Glossary
In our glossary, you will find a description of terms that are commonly used in the worlds of the internet and emarketing.
Anchor Text
The text that is displayed on a web page when a link (or hyperlink) is created. For example, the following link in the brackets points to the consulting page in the emarketing section of the website (eMarketing Consulting) - in this case the anchor text is 'eMarketing Consulting'. This is to make the link clearer for the user and is used in Search Engine Optimisation to increase the value of backlinks.
Autoresponder
An email utility which automatically replies to an email message with a set reply when an email arrives at a certain email address. An everyday use of an autoresponder is the "Out of Office" reply which you can set up when you are on holiday, but in commercial circles, they are usually used to send confirmation messages of receipt of orders / payments or perhaps a email newsletter subscription. (Also known as an email responder)
Backlink
This is a link which connects to a particular web page from other pages on the web. A backlink can be from within the same website but more commonly refer to those links coming in from other websites (Also known as Inbound Links)
Bandwidth
In internet terms, bandwidth describes the capacity of the connection (measured in Kilobits or Megabits per second) to the internet and hence indicates the speed at which you can download web pages and files.
Blog
Contraction from the term Web Log. This is an online diary or journal which is published and shared with others on the web by an individual, who is known as a "blogger". "Blogging" has now become a very popular publishing method on the web as the software does not require any technical knowledge to use and this has the potential to move into the corporate world soon.
Clickthrough Rate
The Clickthrough Rate is generally given as a percentage and refers to the proportion of people who click on a link out of all of those who have seen it. If, for example, an email is opened by 100 people and 20 choose to click on the link it contains through to a promotional website, then that link would have a 20% clickthrough rate (ie. 20 out of 100). The clickthrough rate is of importance in emarketing (Cost Per Click and especially email marketing) as it shows the interest generated by the offer in an email or advert. (Also abbreviated to CTR)
Cloaking
In terms of Search Engine Marketing, cloaking describes a website which provides one version of a web page to a Search Engine when it is indexing the website and a different version of that page to an individual browsing the website. A number of Search Engines have clear rules against cloaking which distorts the rankings in their Results pages and anyone trying this may find themselves penalised or banned from a Search Engine's index.
Conversion Rate
The Conversion Rate is generally given as a percentage and refers to the proportion of people who take a certain pre-determined action having arrived at a website. This action may be to purchase something or request additional information, for example, according to the goals of the campaign. If, for example, 20 people arrive at a certain web page and 5 request further information (and are therefore considered to be a 'conversion'), then the Conversion Rate is 25%. The Conversion Rate is of importance in emarketing as it effectively shows the success of the offer and campaign. (Compare Clickthrough Rate)
Cookie
Generally, a cookie refers to a small piece of information that a Web Server sends to a Web Browser. The browser (subject to its security settings) will save the cookie and send information back to the server whenever the browser looks at additional web pages. Normally, cookies will contain information such as login or registration information, online 'shopping cart' information or user preferences. When a server receives a request from a browser that includes a cookie, the server is able to use the information stored in the cookie and, for example, can customise what is sent back to the user or keep a log of the user's requests and movements on the website.
Cost Per Click
This is an online advertising method where the company showing the advert will pay an agreed price for every click that is made on the link within that advert.
CPC
[See Cost per Click]
Crawler
Part of a search engine which explores the internet looking for websites and then following the links that it finds. Its role is to copy and index the pages that it finds which are then stored in the search engine's index. It is these pages which are then searched when we use a search engine in order to give the search engine results. (Also known as a spider, robot or bot)
CTR
Acronym for Clickthrough Rate
Directory
A directory is a list of websites which are categorised and indexed according to categories or topics. These directories are compiled by human editors who check and approve the listings, in contrast to the pure automated Search Engines where websites are indexed via automatic crawlers and software. Each directory listing contains a short description of its contents. Many directories are free of charge but in others a pay for inclusion programme is offered which helps to speed up the process of getting a website included and categorised. A strong directory listing is very useful in Search Engine Marketing because of the strong backlink value to your website.
Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site and which we, as web users, will use to find the website that we are searching for. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. Domainnames are effectively rented by organisations and individuals to represent their website on the internet with fees paid on an annual basis.
Ecommerce
Abbreviation of Electronic Commerce. Ecommerce will generally refer to the general exchange of goods and services using the internet, however, many commentators now include information transactions as well so that areas such as customer enquiries and customer support also fall under the ecommerce banner.
Email
Abbreviation of Electronic Mail. Considered to be the killer application for the Internet, emails are text and graphics based messages which are sent from one person to another via computer - this does not have to be done via the internet but also by radio and other methods. With the advent of html mail messages the potential power of email in marketing terms became more evident and the genre of email marketing became more widespread.
Email Forwarding
Apart from simply forwarding a message manually with an email program, this also refers to an automatic sending (forwarding) of an email from one (or more) email address to another specified email address. This allows, for example, a new email address with your new domain name to forward messages to a previous address held with an ISP (or vice versa)
Email Forwarding
Apart from simply forwarding a message manually with an email program, this also refers to an automatic sending (forwarding) of an email from one (or more) email address to another specified email address. This allows, for example, a new email address with your new domain name to forward messages to a previous address held with an ISP (or vice versa)
File Transfer Protocol
This is a standard protocol (or method) for moving files from one computer to another over a network. In terms of your website, you would use the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to move the files and pages that your site contains from the computer where you built them to the server where your website will be hosted for other people to access.
Firewall
A firewall is a method of securing a company's computer files by preventing unauthorised access to or from a particular network or individual computer through the use of hardware or software, or both.
FTP
Acronym for File Transfer Protocol
gif
Abbreviation of Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and the suffix used to describe a type of graphics file. This is a common format for image files which is particularly suitable for images containing large areas of the same colour as GIF files contain a maximum of 256 colours. They are often smaller than the same file would be if stored in JPEG format, but GIF format does not store photographic images as well as JPEG which is better suited to those types of graphics.
Hit
A 'hit' means a single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server. This is different to page impressions because, for example, in order for a web browser to display a page that contains 3 graphics, 4 'hits' would be registered: 1 for the HTML page, and one for each of the 3 graphics. Therefore, hits do not really indicate the popularity of a web page because of the number of items that it represents.
Home Page (or Homepage)
The common internet meaning now refers to the main page of the website that the browser opens when no other page is specified. From a programmer's point of view, the homepage is the "index.htm" page that the browser automatically searches for on a website if no other page is specified. Originally, it refers to the web page that your browser is set to use when it starts up, a page which is changeable within the 'internet options' tab of Internet Explorer, for example.
Host
Generally, this refers to the place where a website is stored and made accessible to people using the Internet. It also therefore refers to the company which looks after these computers; therefore the host of this website would refer to the organisation which allows this website to be published such as Claranet, Host Europe etc. Initially, it referred to any computer on a network where services available to other computers on the network were kept.
Hosting
Your site has to be on a server somewhere if it is to be "published" on the internet and the hosting refers to the renting of the space to allow this to happen. This is because a website must physically reside on a computer that is connected continuously to the internet. Web hosting companies provide the equipment, a high-speed connection to the internet and monitor your site to make sure it is always available and generally charge a monthly hosting fee to allow this.
HTML
Acronynm for HyperText Markup Language. This is the coding language which is used to write the pages (in reality, hypertext documents) which make up the World Wide Web. The browser on your PC then re-interprets the documents into something that we can view and understand.
HTTP
Acronym for HyperText Transport Protocol. This is the most important protocol (set of rules) for moving the hypertext (HTML) files around the Internet - to do so, it requires an HTTP client program (such as a browser) at one end and an HTTP server program at the other. This is the reason that all URLs begin with http.
Hypertext
This refers to text which contains links to other documents so that when a reader clicks on those words or phrases, they will be shown the document to which they linked. In HTML, hypertext links are indicated by the words being underlined and, normally, in a different colour.
Index
In internet terms, the index is the structured set of information that you can query when you use a Search engine or Directory. The index is constructed by crawlers which have been searching the web in the case of Search Engines and in the case of Directories it contains the summaries of the website which have been categorised.
