SEO Glossary

Article Directory – A Directory of articles on different topics for information. SEO processes use these directories to regularly submit content, and hence increase back-links to a website.

Back Links / Links – These linking hyper texted keywords or phrases that lead back to your websites. There are organic kinds and sponsored kinds, both of which fall under ethical SEO techniques.

Black Hat – Unethical optimisation techniques that initially cause high search page rankings, but eventually cause your website to be black listed by Google, Yahoo!, and other search engines.

HTML – HyperText Markup Language is the language on which websites are built. It is the most common platform for web designers, the latest version being HTML5.

HTTP – HyperText Transfer Protocol is the conversion application with translates HTML scripts to the websites we see on the screen.

Keyword / Key Phrase – These are the common words and phrases people type into the search bar on search engines to look for information, services, and products.

Meta Tag – These are elements within the HTML script that the Web Spiders seek to identify a website in relation to the searched keywords and key phrases.

PPC – Pay Per Click is a form of advertisement online where you have to pay for each link that is used by a visitor to your website. For each ‘Click’ on the PPC ads, you pay the host website.

Search Engine – These are internet engines that you use to search for information, services, and products of all kinds. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Bing are the top engines today.

Search Rankings – The position of your website on the result page for a search generated related to your website’s topic of concern. For some keywords your website’s rankings may be higher or lower, depending on the online competition on the same keyword.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing is generally understood as the processes that involve researching and analyzing information online to better place sponsored advertisements and links online.

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation encompasses the various processes that promote a website’s presence online. SEM, SMM, SMO, and all other kinds of different web management and promotion processes are generalized under the tag of SEO.

SMM – Social Media Marketing is considered the different techniques and methods to promote a website on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and various Blogs.

SMO – Social Media Optimisation is considered the term relative to SMM, but concerning more about the presence of a brand on social media platforms, while SMM is the execution process.

Sponsored Links – Links that are paid for, and not generated naturally via SMM and article submissions.

Web Spiders – These are automated programs (bots) that a search engine uses to search for results related to a given topic. The Spiders ‘crawl’ along the HTML text and search for keywords and phrases most relative to a given search on the search bar.

Web Traffic – The total amount of visitors to a particular website or domain.

White Hat – SEO techniques that abide by the algorithms and parameters allowed by search engines.