SEO

What is Google Search Wiki?

If you happened to use Google last night, you might have noticed a few changes to the search interface. There are now 3 buttons that users can use to promote, remove, or comment on a particular search listing.

Here I have compiled a list of some of the most frequently used search industry terminology, jargon, abbreviations, and so on and simplified definitions:
• Conversion: When a user completes a predefined desired action on your Web site (e.g., purchasing a product, signing up for a newsletter, registering for more information, etc.).
• CPC: Cost per click is defined as the price you pay when someone clicks on your sponsored listing/paid search ad.

Directory submission has been one of the more popular and easy, excluding having to pay, methods of getting high Google Page Rank, one way links to your web site. However, in the past few years the SEO weight given to many directories has suffered due to changing algorithms, market saturation, and fluctuating page ranks. While some directories have fallen off in their back linking effectiveness, several have been able to maintain their page rank, even strengthen that page rank and site power over the years.

I came across this interesting post on Search Engine Land the other day. It discusses tips for creating SEO optimized copy for B2B applications, which is something I had never considered before, but makes perfect sense. Search Engine crawlers at least attempt to read all text on a given page, so why shouldn't site copy be written in a style that plays off this knowledge? Read the full post for more detailed information, but here are the highlights:

The times ain't easy. With the recent news of the AIG bailout and the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, businesses everywhere are looking for ways to save money. Microsoft, finally realizing they made a huge mistake in their $10 million investment in Jerry Seinfeld, have done an about face.

Search engine registration is a request to a search engine to look at a URL and include it into their index. Search engine registration is the quickest method for getting your site listed on public engines. While manual registration is not difficult on most SEs most people use one of the free or for pay registration services/software as a quick way to submit multiple pages to multiple search engines.

Registration Tips

• Always read and follow a search engines rules and regulations before submitting.

Search engine ranking refers to where a page falls in the results returned by a SE for a given keyword phrase. Search engines use a scoring algorithm to rate results based on how often and where a keyword appears on a page. For example, if a keyword appears in the title tags it will rate higher then if the same keyword appears in the header tags which will rate higher then in normal body text. If the keyword appears in all three it will generally be rated higher then if it appeared in each one.

Search engine indexing describes the process of reading a web page and extracting the content into a database. The term is usually used to describe if a page is in a search engine database, i.e. if a page is indexed. The term "index" is used synonymously with database, i.e. a page is in the search engine index (database).

Indexing tips

• It is very common for pages that have been indexed by a search engine to fall out of the database. Also called falling out of a search engine index.

A spider (also known as a crawler) is a program that browses web sites extracting information for search engine databases. Spiders can be summoned to a site through search engine registration or they will eventually find your site by following links from other sites (assuming you have links from other sites).

Spider Tips

• Spiders do not read pages as browsers do. They generally cannot execute JavaScript, including links performed by scripting, or frames links.

Pay per impressions is a typical referral link/banner ad arrangement where the site wanting to purchase advertising space pays the hosting site for each time it displays the ad. Typically, prices are set per one thousand exposures. Software is added to the hosting web server to track the number of impressions displayed.

Further Reading