Inbound Link
[See Backlink]
Internet Service Provider
A commercial organisation which provides access to the Internet for individuals and companies.
Intranet
Although an intranet uses the same types of software and formats as on the Internet, it is not open to the general public but rather is a secure private network within an organisation or company. It is generally used to share information and services across an organisation and is perfect for companies with many locations, particularly across multiple countries.
IP Address
All computers which are connected to the Internet have a unique address known as an IP (Internet Protocol) address which is the equivalent to the address and postcode of a house. The IP address is a numeric address written as a set of four numbers separated by dots, for example 170.93.84.14, and it provides a unique identification of a computer together with the network it belongs to. The Domain Name, which is recognisable to users, is attached to the IP Address of the server/computer where it is hosted but being made up of words (and numbers) is something that we can more easily relate to and remember.
ISDN
Acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network. An international communications standard that allows ordinary phone lines to transmit digital instead of analogue signals, thus allowing data to be transmitted at a much faster rate than with a traditional modem.
ISP
Acronym for Internet Service Provider
.jpg or jpeg
Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The second type of graphics format (the other is GIF) which is widely used on the Internet. This format is best used for photographic images as the gradations in tone are preserved much better than in a GIF format. Uses a suffix .jpg
Keywords
Keywords (or Key Terms or Key Phrases) are at the very heart of a Search Engine Marketing programme, particularly with regard to Search Engine Optimisation and PPC.
Landing Page
A landing page is simply a special web page on the website which the visitor reaches by clicking on the link in a piece of electronic advertising. When employing marketing techniques such as email marketing or PPC campaigns, landing pages are created on the website to reinforce the message in those campaigns and guide the visitor towards the desired next action.
Link Popularity
An estimation of how 'important' or 'popular' a web page is, based purely on the number of other pages are linked into it, ie. the number of backlinks that it has. In this estimation, no account is taken of any other factors or indeed the relevance of the web pages linking to it.
Link Text
[see Anchor Text]
Listings
The information that appears on a Search Engine's results page when a search is carried out.
Meta Search Engine
A search engine which does not gather its own information directly from web sites but rather passes the queries that it receives onto other search engines. It then compiles, summarises and displays the information that it finds there. A couple of better known examples are Ask Jeeves and Metacrawler.
Meta Tags
There is certain information which is contained on a web page which cannot be seen by people visiting your website but which is designed for use primarily by Search Engines and browsers. This information takes the form of meta tags and is placed in the head section of the web page code. The most well known of these tags are the Meta Description Tag and the Meta Keywords Tag but there are over 30 different types in total.
Meta Description Tag
This is a meta tag which should contain a description of the contents of the web page. Some search engines display this text as the summary of the web page in their Results pages, although others prefer to use some of the text which is visible on the web page. Previously this tag was used extensively as part of the Search Engine Optimisation of web pages but most search engines do not now use this as part of their ranking criteria. However, it is still recommended to include one.
Meta Keywords Tag
This is a meta tag which should contain keywords from the contents of the web page. Previously this tag was used extensively as part of the Search Engine Optimisation of web pages but most search engines do not now use this as part of their ranking criteria. However, it is still recommended to include one.
Modem
Shortened form of Modulator, Demodulator. A device that you connect to your computer and to a phone line which allows the computer to talk to other computers via telephone lines. Basically, modems do for computers what a telephone does for humans.
Organic Listings
Organic listings are the results from a Search Engine where the web pages which appear have not been paid for but appear only because they are deemed important to the search which has been made. The alternatives to organic listings are Paid Inclusion and Pay Per Click listings.
Outbound Link
This is a link on a particular web page which leads away from the page to other web pages on other websites.
Paid Inclusion
A type of advertising programme where organisations pay in order to be included in a Search Engine's index or to be included more quickly, though there is generally no guarantee of the subsequent ranking in the results pages. Overture's Site Match is an example of this.
Paid Listings
These are listings on Search Engines results that have been sold to advertisers, usually through a Paid Placement or Paid Inclusion programme. The alternative to these are organic listings which are not sold but generated by the Search Engines according to the relevancy of the pages.
