Microsoft adCenter - Bing Ads powers paid search results on Microsoft’s Bing, Yahoo! (as of November 2010), and other sites within its network. Bing Ads was formally known as Microsoft adCenter and is now the second-largest
paid search advertising provider in the United States.
Missing your Microsoft Advertising goals? Our PPC company can help you stop spending on inferior results. There are no shortcuts to driving success with pay-per-click advertising in Microsoft adCenter, and our agency can help you grow with confidence.
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Ad Extensions - Added information that is included in your
digital text ad. These can include extra features about your business, such as your location, phone number, links to certain product or service pages, and call-outs. This can be vital in conveying additional information that the standard ad field may not have room for.
Advertising Network - A group of websites where one advertiser controls all or a portion of the
digital ads for all sites. A common example is the Google Search Network, which includes AOL, Amazon, Ask.com (formerly Ask Jeeves), and thousands of other sites. In Google Ads, two types of ad networks are offered: search and display (which used to be called their content network).
AdWords - AdWords is the former name of Google’s
paid search marketing program, now simply known as Google Ads, the largest such program in the world and most countries, with notable exceptions such as China (
Baidu) and Russia (
Yandex). Introduced in 2001, AdWords was the first pay-per-click provider offering the concept of
Quality Score, factoring search relevancy (via
click-through rate) in along with the bid to determine ad position.
Automated Rules - A feature in
Google Ads that automatically adjusts your
digital ad's statuses, budgets, and bids based on the specific parameters that you set. This allows your digital advertising campaigns to follow the specifics of your strategy without requiring as much hands-on adjustment.
Beacon Technology - is a form of technology that allows companies, primarily retailers and marketers, to connect and engage wirelessly with consumers via their mobile devices. The appeal is that companies can use the Bluetooth signal to deliver
geo-targeted, personalized messages, and
push notifications, when the customer is in range of the beacon, and can even act as an
analytics tool to decipher steps taken to reach a purchasing decision.
What Is Bing Ads Editor? - Bing Ads Editor is a free downloadable application for managing Bing Ads
PPC advertising campaigns. It allows the advertiser to manage multiple accounts at the same time, make bulk changes, copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns, and more. Also, it allows you to keep working offline. Essentially, this is Bing's answer to
Google Ads. Direct Online Marketing is a skilled Bing Ads agency that works directly with Bing Ads Editor for multiple clients across the globe. Written By:
Brian Slonka Updated: 3/20/2024 Broad Match - This is the default matching option in
PPC advertising. With this bid type, your ad may show if a search term contains your
keywords in any way. Your ads may show for synonyms of your keywords, related searches, and other relevant variations or phrases. This match type is best when trying to reach the largest possible audience with your keywords.
Click through Rate (CTR) - Number of clicks divided by number of impressions. Click-through-rate is a common internet marketing measurement tool for
digital advertisement effectiveness. This rate tells you how many times people are clicking on your ad compared to the number of times your ad is shown. Low click-through rates can be caused by a number of factors, including copy, placement, and relevance, and may indicate that your ad needs to be modified for maximum effectiveness.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA) - An
online advertising cost structure where you pay an agreed-upon fee per actionable event, such as a lead, registration, or sale. To simplify, an advertisement under the standard
PPC ad cost structure will cost more every time someone clicks on it, whereas a CPA ad only costs when someone completes the process that the ad points them toward.
Cost per Click (CPC) - A common way to pay for online advertising, particularly on
search engines, CPC means you pay a pre-determined amount each time someone clicks on your advertisement to visit your site. You usually set a top amount that you are willing to pay per click for each search term, and the amount you pay will be equal or less to that amount, depending on the particular search engine and your competitors’ bids. Also referred to as Pay Per Click (PPC) or
Paid Search Marketing.
Cost per Impression (CPM) - A common
internet marketing cost structure, especially for
banner advertising. You agree to pay a set cost for every 1,000 Impressions your ad receives. Search engine marketing may involve CPM costs for Contextual Advertising. This internet advertising pay structure should really be called Cost per 1,000 Impressions, but it generally gets shortened because the idea remains the same, the concept being that of paying for impressions.
Daily Budget - In
PPC advertising, an average daily budget is set for each campaign. You choose the daily budget based on your goals and how much you would like to spend, and can adjust as necessary.
