Definition of Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) consists of various techniques that seek to improve the ranking of a website in search engine results. Websites should be optimized for keywords that are frequently searched upon by prospective customers. Optimization includes incorporation of these keywords into copy, page titles, link text, and various other elements of the website.
Definition of Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) refers to a class of internet advertising in which advertisers pay a fee for every visitor that clicks on their ad. PPC is often used to refer to keyword advertising on search engines and other websites.
Definition of Link-Building
Link-building is the practice of obtaining links from external web sites to your own to improve both direct referrals (people clicking on the links) and search engine ranking.
Paying for links and reciprocal linking are more effective than simply requesting uncompensated links from other sites.
Definition of API
An API, or Application Programming Interface, enables software applications to communicate with each other. Just as a user interface allows a person to interact with a software application, an API allows a program to interact with another piece of software.
Definition of Long Tail of Search
The long tail of search refers to the vast number of lower traffic volume keywords that are often much less competitive (for SEO) than the most popular keywords. If you created a graph that shows the frequency of keywords on the vertical axis and the keywords ordered from most frequently used to least on the horizontal axis, you would find a very high but narrow peak for the common terms and a very, very long "tail" of numerous keywords that individually have few queries. The cumulative searches on these "long tail" terms can be a very large number. The long tail contains many simple variations and refinements of the general, short, and often somewhat ambiguous terms that have the highest volume.
Definition of Backlinks
Backlinks are links from another site to your own. Most search engines use the quality and quantity of backlinks to help determine search engine ranking.
Definition of Natural Search Results
Natural search results are those listings that appear at the discretion of the search engines and that do not incur a charge to the listed site. In most search engines, these are the "main" results. There are frequently ads near the natural results for which advertisers are charged either each time someone clicks on them (PPC) or for each impression.
The goal of SEO is to achieve good ranking in natural search results.
Definition of Bid Jamming or Bid Trapping or Pinning
Bid jamming, sometimes referred to as "pinning", is a technique used in fixed-bid PPC programs like Overture / Yahoo! Sponsored Search to pay less than your competition for similar ad positions while holding their costs high. You "jam" your competitor by bidding one cent less than them, thus forcing them to pay their entire bid price for each bid while you pay one cent more than the bid immediately below yours. If the next bid is much lower, your competition can be spending substantially more for the higher ad position.
Definition of Negative Keywords
Negative keywords are used in keyword advertising to prevent ads from being shown when the search terms contain the negative keywords. For instance, a realtor who sells houses in Omaha could specify "commercial" as a negative keyword so that their ads do show for searches upon "Omaha real estate" but not "Omaha commercial real estate".
Negative keywords can have a tremendous impact on ROAS by significantly reducing the number of clicks by poor quality leads.
Definition of Nofollow
Nofollow refers to a link attribute that allows website owners to tell search engines that a particular link does not confer credit to the target site. For instance, a Google discourages the use of paid links, and they ask that site owners use nofollow on them so that people cannot buy more backlinks.
It is possible specify nofollow for all links on a page using the "robots" meta tag.
Here is an HTML example of a link that uses nofollow:
Definition of CAN-SPAM
The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 established the first United States standards for senders of commercial email. It designates the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as the enforcement body for this legislation.
CAN-SPAM has many stipulations for commercial email senders including requiring them to use appropriate subject lines, provide a physical address of the sender, offer recipients the ability to opt-out of future correspondence, and conspicuously label adult material.
CAN-SPAM is an acronym for Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003.
Definition of Opt-In Email Marketing
Opt-in e-mail advertising or permission marketing is a method of advertising by electronic mail wherein the recipient of the advertisement has consented to receive it. It is one of several ways developed by marketers to eliminate the disadvantages of e-mail marketing.
E-mail has become a very popular mode of communication across the world. It has also become extremely popular to advertise through. Some of the many advantages of advertising through e-mail are the direct contact with the consumer and it is "inexpensive, flexible, and simple to implement" (Fairhead, 2003). There are also disadvantages attached to e-mail advertising such as alienating the consumer because of overload to messages or the advertisement getting deleted without getting read.
A common example of permission marketing is a newsletter sent to a firm’s customers. Newsletters like this are a way to let customers know about upcoming events or promotions, or new products. In this type of advertising, a company that wants to send a newsletter to their customers may ask them at the point of purchase if they would like to receive this newsletter.
Definition of Click Fraud
Click fraud refers to malicious clicking on pay-per-click (PPC) ads in order to assess charges to the advertisers or search engines.
