Meta Tag Overview
What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages.
Other than the title tag (explained below), information in the head area of your web pages is
not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is
used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags,
for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has selfrated itself in terms of adult content.
Let's see two common types of meta tags, then we'll discuss exactly how they are used in
more depth:
In the example above, you can see the beginning of the page's "head" area as noted by the
HEAD tag -- it ends at the portion shown as /HEAD.
Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. Shown in the example is a
TITLE tag, then a META DESCRIPTION tag, then a META KEYWORDS tag. Let's talk about what
these do.
The Title Tag
The HTML title tag isn't really a meta tag, but it's worth discussing in relation to them.
Whatever text you place in the title tag (between the TITLE and /TITLE portions as shown in
the example) will appear in the reverse bar of someone's browser when they view the web
page. For
From: Shamsuddin Khan , Department of Mathematical Sciences (sdkhan@kfupm.edu.sa)
The lessons given below were made available to me when I joined a course on:
http://www.cnet.com/
Search Engine Marketing 101
Lesson 1: SEO Primer
For many new Web sites, search engines are a key driver of traffic. In this
lesson, you’ll learn how to optimize your site so it will get noticed by Google,
Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com, and other search engines and directories.
If you have a Web site, you want people to visit it. A key to generating traffic is to
have your site appear high up in search engine results for relevant searches.
Ideally, this means appearing on the first page of search results, but showing up
in the first three pages is pretty good. (Most searchers don’t venture past Page 3
of search results.)
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the art of getting your site noticed by
search engines so it is listed more frequently and ranked higher in “organic”
(unpaid) search results. When users search for “vintage telephones,” for
example, you want them to quickly find your site on the subject of vintage
telephones.
What Web crawlers do
To find out what content is on your Web site, search engines like Google and
MSN Search use programs called Web crawlers. These programs analyze
millions of Web pages, then decide which sites and pages are most relevant for
various search terms. With good SEO, you can show those Web crawlers that
your site is a great one for people who are interested in vintage telephones, as
opposed to office telephones or a thousand other telephone-related search
possibilities.
Every search engine–Google, MSN, and so on–has its own formula for ranking
Web sites, and they keep these formulas secret. Generally, search engines look
at a number of factors about each Web site to judge its relevance to a topic and
its overall importance. The words and phrases that you use on each page of your
site are an important factor. The engines find the keyword weight of the phrases
you use–the concentration of keywords on your pages–to determine each page’s
relevance to a search term.
Keyword weight isn’t something that you need to worry about: some web
publishers try to game the search engines by heavily using certain keywords,
increasing the site’s weight for those keywords. Don’t do this; write for people,
not search engines.
Also, search engines factor in the links from other sites to your site, including the
number of links to your site (that is, its popularity), the text in those links, and the
quality of the sites that link to yours.
Directories: The human touch
It’s worth noting that some popular so-called search engines are actually
directories. These include the Open Directory Project and Yahoo Directory.
Directories are distinct from search engines: they’re typically organized into
categories, with people (rather than programs) selecting which sites will be
included in each category. Because humans choose the sites, the criteria for
inclusion can be quite subjective. For instance, human editors might favor a
good-looking, colorful site over a bland one, factors that don’t impress a search
engine robot.
Effective SEO isn’t about tricking search engines into ranking your site highly–it’s
about giving the search engines the information they need to know that yours is a
quality, topical site. The key is to create great content for people, while giving
some attention to the needs of the search engines’ Web crawlers.
Lesson 2: SEO Best Practices
There’s a lot you can do to make your site attractive to search engines and the
people who use them. In this lesson we’ll cover a few tricks you can employ to
increase your search engine ranking.
Although you might not put much thought into the <title> tags on your Web
pages, search engines do pay attention to them. So it pays to write descriptive
but succinct title tags, and create a unique one for each Web page. A title tag of
“Bakelite wall phones” on a page about Bakelite wall telephones will yield far
better results than something generic like “telephone collecting.”
