Where is Shawn Hogan!? His Fan Club misses him!
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
Dear Shawn Hogan,
Please return to your daily blogging regimen because we (your fans) miss you like a fat kid misses cake! Your last post on May 10th, 2007 was the last we heard from you and even though I enjoyed going throw the archives and reading your previous posts I have now come to a point where I need something new to read. In case this letter is not touching enough here are some comments from your fans:
Is it weird that I miss you even though I don’t know you? - Patrick
Ok, Shawn. Fun’s over. We’re all really worried now. Or is that rumor about the alien abductions true? - BulBoy
Shawn is gonna be 2,000,000,000 Seconds Old before he makes his next blog entry. - Bret
If you miss Shawn Hogan and would like him to return to blogging please submit your vote below!
AdSense for Mobile Now Available.
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
AdSense now offers you another great way to make some extra cash through your websites with Google AdSense for Mobile. I’m not sure how many people even have sites made for mobile phones yet but in time the online mobile phone market will grow and so will the AdSense mobile phones sites. Im sure its just a matter of time until we start seeing made for AdSense site in the mobile phone market which will really be a drag because the search results are already so limited on mobile phones but im sure Google will address this issue accordingly.
It will be interesting to see how much more or less the ads will be paying out because the conversion rate will be so low and how many people do you think will even click on AdSense ads on mobile phones? I cant imagine that number being very high because people using mobile phones for searches will be some what savvy internet users most likely… Either way Google AdSense for Mobile is a great addition to the AdSense lineup and will give publishers just another way to make a buck!
Website promotion has been the vital issue for most of the webmasters. It’s not something that will come bundled in your managed hosting package and requires time and effort. However, if you follow few simple rules and adapt available web marketing techniques, you’re through. You should not use the html templates that use frames while developing your website. Once it’s up, you might start a link exchange program initially to get referrals. Then you can adapt advanced SEO techniques and customized search with proper search optimization.
San Diego Real Estate Agents, Looking for a Website?
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As more and more people turn to the web when looking to buy or sell their next home it is more then vital for every Real Estate Agent to have an online presence to help generate potential customers. In my search for the ultimate San Diego Real Estate website solution I have come up with only one company that seems to do it all for a reasonable price. This company, I will say offers great Real Estate Website Designs, Hosted Content Management System Solutions, SEO and PPC Marketing Services and custom built solutions that they can develop for your particular website needs.
Do you have an existing site and are looking for custom integration of tools and features such as Zillow data and search results? They have developed a Zillow Search tool that can easily be incorporated into any website! Want to pull in MLS data into your site? It is all possible with Infinity Arts.
Unlocked Iphone on Craigslist for $500
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
As everyone has heard the iphone has been unlocked by many people and now that it has been unlocked you can use any carrier that uses a SIM card (AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers, Cingular, SunCom, Orange, Fido, etc.). Sorry Sprint users, we are shit out of luck! In my search to find an unlocked iphone I came across this ad on craigslist for an unlocked iphone and thought it was pretty cool to see people selling unlocked iphones locally. Has anyone figured out a way to use Sprint on an iphone???
SEO BOOK is DOWN!
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The popular site SEO Book is down. Aaron Wall, owner of SEO Book is well known in the industry for his excellent SEO knowledge which he often shares on his blog and I hope the site comes back online soon. SEO Book also offers some great keyword research tools for free!
Get out of your Sprint Contract, no early termination fee and get an iphone!
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
Since I first heard about the iphone I wanted one because it seemed like it did everything better then the other phones but the only two things holding me back were 1. Sprints early termination fee for breaking the contract and 2. the price of the iphone. Since yesterday the price of the iphone has dropped $200 so if you can find a 4GB version you can pick it up for $299 or the get the 8GB for $399. Now you’re probably saying to yourself that’s great and all but I don’t want to pay $150 to get out of my Sprint contract right? Here is how to get our of your Sprint Contract and avoid early termination chargers.
Sprint will waive the early termination charge for the following reason: If you move to an area that does not have Sprint PCS coverage they will waive your early termination fee. So simply check out the coverage maps, come up with an area that does not have coverage, call sprint and tell them you’re moving to that area. Pull up Google Maps and find an address in that area and write it down. Call in and be stern, maybe tell them you were out there earlier this month and you weren’t getting service. You will have to play the part a bit but its worth getting out of the termination fee.
Hope this helps and enjoy!
Commission Junction Broad or Specific Affiliate Links?
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
I have been using Commission Junction for some time now and have always opted for using the big banner style ads or the generic style text links which according to CJ pay off better then any of the other ones but as I go through one of my sites that includes these CJ links I notice a big problem with them. They are not product specific. I have an informational site with hundreds of products on it that currently have the generic ads on every page but I am wondering if product specific ads would convert better.. So what do you think? Generic ads or product specific ads? I would think something more relevant would convert better but then again I’m not sure and before I invest hours in inserting product specific links on each page I’d like to get some peoples point of view on it. Thanks!
There are numerous businesses looking for better internet advertising on different websites. Such businesses provide affiliate business opportunities, most of them are free to sign up. To avail one, you just need to select a domain web hosting provider. Everyone wants to have an affordable hosting package that fulfills their basic requirements with minimum spending. A basic feature that your hosting provider should have is data backup and support ensuring proper security of data.
One PR5 Link moved me up 40 spots in Google!
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
As most ever SEO knows link building is a vital part to a successful SEO campaign but who would of thought that 1 link from a PR5 site could bump you up 40 spots in the Google Serps. You’re probably thinking thats very possible for a long tail search term on a specific niche topic but the search term was only two words and the topic was health related and not specific at all. The other shocking part to this is that it took 1 day to happen! Within 24 hours of acquiring this link I had moved up 40 spots. Making it to the first page of Google for this search term has had huge impacts on my traffic as you can imagine, my traffic from Google has almost tripled and the site seems to be coming up for more and more search terms. Seeing results like this is very exciting stuff because we all know how fun link building is.
Have a great day!
When your dad is a graphic designer.
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
Someone at work forwarded this email to me and I thought it was pretty funny. Check it out.
Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing Glossary
Posted by Marko | Filed under Uncategorized
# | A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P |
Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
301 Redirect – A message that
the URL has moved permanently. This is commonly used when a URL has a new
location and will not be appearing again at the old URL.
302 Redirect – A “foundâ€
message. (Also referred to as a “temporary redirect.â€) This form of
redirection is commonly used — and in some cases abused — when a URL has
been moved to a different location; but, it will be returning to the
original location eventually.
403 Server Code – A “forbiddenâ€
message. Prevents access to a URL and displays the reason for preventing
access.
404 Server Code – A “not
found†message. Server cannot find the URL requested.
AJAX – Stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML.
Ajax is a programming language that allows for the updating of specific
sections of content on a web page, without completely reloading the
page.
API – Acronym for Application Programming Interface. This is a
program that advertisers create to manage their SEM campaigns, bypassing the
search engines’ interfaces.
A/B Testing – A/B testing, at its simplest, is randomly showing a
visitor one version of a page – (A) version or (B) version – and tracking
the changes in behavior based on which version they saw. (A) version is
normally your existing design (“control†in statistics lingo); and (B)
version is the “challenger†with one copy or design element changed. In a
“50/50 A/B split test,†you’re flipping a coin to decide which version of a
page to show. A classic example would be comparing conversions resulting
from serving either version (A) or (B), where the versions display different
headlines. A/B tests are commonly applied to clicked-on ad copy and landing
page copy or designs to determine which version drives the more desired
result. See also Multivariate Testing.
Absolute URL’s Link - Absolute URLs use the full-path address,
such as http://www.domain.com/page1.htm. (See also Relative URL’s
link.)
Acquisition Strategy – A process of finding those potential
customers who are in the market and ready to buy. The attempt to lead
customers to a web site and to welcome them, answer their questions and
close the sale.
