Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) Glossary
From Epsilis Web Designers, Letchworth, Hertfordshire (Herts)
Adwords (as in Google Adwords):
The Pay Per Click ads shown at the top and on the right hand side of a Search Results Page. These ads are usually labelled "sponsored links" and are shown because the search phrase includes key words or phrases the advertisers are bidding for.
For Adwords as an advertiser you choose your target keywords, set the maximum amount you are prepared to pay for a click, set a maximum budget for a day, set where and when you want your adverts to run.
Algorithm (as in search engine algorithms):
The calculations used by search engines to rank web pages for searches against keywords.
These are kept secret and are improved regularly to try to deliver the most relevant results. Occasionally a change in the search algorithms results in a significant reshuffling of rankings usually penalising the pages that are utilising some loophole or using dubious SEO techniques to get good rankings.
Anchor text:
The visible words within a link.
Ideally this text within the link (taken separately from the surrounding text) should give visitors and search engines pointers to what they will find at the other end of the link. Anchor text like "click here for more" are not effective for SEO (or Disability Accessibility). So make anchor text informative.
Astroturfing:
Creating fake grass-roots support in the form of false reviews, social media fans, likes etc for a website/page. It may be illegal. The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations say that pretending to be a consumer and giving yourself a positive review is 'an unfair commercial practice'. This is a criminal offence and proprietors are potentially liable for an unlimited fine and a prison sentence of two years. The practice is also contrary to the UK Code of non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (CAP Code). Astroturfing breaches the CAP Code as the marketing is not fair, legal, decent, honest and truthful - the key principles of the self-regulatory CAP Code.
Click Through Rate (CTR):
The rate at which users click on an ad compared to how many times the ad is shown (impressions) expressed as a percentage. Used to measure the performance of an ad campaign such as Google Adwords.
Cost Per Click (CPC):
See Pay Per Click (PPC).
Cost Per Thousand (CPM):
Advertisers are charged every time an ad is displayed to a user (regardless of whether the user clicks on the ad or not). The charge is based on Cost Per Thousand (1000) ad impressions (M being the Roman numeral for 1,000).
Most display ads, such as banner ads, are sold by CPM.
Inbound link:
An inbound link is an link to a particular Web page from an outside website. Inbound links are an important element that most search engine algorithms use to measure the popularity of a web page. See Link Baiting.
However please note that not all inbound links are beneficial. Getting links for the sake of having links is not looked on positively by search engines. Ideally links should be relevant and useful. Beware of artificial link networks set up just for the purpose of providing links to boost search engine rankings. See Link Building.
Keyword:
A word or phrase entered into a search engine to search. The aim of the search engine is to return a list of the most relevant results to match your search. Making the best of Keywords is the focus of Search Engine Optimisation.
Google Adwords is targeted by keywords, so an ad will only show when a specific keyword is entered.
Link Bait:
The concept is that by publishing some interesting content others choose to link to your page because they feel your copy is worthy of being spread around and made known to as many people as possible. It is the theory behind search engines attributing high value to inbound links.
Unfortunately, increasingly the result these days is the dubious practice of publishing more and more pointless and repeated copy anywhere you can (particularly Social Networks) to create the inbound links to artificially raise the apparent importance of web pages in the eyes of Google.
So if you have something worth saying, is helpful to your visitors etc get publishing firstly on your site and perhaps on other relevant sites - if not, please don't.
Link Building:
The process of getting good quality relevant web sites to link to your web pages to improve search engine rankings.
Beware: Links for the sake of links can damage your rankings. Recipricol linking (you link to them, they link to you) is dubious. Apply the test - is this link useful to my site visitors, if it is, good, if it isn't probably best avoided. Buying links from credible directories like Yell.com is valid but beware of buying links from link networks set up just to boost your search engine ranking.
Meta Tags:
Information (not visible on a web page) placed in the HTML header of a web page. The most important Meta Tags is the Title Tag.
Description Tag: a brief description of the page content (think in terms of a sentence or short paragraph) - often used in Search Engine Results snippets.
Keyword tags: intended as a list of keywords relevant to that page - generally ignored by search engines because of abuse.
Natural or Organic Search:
The normal search results we all look for first. These are the search engine results based on the search engines assessment of the relevance of the web pages to the keywords being searched for. There is no element of payment in these results as opposed to the "sponsored results".
Pay Per Click (PPC):
The advertiser pays a fee for every click on an ad. The majority of text ads sold by search engines (such as Google Adwords) are Pay Per Click.
quality score: A score assigned by search engines that is calculated by measuring an ad's clickthrough rate, analyzing the relevance of the landing page, and considering other factors used to determine the quality of a site and reward those of higher quality with top placement and lower bid requirements. Some factors that make up a quality score are historical keyword performance, the quality of an ad's landing page, and other undisclosed attributes. All of the major search engines now use some form of quality score in their search ad algorithm.
Return On Investment (ROI):
The amount of money an advertiser earns from their ads compared to the amount of money they spend on the ads.
Search Advertising:
Also called Paid Search - for example Google Adwords.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Marketing a web site with the goal of improving its position in Search Engine Results. SEM includes both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Advertising.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
The art of optimising both the copy and code of a website to get good search engine rankings for searches against relevant keyword searches.
Good SEO is about making a website attractive to both human vistors and search engines.
Some of the SEO activities relate to the code behind the web pages so that they are made to be as friendly and as accessible as possible to the search engines.
Whilst the bulk of the SEO is about focusing the website copy effectively to the relevant keywords using the natural language of the searchers and the semantic markup favoured by the search engines.
Search Engine Rankings:
The page searchers see after they've entered their query into the search box. This page lists several Web pages related to the searcher's query, sorted by relevance. Increasingly, search engines are returning blended search results, which include images, videos, and results from specialty databases on their SERPs.
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs):
The results page presented to the searcher by the search engine in response to a keyword search.
The page normally lists 10 natural search results sorted by relevance, plus a selection of sponsored or paid for listings at the top and right hand side.
Increasingly the SERPs are a blend of results from various sources including local maps for local businesses, shop listings for products, image and videos etc.
Semantic Markup
Semantic markup is using the semantic HTML tags to markup the web page copy to show its relative importance. For example headings and sub-headings are labelled as such rather than how they are presented visually. In most cases it makes sense that visual presentation and semantic markup are in tune with each other but this is seldom the case as web designers often ignore semantic markup to create visual presentation.
Search engines and web browsers of all sorts (including disabled accessibility tools) work more effectively using semantic markup.
Social Networks or Media:
A category of websites based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit etc.
Spider:
A search engine spider (or robot or bot or crawler) is a program that crawls the web following links to visit web pages to collect information for including in the search engine's index.
It is important to make sure your website and web pages are accessible to the search engine spiders. In basic terms this means making sure there is at least one link to your website from a website already included in the search engines indexes and then making sure you have links between your web pages that the spider can follow (direct text links are the most effective). See also Anchor Text.
Sponsored Search Results:
The paid for ads shown at the top and on the right hand side of a Search Results Page. These ads are usually labelled "sponsored links" and are shown because the search phrase includes key words or phrases the advertisers are bidding for. Google Adwords is an example.
Title Tag:
The Title Tag is normally shown in the top most (often blue) bar of the browser. The Title Tag is intended as a brief summary of the web page. It should be presented so it makes sense to a human reader but it does not need to be a sentence, it can be a list of phrases and should include the important keywords for that page. It should only include copy that is on that web page. Think in terms of a phrase or two or a short sentence.
Search engines give significant weight to the contents of the Title Tag provided it is representative of the page copy and is often shown in the SERPs.
give Michael a call now on 01462 674840 or email
