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| Above the fold |
The portion of a web page that consumers can see on their computer monitor without scrolling.
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| Ad listing |
Includes the title and description that are displayed for the keyword(s) purchased.
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| Ad sponsor |
The advertiser who has purchased an ad. In search engine advertising, it's the advertiser who has purchased a listing in the search results. |
| Algorithm |
A mathematical formula used by search engines to determine a web site page's ranking in the search results. |
| Alternative text |
Text placed inside the image source tag of HTML code. This text is shown when images can't be displayed. It's often viewable by rolling the computer mouse over an image. Also known as alt tag. |
| ASP |
Abbreviation for Application Service Provider. An ASP leases their product or service generally for a less-expensive recurring fee than selling it at a one-time cost. |
| Bid gap |
The amount of money between two advertisers who are competing for top positions on Pay-For-Placement search engine programs. |
| Call to action |
An activity requested of a consumer. Examples include buying a product, completing a survey, or subscribing to an online newsletter. |
| Campaign components |
Campaign components specific to search engine advertising include keywords, listing titles, listing descriptions, and landing pages. |
| Click fraud |
The act of purposely clicking ad listings without intending to buy from the advertiser. |
| Click-through |
The action of a consumer viewing a link and clicking on it to visit a web page. |
| Click-through rate (CTR) |
The percentage of clicks on a link out of the number of times it was displayed. |
| Contextual advertising |
A program in which advertisers' paid listings appear on web sites containing content relevant to the listings. A keyword search isn't required for the listings to appear. Approved web site publishers insert code into their web pages to allow the search engine's technology to determine which ads to serve, based on content relevancy.
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| Conversion |
A completed call to action. Typically, a lead or sale. |
| Conversion rate |
The number of site visits (click-throughs) that result in a sale or other call to action. |
| CPA |
Abbreviation for cost-per-acquisition, also referred to as cost-per-action. It's the fee paid to an advertising vendor for each lead or sale generated (or another call to action). |
| CPC |
Abbreviation for cost-per-click. It's the fee paid to an advertising vendor for each click on a link that sends consumers to an advertiser's web page. |
| CPM |
Abbreviation for cost per thousand. It's the fee paid to an advertising vendor for every 1,000 times an ad is displayed (impressions).
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| Daypart targeting |
The ability to run an ad campaign by specific times of the day. |
| Directory |
A collection of web sites that are organized by topic category and are included in a specific category (or categories) after being reviewed by a human editor. Examples include www.dmoz.org, Business.com, and Yahoo!. |
| Doorway page |
Generally refers to a web page that is created for the sole purpose of achieving high organic listings in the search engines. This page offers little or no value to consumers, and therefore is considered Spam. Also known as gateway, attraction, envelope, directory information pages (DIPs), and hallway pages. |
| Dynamic page |
A page that is generated by a database. This type of page typically contains characters such as ?, =, %, + in the URL. Also called a dynamic URL. |
| Fixed Placement |
In relationship to search engine advertising, a specific ad listing position can be purchased for a keyword, for a set fee. Fee structures are based on a negotiated CPM, CPC, or CPA rate. Fixed Placement is a paid placement program.
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| Keyword |
A word or set of words (phrase) that consumers type into a search engine to find relevant web pages. |
| Keyword density |
The number of times a keyword or phrase appears within a web page divided by the total number of words on that page. |
| Landing page |
The web page a consumer arrives at once a link is clicked. Also referred to as a destination page, destination URL, or target URL. |
| Link popularity |
An important element search engines consider in ranking web pages in the natural search results area. It incorporates both the number and quality of relevant inbound links to a company's web site.
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| 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.
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| Natural listing |
The listing of a web page in the search results produced by algorithm-based (or crawler-based) search engines. Paid inclusion programs can help web sites appear for a natural listing, also called an organic listing. |
| Organic listing |
See natural listing. |
| Paid inclusion |
A program where marketers pay a fee to submit a web page to a search engine or directory's database. Top rankings are not guaranteed. Submit URL and Trusted Feed are paid inclusion programs. |
| Paid listings |
A web page listing that's a result of paying a paid inclusion or paid placement fee. This phrase generally refers to the search engines that offer pay-per-click pricing.
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| Paid placement |
A program where marketers pay a fee for a specified position, for a specified keyword. Fixed Placement and Pay-For-Placement are paid placement programs. |
| PFP |
Abbreviation for Pay-For-Placement. Advertisers determine their own per-click fee based on what they are willing to pay for each keyword. Ad listing positions are typically awarded to the highest bidder. Pay-For-Placement is a paid placement program. |
| PPC |
Abbreviation for pay-per-click. In search engine advertising, it's a pricing model that typically refers to Pay-For-Placement (paid placement) and often includes Trusted Feed (paid inclusion) programs. |
| Query |
A request for specific information from a database. |
| Ranking |
The position of a web page in the search results. "Ranking" generally refers to organic or natural listings achieved through site optimization plus inclusion efforts; specific positions can't be determined as with paid placement. |
| Regional targeting |
The ability to market to a specific geographic region by country, state, city, or ZIP code. |
| Search distribution partners |
Search engine and content sites that display the natural or sponsored search results (or both) of a search engine. |
| Search engine |
Software that searches a database of web site pages to find and then return page matches to the keyword query.
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| Search engine advertising |
The process of paying money to search engines or directories to enhance a site's position; paid placement and paid inclusion programs are included. |
| Search engine marketing |
Includes both advertising and optimization efforts to achieve high visibility of a web site for relevant keywords. Also referred to as search engine positioning or search engine promotion. |
| SEO |
Abbreviation for search engine optimization. The process of designing the web site to attract search engine spiders and improve a site's ranking for relevant keywords within a search engine's database. This process includes search engine and directory submission, which can require an inclusion fee.
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| SERP |
Abbreviation for search engine results page. |
| Spam |
Any activity designed to trick the search engines into giving a site a higher ranking. Common tactics include hiding keywords as white text on a white page background, submitting a web page to a search engine daily, and building doorway pages. |
| Spider |
Software used by a search engine to find and retrieve web pages to include in its database (also called index). |
| Static web page |
An HTML page, as opposed to a dynamic page, which is generated by a database. Also known as a flat page. |
| Tracking URL |
A specific URL with code that identifies information about the resulting clicks. The referring search engine, keyword, ad listing, and landing page can be included in a tracking URL. Tracking URLs can be created in-house or automatically generated by an ROI tracking solution. These URLs must be given to the search engines in order for resulting clicks and/or sales to be tracked. |
| URL |
Abbreviation for uniform (or universal) resource locator. A URL is the location of a file on the Internet, which may include a web document, a web page, or an image file.
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| Vertical market search engine |
A search engine that focuses on a particular topic. A niche content site that contains a site-based search function could be considered a vertical market search engine. |
| Visit |
Each time a consumer arrives at a web page. A unique visitor can account for multiple visits to a web page. Unless click fraud is present, search engines that charge for click-throughs include all visits, not just clicks from unique visitors. |
| Word stemming |
The ability for a search engine to include the root of words.
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| Source: Bill Furlong, CEO Search Channel |