Ad – Advertisements a searcher sees after submitting a query in a
search engine or web site search box. In PPC, these ads are usually text
format, with a Title, Description and Display URL. In some cases, a keyword
the searcher used in his or her query appears boldfaced in the displayed ad.
Ads can be positioned anywhere on a search results page; commonly they
appear at the top – above the natural or organic listings – and on the right
side of the page, also known as “Right Rail.â€
Ad Copy – The main text of a clickable search or context-served
ad. It usually makes up the second and third lines of a displayed ad,
between the Ad Title and the Display URL.
Ad Title – The first line of text displayed in a clickable search
or context-served ad. Ad Titles serve as ad headlines.
Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing is a process of revenue
sharing that allows merchants to duplicate sales efforts by enlisting other
web sites as a type of outside sales force. Successful affiliate marketing
programs result in the merchant attracting additional buyers, and the
affiliate earning the equivalent of a referral fee, based on click-through
referrals to the merchant site.
Algorithm – A set of rules that a search engine uses to rank
listings in response to a query. Search engines guard their algorithms
closely, as they are the unique formulas used to determine relevancy.
Algorithms are sometimes referred to as the â€secret sauce.â€
ALT Text – Also known as alternative text or alt attribute.
An HTML tag (ALT tag) used to provide images with a text description in the
event images are turned off in a web browser. The images text description is
usually visible while “hovering†over the image. This tag is also important
for the web access of the visually impaired.
Anchor Text - Words used to link to a page, known as anchor text are
an important signal to search engines to determine a page’s relevance.
Arbitrage – A practice through which web publishers – second tier
search engines, directories and vertical search engines – engage in the
buying and reselling of web traffic. Typically, arbitrage occurs when such
publishers pool client budgets to engage in PPC campaigns on Tier I search
engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN). If the publishers pay $0.10 per click for
traffic, they typically resell those visitors to clients who bid $0.20 or
more for the same keywords. Successful arbitrage requires that the
arbitrageur must pay less per click than what the traffic sells for. The
variation called Affiliate Arbitrage involves a web site owner or blogger
bidding on keywords from programs such as Yahoo! Search Marketing or Google
AdWords, who then links the ads, either to their own web site, or directly
to a merchant site displaying ads (from programs such as the Yahoo!
Publisher Network or Google AdSense).
Auction Model Bidding – The most popular type of PPC
bidding. First, an advertiser determines what maximum amount per click they
are willing to spend for a keyword. If there is no competition for that
keyword, the advertiser pays their bid, or less, for every click. If there
is competition at auction for that keyword, then the advertiser with the
highest bid will pay one penny more than their nearest competitor. For
example, advertiser A is willing to bid up to $0.50; advertiser B is willing
to bid up to $0.75. If advertiser A’s actual bid is $0.23, then advertiser B
will only pay $0.24 per click. Also referred to as market or
competition-driven bidding.
Automatic Optimization – Search engines identify which ad
for an individual advertiser demonstrates the highest CTR (click-through
rate) as time progresses, and then optimizes the ad serve, showing that ad
more often than other ads in the same Ad Group/Ad Order.
B2B – Stands for “Business to Business.†A business that markets
its services or products to other businesses.
B2C – Stands for “Business to
Consumer.†A business that markets its services or products to
consumers.
Backlinks – All the links pointing at a particular web page. Also
called inbound links. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Ban – Also known as Delisting. Refers to a punitive action
imposed by a search engine in response to being spammed. Can be an IP
address of a specific URL
Baseline Metrics – Time-lagged calculations (usually averages of
one sort or another) which provide a basis for making comparisons of past
performance to current performance. Baselines can also be forward-looking,
such establishing a goal and seeking to determine whether the trends show
the likelihood of meeting that goal. They become an essential piece of a Key
Performance Indicator (KPI).
Behavioral Targeting – The practice of targeting and serving ads
to groups of people who exhibit similarities not only in their location,
gender or age, but also in how they act and react in their online
environment. Behaviors tracked and targeted include web site topic areas
they frequently visit or subscribe to; subjects or content or shopping
categories for which they have registered, profiled themselves or requested
automatic updates and information, etc.
Bid – The maximum amount of money that an advertiser is willing to
pay each time a searcher clicks on an ad. Bid prices can vary widely
depending on competition from other advertisers and keyword popularity.
Bid Boosting – A form of automated bid management that allows you
to increase your bids when ads are served to someone whose age or gender
matches your target market. This level of demographic focus and the “bid
boosting†tool are current Microsoft adCenter offerings.
Bid Management Software - Software that manages PPC campaigns
automatically, called either rules-based (with triggering rules or
conditions set by the advertiser) or intelligent software (enacting
real-time adjustments based on tracked conversions and competitor actions).
Both types of automatic bid management programs monitor and change bid
prices, pause campaigns, manage budget maximums, adjust multiple keyword
bids based on CTR, position ranking and more.
Black Box Algorithms – Black box is technical jargon for a
when system is viewed primarily in terms of input and output
characteristics. A black box algorithm is one where the user cannot
see the inner workings of the algorithm. All search engine algorithms are
hidden.
Blocklists - A list of Web sites that are considered off limits or
dangerous. A Web site can be placed on a blacklist because it is a
fraudulent operation or because it exploits browser vulnerabilities to send
spyware and other unwanted software to the user.
Blogs – A truncated form for “web log.†A blog is a
frequently updated journal that is intended for general public consumption.
They usually represent the personality of the author or web site. A good
source of blogging terms is at [http://www.whatis.techtarget.com] .
Brand – Customer or user experience represented by images and
ideas, often referring to a symbol (name, logo, symbols, fonts, colors), a
slogan and a design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are
created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or
service, both from its use, and as influenced by advertising, design and
media commentary. Brand is often developed to represent implicit
values, ideas and even personality. Source: Wikipedia
Brand and Branding – “A brand is a customer experience represented
by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a
name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions
are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or
service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of
advertising, design, and media commentary.â€Â (Added Definition) “A
brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound
which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even
personality.†Source: Wikipedia
Brand Lift – A measurable increase in consumer recall for a
specific, branded company, product or service. For example, brand lift might
show an increase in respondents who think of Dell for computers, or WalMart
for “every household thing.â€
Brand Messaging – Creative messaging that presents and maintains a
consistent corporate image across all media channels, including search.
Brand Reputation - The position a company brand occupies.
Branding Strategy – The attempt to develop a strong brand
reputation on the web to increase brand recognition and create a significant
volume of impressions.
Bridge Page – Often used to describe the web pages that linked
together many doorway pages on a web site. Also see: Doorway Page,
Hallway Page.
Bucket – An associative grouping for related concepts, keywords,
behaviors and audience characteristics associated with your company’s
product or service. A “virtual container†of similar concepts used to
develop PPC keywords, focus ad campaigns and target messages.
Buying Funnel – Also called the Buying Cycle,
Buyer Decision Cycle and Sales Cycle, Buying Funnel refers to
a multi-step process of a consumer’s path to purchase a product – from
awareness to education to preferences and intent to final purchase.
Buzz Monitoring Services – Services that will email a client
regarding their status in an industry. Most buzz or publicity monitoring
services will email anytime a company’s name, executives, products, services
or other keyword-based information on them are mentioned on the web.
Some services charge a fee; others, such as Yahoo! and Google Alerts, are
free.
Buzz Opportunities – Topics popular in the media and with
specific audiences that receive news coverage or pass along recommendations
that help increase exposure for a brand. Ways to uncover potential buzz
opportunities include reviewing incoming traffic to a web site from organic
links and developing new keywords to reach those visitors, or scanning
special interest blogs and social media sites to learn what new topics
attract rising interest, also to develop new keywords and messages.
COA – Acronym for Cost of Acquisition, which is how much it costs
to acquire a conversion (desired action), such as a sale.
CPA – Acronym for Cost Per Acquisition (sometimes called Cost Per
Action), which is the total cost of an ad campaign divided by the number of
conversions. For example, if a campaign cost $100 and resulted in 5
conversions, the CPA is $20 ($100 / 5). It cost $20 to generate one
conversion.
