Search engines are a vital part of the Internet, and always will be. After all, as the World Wide Web gets increasingly larger and at the same time more integrated than ever before into our modern society, we will need a way to keep up with it all.
And that is the role fulfilled by the search engines, there are many out there for sure, but the biggest and most often used is Google.
Everyone has surely heard of that word, even people who don’t often use the internet know about Google, it has even become a verb all of its own. Such success may have rivals gnashing their teeth, but for us users it’s a boon, so let’s check out some of the terms associated with this titan of the internet:
Adjacent
When the keywords sought in the search query are adjacent
(neighboring) in the text of a web page, this site will
gain a higher ranking than those where the same words are
distant or separated by other words. This helps to heighten
relevancy.
Ads By Google
See below.
AdSense
This is Google’s advertising program for
the web, which is based on the relevancy of ads to the sites
they are placed in.
Advanced Search
This is an option for more information to be given
by the user as to what they are looking for, to help them
to find particular documents or pages quicker.
AdWords
This is the name of the PPC (pay-per-click) advertising
that shows next to (but separate from) the search results
on Google.
Algorithm
This is the differing mathematical formula used
when programming all the various search engines so they
can establish a ranking order for the displayed list of
search results. The word is derived from Algorism, which
is a method of numeration, and itself derived from Al-Khwarazmi;
the name of a ninth century Arabic mathematician.
Allintitle
A search command on Google which is typed in before
a keyword to only show web pages with the specific word
in their title on the search results. (See Title).
Allinurl
Similar to above, but this search command on Google
will show results with whatever keyword used in the URL.
(See URL).
Anchor Text
See Link Text.
Audience Reach (of Search Engines)
This is one of the criteria on which the popularity
of the many different search engines is judged. It is the
percentage of web users which use a particular search engine,
calculated each month.
Bait-And-Switch
Seen as spamming, this is another way of the attempted
manipulating of search engine results pages. Here, what
is called an optimized page is temporarily created which
is highly attractive to spiders, only to be replaced by
the regular web page once the optimized page has gained
a higher ranking in the search engine’s index. (See
Index, Spamdexing, and Spider).
Boolean Operators
These are common words like and, not and or. They
can be utilized to alter the parameters of a search by the
insistence of either an inclusion or exclusion of other
words in the documents or web pages targeted in the search
query. (See below).
Boolean Search
A search query using Boolean operators; apples
and pears, apples not pears, apples or pears, are three
different searches because of the Boolean operators. (See
above).
Bridge Page
See Doorway Page.
Browser
This is the software used for accessing the World
Wide Web through hypertext and hyperlinks. The Microsoft
Internet Explorer is a very commonly used example. (See
Download).
Burst
This stands for both a sudden spurt of interest
in any subject by search engine users; and also an abrupt
increase of web pages that support that interest.
Cached
An option on the results page; this is a web page
as the Googlebot spider found it, and cached it in case
the most recent page at this site is ever unavailable.
Click Through/Click-through or Click-thru
When your search results are displayed, this is
what you do to go to the relevant web page.
Click Tracking
This is a search engine marketing term which denotes
what number of users click a link on a results page, and
how long their subsequent visit to the web site lasts for.
Cloaking
This practice is not tolerated by Google or any
other major search engine. It is where the true content
of a web page that will be seen by users is cloaked or hidden
from the search engine spiders which will have other content
presented to them.
Clustering
This is where only a few pages from any particular
site are displayed on the results for a query (with a link
to more pages) to prevent one or two web sites from hogging
all the top spots in the rankings.
Content Rich
See Keyword Rich.
Crawler
See Spider.
Database
See Index.
Dead Link
This is where a page either no longer exists on
a server or has been moved, whilst still having a link to
its old internet address in a search engine’s result
pages (or elsewhere).
De-Listing
This describes what happens when a site is removed
from Google’s (or any other search engine’s)
index or database. This usually occurs because the owners
of the site have been guilty of some type of spamdexing
or other banned activity designed to increase their ranking
by unfair means. (See Spamdexing).
Description
This is the text that appears alongside the title
and URL of a site on the search results page. (See URL).
Don’t Be Evil
This noble sentiment is Google’s motto.
