Introduction:
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to view my SEO hints and tips e-book on the often forgotten aspects of SEO. This book was written from the collective knowledge and information gathered by Chris Diprose, owner and manager of Kanga Internet. Kanga Internet are located in Melbourne, Australia and they focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Web Development for the Joomla Content Management System (CMS).

With Search Engine Optimization there are lots of unknowns, educated guesses and knowledge gained from personal and associative experience. Google, Yahoo and MSN keep their cards close to their chest when it comes to revealing how their ranking systems actually work. They tell the community trickles of information on what things can affect search engine results, how they can be improved and what to do in certain situations, but mostly knowing what to do to achieve good results is achieved by studying and hard work. Much alike other SEO consultants I have gathered information from various sources and worked constantly on improving results for customers. I am always looking for new intelligent ways to improve search engine results. I believe in “White Hat” (or more appropriately, “Grey Hat”) principles.

Edition 1 of this e-book is intended for people looking to improve their websites from the ground up. I address SEO design fundamentals; the things you need to consider before embarking on any text and keyword analysis. I hope you find these hints and tips useful.

Enjoy the readings herein.
- Chris Diprose

The Website Revelation : What owning a website actually means.
As a Web Developer and SEO consultant I deal with many existing website owners who are looking to modify or improve their website. I also deal with many people who are looking to start their web presence with a new website. Through both of these interactions there is often a common theme; a misunderstanding or an attitude. I call this a misconception of reality, as often the reality of what the Internet can actually do for the persons business and what they think it can do differ massively.

Often it is presumed that by simply owning a domain and having a website built and published on the Internet, thousands of people will magically find the website, visit it and buy their products. “If you build it, they will come” should be removed from the vocabulary as soon as possible if you are to adjust attitudes to the underlying search technology. As a businessman in the real World, it is obvious that it would not happen outside of the Internet ether, so what is so different online? Maybe it was the Technology boom 10 years ago that caused a rift in understanding or maybe the buzz that caused the meteoric rise in the stock prices of Tech Companies, I can hear the thoughts of the small businessman, “surely this can be replicated for my business” : in answer I would say, “well, it is unlikely, but you should be able to achieve some results over time”.

It is most important when taking on a project like Search Engine Optimization for a website, to know that it is important to be committed for the long haul. It is no small task and sufficient funds need to be allocated to the project. Delivery deadlines need to be correctly scoped against required changes, in order to meet client expectations. The key points of responsibility to the SEO project are in knowing that there are big changes near the start and during setup but the changes do not stop after setup, there are a continuous ongoing refinements to the design and system over time. In this regard I find it important to manage expectations and set realistic long term goals on what a website can be expected to achieve and in what time frames those goals hope to be met.

So what should your goal be when you are delving into SEO for your website? Well, everyone’s goal is exactly the same; improve page rankings, improve page visits and hits and finally gain more sales through the website.

When it comes to SEO and achieving these goals you have to have principles and my main principle is, “Good websites get good ratings and bad websites get bad ratings or none at all.” As time goes on with the improvement of search engine technology and the refinement of search engine results this statement becomes truer and truer. I believe in results through “white hat”(reads; “Grey Hat”) principles and methodologies.

What are “white hat” principles? I guess I would compare it to doing things the honest way and the right way without risk. So develop a good site, promote good linking, have good informative content and keep working on it and then you are on the road to good rankings through “White Hat” principles.

So, why should you do things the “white hat” way? Well, search engines do have some kind of understanding, an artificial intelligence. They soon catch on to websites spamming or linking to websites with no relevance and bad cross linking. It’s about being smart, in for the long term and wanting your business to grow organically, naturally.

So how do I go about improving my site and making it optimized for search engines naturally? Well, that’s why you’re here! So let’s run through few of the things you should be doing in your websites from a fundamental level.

Domain names:
When choosing a domain name, choose one that is relevant to the product or service you are going to provide and that is as simple as possible. There are considerations of branding and product/service provided that should go into this choice. Involvement of marketing personal and product understanding is required but also consultation with your SEO professional is advantageous. In this step I would say, take some time and choose wisely. Keep it simple and easy to remember, often saying it out loud will make it clear whether it can be understood by a simple man.