CPA or “Cost Per Acquisition†– Also referred to as “Cost Per
Action.†This is a metric used to measure the total monetary cost of each
sale, lead or action from start to finish.
CPC – Acronym for Cost Per Click, or the amount search engines
charge advertisers for every click that sends a searcher to the advertiser’s
web site. For an advertiser, CPC is the total cost for each click-through
received when its ad is clicked on.
CPC or “Cost Per Click†- Some search engines charge
advertisers a cost for every click sent to their web site. The “CPC†is the
total cost for each click received.
CPM – Acronym for Cost Per Thousand Impressions (ad serves or
potential viewers). Compare to CPC pricing (defined above). CPM is a
standard monetization model for offline display ad space, as well as for
some context-based networks serving online search ads to, for example, web
publishers and sites.
CPM or “Cost Per Thousand†– A unit of measure typically assigned
to the cost of displaying an ad. If an ad appears on a web page 1,000 times
and costs $5, then the CPM would be $5. In this instance, every 1,000 times
an ad appeared, it would incur a charge of $5.
CPO – Acronym for Cost Per Order. The dollar amount of advertising
or marketing necessary to acquire an order. Calculated by dividing marketing
expenses by the number of orders. Also referred to as CPA (Cost Per
Acquisition).
CTR – Acronym for Click-Through Rate, the number of clicks that an
ad gets, divided by the total number of times that ad is displayed or
served. (Represented as: total clicks / total impressions for a specific ad
= CTR). For example, if an ad has 100 impressions and 6 clicks, the CTR is
6%. The higher the CTR, the more visitors your site is receiving; CTR also
factors into you advertiser search engine Quality Score and, therefore, your
minimum keyword bids on Tier I engines.
Campaign Integration – Planning and executing a paid search
campaign concurrently with other marketing initiatives, online or offline,
or both. More than simply launching simultaneous campaigns, true paid search
integration takes all marketing initiatives into consideration prior to
launch, such as consistent messaging and image, driving offline conversions,
supporting brand awareness, increasing response rates and contributing to
ROI business goals.
Canonicalization – The process of picking the best URL when there
are several choices; this usually refers to home pages. Source: Matt
Cutts Blog: SEO Advice. In addition, “Canonicalization is the
process of converting data that has more than one possible representation
into a “standard” canonical representation. This can be done to compare
different representations for equivalence, to count the number of distinct
data structures (e.g., in combinatorics), to improve the efficiency of
various algorithms by eliminating repeated calculations, or to make it
possible to impose a meaningful sorting order.†Source: Wikipedia
Cascading Style Sheets or CSS – An addition to your HTML, a web
site’s “cascading style sheet†contains information on paragraph layout,
font sizes, colors, etc. A cascading style sheet has many uses as far as
search engine optimization and web site design are concerned.
Click Bot – A program generally used to artificially click on paid
listings within the engines in order to artificially inflate click
amounts.
Click Fraud – Clicks on a Pay-Per-Click advertisement that are
motivated by something other than a search for the advertised product or
service. Click fraud may be the result of malicious or negative
competitor/affiliate actions motivated by the desire to increase costs for a
competing advertiser or to garner click-through costs for the collaborating
affiliate. Also affects search engine results by diluting the quality of
clicks.
Click Through - When a user clicks on a hypertext link and is
taken to the destination of that link
Click Through 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 click-through rate. Also called CTR. Source: Webmaster World
Forums
Client-side Tracking - Client-side tracking entails the process of
tagging every page that requires tracking on the Web site with a block of
JavaScript code. This method is cookie based (available as first or third
party cookies) and is readily available to companies who do not own or
manage their own servers.
Cloaking - The process by which a web site can display different
versions of a web page under different circumstances. It is primarily used
to show an optimized or a content-rich page to the search engines and a
different page to humans. Most major search engine representatives have
publicly stated that they do not approve of this practice.
Comment - The text contained within a “comment†tag in a
web page. “Comments†are used in a variety of situations, such as
communication between web developers and Cascading Style Sheets (See
Above).
Competitive Analysis – As used in SEO, CA is the assessment and
analysis of strengths and weaknesses of competing web sites, including
identifying traffic patterns, major traffic sources, and keyword
selection.
Consumer Generated Media (CGM) Â - Refers to posts made by
consumers to support or oppose products, web sites, or companies, which are
very powerful when it comes to company image. It can reach a large audience
and, therefore, may change your business overnight.
Content Management Systems (CMS) - In computing, a content
management system (CMS) is a document centric collaborative application for
managing documents and other content. A CMS is often a web application and
often it is used as a method of managing web sites and web content. The
market for content management systems remains fragmented, with many open
source and proprietary solutions available. Source: Wikipedia.org
Content Network – Also called Contextual Networks, content
networks include Google and Yahoo! Contextual Search networks that serve
paid search ads triggered by keywords related to the page content a user is
viewing.
Content Targeting – An ad serving process in Google and Yahoo!
that displays keyword triggered ads related to the content or subject
(context) of the web site a user is viewing. Contrast to search network
serves, in which an ad is displayed when a user types a keyword into the
search box of a search engine or one of its partner sites.
Contextual Advertising – Advertising that is automatically served
or placed on a web page based on the page’s content, keywords and phrases.
Contrast to a SERP (search engine result page) ad display. For example,
contextual ads for digital cameras would be shown on a page with an article
about photography, not because the user entered “digital cameras†in a
search box.
Contextual Distribution – The marketing decision to display search
ads on certain publisher sites across the web instead of, or in addition to,
placing PPC ads on search networks.
Contextual Network – Also called Content Ads and Content
Network, contextual network ads are served on web site pages
adjacent to content that contains the keywords being bid upon. Contextual
ads are somewhat like traditional display ads placed in print media and,
like traditional ad buys, are often purchased on the same CPM (cost per
thousand impressions) model for purchased keywords, rather than a CPC
basis
Contextual Search – A search that analyzes the page being viewed
by a user and gives a list of related search results. Offered by Yahoo! and
Google.
Contextual Search Campaigns – A paid placement search campaign
that takes a search ad listing beyond search engine results pages and onto
the sites of matched content web partners.
Conversion Action – The desired action you want a visitor to take
on your site. Includes purchase, subscription to the company newsletter,
request for follow-up or more information (lead generation), download of a
company free offer (research results, a video or a tool), subscription to
company updates and news.
Conversion Rate - Conversion rates are measurements that determine
how many of your prospects perform the prescribed or desired action step. If
your prescribed response is for a visitor to sign up for a newsletter, and
you had 100 visitors and 1 newsletter signup, then your conversion rate
would be 1%. Typically, micro-conversions (for instance, reading different
pages on your site) lead to your main conversion step (making a purchase, or
signing up for a service).
Conversion Rate – The number of visitors who convert (take a
desired action at your site) after clicking through on your ad, divided by
the total number of click-throughs to your site for that ad. (Expressed as:
total click-throughs that convert / total click-throughs for that ad =
conversion rate.) For example, if an ad brings in 150 click-throughs and 6
of the 150 clicks result in a desired conversion, then the conversion rate
is 4% (6 / 150 = 0.04). Higher conversion rates generally translate into
more successful PPC campaigns with a better ROI.
Copyright – Protection and ownership of works or expressions fixed
in a tangible form, including words, art, images, sounds, and music.
Copyright gives the owner the exclusive right to copy, display, license, or
expand the work. Copyrights cover virtually any original expression; and the
protection arises under common law as soon as the original expression is
created (fixed in tangible form). However, proving ownership of the original
expression may be difficult legally, unless the work was displayed or used
publicly at a verifiable point in time.
Crawler – Automated programs in search engines that gather web
site listings by automatically crawling the web. A search engine’s crawler
(also called a spider or robot) “reads†page text contents and web page
coding, and also follows links to other hyperlinked pages on the web pages
it crawls. A crawler makes copies of the web pages found and stores these in
the search engine’s index, or database.