Day Parting - Day parting refers to serving
digital ads at different times of the day and days of the week, or even changing bids or copy / creative at different times. For example, you may not want your ads to show from 11AM-2PM on Tuesdays. This can be done manually in most online platforms, or automatically in some such as Google Ads. Automated day parting is not currently available directly through many
social media advertising platforms such as Facebook ads and LinkedIn direct ads.
Digital Marketing Funnel - How companies attract and retain clients through
search engine marketing. The six stages of the digital marketing funnel are:
- Exposure - this is done through SEO and PPC Ads, making potential customers aware of your site and your services/products.
- Discovery - When a potential customer clicks through your site to learn more about you, your product, and service
- Consideration - Potential customer considers purchasing your product
- Conversion - Potential customer buys something, or completes an actionable item on your site, like completing a form to request more information, turning them into an actual customer
- Customer Relationship - Maintain a good relationship with your client base through engagement, communication, and customer service
- Retention - Creating value for customers that they do not receive from competitors is crucial. By creating value and maintaining excellent service and user experience, customers often return or stay
By mastering this funnel, each
digital marketing service you partake in will become more effective, as you better understand what the customer needs from you at each stage.
Display URL - This is the URL that is displayed along with your
digital ads. This
URL can vary from the Destination URL, but must use the same root
domain. You are allowed 35 characters for a Display URL in Google Ads.
Dynamic Retargeting - Digital ads which are shown to users who have already been to your site, which contain images and information about the exact item they viewed. This helps to push users who may have been uncertain toward completing a purchase or requesting information, especially in
Ecommerce.
eCommerce - The ability to purchase online.
eCommerce also goes by other super-snazzy names like etail. eCommerce is a field that continues to grow year over year, as consumers move away from shopping primarily in retail establishments and taking their purchasing online. Website features that allow eCommerce are commonly called shopping carts. Direct Online Marketing offers a wide variety of
online marketing services for eCommerce-based businesses.
Enhanced Bidding - A feature specific to
digital advertisements run through Google Ads. When you select to utilize enhanced bidding, you’re giving Google Ads the power to adjust your bidding in order to
increase conversions. With this feature, you can pay up to 30% over the keyword bid that you set. Think of it like a hybrid between
CPC and
CPA bidding, albeit still more heavily weighted toward cost per click. Be careful with enhanced bidding – many
search engine marketers will tell you that they have had poor experiences with cost per acquisition bidding within Google Ads.
Expanded Text Ads - These are
digital text ads with double the characters compared to standard text ads. The new ads feature two 30-character headline fields, one 80-character description field and two 15-character paths in the
display URL field. Also, ETAs are mobile-optimized, so you can reach potential customers on desktop and mobile devices with the same ad.
Facebook Retargeting - While this term can also refer to other forms of
retargeting, it is most often used to mean serving
digital ads to prior site visitors while those visitors are on Facebook. Facebook opened its ad exchange in December 2012 to allow partners to offer Facebook retargeting.
Google AdWords Editor - Now known simply as Google Ads, Google AdWords Editor was a free downloadable application for managing Google Ads
paid advertising campaigns. It allows the advertiser to manage multiple accounts at the same time, make bulk changes, copy or move items between ad groups and campaigns, and more. Also, it allows you to keep working offline.
Google Partner - Google Ads offers the most extensive certification process of any of the
paid search marketing providers. The Google Partner program replaces the earlier Qualified Google Advertising Company / Individual program. Direct Online Marketing is a Google Partner, meaning that we've obtained this certification and maintain it to provide the best possible paid search experience possible to our clients.
Growth Hacking - Growth hacking is a highly efficient way to increase customer acquisition using the most effective tactics available to engage a specific buyer persona. Typically deployed in the “
Software as a Service” industry or startup environments, growth hacking often involves multiple marketing strategies and nimble product development practices to create a solution that rapidly scales the user base of a product/service.
SEO,
PPC,
social media advertising and
retargeting can all be core components of a growth hacking strategy, based on the goals of the business.
Impressions - The number of times someone views a page displaying your
digital ad. Note that this is not the same as actually seeing your ad, which makes placement and understanding of the site’s traffic particularly important when paying on a
Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM) basis. For prices that are tailored more toward the number of times your ad was successful, you may be interested in using either a
Cost Per Acquisition or
Cost Per Click model.