Doorway Page
These can also be known as a bridge page, landing
page or entry page. Using one is a SEO technique for ranking
well associated with given keywords, which depending on
the method used, can sometimes be considered as spamdexing
by search engines. (See also Keywords, SEO
and Spamdexing).
Download
The sending of information `down’ from a
source like the internet to a pc or other device. Browsers
are used to download web pages into temporary internet files.
(See Browser).
Entry Page
See Doorway Page.
Everflux
This is a way that Google keeps up to date on a
daily basis by refreshing web pages that frequently change,
and so may change a dozen or so times between each Google
Dance. (See Google Dance).
False Drop
A mistake made on the results pages where a site
is listed that is not relevant to the search query.
Froogle
A search engine from Google that only list products.
The name is a play on the word 'frugal.'
G or GG
Both of these are abbreviations sometimes used
for Google.
Gmail
The revolutionary new email service from Google
that is currently under development.
Google Answers
When something really obscure is being sought,
or you just don’t have the time to search yourself
for important info; you can pay a Google researcher to do
it for you.
Google Bombing
The term describes attempts to influence the ranking
of various sites on the results pages by the intentional
misuse of link text. (See Link Text).
Googlebot
The name of Google’s spider. (See Spider).
Google Buttons
You can download these to your browser for free.
Clicking on the search button for example, will enable you
to run a search on any text on a web page that you’ve
just highlighted.
Google Dance
The Google dance is when, near the end of every
month, Google refreshes or updates its database (index).
(See also Everflux and Index).
Google Deskbar
The Google deskbar is a downloadable search box
addition to a desktop that is located in the Windows Taskbar,
allowing for searches and other information without launching
a browser.
Google Directory
An alternative way of doing a search by working
you way through categories of everything on the web.
Google Groups
These are Usenet discussion forums which you can
peruse through to see if you agree with a posting, or not!
Google Image Search
It is said a picture can say a thousand words,
and here hundreds of millions of pictures are indexed and
waiting for your keyword.
Google Juice
This term means all the value that a website has
which enables it to hold a high position in Google’s
ranking structure.
Google Labs
This is where some of the latest ideas from Google
can be tested by users whilst still in development stage,
some of these will be taken up fully and expanded, and some
not.
Google Local
This allows users to combine a search with a specific
geographical area by the input of a zip code, city or state
name. It is currently only available for US locations.
Google Researchers
See Google Answers.
Google Safe Search
This is a way of setting the search results to
filter out any pornographic material; it is found by clicking
on preferences.
Google Toolbar
An add-on that users can add to their browser,
so that they can run searches without having to first visit
Google’s home page. The Google toolbar also contains
other services and information from Google.
Google Washing
This is where a keyword changes its meaning for
most people and so the relevancy of search results and rankings
must also change to fit in.
Google Zeitgeist
A monthly report from Google that shows trends
in user searching habits. Zeitgeist is a German term which
means 'spirit of the time.'
Googol
A name for a number that is 1 followed by one hundred
zeros, the name Google was derived from this word.
Hidden Text
This is a way of increasing keyword targeting by
hiding text in the body of the website so that users cannot
see it but the search engine spiders can. The most frequent
method used is to use a precise match in color between the
keywords and the background, but it is a risky tactic as
it is classed as spamdexing and the spiders are now much
more likely to view it for what it is. (See also Keywords,
Spamdexing and Spider).
I’m Feeling Lucky
This button from Google will send a user straight
to the web page that was top of the results for the search,
without any other results being shown.
Inbound Links
These are links on other sites which lead users
to a particular site, as oppose to outbound links, which
are the reverse. (See Link Popularity and PageRank).
Index
The database of a search engine that contains billions
of web pages. (See below).
Indexer
This is the software that compiles a searchable
database containing billions of web pages and documents
which is utilized every time a user puts in a query. The
indexes or indices of search engines are created by the
spider (crawler) and automatically sorted into rankings
according to the rules of the particular algorithms. (See
Algorithm and Spider).
Invisible Text
See Hidden Text.
Keywords
These are the words used in user queries, and so
are important to be contained in web sites so that search
engines can regard them as relevant and make a match. (See
below).
Keyword Rich
This is where a particular website will gain a
higher ranking in the search engine algorithms because relevant
keywords are often repeatedly contained within the body
of text found there. This means the same thing as keyword
dense and content rich. (See above).
