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Risdall Online Marketing Group Glossary
This glossary is to start you on your way to learning about the different topics covered on the Risdall Online Marketing Group website. It is by no means a comprehensive list of terms but is meant to help define some common search marketing terms. If you want to do more research, there are many sites that can help you. Wikipedia.org, Google, Yahoo, or MSN can help you to find more information.
A
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is an online marketing program that uses one site to drive traffic to another resulting in a commission being paid for the referred business. For example, Amazon.com's affiliate program offers compensation to its affiliiates if a consumer clicks through to Amazon.com from one of its affiliates' sites and makes a purchase.
Analytics tracking
Analytics tracking is an information tracking system that can be placed on sites and advertisements to learn specified user information.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the text that is hyperlinked within a written statement. This text will take you to another page internally or externally of the site, but is of relevance to the text that is hyperlinked.
B
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral Targeting is a term used to describe the practice of using information collected on a consumer's internet behavior to customize what content is presented to that user (i.e. ads, information, etc.). Information collected can include the pages the consumer has visited or previous searches performed. This is often used to deliver content that is applicable specifically to that person and can result in increased conversions and better ROI because the content is delivered within a certain context of the user's behavior.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO is the term to describe a type of SEO that uses deceptive techniques and spamming to increase a websites search rankings. Black Hat SEO does not follow search engine guidelines like White Hat SEO and websites including this can be penalized by being banned from the search engines.
Blogging
Blogging is a form of personal journalism in which a person creates and posts on a site. Blogs are written in chronological order and can offer readers the option to add comments to the discussed topics.
C
Click through rates
Click through rates or CTR, describe the percentage of clicks a link receives versus the total number of impressions it makes.
Contextual Advertising
Contextual Advertising is a form of targeted advertising appearing on websites or other interactive media based on the content being displayed to the user. Unlike behavioral targeting, contextual advertising cares less about the consumer's previous online activity and more about what the consumer is viewing at that very moment.
Conversion Rates
Conversion rates show the amount of desired actions, conversions, on the site versus the amount of total visitors.
Cost Per Click
Cost Per Click or CPC, is a sponsored search term which describes the process on an advertiser agreeing to pay a certain price every time a consumer clicks on a special link that leads to their website.
CPA
CPA is an online marketing acronym for Cost Per Action and is sometimes known as Pay Per Action. CPA also stands for Cost Per Acquisition which is similar to Cost Per Action but not entirely the same.
Cost Per Action is an online advertising pricing model that only charges the advertiser when the desired action has occurred. The desired action can be, for example, a product being purchased, a site being visited, or a form being filled out. This is the more general term for any desired action.
Cost Per Acquisition is a form of Cost Per Action but is more limiting in that the advertiser acquires a new client/customer. A Cost Per Action is more general in that it can apply to increasing website traffic or increasing sales leads (instead of gaining a new customer).
CPM
CPM, or Cost Per Thousand is a pricing model that describes the process of an advertiser agreeing to pay a certain cost based on impression. CPM costs are priced per thousand impressions.
D
Description Tags
Description tags are Meta tags that state how a website what’s to be described when listed by a search engine.
Directories
Directories are human gathered search engine where sites are placed in specified categories that are relevant to each specific site.
E
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a marketing tactic that is done through email. This can encompass sending newsletters to customers by email or sponsoring an email that is to be sent.
External Linking
External linking is the process of other sites posting a link to a site that they enjoy, find relevant, and use frequently. Directories are built on external linking.
G
Geo Targeting
Geo Targeting is a form of targeted advertising that uses the location provided from a user's IP address to display content specific for a geographical location. Geo Targeting provides advertisers with the opportunity to specifically tailor their advertisements and only reach the consumers they want to reach.
I
Internal Linking
Internal linking is linking that occurs within pages of a site. These links will direct a user from one page to another based upon relevancy of what is being discussed. Wikipedia is a good example of the use of internal linking.
Interstitial
Interstitials can be ads or content or forms that open in a different window and interrupt a user's session. These can be small like pop-up ads or they may be large and cover the window that was open first. They are used to interrupt a user session with other content. Websites may use these for logins when a user enters a secure area or for advertising.
