Broad Match | SEO Glossary: B

Broad Match is a form of "keyword matching" and refers to the matching of a search listing or advertisement to selected keywords in any order.

This means if selected keywords are "running shoes", then ads or a search listing may be displayed if the users searches upon the following example keywords:

Any Order: "shoes running"
Synonym: "running sneakers"
Plural, Singular: "running shoe"

Broad match terms are less targeted than exact or phrase matches.

Black Hat SEO | SEO Glossary: B

Black Hat SEO is sometimes called spamdexing (the opposite of White Hat SEO). Black Hat SEO can be any optimization tactics that cause a site to rank more highly than its content would otherwise justify or any changes made specifically for search engines that don�t improve the user�s experience of the site. In other words, Black Hat SEO is optimizations that are against search engine guidelines. If you step too far over the mark, your site may be penalized or even removed from the index.

For example, adding product reviews to e-commerce site is encouraged, because it adds useful content to the site. However, using bait-and-switch techniques to create a doorway page that hooks people querying for information on soccer, it then leads to information about health products will be unacceptable.

The following Black Hat SEO tactics should be avoided to keep your site away from penalties:
� Keyword, anchor text and domain name stuffing.
� Using hidden text or links
� Using techniques to artificially increase the number of links to your pages, such as link farms
� Excessively cross-linking sites to increase link popularity
� Cloaking, delivering different pages depending on the IP address and/or agent who is requesting it
� Doorway / Gateway / Jump Pages
� Duplicate content taken from other sites
� Auto-generated content of no value to the end user
� Spamming forums or blogs
� Excessive outbound links to websites that use high risk techniques or spam

Bidding | SEO Glossary: B

Bidding means placing a bid price that you are willing to pay as an advertiser on a pay-per-click search engine. The highest bid for a given keyword achieves the top spot in the PPC search results. In Overture, the top three bids are "featured" on Overture's partners' sites, including AOL, Altavista, Infospace, and others. The minimum bid amount on Overture is 5 cents per click through.

Pay-per-click (PPC):- a pay-for-performance pricing model where advertising (such as banners or paid search engine listings) is priced based on number of click troughs rather than impressions or other criteria. Overture is an example of a search engine which charges advertisers on a pay-per-click basis.

Beacon | SEO Glossary: B

A line of code placed in an ad or on a web page that helps track the visitor's actions, such as registrations or purchases. A web beacon is often invisible because it's only 1 x 1 pixel in size and has no color. Also known as web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF or tracker GIF. 

Automated Submitting | SEO Glossary A

Automated Submitting is using automated software such as WebPosition Gold or an Application Service Provider (ASP) such as Microsoft b-central's Submit-It service to submit your web pages to the search engines.

This tactic is frowned upon by the search engines. Indeed, some search engines such as AltaVista have completely automated submissions by requiring the user to re-key in a one-time use submission code that is displayed on the submission page as a graphic.

ASP | SEO Glossary A

An acronym for Active Server Pages, a Microsoft-invented, proprietary programming language for building dynamic web sites. ASP is also an acronym for Application Service Provider, a hosted service available via the Internet.

API || SEO Glossary A

Abbreviation for Application Program Interface. An API is a set of routines, protocols and tools for building software applications; it determines how a service is invoked through the application.

Announcing | SEO Glossary A

Announcing == Submitting

submitting a web page address to a search engine in the hopes that it will index it. Submitting your pages using an automated tool (see "automated submitting"), submitting multiple pages of the same web site (see "deep submitting"), or submitting multiple times (see "resubmitting"), particularly if those pages are already indexed, are techniques typically frowned upon by search engines. It is suspected that some search engines apply a penalty factor to pages that were submitted versus those that the search engine spiders found on their own. Indeed, Inktomi was engaging in this practice before they discontinued accepting free submissions altogether.