Crawler: Also known as a bot and spider, a crawler
is a program that search engines use to seek out information on the web. The
act of “crawling†on a web site is referred to when the crawler begins to
search through documents contained within the web site. Also see
Index.
Creatives – Unique words, design and display of a paid-space
advertisement. In paid search advertising, creative refers to the ad’s title
(headline), description (text offer) and display URL (clickable link to
advertiser’s web site landing page). Unique creative display includes word
emphasis (boldfaced, italicized, in quotes), typeface style and, on some
sites, added graphic images, logos, animation or video clips.
Custom Feed – Create custom feeds for each of the shopping engines
that allow you to submit XML feeds. Each of the engines has different
product categories and feed requirements.
DHTML – Stands for Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language.
DKI – Acronym for Dynamic Keyword Insertion, the insertion of the
EXACT keywords a searcher included in his or her search request in the
returned ad title or description. As an advertiser, you have bid on a table
or cluster of these keyword variations, and DKI makes your ad listings more
relevant to each searcher.
DMCA – Acronym for Digital Millennium Copyright Act. “The Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law
which….criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or
services that are used to circumvent measures that control access to
copyrighted works (commonly known as DRM), and criminalizes the act of
circumventing an access control, even when there is no infringement of
copyright itself. [Circumvention of controlled access includes unscrambling,
copying, sharing, commercial recording or reverse engineering copyrighted
entertainment or software.] It also heightens the penalties for copyright
infringement on the Internet.†Source: Wikipedia
Dayparting – The ability to specify different times of day – or
day of week – for ad displays, as a way to target searchers more
specifically. An option that limits serves of specified ads based on day and
time factors.
Deep Linking – Linking that guides, directs and links a
click-through searcher (or a search engine crawler) to a very specific and
relevant product or category web page from search terms and PPC ads.
Description Tag - Refers to the information contained in the
description META tag. This tag is meant to hold the brief description of the
web page it is included on. The information contained in this tag is
generally the description displayed immediately after the main link on many
search engine result pages.
Directory Search – Also known as a search directory. Refers
to a directory of web sites contained in an engine that are categorized into
topics. The main difference between a search directory and a search engine
is in how the listings are obtained. A search directory relies on user input
in order to categorize and include a web site. Additionally, a directory
usually only includes higher-level pages of a domain.
Display URL – The web page URL that one actually sees in a
PPC text ad. Display URL usually appears as the last line in the ad; it may
be a simplified path for the longer actual URL, which is not visible.
Distribution Network – A network of web sites (content publishers,
ISPs) or search engines and their partner sites on which paid ads can be
distributed. The network receives advertisements from the host search
engine, paid for with a CPC or CPM model. For example, Google’s advertising
network includes not only the Google search site, but also searchers at AOL,
Netscape and the New York Post online edition, among others.
Domain – Refers to a specific web site address.
Doorway Page – A web page specifically created in order to obtain
rankings within the natural listings of a search engine. These pages
generally are filled with keywords and are meant to funnel surfers into the
main web site. This practice is generally considered an outdated spam
tactic. This term is not to be confused with a “landing page.â€
Dynamic Landing Pages – Dynamic landing pages are web pages to
which click-through searchers are sent that generate changeable (not static)
pages with content specifically relevant to the keyword search. For example,
if a user is looking for trucks, then a dynamic landing page with
information and pictures on multiple models and, possibly, geographically
localized dealerships might be served. The term truck would trigger a
data dump into a web site template for all possible vehicles, that serves
all truck-related information.
Dynamic Text (Insertion) – This is text, a keyword or ad copy that
customizes search ads returned to a searcher by using parameters to insert
the desired text somewhere in the title or ad. When the search query (for
example, “hybrid carsâ€) matches the defined parameter (for example, all
brands of electric/gasoline passenger cars AND SUVs), then the associated
term (hybrid) is plugged into the ad. Dynamic insertion makes the ad mirror
exact terms used in the search query, creating very relevant ads. See also
DKI (Dynamic Keyword Insertion).
eCPM – Acronym for Effective Cost Per Thousand, a hybrid
Cost-Per-Click (CPC) auction calculated by multiplying the CPC times the
click-through rate (CTR), and multiplying that by one thousand. (Represented
by: (CPC x CTR) x 1000 = eCPM.) This monetization model is used by Google to
rank site-targeted CPM ads (in the Google content network) against
keyword-targeted CPC ads (Google AdWords PPC) in their hybrid auction.
Ecommerce - Conducting commercial transactions on the internet
where goods, information or services are bought and sold.
Editorial Review Process – A review process for potential
advertiser listings conducted by search engines, which check to ensure
relevancy and compliance with the engine’s editorial policy. This process
could be automated – using a spider to crawl ads – or it could be human
editorial ad review. Sometimes it’s a combination of both. Not all PPC
Search Engines review listings.
Entry Page – Refers to any page within a web site that a user
employs to “enter†your web site. Also see Landing Page.
Eye Tracking Studies – Studies by Google, Marketing Sherpa and
Poynter Institute using Eyetools technology to track the eye movements of
web page readers, in order to understand reading and click-through
patterns.
FAQ – Stands for “Frequently Asked Questions.â€
F.F.A – Stands for “Free for All†link pages. These are not search
engines or directories. They are, for the most part, pages that simply take
URL submissions that usually stay active for a period of time. A submission
is placed at the top of their list and then moved down, and eventually out,
as other submissions are made. These are seen as outdated and were used in
an attempt to artificially inflate link popularity.
F.T.P – Stands for “File Transfer Protocol.â€
Feeds – A web document that is a shortened or updated (revised
content only) version of a web page created for syndication. Usually served
at user request, through subscription; also includes ad feeds to shopping
engines and paid-inclusion ad models. Ad feeds are usually in Extensible
Markup Language (XML) or Rich Site Summary (RSS) format.
Flash – “Flash technology has become a popular method for adding
animation and interactivity to web pages; several software products,
systems, and devices are able to create or display Flash. Flash is commonly
used to create animation, advertisements, various web page components, to
integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich internet
applications.†Source: Wikipedia
Frames - HTML technique that allows two or more pages to display
in one browser window. Many search engines had trouble indexing web sites
that used frames, generally only seeing the contents of a single frame. See
also “No Frames.â€
G.U.I – Stands for “Graphical User Interface.†Means a visual
representation of the functional code. Or, is a way for the average web user
to interface with a database, program, etc.
Gateway page – See Doorway Page.
Geo-Targeting – The geographic location of the searcher.
Geo-targeting allows you to specify where your ads will or won’t be shown
based on the searcher’s location, enabling more localized and personalized
results.
.htaccess file – A file with one or more configuration directives
placed in a web site document directory. The directives apply to that
directory and all subdirectories.
HTTP – Stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol.â€
HTTPS – Stands for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure.â€
HTTP Referrer Data – A program included in most web analytics
packages that analyzes and reports the source of traffic to the user’s web
site. The HTTP referrer allows webmasters, site owners and PPC advertisers
to uncover new audiences or sites to target or to calculate conversions and
ROI for future ad campaigns.
Head Terms – Search terms that are short, popular and
straightforward; e.g., “helicopter skiing.” These short terms are called
“head terms” based on a bell-curve distribution of keyword usage that
displays the high numbers of most-used terms at the “head†end of the bell
curve graph. See also Tail Terms.
Hidden text – (Also known as Invisible text.) Text that is
visible to the search engines but hidden to a user. It is traditionally
accomplished by coloring a block of HTML text the same color as the
background color of the page. More creative methods have also been employed
to create the same effect while making it more difficult for the search
engines to detect or filter it. It is primarily used for the purpose of
including extra keywords in the page without distorting the aesthetics of
the page. Most search engines penalize or ignore URLs from web sites that
use this practice.