It is a strongly held belief by many SEO professionals that buying a domain which is older, and that has been around for a while, means it will not be sand boxed by Google. What’s the sandbox effect? Well, it refers to what Googledoes to a website or domain that is new or is relatively unknown by Google. In many instances Google’s Sandbox effect relegates the new domain to sub-optimal inclusion in search results. Regardless of the sites optimization it lowers the websites relevance and ranking to the term searched upon. If you can use your old business domain name, then consider this very important.

If, however, you are buying a new domain name then keep it relevant to the product or service being sold or offered on the website. Keep it close, relevant and simple. Relevance is primary.

Location specific domain or international domain ( .com or com.au)? Personally I think dot com’s are better, mainly because they appeal Internationally but if you want to you can keep it location specific and to your region then consider purchasing all similar higher level domains, yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com.au, if you can.

Choosing a Host:
Fast, reliable and gives you all you that you need and want. Preferably gives a unique IP. Again some SEO professionals believe this can also have a detrimental affect in Googlerankings but from my experience it sometimes does and it sometimes doesn’t. I have had some sites come in with high PR rankings on shared IP’s and others when I shifted to a new IP the PR of the site jumped, so this is still a bit of a mystery when it comes to Googlerankings. I guess a consideration

Traffic considerations: When choosing your host ensure the plan you are on can be expanded so that any new increases in traffic can be accommodated accordingly.

Site Design:
There are several fundamental things to consider when you are modifying or designing a website.

Flash:
Flash is has been popular for a few years now and I truly believe it has its place. It is a great way of showing many products or services in a small area, has great visual impact if done properly and can set a good friendly tone to the website visitor. Having said that, I also hate flash; it can be an absolute nightmare when it comes to search engine optimization.

What you should know about flash; it cannot be read by a search engine as the search engine cannot read the text or the images contained within it nor can it interpret what is in the pictures being shown.

When it comes to flash I would suggest, not making your whole website flash. If you are designing a new website and you want to use flash then use it in high impact areas to capture the attention of your intended audience but use it sparingly. It is important to ensure that as much text content(to a maximum discussed in my next book, generally 300-500 characters) is available on the webpage and in simple HTML.

Frames:
Many older websites were designed with frames. Frames are where the main home page is actually a frameset page that includes several other pages into it. This makes the page hard to index in search engines and should be avoided. While Googledo now index framed sites, it is important to note that most of the other top search engines still cannot follow frame links. They only see the frameset page and ignore the rest of the inner frames. This presents an SEO problem to us because it is highly likely those inner pages contain our content keywords.

Nowadays this is not really a huge issue as it is so uncommon for a designer to actually use frames but the easiest way to resolve the issue would be to enforce a no use policy on frames.

Page Layout:
According to research the Googlebot trawls web pages from left to right and top to bottom. So given this little tidbit of information it is clear that you should be putting our most valuable keywords and information on the left and near the top. Of course this is a blanket statement and does not take into account design principles and beautification. Just keep it in mind during design of page layout. Position your move relevant keywords to the left of the page and near the top.

Good HTML Coding:
A lot of HTML generator programs out there bloat HTML to the point it is 3-4 times larger than what it would be if you hand coded it. Keep it simple, use a text editor, edit your HTML the old school way; until there is a HTML generator tool worthy of use. If you can’t code HTML then do a search on the Internet and find a decent, free, e-book and learn how to do it.

Javascript:
This is very popular among many web development professionals for menu’s, popups, scollers etc etc. It would be my suggestion to use simple plain HTML menu’s or as little Javascript as possible in web pages. There are many small JavaScript menu’s out there that are slim on JavaScript code to reduce this issue and make it almost negligible. Don’t over clutter your site with JavaScript as it increases page size, page load times and the search engines won’t understand it.

Image Sizes:
Keep them small and use only what you need to. This is essential for decreasing page loading times and getting information onto the users screen as soon as possible.

Overall page size and loading:
The overall page size is an important factor. It should load quickly and be easily trawled. If you have followed the HTML hand coding, used minimal javascript, used simple table layouts and good image sizing then you should be fine. There is much evidence that supports the fact that Googleand probably the other search engines also, do not like to scan huge files, so keeping your overall HTML page size below 25k is my suggestion.