Click fraud can be used to penalize advertisers by driving up their costs to the point that they curtail advertising spending or otherwise modify their behavior in ways that benefit competitors. However, the most common use of click fraud is thought to be by website owners who host PPC ads and receive a percentage of PPC revenue. By clicking on their own ads or generating clicks through automated means or complicit individuals, they may increase the revenue they receive from advertising.
Definition of Page Rank
Page Rank (often denoted PR) is a quantity defined by Google that provides a rough estimate of the overall importance of a web page. Many factors influence Page Rank, thus it is a poor indicator of how well a page ranks for particular keywords.
Contrary to popular belief, the word "page" in Page Rank has nothing to do with web pages. It's from the name of one of PR's inventors, Larry Page.
Definition of CTR
CTR, or Click Through Rate, is the fraction of users who click on a keyword advertisement to those that view that advertisement (an impression). CTR is usually expressed as a percentage
Definition of Impression
An impression is a single display of a particular ad on a web page. Some search engine advertising fees are based upon the number of impressions, while the majority are based upon the number of clicks (PPC).
Definition of Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) refers to a class of internet advertising in which advertisers pay a fee for every visitor that clicks on their ad. PPC is often used to refer to keyword advertising on search engines and other websites.
Definition of Cloaking
Cloaking refers to the practice of showing different content to search engine spiders when they visit your site than users would normally see. Cloaking can be used to try and influence search engine ranking, although the search engines typically frown on any such attempts, and the penalty for detection can be removal from their index. There are legitimate uses for cloaking techniques that involve large websites that may need to save server load or that use it to circumvent the limitations of technologies that the search engines might otherwise not be able to read.
Definition of Cost Per Acquisition
Cost Per Acquisition or CPA refers to the average cost of acquiring leads or customers. It is most commonly associated with Search Engine Marketing (SEM). CPA is calculated by dividing the cost of advertising by the number of leads or customers for a given period of time.
Definition of CPM
CPM is an acronym for Cost-Per-Thousand. Many online ads are priced on a CPM basis in which the cost is expressed for 1000 impressions. E.g. If a banner advertisement is placed at the price of $20/M then the CPM is $20, or $20 for 1000 impressions.
Most search engine ads charge based on the number of ad clicks (PPC) instead of impressions.
Definition of ROAS
ROAS stands for Return On Advertising Spending and represents the dollars earned per dollars spent on the corresponding advertising. To determine ROAS, divide revenue derived from the ad source by the cost of that ad source. Values less than one indicate that less revenue is generated than is spent on the advertising.
A full cost/benefit analysis requires consideration of profit--instead of revenue--versus advertising spending.
Definition of CTR
CTR, or Click Through Rate, is the fraction of users who click on a keyword advertisement to those that view that advertisement (an impression). CTR is usually expressed as a percentage.
Definition of Google Bombing
Google Bombing refers to the practice of creating a large number of links with specific keywords in the anchor text to rate a site very highly for that keyword. For instance, one of the most successful Google bombs resulting in the top Google result for "miserable failure" to be the Presidential home page of the white house during the first George W. Bush administration.
Definition of Google Sandbox
Google Sandbox refers to a hypothetical mechanism that factors a website's age (or lack thereof) into its ranking on popular keywords.
Around the end of 2004, many website developers started noticing that sites that previously took 4-8 weeks to get indexed and ranked by Google were suddenly taking much longer. People surmised that Google put some new sites into a "sandbox" until time and other factors indicated that they had been around long enough to be indexed. Google denies the existence of a rigid sandbox rule. Many of web marketers have observed effects and talked to knowledgeable people that lead us to believe that the sandbox effect is not discrete, rather that website age is being made more important among many other factors for determining website ranking. This is somewhat of semantic argument since most websites seem to take roughly the same amount of time to be indexed: almost a year.
Definition of ROAS
ROAS stands for Return On Advertising Spending and represents the dollars earned per dollars spent on the corresponding advertising. To determine ROAS, divide revenue derived from the ad source by the cost of that ad source. Values less than one indicate that less revenue is generated than is spent on the advertising.
A full cost/benefit analysis requires consideration of profit--instead of revenue--versus advertising spending.
Definition of ROI
ROI (short for Return On Investment) refers to the percentage yield provided for a given investment. This term is used for evaluating SEM and other forms of advertising by dividing the profit derived from advertising by the cost of that advertising.
Definition of Google Bombing
Google Bombing refers to the practice of creating a large number of links with specific keywords in the anchor text to rate a site very highly for that keyword. For instance, one of the most successful Google bombs resulting in the top Google result for "miserable failure" to be the Presidential home page of the white house during the first George W. Bush administration.
Definition of Google Sandbox
Google Sandbox refers to a hypothetical mechanism that factors a website's age (or lack thereof) into its ranking on popular keywords.
