOZilla owned by AOL.

DNS

Domain name server or system. This is a naming mechanism that points a domain name to a specific IP address.

Domain

A specific website and overall reference to the location organisation of the web.

Doorway pages

Web pages full of key-word rich copy designed to rank highly in popular search queries. These pages fool the search bots into displaying irrelevant pages to the user, hiding a site that is designed as a money-maker in most cases.

Dreamweaver

Popular web development and editing software with an interface that shows you exactly what you will see as you create.

Duplicate content

Search engines don’t want to index lots of versions of the same content and will penalise if your content is duplicated or near identical to other web pages on the net.

Dynamic

This describes web pages that take their content directly from a database rather than being fixed HTML pages.

Dynamic languages

These are programming languages used to build web pages from databases on request. Examples are PHP and ASP.

Dynamic rotation

This is the serving of ads on a rotational basis across different web pages on a site.

EARL

Evaluation and report language.

ECPM

Effective cost per thousand.

Ecommerce

Transactions of commercial goods on the internet.

Editorial review process

Search engine’s review process to check content is relevant and complies with editorial regulations.

EN

Two letter language code meaning English.

Entry page

Like a landing page, it is the point of entry into your website.

EOC

Stands for email optimisation consultant.

EPC

Earning per click.

EPS

File type. Stands for encapsulated postcript file and is used in the transfer of images etc.

Error page

Page that communicated broken links, missing files etc.

Ethical SEO

SEO practice that conforms to the search engine’s guidelines avoiding spamming techniques etc.

Exact match

Refers to a search result which exactly matched the search query entered.

Exclusive advertising

Where all advertising on a web page is bought by one advertiser.

Expandable banner

A banner that increases up to in size when the cursor hovers over it.

External links

This refers to links coming from outside your site as opposed to the internal links you have set up for navigation.

Eye tracking

Studies that reveal insight into how a user reads a web page.

FAQ

Frequently asked question.

FFA

Refers to ‘free for all’ link pages which are an old way of trying to increase link popularity by submitting URLs to these pages that stay active for a long time.

Feeds

A shorted/updated version of a webpage or ad summary feeding to shopping engines etc.

Findability

Refers to how easily your site can be found by the search engines.

Firefox

Internet browser.

Flash

Technology used to create animated websites and ads. Excessive use of flash often results in a site being overlooked by the search engines.

Floating ads

Ads that appear over the top of the site content.

Flux

Refers to the jostling of positions in site rankings as the search engines update.

Forums

An online community where users meet to share information and comment.

Frames

Relates to a site where two or more pages are displayed as one in the browser window. Search engines struggle with framed sites as they tend to read only one frame on the page, missing content on the others that may display in that window.

Frameset

Refers to the complete web page that is made up of individual frames.

Frequency

In this context, used to refer to the number of times ads are served in the same browser in a session or specified time period.

Fresh

Google term to describe a home page that is constantly updated. More frequent updates will keep the content fresh and receive more visits from the search spiders.

FTP

File transfer protocol. A method of transferring files online.

GAP

Stands for Google Advertising Professional and relates to a free programme for professionals wanting to manage several Google Awords clients.

GB

Stands for ‘gigabyte’ which is 1000 megabytes.

Gateway page

Same as a doorway page which is designed specifically to be ranked highly by search engines but offers no value to the user. Designed to link through to another, probably commercial, site which is often irrelevant to the search query and trying to monetise an inflated ranking position.

Geo-targeting

The serving of ads based on geographical location.

Google

Currently the biggest search engine in the world with largest market share.

Google AdSense

Google’s ad service where webmasters can purchase ads for placement on their sites.

Google Analytics

Googles free monitoring and analysis tool which allows the webmaster to track all site activities, AdSense traffic, visitor history etc.

Google bombing

Refers to the joining together of a number of sites to slander another company/site. High ranking sites or blogs doing this can hit number one position for maximum exposure.

Google bowling

Unethical SEO technique which targets a site with dodgy links from other low quality sites to get it moved down the Google rankings or even banned.

Google dance

Refers to the fluctuation experienced in search positions as Google updates their indexes.

Google juice

Refers to the attention/strength a site is given by Google i.e. A site with a lot of high quality links is given a lot of Google juice.

Google supplemental index

Secondary database housing less important or less trustworthy sites which will be displayed as supplemental results though there is no longer a clear distinction or labelling between main and supplemental category results.

Google traffic estimator

Tool by which traffic driven from AdWords is estimated.

Google trends

Tool which displays the history of search volumes for a particular keyword and overall popularity of search terms.

Google XML sitemap

Allows the webmaster to list all URLs on their site for indexing notification.

Googlebot

This is the search spider sent out by Google for indexing and presenting results following a search query.

