Backlinks
A backlink, as the name implies, is a link back to your website. Creation of high quality backilinks are a very important way to increase your site's search engine's rankings.
Blackhat Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
The opposite of White Hat SEO. The term was coined after the bad guys in old western movies who always wore black hats. http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4232550400/tt0070909. This term refers to dishonest, immoral, illegal or unacceptable methods of fooling a search engine in order to gain high rankings. There are heavy penalties for employing black hat SEO techniques. Generally black hat SEO tactics:
For more information what is considered bad practice you can read the Google webmasters guide: see http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=3576...
Blog
A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging_timeline
Conversion Goal
A conversion goal is any page that you wish to designate as a end point to a process. For example a conversion goal may be when the user to reaches the "Thank you for purchasing" page. Once this page has been reached, can consider the goal has been achieved.
Conversion Tracking
A conversion occurs when your conversion goal has been reached. Tracking conversions allows you to calculate a return on your investment (ROI), for example you can compare the amount spent on Pay Per Click advertising to the money you have received from the sales that the PPC campaign has generated.
Ecommerce
Ecommerce or e-commerce is the ability to sell products and/or services through the internet.
Forum
A Forum is an area on the internet for online discussion. Forums allow multiple users to post entries to a website about different topics. Each topic usually has it own thread or topic within the forum.
Funnel pages
Funnel pages are pages that represent a step in the process of achieving a conversion goal. For example to get from A to C you have to first go through funnel page B. Funnel pages are useful on ecommerce sites for analyzing where people stop on their route to purchase, or abandon their purchase. Funnel pages can quickly highlight problems with shopping cart or payment gateway systems.
Google Anayltics
Google Analytics is an invaluable statistics, conversion tracking and monitoring tool that tracks the activity of your website. Anayltics provides industry standard reporting, for the management of PPC and organic online campaigns.
Keyword Stuffing
A black hat SEO practice of trying to fill a web page with a large number of keywords in an attempt to achieve a higher ranking. Keyword stuffed pages are often very difficult to read, and diminish user experience.
Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI)
Keywords and phrases can be rated using a Keyword Efficiency Index (KEI). KEI is the ratio between the total number of searches on average for a given keyword or phrase, and the total number of results pages which contain those keywords or phrases. The KEI is the balance between the competition of search results and the number of searches made with those keywords. Cascade Digital employ a number of techniques to evaluate KEI and deliver clients a best fit for their campaign.
(The) Long Tail
Long tail keyword phrases typically contain more than 3 words in length. Long tail keywords are more specific than frequently searched generic phrases and offer greater accuracy with their results. Because the long tail search is very specific, the conversion rate for long tail searches is generally much higher given the results are more likely to be what the user is searching for.
On page SEO
On Page SEO refers to the features of a web page which affect the ranking of a website. Important items such as Title tags, meta descriptions, headings and body text. Websites which are easily accessible, well laid out, have non malicious code, and relevant content, generally do very well for organic indexing by search engine spiders.
Off page SEO
Off Page SEO refers to external factors which affect the ranking of your website. Off page factors are generally concerned with the quality of inbound links. Off-Page SEO is critical in achieving top rankings for all the popular search engines.
Page Cloaking
Cloaking is a black hat SEO technique which displays content to a search engine spider which is different to a normal person viewing the site. This practice can get you banned from some search engines. An example of cloaking software is Phantom Cloaker, but beware, your site will be banned very quickly and is not seriously recommended for sustainable web strategies.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per click refers to paid for adverts and listings such as Google AdWords. The costs associated with PPC far out-weigh those of SEO, however PPC can produce instant results. SEO results cannot be guaranteed and take longer to come to fruition.
Page Rank
The Page Rank algorithm is the basis for Google's search results. PageRank is a measure of your sites credibility, importance and content. Generally your page rank can be increased by adding more quality one-way external links to your website.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video – in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content quickly and automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI (often referred to non-technically as a URL) into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engine optimisation is the procedure of making a website rank as highly as possible on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) for a given search term or phrase. Search Engine Optimisers are the specialists who through the use of tools and techniques, can elevate a site's organic search ranking.
Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
Search engine results pages are the pages which are displayed by a search engine for any given keyword or phrase.
White Hat Seo
White hat SEO is a term associated with ethical and sustainable techniques for enhancing a web page's organic search ranking. The term was coined in relation to the good guys from western movies, who always wore white hats. White hat techniques are seen as honest, legal and adhering to search engine webmaster rules.