Google terminology

Google is the most popular search engine, a search process (to Google), a search engine optimization goal (to rank high in Google), and more. This page details various aspects of Google.

Contents 1 Google AdSense 2 Google AdWords 3 Google Analytics 4 Google bombing 5 Google Checkout 6 Google dance 7 Google PageRank 8 Google updates 8.1 Algorithm update 8.2 Data refresh 8.3 Index update 9 See also

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is Google's program that places relevant text, image, and video ads on participating websites and helps create revenue for the owners of those websites. In addition to web page content, geographical location can be a factor in which ads are displayed on which pages. Also, users can filter out competitors' ads or other ads by specific advertisers. Payment is per click or per impression.

External link: Google AdSense

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is a program for advertisers to have their text, image, and video ads appear next to search results for keywords that they bid on and on partner sites with relevant content. Advertisements can be automatically placed on relevant sites based on the keywords that advertisers bid on, or advertisers can choose specific sites or sections of sites where they want their ads to appear. Google's Placement Performance Report shows how well each ad is performing.

External link: Google AdWords

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is Google's free web statistics program. Users sign up for a Google Analytics (GA) account and add tracking code to their websites, and GA provides statistics and other details on how site visitors arrive at, use, and leave each tracked page of the site. GA can also be used to track AdSense traffic. It was launched in 2005 and made available to the general public in 2006.

External link: Google Analytics

Google bombing

Google bombing is the former prankster practice of trying to influence the ranking of a web page in Google search results via anchor text only. Google gives weight to anchor text in links pointing to a web page, so a page can appear in search results for a search term that doesn't appear on that page, only in the anchor text of links pointing to it. The best-known example is of Google-bombing the George W. Bush biographical page with the search term miserable failure. With dozens of links using that anchor text pointing to that page, it was the first page in search results for miserable failure in Google, Yahoo, and MSN for a few years, up to about 2006. Google has since changed its algorithm so that Google bombing attempts don't have the same effect.

Google Checkout

Google Checkout is Google's online payment processing service. Vendors are charged two percent plus $0.20 per transaction. AdWords clients are not charged on sales of up to 10 times their monthly AdWords spend. Buyers can save their payment and shipping details in their Google account and make purchases with one click from vendors offering Google Checkout as a payment option.

External link: Google Checkout

Google dance

The term Google dance was used to describe the changes that took place in rankings after a Google index update from 2000 to 2003. The changes took six to eight days to complete because each datacenter was loaded one at a time with a new web index. The gradual shift in rankings over that period was called the Google dance.

Google PageRank

PageRank (PR) is a number from 0 to 10 that Google assigns web pages to indicate their importance in Google rankings. It is often a factor in how people rate a page for SEO or business purposes. While it has its value, it also has limitations:

• The numbers displayed for PR are updated only every few months, so the PR values that people see are almost always out of date.
• PR indicates only a value that Google has assigned to a web page. It doesn't indicate how well that page does in search results, how often it's visited, or how valuable it is overall.

Google updates

Algorithm update

Algorithm updates are the biggest changes that people usually see. These are changes in how Google scores web pages. They can take place at any time, but most of them aren't noticeable.

Data refresh

A data refresh or data update is the smallest change that Google makes. This is a change to the data within an existing algorithm.

Index update

From 2000 to 2003, Google indexed the Web about once a month. Algorithms, data, and everything could all change at once, so updates were major updates. In 2003, Google switched from monthly updates to an index that is updated or refreshed every day.

See also

• SEO
• PageRank
• Keyword terminology
• Link terminology
• Website backlinks
• White hat, black hat, and gray hat SEO