01.12
This is a glossary of common SEO, web copywriting and internet marketing terms.
As you can see, it’s a work in progress. If you have any suggestions, give me a shout.
A
Alt tag
Usually used for images in HTML, to define an “alternate text” when a web browser can’t show the image.
B
Bing
Bing is Microsoft’s search engine. Previous names include MSN search and Live Search. In 2009, Yahoo and Microsoft announced that Bing will replace the Yahoo search engine.
Bot
A bot (also known as a web crawler, robot or spider) is an automated computer programme which visits pages on the web. Search engines use bots to take a copy of the key information on a web page for their databases (indexes). The Google bot is called Googlebot.
Browser
A browser (web browser) is a computer programme used to view websites (you’re using one now if you haven’t already guessed). Popular browsers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome.
C
Chrome
Chrome is a web browser developed by Google.
D
Description
See meta-description.
G
Google Chrome
See Chrome.
Google local business center
Google local business center allows you to add your business to Google’s local listings. It’s totally free and means your business will appear in Google Maps and on the main Google search engine results pages for related search queries.
M
Meta-description
The meta-description lives in the HTML code of a web page. It looks like this: <meta name=”description” content=”This is the meta-description.”>
The meta-description is meant to be a brief description of the web page’s content.
R
Robot
See bot.
Robots.txt
The robots.txt protocol (also known as the Robots Exclusion protocol and Robot Exclusion standard) allows you prevent most web spiders and web robots from accessing files and pages on your website.
If you want to prevent web robots and spiders from accessing parts of your site, you’ll need to set up a robots.txt file – a simple text file you can create in Notepad – at the root of your site at www.yoursite.co.uk/robots.txt. See my robots.txt.
S
SEO
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the process of making your site more visible in the natural (organic) search results. The aim is usually to maximise visits to your website from search engines.
SERPs
Search engine results pages (SERPs) are the list of web pages you get when you do a search on a search engine. They traditionally consist of links to web pages, with a brief description and the URL of each page.
Spider
See bot.
T
Title (title tag)
The title (also known as a title tag) lives between the <title> and </title> tags in a web page’s HTML code.
The title appear on a web page in the bar or tab at the top of your browser window. It’s also used as the link anchor text to a web page in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
W
Web browser
See browser.