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SEO Glossary of Terms

Search Engine Optimization – Definitions

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FFA
Free For All. A links page with nothing but links added by visitors.

Filter words
Words such as is, am, were, was, the, for, do, et. al,, that search engines deem irrelevant for indexing purposes.

Filters
A filter is a software routine that searches for SPAM on web pages during a robot's crawl. If the filter detects the use of SPAM on the page, a ranking penalty is assessed.

Common filters look for hidden text, links to bad neighborhoods, and many other SEO techniques that the search engine doesn't like.

Flash
A technology developed by MacroMedia Corp. that allows a web designer to embed interactive multimedia into web pages. Often used for Flash intros, games, and animating navigation. If you visit a web page and see letters and numbers flying around with a funky beat in the background, chances are it was done in Flash. Flash requires a plug-in to be installed into the Internet user's web browser. Search engines can't 'read' content embedded in Flash. As such, this content will be invisible to the search engines and will not get indexed.

Flash intro
An animated 'short' created using Flash that Internet users are made to sit through upon entry to a home page. Flash intros generally annoy users. They also typically take the place of text content on a home page, and since search engines can't 'read' content embedded in Flash, the rankings of a home page that only uses a Flash intro will suffer.

Flattened URL

Frames
An HTML technique which allows a webmaster to display two or more separate web pages within a single browser screen, each potentially with its own scrollbar. A framed website becomes apparent when part of the page scrolls while the rest of the page stays in place. Sites using frames are quite problematic for search engines to crawl and may not be indexed properly. Frames frustrate people because often when the person tries to bookmark a specific page, it instead bookmarks the "frameset" page, which is typically the home page. A framed web site is at a severe disadvantage compared to non-framed sites in terms of search engine marketing. Most search engines support frames, but only, as Google says in its FAQ section, "to the extent that [we] can." Searchers clicking through to a framed page from search results sometimes end up on an orphaned page.