SEM/ SEO Glossary
A to G

Algorithm

A set of criteria or methods used by a search engine or directory to rank pages according to what they perceive as the most relevant to a given query. There may be as many as 100 different criteria used including keyword density, placement, use of Meta tags, use of themes, etc. Each search engine or directory uses their own set of criteria or algorithm, which they change often in an effort to improve how pages are ranked.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface is a standard interface between a program and any web server software running on the same machine.

Click through

When search engines and directories provide users with a list of sites, the user will click on a listing (or link) and connect with the desired web page. This is referred to as a click through. Using great titles and accurate descriptions will urge the user to click on your link or listing.

Cloaking

Cloaking is the act of hiding page content and is often utilized to stop page thieves from stealing optimized pages.

Clustering

Search engines and directories list only one page from each web site in their results page. This allows a greater number of websites to occupy the top listing positions and provides the searcher with a greater number of relevant sites.

Comment

The HTML tags are used to provide content rich text to those search engines that will recognize it, yet is not visible to the web browser. It may be used for additional keywords or to hide JavaScript code from non-compliant browsers.

Content Rich

Text that is relevant to the web page topic, to the targeted keywords and to the title and description is often referred to as content rich text.

Crawler

See Spider.

Dead Link

When a web page has been moved or no longer exits, or if the server is down and an Internet link cannot find the desired page, it is referred to as a dead link. Whether they are removed automatically by the search engines or as result of being reported as a dead link, their removal helps to degrease indexing burdens and keep the indexes clean and accurate.

De-listing

When pages are removed from a search engine’s index it is called de-listing.

Description

A clear, accurate description of a site is crucial. Some search engines use the content of the Description Meta Tag, while others use the first few lines of the body text. Directories will use the text provided with your site’s registration and display this with the page’s Title and URL in listing results. Descriptions must be relevant to the content of your site and clearly reveal to the user what your site is about.

Directory

Directories are searchable indexes that are organized by subject, by category and by sub-categories and are hierarchical in nature (LookSmart and Yahoo are examples). Directories will not list your URL unless you register it with them through submission and generally they accept only one listing per company (usually your home or main page).

Domain

A domain is another name for an internet address. Domains follow a hierarchy where top-level domains (which usually end with .com, .edu, .gov, .org, .ca, etc.) have web sites or lower-level domains below them that are sub-divided into different usable areas. In general, websites which have their own domain name like http://www.domain.com, will often achieve better ranking position than a sub-directory website such as http:/www.domain.com/uniquenames/.

Flash Page

See Splash Page.

Frames

Two or more separate HTML documents may be combined within a single web browser screen. By using multiple windows (or sub windows) web pages may be generated with many interacting documents. Unfortunately, many search engines experience problems with framed web sites and as a result may not be indexed correctly. Search engines can only read text and will often index only the part of a framed site within the “noframes” section. It is important to make sure this section has the most relevant text specifically for indexing purposes. If your site uses frames, consider creating a page that has the same content but is not separated into frames. This page can be submitted to the search engines for indexing.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol is used to upload and download files to domain servers.

Gateway Page

See Content Rich Page.