Search Engine Optimization Firm

Alphabetical Index

Heading
Many search engines give extra weight and importance to the text found inside HTML heading sections. It is generally considered good advice to use headings when designing web pages and to place keywords inside headings.

Hidden Text
Text on a web page which is visible to search engine spiders but not visible to human visitors. This is sometimes because the text has been set the same colour as the background, because multiple TITLE tags have been used or because the text is an HTML comment. Hidden text is often used for spamdexing. Many search engines can now detect the use of hidden text, and often remove offending pages from their database or lower such pages' positioning. Text can also be hidden using agent name delivery or IP delivery either to present different text to different search engine spiders or to hide the real HTML source from competitors. The Stealth META Tag CGI Script probably uses this technique and is available at http://www.OutRank.com/stealth.shtml. Another software product which hides HTML source is called Psyral Phobia and is available at http://www.merlesworld.com/software.htm.

Hit
In the context of visitors to web pages, a hit (or site hit) is a single access request made to the server for either a text file or a graphic. If, for example, a web page contains ten buttons constructed from separate images, a single visit from someone using a web browser with graphics switched on (a "page view") will involve eleven hits on the server. (Often the accesses will not get as far as your server because the page will have been cached by a local internet service provider). In the context of a search engine query, a hit is a measure of the number of web pages matching a query returned by a search engine or directory.

Hotbot
One of the largest search engines, indexing 110 million pages. Powered by Inktomi, new submissions appear to be taking two weeks or longer to appear. The URL is http://www.hotbot.com.

HTML
HyperText Markup Language - the (main) language used to write web pages.

HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol - the (main) protocol used to communicate between web servers and web browsers (clients).

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