This search engine optimization glossary will take the scary
out of SEM-speak, helping you navigate the SEO optimization minefield
successfully.
Do you have specific questions about your site or optimization
? Contact us today link to contact us for personalized assistance.
Benefit statement
Benefit statements express how your company's product or service
solves an immediate need and clarifies a specific unique sales
proposition. These statements are written in a "What's in it for
me?" fashion where company features are immediately linked to
client benefits.
Benefit statements may be different for different target groups,
depending on their motivations. Typical benefit statements are
linked to such bottom-line motivators as: saving time, saving
or making more money, helping someone be more attractive to the
opposite sex, streamlining operations, gaining new clients, gaining
an industry niche or power, et cetera.
Brochureware
Brochureware is a negative term that denotes a print brochure
being uploaded, without revision, as Web page text.
Brochureware is always counterproductive and should be avoided
at all costs. It doesn't take into account the interactivity of
Web copy, nor is it typically written in a user-centric manner.
Brochureware sites tend to see poor search engine positioning
until the pages are rewritten for Web conversions.
Directory
Directories are compiled lists of sites, categorized and organized
by topic. Each directory listing contains short, descriptive information
about the site. Unlike spidering search engines (like Google),
directories are compiled by human editors who approve listings.
The human-involved process obtaining directories listings is
far different than with obtaining listings in spider-built search
indexes or paid search-advertising engines. In some cases, pay
for inclusion is offered for expedited listings in directories
such as Yahoo! and LookSmart. The Open Directory Project, on the
other hand, is meant to always be free.
Strong directory listings are an excellent way your company can
increase its link popularity and its Google PageRank. However,
a poorly written listing that is submitted to Yahoo! (and subsequently
edited or run with ineffective writing or keyword research) can
negatively influence a search marketing campaign.
Call-to-action link
Otherwise known as a hyperlink. Call-to-action links in Internet
marketing campaigns guide the reader to a new action step. Call-to-action
hyperlinks could lead a prospect to a new Web page, an email form,
a text section within a page or a shopping cart. Correctly written,
call-to-action links increase micro-conversion rates and can affect
keyphrase relevancy.
Conversion rates
Conversion rates are distinct measurements that determine how
many of your prospects take your preferred action step. Typically,
micro-conversions (for instance, reading different pages on your
site, or signing up for a newsletter) lead to your main conversion
step (making a purchase, or contacting you for more information).
Description tag
The description tag is Meta tag which is very important in some
search engine and a key tool for optimation. The meta tag that
appears if you right click your mouse and click "View Source"
on any Web page. This data is written like a marketing statement
and should clearly communicate the purpose of the page. Ideally,
the description tag should be around 170 characters (with spaces).
Depending on the search engine, additional characters over 170
may be truncated.
The description is visible on the SERP with engine that support
this tag (some search engine, like Google, use a copy snippet
for the description).
For instance, the description tag for this page appears like
this :
<meta name="description" content="Learn the SEO lingo! This
search engine optimization glossary will take the scary out of
SEM-speak. Need more help? Contact SuccessWorks today for personalized
assistance.">
(This description has 173 characters, including spaces.).
Headline
A headline is a quick-scan way customers can instantly learn
your company's main benefits (for instance, "Custom auto parts
sale. Free shipping."). Headlines are typically in bolded text,
and appear at the top of a Web page. headline plays and important
role in optimization.
Headlines and subheadlines (see below) are incredibly important
for usability; as online readers scan, not read, headlines make
the scanning process easier.
Further, in code, headlines can be inscribed using HTML heading
tags that can influence positioning.
Indexability by search engine
Otherwise known as spiderability. Indexability refers to if a
site can be indexed or recorded by a search engine spider.
If a site is not indexable, or if a site has reduced indexability,
positioning will suffer. so indexability helps a lot in optimization
in a search engine and to compite with other web sites.
Hyperlink
A blue, underlined word or phrase that, when clicked upon, takes
users to another Web page, or section within a Web page. Hyperlinks
are also known as call-to-action links (see above).
Keyword (or key word)
A single word (like travel) prospects would type into a search
query box to find products and services like yours. Although keyphrases
contain individual keywords, optimization for keywords is not
recommended.
Keywords tag
The keywords tag is Meta data that appears if you right click
your mouse and click "View Source" on any Web page. Although this
tag is not supported in many engines (this is not true with some
Trusted Feed campaigns), the keywords tag is a place to highlight
your keyphrases and include misspellings. many search engines
take this as a very important aspect in ranking a web page. so
for optimization you should consider this very carefull.
This data is written like a marketing statement and should clearly
communicate the purpose of the page. Ideally, the description
tag should be no more than 170 characters (with spaces).
For instance, the keywords tag for this page appears like this:
<meta name="keywords" content="search engine optimization,
Internet marketing, XML feed, conversion rates, landing page">
Keyphrase (or key phrase; also known as a keyword phrase)
A two- or more-word phrase (like Florida travel) prospects would
type into a search query box to find products and services like
yours.
