Immersed in a little self-study on SEM? Awesome!
Here are a few terms that you might run across during your research
or that we might use when discussing your search engine marketing and
optimization strategies.
Heard a term not listed? Call our SEM department at (281)
497-6567. We are happy to help you along the road to search engine
success!
The basics:
Search Engine - a software that searches for information and return sites that provide the most relevant information to the user.
Google, Yahoo!, MSN, ASK, AOL etc.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) - marketing and advertising online. How you position your web site online.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - techniques used to increase web site ranking in natural placement of the search engine.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) - the page that displays the search results.
Other terms:
301 Redirect - redirecting one URL to another while preserving current rankings.
Algorithm - rules the search engine spiders follow to index information. Each search engines have their own algorithms.
Alt Tags - alternative text placed for images, so that when
you hover over an image a text box comes up describing what the image
is. This is important for accessibility issues.
Backlinks - links pointing to your web site. Giving you validations - this is especially important for Google.
Black Hat SEO - unethical techniques used to gain ranking in
search engines. The search engines knows and you may get banned for
doing such methods.
Click Fraud - act of purposely clicking on competitor's
sponsored ads without really wanting to buy something from the site.
The search engines has improved ways to prevent this. You will not be
charged for clicks that may seem to be fraud.
Click Through Rates - the number of times (in percentage) that people clicked on your sponsored ads.
Conversion Rate - the number of site visits that results in a sale, phone call or someone filling out your contact form on the site.
Cost Per Click - the amount it cost the advertiser when
someone clicks on a sponsored ad. Each keyword in a campaign may have
a different cost per click depending on the competition.
Content match - in paid placement, if you decide to do content
match it means that your ads will show up in other related articles and
websites that the search engines are partners with.
CPM ( Cost per Thousand ) - the amount the advertiser pays for every thousand impressions of their ad.
Doorway Page - a page that is created solely for the search
engines in attempt to increase site ranking in the search engines.
This is Black Hat techniques (Unethical).
Google AdWords - pay per click service provided by Google. (sponsored search ads)
Google AdSense - ad placement program from Google. This allows people to have Google Ads running on their site.
Hits - the total number of request for files opened. ex- if you
have 4 images on your web page that will count as 5 hits. 1 for opening
of the page and 4 for the images to upload. This is not a good
indicator to use for site traffic.
KEI ( Keyword Effectiveness Index ) - measurement of the
effectiveness of a keyword for natural ranking. This is based on
search frequency and competition of the keyword.Keywords/Keyword Phrases - words searchers use to look for information online.
Keyword Stuffing - attempt to get a higher ranking in the search
engines by repeating keywords more than necessary. This is considered
Black Hat SEO.
Landing Page - pages that users click through to from the
sponsored ads. Specially made for a particular product or service
focusing on one topic.
Link Popularity - measurement of inbound links to a web site. www.marketleap.com is a good tool to use.
Long Tail Theory - niche keywords for your business.
Meta Description Tag - HTML tag that tells the search engines
what the page is about. Most of the time search engines will use this
for your SERP description.
Meta Keywords Tag - relevant keywords to the web page, also a HTML tag that tells the search engines what keywords are associated with the page.
Meta Tags - part of the HTML that tells the search engine spiders what the web page looks like.
Organic Listing - natural listing of your search results.
Paid placement advertising/Pay Per Click (PPC) - sponsored ads you see at the top and side of your search results in search engines. Advertisers bid on a keyword they like for their ad to show up for.
Page View - the overall number of times that the web page was viewed by visitors.
Reciprocal Link - two-way linking when two websites exchange links.
Robots.txt - text file that is used to control the search engine spiders what not to index.
Search Engine Spider/Crawler - program or automated script that visits web sites and crawl the pages to index information to the search engines.
Text Link - a word used as a hyperlink. Usually linking to a page with more specific information about that word/topic.
Title Tags - defines the title of the web page; tells the search engine spider what the page is about. This is also a HTML tag.
Unique Visits - one visit to a web site by one visitor. If the visitor leaves and come back it will count as a second unique visit.
Visits - the total number of times people visited your web site.
White Hat SEO - ethical techniques of SEO.
Yahoo Sponsored Search - pay per click service by Yahoo.
We are big believers in Knowledge is Power. Call us today to talk about your SEM project! (281) 497-6567
Got more questions?
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Schipul offers monthly SEM/SEO packages to help you get the most out of your online marketing dollars.