Likewise, use meta tags–particularly the description and keyword meta tags–to
describe each Web page. People won’t see these tags (unless they’re looking at
your HTML code), but search engines use them to understand what your page is
about. See Search Engine Watch for information on how to implement these tags
on your Web pages.
Keywords: Key to success
It’s important to employ the words and phrases that searchers actually use in
your Web pages and title tags. The right keywords can mean the difference
between 1,000 page views a day and a mere 10. NicheBOT is a great free tool
for keyword research: with it, you could find out that Web searchers use the
phrase “antique telephones” 10 times as often as “antique phones”–vital
information when you’re writing the content for your site. Wordtracker is another
wonderful keyword tool.
A word of caution: trying to cheat the search engines–by getting a ton of
incoming links or “stuffing” your meta tags with oodles of keywords, for instance–
will likely get your site penalized by the search engines. It could disappear from
the search results entirely.
People have tried all sorts of tricks, such as loading a page with “invisible”
keyword-laden text. If someone suggests an SEO trick or shortcut to you,
research the practice before implementing it on your site. Google offers plenty of
tips for Webmasters at its Webmaster Help Center. Yahoo’s Search Help section
does as well, and MSN Search offers tips, too: go to http://help.live.com, click
Help, then choose Windows Live Search Site Owner.
Here are 10 things you can do today to optimize your Web site for
search engines:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Focus on writing compelling content for humans, not for search engines.
Use relevant <title> tags on each page.
Add meta description and keyword tags.
Keep page content on the shorter side, but make sure to still completely
communicate a full idea. Don’t use 800 words for something that requires
only 500. Longer content should be broken up into separate pages with
keyword-laced title tags.
5. Make sure that your Web pages have correct HTML coding. Use a
validation tool such as the W3C Markup Validation Service to check each
page’s syntax.
6. Search engines tend to prefer sites with more than a handful of pages. If
your site has fewer than 10 pages, add one Web page of content today.
Even if it has more than 10, consider adding more: search engines love
sites with regularly updated content.
7. Use NicheBOT or Wordtracker to find the most common search keywords
for your topic. Use those words (and variants) on your new pages.
8. Explore Google’s Webmaster Tools area. Create a sitemap and register it
there.
9. Use <h1>, <h2>, etc., tags instead of <font> tags for your site’s headlines.
10. Request one new link from a Web directory or other Web site related to
your topic.
Lesson 3: Site Links
In this lesson, you’ll learn why it’s important to have incoming links from other
Web sites, and how to get them.
A successful Web site needs links from other quality sites, for several reasons.
The first is to direct traffic: people will click from those sites to yours. The second
is for better search engine ranking: when the search engines notice that other
sites have linked to yours, that implicitly increases your site’s importance.
So ask for links from other good Web sites, particularly those on a related topic.
(If a blog about telephone collecting mentions your site about vintage telephones,
the search engines see that as more relevant than a link from a blog about
gardening.) Some Webmasters like to do “link exchanges”–that is, you link to my
site and I’ll link to yours. It’s debatable whether that affects search engine
rankings, but it can earn you click-through traffic.
Site link best practices
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Request that your site be included in Web directories like Yahoo and the
Open Directory Project. Find directories related to your niche (start with
Web Directories’ Niche Directories listings to find them) and ask to be
added to those, too.
Build a section on your site for link exchanges or sites you want to link to.
Send a press release. PRWeb and PR Free are two popular services for
distributing news releases online. In addition to the links from the release
itself, there’s a possibility that writers for other Web sites or even print
publications will see the release and write about your site as part of a
larger article.
Write articles about your topic and submit them to an article directory such
as EzineArticles. Publishing articles there allows other sites and
newsletters to republish your articles–along with links to your sites–for
increased visibility. This is a subset of search engine marketing known as
article marketing, and is particularly effective if you submit at least 10
topical articles for each Web site that you want to promote.
Buy incoming links using a service like Text Link Ads or AdBrite.
