Digital Marketing Glossary
META SEARCH ENGINE
A search engine that gets listings from two or more other search engines, rather than through its own efforts.
META TAGS
Information placed in a web page not intended for users to see but instead which typically passes information to search engine crawlers, browser software and some other applications.
META DESCRIPTION TAG
Allows page authors to say how they would like their pages described when listed by search engines. Not all search engines use the tag.
META KEYWORDS TAG
Allows page authors to add text to a page to help with the search engine ranking process. Not all search engines use the tag.
META ROBOTS TAG
Allows page authors to keep their web pages from being indexed by search engines, especially helpful for those who cannot create robots.txt files. The Robots Exclusion page provides official details.
MIRROR
In SEO parlance, a mirror is a near identical duplicate website (or page). Mirrors are commonly used in an effort to target different keywords/key phrases. Using mirrors is a violation of the terms of service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
MISSPELLINGS
Errors in spelling. You have to take them into consideration when building your keyword list. The reason is that many people type their search phrases with misspellings, but they are still potential targeted traffic for you.
MULTIVARIATE TESTING
In relation to SEM, multivariate testing is where multiple components of a website may be tested in a live environment to find the best possible combination of variants.
NEGATIVE KEYWORD
A keyword that defines the term(s) you don’t want your ad to display for.
O
ORGANIC LISTINGS
Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings). Instead, sites appear solely because a search engine has deemed it editorially important for them to be included, regardless of payment. Paid Inclusion content is also often considered “organic” even though it is paid for. This is because that content appears intermixed with unpaid organic results.
OUTBOUND LINKS
Links on a particular web page leading to other web pages, whether they are within the same web site or other web sites.
OVERTURE
The former name of Yahoo! Search Marketing, first pay per click program, formerly known as GOTO.
P
PAID INCLUSION
Program, guaranteeing that all pages of a web site are included in Yahoo, leading ISP portals, and 35 other search providers within three days in exchange for payment. However, no guarantee of good ranking is given. Website content is refreshed in natural search listings every 48 hours, providing control of what and when the search engines display information about web pages. This allows your SEO team to tweak the listings for higher conversions. Marketers pay to be included in search engines and directories on a per-URL listing fee plus a fixed cost per click that is currently under £0.50 per click
PAID PLACEMENT
Advertising program where listings are guaranteed to appear in response to particular search terms, with higher ranking typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers. Paid placement listings can be purchased from a portal or a search network. Search networks are often set up in an auction environment where keywords and phrases are associated with a cost-per-click (CPC) fee. Overture and Google are the largest networks, but MSN and other portals sometimes sell paid placement listings directly as well. Portal sponsorships are also a type of paid placement.
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PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE
A term popularized by some search engines as a synonym for pay-per-click, stressing to advertisers that they are only paying for ads that “perform” in terms of delivering traffic, as opposed to CPM-based ads, where ads cost money, even if they don’t generate a click.
PAY PER CLICK (PPC)
A concept for online advertising where you pay a certain amount of money each time somebody clicks on your ad.
PAY PER LEAD
The amount of money you spend to generate an action from one visitor. That action doesn't necessarily have to be a purchase, but a subscription to your newsletter for example.
PAY PER SALE
The amount of money you need to pay to generate a sale through your website.
PAY PER VIEW
The system by which you pay every time when somebody views your ad, even if that person doesn't, click on it; A concept that is not very popular anymore.
PFI
Abbreviation for Pay For Inclusion, see Paid Inclusion.
PHRASE MATCH
The option that limits your ad to be displayed only when somebody types in the search box a phrase that includes your keywords, in the same order.
PORTAL
Designation for websites that are either authoritative hubs for a given subject or popular content driven sites (like Yahoo) that people use as their homepage. Most portals offer significant content and offer advertising opportunities for relevant sites.
POSITION
See Rank.
PPC
Abbreviation of pay per click. An advertising model where advertisers pay only for the traffic generated by their ads.
PR
Abbreviation of PageRank, Google’s proprietary measure of link popularity for web pages. Google offers a PR viewer on their toolbar.
Q
QUERY
See Search Terms.
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A search engine that gets listings from two or more other search engines, rather than through its own efforts.
META TAGS
Information placed in a web page not intended for users to see but instead which typically passes information to search engine crawlers, browser software and some other applications.
META DESCRIPTION TAG
Allows page authors to say how they would like their pages described when listed by search engines. Not all search engines use the tag.
META KEYWORDS TAG
Allows page authors to add text to a page to help with the search engine ranking process. Not all search engines use the tag.
META ROBOTS TAG
Allows page authors to keep their web pages from being indexed by search engines, especially helpful for those who cannot create robots.txt files. The Robots Exclusion page provides official details.
