404 Group

301 Redirect

A method of telling browsers that the location of a web address (a specific page) has been moved. Permanently. This is the best way to redirect from one web address to another without taking a hit from the search engines. There are multiple ways of creating a 301 redirect that depend upon the type of web server your site is on or the type of code it uses. Changes can be made in your actual website pages or in the server’s administrative services.

Directory

Like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory or online yellow pages like Superpages.com, a directory is a database of websites that are arranged by category. You can search for a listing by drilling down from general to more specific categories. Directories are put together by humans and usually require you to register your site with them, sometimes for a fee. Not a Search Engine.

Domain Name

The registered name of a website. It’s the part of the web address that follows www.

Domain Name System (DNS)

A system of converting human-friendly website names like 404group.com (also known as a hostname) to a unique numerical address called an IP address. Also controls email delivery. The IP address of your website is the unique address of the actual computer server that your website files reside on.

Domain Registrar

The official lessors of domain names. They manage all of the administrative details related to the leasing of your domain name. Because you don’t actually “own” it, you rent it.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

The most common method of making a connection from your computer to the web server where your website files reside.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

The company that connects your physical location - home, office, mobile device - to the Internet.

IP Address (Internet Protocol Address)

A numerical address assigned to every computer, server, router, switch, hub, printer or other resource that connects to the Internet or any network. Like a telephone number is to the telephone network, an IP address is to a computer or data network.

Keywords

Forget what you’ve been told about just adding “keywords” to the code in your website to make it show up well in the search engines. This is a myth. It has been years since the search engines cared about what was contained in the Meta Keyword part of your website. In reality, a keyword can be a word or a phrase, and it is the “topic” if you will, that the search engines believe your website is about. Each page of your site can have a different keyword, or may actually have a couple of related keywords. And it doesn’t matter what you think your website’s keywords are, it’s all about what the search engines find. The good news is that there are lots of ways to show them exactly what each page’s keywords are rather than letting them decide.

Link Farm

A neighborhood you want to avoid. This is a huge collection of web pages, often created by software programs, that contain no real content, and are not about relevant topics, and their sole purpose is to artificially increase the number of inbound links to each other.

Link juice

Not all links are created equal. A link from a page that has a higher Google PageRank carries more weight than a link from a page with low or no PageRank. It contains a certain amount of authority and reputation. And quality is definitely more important than quantity. The amount of PageRank conferred on the target page is called Link juice.

Link love

The gracious act of linking for free from your own site to someone else’s, particularly if your site has a good PageRank and the link would carry link juice. That’s true love.

Link Popularity

A raw count of the number of inbound links to a website.

Linkworthy

A website, web page, or piece of content on a web page that deserves to be linked to.

PageRank™

A measurement devised by Google’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to reflect the Link Popularity of a website. It seems that the PageRank criteria have been evolving from being a reflection of the sheer number of links to reflecting the number of links adjusted by the quality of the links. Not every site with 500 inbound links has the same PageRank.

Paid Link

As opposed to a free or “natural” link, this is one that is paid for. Not useful for passing any Link Juice, paid links do help deliver traffic. Apparently these are ok to buy, but are tricky to sell if you want to maintain your website’s PageRank, authority and good reputation. You have to ‘fess up and declare which links are paid for to be safe.

Reciprocal Link

I’ll link to your website if you’ll link to mine. These are helpful in small quantities, especially if the reciprocating sites are about relevant topics and can convey some Link Juice.

Search Bots

The automated software programs or scripts that search engines use to crawl the web, gather data and bring it back to the mother ship.

Search Engine

A database of websites that have been gathered by computers that constantly search the Internet to read or “crawl” through the pages and follow the links. Using proprietary algorithms, search engines discover content and categorize it. You don’t have to submit your site to a search engine to be included, and there is no charge for being included. Not a Directory.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

In a nutshell, everything you do to promote your website, which promotes your business. Many professionals differentiate this from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by classifying SEM as all of the external, and often paid, efforts you engage in to promote your website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Usually understood to mean the efforts you undertake to improve your website’s performance and visibility in the organic (not paid for) search engine results. This typically refers to things you can do TO your website to make it perform better. Like tuning up your car. Best results come when your SEO and SEM efforts are coordinated.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

The list of web pages that result when you type in a search term at one of the search engines. For example, if you go to google.com and type in SEO, the listings that Google presents you with are the SERPs. Page one of the SERPs is where all websites want to be but since that page usually only shows 10 results, there is mad competition to show up well. That’s why I have a job.

Search Engine Spiders

See Search Bots

Site Map (or sitemap)

Only helpful if your website has more than 10 or 15 pages and perhaps some additional files like videos, PDFs, etc. If your site has 4 or 5 pages, well, you need more pages, but you don’t need a sitemap. The best thing about the sitemap is that it give both search bots and human visitors a nice list of text links to all the pages on your site, proving that we really do prefer a simple list to a flashy dropdown video display.

Web Host

The company you pay to physically house the pages of your website on their web servers and serve them up to any computer that asks for them.

Web Ring

Grouping of sites that are similar in subject matter and all link to one another. This can be helpful for hobbyists, but don’t get your business website involved in a web ring. They are often considered “spammy” at worst and unprofessional at best.

Web Server

The computer servers where your website pages are physically located. These servers belong to your web hosting company.

Webcrawlers

See Search Bots

White Hat / Black Hat

Like with cowboys, the white hats are the good guys and the black hats are… not. In the world of SEO, white hat refers to people who use generally accepted and approved-of methods to help a website perform better in the SERPs (rank well) as opposed to using questionable tactics like hidden or cloaked text, link farms, keyword stuffing and more. Search engines are very motivated to find sites that use black hat techniques and remove them from their listings, otherwise known as blacklisting a website.

For a comprehensive glossary of hundreds of SEO/SEM terms, look here.