Tip:
Don’t rush to get a billion links just as soon as your site has launched. It’s better
to garner new links over the course of weeks or even months. A moderate flow of
new links is not only less stressful for you, but the search engines see it as more
natural. Excessive links can lead to penalties from the search engines (such as
being de-listed) or can simply cause your site to look like a flash in the pan that’s
unworthy of long-term
Lesson 4: Keeping Visitors
You’ve worked hard to get traffic to your Web site. Now, keep them coming back.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to encourage visitors to visit your site again and
again over time.
Getting traffic to your Web site takes effort and patience. So once a person has
come to your site, do everything you can to keep him or her coming back. Repeat
visitors are great for your site: depending on your needs, repeats can mean
increased chance at a sale, more clicks on your ads, or more community
building.
RSS feeds
RSS feeds and e-mail newsletters are the two best ways to keep users coming
back. Syndication feed is a generic term that’s better known to users as RSS
feeds or Atom feeds. Users who subscribe to your feed will be alerted when you
add new content. Support for syndication is built into most blogging software,
such as WordPress and TypePad. When you post a new article, subscribers’
blog-reading software will tell them about it.
If your site is built on blogging software or a content management system (CMS)
that supports syndication, simply make sure you have the syndication feature
enabled. If not, you can still create a feed, perhaps with a little bit of programming
to automate the process. You can find information about how to do it at Search
Engine Watch and RSS Specifications.
After you’re created a syndication feed, verify that it is formatted properly with
Feed Validator. Next, announce it to the world with Feedshot, an inexpensive
service that submits your RSS or Atom feed to many search engines and news
services.
Newsletters
Another good visitor tool is the retention e-mail newsletter. Once a user
subscribes, you can send them e-mail updates about new content on your site,
tips, special promotions, and so on. Every time you send out your newsletter, a
good portion of readers will come back to your site.
Running an e-mail list can be tricky. Your Web host might offer the software to do
it. If not, consider using a mailing list service. NotifyList is an easy-to-use, free
service that’s good for small e-mail lists. On the other end of the spectrum is
AWeber, with oodles of powerful tools for managing large mailing lists.
Compelling content
Newsletters, syndication feeds, and links are useless if people don’t want to
come back to your site. So create great, interesting content, and update the site
frequently so it doesn’t appear stale. After you add new content to your blog, tell
Ping-O-Matic. This free service quickly alerts search engines that there’s new
content at your site.
User-generated content
Getting users involved in your site can also keep them interested in returning.
Encourage users to post comments on your blog, or ask and answer questions
on a message board. This allows users to be part of a community, which will
make them want to visit often.
Lesson 4: Keeping Visitors
You’ve worked hard to get traffic to your Web site. Now, keep them coming back.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to encourage visitors to visit your site again and
again over time.
Getting traffic to your Web site takes effort and patience. So once a person has
come to your site, do everything you can to keep him or her coming back. Repeat
visitors are great for your site: depending on your needs, repeats can mean
increased chance at a sale, more clicks on your ads, or more community
building.
RSS feeds
RSS feeds and e-mail newsletters are the two best ways to keep users coming
back. Syndication feed is a generic term that’s better known to users as RSS
feeds or Atom feeds. Users who subscribe to your feed will be alerted when you
add new content. Support for syndication is built into most blogging software,
such as WordPress and TypePad. When you post a new article, subscribers’
blog-reading software will tell them about it.
If your site is built on blogging software or a content management system (CMS)
that supports syndication, simply make sure you have the syndication feature
enabled. If not, you can still create a feed, perhaps with a little bit of programming
to automate the process. You can find information about how to do it at Search
Engine Watch and RSS Specifications.
After you’re created a syndication feed, verify that it is formatted properly with
Feed Validator. Next, announce it to the world with Feedshot, an inexpensive
service that submits your RSS or Atom feed to many search engines and news
services.
Newsletters
Another good visitor tool is the retention e-mail newsletter. Once a user
subscribes, you can send them e-mail updates about new content on your site,
tips, special promotions, and so on. Every time you send out your newsletter, a
good portion of readers will come back to your site.
Running an e-mail list can be tricky. Your Web host might offer the software to do
it. If not, consider using a mailing list service. NotifyList is an easy-to-use, free
service that’s good for small e-mail lists. On the other end of the spectrum is
AWeber, with oodles of powerful tools for managing large mailing lists.
