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WEB MARKETING GLOSSARY

A

Adsense

The network of affiliates that Google uses to place its ads on.

AdWords

Google's Pay-Per-Click (PPC) program also called Google Adwords. When using it you bid on keywords and key phrases. The position your ad appears is based on how much you bid and how relevant your ad is.

Aged pages

It I believed by many Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) experts that age is a contributing factor to how well pages are listed on Google and other search engines.

Algorithms

Algorithms are the sets of rules that search engines use to index websites. No part of any major Search Engine algorithm has ever been published in any way and is not likely to be.

Altavista

A search engine that used to be popular that's been around for a long time but nobody really bothers with anymore. It all went wrong when they made their first page so complicated.

AllTheWeb

A popular directory.

Analytics

The analysis of website traffic. There are many so called analytics packages available to fit every budget and with a wide set of features. Most either read server logs or require a stub of code added to the pages. To find out more and discuss your needs contact us.

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B

Berners-Lee, Tim

The inventor of the web (as opposed to the internet which has been with us since 1969) which he invented at the CERN labs in Switzerland and who is nothing less than a genius. Without his work you wouldn't be reading this.

Black Hat Search Engine Optimisation

Unethical search engine optimisation. Black Hat Search Engine Optimisation should be avoided at all costs. Black Hat Search Engine Optimisation could get your site de-listed from Google. Also see Grey Hat Search Engine Optimisation and White Hat Search Engine Optimisation.

Blogs

From the phrase web logs. A self-published, managed or maintained Web diary, that have been recently rapidly increasing in number and are considered good for promoting a site when interesting and popular. Usually updated daily or weekly, blogs have historically been personal. Companies now use blogs to extend their brand and improve their organic search visibility.

Bot

Similar to a spider Search bots visit sites by Search Engines so that these sites can be included in their indexes.

Brighton

A city near the sea in the UK where White Hat Media one of the best web and search marketing agencies in the world is based.

Brin, Sergey

A founder of Google. Now a billionaire. Also very, very clever.

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C

Cache

The pages which are stored on a Search Engines system. On Google for instance useful for telling what pages Google has cached.

CPC

Cost Per Click. In a Pay-Per-System the actual amount of money paid per click.

CPA

Cost Per Action. A new way of bidding whereby the site owner only pays if a specific action is taken such as completing a form.

CTR

Click through rate. The percentage of people in a Pay-Per-Click system who click through to a site having seen an ad.

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D

Directory

A directory uses people to create an index or directory of web sites rather than using a spider. Some of the most common directories are Yahoo, DMOZ, The Open Directory Project (on AOL), and Overture. Directories are often divided into categories and subcategories.

Domain Name

An identifying name for an organization on the internet, which is tied to an IP address. The domain name is an alias for the actual numeric IP address of the server that hosts the website. The domain name also is part of the URL.

Dynamic Pages

Pages on a website that are created dynamically or 'on the fly', through the use of certain programming languages e.g. PHP or asp. They require specific techniques to be well optimised by search engines and implemented unwisely can prevent a search engine from indexing the site.

E

Ecommerce

The conduct of commerce in goods and services using telecommunications and telecommunications based tools, also known as conducting business transactions over the Internet.

Email Marketing

The process of using email to market your website. To be done properly requires expertise and care. If you want your email marketing campaign run properly contact us now

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F

Forum

A forum is an online discussion group, where participants with common interests can exchange open messages. When using a forum message are posted asynchronously, which means they can be posted and read at different times. Many forums use threading so replies to posts can be read in the order they were posted. Forums are regarded as a good way of promoting a website.

Flash

A graphics language that most search engines have problems with if deployed badly. Requires particular care for good Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

G

Grey Hat Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation techniques that are neither unethical nor ethical but rather falls between the two. Is unlikely to get a site banned but can have negative affects on it.There is much discussion in the Search Engine community as to what techniques come under this category.

H

Hits

For a long time used by many to say (erroneously) how well their site was performing as in 'we had a million hits last month'. Many so called hits can be achieved from one visitor going to one page if the number of elements on that page are high. Some pages may have as many as fifty or sixty elements thus scoring fifty or sixty hits.

Home Page

Refers to the main web page for a business, organization, person or simply the main page out of a collection of web pages.

HTML

Hyper-Text Mark-up Language is the common coding used to create websites that can be read by Internet browsers (such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator). Part of the HTML coding for a website should include the meta-tags required for search engine optimisation.

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I

Impressions, page impressions

Impressions or page impressions are the number of pages viewed.

Inbound links

Inbound links (IBLs) are links into the site coming from the outside. They are a method to increase a site's total Page Rank and improve its position on Search Engines.

J

JavaScript

A programming script used on websites.

Java

A programming language used on websites. To be differentiated from JavaScript.

