Glossary PQRS
PageRank - The variable in Google’s algorithm that measures the number of links going to a website, counting them as “votes” from one site to another. Google looks at the volume of links a page receives and then analyzes the pages that cast the votes. A vote from an “important” page weighs more heavily and helps give those pages a higher PageRank. Pages are ranked from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest.
Page views - The number of times users request a page. Page views are often used in online advertising, where advertisers use the number of page views a site receives to determine where and how to advertise.
Paid inclusion - The process of paying to be included in a search engine or directory. Paid inclusion does not maximize search engine rankings but rather guarantees inclusion of any page or pages that a search engine robot or spider might have missed.
Pay for placement - See Pay per click
Pay per call - A business model for ad listings in search engines and directories that allows publishers to charge advertisers on a per-call basis for each lead (call) they generate. This tactic is effective in tracking and evaluating response to the advertisement.
Pay per click - A type of Internet advertising where companies pay a fee for every visitor that clicks on their text ad, which is usually placed prominently with the organic listings on the SERP. Also called pay for placement and pay for ranking.
PHP - The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor is a programming language that allows Web developers to create dynamic content that interacts with databases. PHP is basically used for developing Web based software applications.
PPC - See Pay per click
PPF - See Pay for placement
PPP - See Pay for placement
PR - See PageRank
Query - A keyword or phrase entered by a searcher to locate information from search engines or directories. The search engine subsequently locates Web pages to match the query and returns the results.
Relative links - An internal link, this specifies the name of the file to be linked to only as it is related to the current website. For example, a relative link from within the aosoft.net website to the page on design would be: <a href=”webdesign.html”></a>. See “absolute links” for a comparison between these two types of links.
Robot -A software program designed by the search engines to read and index your website or page. Entire sites or specific pages can be selectively visited and indexed. Also known as “spider” or “crawler.”
RSS feeds - RSS is a family of XML file formats for Web syndication used by news websites and weblogs to provide items containing short descriptions of Web content together with a link to the full version of the content.
Search engine - A searchable online database of Internet resources. It has several components: search engine software, spider software, an index (database), and a relevancy algorithm (rules for ranking). The search engine software consists of a server or a collection of servers dedicated to indexing Internet Web pages, storing the results and returning lists of pages to match user queries.
Search engine spamming - Deliberately trying to trick the search engines.
SEM (search engine marketing)- Techniques for acquiring website traffic from search engines.
SEO (search engine optimization) - An intricate blend of technology, business acumen, technical skills, marketing and problem solving, to produce higher rankings by the search engines and send more targeted traffic to your site.
SERP (search engine results page) - The page of listings displayed upon completion of a search at a search engine.
Site map - Overview of the navigational structure of a website (a “Table of Contents”) used to orient users and show them the scope of the site. Site maps can be textual or visual. Usually each location is an active link, enabling a user to move directly to that section. Site maps can also be important sources of links for search engine spiders to follow.
Spam - Unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities; electronic “junk mail.”
Spamdexing - Any technique that increases the potential positioning of a site at the expense of the quality of the search engine’s database. Also referred to as “spamming” or search engine spam.
Spider(s) - Also known as a “crawler,” this is a software program designed by the search engines to read and index your website or page. Entire sites or specific pages can be selectively visited and indexed.
Splash page/ splash screen - An initial website page used to capture the user’s attention for a short time as a promotion or lead-in to the site home page or to tell the user what kind of browser and other software they need to view the site.
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) - A security protocol developed by Netscape for commercial transactions on the Internet.
Static URL - The address of a Web page that does not depend on variables provided to the server that delivers it. A static URL normally looks very clean and simple (e.g. www.aosoft.net/marketing <http://www.aosoft.net/marketing> ). A dynamic URL normally looks disorganized and confusing (www.aosoft.net/fnn92j20/f29am/id=21 <http://www.aosoft.net/fnn92j20/f29am/id=21> )
Stop word - Words ignored in a query because they are so commonly used that they aren’t relevant, such as conjunctions, prepositions, and articles such as and, to and a.
Strong tags - A separate code in HTML that tells the browser to render the text in a distinctive heavy, bold fashion with special emphasis. It is similar to the Bold tag.