MIRROR
In SEO parlance, a mirror is a near identical duplicate website (or page). Mirrors are commonly used in an effort to target different keywords/key phrases. Using mirrors is a violation of the terms of service of most search engines and could be grounds for banning.
MISSPELLINGS
Errors in spelling. You have to take them into consideration when building your keyword list. The reason is that many people type their search phrases with misspellings, but they are still potential targeted traffic for you.
MULTIVARIATE TESTING
In relation to SEM, multivariate testing is where multiple components of a website may be tested in a live environment to find the best possible combination of variants.
NEGATIVE KEYWORD
A keyword that defines the term(s) you don’t want your ad to display for.
O
ORGANIC LISTINGS
Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings). Instead, sites appear solely because a search engine has deemed it editorially important for them to be included, regardless of payment. Paid Inclusion content is also often considered “organic” even though it is paid for. This is because that content appears intermixed with unpaid organic results.
OUTBOUND LINKS
Links on a particular web page leading to other web pages, whether they are within the same web site or other web sites.
OVERTURE
The former name of Yahoo! Search Marketing, first pay per click program, formerly known as GOTO.
P
PAID INCLUSION
Program, guaranteeing that all pages of a web site are included in Yahoo, leading ISP portals, and 35 other search providers within three days in exchange for payment. However, no guarantee of good ranking is given. Website content is refreshed in natural search listings every 48 hours, providing control of what and when the search engines display information about web pages. This allows your SEO team to tweak the listings for higher conversions. Marketers pay to be included in search engines and directories on a per-URL listing fee plus a fixed cost per click that is currently under £0.50 per click
PAID PLACEMENT
Advertising program where listings are guaranteed to appear in response to particular search terms, with higher ranking typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers. Paid placement listings can be purchased from a portal or a search network. Search networks are often set up in an auction environment where keywords and phrases are associated with a cost-per-click (CPC) fee. Overture and Google are the largest networks, but MSN and other portals sometimes sell paid placement listings directly as well. Portal sponsorships are also a type of paid placement.
Back To The Top
PAY-FOR-PERFORMANCE
A term popularized by some search engines as a synonym for pay-per-click, stressing to advertisers that they are only paying for ads that “perform” in terms of delivering traffic, as opposed to CPM-based ads, where ads cost money, even if they don’t generate a click.
PAY PER CLICK (PPC)
A concept for online advertising where you pay a certain amount of money each time somebody clicks on your ad.
PAY PER LEAD
The amount of money you spend to generate an action from one visitor. That action doesn't necessarily have to be a purchase, but a subscription to your newsletter for example.
PAY PER SALE
The amount of money you need to pay to generate a sale through your website.
PAY PER VIEW
The system by which you pay every time when somebody views your ad, even if that person doesn't, click on it; A concept that is not very popular anymore.
PFI
Abbreviation for Pay For Inclusion, see Paid Inclusion.
PHRASE MATCH
The option that limits your ad to be displayed only when somebody types in the search box a phrase that includes your keywords, in the same order.
PORTAL
Designation for websites that are either authoritative hubs for a given subject or popular content driven sites (like Yahoo) that people use as their homepage. Most portals offer significant content and offer advertising opportunities for relevant sites.
POSITION
See Rank.
PPC
Abbreviation of pay per click. An advertising model where advertisers pay only for the traffic generated by their ads.
PR
Abbreviation of PageRank, Google’s proprietary measure of link popularity for web pages. Google offers a PR viewer on their toolbar.
Q
QUERY
See Search Terms.
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R
RANK
How well a particular web page or web site is listed in a search engine result. For example, a web page about apples may be listed in response to a query for “apples.” However, “rank” indicates where exactly it was listed — be it on the first page of results, the second page or perhaps the 200th page. Alternatively, it might also be said to be ranked first among all results, or 12th, or 111th. Overall, saying a page is “listed” only means that it can be found within a search engine in response to a query, not that it necessarily ranks well for that query. Also referred to as position.
REACTIVATION FEE
The amount of money you have to pay every time you restore full delivery of your account after it has been slowed.
RECIPROCAL LINK
A link exchange between two sites. Reciprocal links can often increase Page Rank and provide higher listings in natural search results.
REGISTRATION
See Submission.
RELEVANCY
The accuracy of the match between the keyword typed in the search box by an Internet user, and the results returned by the search engine.
RETURN ON AD SPEND
The number of times we receive Ad Spend back in the form of revenue. Calculated as:
Total Revenue ÷ Total Cost
RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
Refers to the percentage of profit or revenue generated from a specific activity. For example, one might measure the ROI of a paid listing campaign by adding up the total amount spent on the campaign (say £200) versus the amount generated from it in revenue (say £1,000). The ROI would then be 500 percent.