Compelling content
Newsletters, syndication feeds, and links are useless if people don’t want to
come back to your site. So create great, interesting content, and update the site
frequently so it doesn’t appear stale. After you add new content to your blog, tell
Ping-O-Matic. This free service quickly alerts search engines that there’s new
content at your site.
User-generated content
Getting users involved in your site can also keep them interested in returning.
Encourage users to post comments on your blog, or ask and answer questions
on a message board. This allows users to be part of a community, which will
make them want to visit often.
Lesson 5: Pay-per-click Advertising
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use pay-per-click (PPC) networks to buy traffic
to your Web site, and when it’s appropriate to do so.
Getting listed in the search engines can take time: sometimes it takes weeks (or
longer) for a new Web site to appear in a search engine’s listings. Even then,
your site’s position remains at the whims of the search engines.
However, if you’ve optimized your site and are still looking for more visitors, it’s
probably time to invest in paid advertising. All of the major search tools offer pay
per click (PPC) ads, allowing you to purchase access to those searching
eyeballs, with almost instant gratification. You’ve certainly seen these ads when
you use your favorite search tool: those “sponsored listings” are PPC ads.
Pay-per-click ads appear above and to the right of Google’s natural search
listings.
How do PPC ads work? You only pay every time someone clicks on your ad in a
search engine. Therefore, this is a good option if you have a budget for audience
traffic. The obvious upside to PPC advertising over traditional advertising is that
you pay only when someone clicks on your search-engine term. The downside is
that popular keywords are competitive and more expensive than others.
Examples of major PPC ad sellers for search engines include:
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Google AdWords
Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture)
Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions
Gazabo.com
LookSmart
MIVA
7Search
Kanoodle
You can also work directly with an Internet marketing agency that will help you
purchase and manage your paid advertising. Paid search has increasingly
become more complex, and sometimes it pays to go with the expertise that an
agency can provide.
PPC costs
In general terms, most PPC brokers sell ads on an auction basis, with ad spaces
going to the highest bidders. As you might imagine, this means that the price of
ads can vary considerably depending on the market. For some keywords
(attorneys, for example) ads can cost many dollars per click. In categories
without much competition, it might cost you only a few cents every time someone
clicks on one of your ads. Ad prices can vary considerably based on the time of
the month and day, advertisers’ budgets, and seasonal campaigns.
Luckily, most ad brokers let you see the current ad prices for the keywords you’re
targeting, specify a maximum bid per click, and target your ads so that only the
best prospects see them.
In addition to showing ads on search engines such as Google, Yahoo Search,
and MSN Search, the ad brokers let you opt in to showing ads on other Web
sites that the brokers partner with. These options can expand your ad’s reach
(and cost) considerably.
Remember, with PPC ads you’re buying access to a prospective customer. It’s
up to your site to convince that user to take your desired action, whether it’s
making a purchase, subscribing to your newsletter, etc.
Tip:
Don’t commit marketing dollars to paid search until your Web site is optimized
with enough features to attract and retain your target customer.
Lesson 6: Measure Traffic
After all this effort to promote your Web site, you’ll want to know what strategies
are working best. In this lesson, you’ll learn about tools for measuring your site’s
traffic and finding out where visitors are coming from.
Soon after your Web site goes live, you should take the time to set up a method
to measure your traffic. Without some sort of traffic measurement tool, you’re
flying blind: it’s difficult to know how people are finding your site and what they’re
looking at once they’re there.
Your Web host may provide traffic measurement in the form of statistics that are
automatically generated on your server. (Ask them if they do.) The quality of
these statistics can vary from highly enlightening to almost useless. Many Web
hosts use a log analysis program like Analog or Webalizer to provide you with
data. Both of these tools can produce all sorts of useful information, including the
most popular pages on your site, what search terms get you the most traffic, and
a list of the sites that send traffic your way.