Googlewhack

A search query on Google that consists of two words but returns a single result.

Grey hat SEO

Involves using a mix of black and white hat i.e. Unethical and ethical SEO techniques.

GYM

Stands for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft - the top three largest search engines.

Hallway page

Acts as an index for a number of pages you want Google to find. Upon indexing the hallway page, Google should follow all the links to the other pages and index them as well.

Heading tag

Refers to H1, H2 etc HTML tag that highlights a section heading. Search engines rank this as being more important than other text on that page.

Hidden text

An illegal technique that involves adding keyword rich text to the HTML code that is viewable by the search spiders but not the user.

Hijacking sites

Spamming technique where a duplicate is made of a real site and made to rank above it. Search engines will discredit the lower ranking site and the hijacked site can reap the stolen benefits until this is found out.

Hits

The retrieval of an item on a website. A request to bring up a site that has 3 pictures on it would yield 4 hits (the fourth being the actual web page).

Homepage

The portal to your website. The homepage organises the rest of your site and is generally what Google awards a PageRank score on since most links will be directed to it.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language. A programming language used to create and display web content.

HTML source

The raw code that supports a web page.

HTTP 301

Status code definition meaning a URL has moved to a new URL. A 301 redirect will ensure all links are redirected to the most relevant URL ensuring no strength is lost by fragmented links.

HTTP 302

Status code meaning a URL has moved temporarily and the existing URL should be used at a future time.

HTTP 400

Indicates a bad request meaning that the server cannot understand your query. This may be due to mispelled words etc and the user should try again.

HTTP 401

Means the request is unauthorised until authentication is provided by the user.

HTTP 404

Error message, the site/document could not be found.

HTTP 410

Indicates that a document has been intentionally removed.

HTTP 500

Means there is a problem with the server from which you are requesting information.

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol.

HTTPS

HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure.

Hubs

A number of websites topically linked generally with focused content and alot of outbound links to sites with relevant content.

Hyperlinks

A link that takes you to another web page.

IFrame

HTML feature that allows you to embed an HTML document within another document.

IBL

Inbound link. Describes links that are pointed towards your site from another site and are key to improving your search position.

IM

Instant messaging.

IMG

Signifies an embedded image.

Impression

Number of times an ad is served.

Index

Refers to the database created by search engine spiders which stores all the textual information that the spider visits across the web.

Inlinks

Yahoo generated term for backlinks or inbound links.

Internal link

A link that takes you to another page in the same website. Helps navigation and search engine indexing.

Invisible web

Web content that has not been indexed by the search engines and remains unseen.

IP address

Stands for Internat Protocol address and refers to the unique number given to each computer or network communicating on the internet.

ISP

Internet service provider e.g. Web hosting, email etc.

IYP

Stands for Internet Yellow Pages.

JavaScript

A programming language that runs from a user’s computer as opposed to the web server.

JPEG

Stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group and refers to image files.

JPG

Abberviated file extension name for JPEG.

Keyword

A specific word that gets typed into a search engine to find a product or information on a certain topic. Keywords can be generic category terms, specific products, brands etc. Keywords can be combined to make a keyphrase.

Keyword density

Refers to the percentage a keyword or phrase appears in your body text compared to other words on a web page.

Keyword matching

The search engine process of matching a search query keyword to the same keyword in a site or ad. Variations on level of match i.e. Broad, exact etc.

Keyword popularity

Most commonly searched keywords in the search engines.

Keyword prominence

Placing your keywords higher up in a page to give them more importance and weight when the search engines visit your site.

Keyword rich

Text that contains a lot of keywords.

Keyword stemming

Revisiting your keyword and expanding or adding to it e.g. Plurals, pre-fixes etc.

Keyword stuffing

Most commonly describes the act of adding non-sensically large amounts of keyword to HTML code, tags or text on a website.

Keyword tag

A meta tag which holds keywords pertaining to the content on a site. Could include popular variations or mispelling of your keywords.

Keyword targeting

Serving an ad on sites containing the keywords matching those in the ad.

Landing page

The page a user lands on following click-through from an ad or site. This will be the most relevant page of a website to that link.

Link bait

Useful information or highly entertaining content that encourages inbound links.

Link building

The process of requesting links to your site from other relevant sites.

Link farm

Regarded as a spam technique. Sites that are grouped and highly interlinked to achieve higher positions in the search results.

Link popularity

Measured on how many links you have to your site.

Links

Defined as text or graphics that take you to another web page or site, appear as URLs and can be inbound, outbound or internal.

Log file

Server back-up file that stores information about all website activities.

Long tail

Keywords or phrases that are less common or competitive, often containing 3 or more words. Lower traffic but higher conversions are common features of long tail targeting.