Paid Placement
A type of advertising programme where listings are guaranteed to appear in a Search Engine's index in response to a particular search term, with a higher ranking typically obtained by paying more than other advertisers.
Pay For Performance
[See Pay Per Click]
Pay Per Click
Also known as Pay For Performance or Search Advertising. Pay Per Click advertising gives advertisers the possibility of having their adverts appear on the Search Engine results pages of certain Search Engines. The position of the adverts is decided on a bidding system with adverts paying being positioned at the top of the page. Payment is then made at this rate every time someone clicks on the link in the advert which takes them through to the advertiser's website.
PPC
Acronym for Pay Per Click.
Query
[See Search Terms]
Rank
Where a website is listed with a Search Engine's results. The aim of Search Engine Optimisation is to improve a website's rank so that it appears nearer to top of the Results pages and so is more likely to be found by people searching for a certain topic. Just having your website listed by Search Engines does not guarantee that it will be found; it is the ranking that will decide that. (Also known as Position or Ranking)
Reciprocal Link
A reciprocal link is when two websites agree to place a link to the other website on their own - effectively a link exchange between two websites.
Registration
[See Submission]
Results Page
[see Search Engine Results Page]
Return on Investment
This is a measurement which shows the current or expected future value of a project or an investment. In relation to Search Engine Marketing (or any marketing activity), it is a measurement that shows what the advertiser receives in return for the cost of the advertising. This will normally refer to new sales in this case. If an advertiser has spent £200 on a campaign and has generated £300 in additional sales then the ROI would be 150%.
Robot
[see Crawler]
ROI
Acronym for Return on Investment
Search Advertising
Search Advertising commonly refers to the Pay Per Click marketing programmes offered by companies such as Google and Overture. (see Pay Per Click)
Search Engine
A website (and the technology supporting it) which allows someone to users to search for specific information and websites from the World Wide Web. The user generally types a query (made up of a word or a phrase) into a search box and the the Search Engine produces the set of Results Pages which rank the websites according to the perceived relevance of their content to the query.
Search Engine Marketing
The process of marketing a website on the Internet through the Search Engines. The main elements of such a campaign should include Search Engine Optimisation, a Pay Per Click programme and Link Building. (Also known as SEM)
Search Engine Optimisation
The process of improving the ranking of a web page in the results generated by Search Engines through the choice of targeted Key Terms relevant to the subject matter of the page and then their careful placement on the web page itself and in the HTML code which created it (for example in the Meta Tags). Search Engine Optimisation is an essential element of a Web Promotion or a Search Engine Marketing programme. (Also known as SEO)
Search Engine Results Page
These are results that someone sees after they have typed a query into a Search Engine. The websites (in organic listings) are theoretically ranked in order of their relevance to the item that is being searched for. (Also known as SERPS)
Search Terms
The word or phrase that someone using a Search Engine enters into the search box.
SEM
Acronym for Search Engine Marketing
SEO
Acronym for Search Engine Optimisation
SERPs
Acronym for Search Engine Results Page
Server
In Internet terms, a server (or specifically a Web Server) is a special computer which hosts a website and then transmits web pages over the Internet when someone requests them via their browser.
Shopping Cart or Shopping Basket
This is a piece of software which allows your customers to select items from your online catalogue, add them to a virtual "shopping cart" and keep track of what they have ordered. When they have finished shopping, they "check out" to complete the purchase and proceed to the payment and shipping section where payment details are taken.
Spam (or Spamming)
So called "junk" emails which are sent to a large number of people without their consent to promote products or services. It is alo sometimes referred to as UCE or Unsolicited Commercial Email. (Also a famous Monty Python song - but that's less relevant here)
Spider
[See Crawler]
Search Engine Submission
This is the process of submitting a website address or URL to a Search Engine for inclusion within its index so that it can be found when the relevant query is typed into the Search Engine. Submission to a Search Engine does not guarantee its inclusion in the index and nor does it influence where a website is ranked on the Results pages. To help improve ranking a Search Engine Marketing programme is advised.
URL
Acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. This is effectively another way to describe the address of your website and generally will be given in the form http://www.EWebbers.com.