Landing Page
See Doorway Page.
Link Farms
These are web pages that consist only of links
to other sites. They exist in an attempt to gain link popularity
and therefore an increase in search engine ranking. However,
most search engines punish sites that use this tactic by
lowering their place on the results pages.
Link Hoarding
This is a method of optimization that is regarded
as spamming, where web sites try to influence their PageRank
order by getting as many inbound links as possible whilst
at the same time not giving any outbound links. (See
Inbound Links).
Link Popularity
This term stands for the number and value of inbound
links that lead to a particular website from other sites.
(See also Inbound Links and PageRank).
Link Text
Also known as anchor text, this is the wording
used in a text link to a website. Google and some other
search engines do include any keywords that may be in this
link text when their algorithms sort out the ratings of
result pages, whilst other search engines do not.
Match
A match is a document or web page in the search
engine’s database that contains words in the user
query. Considered then to be relevant, it is shown on the
results pages.
Optimization
See SEO.
PageRank
This is the name of the system Google uses to appraise
the link popularity of a page of a web site. (See also
Inbound Links and Link Popularity).
Phrase Search
This is a search that uses phrases rather than
keywords. For the search engine to make a match, the words
in the phrase must appear both in the right order and next
to one another. On most search engines, simply flanking
the phrase with quotation (speech) marks will set off a
phrase search. (See Match).
Proximity
See Adjacent.
Query
Every time anyone types anything into a search
box, this is called a search query.
Ranking
Worth everything to web sites, it controls in what
order web pages are listed on search engines. Sites will
try to improve their ranking by hook or by crook, as most
users will not go too far down the results pages that show
in response to their query.
Search Within Results
A way of narrowing down the search results offered
up by putting in a new query that is related to a previous
one.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
These are many ways that are used in an attempt
to get web sites a higher ranking in the results pages of
search engines. Some optimization methods are accepted by
Google and others, and others are not. The latter are considered
spamming and may lead to the site being banned.
SERPS
This stands for Search Engine Results Pages. They
are the displayed results to a query that are sorted and
ranked according to relevancy.
Spamdexing
A term derived from `spamming’ and `indexing.’
This refers to the various techniques that exist for the
misuse of search engines. This is often attempted for reasons
of gaining an undeserved advantage in rankings for the particular
web sites, but can also be done for other reasons as well;
such as harming rivals or misleading and misdirecting web
users for a number of reasons.
Spamdexing can also happen by accident, if webmasters/webmistresses do not fully understand the submission rules.
Google and other search engines have a number of ways of detecting these techniques, which if successful, lead to a lessening of the relevancy and accuracy of the results pages. So any use of them can lead to sites being penalized or banned by de-listing.
Spamming
See above.
Spider
Also known as a crawler, this is the automated
search engine software that constantly browses the internet
to collect what it finds and deliver it to an indexer, which
then sorts and ranks everything according to the controlling
algorithms for the index or database of a search engine.
Google’s spider is known as the Googlebot. (See Algorithm
and Index).
Submission/Submitting
This is when a website is added to a search engine’s
database by the process of telling a spider about it. (See
Spider).
Submission Rules
Search engines like Google and others have rules
which control how a site is to be submitted.
Submission Services
Some web sites use these to help them with their
SEO (Search Engine Optimization). But they should be careful
as some service providers will use spamdexing methods which
if detected will result in the sites being punished or banned
by the search engines. (See also SEO and Spamdexing).
Title
Every web page has a title, and this is what appears
on the title bar uppermost on a browser window.
URL (Uniform/Universal Resource Locator)
This is a unique internet address that all web
sites and pages must have in order to be found and visited.
So that is some of the terms associated with Google and the field of search engines. A must use for us in the ever enlarging world wide web as we search for whatever we are interested in, or feel we might be.
From A-Z and everywhere in between, you might be looking for wine or weddings or maybe the best recommended wine for weddings. Whatever it is; just Google it!
About The Author
Matt Jacks is a successful freelance writer providing valuable
tips and advice for those looking for those looking to create
an online income while working from home using their computer,
affiliate programs and anyone interested in locating one
of the Net's best affiliate programs. His numerous articles
offer moneysaving tips and valuable insight on a wide variety
of topics.
This "Glossary of Google Terms & Definitions" reprinted with permission.