Dynamic URL’s & page/file names:
Dynamic pages are roadblocks to high search engine positioning. Especially those that end in “?” or “&”. In a dynamic site, variables are passed to the URL and the page is generated dynamically, often from information stored in a database as is the case with many e-commerce sites. Normal .html pages are static – they are hard-coded, their information does not change, and there are no “?” or “&” characters in the URL.

Pages with dynamic URLs are present in several engines, notably Googleand AltaVista, even though publicly AltaVista claims their spider does not crawl dynamic URLs. To a spider a “?” represents a sea of endless possibilities – some pages can automatically generate a potentially massive number of URLs, trapping the spider in a virtually infinite loop.

As a general rule, search engines will not properly index documents that:
* contain a “?” or “&”
* End in the following document types: .cfm, .asp, .shtml, .php, .stm, .jsp, .cgi, .pl
* Could potentially generate a large number of URLs.
To avoid complications, consider creating static pages whenever possible, perhaps using the database to update the pages, not to generate them on the fly.

Slightly Off Topic Thoughts:
The topics covered here are not considered completely SEO topics but in terms of overall objective : increasing sales, this section is very important. Take these things on board, consider them, consult with your designer and marketing team. Make educated and informed choices on these topics when considering your audience and what your website objectives are.

Screen Size:
Over 65% of all screens in the World are set to run at the 1024×768 resolution. Of the remaining percentage, 13% are running at 800×600, 20% running at larger sizes and 2% are unknown. So this affects the way you design. It would be my suggestion to always design for the smallest user to visit your site, but often I find 800×600 restrictive so I tend to design for slightly larger. Not large enough to make an 800×600 user angry but large enough to make it look good on larger screens also. I weigh up my target users, my intended amount of content and find some happy medium. I generally design for 1000×620 as this is the perfect amount of real estate for a 1024×768 user when they have the browser top bar and status bar and Windows taskbar.

colors and themes:
One important aspect of marketing – selling – is the use of color. Meanings are attached to colors in the same way meanings are attached to words.

* Gold is the color of wealth and prosperity.
* White is the color of pure innocence and cleanliness.
* Pink is the color of femininity and softness.
* Green is the color of natural things and freshness.
* Red is the color of danger and stress.
* Blue is the color the calmness, intelligence. The majority of the World selects blue as a favorite color. It often represents “trust”

Use of color to establish an image or a brand is common in the marketing community, yet when you visit the websites of many search engine optimization professional’s, it’s obvious that color significance plays no part in their own web optimization. Some of the colors I found on SEO websites:
* Baby Blue, a color which implies weakness.
* Red, a color which implies risk, or danger.
* Orange a color which implies a cheerful “levity”. Orange is one of Americans’ least favorite colors.

Although color selection is off topic for SEO I would consider it a very important factor in what SEO is trying to achieve, in the end, for your website : selling more product, creating loyalty to your brand and customer impact. color research is something you should seriously consider. In summary of color choices I would suggest studying and learning more about your customers, researching color choices and their relevance to your underlying products and making informed choices on these in collaboration. If in doubt then I suggest sticking to safe and trusted colors within safe eye pleasing designs.

Gifs for logos & jpgs for pictures:
Ensure you are using gifs for logos and background placements and jpgs for photos on your website. This helps reduce size and improve clarity of the web site overall.

Browser:
It is vitally important to ensure your web page works in both IE, Firefox and Opera. Testing other browsers is also an advantage but these are the main three in use nowadays (2007). I think quoting stats on the browser breakdown are irrelevant as you need it work in all browsers. W3C cross browser compliance is great for this.

So, this brings us to the end of Volume 1: Fundamentals of SEO Web Design. There are many things to consider when designing a website or modifying a web site to make it more SEO friendly. Clearly I have a few more volumes left in SEO for websites.

Whether you believe in SEO or Page Rank and wonder which is more important, your thinking is irrelevant.  You are wasting your time in wondering what is the correct answer to that question, since even if you knew it there is little you could do to use that information.

Why do I say that?  Because SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way of designing your website, and placing content in it, to satisfy search engine algorithms.  Search engines are so sophisticated today that if you achieve that, then you will also satisfy visitors to your website. If you satisfy visitors to your website, then they will stay on the page they landed on and read it.  They will then click to read other pages on your website, and might even make a purchase.

