Algorithm
An algorithm is a set of finite, ordered steps for solving a mathematical problem. Each Search Engine uses a proprietary algorithm set to calculate the relevance of its indexed web pages to your particular Query. The result of this process is a list of sites ranked in the order that the search engine deemed most relevant. Search engine algorithms are closely guarded in order to prevent exploitation of algorithmic results. Search algorithms are also changed frequently to incorporate new data and improve relevancy.

Algorithmic Results
Algorithmic results are the ranked listings search engines provide in response to a Query. They are often referred to as Organic Listings in contrast to Paid Listings because their rank is based on relevancy rather than advertising revenue paid to the search engine. However, paid listings do appear alongside algorithmic results in many search engines, provided they are relevant. Improving a website’s unpaid algorithmic results is known as Natural Search Engine Optimization.

Alt Tag/Alt Text
An alt tag is the HTML text that appears while an image is loading or when a cursor is positioned over an image. Alt text is useful in Search Engine Optimization because it can include keywords that a search engine looks for in response to a query.

Analytics
Analytics refers to all the technology, programming, and data used in Search Engine Marketing to analyze a website’s performance or the success of an Internet marketing campaign.

Anchor Text
Also known as link text, anchor text is the visible, clickable text between the HTML anchor and tags. Clicking on anchor text activates a Hyperlink to another web site. Anchor text is very important in Search Engine Optimization because search engine algorithms consider the Hyperlink keywords as relevant to the Landing Page.

Backlinks
Also known as back link, backward link, or inbound links, backlinks are all of the links on other websites that direct the users who click on them to your site. Backlinks can significantly improve your site’s search rankings, particularly if they contain Anchor Text keywords relevant to your site and are located on sites with high Page Rank.

Banned
Also known as delisted or blacklisted, a banned site is a URL that has been removed from a search engine’s Index, typically for engaging in Black Hat SEO. Banned sites are ignored by search engines.

Banner Ad
A banner ad is a rectangular graphic advertisement. Banner ads are one of the commonest forms of online advertising. Their sizes vary, but most measure 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Clicking on a banner ad will direct you to the advertiser’s website or a designated Landing Page.

Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is the term used for unethical or deceptive optimization techniques. This includes Spam, Cloaking, or violating search engine rules in any way. If a search engine discovers a site engaging in black hat SEO it will remove that site from its Index.

Blacklisted
Also known as banned or delisted, a blacklisted site is a URL that has been removed from a search engine’s Index, typically for engaging in Black Hat SEO. Blacklisted sites are ignored by search engines.

Broken Link
Also known as a dead link, a broken link is a link that no longer points to an active destination or Landing Page. Search engines dislike broken links. Keeping all of your site’s links active is an important part of ongoing optimization.

Click Fraud
Click Fraud is the illegal practice of manipulating Cost-Per-Click (CPC) or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) revenue sharing agreements. There are numerous types of click fraud, but in a typical scenario the webmaster of a site that earns money from each click of the advertising links it publishes pays individuals a small fee to click those links. Companies thus pay for advertising to clients who had no intention of buying from them. Some companies have filed class action lawsuits alleging that ad publishers such as Google and Yahoo! have failed to aggressively confront click fraud because they benefit from increased CPC revenue.

Click-Through
Click-through refers to a single instance of a user clicking on an advertising link or site listing and moving to a Landing Page. A higher Click-Through Rate (CTR) is one of the primary goals of Search Engine Optimization.

SEO Basics

1. Understanding Business.

# What is your business all about?

# How is it going to Operate?

# Target audience (Global/Local)

# Opportunity

# Compitetor study operating in same business.

# Core competence

2. Target Keywords.

# Getting a good list of keywords.

# This is something that will directly reflect your efforts(targeting wrong keyword will get all your efforts in vain)

3. WEB Designing.

# Navigation

# Page Size

# Look & Feel

# Inter Linking

# HTML Code Validation

4. Meta Tags & Content.

# Title# Description

# Keywords

# Content

5. Directories.

Search engines need a starting point. That's why human edited directories are important to be listed in. There are 3 major web directories at this moment:

DMOZ - Free listings.