RESULTS PAGE
After a user enters a search query, the page that is displayed is referred to as the results page. Sometimes it may be called SERPs, for “search engine results page.”
ROBOT
See Crawler.
ROBOTS.TXT
Robots.txt is a file on a web server which well-behaved spiders read to determine which parts of a website they may visit.
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S
SEARCH ENGINE
Any service generally designed to allow users to search the web or a specialized database of information. Web search engines generally have paid listings and organic listings. Organic listings typically come from crawling the web, though often human-powered directory listings are also optionally offered.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)
The act of marketing a web site via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings (SEO), purchasing paid listings (PPC) or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
Abbreviated to SEO. The act of altering a web site so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines. In the past, has also been used as a term for any type of search engine marketing activity, though now the term search engine marketing itself has taken over for this.
SEO PAGES
A web page created expressly in hopes of ranking well for a term in a search engine’s non-paid listings and which itself does not deliver much information to those viewing it. Instead, visitors will often see only some enticement on the doorway page leading them to other pages (i.e., “Click Here To Enter), or they may be automatically propelled quickly past the doorway page. With cloaking, they may never see the doorway page at all. Several search engines have guidelines against doorway pages, though they are more commonly allowed in through paid inclusion programs. Also referred to as bridge pages, gateway pages, and jump pages, among other names.
SEARCH TERMS
The words (or word) a searcher enters into a search engine’s search box. Also used to refer to the terms a search engine marketer hopes a particular page will be found for. Also called keywords, query terms or query.
SERP
Abbreviation of Search Engine Results Page/Positioning. This refers to the organic (excluding paid listings) search results for a given query.
SEMPO
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, the non-profit search engine marketing industry body formed to increase the awareness – and educate people on the value – of search engine marketing.
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SHOPPING SEARCH
Shopping search engines allow shoppers to look for products and prices in a search environment. Premium placement can be purchased on some shopping search indices.
SPAM
Any search engine marketing method that a search engine deems to be detrimental to its efforts to deliver relevant, quality search results. Some search engines have written guidelines about what they consider to be spamming, but ultimately any activity a particular search engine deems harmful may be considered spam, whether or not there are published guidelines against it. Examples of spam include the creation of nonsensical doorway pages designed to please search engine algorithms rather than human visitors or heavy repetition of search terms on a page (i.e. The search terms are used tens or hundreds or times in a row). These are only two of many examples. Determining what is spam is complicated by the fact that different search engines have different standards. A particular search engine may even have different standards of what’s allowed, depending on whether content is gathered through organic methods versus paid inclusion. Also referred to as spamdexing.
SPIDER
Also called a bot (or robot). Spiders are software programs that scan the web. They vary in purpose from indexing web pages for search engines to harvesting e-mail addresses for spammers.
SPIDER TRAP
A spider trap refers to either a continuous loop where spiders are requesting pages and the server is requesting data to render the page, or to an intentional scheme designed to identify (and “ban”) spiders that do not respect robots.txt.
SPYWARE
Spyware is a generic/catchall label that applies to software that: 1. Installs itself secretly, dishonestly or without consent 2. Does not allow for easy un-installation / removal 3. Monitors or tracks users actions without the users awareness or consent 4. Alters the behavior/default options of other programs without the users consent or awareness (aka thief ware)
SUBMISSION
The act of submitting a URL for non-paid inclusion into a search engine’s index. Submission does not generally guarantee a listing. In addition, submission does not help with rank improvement on crawler-based search engines unless search engine optimization efforts have been taken. Submission can be done manually (fill out an online form and submit) or automatically, where a software program or online service may process the forms behind the scenes.
STATISTICS, STATS
All the data that expresses the results of your campaign: totals, percent's, means, evolution curves and predictions.
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STOP WORDS
Words – such as the, a, an – that are ignored by search engines when indexing web pages and processing search queries.
T
TAGS
Refers to the correct labeling of key areas of web pages such as the web page title, the meta content, ALT attributes on images and keyword links, and anchor tags within the page content.
TAGGING
The process of adding a variety of tags to web pages.
TARGETED TRAFFIC
The number of people that visit your website and actually have the potential to become customers right away or at a further moment.
TRACKING URL
URL that has specific parameters assigned to it, allowing you to gather information about the source of the click, the search query used, and other metrics.
TRAFFIC
The number of people that visit your webpage, being led there by your ads.
TWO-TIER
An Internet marketing model that allows affiliates to sign-up for other affiliates. The principle is similar to multi-level marketing.
U
UNIQUE VISITOR
The unique IP address that describes the identity of the visitor.
URL (UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR)
A unique sequence of characters that describes the location of a webpage.
USABILITY
The potential of a website to return value to its users as quickly and easily as possible.
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Results-driven digital marketing strategies since 2001