Hit – The request or retrieval of any item located within a web
page. For example, if a user enters a web page with 5 pictures on it, it
would be counted as 6 “hits.†One hit is counted for the web page itself,
and another 5 hits count for the pictures.
IFRAME – “IFrame (from inline frame) is an HTML element
which makes it possible to embed another HTML document inside the main
document. The size of the IFrame is specified in the surrounding HTML page,
so that the surrounding page can already be presented in the browser while
the IFrame is still being loaded. The IFrame behaves much like an inline
image, and the user can scroll it out of view. On the other hand, the IFrame
can contain its own scroll bar, independent of the surrounding page’s scroll
bar. Source: Wikipedia
IPTV – Acronym for Internet Protocol Television, which delivers
digital television service using the Internet Protocol over a network. IPTV
delivery may be through a high capacity, high speed broadband connection.
Compared to traditional broadcast and cable television, IPTV may offer new
venues for PPC search advertisers through program interfaces and stored
individual preferences. Source: Wikipedia
Impression – One view or display of an ad. Ad reports list total
impressions per ad, which tells you the number of times your ad was served
by the search engine when searchers entered your keywords (or viewed a
content page containing your keywords).
Index – A search engine’s “index†refers to the amount of
documents found by a search engines crawler on the web.
Indexability - Also known as crawlability and
spiderability. Indexability refers to the potential of a web site or
its contents to be crawled or “indexed†by a search engine. If a site is not
“indexable,†or if a site has reduced indexability, it has difficulties
getting its URLs included.
IP Address – “Dedicated and shared IPs. –(An IP address is)
an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network. Networks using
the TCP/IP protocol route messages based on the IP address of the
destination. The format of an IP address is a 32-bit numeric address,
written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to
255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.†Source:
Webopedia. (Added definition) An IP Address can be dedicated for
one web site or shared by multiple web sites.
IP Address – Abbreviation for Internet Protocol Address, a
unique combination of numbers assigned to individual electronic devices or
networks that communicate over the Internet. Basically, it’s a trackable
address for any computer, and it can be used to localize results (see
Geo-Targeting). Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) oversees
global IP address allocation.
IP Address Lookup – The process of determining a
unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. DNSstuff is one free program to look
up an IP address (http://www.dnsstuff.com).
IASAPI_rewrite - ISAPI_rewrite is a powerful URL manipulation
engine based on regular expressions. It acts mostly like Apache’s
mod_rewrite, but is designed specifically for Microsoft’s Internet
Information Server (IIS). ISAPI_rewrite is an ISAPI filter written in pure
C/C++ so it is extremely fast. ISAPI_rewrite gives you the freedom to go
beyond the standard URL schemes and develop your own scheme. Source:
http://www.isapirewrite.com
JavaScript – JavaScript is a scripting language based on
prototype-based programming. It is used on a web site as client-side
JavaScript, and also to enable scripting access to objects in other
applications.
Keyword - A single word that relates to a specific subject or
topic. For example, “glossary†would be a keyword for this document. See
also Keyword Phrase.
Keyword / Keyword Phrase – A specific word or combination of words
that a searcher might type into a search field. Includes generic, category
keywords; industry-specific terms; product brands; common misspellings and
expanded variations (called Keyword Stemming), or multiple words
(called Long Tail for their lower CTRs but sometimes better
conversion rates). All might be entered as a search query. For example,
someone looking to buy coffee mugs might use the keyword phrase “ceramic
coffee mugs.†Also, keywords – which trigger ad network and contextual
network ad serves – are the auction components on which PPC advertisers bid
for all Ad Groups/Orders and campaigns.
Keyword Density - The number of times a keyword or keyword
phrase is used in the body of a page. This is a percentage value determined
by the number of words on the page, as opposed to the number of times the
specific keyword appears within it. In general, the higher the number of
times a keyword appears in a page, the higher its density.
Keyword Phrase – Two or more keywords relating to a specific
topic. For example, “Mind numbingly boring glossary†would be a keyword
phrase to describe this document.
Keyword Stemming – To return to the root or stem of a word and
build additional words by adding a prefix or suffix, or using pluralization.
The word can expand in either direction and even add words, increasing the
number of variable options.
Keyword Stuffing – Generally refers to the act of adding an
inordinate number of keyword terms into the HTML or tags of a web page.
Keyword Tag - Refers to the META keywords tag within a web page.
This tag is meant to hold approximately 8 – 10 keywords or keyword phrases,
separated by commas. These phrases should be either misspellings of the main
page topic, or terms that directly reflect the content on the page on which
they appear. Keyword tags are sometimes used for internal search results as
well as viewed by search engines.
Keyword Targeting – Displaying Pay Per Click search ads on
publisher sites across the Web (see also Contextual Networks) that
contain the keywords in a context advertiser’s Ad Group.
KPI, Key Performance Indicators — KPI are metrics used to
quantify objectives that reflect the strategic performance of your online
marketing campaigns. They provide business and marketing intelligence to
assess a measurable objective and the direction in which that objective is
headed. (See Module 5, Lesson 2, for key definitions for general and
SEO-specific KPIs.)
Landing Page / Destination Page – The web page at which a searcher
arrives after clicking on an ad. When creating a PPC ad, the advertiser
displays a URL (and specifies the exact page URL in the code) on which the
searcher will land after clicking on an ad in the SERP. Landing pages are
also known as “where the deal is closed,†as it is landing page actions that
determine an advertiser’s conversion rate success.
Latent Semantic Indexing - LSI uses word associations to help
search engines know more accurately what a page is about.
Lead Generation – Web sites that generate leads for products or
services offered by another company. On a lead generation site, the visitor
is unable to make a purchase but will fill out a contact form in order to
get more information about the product or service presented. A submitted
contact form is considered a lead. It contains personal information about a
visitor who has some degree of interest in a product or service.
Link Cardinality – See “Link Popularity.â€
Link Farming – The attempt to substantially and artificially
increase link popularity.
Link Popularity – Link popularity generally refers to the total
number of links pointing to any particular URL. There are typically two
types of link popularity: Internal and External. Internal link popularity
typically refers to the number of links or pages within a web site that link
to a specific URL. External link popularity refers to the number of inbound
links from external web sites that are pointing to a specific URL. If you
have more “links†than your competitors, you are typically known to have
link cardinality or link superiority.
Linkbait – Also known as link bait, this is something on
your site that people will notice and link to. By linking to your site,
other sites are saying they value the content of your site and that they
think other people will be interested in it, too.
Linking Profile – A profile is a representation of the extent to
which something exhibits various characteristics. A linking profile is the
results of an analysis of where of your links are coming from.
Log File - All server software stores information about web site
incoming and outgoing activities. Web log files function like the “black
box†that records everything during an airplane’s flight. The log file is
usually in the root directory but it may also be found in a secondary
folder. If you do not have permission to access these files, then you will
need the help of the server administrator.
Log File Analysis - The analysis of records stored in the log
file. In its raw format, the data in the log files can be hard to read and
overwhelming. There are numerous log file analyzers that convert log file
data into user-friendly charts and graphs. A good analyzer is generally
considered an essential tool in SEO because it can show search engine
statistics such as the number of visitors received from each search engine,
the keywords each visitors used to find the site, visits by search engine
spiders etc.
Source:
www.thewebdivision.com/glossary.html
Long Tail – Keyword phrases with at least three, sometimes
four or five, words in them. These long tail keywords are usually highly
specific and draw lower traffic than shorter, more competitive keyword
phrases, which is why they are also cheaper. Oftentimes, long tail keywords,
in aggregate, have good conversion ratios for the low number of
click-throughs they generate.
Long-tailed Keywords – Keyword phrases with at least 2 or 3 words
in them.
Meta Feeds – Ad networks that pull advertiser listings from
other providers. They may or may not have their own distribution and
advertiser networks.
META Refresh redirect - A client-side redirect.
Metrics - A system of measures that helps to quantify particular
characteristics. In SEO the following are some important metrics to measure:
overall traffic, search engine traffic, conversions, top traffic-driving
keywords, top conversion-driving keywords, keyword rankings, etc.
