Algorithm: A set of
rules that a search engine uses to rank the
listings contained within its index, in response
to a particular query. No search engine reveals
exactly how its own algorithm works, to protect
itself from competitors and those who wish to
spam the search engine. Source: Did-It.com
Algorithmic
Results: see Organic Listings.
Backlinks: All the
links pointing at a particular web page. Also
called inbound links. Source: Webmaster World
Forums
Banned:
When pages are removed from a search engine's
index specifically because the search engine has
deemed them to be spamming or violating some type
of guidelines. Also known as blacklisting.
Clickthrough Rate:
The percentage of those clicking on a link out of
the total number who see the link. For example,
imagine 10 people do a web search. In response,
they see links to a variety of web pages. Three
of the 10 people all choose one particular link.
That link then has a 30 percent clickthrough
rate. Also called CTR. Source: Webmaster World
Forums
Cloaking:
In terms of search engine marketing, this is the
act of getting a search engine to record content
for a URL that is different than what a searcher
will ultimately see. It can be done in many
technical ways.
Several
search engines have explicit rules against
unapproved cloaking. Those violating these
guidelines might find their pages penalized or
banned from a search engine's index. As for
approved cloaking, this generally only happens
with search engines offering paid inclusion
program. Anyone offering cloaking services should
be able to demonstrate explicit approval from a
search engine about what they intend to do.
If
not, then they should then have explained the
risks inherent of unapproved cloaking.
Contextual
Link Inventory. To supplement their business
models, certain text-link advertising networks
have expanded their network distribution to
include “contextual inventory”. Most
vendors of "search engine traffic" have
expanded the definition of Search Engine
Marketing to include this contextual inventory.
Contextual or content inventory is generated when
listings are displayed on pages of Web sites
(usually not search engines), where the written
content on the page indicates to the ad-server
that the page is a good match to specific
keywords and phrases. Often this matching method
is validated by measuring the number of times a
viewer clicks on the displayed ad.
Conversion Rate: The relationship between
visitors to a web site and actions considered to
be a "conversion," such as a sale or
request to receive more information. Often
expressed as a percentage. If a web site has 50
visitors and 10 of them convert to become
customers, then the site has a 20 percent
conversion rate. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Cost Per Click:
System where an advertiser pays an agreed amount
for each click someone makes on a link leading to
their web site. Also known as CPC. Source:
Webmaster World Forums
CPC:
see Cost Per Click.
CPM: System where an advertiser pays an
agreed amount for the number of times their ad is
seen by a consumer, regardless of the consumer's
subsequent action. Heavily used in print,
broadcasting and direct marketing, as well as
with online banner ad sales. CPM stands for
"cost per thousand," since ad views are
often sold in blocks of 1,000. The M in CPM is
Latin for thousand. Source: Webmaster World
Forums and Did-It.com
Crawler: Component
of search engine that gather listings by
automatically "crawling" the web. A
search engine's crawler (also called a spider or
robot), follows links to web pages. It makes
copies of the web pages found and stores these in
the search engine's index.
CTR:
see Clickthrough Rate.
Delisting:
When pages are removed from a search engines
index. This may happen because they have been
banned or for other reasons, such as an
accidental glitch on the search engine's part.
Source: Adventive
Directories:
A type of search engine where listings are
gathered through human efforts, rather than by
automated crawling of the web. In directories,
web sites are often reviewed, summarized in about
25 words and placed in a particular category.
Doorway Page: A web
page created expressly in hopes of ranking well
for a term in a search engine's nonpaid 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.
Gateway
Page: see Doorway Page.
Graphical
Search Inventory: Banners, and other types of
advertising units which can be synchronized to
search keywords. Includes pop-ups, browser
toolbars and rich media.
Index:
The collection of information a search engine has
that searchers can query against. With
crawlerbased search engines, the index is
typically copies of all the web pages they have
found from crawling the web. With human-powered
directories, the index contains the summaries of
all web sites that have been categorized.
