Glossary

Algorithms
A set of rules (software application) that a search engine uses to rank the listings contained within its index, in response to a particular query.

Crawler
The component of a search engine that gathers listings by automatically "crawling" the Web - A search engine's "crawler" (also called a "spider" or "robot"), follows links to web pages. It makes copies of the web pages found and stores these in the search engine's index.

Directory
A type of search engine: listings are gathered through human effort rather than by automated "crawling." In directories, websites are often reviewed, summarized in about 25 words, and placed in a particular category

Dynamic Page
Information on web pages which changes or is changed automatically (E.g. based on database content or user information). Sometimes it's possible to spot this technique by looking at a page's file extension. Search engines will currently index dynamic content in a similar fashion to static content, although they will not usually index URLs which contain the "?" character.

eCommerce
The conduct of commerce in goods and services using telecommunications and telecommunications based tools, also known as conducting business transactions over the Internet.

Flash
Short for "Macromedia Flash": A vector graphic animation technology that requires a plug-in but is browser-independent. A popular web design technology that often cannot be "crawled" by search engines.

Frames
An HTML technique used to combine two or more separate HTML documents within a single web browser screen. A framed website often causes problems for search engines, and may not be indexed correctly. If your site uses frames, consider providing a gateway page or adding navigational links within the framed pages. Submit the main page to the search engines. If you use a gateway page, submit this separately.

Index
The collection of information a search engine has that searchers can query against. With "crawler" based search engines, the index is typically copies of all the web pages they have found from "crawling" the Web. With human powered directories, the index contains the summaries of all websites that have been categorized.

Internet Marketing
Strategies and techniques applied on the Internet to support a company's overall online marketing objectives.

Internet Presence
The totality of an individual's or company's existence of the Internet; be it via websites, links, advertisements, email, etc.

Keyword Density
A property of text in a web page indicates how closely together the keywords appear. Some search engines use this property for positioning.

Link Popularity
A raw count of how "popular" a page is based on the number of in-bound links it has. It does not factor in link context or link quality, which are also important elements in how search engines make use of links to impact rankings.

Link Relevance
The measure of the accuracy of the links shown in search results - in other words it's a measure of how close the documents listed in the search results are to what the user was looking for.

Natural Listings
Listings that not paid for and that appear in normal search results. Sites appear solely because a search engine has deemed it editorially important for them to be included, regardless of payment, also called Organic Listings. These listings are linked to keywords in the search engine's index.

Pay-per-Click
System where an advertiser pays an agreed amount for each click someone makes on a link leading to their website. Also known as Cost-per-Click, the results are dependent on reserved keywords for which the website is shown when they are entered into a query.

Search Engine
Any service generally designed to allow users to search the web or a specialized database of information. Web search engines generally have paid listings and organic listings. Organic listings typically come from crawling the web, though often human-powered directory listings are also optionally offered.

Search Engine Marketing
The act of marketing a website via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities.

Search Engine Positioning
The process of obtaining high page ranking on Search Engine Results Pages, these results pages are a list of links pertaining to a specific user submitted search term. Positioning is only relevant for search engines with "crawler" technology.

Search Engine Optimization
The act of improving a website's search engine compatibility by more effectively formatting site code, structure, and content to maximize keyword exposure.

Static Page
A standard web page using only HTML - If JavaScript or CSS are used, they must be imported from an external file. Static pages do not employ Flash, Frames, or dynamic technologies, and have standard URLs. They are the most search engine friendly Pages.