SEO Jargon Buster

If you are just getting started with search engine optimization there are probably many terms that make you scratch your head. We will explain some of the terminologies that you might hear in sales pitches, recommendations or any other type of communication with your SEO.

Here is a list of Search Engine Optimization related terms/jargons that you commonly come across on many websites. This is a dictionary sort of reference for anyone who wishes to learn about SEO.

• AdWords - Google's advertising system which serves text ads related to search terms.
• Alt tag - (alternative tag) text information visible when you put the mouse pointer over an image on a webpage, if, of course, web progremmer arranged it.
• Backlinks - Simply links pointing to any website. Backlinks to a given website can be measured using the Google Toolbar.
• Description meta-tag - information tag inserted in the head of a web page script to describe the contents.
• Heading tag - a html code (looks like h1, h2, h3 etc) that embraces a page or paragraph title with a purpose of emphasizing it compare to normal body text ("Search engine optimisation jargon" title above in a "h1"-type heading tag).
• Internet Marketing - describes all marketing activities on the internet. These include lead generation activities such as SEO and SEM, affiliate marketing, banner ads and emails. More importantly internet marketing also includes market analyses, benchmarking, performance measurement and customer relationship management.
• Keywords meta-tag - information tag, single or multi-word phrases which describe what the content of a web page is about - inserted into the code of a web page.
• Keyword Density - the number of times any keyword is repeated within a web page, expressed as a percentage of the total number of textual words on the page.
• Link Popularity - the measurement of inbound links to a particular webpage by search engines, often to determine the relative importance / popularity of a page.
• Meta Tags - the group of page definitions coded into a website, that called: TITLE, DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS tags.
• Ranking - term used to describe the relative position of a webpage in any search engine results. The higher, the better of course.
• Search Engines - web sites which allow users to query a database of other sites, e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN Search.
• Search engine submission - the process of informing a search engine or index of the existence of your website.
• SEO (search engine optimisation) - the practice/set of techniques of optimising your website so that it will achieve higher rankings in the free (organic) listings in search engines.
• SEM (search engine marketing) - refers to all forms of paid search engine traffic / sponsored links / premium service and a self serve version of sponsored links called Adwords™.
• Title meta-tag - information tag inserted at the top of a web page, and displayed in the browser bar.

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