Landing Page - The first page a person sees when coming to your website from a
digital advertisement, including
banner and display ads. This page can be any page on your website, including your home page. Almost anytime you direct someone to your website from an advertisement, you should send them to a specialized landing page with tailored information to increase your landing page
conversion rate. Radio advertisements are a notable exception as spelling out specific URLs can be time-consuming and difficult to remember. Direct Online Marketing™ has extensive experience in creating, testing, and modifying landing page conversion rates to give your business the highest quality, least expensive, most cost-effective leads possible.
Paid Inclusion - Digital advertising programs where pages are guaranteed to be included in a
search engine’s index in exchange for payment, though no guarantee of ranking well is typically given. For example, Looksmart is a directory that lists pages and sites, not based on position but based on relevance. Marketers pay to be included in the directory, on a
CPC basis or a per-URL fee basis, with no guarantee of specific placement.
Paid Search - Also referred to as paid placement,
pay per click, and sometimes
search engine marketing, paid search marketing allows advertisers to pay to be listed within the search engine results pages for specific
keywords or phrases. Paid placement listings can be purchased from a portal or a search network. Search networks are often set up in an auction environment where keywords and phrases are often associated with a
cost-per-click (CPC) fee. Google Ads and Bing Ads are the two major players, but other sites also sell paid placement listings directly as well.
Pay-for-Performance - A term popularized by
search engines as a synonym for
pay-per-click ads, stressing to advertisers that they are only paying for ads that ‘perform’ in terms of delivering traffic, as opposed to
CPM-based ads, which cost money, even if they don’t generate a click.
Pay per Click (PPC) - What Is PPC? What Are Paid Search Ads?
Key Insights
Considering Google Ads search campaigns can help expand your business reach by positioning your website at the forefront of search results, generating increased traffic to your site.
What You’ll Learn About
- Paid search ads and their purpose
- Google Ads/Bing Ads benefits
- Setting up ads and tracking performance
Selecting effective keywords helps target relevant audiences, which often leads to improved click-through rates.
Paid Search Ads
When entering a search term on Google, the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) displays both organic and paid results. Paid search ads are the highlighted listings shown at the top of the SERP, marked with a small box labeled "Ad." Creating these ads involves a Google Ads account, where you’re billed only when users click on your ad and are directed to your website.
How PPC Ads Can Help Your Business
Google Ads provides a tool called Keyword Planner that helps you pinpoint valuable keywords. When choosing keywords, think about:
- Relevance to your target audience
- Popularity among users
- Your budget for each keyword
Lower search volumes typically result in more affordable bidding costs, as fewer businesses are competing for them. Google’s Quality Score is another essential factor that influences ad performance and cost. This score, ranging from 1 to 10, is based on:
- The keywords you choose
- Relevance of keywords to the ad
- User experience on your landing page
Higher Quality Scores generally indicate more cost-effective and impactful ads. For insights on improving Quality Scores, refer to our guide.
What Is a Text Ad?
A text ad is a simple, targeted advertisement that businesses can use to promote products or services across Google’s platforms.
Setting Up Ads and Tracking Results
Google Ads streamlines ad creation and performance monitoring. To launch a campaign, open an account, choose target keywords, design the ad, and set a daily budget.
Since Google Ads provides full performance transparency, you can track metrics such as:
- Ad impressions
- Click-through rates
- Revenue generated from ad-driven traffic
Overview
A successful PPC Advertising campaign centers on reaching the right audience at opportune moments. Strive to place your ad in the prominent SERP positions, monitor ROI, and adjust your strategy as needed to optimize results.
Need Help with PPC Ads Management?
For those seeking professional assistance to manage and optimize their Google Ads campaigns, consider PPC Ads Management services from Direct Online Marketing. Their team specializes in crafting campaigns that connect with the right audience, maximizing your ad performance and return on investment. Explore their PPC services to take your business's digital presence to new levels.
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For More Information On Related PPC Advertising Terms:See
Cost per Click (CPC). The most common type of digital advertising cost structures is
PPC marketing. Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and many more search engines use PPC. This cost structure is also used for
social media advertising platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Permission Marketing - Along the lines of
Opt-in registrations, permission marketing focuses on receiving the consent of users before being contacted or, in some cases, even seeing an advertisement. Permission marketing is centered around the concept that people are increasingly tuning out the barrage of
online advertisements they see each day. Its focal tenet is that a business will have a better chance of gaining a client when the client first gives permission to be sent an ad or contacted.