K
Keywords
Keywords are the terms or phrases that a searcher uses to try and find the product or information they desire.
Keyword Density
Keyword density shows the number of time a keyword or phrase appears on a site versus the total amount of words in the copy of the site.
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of discovering which terms and phrases consumers use to try to find the products or services offered by a site and its competitors. Keyword research is disputably the most important step in Search Engine Optimization.
Keywords Tags
Keywords tags are Meta tags that state the keywords the site wants to be indexed for.
L
Linking
Linking is the process of building internal links within and external links pointing to a website.
Link Popularity
Link Popularity helps to determine how popular a site is among other websites, blogs, social media, etc. Link popularity is determined by the quantity and quality of the sites that are pointing to a specific site.
Link Juice
Link Juice is a term used to understand how important a certain link is. This is the amount of link popularity passed from the link to the page it is pointing to.
M
Meta Tags
Meta tags are a spot for information intended for search engine spiders solely. Descriptions, titles, and keywords can be places in these tags.
O
Online Reputation Management
Online Reputation Management utilizes both PR and search functions and helps you to monitor and manage a site's/company's reputation in the online world.
Organic Search
Organic search is all search engine listings that are unpaid. These listing are determined by search engines by numerous different factors including relevancy to the searched term. 70% of all click searches are Organic listings.
P
Page Rank
Page rank is a system that is used by search engines that measures the quality of a site in reference to searched terms. The page rank is where the site will be listed in an organic search for the term.
Pay Per Click
Pay Per Click or PPC is another term for Cost Per Click.
Phishing
Phishing is the fraudulent act of trying to gain or gaining access to sensitive information (i.e. credit card, social security) that violates the privacy of an individual.
R
RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds offer a user the ability to subscribe to specific sites and receive a notice every time the site adds new information.
S
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing or SEM is the process of online marketing of a website. This can encompass improving organic rankings, PPC campaigns, and link building.
Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of optimizing a site in various ways to increase organic ranking.
SEMPO
SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, is an organization for SEO industry members that help to educate about Search Engine Marketing.
Shopping Search
Shopping Search are specified search engines that give shoppers multiple price points and places to purchase the product they are searching for.
Social Media
Social Media is an emerging online technology that allows people to share personal information, opinions, and experiences with other people on the internet. Social Media includes: Video Logs, Blogging, Social Networking Sites, Podcasts, Message Boards, and Wikis.
Social Media Optimization
Social media optimization is the practice of optimizing your brand presence among social media by participating in the conversation.
Social Networking
Social Networking sites allow users to interact - through instant messaging, forums, chat, sharing applications, videos, music.
Spam/Spamming
To spam or not to spam. At ROMG, we do not spam. Spamming can relate to search engines, blogs, email marketing, etc. In any of these cases, spamming means that you are purposefully using tactics that are not user friendly and do not meet certain standards (privacy, permission-based, search engine, etc.). An example of spamming is sending an unsolicited email.
Sponsored Search
Sponsored Search (sometimes referred to PPC) is advertising a site does through a search engine that allows the site to be found for specific terms on a Cost Per Click basis. These advertisements can be placed on search engine results pages or on site pages of relevant content.
Spiders
Spiders
Spiders, also known as Crawlers or Robots, are an attribute of a search engine that finds information for its searches by crawling through sites on the web. The spider copies what it finds and stores it for the search engines use.
Superstitial
Superstitial is a trademarked general term for an advertisement that loads "behind" the web site and in this way is thought to be less intrusive and less annoying. It is not until the user clicks or does some other form of interactivity that the superstitial actually plays.
W
Web Copy
Copy is all written material on a website.
White Hat SEO
White hat SEO is the term for using SEO tactics that conform to the search engine guidelines, works to make websites more accessible to users, add ease to the crawling process for search engine spiders, and have lasting positive effects on a website. White Hat SEO involves no deceptive techniques like Black Hat SEO and has been compared to a specialized form of website development.