Jargon Buster
Alt Attribute – The alt attribute (or alternative text) is used when the image/source cannot be accessed, also used for ‘ease of access’
Anchor Text - The visible words used in a clickable link
Article Directory - An online databaseof articles submitted by various external webmasters and authors, usually arranged into categories
Back-Link – A link to a particular website on the World Wide Web
Black-Hat SEO - Any search engine optimisation techniques whichcould beseen as unethical, misleading or in breech on Search Engines’ Terms of Use
Blog – An online platform for an individual to write content, usually a commentary
Bookmarking – A locally stored ‘Favourite’website, where the location is referenced.
Bookmarking (social~) – A method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Unlike file sharing, the resources themselves aren’t shared, merely bookmarks that reference them
Crawl(ers) – (also known as Bots) Crawling is the process of a search engine methodically searching the web for links and content, used during indexing.
HTML / XHTML – Language which tells websites how to look and what to display
Indexing – When a site is listed within a search engines ‘catalogue’, i.e. your site can be found/accesses through a search engine.
Key Words – Specific words which directly relate to a website’s content, used to summarise the website for SEO
Meta Tag (data) – HTML or XHTML coding which provide data about a webpage and its content
Ranking – How high in the list a particular website is when a user searches for the website’s key words
Reciprocal Link – A link placed on your website as ‘payment’ for your link being placed on another site (often
required by web directories)
Search Engine – A platform to search the World Wide Web for specific content, results are usually presented in a list format (see SERPs)
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – The process of improving ranking in search engines results list
Search Listings (organic) – The list of results found by a search engine relating to your search term
Search Listings (sponsored) – The list of results which are paid for, by companies wishing to advertise their business
Search Term – The words a web user types into a search engine, usually a website aims to be found for particular search terms
SERPs – Search engine results pages – list of results returned by a search engine
Social Bookmarking – Similar to an individual’s web browser book marks, but available to the public
Social Networking – Sites such as Facebook which connect friends or groups with similar interests
URL - Uniform Resource Locator,in this context means the’address’ where a website can be found
Web Master – The person responsible for running the technical side of a web site
Website Optimisation – The process of ensuring a website maximises rankings
