Algorithm
They are the rules and calculations used by search engines to calculate the rankings of the sites being indexed by it. The search engine algorithms are unique to a particular search engine.
Algorithmic (Organic) Results
Search engine rankings that are achieved organically; these are the results that are determined by the search engine algorithms as the most appropriate answer to any particular query. They are unlike Pay per Click plans where it costs money to get superior rankings.
Back Links
Pertains to the total number of worthy links from other websites directing to the website in question. Back links form an important part of any SEO marketing campaign and the process of collecting links from other websites that will point to your own website is know as link building.
Banner Ads
They are necessarily the graphical images or small animation files embedded within web page and are meant to be used as advertising tool.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
It denotes the percentile of visitors to a web page who actually click on any displayed link.
Cloaking
As the name suggests, it’s a procedure whereby the actual content meant for users is hidden from the search engines and they are fed some other content. It’s an unethical SEO marketing practice meant to trick the search engines, while it decides the importance of that page.
Contextual Link Inventory
An additional feature of search engines; it involves the placement of targeted links by search engines on other websites/ web pages that they understand to have similar audiences.
Conversion Rate
It denotes the actual percentage of visitors who actually take the decisive step while surfing through a website, like buying/ ordering a product or taking part in an online survey scheme.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
An Internet marketing method of paying for targeted traffic to a website. It involves a small fee, and then websites like Google, Yahoo etc. will direct traffic to your site. The payment is made on the basis of the number of clicks.
Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
The costs that an advertiser needs to pay is calculated on the basis per thousand views of his advertisement. This model in fact gives good returns to the advertisers as the costing is being done on the basis of number of views and not on the basis of the number of clicks.
Search Engine Crawler
They are the rules and calculations used by search engines to calculate the rankings of the sites being indexed by it. The search engine algorithms are unique to a particular search engine.
Delisting
The procedure where by a particular webpage is removed from the search engine listings. It may happen if that page gets banned due to use of scrupulous SEO techniques or when deemed out-of-date and irrelevant.
Directories
They are human reviewed source of information, something like a human search engine. And as the name suggests they contain the listings of relevant web and then categorized using human intellect unlike the search crawlers which are automated software.
Doorway Page/ Gateway Page
A low-content page created deliberately with a predefined purpose of getting good rankings on the search engines. They are very keyword intensive and can’t necessarily be called the correct technique for search engine rankings.
Graphical Search Inventory (GSI)
Index
It is a measure of the actual collection of data and websites in a search engines data base.
Inbound Link synonym of Back links.
Keywords
It refers to the exact word/ phrase used by a person while searching for information on the web. Concurrently it may also denote the terms/ phrases targeted by a web site as part of the strategy to ensure high rankings on search engines.
Keyword Density
Denotes the percentage of keywords in a document in comparison to the total word count of the document. It’s an important variable used by search engines to determine the relevancy of a page.
Keyword Proximity
The relative distance between two important keywords (May or may not be same) in the visible text of a website.
Landing page
The actual page to which a user is directed after clicking on the search engine listing of that particular website.
Link Farm
They constitute illegal SEO techniques and are effectively pages that contain large numbers of links and that too without any groupings category wise and structure. They are often used to ensure fast indexing by search engines.
Link Popularity
It is the count of the number of links pointing to your website in the search engine index. A number of search engines use this as a determining factor while deciding on the webpage rankings.
Link Text
The text that gets displayed in the hyperlinks.
Mirror Site
They are a duplicate copy of an already existing website and are used to augment the response time for real high-volume websites.
Outbound Links
Any link present on a web page directing to another webpage; irrespective of whether the page is on the same website or any other third party website.
Paid Inclusions/ Listings
An Internet marketing system whereby a website pays up in order to be included in the search engine database, without any guarantee on rankings.
PPC
Acronym of Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
It is a type of SEO/ Internet marketing application that involves paid advertisements displayed strategically above or beside the free listings on search engines. PPC services are offered by major search engines like Google and Overture. As a thumb rule, highest positions are awarded to the highest bidders for a particular keywords/ search phrase.
Rank
It is the relative positioning of a webpage on the search engines. That implies that higher your rank, the more visible is your page on the search engines.
Ramkings
The position of a website after it's registration with a search engine.
Rapid Inclusion
The per page fee method of indexing of websites in the search engines and directories. The indexing in rapid inclusion happens every 48-72 hours as opposed to free submissions where indexes are updated every few weeks.
Reciprocal Link
When two websites agree to exchange links with each other.
Robot
Synonym for crawler.
Robots.txt
It is a small text file that is included in the source code of a web page to prohibit search engines from indexing that page.
ROI
Acronym for "Return on Investment." ROI can be defined as the percentage of profit leveraged from the Internet marketing activity.
Search Engine
A website that most probably uses proprietary software to allow users search the World Wide Web for any particular information.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
It pertains to solutions that can be cumulatively defined as including all that is done to market a website on the search engines. SEM includes all processes like improving organic and/or paid listings, rapid inclusion, link building, content development etc. SEM aims to increase the websites visibility across the search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Website analysis and making adjustments in the current state of websites (source code and visible text) so as to make sure that the website/ webpage achieves the highest possible rankings on the search engines.
Search Terms (Keywords/ key phrase) It can be defined as the words/ phrases used by visitors while on the look out for specific products and services on the search engines.
SERPS
The most widely used acronym for Search Engine Results Page. See Results Page.
Spam
Termed as any SEO marketing effort that gets described as a hindrance to delivery of quality results by the search engines. It includes doorway pages, irrelevant keywords, keyword stuffing etc. The standards regarding what all constitutes as spam varies search engine to search engine. Broadly, spam is any technique employed that stands in violation to the policies of search engines and usually spamming leads to getting banned from that particular search engines rankings.
Style Sheet
It is the template used for signifying the layout of multiple pages within the structure of a web site.
Submission
The SEO marketing procedure employed for registering a website with the search engines. Submission can not guarantee inclusion, as it usually leads to the website being reviewed/ crawled by the search engines. Additionally, submission to a particular search engine does not in any way guarantee high rankings. The procedure is carried out manually, or done using commercial submission software packages available widely in the market.
Title Tag
They are a type of Meta data that is meant to help search engines in describing the title of a web page. Search engine ranking algorithms place considerable value in the use of title tags and generally take it as an important factor while determining what a site is all about and the relevancy of the content in relation to the title tag.
Website Title Placed near the top of the source code, website title defines the content of the page.
XML Feeds
A system whereby the search engines get relevant information via XML. XML is a technology using which information can be updated rapidly between two different websites or between a search engine and a website. This technology presents an alternative to the crawling procedure carried out by the search engines. XML is usually considered a paid form of inclusion.