Online Marketing Glossary
Here is a glossary with some of the most used online marketing words and meanings:
Affiliate- A related site often linked to your own, to form a "partnership" in the broadest sense.
Affiliate Linking- The provision of reciprocal links between affiliates.
Algorithms- The rules by which search engines rank sites
Acquisition- The point of acquiring a client, i.e. where a site fulfils its role. Usually a sale, but sometimes a subscription or similar will count.
Automated Spider Engines- Engines which deploy an automated programme to visit and retrieve data from your site.
Bid Capping- The technique of setting a limit for maximum bid for use by a bid-listing monitoring service.
Bidding Engine- Search engines that operate a bid-listing model, such as Overture of Espotting.
Bid Listing- The use of PPC models by search engines in a dynamic, real time auction for search listings. As the auction is never-ending and real time, your listings will change as the bidding level changes. Bids drop of as budgets run dry, or are cancelled, and new bids are added. This makes monitoring and changing of bids essential
Bid-Listing Monitoring- The act of monitoring activity in bid engines in order to keep a bid listing campaign as competitive as possible.
Bookmarking- The action of marking a webpage in your browser, to make it easy to return to later. Most statistics packages will measure this a a new visitor, even though a loyalty relationship has been established.
Brand Infringement- The act of using another company's brand in a non-ethical way, such as inclusion in meta tags, claiming to be that company, or making false statements about that company.
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)- Files that instruct browsers on how to format a document (which fonts to use, how links should behave etc.) Some browsers treat CSS in different ways.
Click-Term used to describe when a user selects a link or search engine listing by pressing the mouse button while holding the pointer over the link
Client-Side- Web-coding )that instructs the browser to undertake a task. Opposite to server-side - Cloaking (See IP Delivery
CPA- Cost per Acquisition
- CPC- Cost per Click - The actual average cost incurred by the advertiser by the action of a potential customer following a link found on, for instance, a SERP.
CPM- Cost Per Impression (1,000 page views)
Creatives- Titles and Descriptions as they are submitted to directory editors
- Data gathering- The process of building profiles of customers by collecting data by their activity. Knowing your customers better will allow you to provide better products and customer service.
Database Presence- The inclusion of database driven content within a site
Design Technology- Technology used in the design process
Directory Search- A search made by clicking through directory categories without use of keywords or phrases
Domain- All devices connected to the internet are referenced by their IP address.. To make using the internet easier, most will have IP addresses have names associated with them - for instance .com. a domain can have any number of sub-domains prefixed before it, to create a complete domain name
Domain Mapping- The server administration required to 'point' a domain at a specific location or "IP Address"
E-Commerce- The processes of selling online, via a website
Editorial Search Engin- Engines that rank sites using human editors and not by reading meta tags
Emergency Alerts- To signal that an event that is being monitored has occured, for instance, by email or SMS.
Featured Site- The term used by many portals, and other search properties, that incorporate some element of bid-listing results in their normal search results.
Feed- A file listing a large number of pages to be indexed or items for sale which spiders can download and read automatically from a website. Some feeds can be created easily using a spreadsheet. Others, such as RSS and Google SiteMaps may require some XML expertise.
Flash- Macromedia Flash Technology
Generic Keywords- General terms relating to subject matter, e.g. marketing (generic) search engine optimisation(specific)
Google PageRank- Goofle's own system for ranking web pages
Hit- An often mis-used word that refers to any file download from a website, including one hit for the HTML page, and one for each embedded file such as graphics, Flash movies, WAV files etc. Consequently, one page view can generate several hits. Often, the word hit is mis-used where the phrase "visitor session" would be more appropriate.
HTML Coding- HyperText Markup Language is a coding Language used to make HyperText documents for use on the Web.
IP Address- A four-byte numeral (bytes have a value between 0 and 255), which represents an exact address of an internet location, eg. 255.0.192.47. There are almost 4,300 million unique IP addresses, however this is currently not enough for global use, and often users share IP addresses through a proxy server.
IP Delivery (Cloaking)- A technique whereby false content is presented to search engine spiders in an attempt to gain ranking points. Search engine spiders are recognised by their IP Address.
IT- Information Technology
Javascrip- A web coding language with different capabilities to HTML. Not recognised by Search Engine Spiders. Can be client-side, and sometimes server-side.
JHTML- Normal HTML that includes "server-side" JavaScript instructions.
Keyword Search- A search made by keying a keyword, or combination of words into a search box on a search engine, directory or portal.
Key Phrase- Combinations of keywords, also called "search terms"
Keyword Search Frequency- Number of search requests for particular keyword
Keywords- The actual words used to describe the site in meta tags and creatives and to find the site using "searches"
Links- An electronic connection between two Web sites (also called "hyper-link").
Link Farm- Web pages deliberately created to increase the number of links between sites and therefore link popularity. A dangerous technique, unpopular with the search engines.
Link Popularity- A method used by search engines to determine the importance of a listed site. Based on the idea that sites with many inbound links is more credible than one without
Meta Search Engine- A search Engine that simultaneously refers to several other search properties to retrieve search results. Copernic and Vivisimo are examples.