The Yahoo directory - Free listings for non-commercial sites.

Looksmart (Zeal directory) - Free listings for non-commercial sites

6. Link Building.

When setting up the linking architecture of your site keep in mind that links are of two kinds:

1. Internal links 2. External links

Internal links are the constituent elements of the way your web site is organized. They are the bridges by which one page of your site connects to the other & more importantly outlines, which page of your site will connect to which other page/s.

External links on the other hand are the community tools by which the online community votes for you by linking to you. The more popular you get is a function of more incoming links into your website. This in turn is interpreted by search engines as a measure of your online value creation.

To enjoy a good pagerank for the pages it is imperative to have proper linking amongst various pages within the website as well as having good quality external links coming into the page.

A factor to keep in mind while linking is that one should focus on quality links & not always quantity. Consider that, there is a huge difference from a link, to your page from another page with a good pagerank than a page from a low pagerank.

Glossary of SEO Terms

These are common knowledge terms and the definitions and/or explanations have been gathered from various places.

GoogleBot - The name of the spider used by Google.

Google Dance - used to describe the index update of Google. A time when fluctuations in ranking appear. Google's index update occurred on average once per month.

PR or Page Rank - the actual, real, page rank for each page as calculated by Google. This can range from 0.15 to billions.

HTML - Hypertext Markup Language - the (main) language used to write web pages.

HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol - the (main) protocol used to communicate between web servers and web browsers (clients).

Yahoo Slurp - The name of the spider used by Yahoo.
Scooter - The name of the AltaVista search engine's spider

Title - The text contained between the start and end HTML head tags of the source code. The title is usually at the top of the window when viewing the source code. The Title text forms the link to the URL page from the search engine results, and search engines pay special attention to the title text when indexing any page in your web site.

CPC - Cost per Click
PPC - Pay per Click
CPM - Cost per thousand

Spider Food - a term used for a site map, or another page of a web site that contains all the links in a web, allowing the search engines spider to index all the pages in a web.

Inbound Link - A hypertext link to a particular page from elsewhere, bringing traffic to that page. Inbound links are counted to produce a measure of the page popularity. Searches for the inbound links to a page can be made on AltaVista, Google and HotBot.

Reciprocating Link - An exchange of links with a web site that is similar in services.

Dynamic Content - Information on web pages which is changed automatically, by database content or user information. Search engines will currently index dynamic content, although they will not usually index URLs which contain the ? character.

robots.txt - A text file stored in the top level directory of a web site to deny access by robots to certain pages or sub-directories of the site. Only robots which comply with the Robots Exclusion Standard will read and obey the commands in this file. Robots will read this file on each visit, so that pages or areas of sites can be made public or private at any time by changing the content of robots.txt before resubmitting to the search engines.

Why is SEO required?

Millions of web pages are included in search engine index. Each search engine process "keyword / phrase" queries more than million of times per day. When searching for any product or service, usually, people go no deeper than 3-4 pages. That's why its important that potential customer (or information seekers) visit your website. If your web page is embedded deep in the search results, it is unlikely that anyone visit your web page. Therefore, you need to improve the visibility of your web site (or web pages contained in your web site).

What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a process, in which a web page or a web site is optimized for search engines. By optimization, a search engine such as Google finds the page, includes it in the index, and displays the page when someone is searching for information.

Methods not to be used in SEO

* Hidden text or links.

* Misleading keywords or keyword stuffing.

* Cloaked pages or sneaky or deceptive redirects(keyword-stuffed landing pages that quickly redirect to the real page).

* Doorway pages made only for search engines.

* Duplicate sites or pages.

* Monthly submissions to search engines (a waste of time and money).

* Mainly Optimizing Meta keyword tags (a waste of time and money) but important for some directory listings.