Manual submission

Submitting your site to the search engines by hand as opposed to through an automated system.

Meta data

Data that describes other data.

Meta description

This is the HTML description that allows you to encapsulate the content of your webpage for the search spiders and will appear as the description in the search results.

Meta keywords tag

Tag in HTML code allowing you to list keywords relating to a page.

Meta tags

All tags in HTML code that let you provide more information about the content on your site. Largely ignored by search engine now due to excess spamming and misuse in the past.

Meta tag stuffing

High repetition of keywords, even unrelated keywords, in the meta tags for your site.

Mod rewrites

URL rewrite process used when a site is reorganised or similar.

Mouseover

Refers to the drop down displays revealed by hovering a mouse over a word or graphic.

MSN

The Microsoft network and search engine.

Naked links

Links that are obvious in the text of a site, openly showing the destination URL.

Navigation bar

Top or side bar on a webpage used for organisation and navigation of the site and help search spiders find most relevant content.

Negative keyword

Stipulated keywords you do not want to be associated with.

Negative SEO

Often refers to actively demoting a higher ranking site in the search results by adding untrustworthy or low quality links to that site.

No frames tag

Tag describing the content of a frame to user or search engine where they cannot support/see framed sites.

No script tag

Allows the webmaster to provide alternate content where a script is not executed.

No follow

Coding feature that allows a webmaster to link to another site but instructs the search engine not to count the link or give any strength to that site. The link can be followed but it will not affect search results.

OBL

Outbound link.

On-theme

Content which relates to a particular topic or theme.

OOP

Over Optimisation Penalty.

Organic result

Achieving a position in the search engine results by ‘naturally’ optimising your site through content and link-building techniques as opposed to appearing in paid for listings.

Organic search listings

The listings that the search engines do not sell, merely rank what the regard as most relevant to a query.

Outbound links

Links that take a user away from your site to another.

Pagejacking

Stealing the content off a highly ranked site for inclusion on your own site.

PageRank

Google’s method of assigning importance to web pages based on quantity of quality links and relevant content. Higher ranking pages feature higher in the results, working on a scale from 0-10 (low-high).

Paid placement

Paying to be listed in a directory.

PDF

Portable Document Format. Adobe file format creating an image that cannot be amended.

PM

Private message.

Position preference

Feature of the likes of Google AdWords where advertisers can request a position to appear in the search results, but this cannot be guaranteed.

PFP

Pay For Performance. When you only pay when sales are made.

Phrase match

Type of keyword match where the matching phrase will be shown in the results, even if it is part of a larger phrase.

Pop-under

Ad appearing under the browser window.

Pop-up

Ad that appears in a new window over the live browser window.

Portal

Site acting as a gateway for accessing information on the net.

PPC

Pay Per Click. When you pay based on the number of click-throughs to your stipulated landing page.

PR0

Page rank zero.

Q

Used in code to dennote a short inline quotation i.e. Where the paragraph does not need to break to allow for it.

Quality score

Google assigned number to determine an ad’s rank and search position.

Query

The keyword/phrase a user enters into the search bar of a search engine.

RAM

Random Access Memory.

Rank

Position you achieve in the search engine results listing.

Reciprocal link

Swapping links between sites.

Redirect

Refers to when the user is taken directly to another URL without doing anything.

Referrer

The originating website that sent you a visitor via a link to your site.

Relative URL link

Only links to the file name not transfer protocol, domain name etc.

Relevance

How closely your content relates to a search query and user’s information requirement.

Render

Treatment of HTML code to make it presentable for the final page format e.g. Bolding, spacing etc.

Repeat visitor

Person who re-visits a site two or more times in a fixed period.

Reverse DNS

Relates to the look-up process of finding the hostname related to an IP address.

Rich Media

Media containing animation, video or some form of interactivity.

Right rail

Generally referred to as the right hand side in a search engine page where the paid for listings appear.

Robots.txt

Text file added to HTML code to control the search activity of a seach engine spider i.e. Dicatating what they can and cannot see.

ROI

Return On Investment.

ROS

Run Of Site. Refers to ad campaign served across whole site with little or no targeting.

SCRIPT

HTML coding feature which inserts a script into a document.

Search engine

A website that searches the content of the entire web at the request of a user, and provides a structured list of information most relevant to their query.

SEM

Search Engine Marketing. Relates to the marketing activity and strategy employed to maximise the number and quality of leads generated by a search engine.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation. Refers to the process by which webmasters attempt to increase their rankings and, therefore, traffic in the search engine results.

SERPs

Short for Search Engine Results Pages. The pages displayed following a query based on a list of the most relevant matches.

Search term

The keyword/phrase used in a search request.