Google Analytics is a free, powerful traffic measurement and analysis tool. While
analysis tools like Analog require access to your raw Web server log files,
Google Analytics doesn’t. Instead, you insert a small piece of JavaScript code in
your Web pages. Then it can deliver stats and graphs regarding your site’s
visitors: how they found your site, what parts of the world they come from, which
pages they view, and much more.
Some of the graphs and statistics served up by Google Analytics’ traffic
measurement and analysis tool.
There are many other tools available, some useful, some not. A simple “hit
counter”–a running tally of the number of times a page has been viewed–
provides a Webmaster with no useful information.
Another free tool from Google is worth investigating: Google Webmaster Tools
provides data about the top search queries that drive traffic from Google to your
Web site. It will show your site’s average position for various keyword
searches.Unlike with Google Analytics, you don’t have to install any code on your
site to use this tool.
Understanding how people use your site, what information they’re looking for,
and what information they may not be finding there can be key to making your
Web site even better.
SEO is an ongoing process, something you should think about for as long as
your site is online. Use these tools, information from your visitors, and your own
experience to make your site successful in the long term.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Other aspects which need special attention to improve visibility are:
1. Get recommendations from a consultant from any professional web
development company (experience with academics): The web developers in
KFUPM (except a few) can design and publish a page but do not have
training or experience to optimize the system as whole in terms of website
visibility, ranking and speed (many are lecturers who assist as Web Developer
for the department).
2. Sharing information with Google and other search engines about our
site e.g. submit a Sitemap and Specify preferred domain to use for
indexing.
3. Start a forum: An active academic discussion forum may be all that
we need to attract repeat visitors to your web site. We generally can get
two types of visitors to our active forum. a) One who seeks help and b)
one who provides help? If our forum is active with these two types of
visitors, we can almost guarantee repeat (as well as new) visits for
many times to come.
4. Start a blog: A blog is a great way to get our visitors to return to our web site.
Especially if we frequently update it with entries that are relevant to your
visitors' needs
5. Encourage feedback: We can start a repository of – Articles written by
faculty/ members from KFUPM (related to teaching and research in different
areas, possible student projects). This could be a forum where visitors can
subscribe feedback – and leave feedback on article for the topic of the month.
We make sure that we reply to their feedback. Not only will this increase
repeat visitors to our site, but we will also have happy subscribers.
We can publish online version of the articles based on topic.
6. Create a regular e-newsletter.
It should be short, lively, and full of valuable information. Some content ideas
include:
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Links to new content on our site.
Any new courses seminars and services.
Special sites or publications of academic interest.
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Various student projects – accomplished with complete web address of
anything related to projects
7. Put KFUPM URL everywhere:
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These days URL is as important as our telephone number. Make sure
people know where to find our website is online by including URL on:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Business cards, letterhead, envelopes, mailing labels
Any document issued from KFUPM.
Advertising, press releases, brochures.
Not ready yet to reprint your stationery? Print small, coordinating labels
that feature your online address and copy inviting people to visit. Stick
them on outgoing envelopes, on seminar folders, on the backs of your
business cards and more.
5. Encourage all Faculty and staff using KFUPM email services to include
KFUPM web address as bottom line (KFUPM signature).
8. Ask for links.
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Include links to Universities, Colleges other institutions at least in
Saudi Arabia and ask the owners to add links to our site. This works
best when our site includes useful informational resources. This is
WEB Terminology (from http://www.optymise.co.nz/resources/glossary.asp#C )
Every industry has its far share of jargon and search engine optimization is no different.
So why not bring yourself up to speed and find out exactly when a spider is not just an
arachnid and when an overture is not just orchestral music.
Algorithm The complex mathematical formulae that Search Engines use to determine the
rank of a particular website for specific keyword. The algorithms evolve constantly to
keep ahead of unfair practices and provide more accurate and relevant search results for
user queries.
Alt Text : The text that is displayed when the mouse cursor is held static on an image. It
is primarily used as a place holder in case the image on the web browser is unable to
load.
AltaVista (AV) Search Engine, now part of the Yahoo! Network.
Anchor Text The text/copy written on the web page that works as a link. Example Click
here
AOL Web Directory, gathers its search results from Open Directory Project
(see DMOZ).
