Chapter 8
Glossary of SEO and Online
Marketing Terminology
Algorithm: A set of rules that a search engine uses to rank the listings contained within its index, in
response to a particular query. No search engine reveals exactly how its own algorithm works, to
protect itself from competitors and those who wish to spam the search engine. Source: Did-It.com
Algorithmic Results: see Organic Listings.
Backlinks: All the links pointing at a particular web page. Also called inbound links. Source:
Webmaster World Forums
Banned: When pages are removed from a search engine's index specifically because the search
engine has deemed them to be spamming or violating some type of guidelines.
Clickthrough Rate (CTR): The percentage of those clicking on a link out of the total number who
see the link. For example, imagine 10 people do a web search. In response, they see links to a
variety of web pages. Three of the 10 people all choose one particular link. That link then has a 30
percent clickthrough rate. Also called CTR. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Cloaking: In terms of search engine marketing, this is the act of getting a search engine to record
content for a URL that is different than what a searcher will ultimately see. It can be done in many
technical ways. Several search engines have explicit rules against unapproved cloaking. Those
violating these guidelines might find their pages penalized or banned from a search engine's index.
As for approved cloaking, this generally only happens with search engines offering paid inclusion
program. Anyone offering cloaking services should be able to demonstrate explicit approval from a
search engine about what they intend to do. If not, then they should then have explained the risks
inherent of unapproved cloaking.
Contextual Link Inventory: To supplement their business models, certain text-link advertising
networks have expanded their network distribution to include “contextual inventory”. Most vendors of
"search engine traffic" have expanded the definition of Search Engine Marketing to include this
contextual inventory. Contextual or content inventory is generated when listings are displayed on
pages of Web sites (usually not search engines), where the written content on the page indicates to
the ad-server that the page is a good match to specific keywords and phrases. Often this matching
method is validated by measuring the number of times a viewer clicks on the displayed ad.
Conversion Rate: The relationship between visitors to a web site and actions consider to be a
"conversion," such as a sale or request to receive more information. Often expressed as a
percentage. If a web site has 50 visitors and 10 of them convert, then the site has a 20 percent
conversion rate. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Cost Per Click (CPC): System where an advertiser pays an agreed amount for each click someone
makes on a link leading to their web site. Also known as CPC. Source: Webmaster World Forums
CPC: see Cost Per Click.
CPM: System where an advertiser pays an agreed amount for the number of times their ad is seen
by a consumer, regardless of the consumer's subsequent action. Heavily used in print, broadcasting
and direct marketing, as well as with online banner ad sales. CPM stands for "cost per thousand,"
since ad views are often sold in blocks of 1,000. The M in CPM is Latin for thousand. Source:
Webmaster World Forums and Did-It.com
Crawler: Component of search engine that gather listings by automatically "crawling" the web. A
search engine's crawler (also called a spider or robot), follows links to web pages. It makes copies of
the web pages found and stores these in the search engine's index.
CTR: see Clickthrough Rate.
Delisting: When pages are removed from a search engines index. This may happen because they
have been banned or for other reasons, such as an accidental glitch on the search engine's part.
Source: Adventive
Directories: A type of search engine where listings are gathered through human efforts, rather than
by automated crawling of the web. In directories, web sites are often reviewed, summarized in about
25 words and placed in a particular category.
Doorway Page: A web page created expressly in hopes of ranking well for a term in a search
engine's non-paid listings and which itself does not deliver much information to those viewing it.
Instead, visitors will often see only some enticement on the doorway page leading them to other
pages (i.e., "Click Here To Enter), or they may be automatically propelled quickly past the doorway
page. With cloaking, they may never see the doorway page at all. Several search engines have
guidelines against doorway pages, though they are more commonly allowed in through paid inclusion
programs. Also referred to as bridge pages, gateway pages and jump pages, among other names.
Gateway Page: see Doorway Page.
Graphical Search Inventory: Banners, and other types of advertising units which can be
synchronized to search keywords. Includes pop-ups, browser toolbars and rich media.
Index: The collection of information a search engine has that searchers can query against. With
crawler-based search engines, the index is typically copies of all the web pages they have found
from crawling the web. With human-powered directories, the index contains the summaries of all web
sites that have been categorized.
Inbound Link: See Backlinks.
Keywords: See Search Terms.
Landing Page: The specific web page that a visitor ultimately reaches after clicking a search engine
listing. Marketers attempt to improve conversion rates by testing various landing page creative, which
encompasses the entire user experience including navigation, layout and copy. Source: Did-It.com
Link Popularity: A raw count of how "popular" a page is based on the number of backlinks it has. It
does not factor in link context or link quality, which are also important elements in how search
engines make use of links to impact rankings.
Link Text: The text that is contained within a link. For example, search engine is a link that
contains the link text "search engine."
Listings: The information that appears on a search engine's results page in response to a search.
Meta Search Engine: A search engine that gets listings from two or more other search engines,
rather than through its own efforts.
Meta Tags: Information placed in a web page not intended for users to see but instead which
typically passes information to search engine crawlers, browser software and some other
applications.
Meta Description Tag: Allows page authors to say how they would like their pages described when
listed by search engines. Not all search engines use the tag.
Meta Keywords Tag: Allows page authors to add text to a page to help with the search engine
ranking process. Not all search engines use the tag.