Landing page
Landing pages are pages that users would click through to from
a PPC campaign or XML feed (that is, people "land" on a particular
page as a result of search marketing efforts). For best results,
these pages are highly targeted for the reader and specific to
the PPC ad or feed description (for instance, if a PPC ad advertises
a coat sale, sending prospects to the company home page would
invoke frustrations and decrease conversions). Rewriting landing
pages is one of the easiest ways companies can increase their
conversion rates.
Link exchange
A link exchange Internet marketing campaign is the process of
exchanging hyperlinks with a quality site that is somehow related
to a company's product or service. For instance, a public relations
agency may link to a search engine positioning firm's article
on "PR and SEO marketing." The SEO may then include a link on
their site listing the public relations company.
Good link exchange vendors can increase a company's PageRank
and increase the number of targeted visitors. Poor link exchanges
(think $99 "link farms" where a company promises to link your
site to thousands of others) can actually harm site positioning.
SERP
The SERP is otherwise known as the Search Engines Results Page.
This is the page that users see after typing their search query
into an engine. Since conversion starts at the SERP, it is an
important job of the search marketer to obtain strong call-to-action
listings that entice the click.
SEO (or SEM)
A form of online marketing, search engine optimization (or search
engine marketing) is the process of making a site and its content
highly relevant for both search engines and searchers. Successful
search marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant
words and phrases.
Subheadline
Like headlines, subheadlines provide quick-scan benefits and
instant information. Subheadlines typically begin inner paragraphs,
highlighting the following paragraph's main points and benefits.
Subheadlines, like headlines, can also be inscribed using HTML
Heading tags. When keyphrases appear in the subheadline, positioning
for those keyphrases may be improved.
Title
The Title tag is Meta data that appears if you right click your
mouse and click "View Source" on any Web page. It is extremely
important that every Title tag contains well-researched keyphrases
and is written in a way that entices a user to click thru from
the SERP. Ideally, the Title tag should be around 50 characters
(with spaces). More characters are acceptable, but the Title may
be truncated if it's over 50 characters.
The Title tag is a crucial part of your search marketing campaign
- and every page should have its own Title tag. For instance,
the Title tag for this page is:
<title>Search engine optimization and Internet marketing
glossary</title>
(58 characters, with spaces.)
Trusted feed (see XML feed)
Spider-built search engines sometimes cannot crawl a Website
even though they try and try. Indexing is important to large content
providers such as Amazon.com and IBM, but the same problems that
affect indexing with smaller sites can be magnified in large,
complex sites such as these. To resolve these issues, all major
spider-built search indexes offer a fee-based custom crawl service
to large content providers.
Many of these search engines have taken the service to the streets
by partnering with vendors who often operate their own spiders.
The vendors automate the crawling process for the engine and feed
the data directly into the index entirely on the basis of trust.
Beware, not all vendors are alike and some have unsavory pasts.
Search Engine Result Page
The search engine results page (SERP) is the first page searchers
see when they've entered their query into the search box. This
page lists results of the searcher's query, sorted in terms of
relevancy.
Gaining a page one or two SERP listing is highly desirable for
businesses targeting B2B and/or B2C sales.
SERP - See Search Engine Results Page
Search engine optimization writing
Search engine optimization writing is specialized copywriting
that entails weaving keywords and keyphrases into marketing or
informational copy. The purpose of search engine optimization
copywriting is to gain prime positioning for the desired keyphrases,
as well as increase page conversion rates.
Spam
Spam is either a shelved potted meat product or an Internet term
for unsolicited commercial email. In the case of search marketing,
search engines had to put up their guard against overzealous search
marketers who bombarded them with massive daily submissions and
loaded their pages with keyword junk. These pages are often derided
as pollution and described as spammy by search engine "spam police"
who remove and blacklist all the spam they find from their indexes.
Spam is the excessive use of any single "trick" meant to improve
positioning in Internet search engines.
Spidering search engines
A spidering search engine (Google for example) is one that uses
machines to fetch Websites and record its pages. The database
of over 2 billion Web pages in Google's search index was gathered
together using Google machines and GoogleBot (Google's so-called
"spider" or Web crawler technology).
Pay for inclusion (PFI)
Pay-for-Inclusion services are designed for Webmasters that are
having trouble getting pages listed in spider-based search engines.
A main benefit of PFI is fast respidering (every 48 hours or so),
giving site owners and Webmasters instant positioning feedback
and the ability to change content frequently. Also, site owners
can submit deep-linked pages and be guaranteed that the URL will
be included.
The typical PFI program is an annual URL-based subscription
with regular refresh cycles and click-based reporting. These programs
are highly effective and potent for use in conjunction with seasonal
campaign pages.
Pay per Click (PPC)
Pay per Click is a type of search marketing where advertisers
pay a set amount every time their ad is clicked by a prospect
(otherwise known as a click thru).
Some search engines, such as Overture, specialize in this type
of advertising medium, although pay per click is not limited solely
to pay-per-click engines. For instance, Looksmart, a directory,
recently changed its business model to pay per click. Also, XML
trusted feeds through Inktomi and Fast are sold at a per-click
basis.
PPC - See Pay per Click
Usability
Quite simply, usability is making your site easy for your customers
to find the exact information they need when they need it. Anything
that makes the process slower (like Flash animation served to
a dial-up customer) inhibits usability. Conversely, easy, intuitive
navigation and strong, informative text enhance usability.
