Site Basics | Previous Next

1. What is a website?
2. What is a web page?
3. What is HTML?
4. What is a Title?
5. What is website promotion?
6. What is a Search Engine?
7. What is a Directory?
8. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
9. What is Search Engine Submission?
10. How can I get my site listed in Search Engines?
11. How can I make my pages easy for Search Engines to index?
12. What is Search Engine Marketing?
13. What do you mean by 'Pay-per-click search tools'?
14. What does website optimization mean?
15. What are Crawlers/Spiders/Robots?
16. What are keywords?
17. What are meta tags?
18. What is META Description?
19. What do you mean by META Keywords?
20. What are Search Engine Keywords & Phrases?
21. What do you mean by Gateway Pages/Doorway Pages?
22. What do you mean by a doorway domain?
23. What is Link Farming?
24. What is Link Popularity?
25. What are Reciprocal Links?
26. What is Spamming?
27. What is a Hit?
28. What are Frames?
29. What do you mean by FFA Sites?
30. How can I use META tags in the most effective way?

1. What is a website?
A website is the entire collection of web pages and other information (such as images, sound, and video files, etc.) that are made available through what appears to users as a single web server. Each website contains a homepage, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The site might also contain additional documents and files. Each site is owned and managed by an individual, company, or organization.
Top
2. What is a web page?
A web page is a document displaying some piece of information. It is a file of information made available for viewing on the web and seen by the user as a page of information on the screen. Usually, it contains text and specifications about where images or other files are to be placed when the page is displayed by a browser. A webpage (also spelled - Web page) is part of a Web site. You can think of a Web site like a book that arrives a page at a time as you request each one. Each page of this book is an individual HTML file with its own Web address. Webpages are usually in HTML/XHTML format (the file extensions are typically htm or html) and with hypertext links to enable navigation from one page or section to another.
Top
3. What is HTML?
Hyper-Text Mark-up Language is the common coding used to create websites that can be read by Internet browsers (such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator). Part of the HTML coding for a website should include the meta-tags required for search engine optimization.
Top
4. What is a Title?
The title of a page is what you see on the title bar or top bar of the browser, ie., the top-left corner of the browser. Titles are very critical elements for search engines. Title reflects the subject of a page in about four or five words. While creating your pages, include the most important keywords in the page title. The most important string a search engine reads is your page's title. This is the title appearing on the top bar of your web browser and also listed under the menu when you bookmark a site. If a keyword(s) in a search query are found in your page's title, it will be indexed ahead of those sites containing the keyword in the body text only. The search engines consider this the best description of your web page's content and index it accordingly. Therefore, always use the most powerful and relevant keywords in your pages title.
Top
5. What is website promotion?
Website promotion is the continuing process to promote a website to bring more visitors to the website. Many techniques such as content development, search engine optimization (also known as SEO), and search engine submission, are used increase the traffic to a site.
Top
6. What is a Search Engine?
Internet search engines (eg Google, AltaVista) help users find web pages on a given subject. The search engines maintain databases of web sites and use programs (often referred to as "spiders" or "robots") to collect information, which is then indexed by the search engine. Search results are displayed according to the keywords entered by Internet users. It is a web search tool that automatically visits websites (using crawlers), records and indexes them within its database, and generates results based on a user's search criteria. Submitting a website to a search engine usually requires just the page URL (and often an e-mail address) and optimization techniques are essential for a website to be indexed and ranked appropriately by search engines. Best examples of a search engine are Google, AltaVista and Lycos.
Top
7. What is a Directory?
A directory is catalogue of websites classified by categories. Unlike search engines, submitted websites are reviewed by a human editor. Directories maintain ordered lists of websites. Best examples of a directory are Yahoo and the Open Directory Project. It is a web search tool compiled manually by human editors. Once websites are submitted with information such as a title and description, they are assessed by an editor and, if deemed suitable for addition, will be listed under one or more subject categories. Users can search across a directory using keywords or phrases, or browse through the subject hierarchy.
Top
8. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, is the art and science of making web pages attractive to the search engines. It is the term used to describe the marketing technique of preparing a website to enhance its chances of being ranked in the top results of a search engine once a relevant search is undertaken. A number of factors are important when optimizing a website, including the content and structure of the website's copy and page layout, the HTML meta-tags and the submission process.
Top
9. What is Search Engine Submission?
It is the process of notifying search engines or directories about a website. Every search tool has a form to enable the submission of websites, varying from a simple URL address (for a search engine), to more detailed information (for a directory). Submissions may be made manually or by using automated software, although the former method is generally accepted to be more effective for search engine placement.
Top
10. How can I get my site listed in Search Engines?
To be listed in search engines, you need to submit your site's information to the respective search engines. Some may register your website instantly and others may require several months. Most of the main search engines and directories now require a fee to review your website in a timely manner. The fee guarantees that your site will be reviewed within a date limit (usually 24 hours or one week) but still does not guarantee that your site will be accepted.
Top
11. How can I make my pages easy for Search Engines to index?
Search engines follow a set of rules, known as an "algorithm" to rank sites. Exactly how a particular search engine's algorithm works is a closely-kept trade secret. However, all major search engines follow the general rules (frequency of a keyword in a web page, meta tags, the number of links that point to your site, content, etc.). So in order to get your pages listed easily in search engines, use appropriate meta keywords, meta descriptions and text consistent with the meta tags. Updating your web pages frequently, adding content (about a product, event, location, etc.), exchanging links with other websites etc. help increase your visibility in the search engines.
Top
12. What is Search Engine Marketing?
The term used to describe the range of marketing techniques required to make a website visible on search engines and directories so that it will attract visits from its target audience. This includes the optimization of a site, the submission to directories, the use of 'pay-per-click' search tools and keyword related advertising.
Top
13. What do you mean by 'Pay-per-click search tools'?
These are search tools which provide 'sponsored results' to many partner search engines or directories. The concept enables companies to achieve a top placement by bidding an amount of money for a search term. Once a user clicks on the link from the search results, the bid amount is deducted from the website owner's account. Examples of these tools include Overture and Espotting.
Top
14. What does website optimization mean?Website optimization is the process of adding to your website elements that will enable search engines to identify, understand and rank your website. This includes: find niche keywords, write meta tags, add alt tags, calculate keyword density, length of your body text, link popularity and more. These modifications play a key role in your website ranking.
Top
15. What are Crawlers/Spiders/Robots?
The term used for the tools that search engines automatically send out to find websites, record them and index them within their databases. Also known as robots or spiders. Some crawlers will only visit the home page of a website while others may 'deep crawl' and index many sub-pages, depending on the structure of the site.
Top
16. What are keywords?
Keywords are single terms or short phrases that best define the main content of a web page. It can be defined as a list of significant and descriptive words that will be used to render the content to users in searches.To achieve a high search engine placement for a relevant search, a website must contain the appropriate positioning and density of keywords or phrases related to the search terms used. This is a critical part of the search engine optimization for any website.
