SEM Terms
Selecting the right SEO service company can be a very difficult task, due to the overwhelming divide in effective and ineffective methods in search engine marketing. Not only is there an ever increasing number of companies that offer SEO services in Tampa and Orlando, but industry terms and rules are a constantly evolving puzzle. This index of search engine marketing terms is designed to help familiarize businesses with keywords and terms in the online marketing industry.
Please note when using online advertising, a business should consult an expert in online marketing. Improper use or overuse of some of the preceding methods and terms may inadvertently hurt your online presence or adversely affect your search engine rankings. Again consult a web marketing professional to enhance your web presence.
· Advertising Use of a media to call attention to a product, service or opinion
· Ad Inventory Total number of times an advertisement spaces is available over a specific amount of time
· Ad Rotation Occurs when more than one advertisement is shown in the same location on a page
· Ad Space Predetermined area that an Advertisement appears
· Ad view Number of times an advertisement is displayed on a webpage
· Adwords Editor Application from Google that assists in managing ad campaigns
· Affiliated Marketing Online marketing practice of directing a visitor, or potential customer to another website in exchange for payment.
· Algorithm Systematic approach search engines use to define rankings
· Alt Tag Used to provide further details in regards to an image
· Anchor Text Hyperlinked words on a web page
· API (Application Program Interface) Set of protocols, routines and various tools used to ease task of developing a program
· APT Yahoo Advertising platform used by Yahoo
· ASP Web server technology created by Microsoft
· B2B (Business to Business) Actions taken between two businesses
· B2C (Business to Consumer) Actions directed from a business to a consumer
· Back Links Incoming links to a webpage or website, can aid in SEO rankings
· Backward Link See Back link
· Banner Area on a webpage used as an advertising space, most often appearing as a picture
· Banner Advertising The use of advertising space on a webpage to call attention to product or service, often clickable
· Bid A monetary offer for an advertising space
· Bing Newest search engine by Microsoft
· Black Hat SEO Unethical approach to SEO, results can hurt rankings or result in banning of website from certain search engines
· BLOG Short for Web Log, Online journal written for public display, you are reading one!
· Bots Software used to search and index web pages and web sites
· Branding Art of establishing and identity for a product or service
· Click act of using a link on a web page
· Click Rate Ratio of click throughs divided by number of impressions. The larger the percentage the more efficient.
· Click Stream Record of user’s activity when surfing the web
· Cloaking Unethical approach to SEO when content does not match what spiders read
· Cold Fusion HTML based programming language
· Content Manager Person, team or system used to manage information presented on a website
· Conversion When a website visitor takes an action towards purchase of a service or product
· Conversion rate Ratio of website visits that convert to sales
· Cookie small data file that can be written locally on a user’s machine
· Cost Per Lead Average expense to generate a lead
· Cost Per Sale Average expense to generate a sale
· CPA (Cost per Acquisition) Average expense to generate an action on a website
· CPC (Cost per Click) Average expense to have a user click on to a website
· Crawlers See Bots definition
· CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) language used to define the look and formatting of a document or website
· CTR (Click Through Rate) Ratio of number of times advertisement was clicked divided by number of times advertisement was displayed
· Demographics Tangible characteristics of selected target audience
· Domain Address on a local subnetwork or the internet
· Domain Registration Process of claiming ownership of an address ( Domain ) on the internet
· Dynamic Page Webpage that may display different information based on user input
· Dynamic Website Set of web pages that can display different content based on user input
· External link path away from current website to a different website
· Facebook Popular social networking website
· Flash Platform by Adobe in which to display multimedia content
· Forum Online public or private place for opinions to be expressed or information to be shared
· Google Publicly traded company centered around search engine platform and additional products and services
· Google Adwords An avenue to advertise on Google search engines using banners
· Header Text giving indication of what is discussed in preceding body of text
· Hits Number of visits on a website or webpage
· Host Server or computer in which web pages and, or associated applications resides
· HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language ) Language used to define and manage files to be used on a website
· Image Link Banner that directs users to another location by clicking
· Impressions Number of times an advertisement is displayed
· Incoming link Vehicle in which users will arrive from another website
· Internet Bots See Bots
· IP (Internet Protocol ) Address Numeric identifier of a device that is part of a computer network
· ISP (Internet Service Provider) Company that grants access to the internet
· KEI( Keyword effectiveness Index) Ratio sometimes used to predict performance of a campaign
· Key word Density Measurement of number of times keywords appear on a page
· Key words Terms that are used to aid in cataloging of websites
· Landing Page Page the appears when a user clicks on a search engine result or an advertisement link, sometimes refered to as lead capture page
· Latent Semantic Indexing Mathematical technique used to associate patterns and relationships of terms in comparison to corresponding concepts
· Lead potential customer, client, or sale
· Link connection that can be used to traverse from a web page to an application or anthoer website
· Link Building Process of increasing links to a website
· Link Exchange Method of reciprocal of linking of web pages or use of a centralized webpage to link web sites
· Link Farm Method of mutually establishing links with a group of websites, can violates search engine user agreements
· Link Popularity Relates to the quality and quantity of inbound links from other websites
· Linked In Popular business networking website
· Local SEO Search Engine Optimization targeting a defined smaller geographic area
· Max Bid Largest amount a personal or business is willing to pay for an advertisement location
· Media broker Person or company that is authorized to selling advertising space for one or more companies
· Media buyer Position in an advertisement agency that negotiates and purchases advertisement locations and deployment methods
· Media planner Position in an advertisement firm that is responsible for deciding the most effective placement of advertisements for their client
· Meta Data Additional information used to aid in relating data to individuals or a search engine
· Meta Tags HTML coding that provides information about a web page
