SEO and PR
SEO Terms Defined Part 1
Written by Charles Mburugu for Gaebler Ventures
Part 1 of 2-Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become an essential tool for every online business. However, for many business owners, marketing managers, and even webmasters, it is still a mystery. This is partly because it's a new and rapidly evolving field, and also due to the fact that SEO terminologies are not easily understood by the average person. What are the common terms used in SEO and what do they mean?
This glossary seeks to explain specialist SEO terms in ordinary English.
Algorithm
A complicated mathematical formula used by search engines to evaluate the importance and relevance of websites and rank them in their search results. Such algorithms are well kept secrets since they are vital to the objectivity of search engines. The algorithm attracts relevant results, relevant results bring more users, and the result is more advertising revenue.
Article PR
This refers to submission of free reprint articles to several article distribution sites and articles submission sites so as to increase your site's Google PageRank and search engine ranking. Like conventional public relations, article PR also gives a sense of authority since your articles are published widely. And since you are freely dispensing knowledge and proving your expertise, you build trust and loyalty with your readers.
Article submission sites
These are websites used as storage areas of free reprint articles. This is where authors can submit articles at no cost, and where webmasters can get free articles to use on their websites. Article submission websites create revenue by selling advertising space.
Backlink
A text link to your site from another website.
Copy
The words which are used on your website
Copywriter
A professional writer with skills in writing advertised copy (engaging, compelling words promoting a specific service or product).
Crawl
Google locates pages on the internet and records their details by sending out 'robots' or 'spiders'. These robots crawl from site to site and page to page by following text links. For spiders, links are like doors.
Domain name
A virtual website address, such as www.businessname.com. This is what people type in to reach your site. It is also what is used as the address in any backlinks.
Flash
A technology used to produce animated web pages
Ezine
An electronic magazine. Many publishers of ezines are very desperate for content and will easily publish helpful, well-written articles and give you credit as the author, as well as include a link to your site.
Google PageRank
How Google rates a website's importance. All sites are given a mark out of 10. The PR for any site can be viewed by downloading the Google Toolbar.
HTML
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a coding language used to generate much of the information on the internet. Web browsers interpret the HTML code and show the page that the code describes.
Keyword
A word which your clients search for, and which you use often on your site so as to be relevant to those searches. This is known as keyword targeting. Many websites target 'keyword phrases' since single keywords are very generic and are unlikely to rank high.
Charles Mburugu writes for us from his home in Nairobi. He has a graduate degree in Business Management from Kenya Institute of Management. He is interested in writing about branding, CSR and intellectual property.
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