Top
17. What are meta tags?
An element of HTML coding on a website that is used by search engines to index a website. Most meta-tags are included within the 'header' code of a website and the most important tags are the title, description and keyword tags. Rules used by different search engines govern how such tags are used, how many characters they should contain, and how they should be formatted. META Tags are HTML tags which provide information that briefly describes the content of the web sites or pages. Most of the search engines use this resource to control a web site positioning and descriptions in search engine results.
Top
18. What is META Description?
A META description is a one or two sentence description for each page with accurate and interesting description of the page. While creating pages, include the important keyword phrase in the meta description. The Description Tag is a general description of what is contained in your webpage. Search engines that support META tags will often display the Description META tag along with your title in their results. Search engines will often capture the entire META tag of your description field, but it should be kept in mind that when a search engine displays the results to a user, the space is limited, usually under 20 words which you can use to grab the attention of a user. For this reason, when creating your META tags, webmasters should make the first sentence of their description field to capture the attention of a user and use the rest of the description tag to elaborate further.
Top
19. What do you mean by META Keywords?
Meta Keywords contain the most important words in a page, with their plurals misspellings and variations. The content in this tag is ignored by some search engines but is worth doing. Fill in the content of the meta keywords tag with keywords and keyword phrases relevant to the topic of the page. Include common misspellings of keywords, mix in capitalized versions of appropriate words, as well as plurals. Don't separate words with commas. Never repeat words more than three or four times and be sure to separate repetitions and similar words.
Top
20. What are Search Engine Keywords & Phrases?
It is a word used by a search engine in its search for relevant Web pages. "Keyword" or "Key phrase" is the word or a phrase someone enters into a search resource of a search engine to find whatever they are looking for. While optimizing a web site for top rankings on search engines it is important that the site is optimized for the most important keywords and phrases
Top
21. What do you mean by Gateway Pages/Doorway Pages?
Gateway Pages are Pages designed specifically to improve a website's search engine placement. These pages are also known as bridge pages or doorway pages and are used for a variety of reasons, such as to emphasize particular keywords or phrases; to target the optimization requirements of a specific search engine; or to overcome the elements of a website that are not 'search-engine-friendly', such as frames or software applications like Flash. However, gateway pages can also take many different forms and care must be taken when using these to achieve a good search engine placement as they can be viewed as spamming if prepared incorrectly.
Top
22. What do you mean by a doorway domain?
It is a domain used specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main domain. In other words, it is a domain designed to redirect traffic to a main website located on another domain.
Top
23. What is Link Farming?
The process of exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase search engine optimization. The idea behind link farming is to increase the number of sites that link to yours because search engines such as Google rank sites according to, among other things, the quality and quantity of sites that link to yours. In theory, the more sites that link to yours, the higher your ranking in the search engine results will be because the more links indicate a higher level of popularity among users of the Internet. However, search engines such as Google consider link farming as a form of spam and have been implementing procedures to banish sites that participate in link farming, so the term link farming has garnered negative connotations across the Internet.
Top
24. What is Link Popularity?
Link Popularity refers to the number of sites which link to a particular site. Many search engines use Link Popularity as a factor for determining page rank. It is a measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. In simple terms, link popularity is the measurement of the number of other Web sites that include a link to your Web site on theirs. Each search engine, depending on their specific algorithms, determines it differently. It is the term used to describe the number of hypertext links coming into a website from other websites. This factor is being used by many top search engines to improve a website's ranking and is therefore an important consideration for any website, but especially for new ones who need to build up such links as quickly as possible.
Top
25. What are Reciprocal Links?
Reciprocal Links are links between two Websites based on an agreement between the two owners. They can be defined as outbound links exchanged for inbound links. A reciprocal link is an agreement between two webmasters to provide a hyperlink within their own website to each other's web site. In general, this is done to provide readers with quick access to related sites, or to show a partnership between the two sites. Reciprocal links can also help to increase traffic to your web site in two ways. First you will probably have some viewers visit your site from clicking the reciprocal link directly. Secondly, most Internet search engines also take into account the number of web sites which contain links to your web site; the more hyperlinks to your site found, the higher up in the search engine rankings you'll find your site.
Top
26. What is Spamming?
Spamming is the term used to describe techniques that might be used to 'trick' search engines into ranking a website high up in their search results - such as the repetitive use of keywords, hidden text or keywords unrelated to the site's content. Search engines will penalize websites that use such methods and will either downgrade them in their rankings, or exclude them completely. Spamming is illegal method to achieve top ranking on search engines. The following are regarded as spamming: heavy repetition of words, hidden words, indiscriminate use of multiple pages at multiple domains that point to the same place, or the use of automatic redirection that takes viewers to a different URL than the one submitted to the search engine. Though these techniques may lead to immediate results, they are considered illegal by the search engines. Search engines will ban a site from indexing for spamming. Avoid any techniques that are regarded as Spam.
Top
27. What is a Hit?
A hit is a single file request in the access log of a web server. A request for an HTML page with three images will result in four hits in the log: one for the HTML file and one for each of the graphic image files. Whilst hits can give a meaningful measure of how much traffic a web server is processing, a better way of understanding accesses to a website is to look at the number of pages accessed (eg just html files). Page views are a much better way to measure traffic.
Top
28. What are Frames?
This is the HTML technique that creates a fixed element to a web page, usually containing navigation buttons for the website that will be constantly visible. Frames were a popular technique several years ago but can cause problems for search engine optimization as they restrict the ability of some crawlers to index the site. However, frames are not as big an obstacle as some people will make out and may also offer advantages when optimizing a website.
Top
29. What do you mean by FFA Sites?
Free For All sites are often included within the lists used by some companies or software, offering submission of your website to 'thousands of sites'. However websites are added to FFA sites on a 'most-recent' basis and are used to front a marketing site. As a result, submissions to FFA sites will usually result in your website only being listed for a short time and in return, your e-mail address will receive hundreds of 'junk' marketing e-mails, many of which will require a manual opt-out.
Top
30. How can I use META tags in the most effective way?
META Tags are the most important tags that search engines use (if supported) to categorize, prioritize and rank your website. Meta tags provide a very concise fashion for website owners to categorize their site by the most appropriate keywords and descriptions. Because of the great flexibility in giving the opportunity for webmasters to categorize their webpages, this also opens up the issue of abuse. Bear in mind that search engines have algorithms to prevent abuse of excessive meta tags, so there are some general principles that webmasters should adhere to such as:

