Below is a list of terms associated with Search Engine Marketing, please contact me if you notice any errors or missing information you feel is relevant. Thank you.
Adsense
Google Ad program for webmasters
Adwords
Google bid program for webmasters
Anchor Text or Link Text
The clickable text of a webpage. Anchor text is usually underlined.
Algorithm
Formula used by the Search Engines to rank sites
Alt Tag
Image Tag description.
Article Marketing
The marketing practice of posting articles on sites to generate interest and back links to your own website.
Backlink or Backward Link
Links from other sites pointing to your site. This term is usually used in regards to a link exchange or reciprocal linking.
Banner Advertising
Billboard-like ads on web pages. When clicked they take you to the company who paid for the ad.
Black Hat
Questionable marketing tactics used to gain higher page rankings with search engines that do not adhere to standard TOS. (Spamming, Link Farms, etc.) Utilizing these practices could get you punished (sent lower in the page rankings) or even barred from showing up in Google searches.
Blog
Originally called a Web Log, a blog is an easy to update web site that allows users to post articles quickly.
Blog Search
Googles new RSS search engine.
Bot
Short for Robot; A software program that crawls the internet, by following links and indexing web pages.
Chat Room
Online discussions on a particular section of a site, usually in real time, of a specific nature.
CPC
Acronym for Cost Per Click. Advertising scheme that puts your ad on related keyword searched pages and websites. You bid an amount you will pay the person or company displaying your ad when someone clicks the ad and is redirected to your web site or landing page. The amount of money you will pay when someone clicks your ad or banner.
Code 301
Permanent Redirect.
Code 302
Temporary Redirect (Can get your site delisted).
Code 404
Page not found.
Conversion Rate
The number of visitors who completed the desired action. For example: signing up for news letter, buying your product, downloading a trial version of a software, etc.
Conversion rate formula
To calculate conversion rate, use the following formula:
Competing on Google
The number of competing web pages for a particular keyword.
CSS
Cascade Style Sheets (used to create look and feel of websites).
Database
A method of storing data into tables.
Directory
Listing of sites that is human edited.
Dynamic Page
Generally the website is Database Driven.
DMOZ
Short for Open Directory Project.
Domain Name
How most people find your site, as an example: sem-organic-listings.com.
Domain Registration
Where people buy domain names.
External Link
A link that is pointing to some other page located on a different website. The opposite of external link is the internal link.
Flash
A programming language not fully readable by the search engines.
Forum
Online postings of a specific subject matter in a specific section of a site.
Google
Search Engine / Portal.
Google Guidelines
Google’s very incomplete guidelines on how to build a website to rank.
Google / Yahoo / MSN news
News Search Engines
Google 24 Queries
This is an estimated number of queries the particular keyword might appear in the current 24 hour period on Google.
Google Sitemaps
An XML / RSS feed to Google.
Googletestad
This keyword query is used for live checking of Google AdSense.
H Tags or Heading Tags
Used to define the start of a topic on a website page.
HTML
HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. The symbols and code used and interpreted by the web browser to format documents in a particular way.
ICANN
Authority that controls the Domain name registration process.
Image Link
A link made from a graphic image which cannot be read by search engines.
Inbound Link or Incoming Link
A link to a particular page from elsewhere on the internet.
Internal Link
A link that is pointing to some other page within the same website. The opposite of internal link is the external link.
IP
Internet Protocol (normally a number).
ISP
Acronym for Internet Service Provider. The company that provide you access to the internet.
Keyword
What people type in the search box of a search engine such as Google or Yahoo in order to find a website.
Keyword Density
How many times a keyword is on a webpage.
KEI
Keyword Effectiveness Index. The higher the KEI, the more popular the keywords are, and the less competition they have, which means they have a better chance of getting to the top.
Landing Page
This is the page visitors find themselves after clicking on a PPC or CPC advertisement. (Additional advice: In order to maximize the conversion rate it is crucial to have a well thought out and well developed landing page.)
Link / Backlink Popularity
How many sites and what kinds of sites are linking to you.
