SEO Glossary - Usability
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B C D F O P S U W
B
Breadcrumbs
a sequence of text links usually placed on the top of pages to specify the logical path from the root page to the page where a visitor is now.
Browser Emulation
the special features of a program that help it query a search engine like a browser. Search engines do not like long repeated requests to their databases. They suspect that such requests come from software programs that are not browsers. Humans, when browsing, visit the search engine's home page before they start searching, they pause between searches, request pages at the URLs provided as search results, etc. Google even warns webmasters against using automated tools, like ranking checking programs, in its Terms of Service.
C
Content Management System (CMS)
a computer software system used to assist its users in the process of content management. CMS facilitates the organization, control, and publication of a large body of documents and other content, such as images and multimedia resources. A CMS often facilitates the collaborative creation of documents. A Web content management system is a content management system with additional features to ease the tasks required to publish Web content to websites.
Cookie
a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server. Depending on the type of Cookie used and the Browsers' settings, the Browser may accept or not accept the Cookie and may save the Cookie for either a short time or a long time. Cookies might contain information such as login or registration information, online "shopping cart" information, user preferences, etc. When a Server receives a request from a Browser that includes a Cookie, the Server is able to use the information stored in the Cookie. For example, the Server might customize what is sent back to the user, or keep a log of particular users' requests. Cookies are usually set to expire after a predetermined amount of time and are usually saved in memory until the Browser software is closed down, at which time they may be saved to disk if their "expire time" has not been reached. Cookies do not read your hard drive and send your life story to the CIA, but they can be used to gather more information about a user than would be possible without them.
D
Deep Pages
F
Flash
an animated film created using Adobe Flash animation software and often distributed in the .swf file format. It can be created in Flash or with other programs capable of making .swf files.
Frames
an HTML technique which allows a webmaster to display two or more separate web pages within a single browser screen. Sites using frames are quite problematic for search engines to crawl and may not be indexed properly. Search engines often will only index pages linked within the <NOFRAMES> tag. If your site utilizes frames, it is highly recommended that you build a site map for your website, and link to it from within your <NOFRAMES> tag.
O
Old Pages
P
Parents
S
Slow Pages
Splash Page
while being similar to a doorway page, the purpose of a splash page is more artistic - a grand entry way to a website. The use of a splash page is a poor design and is not good for proper search engine optimization.
U
Uptime
the percentage of time your server was reachable within a selected time period.
Usability
making your site easy for your customers to find the exact information they need when they need it. Anything that makes the process slower inhibits usability. Conversely, easy, intuitive navigation and strong, informative text enhance usability.
W
W3
abbr. World Wide Web
W3C
abbr. World Wide Web Consortium
Web Page
a single document on the World Wide Web specified by a unique address or URL and that may contain text, hyperlinks and graphics. A Web page is a part of a group of hypertext documents that form a website. Web pages are usually created with HTML. The Web page is returned by the server in response to the URL request.
Web Server
a special computer that receives requests for Web pages and can "serve" them to the requesting side.
Website
a collection of Web pages, typically bound to a particular domain name or subdomain on the World Wide Web on the Internet. A website is identified uniquely by its domain name, e.g.www.test.com .
World Wide Web
(WWW or Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents that runs over the Internet.
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Search Engines | Keyword Research | Ranking Factors | SEO Techniques | SEO Submission | Link Building | Usability | Paid Advertising | Social Media Marketing | Email Marketing | Web Analytics
