Here we will go over the more common terms you may come accross when dealing with Search Engine Optimisation.

1. Search Engine (SE)

Search engines are the places we find websites. The daddy of all being Google. It is quite simply a place where you type a term in order to search for it accross the massive multitude of websites online today. The main search engines are 'Google' 'MSN' 'Bing' 'Ask Jeeves' 'Yahoo' 'Alta Vista' but there are literally hundreds more.

2. Search Engine Optimisation. (SEO)

SEO is the overall term used to describe anything that makes you site more visibale and attractive to the search engines. SEO can be a very complicated process and although certain techniques can be employed by the average internet user, many Search Engine Optimisation techniques are complicated and require knowledge of code and structure

3. META data

META data is the data that is found at the top of every web page although you cant actually see it on a web site. META data is the bit the search egnies like to read before actually reading the content on your page. Some META data tells the search engines specific commands like 'Dont read this page' while other META data is there for descriptive purposes. The correect use of META data can make a great difference to your search engine results.

4. SERP's

The SERP's are the Search Engine Results Pages. While not directly involved with your search engineering the SERP's are what you use to judge your SEO techniques. Quite simply the aim of all SEO is to gain great SERP's. With no SERP's you are not on the search engines and will probably have an awful time running an online business.

5. Keywords and Keyphrases

Keywords and Keyphrases are the terms you want to be found for on the search engines. Lets say you are a builder in Birmingham, your main keyphrase would be 'Builder Birmingham' as this is what most people would type if they were looking for a builder in Birmingham. Some business's only need to optimise for one or two keywords and other need to optimise for hundreds.

6. Page rank

Page rank is googles way of describing how well your page/site ranks against others of similar ilk. Your PR can go all the way upto 7 however very few sites - including google themselves - actaully gain that high a rank. If you have a page rank of, lets say 4 or 5, you are doing very well. Page rank tends to build very slowly.

7. Link building

Link building is often considered one of the most important parts of all SEO and is a complicated process all on its own. Link building used to be a simple case of swapping links with other sites. "You link to me and I will link to you" was the order of the day and average site owner would have a specific page on their website where all their links would sit. This is now a bit of a no-no. Outbound links should really sit inside your content and inbound links should really point to specific pages that have some sort of relevancy to the site the link is coming from. For example if you have an article about coffee then a coffee company linking to that page would be much more beneficial than a coffee company linking to your link page. The search engines know the difference and in the spirit of making sure every link takes the clicker somewhere they wish to be, your SERP's will reflect the quality and relevency of your inbound links.

8. Spider

The spiders are the judge and jury of the internet and pretty much every search engine employs them. Spiders crawl your site reading every bit of content and code. They follow every link and they make a note of everything they see. They are not interested in your content. They are interested in who has the best content for a particular Keyword or phrase. They read your site and every other site in your field or niche then JUDGE you and place you where they feel you deserve to be in the SERP's. Most Search Engine Optimisation techniques are in place to please the spiders and on the whole they do a very good job. For some it first seems a little drastic that a Spider has so much say in the potential success of your online business but over the years the Spiders have been taught to know whats good and whats not. Very rarely do they make mistakes so if you are having problems with your SEO. Dont blame the Spiders - try to understand them.