Web Site Primer

HTML · Web Design · Color Charts · & More!

Optimization: SEO Terms, Abbreviations, & Acronyms

Originally Published: 2006-03-18
Shares some terms often used in discussions, or articles, about search engine optimization.

Don't you hate reading a discussion and not understanding all the terms, abbreviations, and acronyms the other people appear comfortable in using and understanding? This may have you debating whether to ask, and fear being viewed as silly or asking, or remain silent and hope you start grasping what some of those "thingies" mean.

The following list contains some terms, abbreviations, or acronyms that often appear in discussions and articles about Search Engine Optimization.

SEO Definition List

Search Engine(s) (sometimes referred by its acronym: SE)
Online resources where people type in queries to find sites and-or Web pages that match those queries.
Algorithm (sometimes shorted to Algo)
Criteria in a script that a search engine uses to determine placement of pages.
Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Optimisation (often referred to by its acronym: SEO)
Optimizing, or manipulating, contents within pages of a site in hopes of achieving better search engine positioning.
Search Engine Marketing (uses the acronym: SEM)
Markets, or "sells", the page's contents to search engines. Regarded by some to essentially being SEO - just under a different name.
White Hat SEO or White Hat
Uses what is considered ethical or "clean" SEO methods.
Black Hat SEO or Black Hat
Uses any means possible to achieve higher rankings, even if it may result in penalties or banning of the site.
Gray Hat SEO or Gray Hat
Mainly uses White Hat SEO methods but will also dabble with some Black Hat methods.
SERP
Acronym that is used two ways: Search Engine Results Page or Search Engine Results Placement (Position). Context of sentence will reflect which way the acronym is being used.
For example: "I am going for a [topic] SERP" will generally mean Search Engine Results Placement (Position). "What SERPs are you going for?" will generally mean what keywords the person is working toward.
Keyword(s) (sometimes referred to by its abbreviation: KW)
Key, or principle, word(s) a page's contents hopes to be found for through search engine queries.
Key Phrase
Phrase containing 2 or more keywords.
Keyword Density (sometimes referred to by its abbreviation: KWD)
Percentage of saturation of a key word's presence within the entire text contents of a page.
Keyword Placement or Keyword Positioning
Where keywords have been/are placed within certain areas of the textual contents.
Keyword Stuffing
Heavy-handed inserting of keywords into places like the META tags, alt text, and-or text contents.
Keyword spam(ming)
Similar to Keyword Stuffing only more heavy-handed in approach and may also include hidden text or other methods.
Hidden Text
Text that blends in with the background color of the page, offset to not appear in the browser window, or uses what can be best described as "ant droppings" sized text.
Hidden Links
Links shared using Hidden Text methods.
Meta Title
Erroneous reference to the <title> ... </title> element of a page.
Back Link(s) or Inbound Link(s) (sometimes refered to by its abbreviation: IBL)
Link(s) to page from an outside source (another site).
Link(s) or Outbound Link(s) sometimes refered to by its abbreviation: OBL)
Link(s) listed on a page that points to an outside source (another site)
Internal Link(s)
Link from a page that points, or leads to, another page within the same site.
For example: a Web site's navigation menu.
Link Text
Another phrase, or term, for anchor text.
Cross-Linking
Typically where a site owner, of multiple sites, links all their sites together.
Site Map
An optional page listing links to the principle, or primary, pages within that particular site or share links to all pages within that site.
Google Sandbox or Sandbox
Primarily affects new sites (6 months or younger in age) within Google's results. After unveiling these sites will zoom up in the rankings then, after a couple or so weeks, drops to a low ranking status for a period of 3 to 9 months. Nothing the site owner can do but wait it out.
Page Rank (often referred to by its acronym: PR)
Used only by Google; Perceived "value" of a page based on "values" of Inbound Links to that site and-or page.
PR Flow
Linking strategy thought. You want the PR to flow through a site's pages.
PR Leak
Leaking, or giving away, Page Rank through (mis)handling Outbound Links.
Gray Bar, Grayed Out PR, or similar wording
A site/page without any green or white coloring but only a dingy gray hue filling the PR box on the Google Toolbar. Although there have been some glitches resulting in a short-term display of gray, this is generally (if not one of those glitches) signalling the page or site has been penalized or banned by Google.
Bad neighborhood
Sites that may result in a penalty if linked to; one example of a bad neighborhood is a link farm.
Link Farm
A collection, or farm, of sites that only link to each other.
Link Trade or Reciprocal Links
Where two site owners agree to trade or reciprocate links. Arrangement is typically inspired by one contacting the other to request this arrangement.
1-way link
Unreciprocated link.
Authority Sites
An easy example of an authority site is educational (.edu) or media (e.g. CNN, Wired, etc.)
Scraper Sites or Scrapers
Sites that use a script to go around "scraping" contents from other sites.
Page Hijacking
Where a site links to another site's contents in a way that "captures" the content and misleads search engines about which site the content belongs. Inadvertently done with some linking scripts although, unfortunately, some sites do this on purpose.
Duplicate Content
Just what it says - content that is duplicated on another page or site.
Duplicate Content Penalty
Again, just what it says it is - a penalty applied, by some search engines, to pages that are felt to be duplicated content.
Cloaking
In brief, this is where a site presents a different page to the search engines' spiders than what the typical user of the site will see. There are legitimate times where this can be an option but some site owners do it to mislead, or trick, the search engine spiders.
Satellite Sites
A group of sites, sharing a common thread or theme but each sharing original contents that relates to the main, or hub, site. Satellite sites are owned by the same person or company that owns the main, or hub, site.
Mirror Sites or Mirrors
Sites that mirror contents or links.
Guest Book spam, Blog spam, Comment spam
Building up of a (false) link popularity or accruing of PR by going around, or using a script, to leave meaningless comments in someone's blog or guest book. The sole purpose of this act is to leave a 1-way link pointing back to your site.

Related Articles:


straight to the top