A server response code which means that the page (or entire site) has permanently moved to a new location. It’s typically used when a domain or page name has changed. Learn more about using a 301 redirect.
Anchor Text
The visible text portion of a hyperlink. Strive to make your anchor text target important keywords for your site.
Algorithm
The mathematical formula a search engine develops to arrive at rankings for your page. These algorithms are closely guarded secrets and change frequently to avoid detection. They’re a bit like a good recipe: Start with some well-seasoned external links, sprinkle in some keyword rich title tags . . .
ALT attribute
Search engines can’t read images so use the alt attribute to help them correctly decipher your images. Alt attributes are another place to use good keywords.
Black Hat SEO
Methods used to try to “trick” a search engine such as stuffing a page with keywords in really tiny text the same color as the background. Don’t do Black Hat SEO. Most search engines are savvy to them and you might find your site banned.
Bot
Another name for a search engine spider. A bot collects information from a web page to feed into a database.
Crawl
What search engine bots do to your site to gather info about it.
Grey Hat SEO
Questionable SEO strategies. My sense is that if you think what you’re doing might be Gray Hat, it’s probably Black Hat so don’t do it.
Inbound Link
Links on another site that point to your site. These are GOOD!
Keyword Density Analyzer (Analysis)
The ratio of keywords to other text on your page. There are several free online tools that will provide a keyword analysis for your site. Strive for a 5 - 9% keyword density. Above that looks like keyword “stuffing” and could get you banned.
Keyword
A word or words that strongly relate to the theme of a page or a site. There are online tools (some free, some not) to help you choose good keywords based on what users are actually entering in search engines. You don’t want the most popular keywords. Rather, you want less popular ones that more closely describe the particular niche of the market you’re hoping to reach.
Keyword Stuffing
A Black Hat SEO technique of deliberately putting tons of keywords on a page to try to increase your search engine ranking. It’s a no no. Don’t do it.
Long Tail Theory
The practice of deliberately choosing less popular keywords to capture a niche audience instead of trying to compete with the big guys where you’ll undoubtedly lose. A large return of lots of smaller markets is a better thing than little to no returns on a large market.
Meta tags
Tags that go in the HEAD of an HTML page and include both keywords and a description. These were once the royal road to search engine ranking but they’re not used as much today.
Describes itself as “the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web”. You can submit your site to them for free and assuming your site is legit, they’ll list it in their directory. It’s in the spirit of the Open Source movement, Wikipedia, etc.
Organic search results
Non-sponsored links that are displayed by a search engine.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization
SERPs
Search Engine Results Pages. The pages that you see after you submit a query to a search engine. They often contain both sponsored and organic results.
Spider
Same as a “bot”, i.e., software used by a search engine to crawl a web site return info to the search engine’s database.
Submission
the process of actively submitting your site (or a new page) to a search engine instead of just waiting for them to find you.
White Hat SEO
legitimate optimization techniques that search engines like, such as the proper use of meta-tags, an good (but not too good) keyword saturation and spider friendly page design.
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