Ask Jeeves (AJ) Search Engine part of the Teoma Network. AJ has a paid inclusion /
paid listing program.
ASP Active Server Pages Server Side Technology by Microsoft, used to create dynamic
pages on the internet. Pages implementing asp end with a .asp or .aspx file extension.
Back Link A link from another page which links to your page. It is also called an
inbound link.
Below The Fold Part of the web page that cannot be seen without scrolling
the page.
BLOG Web LOG is a journal kept on the internet. This journal is often updated daily and
contains all information that the person maintaining the BLOG (Blogger) wishes to share
with the world. Also applies to websites dedicated to a particular topic and being updated
with the latest news, views and trends.
BMP (.bmp) Bitmap image A standard image format used primarily on the Windows
Platform. The image data is stored without applying any compression.
Broken Link A link that no longer points to an active destination. It is also called a dead
link.
Cloaking A web optimisation technique used to serve a different version of the same
page to Search Engine spiders and a different version to users. Sometimes separate
versions of the page are created for different Search Engine spiders to promote rankings.
Crawlers Programs created by Search Engines that go around the internet collecting
information about the websites. The process of visiting a website and recording
information is known as indexing. The information collected by these spiders is then used
to rank the websites. Crawlers are also known as spiders.
Cross Linking A simple process where two websites provide links to
each other.
CSS Cascading Style Sheet Used in conjunction with HTML to provide formatting
information to the web page.
Dead Link See Broken Link
Deep Linking Process of linking pages embedded in the directories of your website from
your home page or other pages, to facilitate indexing of the page by the Search Engine
spiders.
Description Tag A Meta tag that provides certain Search Engines spiders/ crawlers with
a description of the web page. This description is often displayed along the search result
for your website.
DHTML Dynamic HTML Programming constructs used in an HTML page using
JavaScript, VBScript etc, to make the page more dynamic to user responses.
Directory A directory or a Web Directory is a website that arranges the web pages in
categories, much like Yellow Pages, for user searches. Unlike a search engine, it does not
crawl the internet gathering information and instead relies on the information you provide
it when requesting to be included in the Directory. Inclusion into these directories can be
free or paid.
DMOZ Web Directory edited by human editors. Also known as ODP (Open Directory
Project). Provides directory results to Google and other search engines. It is considered
very important from the Search Engine Optimisation view and it is also the most tedious
and difficult to get in.
Domain Name A unique name assigned to an IP Address that identifies an internet
website.
Doorway Page Search Engine Friendly web page created and integrated into a website to
enhance rankings and promote hits to a website.
Download Time Time taken by a website to download to a web browser. The download
time depends on a number of factors including the speed of the internet connection.
Duplicate Content It is a strategy by which varying domains use the same or near same
website to serve the user. Also if contents of one page on the internet are same or similar
to another, it is considered duplicate content. Duplicate content is considered spamming
by Search Engines and therefore should be avoided.
Dynamic Content Content that is generated on the web pages on the fly. Information
gathered from databases or other sources depending on user request, when displayed on
the web page makes the content dynamic. Pages that are created in Flash or use other
animation technique are also sometimes referred to as dynamic.
Exit Page The page of your website on which the user closed your website. Effectively
the last page of your website that a particular user saw in his one visit.
FAQs Frequently Asked Questions.
Flash A software package used to create animated and highly dynamic websites. Part of
the Macromedia Products range.
FTP File Transfer Protocol This protocol is used to upload and download files to your
web space or server. Essentially one needs an FTP User Name or ID, FTP Password and
FTP URL to be able to log on to the website server and upload or download files.
Gateway Page Same as Doorway Page.
Google Search Engine, inclusion in which is free.
Google AdWords A Pay Per Click (PPC) program of advertising on Google. The ads
appear on the right hand side of the Google Search page on keywords / key phrases that
you choose.
Google Dance An informal term created to explain the phenomenon of frequent shifts in
rankings while Google updates its database.
Header Tag The tag that defines the Title, Description and other Meta information of the
web page.