Meta Robots Tag: Allows page authors to keep their web pages from being indexed by search
engines, especially helpful for those who cannot create robots.txt files. The Robots Exclusion page
provides official details.
Organic Listings: Listings that search engines do not sell (unlike paid listings). Instead, sites
appear solely because a search engine has deemed it editorially important for them to be included,
regardless of payment. Paid inclusion content is also often considered "organic" even though it is
paid for. This is because that content usually appears intermixed with unpaid organic results.
Outbound Links: Links on a particular web page leading to other web pages, whether they are
within the same web site or other web sites.
Paid Inclusion: Advertising program where pages are guaranteed to be included in a search
engine's index in exchange for payment, though no guarantee of ranking well is typically given. For
example, Looksmart is a directory that lists pages and sites, not based on position but based on
relevance. Marketers pay to be included in the directory, on a CPC basis or per-URL fee basis, with
no guarantee of specific placement. Also see XML Feeds. Source: Did-It.com
PPC: Stands for pay-per-click and means the same as cost-per-click. See Cost Per Click.
Paid Listings: Listings that search engines sell to advertisers, usually through paid placement or paid
inclusion programs. In contrast, organic listings are not sold.
Pay-for-Performance: Term popularized by some search engines as a synonym for pay-per-click,
stressing to advertisers that they are only paying for ads that "perform" in terms of delivering traffic,
as opposed to CPM-based ads, where ads cost money, even if they don't generate a click.
Pay-Per-Click: see Cost Per Click.
Paid Placement: Advertising program where listings are guaranteed to appear in response to
particular search terms, with higher ranking typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers.
Paid placement listings can be purchased from a portal or a search network. Search networks are
often set up in an auction environment where keywords and phrases are associated with a cost-per-
click (CPC) fee. Overture and Google are the largest networks, but MSN and other portals
sometimes sell paid placement listings directly as well. Portal sponsorships are also a type of paid
placement.
Position: See Rank.
Query: See Search Terms.
Rank: How well a particular web page or web site is listed in a search engine results. For example, a
web page about apples may be listed in response to a query for "apples." However, "rank" indicates
where exactly it was listed -- be it on the first page of results, the second page or perhaps the 200th
page. Alternatively, it might also be said to be ranked first among all results, or 12th, or 111th.
Overall, saying a page is "listed" only means that it can be found within a search engine in response
to a query, not that it necessarily ranks well for that query. Also called position.
Reciprocal Link: A link exchange between two sites. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Registration: See Submission.
Results Page: After a user enters a search query, the page that is displayed, is call the results
page. Sometimes it may be called SERPs, for "search engine results page." Source: Webmaster
World Forums
Robot: see Crawler.
Robots.txt: A file used to keep web pages from being indexed by search engines. The Robots
Exclusion page provides official details.
ROI: Stands for "Return On Investment" and refers to the percentage of profit or revenue generated
from a specific activity. For example, one might measure the ROI of a paid listing campaign by
adding up the total amount spent on the campaign (say $200) versus the amount generated from it in
revenue (say $1,000). The ROI would then be 500 percent. Source: Did-It.com
Search Engine: Any service generally designed to allow users to search the web or a specialized
database of information. Web search engines generally have paid listings and organic listings.
Organic listings typically come from crawling the web, though often human-powered directory listings
are also optionally offered. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): The act of marketing a web site via search engines, whether this
be improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other
search engine-related activities.
Search Engine Optimization: The act of altering a web site so that it does well in the organic,
crawler-based listings of search engines. In the past, has also been used as a term for any type of
search engine marketing activity, though now the term search engine marketing itself has taken over
for this. Also called SEO.
Search Terms: The words (or word) a searcher enters into a search engine's search box. Also used
to refer to the terms a search engine marketer hopes a particular page will be found for. Also called
keywords, query terms or query.
SEM: Acroymn for search engine marketing and may also be used to refer to a person or company
that does search engine marketing (i.e.., "They're an SEM firm).
SEO: Acronym for search engine optimization and often also used to refer to a person or company
that does search engine optimization (i.e., "They do SEO").
SERPS: see Results Page.
Shopping Search: Shopping search engines allow shoppers to look for products and prices in a
search environment. Premium placement can be purchased on some shopping search indices.
Spam: Any search engine marketing method that a search engine deems to be detrimental to its
efforts to deliver relevant, quality search results. Some search engines have written guidelines about
what they consider to be spamming, but ultimately any activity a particular search engine deems
harmful may be considered spam, whether or not there are published guidelines against it. Example
of spam include the creation of nonsensical doorway pages designed to please search engine
algorithms rather than human visitors or heavy repetition of search terms on a page (i.e. the search
terms are used tens or hundreds or times in a row). These are only two of many examples.
Determining what is spam is complicated by the fact that different search engines have different
standards. A particular search engine may even have different standards of what's allowed,
depending on whether content is gathered through organic methods versus paid inclusion. Also
referred to as spamdexing. Source: Webmaster World Forums
Spider: See Crawler.
Submission: The act to submitting a URL for inclusion into a search engine's index. Unless done
through paid inclusion, submission generally does not guarantee listing. In addition, submission does
not help with rank improvement on crawler-based search engines unless search engine optimization
efforts have been taken. Submission can be done manually (i.e., you fill out an online form and
submit) or automated, where a software program or online service may process the forms behind the
scenes.
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.
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