SEO Terms And What They Actually Mean

Here a list of SEO termsthis is a basic explanation of the many terms you will come across during your blogging,the terms are geared towards the newcomer but some of you experts may want to take a look to refresh your memory as well.Meta Description Tag: The tag present in the header of a web page which is used to provide a short description of the contents of the pageSearch Engine: An computerized index of the web pages; creating a search able database. Examples are AltaVista, Google.Keyword: A word or phrase which is used when searching for a website in the search engines or directories. It is these words or phrases that webmaster use when describing or explaining the content of their website.Meta Keywords Tag: The tag present in the header of a web page which lists words which represent the content in the body of the page.Keyword Density: Represents the frequency these keyword words appear in a page or in an area of a page. It is a critical issue for search engine ranking-the more often the keyword or phrase appears in a page, the higher its search engine ranking. If repeated too often though, it could lead to the page being penalized for spamming.Pay Per Click Search Engine: A search engine in which the ranking of the sites is determined by the amount paid for each click from that search engine to the site.Portal: Are basically directories, many have added features such as news, browser based email, online calendars and reminders, fax services, and chats and discussion forumsVortal: Is simply a portal centered around a specific issue.Search Engine Placement/Optimization/Positioning: The work of trying to ensure that a website ranks high in the search engines.Directory: An index of web pages, compiled by people and organized more by topic or theme. Examples are Yahoo,About.Spamming: It is a procedure of abusing the normal search engine ranking techniques, such as using hidden text, excessive repetition of a keyword, etc. This term is also used when describing the practice of sending unsolicited bulk email.Link Popularity: The number of sites which link to a particular site. Many search engines use link popularity as a factor in determining the search engine ranking of a website.Reciprocal links/link exchanges: The process where two webmasters agree to show the other's link on their website.Link Building: The process of creating inbound links to owns website. This can be done reciprocal links, being listed in e-zines, newsletters, directories, search engines, etc.Link Exchange Program: There are many variations but most normally refers to a sign-up program where webmasters agree to host and link to a members-only links page.Link Farm: A recent term used to describe some link exchange programs. These programs are nothing more than random links on a page and really do not help one popularity. Can be considered spamming.Link Management: The process of organizing and maintaining a website's reciprocal links. Normally a paid service. LinksManager .com and Links4Trade.com are two examples

How to Controlling the Googlebot

How to control what gets indexed by Google and when?That is the question. Most of the time, we want Google to snarf up as many pages as possible. In my own experience, I can think of a few times when indexing was not something I wanted and I had to go back to Google to actually have pages removed.In the immortal words of Darren Rowse, there’s a tangent to follow: In my case, a church website I run inadvertently had information about missionaries that were in sensitive areas of the world and information about them actually placed them in danger. While I typically wanted information about the church and functions of the church indexed for people to find, I did not want this information indexable. While I spun my wheels to correct the sensitivie information, I realized that anyone in the world could find enough information about these people via Google that I had to resort to Google’s url removal tool.Matt Cutts provides a concise and link-filled guide to information to control the Googlebot’s indexing. Though details can be found at Matt’s site, here is a short rundown:At a site or directory level, use .htaccess to add password protection.At a site or directory level, make use of a robots.txt file.At a page level, use the noindex
tag.At a link level, use a nofollow attribute.If the content has already been crawled, use the Google url removal tool as a last resort.I would add just a point on common sense and intelligent web concepts. There is a saying that says that nothing you do on the internet is anonymous. There is something to be said about thinking before you act. It’s harder to cleanup from a boneheaded mistake such as the one I made for the church whose site I ran, than it is to think before posting anything online. If you don’t want the world to see it, then don’t rely on the mechanisms listed above. Simply don’t post it.

Paid One-way Links:

Paid one-way links are the other form of one-way links. Quality links can be bought or rented at authoritative websites with high PageRanks. In top directories, links can also be bought so that the site gets a higher placement in both the directory and the SERPs.The advantage of buying one-way links is that the site gets better preferences in the directories. If the directories are totally paid directories, then the site is even more benefited because paid directories tend to have less number of sites in each category, hence there is a little bit of chance that the PageRank would be diluted.Of course, increases in PageRank, authority, weight and value and link popularity are obviously there. Paid links can also be used to improve rankings in SERPs. With all these advantages, paid links are no more major targets for search engine optimizers. This is because of the recent declaration by Google that paid links should be reported.Since Google controls 56% of the internet marketing and searches today, the declaration has become a biblical statement. Hence paid links are looked upon as taboos by the white-hat optimizers. Google spokesmen Adam Lasnik and Matt Cutts, in this case, have stated that buying links from high PR sites to draw link juice is being considered as spam and hence spamming should be banned. Although few types of paid links are still clean, most of them have been identified as spam.

Hence, paid links have lost their value as a weapon in search wars. Paid links can also prove to be a burden on the marketing budget of a company. Prices vary from directory to directory and that merged with the cost of a PPC campaign can turn out to be a financial burden. As for example, Yahoo! charges $299 for review before inclusion and there is a chance that a site might get rejected.Thus, even if paid links were an important part of an online marketing strategy before, now they have been devaluated especially after the declaration by Google