Keep META Tags Short But Concise

Many webmasters realize that search engines use Description and Keyword META tags heavily and try taking advantage of this by writing very long descriptions and keywords. Search engines have a finite database and will only index a certain portion of your website. Try to keep your META tags simple and to the point. Search engines take into account the number of occurrences of each tag and may penalize your website's rankings if you overuse META tags.

Avoid Using All Upper Case (Caps)

Some search engines used to prioritize websites that started with capital letters or those that had special characters such as numbers. This technique may still work with some older search engines, but beware that search engines are constantly on the lookout for abusers.

Avoid "Bridge" Pages

Bridge pages are pages which redirect a user to another page, which is often the page that the webmaster intended a user to go to directly. This practice is strongly discouraged by search engines as it clutters their databases with useless pages and opens the opportunity for users to spam search engines with irrelevant pages. Bridge pages are mostly associated with the META Refresh Tag.

Avoid Repetition

Try to avoid repeating the same keywords or descriptions in your meta tags. Often, search engines will degrade your rankings when they detect repetition of the same words in your META Tags. Should you need to use repetition, separate the repeated words from each other by a few other keywords.

Prioritize Your Keywords

Some search engines will read only the first few lines of your webpages to get an overview of your website. Search engines which do this may miss some of your META tags. As such, you should put focus on your description and keywords META tags with priority on the first few words.

Top