K

Keyword or Key Phrase

Is a word or combination of words that people type into search engine to find what they are looking for. It is important for anyone owning a site to be clear about what key words or key phrases are being targeted. Many keywords and key phrases have become very competitive especially in such sectors as travel and financial services.

Keyword Research

Sometimes called Keyword analysis. The process of researching keywords and key phrases to find out which are best to work with when optimizing your site.

Keyword Site Review

The process of checking a site to see how well the target keywords and key phrases have been used.

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L

Landing Page

A specifically targeted page that a visitor reaches after clicking a search engine listing. Marketers attempt to improve conversion rates by testing various landing pages for promotions.

Link Baiting

Link baiting is the process of putting content on your site that people will want to link to because this content is useful and interesting.

Link Building

Link building is the process of searching and requesting links to build a site's link popularity.

Link Popularity

Link popularity is the measurement of the number of other Web sites that include a link to your Web site on theirs.

Live

Microsoft's new Search Engine.

M

Meta tag

Information within the HTML code of a web page that provides information about the page. Common meta tags are the title, keyword, and description tags.

Multilingual SEO

Multilingual SEO is used to get your website in good position on non English language search engine. SEO follows the same rules in all languages, so multilingual optimization is simply a matter of applying the specific rules of each language to the search engines' algorithms.

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O

Online PR

Online PR is a method in which your press release is optimised and submitted to the leading online pr agencies for inclusion with the news and algorithmic search engines.

The benefits of Online PR include:

• High keyword rankings in many leading news search engines, including Google and Yahoo for up to 28 days
• Increase visitor levels to your website
• Increase awareness and generate publicity for your business
• Increase link popularity
• Generate targeted leads

Organic listing

Also known as natural listings. A 'free' or 'unpaid' listing that appears on a search results page. These listings can be achieved using SEO techniques.

Outbound link

An outbound link is a link from a page of your site to another site.

P

Page, Larry

One of the founders of Google. Is his surname co-incidence or what? Now a billionaire and still young.

Page Rank

Page Rank was one of Google's main methods to determine a page's relevance and importance through the quality of sites linking to it. The Page Rank of each page depends on the Page Rank of the pages pointing to it. Now no longer as valuable as it was.

Pay-Per-Click

Pay-Per-Click advertising allows companies to place 'bids' on keywords they are interested in. The higher the company bids, the higher it will appear in the returned "sponsored links" result for those keywords in Search Engine.

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R

Reciprocal Link

Is where two sites exchange links by placing a link to each other on each site. This is a proven way to build link popularity which is now an important component of achieving high search engine ranking.

Robots.txt

A piece of code on a web page that tells a Search Engine what to do. Used unwisely can seriously affect your listing.

ROI

Return on investment. A key measure on how well your site is doing.

RSS Feeds

Real simple syndication or rich site summary is a relatively new and easy way to distribute content via the Internet. For email marketers, it is a way to distribute messages while avoiding spam filters. Typical applications include email newsletters, blogs or even Web sites. RSS Feeds provide webmasters and content providers an avenue to provide concise summaries to prospective readers.

S

SEO

The acronym for Search Engine Optimisation.

SEO Copywriting

Is the technique of writing the viewable text on a web page in such a way that it reads well for surfer, and also targets specific search terms. Its purpose is to rank highly in the search engines for the targeted search terms.

Search Engine Marketing

The act of marketing a web site via search engines, whether this be improving rank in organic listings (Search Engine Optimisation), purchasing paid listings (Pay-Per-Click management) or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities (i.e. affiliate programs, shopping feeds or link development).

Search Engine Optimisation

Is the process of achieving top ranking in the search engines for a website's most relevant search terms. The most relevant search terms are the phrases that people are most likely to type into a search engine when looking for what the website has to offer.

SERPs

Search Engine Results Pages. The pages that are returned when a search is carried out.

Spider

A spider is software used by search engines to gather information on the internet. It crawls and scans the web and indexes webpages, collects data that is analyzed used for ranking algorithms for search engines.

Supplemental Pages

A secondary index on Google. It is not desirable to have supplemental pages. There is much discussion on the Search Engine Optimisation community about what causes pages to be supplemental pages but it is thought similar or identical meta tags is a major cause.

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U

Unique Visitor

This is an actual individual spending time in your site. The number of unique visitors provides you some very valuable information regarding site traffic.

White Hat SEO

White Hat Search Engine Optimisation. Purely ethical Search Engine Optimisation that follows the search engine's own guidelines. These ensure that a site is never penalized or black listed.

White Hat Media

The best web and email marketing company in the world, ever. Award winning, staffed by a great team that offer high value and with a record of continued success.
Call them or email them today

V

Vista

The next version of Windows which will have search built into the desktop. Could have a significant affect on the use of other search engines, particularly Google.

Y

Yahoo

A major Search Engine. Not anywhere near a popular as Google but still worth watching.

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