SEO and Internet Abbreviations and Acronyms

As with any industry, search engine optimization (SEO) has its own terms of art (jargon). Here are some commonly used abbreviations and acronyms that may arise in discussions (especially in forums) related to search engine marketing and optimization:

General Forum Speak

AFAIK - As Far As I Know
AFK - Away from keyboard
AKA - Also Known As
BRB - be right back
BTW - By The Way
DIY - Do It Yourself
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
FWIW - For what's it worth
FYA - For Your Amusement
FYI - For Your Information
HTH - Hope This Helps
IANAL - I am not a lawyer
IC - I See
IIRC - If I Recall Correctly
IMHO - In My Humble (or Honest) Opinion
IMO - In My Opinion
ISP - Internet service provider
IYP - Internet yellow pages
J/K - just kidding
K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid!
LMAO - Laughing My Ass Off
LOL - Laugh Out Loud
O M G - Oh, My Gosh
OTOH - On The Other Hand
PDR - Paid inclusion directory
PFI- Pay for Inclusion
PITA - pain in the ass
ROFL - Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO - Roll On Floor Laughing My Ass Off
RTFM - Read The F**king Manual
TA - Thanks Again
TIA - Thanks In Advance
TTYL - talk to you later
UTF - Use the phone (Get off the IM/boards and give me a call)
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary
PM - Private Message (sending a message to someone using the forum's built-in messaging system)
STFU - Shut The F*** Up
IME = in my estimation
A/S/L = age, sex, location?
n/m (or nm) - nevermind
MB - message board
GB - guestbooks

Internet (aka Geekspeak)

SSI = Server Side Includes
API = Application Program (or Programming) Interface
ISP = Internet service provider
CSS = Cascading Style Sheets
DW = Dreamweaver
FP = Front Page
FTP = file transfer protocol
BBS - Bulletin board system
HTML = Coding used in web pages – also XHTML
XML = eXtensible Markup Language
PDF = Adobe Portable Document Format
VPN = Virtual Private Network

SEO /SEM Speak

ACPC = Average cost per click
ATW = All the web
AV - Alta Vista
B2B = Business to Business
B2C = Business to Consumer
BOGOF - Buy One Get One Free
CPA = Cost Per Acquisition
CPC = Cost Per Click (used as a substitute for PPC, or as an aggregate of multiple PPCs)
CPL = Cost Per Lead
CPM = Cost per 1000 impressions
CTR = ClickThrough Rate
DIR - directory
DMOZ = ODP = short for Directory Mozilla.
DTC - Direct to consumer
FFA Links = Free For All Links (aka Link Farms)
FW = Findwhat
G – Google
Greybarred - Banned from Google
IYP = Internet yellow pages
IBL - InBound Links or Incoming Back Links
KEI = Keyword Effectiveness Indicator (Wordtracker metric)
KW = Keyword
-KW = Negative Keyword
LS = Looksmart
LY = Lycos
MCPC = Max cost per click
MNCPC = Minimum cost per click
Organic Results – results on a SERP that are due to the algorithm and not paid placement
ODP = Open Directory Product (DMOZ)
OV = Overture
PDR = Paid inclusion directory
PFI = Pay for Inclusion
PL = Paid for links
PPC = Pay Per Click
PPL = Pay per lead
PR - Page Rank (Google)
RSS = RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary, an XML format for syndicating Web content.
ROAS = Return On Advertiser Spending
ROI = Return On Investment (What you make {R} / what you spend {I})
SBD = Microsoft’s Small Business Directory
SE = Search Engine
SEM- Search Engine Marketing (or marketor)
SEO- Search Engine Optimization (or optimizer)
SERP- Search Engine Results Page (usually organic listings)
SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (normally a report)
Y or Y! = Yahoo
BS - blog Spam
EPC - earnings per click
SES = Search Engine Strategies
GG = GoogleGuy