· MSN Microsoft search engine now, now replaced by Bing
· MSN Adcenter Name of Microsoft ‘s pay per click advertising system
· Myspace Social networking website
· MySQL Open source database management system
· Natural Links Proper relevant link from another website
· Negative Keywords Used to filter unwanted displays of your advertisement when using pay per click
· Nhan “Young” Nguyen The great guy that spent hours upon hours getting this reference guide together for you
· Off Page SEO Factors that affect page rankings that are not resident on the website itself
· On Page SEO Factors that affect page rankings that are related to elements on the website
· One Way Linking A link from one website to another that is not reciprocated
· Online Advertising The use of the internet to advertise
· Open Source original coding used when programming software, prior to compiling
· Opt in email Email from a website that allows a user to register their email for a newsletter or other information from the provider
· Opt out Process of removing your email from a mailing list
· Organic Proper marketing by correcting technical inaccuracies and technical nuances that prevent a website from having its content indexed properly
· Organic Search Results List of web pages that displays when a query is made, typically near the bottom of the page, advertisements are not considered organic
· Outbound Linking Vehicle in which navigates users off your web page
· Page Rank Measurement of value of a webpage in search engine rankings
· Paid Link Building Payment in trade for a inbound link
· Pay per lead Online marketing method in which a user pays for ability to prospect a potential consumer or ratio used to measure prospect generation versus cost
· Pay per sale Another pricing structure in which payment is exchange for each sale made or ratio measuring closing ratio versus cost
· Pay Per View Marketing method in which user exchanges payment for each view or for a specified segment of time to view a product such as a video
· PHP Scripting language used to create and maintain dynamic websites
· Placement targeting Strategic positioning advertisements to be viewed by a certain demographic
· PPC (Pay Per Click) Online advertisement in which a business pays for each time a user is brought to their website through a link or banner
· Quality Index (Yahoo) Yahoo’s method in which to measure how relevant an advertisement is to the campaign
· Quality score Used by search engines in addition to bid system to rank placement of advertisements
· Query Request to return information from a database, catalog or index
· Ranking Order of websites and advertisements. Often ranking on the top is considered the number one position
· Reciprocal Link exchange of outbound link for a inbound link
· Redirects General term used when taking a user from one website to another
· Relevancy Measure of how closely associated certain terms, keywords, phrases or websites are to each other
· ROAS ( Return On Advertising Spending ) Measurement of advertising cost versus gross sales
· ROI ( Return on investment ) Measurement of gross revenue generated versus marketing cost
· Search Engine Automated computer program which indexes data and responds to queries with indexed data
· Search Query Instance a search engine is asked to respond with indexed data
· SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Advertising or establishing an identity through use of a Search engine, typically by being in search engine results pages
· SEO (Search Engine Optimization) The science or art of understanding and correcting technical inaccuracies the prohibit a website from having its content correctly indexed by spiders
· SERP (Search engine Results Page)Page or pages that display after a query is made
· Site Map List of pages that are to be accessible by users or search engines
· Social Media User generated media that is often displayed publicly or to a select audience. Often the information is about interests of the user or about the user his, herself or themselves
· Social Networking Interconnected lines of communication; often at the center of each construct is an individual, business or organization. Modern Social networking is use of social media to inter connect users
· Spam Unsolicited advertisements or marketing to an individual or business, often in the form of mass emailing
· Spider See Bots
· Splash Page Initial webpage used to either capture a user’s attention or to entertain user while the rest of the website loads.
· Sponsor Exchange of payment often for other considerations such as advertisement or web presence
· Sponsored Links Online marketing method in which companies exchange payment for advertisement space and an opportunity to bring a prospect to their website from another website
· Static Website Web site that displays the same or almost the same content regardless of the user’s input
· Submission Input of a website for review, consideration or to initiate an exchange with another website
· Supplemental Results Discontinued in 2007 by Google, results were drawn from a secondary database that contains pages deemed less importance by Search Engines
· Targeting Online marketing strategy of specifically focusing on certain cliental
· Text Link Displayed words that when clicked direct user to another webpage, location on the current webpage, or website another website
· Title Attribute Properties of a title tag used to increase accessibility
· Title Tag HTML code that is used to describe a web pages content
· Title Text Words appearing in or before content to distinguish what the content is written about
· TLD (Top Level Domain) Appear in the domain name of a website and is located in the most furthest right portion of the name. An example would .com
· Tracking Url Uniform resource locator that can be used to log certain elements when a link is clicked, often used in paid advertisements
· Traffic Measurement of visitors to a website
· Unique Visitor Measurement of not the raw number of visits but of just new visitors to a website
· URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Address used locate a website or file on the internet
· Video Marketing Use of pictures in motion to capture a users attention and to attract more prospects to a website or to increase web presence
· Viral Marketing Buzz word in which a media is used to create awareness of a product, service or website through massive distribution
· Visit An instance of a user viewing a webpage
· W3C (World Wide Consortium) Established in 1994, main organization that the sets international standards and protocols for the world wide web
· Web Crawlers See Bots
· Web Optimizing Improving a websites accessibly for either performance or search engine compatibility
· Web Robots See Bots
· Website Collection of webpages
· Website Marketing Online practice of creating a identity for a product, service or reference material in hopes to gain prospects
· White Hat SEO Ethical approach to properly have content indexed by search engines
· XHTML(Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) Subset of XML, more strict form of HTML
· XML (Extensible Markup Language) System in which to define formats and sharing data on the web
· Yahoo Popular Search engine that was created in 1994 and incorporated in March of 1995