Hidden Text The text on the webpage that is difficult to see because it is the same colour
as the background. This technique is considered spamming and should be avoided.
HTML Hyper Text Markup Language This is the language used to create web pages.
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol The protocol used to serve web pages to the Web
Browser.
Inbound Link A link from another page that links to your page.
Inclusion The process of having your web page included in a Search Engine or Web
Directory for searches.
Indexing The process by which a Search Engine spider visits your web page and collects
information about it.
Inktomi Search Engine part of the Yahoo! network.
.JS An external JavaScript file. One of the methods of implementing JavaScript on to a
page is to write an independent file containing all methods and variables and store it as a
.js file. This file is then imported into an HTML or other type of web page as and when
required.
JPG (JPEG) Joint Photographic Experts Group. A compression technique used for
saving images and photographs. This compression method reduced the file size of the
images without reducing its quality. Widely used on the World Wide Web.
Keyword A word entered into the search box of a Search Engine or Directory by a user
to look for information pertaining to the word on the internet.
Keyword Density A percentage calculated on the basis of the number of times a
keyword occurs in your web page copy against the total number of words on your web
page.
Keyword Stuffing A technique where too many instances of the keyword are put into a
web page without any context or use to make it keyword rich or increase keyword
density. This practice is considered spamming and should be avoided at all times.
Keyword Tag A Meta tag that defines the keywords that the web page is targeting. It is
considered, in the current day and age, to be of little or of no use. Search engine spiders
no longer assign any importance to this tag.
Link farms A process by which independent websites create a complex linking structure
to build their Link Popularity. Since websites participating in these link farms create links
to each other without any context or genuine reason, they are considered an infringement
by most Search Engines and if caught carry a penalty.
Link Popularity Link popularity is defined by the quality and quantity of inbound and
outbound links of your web page. By quality we mean the reputations of the websites that
link to you, the titles of the pages that link back to you, the text used to link to your
website and a few other factors. By quantity we simply mean the number of links on the
internet which point to your website.
Linking Strategy The planning process that goes into creating link popularity. Deciding
who to form associations with, who to exchange links with and who to buy links from.
LookSmart A Web Directory.
Meta Tag A tag created to provide keyword, description and other information to Search
Engine spiders and other user agents. This tag is invisible when the page is rendered on
the web browser and can be seen by viewing the source of the web page.
Mirror Sites Websites or web pages with the same or similar content as another. They
could be used to target near same keywords as the other. As they provide no new and no
useful information a Search Engine may penalize a mirror website.
MSN Microsoft Network A Search Engine. The New Zealand version of the Search
Engine i.e. Xtra.co.nz is the most popular in the country.
NZD New Zealand Dollars.
ODP (Open Directory Project) See DMOZ.
Optimisation / Optimization When used in the context of Search Engine Optimisation,
it is a series of steps that promote a webpage or website on the internet and strive to
achieve higher rankings on the Search Engines.
Outbound Link The opposite of inbound link. An outbound link is a link from your web
page to another page.
Overture A Pay Per Click Search Engine.
Paid Inclusion The process of inclusion in a Web Directory or a Search Engine by
paying a fee.
PDF Portable Document Format This document format is used extensively on the World
Wide Web to read and publish documents as these documents are platform independent.
All you need is a PDF reader which can be downloaded free from http //www.adobe.com
Penalty A violation of Terms of Inclusion of a Search Engine or Web Directory can
result in a penalty. The penalty is usually a ban on the website by the Search Engine. It
effectively means that the banned web page or web site will no longer be included in the
searches within the Search Engine for a particular period or until the violation is
corrected. The violation can be triggered by any factor like spamming, participating in
Link farms, using hidden text etc.
PHP A server side language similar to ASP in functionality. PHP is open source and is
used to create dynamic web pages. Pages implementing PHP end with a .php file
extension.
PPC (Pay Per Click) A model of Website inclusion where you pay an agreed amount
every time a user clicks to your website through a Search Engine. Usually you buy the
position you want to rank at, for a particular keyword or keywords and pay the Search
Engine every time it generates a hit to your website.
