SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

8 bit UCS/Unicode Transformation Format A

variable-length character encoding for Unicode. It is

able to represent any character in the Unicode stan-

dard, yet the initial encoding of byte codes and char-

acter assignments for UTF8 is consistent with ASCII.

A/B TestingA method of advertising testing by

which a baseline control sample is compared to a

variety of single-variable test samples.

Ad groups A group of ads that target one set of

keywords or sites.

Adversarial search A search algorithm that looks

for all possible solutions to a problem, much like

finding all the possible solutions in a game.

Affiliate programs A method of promoting web

businesses in which an affiliate is rewarded for every

visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided

through his/her efforts.

alt attributes HTML tags that provide text as an

alternative to the graphics on a web page.

alt tagsSee alt attributes.

Analytics Measurement of web-site statistics such

as the number of visitors, where they arrived from,

and how much time they spent on a web site.

Anchor text Text that is displayed as a link instead

of the URL for the link being displayed.

Anonymous FTP A file transfer protocol that allows

a user to retrieve documents, files, programs, and

other archived data from anywhere on the Internet

without having to establish a user id and password.

By using the special user id of “anonymous,” the

network user will bypass local security checks and

will have access to publicly accessible files on the

remote system.

Automated bid management A process that uses

software to monitor and manage the amount bid on

a keyword or key phrase.

Bait and switch A deceptive method of drawing

users to a web site by providing the search engine

with a highly optimized web page, but serving the

user a different page.

Behavioral targeting A technique used by online

publishers and advertisers to increase the effective-

ness of their campaigns. The idea is to observe a

user’s online behavior anonymously and then serve

the most relevant advertisement based on their

behavior.

Bid jamming Placing a keyword bid that is just

one penny below the highest bidder in an effort

to force the advertiser to consistently pay a higher

amount for the keyword.

Black-hat SEO Unethical SEO strategies.

nBlog A web site where entries are written in

chronological order and commonly displayed in

reverse chronological order.

Blogroll A list of links to other blogs or web sites

that the author of the blog regularly likes to read.

Body text The text that makes up the body, or

main section, of a web page.

Boolean search techniques Search techniques

formed by joining simple terms with “and,” “or,”

and “not” for the purpose of limiting or qualifying

the search.

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