Sure, some will leave right away, but if the search engines feel that your content is good enough for a high placement in their indices for the search term, or keyword, that your visitor used to get to your web page, then it is more likely that you will achieve a relatively high stick rate of people to your site than a lower one.

Now, consider if you thought GooglePageRank more important (and PageRank is correct, not Page Rank).  You would then spend more of your time trying to get links back to your website than you would properly optimizing your site and filling it with good content.  If you were successful in that difficult job, then Google, and possibly other search engines, would list you a bit higher in their indices, not because their spiders thought your site was relevant to the search term used by the potential visitors, but because other websites though so.

You will then get visitors to your website, and the page they land on would have to be relevant to the search term they used or they will immediately leave.  If it is relevant, they will stay, perhaps visit other web pages and perhaps make a purchase.

So what is the difference?  You get basically the same end result.  How can you tell which is the more important. There is one simple way to do this, and one that I have used more than once.  Design two websites round the same keyword.  Make the keyword the name of the website and then apply classical theoretical SEO to one site, including some of the extra special tips that can make the difference between success and failure : in fact that DO make that difference.

Now apply only minimal SEO to the other and make sure you have exactly the same content on each, but rewritten to avoid duplicate content or that would negate the test.  However, with the second site, you must generate as many links back to your website as possible, using non-reciprocal links where possible, but reciprocal links where necessary.  There are a few ways in which you can generate lots of one-way links to selected pages on your site, and you should make that your home page for the purposes of this test.

Wait 4 weeks then check Google, Yahoo and MSN for the position of each of your home pages.  You will find that your first website will generally be listed higher for the keyword that both sites are built round. Check again about 3 months later, and will likely find that website 2 will feature higher as the links start to take effect, but then the first site will overtake it as it generates its own links naturally.

Basically, what this proves to me is that it is essential to optimize your website for search engines in the classical way, but that for best results you must also have a good level of links back to your website.  There are simple, ways to achieve both, but that would be the topic of another article. However, in the end, if you apply both, then you will achieve best results. I know that there are exceptions to this, and I have highlighted them in some my ebooks, but generally that is the case.

So, the answer to the question:  SEO or Page Rank, is that neither is the more important.  They are both equally important, but it is possible to do one better than the other and then you would be tempted to say that your way was best. But you would be wrong!

If you did find what was the best you couldn’t use that information since search engines rules are transitory but good honest content and classical SEO has always prevailed, as has a good number of links that others follow to reach your website.

There are two major search engine marketing strategies in use today: SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click). Both strategies are entirely different and it is tough to decide which one or which combination is right for you.

To decide which strategy is best for you, consider the basics. It is easier to judge the pros and cons when taking the big picture into account. People will continue to battle for the top search engine positions. Search engine marketing is undoubtedly one of the best sources of targeted traffic.

As people continuously try to find new and unique ways to get additional traffic to their web sites, the SEO industry continues to grow. PPC refers to advertising on a search engine that charges on a per click basis whenever a visitor clicks on one of your ads. The order of ads is usually based on bidding prices, meaning that the advertiser who bids the highest price per click will be listed first. These sponsored listings are known as PPC listings.

SEO tries to change your search engine ranking by looking at a number of factors including link popularity, Page Rank and so on. If your web site is search engine optimized then obviously you are more likely to have a good ranking in the search engines. A well-optimized and marketed site will be listed in the top results whenever a person searches for related keywords. One of the best benefits of SEO marketing is you don’t have to pay for any clicks! So, how can we decide which method is better? Both methods actually serve different purposes. However, one is likely to be a better fit for your business than the other one.

PPC

PPC traffic, rankings and results tend to be more stable and predictable than SEO, and, combined with its low cost, this makes PPC one of the more popular ways of advertising. Most companies try PPC before they try SEO, because it’s seen as more stable. In many cases PPC lets you rank well on the search engines, without having to do the tedious work involved in SEO : no finding link partners, posting links, creating content and so on. As long as you have the budget for it, the ranking is yours. Another advantage is that the listing will get posted when you want it and not when the search engine gets around to it. With PPC’s popularity growing day by day, the market is also getting competitive. You will find that CPC’s (costs per clicks) are steadily rising, and for a common man it is getting tough to invest much. As with most auctions, the more people bidding on PPC, the higher the prices get.