Minimum Bid – The least amount that an advertiser can bid
for a keyword or keyword phrase and still be active on the search ad
network. This amount can range from $0.01 to $0.50 (or more for highly
competitive keywords), and are set by the search engine.
Mod_rewrite - URL Rewrite processes, also known as “mod
rewrites,†are employed when a webmaster decides to reorganize a current
web site, either for the benefit of better user experience with a new
directory structure or to clean up URLs which are difficult for search
engines to index.
Multivariate Testing – A type of testing that varies and tests
more than one or two campaign elements at a time to determine the best
performing elements and combinations. Multivariate testing can gather
significant results on many different components of, for example,
alternative PPC ad titles or descriptions in a short period of time. Often
it requires special expertise to analyze complex statistical results.
(Compare to A/B Testing which changes only one element at a time,
alternately serving an “old†version ad and a changed ad.) In search
advertising, you might do A/B Split or Multivariate testing to learn what
parts of a landing page (background color, title, headline, fill in forms,
design, images) produce higher conversions and are more cost effective.
Naked Links – A posted and visible link in the text of a web page
that directs to a web site.
Negative Keywords – Filtered-out keywords to prevent ad serves on
them in order to avoid irrelevant click-through charges on, for example,
products that you do not sell, or to refine and narrow the targeting of your
Ad Group’s keywords. Microsoft adCenter calls them “excluded keywords.”
Formatting negative keywords varies by search engine; but they are usually
designated with a minus sign.
No Frames Tag - A tag used to describe the content of a frame to a
user or engine which had trouble displaying / reading frames. Frequently
misused and often referred to as “Poor mans cloakingâ€.
No Script Tag - The noscript element is used to define an
alternate content (text) if a script is NOT executed. This tag is used for
browsers that recognizes the <script> tag, but does not support the
script in it.
NoFollow - NoFollow is an attribute webmasters can place on links
that tell search engines not to count the link as a vote or not to
send any trust to that site. Search engines will follow the link, yet it
will not influence search results. NoFollows can be added to any link with
this code: “rel=”nofollow”.”
Organic Results – Listings on SERPs that were not paid for;
listings for which search engines do not sell space. Sites appear in organic
(also called “naturalâ€) results because a search engine has applied formulas
(algorithms) to its search crawler index, combined with editorial decisions
and content weighting, that it deems important enough inclusion without
payment. Paid Inclusion Content is also often considered “organic”
even though it is paid advertising because paid inclusion content usually
appears on SERPs mixed with unpaid, organic results.
Organic Search 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 paid inclusion content usually
appears intermixed with unpaid organic results.
Organic Search Rankings – Search engine ranking of web pages found
in SERPs.
P4P – Acronym for Pay for Performance, also designated as PFP. See
also PPC Advertising.
PFP – Acronym for Pay for Performance; also designated as P4P. See
also PPC Advertising.
PPC – Acronym for Pay Per Click. See also PPC
Advertising.
PPCSE – Acronym for Pay-Per-Click Search Engine.
PageRank (PR) – PR is the Google technology developed at Stanford
University for placing importance on pages and web sites. At one point,
PageRank (PR) was a major factor in rankings. Today it is one of hundreds of
factors in the algorithm that determines a page’s rankings.
Paid Inclusion – Refers to the process of paying a fee to a search
engine in order to be included in that search engine or directory. Also
known as “guaranteed inclusion.†Paid inclusion does not impact rankings of
a web page; it merely guarantees that the web page itself will be included
in the index. These programs were typically used by web sites that were not
being fully crawled or were incapable of being crawled, due to dynamic URL
structures, frames, etc.
Pay Per Call – A model of paid advertising similar to Pay Per
Click (PPC), except advertisers pay for every phone call that comes to them
from a search ad, rather than for every click-through to their web site
landing page for the ad. Often higher cost than PPC advertising; but valued
by advertisers for higher conversion rates from consumers who take the
action step of telephoning an advertiser.
Personas – These are “people types” or sub-groups that encompass
several attributes, such as gender, age, location, salary level, leisure
activities, lifestyle characteristics, marital/family status or some kind of
definable behavior. Useful profiles for focusing ad messages and offers to
targeted segments.
Podcasts – “A podcast is a media file that is distributed
over the internet using syndication feeds, for playback on portable media
players and personal computers. Like ‘radio,’ it can mean both the content
and the method of syndication. The latter may also be termed
podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a
podcaster.†Source: Wikipedia
Position – In PPC advertising, position is the placement on a
search engine results page where your ad appears relative to other paid ads
and to organic search results. Top ranking paid ads (high ranking 10 to 15
results, depending on the engine) usually appear at the top of the SERP and
on the “right rail†(right-side column of the page). Ads appearing in the
top three paid-ad or Sponsored Ad slots are known as Premium Positions. Paid
search ad position is determined by confidential algorithms and Quality
Score measures specific to each search engine. However, factors in the
engines’ position placement under some advertiser control include bid price,
the ad’s CTR, relevancy of your ad to searcher requests, relevance of your
click-through landing page to the search request, and quality measures
search engines calculate to ensure quality user experience.
Position Preference – A feature in Google AdWords and in
Microsoft adCenter enabling advertisers to specify in which positions they
would like their ads to appear on the SERP. Not a position guarantee.
PPC Advertising – Acronym for Pay-Per-Click Advertising, a
model of online advertising in which advertisers pay only for each click on
their ads that directs searchers to a specified landing page on the
advertiser’s web site. PPC ads may get thousands of impressions (views or
serves of the ad); but, unlike more traditional ad models billed on a CPM
(Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions) basis, PPC advertisers only pay when their
ad is clicked on. Charges per ad click-through are based on advertiser bids
in hybrid ad space auctions and are influenced by competitor bids,
competition for keywords and search engines’ proprietary quality measures of
advertiser ad and landing page content.
PPC Management – The monitoring and maintenance of a Pay-Per-Click
campaign or campaigns. This includes changing bid prices, expanding and
refining keyword lists, editing ad copy, testing campaign components for
cost effectiveness and successful conversions, and reviewing performance
reports for reports to management and clients, as well as results to feed
into future PPC campaign operations.
Quality Score – A number assigned by Google to paid ads in
a hybrid auction that, together with maximum CPC, determines each ad’s rank
and SERP position. Quality Scores reflect an ad’s historical CTR, keyword
relevance, landing page relevance, and other factors proprietary to Google.
Yahoo! refers to the Quality Score as a Quality Index. And both Google and
Yahoo! display 3- or 5-step indicators of quality evaluations for individual
advertisers.
Query – The keyword or keyword phrase a searcher enters into a
search field, which initiates a search and results in a SERP with organic
and paid listings.
ROAS – Acronym for Return On Advertising Spending, the profit
generated by ad campaign conversions per dollar spent on advertising
expenses. Calculated by dividing advertising-driven profit by ad
spending.
ROI – Acronym for Return On Investment, the amount of money you
make on your ads compared to the amount of money you spend on your ads. For
example, if you spend $100 on PPC ads and make $150 from those ads, then
your ROI would be 50%. (Calculated as: ($150 - $100) / 100 = $50 / 100 =
50%.) The higher your ROI, the more successful your advertising, although
some practitioners in search advertising consider ROAS a more useful metric,
as it breaks down cost and expenses by conversions per advertising dollar
spent.
RSS – Acronym for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication, a
family of web feed formats that leverages XML for distributing and sharing
headlines and information from other web content (also known as
syndication).
Rank – How well positioned a particular web page or web site
appears in search engine results. For example, if you rank at position #1,
you’re the first listed paid or sponsored ad. If you’re in position #18, it
is likely that your ad appears on the second or third page of search
results, after 17 competitor paid ads and organic listings. Rank and
position affect your click-through rates and, ultimately, conversion rates
for your landing pages.
Raw Data Feed – Raw data is information that has been collected
but not formatted, analyzed or processed. This raw data can be used to build
an optimized XML feed.
Reciprocal Link – Two different sites that link out to each other.
Also referred to as Cross Linking.
Relative URL’s Link - Relative URLs link to just the file,
for example, “page1.htmâ€. (See also Absolute URL’s link.)
Relevance – In relation to PPC advertising, relevance is a measure
of how closely your ad title, description, and keywords are related to the
search query and the searcher’s expectations.
Reverse DNS – A process to determine the hostname or host
associated with an IP or host address.
Revshare / Revenue Sharing – A method of allocating
per-click revenue to a site publisher, and click-through charges to a search
engine that distributes paid-ads to its context network partners, for every
page viewer who clicks on the content site’s sponsored ads. A type of
site finder’s fee.
Rich Media – Media with embedded motion or interactivity. A
growing option for PPC advertisers as rates of broadband connectivity
increase.
Right Rail – The common name for the right-side column of a
web page. On a SERP, right rail is usually where sponsored listings
appear.
Robots.txt - A text file present in the root directory of a
website which is used to direct the activity of search engine crawlers. This
file is typically used to tell a crawler which portions of the site should
be crawled and which should not be crawled.
RSS (Really Simply Syndication, Rich Site Summary, RDF Site
Summary) - A family of web feed formats used for distributing frequently
updated digital content, such as blogs, news, podcasts, and videos
RSS Aggregators – “A client software that uses web feed to
retrieve syndicated web content such as blogs, podcasts, vlogs, and
mainstream mass media websites, or in the case of a search aggregator, a
customized set of search results….Such applications are also referred to as
RSS readers, feed readers, feed aggregators, news
readers or search aggregators. These have been recently
supplemented by the so-called RSS-narrators [such as TalkingNews or
Talkr] which not only aggregate news feeds but also converts them into
podcasts.†Source: Wikipedia
SEO – Acronym for “Search Engine Optimization.†This is the
process of editing a web site’s content and code in order to improve
visibility within one or more search engines. When this term is used to
describe an individual, it stands for “Search Engine Optimizer†or one who
performs SEO.
SERP – Acronym for Search Engine Results Page, the page delivered
to a searcher that displays the results of a search query entered into the
search field. Displays both paid ad (sponsored) and organic listings in
varying positions or rank.
SSP Feed – See Search Submit Pro and
Feeds.
Saturation (Search Engine Saturation) – A term relating to the
number of URLs included from a specific web site in any given search engine.
The higher the saturation level or number of pages indexed into a search
engine, the higher the potential traffic levels and rankings.
Search Directory - Similar to a search engine, in that they both
compile databases of web sites. A directory does not use crawlers in order
to obtain entries in its search database. Instead, it relies on user
interaction and submissions for the content it contains. Submissions are
then categorized by topic and normally alphabetized, so that the results of
any search will start with site descriptions that begin with some number or
non-letter character, then moving from A-to-Z.
Search Engines - A search engine is a database of many web pages.
Most engines display the number of web pages they hold in their database at
any given time. A search engine generally “ranks†or orders the results
according to a set of parameters. These parameters (called algorithms) vary
among search engines; they are always improving in order to identify spam as
well as improve relevance. See also SERP, Algorithm.
Search Funnel – Movement of searchers, who tend to do several
searches before reaching a buy decision, that works from broad, general
keyword search terms to narrower, specific keywords. Advertisers use the
search funnel to anticipate customer intent and develop keywords targeted to
different stages. Also refers to potential for switches at stages in the
funnel when, for example, searchers start with keywords for a desired brand,
but switch to other brands after gathering information on the category.
Microsoft AdCenter tested a search funnel keyword tool in 2006 to target
keywords to search funnel stages.
Search Query – The word or phrase a searcher types into a search
field, which initiates search engine results page listings and PPC ad
serves. In PPC advertising, the goal is to bid on keywords that closely
match the search queries of the advertiser’s targets. See also
Query.
Search Submit Pro (SSP) – Search Submit Pro is Yahoo!’s paid
inclusion product that uses a “feed†tactic. With Search Submit Pro, Yahoo!
crawls your web site as well as an optimized XML feed that represents the
content on your site. Yahoo! applies its algorithm to both the actual web
site pages and the XML feed to determine which listing is most appropriate
to appear in the organic search results when a user conducts a search for
relevant terms. Yahoo! charges a CPC, determined by category, for each time
a listing established through SSP is clicked.
Secondary Links – Links that are indirectly acquired links, such
as a story in a major newspaper about a new product your company
released.
Semantic Clustering – A technique for developing relevant keywords
for PPC Ad Groups, by focusing tightly on keywords and keyword phrases that
are associative and closely related, referred to as “semantic clustering.â€
Focused and closely-related keyword groups, which would appear in the
advertiser’s ad text and in the content of the click-through landing page,
are more likely to meet searchers’ expectations and, therefore, support more
effective advertising and conversion rates.
Server-side Tracking -- The process of analyzing web server log
files. Server-side analytics tools make sense of raw data to generate
meaningful reports and trends analysis.
Session Id’s – dynamic parameters, such as session IDs generated
by cookies for each individual user. Session IDs cause search engines
to see a different URL for each page each time that they return to re-crawl
a web site.
Share of Voice –â€A brand’s (or group of brands’) advertising
weight, expressed as a percentage of a defined total market or market
segment in a given time period. SOV advertising weight is usually defined in
terms of expenditure, ratings, pages, poster sites, etc.†Source:
Wikipedia
Siloing – Siloing (also known as Theming) is a site
architecture technique used to split the focus of a site into multiple
themes. The goal behind siloing is to create a site that ranks well for both
its common and more-targeted keywords. Source: Bruce Clay Newsletter
09/06
Site-Targeted Ads – Site targeting lets advertisers display their
ads on manually-selected sites in the search engine’s content network for
content or contextual ad serves. Site-targeted ads are billed more like
traditional display ads, per 1000 impressions (CPM), and not on a
Pay-Per-Click basis.
Social Media or Social Search – Sites where users actively
participate to determine what is popular.
SPAM – Any search 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 on their definitions and
penalties for SPAM. Examples include doorway landing pages designed
primarily to game search engine algorithms rather than meet searcher
expectations from the advertiser’s clicked-on ad; keyword stuffing in which
search terms that motivated a click-through are heavily and redundantly
repeated on a page in place of relevant content; attempts to redirect
click-through searchers to irrelevant pages, product offers and services;
and landing pages that simply compile additional links on which a searcher
must click to get any information. Determining what constitutes SPAM is
complicated by the fact that different search engines have different
standards, including what is allowable for listings gathered through organic
methods versus paid inclusion (referred to as spamdexing), whether the
listing is from a commercial or research/academic source,
etc. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Spamming – Spamming refers to a wide array of techniques used to
“trick†the search engines. These tactics generally are against the
guidelines put forth by the search engines. Tactics such as Hidden text,
Doorway Pages, Content Duplication and Link Farming are but a few of many
spam techniques employed over the years. (Also see: delicious
lunchmeat.)
Spider – See Crawler.
Splash Page – Refers to an entry page or main page of a web site
that is interactive or graphically intense. Many splash pages are designed
using Flash.
Sponsored Listing – A term used as a title or column head on SERPs
to identify paid advertisers and distinguish between paid and organic
listings. Alternate names are Paid Listings or Paid Sponsors.
Separating paid listings from organic results enables searchers to make
their own purchase and site trust decisions and, in fact, resulted from an
FTC complaint filed by Commercial Alert in 2001 alleging that the confusion
caused in consumers who saw mixed paid and unpaid results constituted fraud
in advertising.
Statistical Validity – The degree to which an observed result,
such as a difference between two measurements, can be relied upon and not
attributed to random error in sampling or in measurement. Statistical
Validity is important to the reliability of test results, particularly in
Multivariate Testing methods. Source: UsabilityFirst.com
Stop Word A word that often appears in a page’s copy or content,
but it has no significance by itself. Examples of stop words are: and, the,
of, etc.
