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About Search Engine : A search engine is a database that helps people find information on websites based on a keyword search. Search engines generally use robots called "spiders" or "crawlers" to scan and catalog websites.

About AdWords : The popular paid-advertising system offered by Google.

About AdSense : A program under which a webmaster gives Google permission to display AdWords advertising on his or her site for a cut of click-through charges.

About Algorithm : A mathematical formula used to perform a task or function. Search engines use various algorithms to sort and rank documents.

About Algo: Abbreviation for algorithm.

About Anchor Text: The text used to phrase a link. For example: Back to Home - the blue text is the "anchor text".

About Body Text: The text that appears on a website.

About Content (General): The information contained in a document.

About Content (Fresh Content): New information posted to a document.

About Content (Long Term Content): Content that is not expected to change over time. An example used in this whitepaper is the US Constitution.

About Content (Static Content): Non-changing content.

About Context: An understanding of the topic or meaning of a document.

About Contextual Advertising: Industry term describing the delivery of paid advertising across multiple platforms based on information contained in the document the advertisement appears on.

About Crawler: A crawler is much like a spider except it is programmed to constantly surf the web, following any and all links it comes across. As it visits new websites, it checks its own database to see if the site is listed. If the site is already listed, it makes note of any changes and calculates a search engine ranking for the site. If the site has not been previously listed, the crawler will record all important information, add the website to the database, and assign a ranking to it.

About Database: A database is a repository or storage area for information. In reference to search engines, databases are measured by the number of websites listed on that particular search engine. A database is a collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data.

About Directory: Directories are very much like search engines except they often use live human editors to review and catalog websites submitted to their databases. Most directories sort websites based on topical categories such as Arts & Humanities, or Business & Economics. Yahoo! is the most well known directory.

About Document Profile: A set of characteristics assigned to a unique document based on historic data gathered and compiled over time. Domain Name: The digital address of a website as expressed in hypertext transfer protocol code.

About .dll: Dynamic Link Library, a set of functions that can be executed, or data that can be used by a Windows application.

About Document: A unique web-file of any type being examined by Google.

About Frames: A website design technique used to split the screen into two or more sections. Websites designed using frames are notoriously difficult to promote to search engines without effective website optimization work.

About FTP: File Transfer Protocol

About Googlebombing: A method of forcing a document to rank in the Top position at Google by having multiple links with the same anchor text pointing to that document.

About Googlebot: The proper name of Google's search spider.

About HTML: Acronym: Hypertext Markup Language. A semi-universal protocol language for creating web documents.

About Historic Data: Information compiled over time to provide accurate record of unique events over time.

About Historic Profiles: A set of characteristics ascribed to a document after analysis of Historic Data.

About Host Server: The computer on which a website resides and is made available via the web. Generally host servers are associated with Internet Service Provides.

About HTML: - Hyper Text Mark-up Language is the basic programming code for the web.

About Image: An image is a graphic used in a website. Not every image is a picture. Images can include photos, buttons, banners, and other non-text elements.

About IT: Information Technology, Intelligent Technologies or Internet Technologies (depending on the context used).

About Index (Search Index): The term describing the entire database of documents known to a search engine.

About Index (Page): The first document found on most websites is known as the index page. It can also be named the default page or referred to as the home page.

About Keyword: Words input by search engine users when looking for documents containing information relevant to those words.

About Keyword Phrase: Two or more keywords that might be input by search engine users when looking for documents containing information relevant to those words.

About Keyword Query: A search conducted using keywords.

About Keyword Ratio: The number of keywords in your body text measured against the total number of words in the body text.

About Link: A connector written into the source-code of a document that, when triggered by the site-user, leads to another document on the web. Links generally appear as coloured underlined text however they might also be triggered by images, FLASH, java scripts and drop down menus.

About Link Density: The number of links directed to your website originating from outside sources, combined with the number of links on your website pointing to outside sources.

About Link Popularity: A measure of how many other websites link to your website.

About Link (Backlink): A link directed to a web document from another web document. When plural (backlinks), the term may refer to a list of all links leading to a document or a domain.

About Link (Internal): A connection between two documents in the same web site or domain.

About Link (External): A connection between two web documents housed at separate domains.

About Link (Reciprocal): An agreed upon exchange of links between two web documents or domains. (Site A places a link to Site B so Site B places a link to Site A to reciprocate)

About Meta Tags: Found in the source code (or invisible background) of each web page, meta tags are sets of instructions and/or identifiers for search engine spiders to read which describe the content that is included on your web page. At one time, search engines used this information solely to decide where your web site should be placed within their database. Now search engines use Meta Tags only in part when calculating your web site's ultimate placement. There are two commonly used meta tags, the description and the keyword tags.

About Meta Tag (Description): The description meta tag is used to offer search engines a short paragraph of topical or thematic data. The description is often used to contextualize information found on the page. It might also appear as the descriptive text appearing below the active link on search engine results pages. The description meta tag is considered an essential component of a good SEO campaign.

About Meta Tag (Keywords): The keywords meta tag may or may not be important. While it once carried a great deal of weight, misuse of the tag has led most search engines, including Google to take this tag much less seriously. Nevertheless, it may provide a minor benefit, which in a game of inches might prove extremely important. Moore's Law: An observation made by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 1965 that states the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double every 18-months. This observation has generally held true over the years and continues to dictate assumptions about growth in all facets of the IT industry.