SEO

The main benefit of SEO is that it does not cost per click. The disadvantages are that the traffic to your website is more unpredictable and requires a lot of work. With SEO, you have to adapt and constantly change strategies as search engines change their algorithms. SEO is also slower than PPC, as many search engines don’t list new sites. So what should you choose? Well, it depends on how much money you are willing to spend, what your time line is, and what your return on investment is. If you have cash then PPC should be your first choice, as it produces fast results. PPC can also be used for testing the effectiveness of web sites. If you have time and money to invest in long-term results, SEO is an excellent option as well.

All and all, the best marketing strategy is typically to go with PPC in the short term to get immediate traffic and analyze conversions. SEO should then be taken with a long term view in mind, so you can reap the benefits of free traffic later on.

Give Me 5 Minutes And I’ll Show You How To Get Visitors As Easily As Turning A Water Faucet.

In Fact, I’ll Show You How The Perpetual Traffic Generator™ Can Automatically Send Your 800 or More Visitors In An Hour To Your Website Without You Lifting a Finger, 100% Guaranteed!

An Open Letter To Every Net Marketer Frustrated By Trying To Increase Their Traffic, Grow Their Business, Put More Money In Their Pocket And Going Nowhere!

If you’d like to learn:

+ How to drive an ongoing stream of people to your site everyday without working your fingers off for it.
+ Automate your Start Page traffic surfing, building credits in multiple programs at the same time! (This alone will save you hours of time and leverage your credit surfing!)
+ How to combine click thru marketing and banner advertising to generate over 60,000 banner impressions… all for FREE!
+ Then this might be the most important letter you’ll ever read.

Let me explain.

I have just finished completing a new tool that:

Increases your traffic by a whopping 927%
Allows you to generate traffic 24/7 absolutely FREE!
Frees you up from clicking away mindlessly in front of the PC to chalk up traffic credits. Just set it up and it’ll do all the work for you.

Sends a stampede of visitors to your website the very day you invest in this incredible web marketing tool
Makes you kick butt profit in the traffic generation process
Now, you’re probably wondering how and why we can do all those things.

A newbie is someone who is new to something and SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. So if this is you, here are some terms you will be hearing and need to be familiar with.

A couple of years ago, SEO did not even exist, so in some way we are all newbies. It’s just that some are more new than others.

This list of terms, is by no means exhaustive but is meant as a basic introduction to the language used in SEO. At the rate new terms area appearing, by the time you have finished reading this list someone will have probably invented a new term, but at least you will have the basics. So lets get started.

above the fold
This is derived from the reference to the top part of a newspaper. Above the fold is used on the Internet to describe the top part of the page that the visitor can see without scrolling down.

AdSense
Google’s contextual based ad program. Use AdSense, by placing the ads on your website and earning revenue from when visitors click on the ads.

AdWords
Google’s pay per click (PPC) advertising program. Use AdWords when you want to buy advertisement to send traffic somewhere.

algorithm
Algorithms are complex sets of rules based on mathematical equations. With regard to SEO the algorithm is how the search engines rank web pages in it’s search results. Some SEOers feel that is they can figure out the algorithm, they can obtain higher search engine rankings.

anchor text
Also called link text. Is the blue underlined text on web pages that you click to go to another page or site. (Note: The link does not necessarily need to be blue or underlined but this is the traditional standard).

backlink / back link
A link on another page that links to the page you are viewing. Also known as inbound link.

click through rate (CTR)
Often used in Internet marketing to describe the percentage of users who click on a link or advertisement. IF a page has 100 visitors and 12 click on the link then the page has a CTR of 12%.

cloaking
The practice used by some web sites to send one page to a search engine for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else. So what the search engine sees and what you see are two different things. It should be noted that the practice of cloaking can get your site banned from the search engines.

conversion rate (CR)
The percentage of site visitors that deliver your most wanted response (MWR). The CR is an important measure of the effectiveness of your online sales effort. If your site is selling an e-book and if 3 out of every 100 visitors buys your book then your site has a CR of 3%.

CPC
Cost per click. The total cost of an advertising campaign divided by the resulting number of unique visitors.

CPM
Cost per thousand impressions (M= Roman numeral for 1000). A pricing system often used in the banner advertising industry.
.
dead link
A link to a page, that no longer exists or has been moved to a different URL. Search engine spiders regularly remove dead links.

deep linking
The practice of linking to the inner pages of another web site – as opposed to linking to the homepage.

