For those new to SEO it can be a difficult task understanding the language that most experienced webmasters or SEO experts would use. This is a simple list of some the most commonly used words.
Anchor text – the text that is visible to a user in a link. Eg ‘webmaster‘ is an anchor text. When you click on the text, it takes you to www.servertake.com.
Back link (backlink, incoming link) – an incoming link to a website from another another website. Backlinks are important for a good Page Rank
Blackhat SEO methods – using methods that do not follow best practises guideline such as google webmaster guidelines to manipulate search engine rankings. Eg cloaking (see cloak) and keyword stuffing.
Cloak – a blackhat method by which a search engine spider is shown different content to the one seen by human users. This method is greatly disliked by search engines and can result in a ban.
Duplicate content – two or more webpages or websites having the same content. Duplicate content should be avoided.
Indexed Pages – webpages that are shown by search engines in its results. To see which pages are indexed for a particular site type in
Keyword – search term that a user enters into a search engine.
nofollow – an attribute where search engines are directed not to count a certain link towards a backlink. This is useful to avoid spammers who try to build backlinks. rel=”nofollow’ should be added to the source code for which ever links you do not want the search engines to follow.
Link Exchange – a reciprocal deal with another webmaster to place your links on each others pages.
Pagerank – (PR) a value given by google to webpages based on their popularity and usefullness. The method used to calculate pagerank is unknown, however link building is a good way to increase your page rank
Sandbox - the time frame from when the a webpage is published to when it is listed on the search engine results page.
robots.txt – a text file that directs search engine spiders as to which pages to crawl and which not to.
SERP – Search Engine Ranking Page
PR – Page Rank
GYM – Google, Yahoo, Microsoft (the big three search engines)
