HTML Document Definitions

Search engine optimization requires at least a functional knowledge of HTML. Terms used throughout this site include: meta tags, title tags, and body text. These are basic elements of an HTML document. You can get information about these elements here.

Search Engine Definitions

A search engine is a program that collects pages and their content, ranks the pages for different queries using an algorithm, and displays the results when a user submits a query. The program that collects the pages is often called a spider. When a search engine puts a page into its database so that it may be displayed in results, the page is said to be indexed. A search engine is different from a directory. A directory is a human-edited, categorized list of pages. Search engines are automated; directories are built and edited by humans. The major search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. There are several useful search operators that SEOs commonly use.

Link Popularity

A major component of search algorithms is link popularity. Link popularity is a measure of the number, quality, and relevance of links to a site. Links to a site are called back-links. A large number of high quality back-links tells search engines that your site is an authoritative source with excellent content.