Googlebomb / Googlebombing
The practice of using anchor text to make a page show up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) under keywords that are out of context for that page. It should be noted that Googleis taking steps to prevent this practice.

hand submission
The practice of visiting each search engine and directory and submitting the registration form by hand as opposed to using a software program. Some systems will not accept automated submissions. Same as Manual Submission.

heading tag
A HTML tag represented by , etc, to H6. These tags denote a text size with H1 being the largest. The heading tags may have significance in SEO with search engines appearing to assign more weight to keywords within heading tags.

hidden text
Text on a web page that is visible to spiders but not to human visitors. The aim is to load the page with keywords without deterring from the visitor’s experience. This is mostly done by making the text the some color as the background. Most search engines can now detect hidden text and consider it a form of spaming. Pages that contain hidden text are penalized or even de-listed.

hit
One hit is one request for a file on a web server. A visitor opening a page with 3images will in the process generate 4 hits.

hot linking
The practice of displaying images files, video files etc. on a web site when those files are on another (usually someone else’s) server. Effectively the site displays content that uses up someone else’s bandwidth. Hot linking is generally considered unethical unless prior permission is obtained.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language is the primary language used to write web sites. Consists of tags .

HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the most common transfer protocol used to facilitate communication between servers and browsers.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and a newbie is someone who is new to something. So if you are a SEO Newbie then these basic terms are going to assist.

A few years ago no one had heard of the term SEO. And now we have pages of terms that relate to it.  The internet has quickly created new industries and thus spawned new words and phrases.

Use this list of terms as a quick introduction into the language of SEO.

IP address
Every Internet user and every server has a numeric address : they look like this 123.45.67.890.

keyword
Keyword in a word used in a search query. In SEO, web pages are typically optimized for specific keywords. Accurate keyword targeting is considered by most to be essential to effective SEO.

keyword density
A measure of the percentage of key words on a page. When keyword density is inflated artificially, it is often referred to as keyword stuffing.

latent semantic indexing (LSI)
Latent Semantic Indexing, uses statistical algorithms to retrieve relevant documents even when they do not share any of the words queried.

manual submission
The process of manually submitting a web page to a search engine or directory as opposed to using submission software or a submission service. Same as Hand Submission.

Natural Linking
Describes the hypertext links found on web sites that are part of text content and that link to expanded or add extra information to the subject.

nofollow
If you don’t want the Googlebot to follow a you can use the following tag in your href links -  rel=”nofollow”

PPC
Pay Per Click. An internet advertising payment system where the advertiser only pays for an advertisement when it gets click on. So an ad may be on a page that gets 1,000 visitors but if only 6 click, then the advertiser only pays for 6.

ranking
Refers to where a web page is listed in the search results for a particular query. For example, if one of your web pages is listed a position 7 for cat” then your page is said to have a ranking of 7 for that term.

reciprocal link
Is basically a link swap. I will put a link to your page on mine if you will give a link back from your page.

PageRank
Google’s measure of the link popularity of a page.

SERP(S)
Search Engine Results Page(s). When you search for a term in a search engine it brings back a page full of responses this is the SERP.

SEO
Search Engine Optimization. This is a collective term used to describe activities that aim to improve a web page’s search engine ranking.

sitemap
A map to your site. A sitemap contains links to every page of your site which may assist spiders to index all your pages.

spider
An internal search engine program that travels the internet following links from one page to the next and from one site to the next. As it ‘crawls” it collects information from the sites it visits and then that information is stored in the search engine’s database for using in search engine query results.

spidering
The process of what the spiders do.

Server Side Include (SSI)
Is a form of HTML command that is kept off the page and on the server. It allows the  webmaster to insert the same thing on many pages and allows them to make changes to that thing in just one place. For example a navigation bar may occur on every page, but if it is set up as a SSI, if a change is needed then the webmaster only need change it once and it will automatically be changed on every page.

unique visitor
Used to describe one individual person visiting a site. That one individual may visit the site multiple times, therefore log files normally show more visits than unique visitors.

URL
URL is short for Uniform Resource Locator or Universal Resource Locator. It is the unique Internet address that every website must have in order to be located.