About No Frames: A meta tag used to provide readable information for search engine spiders when a site is designed using frames.

About Optimization: The process of making your website or web page search engine friendly Optimize (Website or Document): To alter a document in order to make the document rank well on search engines under specific keywords or keyword phrases.

About Overture: Overture was the first search tool to use pay-per-click as a business model. Purchased by Yahoo early in 2004, Overture has been integrated into Yahoo Search Marketing Service. They provide contextually driven paid-text advertising on Yahoo and partner sites. At the time this paper was written, the division was still referred to as Overture.

About Pay-per-Click: Pay-per-click search tools allow website managers to bid for placement. Bids are most often measured as an amount per click-through, or each time a user visits a website, the bid amount is extracted from the bidder's account.

About PPC: Acronym: Pay per Click (each time users click a paid advertisement, the advertiser is charged a fee)

About PageRank: A score assigned by Google to document profiles based on what is assumed to be an over-all evaluation of document content and the content of all associated documents.

About Paid Search Advertising: Keyword driven advertising paid for by advertisers. By definition, this may include banner advertising, text-links and other forms of commercial placement however it tends to refer to programs such as Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing Services.

About Placement (SEO): The positioning of an optimized web document or website in the Top10 rankings.

About Portal: A website that offers users access to a number of topic based references. Yahoo and AOL are commonly defined as Portals.

About Promotion Map: Promotion Maps enable search engine spiders and live-directory editors to easily and quickly move through a website. The Promotion Mapping technique is an essential part of the Corporate Placement Packages. Rankings (Search Engine Rankings): Order of placement of a web document or web site on search engine results pages.

About Robot (Search): Another name for search spider. Also referred to as 'bots'.

About Roll-over Image: An image that changes as your mouse moves over it.

About Search: Search describes the act of looking for information using a search engine.

About SERP: acronym: Search Engine Results Page.

About SEO: Acronym: Search Engine Optimization/Search Engine Optimizer. The process or person performing the process of altering a document or website in order to improve search rankings of that document. SEO tends to focus on the organic (natural) or free listings.

About SEM: Acronym: Search Engine Marketing/Search Engine Marketer. Where SEO tends to refer to a process performed for benefit in organic rankings, SEM tends to focus on paid aspects of search advertising.

About Site Map: A set of text links used to direct human visitors or search engine spiders throughout the site.

About Source-code: The computer language, generally modeled from HTML or a derivative, used to create a web document. Source code is often identifiable by the use of the < & > symbols.

About Spam (SEO): Named after the infamous canned luncheon meat, SPAM is the term that refers to search engine optimization techniques that grossly violate the Terms of Services Agreements published by the major search engines. As a term, SPAM can be applied to any unwanted or unwelcome product of Internet Marketing including but certainly not limited to email.

About Spider: A spider is a tool used by search engines to view and rank websites submitted to its search engine. Spiders are electronic robots programmed and used by search engines to find web documents and record information about web documents.

About Spidering: When a spider visits a document it is said to be spidering the document.

About Spidering cycle: The term describing the time between visits by spiders to a document.

About Static Content: Content that tends to remain constant over time.

About Stickiness (Document Elements): Term describing document elements that do not change over time.

About Stickiness (Search): Term describing a document's tendency to remain in a constant place on search engine results pages.

About Submitting to Search Engines: The process of posting websites to search engines.

About Technology: Any non-human device constructed or augmented whose use is dictated by design.

About Theme Site/s: Themed sites are individual web sites that consist of useful, original and relevant content on a specific product or service.

Theme Engines: - Theme Engines are the newest generation of search engines. Basing their site ranking formulas on multiple factors such as relevancy, link densities and textual continuity, theme engines are designed to produce better search results.

Title: The words or phrases placed in the <title> tag of the document source-code. The title is the text that appears as the active link on search engine results pages. The title appears across the very top of your search browser window, (in the area the minimize/maximize buttons are placed.)

Top10: Industry term describing the first ten results found on a search engine results page.

Top 20 Listing: Being in the top 20 generally means that you will be found on one of the first two pages of reference links returned when a set of keywords is entered into a search engine. The majority of search engine users will switch to another search engine if they do not find the results they are looking for in the first 20 references.

Traffic: A term measuring the number of users who visit a document or URL.

Trust Rank: A term used to describe a score assigned by Google to document profiles based on link-evaluation.

URL: Acronym: Uniform Resource Locator, also known as Domain Name.

User: The person visiting a website or using a piece of technology.

Vehicles: Modes of transport from point A to point B.

View-Source: - "View-Souce" means to look at the source-code of a website. To do so, point your mouse to the View option in the top menu bar. Choose source from the drop down menu. The text that appears is the source code of the website.

Web Page: A single document contained in a traditional W3C defined document format and found on the web.

Web Site: A collection of web pages or other content assembled to form a unique entity and housed at the same basic URL.

Web: A network of servers linked together using common protocols. The World Wide Web has become a vast repository of human information and has also provided its billions of users with the instant ability to communicate with other users via networks established using common protocols.

W3C: (acronym) World Wide Web Consortium, the body that sets official standards for coded-content on the web.