Search Engine Glossary | Increase Website Traffic

Are you planning to become a SEO expert? Perhaps you are simply trying to understand and appreciate the multitude nuances of search engine optimization so that you can promote your website on the search engines. In order for you to do so, you will need a working knowledge of the various terms and key phrases that are specific to search engine optimization or SEO.

Algorithm: An algorithm is an exceptionally well guarded secret formula much like the formula of Coke or Pepsi which tells the search engine indexing system how to behave and rank websites when a website is being indexed. It is the axis around which the cat-and-mouse game between SEOs and the search engines takes place in a ceaseless guessing game frenzy.

Anchor text: This is the text your site visitors will click when they wish to explore a link on your web page. Anchor text can also link to an external web page. Anchor text should always bear some relevance to the page to which it is linking and should use descriptive terms instead of saying “click here for more information.”

Content network: An Internet content network is a group of websites that have agreed to display advertising on their web pages for a fee. This is usually sponsored and coordinated by the major search engines. Examples include Google AdSense, Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM) and Microsoft MSN Ad Center.

Contextual advertising: In this form of advertising, clickable advertisements are served based on an intuitive understanding of the content on the web page on which these advertisements appear. For example, a page on golf will display only companies which deal in golf equipment or golf shirts. The three ad networks mentioned above all use contextual advertising to generate targeted traffic to the websites of their advertisers.

Geo-targeting: These advertisements are exclusive to the geographic location of the site visitor visiting the search engine and looking for either a product or a service. This facility permits advertisers to indicate where advertisements will appear in accordance with the searcher’s geographic location. For example, if a searcher in Los Angeles types “health spa” in Google, sponsored advertising under the Google AdWords program will feature mainly those health spas which have opted for local display.

Please visit the next part in this series for more definitions of interesting and illusive SEO and SEM terms as you slowly but steadily proceed to your next website optimization milestone.

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James Thill is the Vice President of Business Development at Blue SEO, a Los Angeles based search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) company which believes that an educated client is a long-term client. Visit him at: www.blueseo.com for more informative articles and resources on search engine optimization and Internet marketing.