Meta Tag- HTML coding embedded in the site, to provide spiders with keyword information
Obfuscation- Using IP Delivery with intent to provide excellent SEO-content to search engine spiders, and deliberately poor SEO-content to users so that any content theft by competitors results in poor search engine listings. Uses IP delivery.
Paid Linking- The act of paying for another site to link to your own.
Page View (Impression)- One view of a web page (or banner ad) by a user.
Partner Sites (Bid Engines Terminology)-Relates to bid engines. Partner sites are sites that also display some or all of the bid listing results from that bid engine.
Pay Per Click (PPC)- A charging model for search engine listings based on a set charge for users clicking on that search engine listing. This model is used by Overture and Espotting in the UK, in a bidding fashion (see bid listing)
Permission Based Email- Since late 2003, to email individuals in Europe as part of a mass distribution, the express, unequivocal permission of the recipient must be obtained first, and this should form basis of an ethical, permission based campaign.
Portals- web sites which offer some or all of the following: search, email, news, weather, shopping
- Public Relations(PR)- the process of maintaining and controlling your relationship with the public and your public persona.
Proxy Server- An internet server that allows several users to share one internet connection, reducing the number of IP addresses required. Users are assigned IP Addresses from a limited range, as and when they are required.
Rank- the position attained on the Search Engines, Directories and Searchable Portals
Rebrand- The process of changing the form of an established brand and managing that change effectively to avoid losing brand recognition.
Reciprocal Linking- The act of two sites linking to each other, for mutual benefit, and with no cost incurred by either site.
Robots Exclusion Protocol (REP)- Text file placed under e.g. www.example.com/robots.txt. Used to prevent spider trawls of private or sensitive areas and image folders/stats files etc
Search Engine- A website that provides a list of useful links (SERP's) in response to a text query. Many Search engines have gradually evolved from pure search engines, such as Google, into portals, such as Yahoo!
Search Engine Optimisation- A crucial element of search engine marketing - the process of adapting web pages to maximise their effectiveness at matching (and occuring highly in the results pages for) common search phrases on search engines.
Search Engine Log Data- Actual search engine logs, from which we retrieve data on search frequency of particular keywords
- Search Engine Results Page- The page on which search results are displayed in response to a query submitted by the user
Search Term Evolution- New words or phrases which are relevant to your industry
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) - the process of maximising search property driven traffic to a site by analytical means
Semantic Web (Sometimes called Web 2.0)- This refers to the goal to make the information in world-wide-web understandable to computers, using technology such as XML and SOAP. Basically, web pages include information not only explaining how pages look, but what they actually mean. Search engines already make use of this in the form of information feeds, such as RSS and XML site maps
Server-Side- Web coding that instructs a server to undertake a task. Opposite to client-side
SHTML- Normal HTML that includes "server-side" instructions
Spiders- See Robots
- Style Sheet Errors- Incompatibilities between Cascading Style Sheets designed for one browser, when viewed through another.
Top Listings- Listings which rank in the top 30 of results
- Unique User- One individual user to a site. This user may visit once or return often, but will still count as one unique user.
URL- Universal Resource Locator (address e.g. http://www.google.com)
User Agent Delivery- Similar to IP Delivery, except that Search Engine Spiders are recognised by their name (user agent) rather than by their IP address. This technique is spam.
Visitor Session- A full and complete visit by a user to a website from start to finish of that visit. This is usually considered complete if a user is inactive for a set length of time, most commonly 30 minutes.
Message Boards- Websites that allow visitors to post messages, and for others to reply to them. Unlike email, all discussions take place in public, any anyone can join in. Usually, such discussions are themed by subject matter.
Newsletter Marketing- The process of building relationships with existing customers and gaining new ones by publishing and mass distributing an email containing features and articles of interest to them.
Robots- Programme which meta search engines send out to read the metas and/or body html of a submitted site.
Return On Investment (ROI)- A measure of the success of a marketing campaign in comparison to the money spent on that campaign.
SERP's- Search engine results pages
Slang- The use of alternative or colloquial phrases. In terms of SEM, slang is important to take into consideration when formulating an optimisation strategy.
Spam/Spammed- General term relating to practices not approved by the engines and editors
Submission- The act of making search engines aware of new web pages and sites. Each search engine will have it's own individual process for doing this.
Targeted Traffic- The concept of directing traffic to a website based on the requirements of that traffic (i.e. matching user "wants" with site provisions.
Viral Marketing- A form of marketing that is self sustaining and self promoting. Ususally, the core idea is so appealing that the public take on the role of 'spreading the message' themselves. In it's favour is that it is incredibly effective, but control - and even 'ownership' - of the campaign is relinquished.
Web Trawler- See Robots
XML Trusted Feed Campaign Management- Instead of relying on spiders (robots) to create an index of your website, you can use a XML feed to take control of the process yourself by submitting a feed of your content in a particular format (XML) to participating search engines. It is particularly useful to web-sites whose content changes very quickly of cannot be accessed with conventional spidering technology.
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