Internet Marketing Terminology R to Z

Use this list of marketing and Web site development terms as a reference to help you to better understand the world of Internet marketing, search engine marketing and Web development.

Terminology A to G Terminology H to Q Terminology R to Z

reciprocal link: The exchange of links between two Web sites. The result is that each site may be given a boost in their link popularity ratings, which can affect their rankings.

relevancy: A subjective measure of how closely the results of a search match the keywords used for the search. All search engine algorithms are designed with an attempt to deliver relevant results to users.

robot: A metaphor for a search engine algorithm used to analyze and rank Web pages. Also known as a spider, a Web bot or a crawler.

robots.txt: A text file found in the root directory of a server that tells a spider which files or directories to exclude from the search engine's search. Also know as the robots exclusion file.

robots exclusion: A reference to the robots.txt file.

rollover: A technique using JavaScript that swaps an image or text when a user moves their mouse pointer over an area on a Web page. Also called a mouseover.

root directory: The highest level in a Web site's directory hierarchy. The home page and the most important Web pages should reside in this directory.

search engine: A service that provides search results to users based upon the keywords that they use in the search. There are basically three types of services that are typically called search engines. A true search engine has developed their own algorithms that they use to locate, analyze and rank Web pages. A directory uses teams of humans to view and rank a Web site. There are also search services that utilize the results of other search services and may apply their own ranking criteria to the results.

search engine marketing (SEM): A broad term that covers all aspects of marketing related to promoting a Web site or product through search engines and directories. This includes both natural (organic) listings and paid listings.

search engine optimization (SEO): The modification of a Web site using search engine friendly techniques in order to maximize the site's chances for a favorable natural listing in search engines.

SERP: Search Engine Results Page. This is simply the page of results displayed after doing a keyword search.

server log: A text file that records each request for a file made to a Web server. The requests include both Web pages and other objects, such as images. There are several different formats used for server logs. A typical entry in a server log looks like this:

192.168.0.100 - -
[05/Jan/2004:23:17:38 +0000]
"GET /images/trslogo.gif HTTP/1.1" 200 2739
"http://www.topranksolutions.com"
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)".

The first section of the log entry is the IP address of the computer or network requesting the file. The second is the date and time of the request. The third is the request to retrieve an image file using HTTP protocol version 1.1. A status code of 200 indicates that the request was successful. 2739 indicates the size in bytes of the file requested. The next is a referrer field, which tells us which site sent the request. The last segment indicates that the computer making the request is using Internet Explorer 6.0 and Windows 2000 (Windows NT 5.1).

server-side language: A programming language executed on a Web server and used to process information or create dynamic Web pages.

spam: With respect to search engines, spam is any technique that is used to trick or deceive a search engine algorithm into awarding a Web page a higher ranking than it would normally receive. Examples of spam include keyword stuffing, cloaking and doorway pages.

speed optimization: Refers to the reworking of a Web page code in order to make it more efficient, which results in faster page rendering in a browser. Speed optimization requires an in-depth knowledge of browsers, servers, HTML and other Web programming languages. Proper speed optimization requires hand-coding of Web pages and cannot be achieved though the use of WYSIWYG tools.

spider: A search engine algorithm. Also know as a robot, crawler or Web bot.

spider trap: A Web page that has a link to the page, but none exiting the page, can trap a search engine algorithm because there is no trail for the algorithm to follow. Thus, the algorithm or spider can become trapped and abandons the indexing of the site. The improper use of frames in Web page design can create spider traps.

splash page: Typically a visually-rich Web page that is used as an introduction to a Web site. Most splash pages use creative animation to grab a user's attention. Today, many splash pages are created using Macromedia's Flash technology.

static pages: A standard HTML Web page script. Static pages always display the same content, therefore making it static or unchanging.

submission: The act of submitting a Web page address to a search engine or directory with the hope that the search engine or directory will review the page and include it in its database.

tag: An HTML command that tells a browser what to do or how to display something.

user interface (UI): The visual look-and-feel aspects of a Web site or computer program. This includes the navigational elements, the color scheme, page layout and general user friendliness of a Web site. The UI is literally the visual interface between a user and a computer system.

VBScript: A Microsoft scripting language. VBScript is commonly used as a server-side language with ASP dynamic Web page technology.

Web bot: A search engine algorithm. Also know as a robot, spider or crawler.

Web designer: Usually refers to the person who uses creative design skills to develop the images, colors and visual aspects of the user interface for a Web site. A Web designer frequently has little knowledge of programming languages and typically uses WYSIWYG tools to develop a Web site.

Web developer: A person who is experienced with writing Web page code using HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Java, VBScript, PHP or any of the numerous programming languages used to develop Web sites. A Web developer is the technology person who builds the functionality and database interactivity into a Web site. SEO professionals need to have a thorough understanding of Web architecture and programming languages.

WYSIWYG tools: Pronounced "wizzy-wig". These are software programs that allow a Web designer or Web developer to create Web sites without requiring knowledge of HTML, JavaScript or CSS. Some of the more popular tools are Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe GoLive.

XHTML: eXtesible Hyper-Text markup Language. The current version of HTML. XHTML uses XML standards and relies heavily on CSS in the development of Web pages. Even though it has technically replaced HTML, it is has not been widely adopted due to concerns about compatibility with older browsers. It's use, however, is growing rapidly as the use of older browsers fades away. XHTML offers many advantages that speed the rendering of a Web page in a browser.

Terminology A to G Terminology H to Q Terminology R to Z

AdSense, Adwords, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Google, and GoLive, Microsoft and Overture are registered trademarks of Google, Google, Macromedia, Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Microsoft and Overture respectively.