Search engine marketing glossary
Search engine marketing is a relatively new activity, and brings a whole range of new words, acronyms and abbreviations. This glossary aims to help explain some of these new terms.
-- A --
AdSense
See Google AdSense
Algorithm
Search engines use different algorithms to determine the ranking of your site for specific keywords. Variables in the algorithms include the quantity and location of specific keywords within your site and your sites inbound links.
-- B --
Back link
See inbound link
Bidsmart
Bidsmart is the pay per click program offered by Sensis.
-- C --
Cloaking
Clloaking is a method of displaying one set of content to a user and another to a search engine with the aim of "tricking" the search engine. Also see spamming.
CPC
See cost per click.
Cost per click
The cost per click is the price you will pay when a user clicks on your paid listing.
Crawler
See spider.
CTR
See click through rate.
Click
A click is recorded in a pay per click campaign when someone clicks on your advertisement.
Click through rate
The click through rate or CTR is the percentage of clicks your pay per click advertisement will receive for the number of times it is displayed. It is calculated by the formula: (Clicks / Impressions) X 100
-- D --
Directory submission
Directory submission refers to submitting your website to a website directory for inclusion in their results.
DMOZ
See Open Directory.
Doorway page
Doorway pages are optimised pages added to a website with the specific purpose of ranking highly for specific keywords. Also see spamming.
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-- F --
-- G --
Google
Google is the world's biggest search engine. About 75% of searches performed in Australia are done using Google.
Google AdSense
With Google AdSense you can place some code on your website to render Google AdWords advertisments. Each click on one of your AdSense advertisements earns your revenue from Google.
Google AdWords
AdWords is the pay per click advertising mechanism offered by Google. Your advertisements will appear at the top or to the right of the organic search results.
Google Sitemaps
Sitemaps is one of the latest technology releases from Google, allowing a wbsite owner to submit a listing of all their pages to Google for indexing rather than waiting on the Google spider to index it.
-- H --
-- I --
IBL
See inbound link.
Impression
Each time an advertisement in your pay per click campaign is displayed it is called an impression.
Inbound link
An inbound link is a link from a website external to yours which links back to your page. The quantity and quality of inbound links to your site is a big factor in determining your search engine ranking.
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-- K --
-- L --
Link exchange
Link exchanging refers to placing a link on your site to someone else's site in exchange for them placing a link to your site. An exchanged link is also called a reciprocal link.
Link text
Link text is the "clickable" part of a website link.
Log file
A web server will generally record information about the vists to your website. From this Information you can determine where a user came from, what pages they visited, how long they stayed and what browser and operating system they used.
-- M --
Meta Tags
Meta tags are pieces of hidden information contained in your web pages. It is a common misconception that these meta tags are an important factor in improving your rankings. Meta tags however have little or no affect on your ranking.
Missed impression
You may miss out on potential impressions in a pay per click campaign if your keyword bid price is too low.
-- N --
Natural search results
See organic search results.
NineMSN
NineMSN is the Australian version of the Microsoft Network (MSN) sites. NineMSN is a portal site which contains a search engine technology developed by Microsoft. Between 10-15% of searches performed in Australia are done using the NineMSN search engine.
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Open Directory
The Open Directory is "the largest human-edited directory of the web". It plays an important role in search engine optimisation as hundreds of other sites implement the directory data, giving you instant links. Getting your listing in the directory will often take many months, so it is important that your entry submission meets their guidelines and you have selected the best category
Organic search results
Organic search results are the main search results displayed when you perform a search on a search engine. You cannot directly pay for a position in the organic search results as you can with a paid listing, however certain search engine optimisation techniques can be implemented to help improve your rankings.
Overture
Overture is the company which provides the technology for the paid listings within Yahoo, NineMSN and a few other search engines. Overture was acquired by Yahoo in 2003.
Overture Precision Match
See Yahoo Sponsored Links.
-- P --
Page visit
A page visit is recorded when a user visits any page on your website. One visitor to your site may visit many pages and therefore there will be many page visits recorded.
Paid listing
A paid listing is an advertisement which appears under a pay per click campaign.
Pay per click
Pay per click are search engine marketing campaigns where you pay to appear in the search engine results pages. Pay per click campaign mechanisms include Yahoo Sponsored Links, Google AdWords and Sensis BidSmart.
PageRank
PageRank is part of Google's ranking algorithm which is used to determine the relative importance of websites.
PPC
See pay per click.
PR
See PageRank.
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-- R --
Ranking
See search engine ranking.
Reciprocal Link
See Link exchange.
Search engine ranking
The position that your website appears in the organic search results for a specific search term is your ranking for that term.
-- S --
SEO
See search engine optimisation.
SEM
See search engine marketing.
SERP
See search engine results pages.
Sensis
Sensis is a Telstra owned search engine solely for Australia. The Sensis search engine has the advantage over Google, Yahoo and NineMSN in that it can provide location targetted search content. The Sensis search engine however, currently only has a very small share of search engine market.
Sitemaps
See Google Sitemaps.
Site visit
A site visit is recorded when a user vists your website, this person is known as a visitor.
Spamming
Search engine optimisation comapnies often implement a number of techniques to increase your rankings which are looked on as unacceptable by many of the search engines. Spamming techniques include hidden text, cloaking and keyword stuffing. Google provides guidelines on its website which clearly identify such techniques. Spamming techniques may get your site banned from search engines.
Spider
A spider or crawler is a program utilised by search engines to capture the content of your website and its pages.
Sponsored link
See paid listing.
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-- U --
Unique visitors
See site visit.
-- V --
Visit
See site visit.
-- W --
Website analytics
Website analytics is the process of analysing wbesite traffic patterns and trends with the aim of maximising the return on invesment of your site.
W3C
See world wide web consortium.
World wide web consortium
The world wide web consortium is an independent organisation responsible for determing standards for development and implementation of internet based technology.
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-- Y --
Yahoo
Yahoo is a portal website which also happens to be home to one of the world's largest search engines. Between 10-15% of searches performed in Australia are done using the Yahoo search engine.
Yahoo Sponsored Links
Yahoo sponsored links (previously know as Overture Precision Match) is the pay per click advertising mechanism offered on Yahoo, NineMSN and other search engines. Your advertisements will appear at the top or to the right of the organic search results.
-- Z --
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