Chapter 6: Search Engine Marketing

Meta Tags (robots meta directives)

Pieces of code that provide crawlers instructions for how to crawl or index web page content. Two types: those that are part of the HTML page (like the meta robots tag) and those that the web server sends as HITP headers (such as x-robots-tag).

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ad

Primary type of search engine advertising.

URL Structures

This can impact click-through and visibility. URLs are also used in ranking documents, and those pages whose names include the queried search terms receive some benefit from proper, descriptive use of keywords.

Link Farms

Group of websites that link to one another, thereby boosting ranking.

Meta Description

HTML attributes that provide concise summaries of webpages. They are between one sentence to a short paragraph and appear underneath the blue clickable links in a search engine results page (SERP).

Canonicalization

Happens when two or more duplicate versions of a webpage appear on different URLs. Duplicate content can even appear on multiple websites.

"Know" Information Queries

I need information such as the name of a band or the best restaurant in New York City.

"Do" Transactional Queries

I want to do something, such as buy a plane ticket or listen to a song.

"Go" Navigation Queries

I want to go to a particular place on the internet, such as Facebook or the homepage of the NFL.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Improving the position of your website of the search results to drive traffic without paying.

Organic Search

Inclusion and ranking of sites depends on a more or less unbiased application of a set of rules imposed by the search engine.

Search Engines Function

-Crawling and building an index -Providing search users with a ranked list of the websites they've determined are the most relevant

Canonical Tag

A way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page. Prevents problems cause by identical or "duplicate" content appearing on multiple URLs. Tell search engines which version of a URL you want to appear in search results.

Crawlers/Spiders

Algorithms looking at all the information to find the correct information.

Title Tags

An HTML element that specifies the title of a web page. Displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs) as the clickable headline for a given result, and are important for usability, SEO, and social sharing. Major factor in helping search engines understand what your page is about, and they are the first impression many people have of your page. (65-75 characters)

Paid Inclusion

For a fee, guarantees a website's inclusion in its list of sites, more frequent visits by its web crawler, and suggestions for improving the results of organic searching.

Click Fraud

Fraudulent clicks leading advertisers to pay for the click; hiring offshore firms or bonnets.

Content Farms

Generates large volumes of textual content; attracts viewers and search engine; typically content is not original.

Keyword Advertising

Merchants purchase keywords through bidding; ad shows up based on consumer search for that word.

Keyword Abuse

Misguided effort to manipulate the engines. This includes stuffing [ ] into text, URLs, meta tags, and links. -Does more harm than good

Crawlable Link Structure

One that lets the crawlers browse the pathways of a website - is vital to them finding all the pages on a website.

Network Keyword Advertising (Context Advertising)

Publishers accepts ads placed by Google on their websites; receives a fee for any click through from those ads.

Three Key Places for Title Tags

Search engine results pages (SERPs), web browsers, social networks

Duplicate Content

Search engines have cracked down on pages with this by assigning them lower rankings.

Meta Robots

Tag that can be used to control search engine crawler activity (for all of the major engines) on a per-page level.

Search Marketing

The process of gaining traffic and visibility from search engines through both paid and unpaid efforts. This involves both SEM and SEO.

Indexable Content

To perform better in search engine listings, your most important content should be in HTML format.

Search Engine Marketing (Advertising) (SEM)

Use of search engines to advertise to drive traffic; paid effort.