PR (Google PageRank) A number of link popularity factors combine to produce a rating
that Google assigns to your website. This rating is called PageRank and is a score
between 0-10. It is an extremely important factor for ranking high in Google.
Query A search conducted in a Search Engine using a keyword or key phrase.
Ranking The position of a web page in the SERP, plus the number of results displayed
prior to it on previous pages.
Reciprocal Link A link to your web page by an associate site. When you create a link to
another web page (Page B) from your own page (Page A) and the other website does the
same, then a link from Page B to Page A is a reciprocal link.
Reciprocal Linking The process of exchanging links with other websites is called
Reciprocal Linking. Since both participating websites get an inbound link, it helps in
building link popularity.
Referrer When a user visits your website by clicking a link from another website, the
other website is called a referrer. The referrer could be a Search Engine or an associate
website that provides links to your web page.
Registration See inclusion.
Robot.txt A file written and stored in the root directory of a website that restricts the
Search Engine spiders from indexing certain pages of the website. This file is used to
disallow certain spiders from seeing files that you not want them to see. You can also
prevent a certain spider to look at any of the web pages through this file.
Search Engine Friendly A web page that conforms to most guidelines laid down by the
Search Engines for web page creation and which does not breach any Terms of Inclusion
in a Search Engine. A page that is not dynamic, simple in layout and easy in navigation is
usually one that is likely to perform better in a search Engine, as it is friendly for a search
engine to read.
Search Engines Websites that enables users to search for information on the internet
based on the keywords that they provide. Some of these websites gather information from
all across the World Wide Web and furnish them to the user in the order of importance
and relevance that it assigns each page based on the entered keyword.
SEO Search Engine Optimiser Refers to an individual or an organisation that undertakes
the process of Search Engine Optimisation.
SERP Search Engine Results Page This is the page that the user sees after entering a
query. Since the page itself does not hold much information prior to a user request, these
pages are hard for a Search Engine to index correctly as they never know what the page is
about. Search Engines these days are getting more and more adept at deciphering
dynamic pages, but still have a long way to go.
Spamming Deliberately using any technique that is in violation of Terms of Inclusion of
a Search Engine. The practice when caught can lead to a penalty.
Spiders See crawlers.
Stats See Website Statistics.
Stemming Is a method by which Search Engines associate words with prefixes and
suffixes to their word stem to make the search broader. It is especially important to look
out for these while participating in a PPC program, since a search for pen can yield
results for pencil, pendulum and penicillin and you might not be promoting all of these
products.
Stop Word Words that are of generic nature and are ignored by Search Engines in the
search. Some of these are a, an, the, with etc.
Submission The process of requesting a web page or a website to be included in a Search
Engine or Web Directory.
SWF The format of the file published through Flash or other Macromedia Products. It is
usually a piece of animation or dynamic menus integrated into an HTML page. The files
end with a .swf file extension.
Targeted Keywords / Key Phrases / Keyword Search Phrases Keywords or key
phrases that your web page is trying to rank high in. These keywords are chosen on a
number of factors including your target market, industry and competition. This model is
gaining more and more popularity every day.
Title Tag The tag that defines the title of the web page. It is probably the most important
page element that influences the ranking of a page.
Traffic Term used to decribe internet users
Unique Visits Number of individuals who have visited a Web site (or network) at least
once in a fixed time frame, typically a 30 day period.
URL Uniform Resource Locator The global address of a web page or a website on the
internet. The URL of the website of Optymise is http //www.optymise.co.nz. See also
Domain Name.
Web Browser A program that request pages from the World Wide Web and renders
them on your computer. Internet Explorer is one example.
Web Hosting An arrangement where you allow an agency to host your website for you
on their Web Server for a fee.
Web Ring A conglomeration of separately-owned websites with similar topics that
provide links to one another.
Website statistics A detailed report on the performance of a webpage or a website in
terms of hits generated, visitors attracted and referrals got, plus many more factors. It is
usually provided by the web host of your website.
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get It is used to describe applications that
render the same or very similar output as the display on screen.
XML eXtensible Markup Language A language that enables developers to create their
own Tags.