Search funnel

The process involved in a purchasing decision. Involves whittling down the search using more and more specific keywords i.e. From category down to brand and product.

Search query

Word or phrase input into the search engine bar to start a search.

Session

Refers to the amount of time spent online.

Skyscraper

Type of ad that runs tall and thin down the side of a webpage.

Secondary links

Indirectly acquired links e.g. Through PR.

Semantic clustering

The grouping together of similar keywords that are heavily associated.

Server-side tracking

Analysis of web log files for interpretation of results and trends.

Social media

Sites that involve user participation to determine what is popular.

SPAM

Search marketing techniques that break the guidelines of the search engines. Poor practice SEO designed to boost a website to the top of the rankings very quickly for immediate and often illegal gaiin.

Spamming

The process of fooling the search engines into achieving high rankings.

Spamglish

Menaingless content packed with kewords that have no overall relevance.

Spider

The search engine’s programme used to automatically search the web. Spiders crawl links for relevant matches and store all HTML content in a database/index to present as a list of results for the user. Also known as bots, robots, agents and crawlers.

Spider trap

Possible loop a spider can get stuck in as the result of visiting a site with constantly changing URLs e.g. A dynamic site. It will not realise it has indexed the orginal URL or recognise it as the same one so start repeating actions.

Splash page

Generally an interactive or animated entry page, usually created in flash.

Sponsored listing

Listings which have been paid for as opposed to being organic.

SQL

Structured Query Language.

Static

A web page or site that has been created and saved in HTML as opposed to being dynamically created by a database.

Stop character

Textual symbols such as ?, &, = and so on. Search engines often regard URLs that include these symbols as dynamic sites and do not index for fear of spider traps.

Stop word

Meaningless words to the search engines including ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘of’ and ‘with’. These words don’t get included in the index so headlines using a lot of these words will lessen the strength of your keyword density.

Super verbs

Emotive verbs that trigger strong feelings or visual images.

Syndication

The extension of an ad campaign to partner sites.

Tail terms

Very specific search terms, often phrases with a number of keywords that are often searched for at the end of a purchasing decision thus yield good conversion results despite generating limited traffic.

Term frequency

Number of times a term occurs in a document.

Text ad

e.g. AdWords. Text promoting a website that appears in the sponsored links section on the right hand side of a Google web page.

Text link ad

An text ad that takes the form of a link.

Theme

The over-arching idea of the website. Search engines establish the theme by analysing the density of related words in the text.

Title tag

Key descriptor for your website. This tag is displayed at the very top of your browser window above the URL bar and given the most prominence by search engines in determining the relevance of your website. The description in your title tag will most often be listed in the search results.

Token

Way of counting unique users by use of a tag attached by the receiving server to the URL of the requested page.

Tracking URL

Unique URL that tracks an action from ad through to conversion.

Traffic

The amount of visitors going to a site.

Traffic analysis

The analysis of visitor numbers and behaviour on a site.

UBE

Unsolicited Bulk Email.

UCE

Unsolicited Commercial Email.

UGC (USG)

User generated content. Created and published by the end users online e.g. Blogs, forums, social media sites etc.

Unethical SEO

Black hat SEO techniques that go against the search engine’s guidelines and often result in penalties. All methods of spamming such as hidden text, doorway pages etc are considered unethical.

Unique visitor

One user visiting a site in a one session.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator, more commonly known as a web address or email address.

Usability

How easy a site is to navigate and interact with.

Vertical creep

When vertical listings appear at the top of organic search results.

Verticals

Refers to specific business groups or categories i.e. Finance.

Visibility

Refers to how visible your website is to the search engines for relevant keyword searches.

Visit

A user’s online session on a website.

VPN

Virtual Private Network.

Web browser

Internet software installed on a computer allowing the user to browse web pages e.g. Internet explorer, Firefox, Safari etc.

Web standards

Guidelines by which websites are kept accessible across a broad variety of platforms and users.

Web2.0

Next generation web services characterised by social networking sites, user-generated content and online interaction.

Weblog

A blog.

White hat SEO

Search engine optimisation done properly, conforming to the guidelines set by the search engines.

Wiki

Web publishing platform software that allows contribution of information on topics e.g. Wikipedia.

Wordpress

Open source web publishing content management system built primarily for blogs.

www

World wide web.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. Refers to HTML editing software that shows you the end product e.g. Dreamweaver.

XML

Extensible Markup Language. Scripting language allowing the programmer to define document properties.

XML feeds

Type of paid inclusion where search engines are fed information about an advertiser’s web pages via XML as opposed to crawling through web pages.

Yahoo

One of the top three search engines on the web.

ZIP

Compressed/zipped file, usually for easier transfer of large files.