SEO Terms
Affinity Score- Google Ad planner uses a metrics known as Affinity Score. If affinity score of a keyword say ‘seo’ for the website ‘seohimanshu.com’ is 1120.0X, then it means that a person searching for the keyword ‘seo’ is 1120 times more likely than an average internet user to visit the site seohimanshu.com. Similarly if affinity score between two websites say ‘a’ and ‘b’ is 350.0x, then it means that a person who visits the website ‘a’ is 350 times more likely than an average internet user to visit the website ‘b’ and vice versa.Authority Site- It is that website which has got back links from large number of different domains and majority of these domains are based on same/similar topic as the linked to domain. For e.g. a website is considered as an authority on ‘car insurance’ if it has got back links from large number of different domains and majority of these domains are based on car insurance topics.
Average Page Views – It is the number of pages visited by a person in one visit (or web session).
Average Time on Site – This is the average time spent by a person on a website.
Blackle – It is a search engine powered by Google. It was developed to save power by using a black interface instead of the white. It is considered that black interface consumes less power than the white interface.
Bounce Rate – It is the percentage of web sessions (or visits) in which a person leaves your website from the landing page without browsing any further.
Class C IP address- A IP address consist of 4 parts:
AAA.BBB.CCC.XXX
The first part is called Class ‘A’
The Second part is called Class ‘B’
The third part is called Class ‘C’
For e.g. 123,.123.123.1 and 133.124.123.2 are in the same class ‘C’. Whereas 123.123.123.1 and 123.123.124.1 are not.
Conversion Rate (CR)- Also known as the goal conversion rate. It is the percentage of website visitors which results in goal conversions.
CR= no. of goals achieved in the last month/no. of website visitors in the month.
Note: Conversion rate of a lead generation website is typically 10% to 12%. However if the website is targeted properly and it is very appealing to the visitors, then the conversion rate can go as high as 30%. If your products/services are not appealing to potential buyers, then your conversion rate will be low. Generally high priced products have low conversion rates and cheap priced products have high conversion rates. A typical e-commerce website can have conversion rate between 0.30 % and 5%.
Damping Factor – It is a probability that an imaginary surfer will continue clicking on the links randomly. It is generally set to 0.85 .
Document Analysis – It is a technique used by search engines to determine the relevance and importance of a web document. Document analysis consist of: semantic analysis and link (citation analysis).
Domain Trust- It depends upon who links to you, who you link out to, your domain age and registration data and your website usage data (avg. time spent on the website, visitors loyalty etc).
Domain Authority- It depends upon how many root domains link out to different pages on your website in addition to the home page. More root domains link out to your website, higher is it domain authority.
Note: Both trust and authority varies across a domain. Therefore some sections of a website are more authoritative than the others. That’ s why just getting a back link from authority site won’t guarantee any link juice. You also need to consider from which section of the website you have got the back link. For e.g. if you have got a back link from some spammy section of a .gov or .edu website then it won’t give the link weight you may have thought of.
Doorway Pages – Theses are those web pages which are specifically developed for search engines and take searchers to another web page.
External Redirect – It is that redirect which a user or a search engine can see. For e.g. java script redirects.
Favicon- It stands for favorite icon. It is a small graphic file which appears just before the URL of a web page in the navigation toolbar of a web browser. It also appears in the bookmark/favorite menu when a web page is bookmarked. The name of favicon file is favicon.ico.
Freemium (free+premium) – It is a business model in which basic services are offered free of cost, while a premium is charged for advanced services or special offers. For e.g. seomoz.org is based on such business model.
FTP- It stands for ‘File Transfer Protocol’. It is an internet protocol and is used to upload or download a file from a web server.
Funnel- It is a path which you expect your visitors to follow to achieve your goals. In Google analytics, a funnel is a series of web pages which take a visitor to the goal page. A funnel can have up to 10 web pages.
Funnel Conversion Rate – It is the percentage of visitors who didn’t leave the funnel before reaching to the goal page.
Funnel conversion rate =100- Goal Abandonment Rate
Hard 404 Page- It is that custom 404 page which returns the server response code 404.
Note: Google treats the response code 410 (gone) in the same way it treats the response code 404.
HTTP- It stands for ‘Hyper Text Transfer Protocol’. It is an internet protocol which web browsers and web servers follow to communicate with each other.
HTTPS- It is an internet protocol which is used to establish secure connection between web browser and web server.
Internal Redirect (silent redirect) – It is that redirect which a user or a search engine can’t see. For e.g. 301, 302 redirects.
Global link Popularity- It is the no. and quality of inbound links from pages across the web.
Goal- A goal can be: orders, leads, sign ups, page views, downloads, raw traffic or any business objective. A goal is also known as the conversion. In terms of Google Analytics, a goal is that web page which is served to a visitor when a pre-defined objective is achieved. For e.g. ‘thank you’ page is served to a visitor when he fills up a form, complete a registration or buy a product or a service. The numbers of such ‘thank you’ pages are number of goals.
