SEO Glossary

Marketing and search engine optimization terms and abbreviations defined.

Marketing Terms Glossary - A to F
Marketing Terms Glossary - G to O
Marketing Terms Glossary - PQRS & T
Marketing Terms Glossary - U through Z

A-B Split - A method of random sampling that splits a list of names into two equal groups on an every-other-name basis. One group acts as a control group and the other as a test panel.

Marketing & SEO Terms - A to F

Agent Name Delivery - See CLOAKING.

Algorithm - The sum of all factors that determine how a web page will rank in the search results pages of a search engine.

Alt tag - A tag that provides alternative text for the visually impaired.

Alt text - The text that appears when you put your mouse on top of an image or a picture.

AltaVista - A popular search engine.

Anchor Text - Also known as Link Text, the text of a link or hyperlink.

AOL - A popular web portal currently using Google for search.

ArchitextSpider - The name of the Excite.com spider.

Ask Jeeves - A meta search engine.

Avatar - A digital image that represents who you are in cyberspace.
B2B - Business to business.

B2C - Business to consumer.

Backbone - The top level in a hierarchical network.

Bandwidth - The amount of data transferred from one server to another. Most hosting providers set limits on the amount of data transferred, or bandwidth.

Banner Burnout - Also called banner fatigue. Occurs when the consumer has seen the banner too often and no longer notices. Also used to refer to consumers who have grown accustomed to banner ads that they no longer notice the content of banners.

BBS - Bulletin Board System.

Below the fold - Content of a web page that is not seen by the consumer unless the consumer scrolls down.

Beta - The testing stage of a commercial software.

Blind Link - A link, either text or banner, that misleads the consumer. A common example is the "Choose your favorite color" banner.

Blind Traffic - Low quality traffic generated by misleading banners or misleading spam. Blind traffic by nature is not targeted traffic.

Blog - Online journal. The term BLOG comes from web log.

bps - Bits-Per-Second.

Button - A small, clickable graphic.

Cache - A snapshot of a web page.

CAD - Computer Aided Design.

CGI - Common Gateway Interface.

Clustering - In search engine search results pages, clustering is limiting each represented website to one or two listings.

Conversion ratio - Of all visitors to your site, how many actually make a purchase? Divide total visitors by number of visitors who make a purchase, and you've got your conversion ratio.

CPC - Cost Per Click.

CPM - Cost per 1,000 impressions.

Crawler - The part of a search engine which surfs the web.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets.

CTR - Click Through Ratio.

Dead Link - A link to a URL that no longer exists.

Deep Linking - A link to a web page other than your index page.

Description - The description of a web site in a web directory or SE. Human-edited web directories usually compose a description by after reviewing the site. Crawlers may use the description embedded in the page's code. For example:


DNS - Domain Name System.

Domain - A domain is made up of two parts: The TLD, or Top Level Domain, is the suffix. For example, .com, .net, .org, or .ca. The second part is the midlevel domain, which is, in our case, "quality-web-hosting".

Doorway Page - A web page designed to draw in Internet traffic from search engines, and then direct this traffic to another website.

DreamWeaver - A WYSIWYG HTML editor.

Dynamic Content - Most URLs ending with .asp, .cfm, .cgi or .shtml are serving dynamic content. Dynamic content pages are generated as a result of some action by the user. For example, search results are generated by a search engine in response to a query. Search results pages are dynamic content pages.

Dynamic IP Address - An IP address that changes each time you log onto the Internet. Most dial-up connections.
Entry Page - The page by which a visitor enters your website.

EPV - Earnings Per Visitor.

Exit Page - The page where a vistor exits your website.

Fast - The company that owned AllTheWeb.com

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions.

Favicon - The small icon displayed in IE next to the URL in the address bar.

Filter Words - Words such as is, am, were, was, the, for, do, ETC, that search engines deem irrelevant for indexing purposes.

FTP - File Transfer Protocol.

FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. In reference to the marketing technique of destoying confidence in your competitor's product or services. Example: Most other hosting companies are actually just 12 year old Ukrainian boys trying to scam you out of your hard earned money.