Around the end of 2004, many website developers started noticing that sites that previously took 4-8 weeks to get indexed and ranked by Google were suddenly taking much longer. People surmised that Google put some new sites into a "sandbox" until time and other factors indicated that they had been around long enough to be indexed. Google denies the existence of a rigid sandbox rule. Many of web marketers have observed effects and talked to knowledgeable people that lead us to believe that the sandbox effect is not discrete, rather that website age is being made more important among many other factors for determining website ranking. This is somewhat of semantic argument since most websites seem to take roughly the same amount of time to be indexed: almost a year.
Definition of Impression
An impression is a single display of a particular ad on a web page. Some search engine advertising fees are based upon the number of impressions, while the majority are based upon the number of clicks (PPC).
Definition of Search Engine Advertising
Most search engines show ads alongside search results. The search query determines which ads are shown. Typically advertisers pay a fee every time someone clicks on their ad (Pay Per Click), as opposed to traditional advertising where they pay for the number of impressions.
Definition of Index
A search engine index is a database that correlates keywords and websites so that the search engine can display websites that match a user's search query.
See also indexing.
Definition of Indexing
Indexing is the process of building a search engine index.
Technically, indexing is a separate step from assigning keyword rankings.
Definition of Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) consists of various techniques that seek to improve the ranking of a website in search engine results. Websites should be optimized for keywords that are frequently searched upon by prospective customers. Optimization includes incorporation of these keywords into copy, page titles, link text, and various other elements of the website.
See also search engine marketing.
Definition of KEI
Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) attempts to characterize the value of a keyword based upon its popularity and the number of competing websites. Higher KEI values are "better" in that they represent more searches per website.
Typically KEI is the the ratio of the square of the searches upon a particular keyword in a day divided by the number of websites that are listed for that keyword. For example, a keyword that has 100 searches a day and for which Google shows 5000 websites would have a KEI of 2. (100 * 100 / 5000)
Definition of Keyword
Search queries are referred to as keywords when targeted by SEO and search engine advertising. Keywords may consist of more than one word.
Definition of Keyword Advertising
Keyword advertising refers to a variety of techniques that associate advertisements with particular terms on websites. The most common form is exemplified by Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search which display ads alongside search engine results. Most ads are composed entirely of text while some may include graphics.
Keyword advertising complements SEO by enabling site owners to target search engine users beyond the vocabulary upon which they rank well in natural search results.
Definition of Search Engine Submission
Search engine submission is the process of notifying search engines of the existence of website content so that they include the site in their indices and search results.
Search engine submission is only necessary if the a site has not been found by the major search engines. Most major search sites frequently revisit already indexed sites to ensure that their search results reflect current content. More information on search engine submission myths can be found here.
Definition of Keyword Advertising
Keyword advertising refers to a variety of techniques that associate advertisements with particular terms on websites. The most common form is exemplified by Google AdWords and Yahoo! Sponsored Search which display ads alongside search engine results. Most ads are composed entirely of text while some may include graphics.
Keyword advertising complements SEO by enabling site owners to target search engine users beyond the vocabulary upon which they rank well in natural search results.
Definition of Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of determining what keywords are used in search engines by potential customers.
There goals of keyword research include the following:
- Identify the broadest possible set of keywords used by potential customers.
- Determine which keywords are most popular and thus represent the primary targets for SEO and keyword advertising.
- Identify keywords whose search engine ranking is realistically obtainable by SEO.
- Determine what negative keywords will make keyword advertising most cost effective.
- Identify customer language that can influence branding and messaging.
- Develop additional content based upon user terminology.
Definition of Spider
Spider is used as both a noun and a verb. Search engine spiders (aka "spiders") are software applications used by search engines to index web pages. They "spider" the web by following links from one page to another.
A site is said to have been spidered after a search engine has crawled and indexed its contents.
Definition of Splash Page
Splash pages are web pages that act as stylized "doorways" to a site that provide a highly tailored message to new visitors. They are different from typical home pages in that they usually have an "enter" button or equivalent.
There are several significant downsides to the use of splash pages, the most notable being that users find them annoying and may leave your site or choose not to revisit it later. Others are that they can harm SEO efforts, they often rely on technology that not all users have, and their development often highlights weaknesses of the rest of the site that should be handled in other ways. Consider that search engines will bring users to the specific page of your site that is most appropriate to their query, so the development of a splash page is wasted effort for these visitors.
Definition of Stemming
Stemming of keywords involves extracting the root words, dropping such things as plurals and gerunds (ing). Some examples would include: running/run, apples/apple, and educational/education.
Most search engines perform stemming by default when providing results so that a search on something like "green apples" will not exclude sites that only use the singular form, "green apple".
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment