Search Marketing Term Glossary

Getting started in online marketing can be a daunting task. The field is filled with acronyms and is constantly changing as search engines’ algorithms change.  This guide aims at breaking down the terminology to get you started in the fundamentals of online marketing.By keeping this comprehensive glossary reference handy, you’ll have an easy go-to guide to refer to as you are learning.

First up, let’s get the acronyms out of the way:

SEM – Search Engine Marketing – The overall term given to all marketing efforts driven towards increasing traffic received from search engines.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization – The process of improving a website’s ranking on search engine results pages organically (without paid advertisements) through implementation of various techniques, including: link building, website copywriting, blogging, and more.

PPC – Pay Per Click – PPC is an easy way for businesses of any size to advertise on SERPs. Each time an ad is clicked on, it costs the advertiser an amount that they bid on through the PPC interface. These paid ads appear at the very top and on the right hand side of search results, typically.

SERP – Search Engine Results Page – The destination page for queries in search engines. When users type in a query, they are brought to the search engine results pages listing the top 10 most relevant results, among other tidbits of information depending on the search. Users can dive deeper into the topic by viewing the 2^nd results page, 3^rd results page, and so on.

CTR – Click Through Rate – The success of PPC ads and other forms of online advertising can be measured by the click through rate, or the percentage of people that clicked on the ad based on the number of impressions given. If there were 100 impressions, indicating that 100 people saw the ad, and the click through rate was 5%, that means that 5 of the 100 users clicked on the ad.

LSI – Latent Semantic Indexing – An indexing technique that factors in proximity of keywords within a body of copy. LSI was implemented to allow Google to recognize the relationships of keywords within content, even though the specific phrases may not be explicitly mentioned multiple times throughout the content. Simply put, write for your readers, not for search engines, and you will be rewarded.

RSS – Rich Site Summary – A feed for distributing new information and headlines to readers. Viewers can import RSS feeds into various viewers, like Google Reader, to stay up to date on their latest blogs, news sites, businesses, and more.

These acronyms are an essential part of communicating as an online marketing professional. They will also help you in understanding the following terms, sorted in alphabetical order to act as an easy-to-read, go-to reference.

Above the Fold – The part of a website that is seen without scrolling down. Banner ads and other paid advertising placement in this area is offered at a premium, as it is the first thing users see when the go to a site. The actual size of this space varies based on the screen settings of the visitor.

Affiliate Marketing – A form of online marketing that involves the creation of partnerships with other sites, companies, or individuals. These secondary parties work on commission to sell your products or services online. They can be paid per acquisition, per sale, or even per click.

Anchor Text – The visible text or wording used for a hyperlink. In the following example, buy domains, the anchor text is “buy domains” with a hyperlink to www.buydomains.com/. Anchor text is beneficial in SEO, as it allows search engines to correlate the keyword used as anchor text with the destination page.  Anchor text is important in both internal links and external backlinks.

Backlinks – Also known as inbound or external links. Backlinks are the links coming into a webpage from other sites. A high priority ranking factor in SEO, backlinks enable search engines to determine the quality of a website and identify those deserving of high ranking on SERPs. After all, web pages that have a lot of sites linking to them are likely to offer high quality content.

Banner Ads – Display advertisements that use graphical enhancements to draw visitors over to a site. Banner ads are linked to the advertisers’ website or land page.

Black Hat SEO - This term applies to all unethical or shady SEO techniques designed to trick search engines into ranking certain sites higher. Such techniques include baiting and switching, cloaking, and more. Bait and switch is a technique that involves drawing visitors to an information site and then switching them over to a commercial site, with the easy-to-rank information page acting as a doorway to the commercial site. Cloaking refers to showing search engines different content than what is shown to visitors.

Blogging – An increasingly popular form of online marketing that involves frequent, informative, and often opinion based posts. A blog acts as an easy-to-update journal, without requiring knowledge of HTML to update and manage. Many businesses have implemented blogs as a means to stay in touch with customers, as comment sections allow them to actively interact while keeping customers in the know. Popular blogging platforms include: WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Typepad, and more.

Bounce Rate – The percentage of users that click away from a page directly after coming to it from a search engine, without delving further into the site. High bounce rates indicate that users click away or return to the search engine just after visiting, while a low bounce rate indicates that the majority of visitors click through to other pages of the site.  A low bounce rate is indicative of a high quality site, as users are investing time in the content of the site.

Conversion Rate – Percentage of clicks that result in conversions, defined differently by each website, but including leads, sales, and other online actions. Conversion rate takes click through rate a step further by identifying those clicks that turned into sales. With 100 impressions, a click through rate of 10%, and a conversion rate of 10%, a website can achieve 1 sale per 100 impressions.

Directory – A website that provides profiles for different businesses. Once a popular form of online marketing, directory submissions involved adding your website to virtually every known information bank. Directory submissions have become less influential in search engine optimization, thus the popularity of this technique has fallen off.

Domain – The most important term in all of online marketing is domain. A domain is the internet address where users can find your business. Before purchasing a domain, consider the pros and cons of keyword based and brand based domain names.

Domain Age – The length of time for which a domain name has been active. Older domains tend to rank better in search engines, as age is a signal of quality.

Internal Links – Links that appear within a website, linking to other pages on that site. Internal links offer many benefits. They provide structural enhancements that make it easier for spiders to find all pages of the site. When used with anchor text, internal links create the necessary relationship with keywords and designation pages.

Keyword – The word or phrase used in a query by searchers. Keywords are the main focus of SEO, as they link web pages to the queries conducted by search engine users. Implementing keywords, however, can be difficult. Make certain to conduct sufficient research to select the best keywords for your target audience and not to stuff content with keywords.

Landing Page – Also known as a destination page. A landing page is the page identified as the locations visitors are brought to after clicking on a link or ad. The landing page for your PPC ads may be specifically designed for PPC campaigns or could be a specific product pages.

Link Building – An online marketing technique focused on increasing the number of backlinks to a particular site.

Metatags – Informative tags in HTML that show search engines different types of relevant information. The Title tag is most significant, as it is what the search engine identifies as your site or destination page’s title on SERPs. Description is also important, as this represents a summary of your site on SERPs. In the past, the Keywords tag was highly important, though it is becoming virtually insignificant.

PageRank – A number designated to each web page by Google, identifying the importance of a web page in response to various SEO factors. The numbers range from 0 to 10, with a 10 as the highest PageRank possible.

PPC Networks – Adwords (Google), Yahoo!  Advertising (Yahoo), and AdCenter (Bing) are three of the most prolific PPC programs on the web.

Sitemap – The page of a website that lists all of the site’s pages. Sitemaps are geared towards improving navigation. XML sitemaps improve navigation for spiders, while standard sitemap pages improve navigation for users.

Social Media – A categorization of websites that focus on social interaction amongst users. In online marketing, social media allows companies to interact with consumers to manage brand relationships. Links from users’ social media posts are also becoming increasingly significant in SEO. Popular social networking sites include: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Del.icio.us, and more.

Spider – Also known as a crawler or robot. A spider is a program implemented by search engines that crawls across the web indexing content. Like a spider web branches out, a spider works by finding links, indexing those pages, and then crawling links from those pages out across the internet.

Unique Content – Though not a critical term, unique content is the most imperative aspect in any online marketing campaign. Providing high quality, original content greatly improves your chances in ranking high on SERPs, draws more backlinks from external sites, and keeps readers intrigued.

Web Analytics – Tools use to measure the success of online marketing campaigns. Google Analytics is a popular suite of tools offering keyword opportunity analysis, and other specifications including: number of visits, page views, bounce rates, referring sites, geographic location of visitors, and more.

White Hat SEO – Ethical, globally accepted SEO strategies and techniques aimed at improving SERP positioning.

There you have it. Your comprehensive, go-to guide for all your online marketing terminology needs.