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SEO Glossary of Terms

Search Engine Optimization – Definitions

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Pagejacking
Stealing high-ranking web page content from another site and placing it on your site in the hopes of increasing your own site's search engine rankings. Pagejacking is yet another shady way of gaming the search engines and its use is strenuously discouraged.

PageRank (PR)
A proprietary numerical score that is assigned by Google to every web page in their index. PR for each page is calculated by Google using a special mathematical algorithm, based on the number and quality (as determined by Google) of the inbound links to the page.

Page title
See "Title tag."

Paid inclusion
Some directories will only consider placing your URL into their database if you pay them a fee.
For instance, Yahoo charges a $299 per year evaluation fee for commercial sites. Note that this fee doesn't guarantee that your URL will be accepted and placed in the Yahoo database, but rather that Yahoo will consider your site for inclusion in a timely manner. The fee is non-refundable, even if your site is rejected, but you do have an opportunity to appeal the decision.

Many search engines also have a paid inclusion program, including Inktomi and Alta Vista. However, you don't have to pay to be included in search engines. If you have a few quality inbound links to your site, the search engines will find and index your site on their own eventually.
The advantage of utilizing their paid inclusion services is they'll usually crawl and index your site within 48 hours or less instead of the weeks or even months that it often takes otherwise.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
A traffic generating method whereby a search engine or directory places your link in their searchable database and charges you a fee every time your URL is found and clicked. The amount of the fee that you pay is usually determined by bidding on keywords or key phrases.

The two largest PPC search engines are Overture and Google AdWords. There are also numerous smaller PPC engines on the net, some very good a delivering affordable targeted traffic, others not.

Pay-for-performance
A pricing model based on delivering sales or something else that can be directly attributed to the bottom line. Contrast this with traditional banner advertising which is based on impressions, a chunk of which come from people who are not your marketing audience.

Penalty
A punishment levied against a web page by a search engine as a result of using an SEO tactic which does not meet the SE’s approval or which have been deemed unethical. Tactics that most often result in penalties include using hidden text, sneaky redirects, and linking to a bad neighborhood.

A penalty usually results in a web page being credited for a lower Google PageRank (PR) than it has actually "earned". Penalties also result in a page being "buried" deep within the SERPS where surfers will have difficulty finding it through an engine search.