Goal Abandonment Rate – It is the percentage of visitors who left the funnel without reaching to the goal page.
Goals Conversions – It is the number of goals achieved by a website.
Goal Value- It is the value of a goal or conversion. It is determined by what you will get when a goal is achieved. For e.g. if you sell an item, then profit per item is the value of each goal. If you sell leads, then profit per lead is the value of each goal. If you generate leads, then profit per valid lead is the value of each goal.
Goal value = Total revenue generated by a website in a month/ total no. of goals achieved in that month.
ICANN (Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers) – It a non profit organization which assign domain names and IP address. ICANN has authority over generic TLDs (like .com, .net, .info, .tv, .gov, .edu etc). But it has no control over country specific TLDs (like .in, .pk, .us, .co.uk, .au, .ca etc)
Index- It is the database where search engines (like Google, Yahoo and Bing) store web documents (like html pages, php pages, image files, video files etc) for quick retrieval. Search engines use pre-defined algorithm (set of rules) to decide which pages to index (i.e. put into a database) and which should not be indexed. There are three types of indexes: Primary (or main) index, Secondary (or supplemental) Index and Specialized indexes (like image index, blog index, news index etc).
Internal Link Popularity- It is the no. and quality of inbound links from pages within a website.
ISAPI_REWRITE – It is a module (i.e. function) written in ‘C’ and C++ language and is primarily used for Microsoft IIS (internet information server) server. It acts just like the mod_rewrite module and is also based on regular expressions.
Note: ISAPI_REWRITE is available in two different versions: ISAPI_REWRITE Full and ISAPI_REWRITE Lite
ISAPI_REWRITE Full – It is the complete version of ISAPI_REWRITE module. However you need to purchase this version.
ISAPI_REWRITE Lite – It is the simplified version of ISAPI_REWRITE module and is available free of cost. However it doesn’t support certain features.
Note: Just like .htaccess is used for Apache Server, the file named httpd.ini is used for IIS server. This file is also stored in the root directory.
Keyword – Keyword or keyword phrase is a search term(s) which is used to retrieve information through search engines.
Link Analysis (or Citation Analysis)- It is a technique used by search engines to determine the quantity and quality of inbound links (both internal and external link) to a web document. It is also done to separate useful web pages from spam (Trust Rank).
Link Consolidation - It is the practice of minimizing the number of linked to pages by consolidating (i.e. combining) their contents onto fewer pages. It is considered as a very good and safe method of doing PR Sculpting. For e.g. if you have separate page each on ‘our history’ , ‘our mission’, ‘our work culture’, ‘our infrastructure’ etc, then you can consolidate the contents of all these pages to the ‘about us’ page. In this way you can save your page rank.
Note: Page rank doesn’t differentiate between internal and external links and PR of a web page is equally divided among all internal and external links.
Link Bait- It is the content (article, image, video, gadget, tools, widget etc) which is promoted among potential linking partners to get back links naturally.
Link Bartering- It is the process of offering something in return of a back link. Like you can offer to write articles or provide a tool or a widget in lieu of a back link.
Link Weight- Also know as the link strength. It consist of trust, authority, page rank, topical relevance and geographic relevance. If a website is highly trusted then its back link carries a lot of weight.
Linking Page- Page which provides back link.
Linkerati – these are potential linking partners.
Live Help – It means helping your visitors, prospects or existing clients in real time through live chat, request a call button etc.
LSI- It is an acronym for latent semantic index. It is a database used by Google to store those web documents which are semantically connected to each other.
% New Visits – It is the percentage of new visits or web sessions. New visits are started by those people who have visited the website for the first time. New visitors are determined using browser cookies. So if you delete your cookies. Then even your repeated visits will be counted as new visits.
Malware – It is a malicious program which is specifically developed to destroy/damage files, folders, programs, drives or network data or to simply disrupt the normal use of a compute or a network. Spyware, Adware, Trojan Horse, Virus, Worms, Logic bombs etc are all malwares. Spyware is used to collect personally identifiable information about a user like ‘username’, password, browsing patterns, preferences etc. Adware is used to install pop up ads on a user’s hard disk generally without his knowledge or consent. Trojan horse is used to destroy files and programs on a hard disk. It generally appears in the form of a graphic image or a game. Virus is used to destroy programs and sectors on a hard disk. A virus propagates by replicating itself and by becoming a part of another program. A worm is used to destroy networks and is self replicating just like virus. But unlike virus, a worm is self propagating i.e. it can propagate without becoming a part of another program. A logic bomb is a malicious program which is triggered when certain conditions are met. These conditions can be particular combination of a date and time, particular sequence of inputs to a program etc.
Mail Protocols- These protocols are used by email programs and mail servers to communicate with each other. For e.g. SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol), POP (post office protocol), IMAP (internet message access protocol), MIME (multipurpose internet mail extension) etc.
