Click to see all terms relating to: SEO • Paid Search • Analytics

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Backlinks
Any incoming links to a web page. Search engines are commonly known to rank sites with more backlinks higher in search results.

Other terms for backlinks include incoming links, and inbound links.

Black Hat SEO
Black hat search engine optimization can be considered any technique or practice that illegitimately boosts a website's ranking within search results. Steering clear of black hat techniques is sometimes a tricky subject, as search engines decide what's against the rules, and what isn't - and sometimes they aren't always perfectly clear about it.

For example, it was once a very common practice for people to exchange links on their websites, in the hopes that the extra backlink would boost both or their sites higher in search results. Only recently has link exchanging become very clearly a negative thing, as far as search engine ranking is concerned.

In order to never risk losing rank or placement in a search engine, it is always best to avoid any black hat SEO methods, and stick to what are known as white hat methods, instead - if your SEO firm doesn't commit themselves to white hat SEO, you may want to reconsider using their services.

Blog
A shortened form of 'web log,' a blog is a journal style format for website publishing. Blog entries are typically displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blogs generally focus on one subject, and can be contributed to by one, or many writers. Blogs often include interactive functionality that allows visitors to comment on entries.

Blogs can help enhance SEM efforts by offering more communication with visitors, and creating fresh relevant content on a consistent basis, for search engines to index.

Bounce Rate
Displayed as a percentage, the bounce rate associated with a web site is a metric that tells you what percentage of visitors entered the site, and then left without viewing any other pages.

Generally a low bounce rate is ideal, as a lower bounce rate indicates that visitors find your content engaging, and continue to explore your site, instead of leaving.

Bread Crumb Trail
Often used as a visual indication of what page a visitor is on in the navigational hierarchy of a site, a bread crumb trail is a simple horizontal line of text displaying page and category names, to help orient a user.

Generally found near the top of a webpage, a breadcrumb trail is a useful way to indicate position within a website, if other visual clues aren't possible, or as a way to enhance existing positioning clues. An example bread crumb trail:

Home » Widgets » Widget #1

This trail indicates to the user that the page they are on is "Widget #1" in the Widgets category, and the widgets category is a child of the "Home" directory. The breadcrumb trail is most useful for websites that have a directory-tree organization.

Broad Match
When used in the context of paid search, broad match describes a keyword or key phrase with very little limitation on matching queries. Broad match keywords generally reach a wide audience, and match any queries where the keyword, or similar terms are used. Broad match doesn't require that query terms match the sequence of the words in your key phrase, and can match plurals and synonyms to your keywords, as well as key phrases with interstitial words.

In the Google Adwords program, broad match keywords are the default behavior and don't require any specific markings to designate them as broad match.