{ R - Z }

Redirect
Where the Internet user is automatically taken to another web page address without him/her clicking on anything. Redirects are generally not good for search engine rankings, as they dilute PageRank. There is also the risk that the search engine spider will not follow your redirect.

Resubmitting
Submitting your web page address(es) to search engines after you've already submitted those addresses previously or after the search engine has already included your site in its index. Search engines don't like it when you resubmit as it simply clutters their queue with duplicate requests.

Search engine
A web site that offers its visitors the ability to search the content of numerous web pages on the Internet. Search engines periodically explore all the pages of a website and add the text on those pages into a large database that users can then search. With a search engine, publishing web pages that incorporate relevant key phrases, prominently positioned in particular ways, is critical. Contrast this with directories, which don't siphon content out of the HTML of a site's constituent pages, but instead are comprised solely of site names and descriptions written or edited by human reviewers.

Search engine marketing (SEM)
Strategies and tactics undertaken to increase the amount and quality of leads generated by the search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO)
Strategies and tactics undertaken to influence the rankings of web pages in the search engines.

Search Engine Optimization involves the 3 steps of SEO including technical optimization, content optimization and link building.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
A page of search results delivered by a search engine.

Search term
A keyword, or phrase used to conduct a search engine query.

Search term popularity
See "keyword popularity"

SEM
Acronym for Search Engine Marketing.

SEO
Acronym for "search engine optimization" and/or "search engine optimizer."

SERP
An acronym for Search Engine Results Page.

Unique visitors
Unique visitors are a count of individual users who have accessed your web site. It should be noted that the "user session" metric does not yield an accurate unique visitor count, as one unique visitor can generate multiple user sessions.

Visibility
How well placed your web site is in the search engines for relevant keyword searches. Also see "Invisible Web."

Web Crawler
Also known as a 'web robot' or 'web spider', it is a program or automated script which browses the World Wide Web in a methodical, automated manner.

Web standards
Web standards are widely adopted guidelines for CSS, XHTML etc. Web standards help ensure that web sites are accessible on a wide variety of platforms and to a wide range of users including users with disabilities.

Web2.0
Web2.0 refers to the new generation of web based services and communities characterized by participation, collaboration and sharing of information among users online.

Web2.0 applications include wikis, folksonomies, blogs and social networking sites which encourage user-generated content (USG) and social interaction online.

White Hat SEO
Ethical SEO approved by the search engines.