The following is quick overview of search engine marketing terminology for new adult webmasters. If you are new to marketing on the web you truly need to get to know these phrases so that you can correctly interpret marketing information, references, and discussions If you are an experienced marketer please take a quick refresher so that we are all on the same page as we continue to explore search engine marketing techniques.
AdWords/AdSense – The Pay Per Click advertising programs provided by Google. AdWords is for advertisers looking to play PPC/PPI sponsored listings in Google search and contextual search options. AdSense is for publishers looking to generate revenue by displaying AdWords on their site(s). See Google.com/ads.
Alt Tags – Parameter of an HTML image source tag that allows for the insertion of text which is viewable upon mouse-over as web page is seen from a web browser. For SEO’s this is a good place for entereting supporting keywords, especailly if the image is linked. Text about image
Algorithm – A mathematical formula designed to analyze and score a web page for search results. Some factors that a search engine algorithm looks at are Keyword Relevancy & Density, Site Popularity (PR or Page Rank), Meta Tags, Indexable content, Domain/Page Age, Alt Tags, and more.
Cloaking – The practice of serving different content to search engines spiders than is displayed to human users. Always viewed as spam by search engines, an unethical practice usually with short term ranking results. Sites detected using cloaking methods are often banned from the search engine.
Content – Text that appears in a web page.
CPC – Stands for Cost Per Click. This term is used in a revenue model based on click through’s. It represents the cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through. Most commonly used when purchasing traffic from an engine or broker.
CPI – Represents Cost Per Impression. The monetary cost for every time an ad (text or banner) is viewed on the internet. Most commonly used when purchasing traffic based on the performance of your ad or to measure the cost of branding.
CPM – Commonly used when purchasing banner ads, CPM measures the cost per thousand impressions.
Directory – A directory is a categorized listing of web sites, usually positioned alphabetically and subjected to editorial placement and review.
Doorway Page – Also known as promo, gateway, and hallway page, a doorway page is created and used specifically for the ranking for specific keywords to push traffic to a Primary Domain or Traffic Target.
Google Dance- The period when Google is rebuilding its rankings, and results fluctuate widely for a 3 to 5 day period.
Indexed – When your URL is listed in a search engine. Indexed also reverse to the readable part of an HTML page that the spider caches and is scored by the Algorithm. Dynamic content and heavy code is not easily indexed.
Indexable – Not to make up words, but this is the part of your HTML code that is readable and indexed by a search engine spider. Indexable text refers to the visible text that appears on your web page (as opposed to text which appears in an image or rich media). Besides, you’ll need this for the next definition.
Keyword Density – The percentage that a keyword is repeated in the indexable part of a web page.
Keyword Pyramid – A mathematical formula used to help train keyword integration and density factors. This will be covered in our next lesson, Keyword Concepts.
Keywords – Words or phrases used to perform a search. Keywords also refer to the elements of significant or relevant text in a web page used to rank websites.
Link Popularity – The number of incoming and outgoing links that are relevant to your site. Remember, its not quantity, its quality!
Meta Tags – Tags that appear in the head section of an HTML document that are used to describe the contents of the document. Including but not limited to Title, Description, Keywords, Revisit, Index, and more.
Page Age – The length of time a page has been indexed in a search engine.
Page Rank (PR)- An algorithm used by the major search engine Google to determine how relevant a page is to the user. The algorithm is based on inbound links, content and the quality of sites linking to the page from elsewhere on the Internet.
Patience – This is what you need most to succeed in search engine marketing.
PPC – Pay per click. A way to advertise in a search engine where you select the kewords adn phrases you want your listings to appear and a cost per click amount is deducted from your balance every time a user clicks to visit your site.
PPI – Pay per inclusion. A form of paid inclusion to get listed in a search engine. Only guarantees that your site will be listed or spidered, does not guarantee placement. Could also mean Pay per impressions, where by a cost is deducted from your account balance every time your ad or listing is diplayed.
Portal – Designed to be a user’s start page to the Internet primarily consisting of commonly used features and services. A niche portal is referred to as a Vertical Portal, or Vortal.
Primary Domains – The ultimate traffic target (home page) for your Doorway Pages and Promo Domains.
Promo Domains – Also known as doorway domains, dummy domains, and feeder sites, Promo Domains are individual web sites (usually hosting Doorway Pages) used to collect and filter hits to primary traffic targets. Also used to build up relevancy for primary domains to create a network of relevant “real estate”.
Ranking – Your position in the search engines for a specified keyword or phrase. Usually defined by Position and Page Number.
Reciprocal Link – The relationship between two sites that link to each other.
Relevancy – A measure of how closely a search matches the score of a web site result. Relevancy consists of several factors analyzed and scored by the algorithm a search engine uses to rank results. Some factors are Keyword Density, Link Popularity, Page Age, and more.
Robots.txt – Robots.txt is a default text file you place in the root directory of your domain. It is the first thing a search engine spider looks for upon entering and crawling any page of your site. The Robots.txt file can consist of lists of pages and sub-folders that should not be indexed by search engine. Primarily only used if you do not want your site, or parts of your site, indexed.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – The specialty of implementing elements for high search engine ranking. Also referred to as Search Engine Optimizer. “An SEO optimized my web site”. SEM – Search engine marketing or marketer is also commoly used.
Spamdexing – When you dominate the search engine results for a keyword such as having multiple pages ranking in the results that push traffic to same target destination. Also defined as using doorways or irrelevant pages to dominate or mainipulate search results.
Spiders – Frequently referred to as a “robot” or “crawler”, a spider is an automated software program that reads a site’s indexable content, analyzes it through an algorithm, and inserts them into the index (or saves the information for later addition into the index). In addition, a spider will crawl links to/from your web site and tracks the paths in which your site or page is networked to assist in measuring relevance.
Sub Domains – A prefix to a domain name denoting an upper level which is a unique placement for a site. Sub.domain-name.com. Often used to setup promotional domains. For maximum effectiveness, host sub domains on separate IP addresses.
Traffic Target – The final destination you want your website traffic to reach.
Trial and Error – There will be plenty of this on the way. Just hang tight and in the next lesson we will delven into a fool proof way of choosing the right, and the right amount of keywords to integrate into your page.