Glossary | Dictionary Following is a list of terms commonly used on the internet in alphabetical order. This list will be added to often, so keep checking. A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z CGI An acronym for Common Gateway Interface. A standard for external gateway programs to interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. [more info] Database A compilation of records (websites) and information contained on them. When a search is performed this database is queried for the requested terms and matching listings are returned to the browser for review. Dynamic IP Address An IP Address that changes each time you connect to the internet. A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z Hosting In order for your website to be viewed by the masses it must reside on a computer that is accessible by the internet. These types of computers are called Servers. There are a variety of different types of servers available depending on your needs. Ie: If your site is built with Active Server Pages, then you must have a Windows 2000 / NT server and not a Unix server. Inbound Link A link TO your site FROM another site. Many of these, from other sites that compliment yours, can boost your rank on engines such as google.com. Links that have nothing to do with your site will not help. IE: If a tire company links to us - this will not help, but if a webdesign company links to our hosting section, this will help towards boosting our position. IE, Internet Explorer A common internet browser produced by Microsoft. Click here to download or read more IP Address Whenever your computer connects to the internet, you are giving a unique Internet Protocol Address. Your IP Address is how data finds its way back and forth from your computer to the internet. [see also dynamic and static ip] ISP Internet Service Provider - how your computer connects to the internet. The most common modem service is AOL.com. An ISP may also be your cable company - Time Warner offers Road Runner Internet service, and Phone companies such as Pacific Bell and GTE offer DSL internet service as well. Java A computer language designed to be delivered from websites to a users browser. Small programs are transferred to the user, and then executed on the users system. Most search engines will ignore Java and JavaScript commands when reading source code. Javascript A language embedded within HTML that is executed after a page of is transferred to a users browser. The browser must be java compliant and the user must have the option turned on to view this script. Image rollover effects are generally javascript. Most search engines will ignore Java and JavaScript commands. Javabean Another form of javascript. [bean faq's] A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z Listing The process of ordering web pages for presentation by a search engine or a directory so that the most relevant sites or pages are listed or displayed first in the search results for a particular keyword or keyword phrase query. Log File A file produced by a web server that tracks connections to a web site. A typical log file consists of IP Address, host, page requested, time, and bytes of data transferred. Server errors and connecting referrals may also be included in the log file. Referral logs are the main way that a web administrator and identify which search engine visitors have used just prior to visiting their web site. Mirror Site A shadow duplicate copy of a web site at a separate URL. This allows websites to spread out the resource load on a server. Mirror sites are difficult to get indexed properly by search engine. Search engines view the multiple duplicate pages as spamming. NS, Netscape Netscape Navigator, one of IE's biggest competitors on the internet. Netscape is an alternative internet browser. A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z Optimized A web page that follows as many rules and guidelines as possible to achieve a higher search engine ranking. A page that is optimized contains specific meta data, content and clean source code. Outbound Link a link to ANOTHER site from Your site ODP, Open Directory Project The Open Directory Project (ODP) is a site directory run by volunteer editors. This is one of the great internet success stories of 1999. The ODP is used by Lycos, HotBot, AOL-Netfind, Netscape Netcenter, and the home base www.dmoz.org itself. Currently there are around 700,000 hand picked and selected sites in the directory. The first edition of the ODP was known as NewHoo (a play on Yahoo). Netscape provided server space for the NewHoo directory and it was collectively renamed The ODP. Open Source Open source software is software that is released with source code. People are allowed to make derivative works from open source software as long as it is released under the same open source agreement. Optimization Optimization, sometimes referred to as search engine optimization, web page optimization, or web site optimization is the process of creating or making changes to a web page so as to improve the positioning, placement, ranking, or listing of that page with one or more search engines. The ultimate goal is to help potential customers or visitors find a web site. Optimization may involve design and/or layout changes, new text for the title tags, meta tags, alt attributes, headings, and changes to the first 200-250 words of the main text. Optimizing is part science and part creative. The scientific process involves studying the way search engines rank pages and then make the web page "search engine friendly." Each engine computes this with a different formula or algorithm that changes frequently. Optimizing also involves researching and selecting keywords that are the most likely words and phrases a potential customer would use to find you. The creative part of search engine optimizing is being able to work these keywords into your existing pages. The careful wording and phrasing of keywords in your web pages must not only favor top rankings, but also make your page compelling for your visitors. Page View Web Page Hits, or number of times a page is viewed Placement The process of ordering web pages or sites by a search engine or a directory so that the most relevant sites or pages are placed or displayed first in the search results for a particular keyword or keyword phrase query. In search engine jargon, the term is oftentimes synonymous with search engine, web page, or web site listings, optimization, positioning, promotion, ranking, or visibility. Portal A generic term for any site which provides an entry point to the internet for a significant number of users. Promotion The process of promoting web pages or sites on a search engine or a directory so that the most relevant sites or pages are displayed first in the search results for a particular keyword or keyword phrase query. In search engine jargon, the term is oftentimes synonymous with search engine, web page, or web site listings, optimization, placements, positioning, ranking or visibility. Query When you open a search engine and type in your request, you are querying that engines database. SE Search Engine, a database of websites gatherd by spiders and ranked based on a pre-determined algolrythm Search Submission Service / Software A service or software that will automatically submit your page or web site to many search engines and/or directories at once. These were once popular, but many search engines can now detect the automatic submission software being used and have banned these types of services and in some cases have removed the web sites themselves that use them. SEO Search Engine Optimization (Optimizer) Source Code What the spiders and browsers read so that they know what to show you and how to arrange it. You can view source code by selecting View and Source from the top naivagtion in IE and NS Spiders A computer program that travels the internet in search of websites for it's host database. This programs reads and copies text and information which is ranked for relevancy and then added or not to a database based on rank achieved. Sometimes called crawler or robot. Spam, Spamming and Spamdexing The submission of pages that are intended to rank artificially high by various unethical techniques at the expense of the quality of the search engine's database. These can include submitting slightly different pages designed to rank high where just the keywords have been swapped out, invisible or tiny text, or word scrambled pages. The use of spam has caused engines to continusously tighten their algorithm to eliminate these types of submissions. Repeated offenders can be "blacklisted" by search engines and all pages residing on specific IP's can/will be removed - regardless of their usefulness SSI An acronym for Server Side Includes. These are HTML Comment commands placed in an HTML file, to cause a web server to execute some action when the page is viewed by a user. Such as calling external programs such as CGI programs, displaying date or the last modified date on the file. Static IP An IP Address that remains the same each time a person logs on to the internet. Also see Dynamic IP Title The part of an HTML page that is displayed on a browser title line. This is found at the top of the window when viewing a page. The text of a web page title is important as it is usually displayed on search engines as a link to your site. Search engines also give the page title more weight when determining what order to display pages. URL An acronym for Universal Resource Locator. The basis of how we find web sites on the internet. URL's can include different forms of communicating with a server: (an HTTP url is Hyper Text Transfer Protocol while a FTP url is a File Transfer Protocol). You can determine how you are connecting with a site, by looking at the beginning of a url for the HTTP, FTP, or other protocol identifier. Most websites are located on http servers and begin with HTTP://. In the context of search engines, URL's are important because they contain entities which the search engine may or may not like. For example, your domain may include keywords related to your website. Virtual Domain A website setting with its own domain name. For example this web site is located on the Virtual Domain www.cyberconstructors.com. A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z This page is in no way complete. As time and resources allow definitions will be added. If you are looking for something specific and cannot find it here please e-mail me at kelly@webinsite.net with a subject Glossary and I will get back to you as soon as possible.