SEO Glossary

Banner Ad

Definition: Banner ads are one of the commonest forms of online advertising usually rectangular . Their sizes vary, but web design guidelines recommend ones measuring 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. By clicking a banner advert you will be directed to the advertiser's website or their selected Landing Page.

Black Hat SEO

Definition: Black hat SEO is the term used for unethical or deceptive optimization techniques. This may include Spam, Cloaking, or a violation of a search engine's rules in any way.

Blacklisted

Definition: 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.

Bounce rate

Definition: a.) In web analytics, the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing a page. b.) In email marketing, the percentage of emails in a marketing campaign that are returned to sender (hence bounce).

Broken Link

Definition: Also known as a dead link, a broken link is a link that is no longer pointing 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. There are a number of good link validators out there.

Buzzword

Definition: A fashionable word or phrase that is used by salesmen ,politicians ( need we say more) and business people who need to look and sound like they know what they are talking about.

Cascading style sheets (CSS)

Definition: Is a data format which is used to separate style from structure on a Web page. CSS addresses many of the trials and tribulations of the old style HTML. The older tags such as , muddle Web page source code and make for rigid web sites. With CSS, style information can be centralized. This centralization leads to increased power and flexibility. CSS's most common use as an application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML. With CSS, designers are able to use tags to reference a certain style rather than having to describe it at each occurrence. Therefore when a style needs to be changed, only the referenced declarations would need to be changed, and not all of the occasions where it has been used. CSS information can be contained on a Web page, called from an external file, or even both. For sites with many style declarations, the centralized version i.e. external file, offers the most probable efficiency gains in terms of a website's management. Before CSS, nearly all of the presentational attributes of HTML documentation was contained in the HTML markup. As well as all font colors, the different background styles and element alignments. Sizes and borders had to be clearly described, and often repeated, within the HTML code. CSS allows authors to move much of that information to a separate style, making for considerably simpler HTML markup.

Click Fraud

Definition: Click Fraud is the highly unethical and 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 what so ever of buying from them. A sore point in the industry which led at one time to a class action against top search engines for not doing enough to curb the practice as they were earning $'s.

Click Through

Definition: Is when a user clicks on an advertisers link or site listing and is directed to the desired Landing Page. A higher Click-Through Rate (CTR) is one of the primary goals of Search Engine Optimization.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

Definition: This is the percentage of users who click on an advertising link or search engine site listing out of the total number of people who see it, i.e. 2 click throughs out of100 viewers is a 2% CTR,(the industry norm).