Inbound
Link: See Backlinks.
Keywords:
See Search Terms.
Landing
Page: The specific web page that a visitor
ultimately reaches after clicking a search engine
listing. Marketers attempt to improve conversion
rates by testing various landing page creative,
which encompasses the entire user experience
including navigation, layout and copy. Source:
Did-It.com
Link
Popularity: A raw count of how
"popular" a page is based on the number
of backlinks it has. It does not factor in link
context or link quality, which are also important
elements in how search engines make use of links
to impact rankings.
Link
Text: The text that is contained within a
link. For example, search engine is a link that
contains the link text "search engine."
Listings:
The information that appears on a search engine's
results page in response to a search.
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.
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 usually 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.
Paid
Inclusion: Advertising program where pages
are guaranteed to be included in a search
engine's index in exchange for payment, though no
guarantee of ranking well is typically given. For
example, Looksmart is a directory that lists
pages and sites, not based on position but based
on relevance. Marketers pay to be included in the
directory, on a CPC basis or per-URL fee basis,
with no guarantee of specific placement.
Also
see XML Feeds. Source: Did-It.com
PPC:
Stands for pay-per-click and means the same as
cost-per-click. See Cost Per Click.
Paid
Listings: Listings that search engines sell
to advertisers, usually through paid placement or
paid inclusion programs. In contrast, organic
listings are not sold.
Pay-for-Performance:
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:
see Cost 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.
Position:
See Rank.
Query:
See Search Terms.
Rank: How well a particular
web page or web site is listed in a search engine
results. 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 called position.
Reciprocal
Link: A link exchange between two sites.
Source: Webmaster World Forums
Registration:
See Submission.
Results Page: After
a user enters a search query, the page that is
displayed, is call the results page. Sometimes it
may be called SERPs, for "search engine
results page." Source: Webmaster World
Forums
Robot:
see Crawler.
Robots.txt:
A file used to keep web pages from being indexed
by search engines. The Robots Exclusion page
provides official details.
ROI:
Stands for "Return On Investment" and
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. Source: Did-It.com
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.
Source: Webmaster World Forums
Search
Engine Marketing: The act of marketing a web
site via search engines, whether this be
improving rank in organic listings, purchasing
paid listings or a combination of these and other
search engine-related activities.
Search
Engine Optimization: The act of altering a
web site so that it does well in the organic,
crawlerbased 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. Also called SEO.
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.
SEM:
Acroymn for search engine marketing and may also
be used to refer to a person or company that does
search engine marketing (i.e.., "They're an
SEM firm).
SEMPO:
Search Engine Marketing Professional
Organization, a non-profit, formed to increase
the awareness of and educate people on the value
of search engine marketing.
SEO:
Acronym for search engine optimization and often
also used to refer to a person or company that
does search engine optimization (i.e., "They
do SEO").
SERPS:
see Results Page.
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.
Example 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.
Source: Webmaster World Forums
Spider:
See Crawler.
Submission: The act
to submitting a URL for inclusion into a search
engine's index. Unless done through paid
inclusion, submission generally does not
guarantee 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 (i.e., you fill out an online form and
submit) or automated, where a software program or
online service may process the forms behind the
scenes.
Query:
See Search Terms.
XML Feeds: A form of
paid inclusion where a search engine is
"fed" information about pages via XML,
rather than gathering that information through
crawling actual pages. Marketers can pay to have
their pages included in a spider based search
index either annually per URL or on a CPC basis
based on an XML document representing each page
on the client site. New media types are being
introduced into paid inclusion, including
graphics, video, audio, and rich media.
FOR
MORE DEFINITIONS SEE:
http://www.cadenza.org/search_engine_terms/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/glossary/
http://www.did-it.com/faq.php#
http://searchenginedictionary.com/
Definitions
above draw on multiple sources, as well as
original writing. Content used with permission is
copyrighted, and remains property of its
respective owners: Webmaster World Forums,
Did-It.com, Adventive, SearchEngineWatch.com.
|