Search Engine Optimization Glossary
I have newly entered the field of Internet marketing, and more
specifically pay-per-click bid management as a result of my employer
turning over a big pay-per-click account to me, and finding I am a
natural at it and truly enjoy doing it.
I was introduced to your newsletter and find it very informative and
helpful; however, I find myself continually frustrated by many of the
abbreviated terms used in the articles that I don’t understand the
meaning of. I try second-guessing, and figure out many of them, but
some have me stumped!
Right now, I feel like the kid in school, afraid to raise his/her hand
and ask a “dumb question”… but perhaps, like that kid, there are
others afraid to ask too! I realize to sound knowledgeable you need
to use the accepted “jargon”; however, would it be possible to include
a list at the bottom of the article of brief explanation and spelled
out meaning of all the abbreviations or terms? Example: From most
recent newsletter, SEO (Search Engine Operative?), ODP, paid inclusion
URL, DMOZ link, Googlebot – know what Google is, but not the “bot”
part.
If I’m the only one, then please disregard. Just thought I’d
ask/suggest!
Nancy Houtz
~~~Jill’s Response~~~
Hi Nancy,
Sorry to have confused you! Please don’t worry about asking any
“dumb” questions, as that’s the only way to learn about anything.
Your comments are well taken and you’re definitely not alone. I do
try to give the full word and put the abbreviation in parentheses most
of the time, but apparently I’ve been lax at doing this! Some of the
terms, e.g., DMOZ, are just so commonplace to me that I forget that
others may not know them.
So let’s define the ones in your email plus any others I can think of.
I’m sure you won’t be the only one to appreciate this mini-glossary.
(Please note that with some phrases such as SEO, there will be people
who disagree with my definition. That’s what keeps this industry
interesting!)
SEO = Search Engine Optimization or Search Engine Optimizer (depending
on how you use it).
My definition of SEO is “optimizing” your existing Web site to be
search engine friendly. Search engine friendly simply means that your
keyword phrases have been researched and carefully chosen, and have
been incorporated into a few hundred words of visible copy on the
pages of the site. It also means that the design of the site is such
that search engines can follow the links throughout the site and read
the information provided on every page. Other aspects of SEO include
creating search engine friendly HTML (hyper text markup language)
coding such as keyword-rich Title tags and Meta tags.
Modern-day professional SEO does not try to *trick* the search engines
into believing your site is relevant for particular keyword phrases,
nor does it create hundreds of keyword-laden pages meant for search
engine “eyes” only. This is what is known as search engine spamming,
not search engine optimization.
SEM = Search Engine Marketing.
This phrase and acronym is often used interchangeably with SEO;
however, it’s actually much more than SEO. Search engine optimization
is actually one type of SEM. The other major type of SEM would be
pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Many companies specialize in all
types of SEM, but plenty of them specialize in either SEO or PPC. My
area of expertise lies in the SEO end of things.
In that same vein, another phrase that was bandied about for awhile
was Search Engine Positioning or SEP. We don’t hear that one quite as
much now that SEM has gained in popularity. Many use the term SEP
interchangeably with SEO, but since optimizers don’t actually
“position” pages within the search engines, I find it to be a
misnomer. It works better to describe PPC ads, since those are really
the only way someone can actually place a site in an exact position in
a search engine.
Paid inclusion (sometimes known as pay-per-inclusion or PPI) = Paying
a search engine to include your page or pages in their database.
Paid-inclusion submissions are very often done through a third-party
company such as PositionTech. All of
the major search engines (except for Google) have paid-inclusion
programs. PPI does not give sites any special treatment other than
regular spidering (usually every 48 hours). This regular spidering is
helpful to pages that change content frequently, or for Webmasters who
are attempting to tweak their pages for higher rankings.
ODP = Open Directory Project. Also known as DMOZ (Directory MOZilla).
This one is very confusing to people because
they call themselves “DMOZ open directory project” on their site, but
they don’t seem to define “DMOZ.” Seems like it would be less
confusing if they got rid of the DMOZ acronym and used only ODP
instead. You can learn more about them on their “about us” page. In a nutshell, ODP/DMOZ is an Internet
directory where you can submit your site for review and (hopefully) a
listing. Once you get a listing, it would be considered a “DMOZ link”
(or an “ODP link”).
Googlebot = The automated robot (or bot) that Google sends out to
crawl the Web in order to find new pages to add to their vast
database.
These bots are sometimes called spiders also. If you can
check your server logs, you can often see which bots have visited your
site. A couple of other search engine bot names are “Slurp” (Inktomi)
and “Scooter” (AltaVista).
I’m sure there are plenty of other acronyms and words that you’re not
sure of. Adventive put a glossary together a few years ago, but I’m
not sure if it’s been kept up to date. If you do a search for
“SEO glossary” on Google you’ll find many more. Feel free to email me
with any other terms you’re not sure of and I’ll be happy to explain
them to you!
December 5, 2002
CEO and founder of High Rankings®, Jill Whalen has been performing search engine optimization since 1995 and is the host of the free High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter, author of “The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines” and founder/administrator of the popular High Rankings Search Engine Optimization Forum. In 2006, Jill co-founded SEMNE,
a local search engine marketing networking organization for people and companies in New England.
High Rankings is an internationally recognized search engine optimization firm located in Framingham, MA specializing in search engine optimization, SEO consultations, in-house training, site audit reports, search marketing seminars and workshops. High Rankings has a 100% success rate for substantially improving client rankings and targeted traffic.
Jill speaks at national and international conferences and has been writing
about SEO and search marketing since 2000. She’s been quoted in such
publications as The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report and The
Washington Post. Her articles have appeared in numerous print magazines and
online websites including CIO Magazine, CMS Focus, The Internet Marketing
Report, ClickZ, WorkZ, Inc.com, Entrepreneur, Lycos Small Business,
WebProNews, SiteProNews and others. Jill has also appeared on many online
and offline radio programs such as Entrepreneur Magazine’s E-Biz Radio Show,
SearchEngineRadio and the eMarketing Talkshow.
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