Submission - The act of submitting a web site to search engines
and search directories. For some search engines, this is performed simply by
typing in the absolute home page URL of the web site you wish to submit.
Other engines and directories request that descriptions of the web site be
submitted for approval.
Super Verbs - Compelling verbs that trigger emotions or visual
images.
TLP – Acronym for Top Level Page, a reference to the home page,
category pages, or product pages that have unique value for the site and so
are structured in the top levels of the site directory.
TLP Feed – Acronym for Top Level Page feed, the often automatic
and on-subscription feed of an advertiser’s home page or unique category
pages. See also Feeds.
Tail Terms – Search terms that are very specific, long phrases
that include one or more modifiers, such as “cheapest helicopter skiing near
Banff BC.” These longer, more specific terms are called “tail terms” based
on a bell-curve distribution of keyword usage that displays the low numbers
of little-used terms at the “tail†end of the bell curve graph. (See “The
Long Tail†by Wired editor Chris Anderson.) Although long, specific
and lesser-used tail terms have low CTRs, they are less competitive (and
therefore cheaper) and often catch buyers at the end of the purchase
decision process. This means that, even with low click-through numbers, tail
terms can have good conversion rates. See also Head Terms.
Targeting – Narrowly focusing ads and keywords to attract a
specific, marketing-profiled searcher and potential customer. You can target
to geographic locations (geo-targeting), by days of the week or time of day
(dayparting), or by gender and age (demographic targeting). Targeting
features vary by search engine. Newer ad techniques and software focus on
behavioral targeting, based on web activity and behaviors that are
predictive for potential customers who might be more receptive to particular
ads.
Themes - A theme is an overall idea of what a web page is focused
on. Search engines determine the theme of a web page through analysis in the
algorithm of the density of associated words on a page.
Tier I Search Engines – The top echelon, or top three,
search engines that serve the vast majority of searcher queries. Also
referred to as Major Engines, Top Tier Engines or GYM, for Google, Yahoo!
and Microsoft Live Search.
Tier II Search Engines – Smaller, vertical and specialized
engines, including general engines, such as Ask.com and AOL; meta-engines
that search and display results from other search engines, such as Dogpile;
local engines, shopping and comparison engines, and business vertical
engines. Tier II Search Engines don’t offer the search query market share or
features of the Tier I engines; however, Tier II engines can target
specific, niche markets and are usually lower cost.
Tier III Search Engines – Contextual distribution networks,
through which marketers’ ads appear on pages within the PPC engine’s content
network, triggered by user web site page views at the moment that contain
the advertiser’s keyword in its content. Cost is usually through
Cost-Per-Thousand-Impressions (CPM) charges, rather than Pay Per Click
(PPC). As discussed in Fundamentals coursework, Google’s contextual
distribution program is called AdSense; Yahoo!’s is called Content
Match.
Title Tag - An HTML tag appearing in the <head> tag of a web
page that contains the page title. The page title should be
determined by the relevant contents of that specific web page. The contents
of a title tag for a web page is generally displayed in a search engine
result as a bold blue underlined hyperlink.
Trackbacks - A protocol that allows a blogger to link to posts,
often on other blogs, that relate to a selected subject. Blogging software
that supports Trackback includes a “TrackBack URL” with each post that
displays other blogs that have linked to it. Source: Blog Terms Glossary
Tech at Whatis.techtarget.com
Tracking URL – A specially designed and/or unique URL
created to track an action or conversion from paid advertising. The URL can
include strings that will show what keyword was used, what match type was
triggered, and what search engine delivered the visitor.
Trademarks – Distinctive symbols, pictures or words that identify
a specific product or service. Received through registration with the U.S.
Patent & Trademark Office. Tier I search engines prohibit bids on
trademarks as keywords if the bidder is not the legal owner, though this
keyword bid practice is still allowed by Google.
Traffic – Refers to the number of visitors a website receives. It
can be determined by examination of web logs.
Traffic Analysis – The process of analyzing traffic to a web site
to understand what visitors are searching for and what is driving traffic to
a site.
Trusted Feed – Also known as Paid Inclusion, a trusted feed
is a fee-based custom crawl service offered by some search engines. These
results appear in the “organic search results†of the engine. Typically, the
fee is based on a “cost per click,†depending on the category of site
content. It has been called a “Trusted Feed†due to the ability to actually
alter the content in the feed, without changing the existing website. Also
see: Paid Inclusion.
TXT//AD – Text ads as mobile device text messages.
USPTO – Acronym for United States Patent & Trademark Office.
See also Trademarks.
Unique Visitor – Identifies an actual web surfer (as opposed to a
crawler) and is tracked by a unique identifiable quality (typically IP
address). If a visitor comes to a web site and clicks on 100 links, it is
still only counted as one unique visit.
Usability – This term refers to how “user friendly” a web site and
its functions are. A site with good usability is a site that makes it easy
for visitors to find the information they are looking for or to perform the
action they desire. Bad usability is anything that causes confusion or
problems for the user. For example, large Flash animations served to a
visitor with a dial up connection causes poor usability. Easy, intuitive
navigation and clear, informative text enhance usability.
User Agent - This is the identity of a web site visitor, spider,
browser, etc. The most common user agents are Mozilla and Internet
Explorer.
Value Propositions – “A customer value proposition is the
sum total of benefits a customer is promised to receive in return for his or
her custom and the associated payment (or other value transfer).“ A customer
value proposition is what is promised by a company’s marketing and sales
efforts, and then fulfilled by its delivery and customer service processes.â€
Source: Wikipedia
Vertical Creep – Positioning trends when vertical listings
appear at the top of organic search engine results and below top sponsored
listings (when they are displayed on the SERP).
Vertical Portal / Vortal – Search engines that focus on a specific
industry or sector. Such vertical search engines (also called “vortalsâ€)
have much more specific indexes and provide narrower and more focused search
results than the Tier I search engines.
Verticals – A vertical is a specific business group or category,
such as insurance, automotive or travel. Vertical search offers targeted
search options and PPC opportunities to a specific business category.
Viral Marketing – Also called viral advertising, viral
marketing refers to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social
networks to produce increases in brand awareness. The awareness increases
are the result of self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread
of pathological and computer viruses. It can often be word-of-mouth
delivered and enhanced online; it can also harness the network effect of the
internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people
rapidly. Source: Wikipedia
Web Forwarding - Web forwarding allows for redirects to exist
within an .htaccess file on a separate server.
Web Server Logs – Most web server software, and all
good web analytics packages, keep a running count of all search terms used
by visitors to your site. These running counts are kept in large text files
called Log Files or Web Server Logs. Useful for developing and
refining PPC campaign keyword lists.
Web TV – Television set-top boxes that allow users to
browse the Internet from their televisions without a computer system.
Perennial future opportunity as new PPC ad channel offering the option to
use rich media formats.
Wiki — Software that allows people to contribute knowledge on a
particular topic. A wiki is another web publishing platform that makes use
of technologies similar to blogs and also allows for collaboration with
multiple people.
Wikipedia – “Wikipedia is a multilingual, web-based, free content
encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers;
its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the web site.â€
Source: Wikipedia
Word Count - The total number of words contained within a web
document.
XML – Stands for “Extensible Markup Language,†a data delivery
language.
XML Feeds – A form of paid inclusion in which a search engine is
fed information about an advertiser’s web pages via XML, rather than
requiring that the engine gather that information through crawling actual
pages. Marketers pay to have their pages included in a spider-based search
index based on an XML format document that represents each page on the
advertiser site. Advertisers pay either annually per URL or on a CPC basis –
and are assured of frequent crawl cycles. New media types are being
introduced into paid inclusion, including graphics, video, audio, and rich
media.
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.
XML Maps - XML maps are specially formatted links to your pages.
They will never replace the need for HTML site maps.
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