Link Bait
Useful, entertaining, creative web content or web tool that encourages website owners to link to it
Link Popularity
The number of websites that link to a particular site. On most search engines link popularity along with the quality of incoming links are important aspects of determining the ranking of a website on SERPs
Link Exchange
The process when two websites’ owners agree to display a link to each others site
Local Search
Search Engine search for local businesses
META Tags
Part of HTML code that contains various information that the site owner wants the search engine spiders to see
MSN
Search Engine / Portal
MSSQL
Microsoft Standard Database
MySQL
Opensource Database
Off-page SEO
The aspect of a website that is not located on the site itself, rather elsewhere on the web, but can influence the ranking of this website. More precisely this aspect is the incoming links from other websites. It is much more difficult to control the off-page factors, than the on-page SEO
On-page SEO
Optimization of a website’s content, text, tags, links and other elements
One Way Link
Getting a link from a site without linking back to that same website. One way links are very valuable.
ODP
Short for Open Directory Project.
Open Directory Project
The largest human edited directory on the internet. Google and thousands of other websites are using its data throughout the web
Organic
The “natural way” of generating links and content, as opposed to “paid for” link generation
Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing)
Yahoo bid program for webmasters
Pages Indexed
How many pages the search engines see of a website
PageRank or PR
Google’s patented method for measuring page importance on a scale from 0 - 10, where 10 is the highest. The PageRank algorithm analyzes the quality and quantity of links that point to a page
PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion
Web Languages (Server Side)
Ping (Blogging)
Method used to notify Blog Search Engines that you updated your site
PPC
Short for Pay Per Click. A type of online advertisement, where the advertiser pays to the publisher each time a visitor clicks on the advertisement. It is also called Cost Per Click (CPC).
Reciprocal Link
The act of trading a link with another website in exchange for a link from that website to your own.
Redirects
A method of moving visitors from one URL to another
Robot
A software program that crawls the internet, by following links and indexing web pages
Robots.txt
File that tells the Robots where they are not allowed to go.
ROI
Return on Investment
RSS
Really Simple Syndication
Search Engine
A website that performs keyword searches and returns relevant results, websites the user searched for. Today, the major search engines are Google, Yahoo! and MSN.
SE
Short for search engine.
SEM
Short for Search Engine Marketing.
Search Engine Marketing
Utlilizing Search Engine Optmization and paid advertising for improved search engine results.
SEO
Short for Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization
It is a process of optimizing a website in order to gain top positions on search engines for various keywords, and drive more traffic to the site.
Search Engine Results Page
This is the page the search engines return after a visitor entered a search query
SERP
Short for search engine results page
Social Networking
The marketing practice of using popular networking site to promote yourself, your company, your products or website.
Spider
A software program that crawls the internet, by following links and indexing web pages.
Static Page
Page output is just normal html
Statistics
Tracking Visitors and how they came in and left your site
Submission
Outdated process of getting indexed, rarely produces rankings.
Text Link
A non-complicated link that does not use images.
Tier 2 Search Engines
Smaller Search Engines
Title or Title of a page
An HTML tag used to describe the title of a page. Generally this appears at the top of the browser window. This information is used by many search engines to display the title of each site in the search result listing.
Title Tag
Part of the website that shows up in Search Engines as the ‘anchor text’ to your site
TOS
Acronym for Terms Of Service, a company’s “rules” to play by
Trackback
Method used to notify another blog that you wrote in your blog about them
Trustrank
Patented Method (of many) on how Google ranks Websites.
URL
Uniform resource locater or Internet Address
URL variables
‘?’,'&’ and ‘%’ and other non standard outputs in the URL
Video Marketing
The marketing practice of posting videos on popular sites to generate interest and back links to your website
Viral Marketing
The marketing practice of people marketing you by sending your message, video site address etc, along to their friends via email, or my mentioning you in forums, chat rooms and blogs
Video Search
Searches Video Content
Webhosting
The place to ‘put’ your website
Web Wide 24 Hour Queries
The number of times a particular keyword has appeared on major metacrawlers (metacrawlers query all the main search engines simultaneously)
White Hat
Above-board marketing tactics that comply with search engines’ TOS
Yahoo
Search Engine / Portal
Yahoo Directory
Directory Run by Yahoo
Yahoo Publisher
Yahoo Ad program for webmasters
