Go to the list of all search engine marketing definitions.
Definitions
- ranking
- In a search engine report for a given keyword search, the number of pages which precede a given page. In other words, a page's rank is 5th if there are 4 pages or hits which precede it. Also referred to as a page's position. A page's ranking changes as new pages are added to a search engine database, pages are revised and the underlying relevancy algorithm changes.
- Each search engine uses a complicated formula or algorithm that determines where you will appear on their list when someone performs a search. Search engines are constantly updating and changing these formulas. A search engine's help page may give you general information on how they index websites, but the exact formulas are usually well-guarded secrets. Many search engines have a restriction on how often you can submit your website or update the information about your website. This prevents people making incremental changes to their submission on a daily basis to see if it improves their ranking. MyDomain.com
- referrer
- The URL of the web page from which a visitor came, as indicated by a [web] server's referrer log file. If a visitor comes directly from a search engine listing, the query used to find the page will usually be encoded in the referrer URL, making it possible to see which keywords are bringing in visitors. Bruemmer 01
- registration
- See also submission.
- The process of requesting a search engine or directory to index a new web page or web site. Bruemmer 01
- relevance
- A subjective measure of how well a document satisfies the user's
information need. Ideally, your search tool should retrieve all of the
documents relevant to your search. However, this is subjective and difficult to
quantify.
The degree to which a document or web page provides the information the user is looking for, in terms of user needs. Bruemmer 01
- relevancy
algorithm
- Also referred to as ranking algorithm.
- The method used by search engines and directories to match the keywords in a query with the content of all the web pages in their database so the web pages found can be suitably ranked in the query results. Each search engine and directory uses a different algorithm and frequently changes this formula to improve relevancy. Bruemmer 01
- re-submission
- Repeating the search engine registration process one or more times for the same page or website. This is regarded with suspicion by search engines because it can be indicative of spamming techniques. Some search engines will de-list sites for repeated re-submission. Others limit the number of submissions of the same page in a 24 hour period. Occasional re-submission of changed pages is usually not a problem. Bruemmer 01
- robot
- Any browser program that follows hypertext links and accesses web pages but is not directly under human control. Example: search engine spiders, the harvesting software programs that extract e-mail addresses or other data from web pages. Bruemmer 01
