Common SEO Terminology (G-Z)

G
Gateway Page : Same as Doorway Pages.

Google Dance :"Google dance" is an unofficial term coined to refer to the period when Google is performing the update to its index.While the update is in progress, search results for each of Google's nine datacenters are different. This can cause fluctuations in your ranking in google.

H

Hits : Requests made to your Web site server.The more the hits the more popular you are.

I

IBL(InBound Links) : Any link on another page that points to the subject page.
The number of IBLs to a page increases its popularity with the Search Engines.

K

Keyword : A word with particular importance to the theme of a site.SEO is the process of optimizing web pages for keywords and key phrases so that they rank highly in the results returned for search queries.

Key Phrase : A group of keywords put together make a key phrase. SEO is the process of optimizing web pages for keywords and key phrases so that they rank highly in the results returned for search queries.

Keyword Density : The number of times a specific keyword appears on a page compared to the number of words on a page. Higher the keyword density better your chances of ranking ahead for that keyword.

Keyword Research/ Keyword Analysis :The process of analyzing a subject area or web site with the goal of identifying keywords that best describe the subject area/web site.

Keyword Stuffing / Keyword Spamming :The process of stuffing a web page with keywords related or not related to the theme of the web site in a high amount as an attempt to influence/trick the search engines.

L

Link Farm : A link farm is a group of separate, highly interlinked websites for the purposes of inflating link popularity (or PR).

Link Popularity :The popularity of your web site in the eyes of the search engine, based on the quality and quantity of links to and from your web site.More the link popularity better your ranking.

M

Mirror : In SEO parlance, a mirror is a near identical duplicate website (or page). Mirrors are commonly used in an effort to target different keywords/key phrases.

Meta Tags : Meta Description Content, Keywords and Title are used in the head section of websites. Their purpose is to provide extra information about the web page i.e. metadata. The most influential tags for search engine ranking are the Keywords tag and the Description tag.

N

Natural Links : Links pointing to a web site created because someone found the web site useful and decided to link to it i.e. linked to it naturally.

O

Off-Page Factors/Elements :Elements that are outside the direct control of the web site developer and are influential in determining search engine ranking.

Search engines are relying more and more on these elements when determining ranking because they are more resistant to spamming / abuse.

On-Page Factors/Elements :Elements that are within direct control of the web site developer and are influential in determining search engine ranking.These elements are prone to keyword spamming and other similar forms of abuse so the search engines do not look to them as much as off-page elements when determining ranking.

OutBound Links :Links within a web site that are pointing to outside sites. Do not affect link popularity but care must be taken not to link to a web site that may get you banned.

One-way Links :Links to a web site that are not reciprocated i.e. no link exists to the web site that is doing the linking.

P

Natural Links : Google's proprietary measure of link popularity for web pages. Google offers a PR viewer on their Toolbar.

Q

Query : A search for a word or term in a search engine.

R

Ranking :The position within search engine results that a web site reaches for a particular search phrase.

Reciprocal Links : A reciprocal link occurs when a web site links to a site and in turn the linked-to site links back to the linking site i.e. the link is reciprocated by both parties.

Robot :It refers to software programs that scan the web also called spider or bot. It is important that your web site is indexable by a spider otherwise it may not visit some pages. A common method used to ensure that it indexes all the most important web pages is to include a site map on your site.

Robots.txt : Robots.txt is a file which well behaved spiders read to determine which parts of a website they may visit.

S

Search Engine: A database of information retrieved from indexing web pages from all over the web.

Search Engine Optimization :The process of modifying a web site's content, structure and link popularity to maximise the chances of a higher ranking within search engine results.

SERPS :Acronym for Search Engine Result PageS.The higher your website ranks in SERPS for your keywords the more the visitors your website will attract.

Spider :It refers to software programs that scan the web.It is important that your web site is indexable by a spider otherwise it may not visit some pages. A common method used to ensure that it indexes all the most important web pages is to include a site map on your site.

Site Map : A special page on a web site that contains a tree-like representation of the link structure of the site.

Stop Words : Words such as; is, am, an, for, do, was and the. Words that search engines consider irrelevant as keywords.

Spam : In the SEO context, this refers to manipulation techniques that violate search engines Terms of Service and are designed to achieve higher rankings for a web page. Spam could be ground for banning .

T

TITLE Tag :The TITLE tag is used to specify what text appears at the top of a browser window when visiting a web page. It also appears as the link text when your web site appears in search engine results.

TITLE Text/Attribute : Text that be attached to any HTML tag and appears when the mouse is positioned over the relevant tag content.

U

UnEthical SEO :The opposite to Ethical SEO. It involves employing underhand or illegal activites to increase search engine ranking.UnEthical SEOs can get your sites banned from a search engine forever.