Online Ad networks – It consist of:
- Pay per click (PPC) networks (like Google adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adcenter).
- Pay per action (PPA) networks (like cj.com, clickbank.com, linkshare.com).
- Display ad networks (like looksmart.com).
- Video ad networks (like videoegg.com)
- Classified ad networks (like craiglist)
Page Views- No. of times a page is loaded by a web browser.
Page Rank- It is a mathematical formula used by Google to measure the global link popularity of a web page. It is one of the 200+ ranking factors used by Google. Page rank helps in keeping the web pages in the main index and hence rankable.
Note: Pages in the supplemental index don’t pass any page rank. Google can devalue PR, if large number of back links have been obtained from spammy sites.
Plagiarism – It means using someone else words, ideas, opinions, suggestions and theory as one’s own without acknowledging the original author or source.
Note: Provide reference to avoid plagiarism. References also help in authenticating and strengthening your work.
Podcast – It is a RSS feed which contains a link to media file (audio/video file). The RSS feed which contains a link to an audio file is an audio podcast. The RSS feed which contains a link to a video file is known video podcast.
Protocol – It is a set of rules which computers follow to communicate with each other on a network.
QDF- It is an acronym which stands for ‘Query Deserves freshness’. It is a part of Google search algorithm which gives special attention to those search queries which may need frequent updation like search queries related to Barack Obama, earth quick, hurricane etc.
Query String- It is that part of the URL which comes after the question mark (?). For e.g. in the URL:
http://www.example.com/productdescription.php?keyval=25&keyval2=62Note: A query string is made up of ‘field=value’ pairs and these pairs are separated by ampersand (&).
the query string is: keyval=25&keyval2=62
Referencing – It is the practice of acknowledging original author or source.
Reverse IP – It is a service provided by domain registrar through which you can find out all the websites which are hosted on a given IP address.
ROI- It is an acronym for ‘Return on Investment’. In case of SEO, ROI is calculated as:
ROI= Anticipated revenue from SEO efforts- Proposed cost of the whole project
Scraper Site – It is a website which copies all of its contents from other sites.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)- It is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website through search engines via organic search results.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)- It is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website through search engines via paid search results or through contextual advertising.
Social Media Optimization (SMO)- It is a set of methods which are use to generate publicity through social media.
Note: Although SMO is not done to get any SEO benefits but SEO benefits are often the byproducts of a successful SMO campaign.
Soft 404 Page – It is that custom 404 page which returns the server response code ’200 ok’ instead of 404.
Note: Google doesn’t recommend using soft 404 pages.
Seed Sites- These are those websites which were manually identified to be most trusted and authoritative on the web like yahoo.com, Microsoft.com etc.
Semantic Analysis – It is a technique used by search engines to determine semantic connectivity between words or phrases i.e. how words or phrases are commonly associated with each other and in what context they are used. For e.g. ‘statue of liberty’ is commonly associated with ‘new york’. Similarly, ‘Taj Mahal’ is commonly associated with ‘Agra’ or ‘India’.
Spam Mass- It is the percentage of site total back links which are from spam sites. Higher is the spam mass, more likely the website itself is a spam.
Spamdexing – It means spamming the index of search engines. Two most common spam indexing techniques are: content spam and link spam. Content spam includes: keyword stuffing, hidden text, duplicate contents, doorway pages etc. Link spam includes: hidden links, links from spam sites etc.
Spoofed Page Rank- Also known as the false page rank. This toolbar PR can be obtained by applying 302 redirect from a low PR page to a high PR page. For e.g. if you apply 302 redirect from PR 0 page to PR 7 page, then after the next Toolbar PR update, the PR0 page will get the toolbar PR of the PR 7 page. This technique of getting spoofed PR is also know as the 302 Google Jacking.
TCP/IP – It stands for ‘Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol’. It is a protocol which computers follow to communicate with each other on internet.
Top Landing Pages – These are those web pages which maximum number of people visit when they enter a website.
Topical Community- It is a group of websites which are based on same theme.
Topical Relevance- It is the relevance of a topic.
Trust Rank- It is a link analysis technique which is used to separate useful web pages from spam.
Vaporware – It is a product/service whose arrival is announced with much fanfare but which eventually doesn’t come up in the market. Such type of product/service costs both money and creditability to a company.
Viral Connectors – These are those people who have large number of friends, fans, followers or members and who can make your contents go viral in short span of time.
Visit- Also known as web session is a period of interaction between a web browser and a web server. A web session ends when a visitor closes his browser or remains inactive on a website for a particular period of time say 30 minutes. A Visitor can start two or more web sessions in a single day. That’s why Visits are generally more than the number of visitors in Google analytics.
Visitors- These are the total no. of persons who visit your website. It also includes duplicate visitors (i.e. visitors who are counted more than once).