Search engine marketing, by its nature, can be thought of as a type of permission marketing – showing advertisements to people already searching for that information – as long as the ad is relevant to what they are searching.
Premier Google Partner - This valuable designation was added in 2016 to recognize the top-performing agencies that meet additional certification and company performance requirements in terms of
SEO and
PPC services that work primarily with Google.
Price Extensions - A type of
ad extension, this is additional information that can show with your mobile
text ads, showcasing your services and range of products, and how much they cost.
Query - Query is another term for “
keyword” or “
search term.” Within Google Ads, search query reports show the actual terms that searchers used to click on your
PPC ads, as opposed to the advertised keyword that is in your account. These two sets of words may or may not be the same, and part of PPC ad management is to continually work to align these where possible.
Quality Index - Yahoo! Japan’s version of the more widely known Google Ads
Quality Score. Along with bids, it affects an advertiser’s ad rank (position) and actual
cost per click. It functions similarly to Google’s Quality Score, and will affect both the cost of
PPC ads and how often they're shown to users.
Quality Score (QS) - A numerical score Google Ads assigns to various account components (e.g. campaigns, ads), but only shows to account holders for
keywords. Quality Score shows on a 1-10 scale. While Google doesn’t give out its exact formula, the three main components are
Pay-per-click ad quality (judged by historical
click-through rate and normalized for position to estimate an expected CTR); ad relevance (including the use of
ad extensions); and
landing page experience. At a basic level, the higher your QS, the higher your ads can appear at both lower bids and actual costs per click.
Search Retargeting - A specific type of
Retargeting that allows an advertiser to show ads to searchers of given
keywords who have never visited the advertiser’s site. This form of
PPC advertising is useful in gaining new impressions from users who are likely to fall within the target demographic that the advertiser is looking for.
Shopping Ads - Formerly known as Product Listing Ads (PLAs), these ads appear in both Google and Bing
search results as images of individual products above the search results. These ads are specifically for
ecommerce companies and instead of using
keywords, ads are triggered by searches containing words in the product’s title, description, or attributes.
Site Retargeting - The most common form of
retargeting: displaying your
digital ads to a visitor based on a visit to your site, or individual page of your site. These cookie-based ads can appear on any publisher throughout the
ad network being used. Various targeting options exist, including only showing ads when a certain page has been visited (such as a landing page) and when an action has not been completed (e.g. a conversion).
Structured Snippets - Structured snippets allow your
digital ads to highlight specific aspects of your products and services. These
ad extensions provide context on the nature and variety of your products and services before visitors click through to your site, increasing your
click-through rate by increasing the relevance of your ad to the user.
Takeover Ads - A type of
display advertising typically reserved for high-profile brands and products (consumer goods, new mass media releases, sporting events) on high-traffic online publications. Commonly referenced on the homepages of sites like Yahoo!, MSN, or even ESPN.com, this advertising strategy is often called a “homepage takeover”. To deploy this as an advertising tactic, publishers allow an advertiser to place creative in each available ad spot in their layout. As web development has progressed, takeover ads can also incorporate creative into the site background, or even have some type of interactive component.
Targeting - Shaping
internet marketing campaigns to attract certain specific groups of prospective clients. Examples of Targeting include women, gun owners, and Medicare recipients. By better understanding and tailoring your messages to your specific target demographics, you can improve
click-through rates for
PPC advertisements and web pages alike.
Behavioral Targeting is a newer, specific type of focus for advertisers.
Text Ad - An
online advertisement that contains only written copy. Paid listings found on the results pages of the main
Search Engines are currently Text Ads, although this is starting to change. Soon, you should expect to see
video ads pop up here occasionally.
Tracking Code - Information typically included in the
URL which allows an advertiser to track the effectiveness of various aspects of an advertisement. Commonly tracked items include Search Term and referring
Search Engine. Direct Online Marketing™ relies heavily on tracking codes because tracking results is the only way to determine how effective our
internet marketing services are.
TrueView Ads - Part of the larger concept of
video marketing, TrueView ads are
PPC video ads created in Google Ads. TrueView video ads come in two formats: in-stream and in-display. In-Stream ads appear before videos on YouTube and the Display Network. In-display ads can appear in YouTube search results, videos, or on Partner websites.
301 Redirect - A 301 redirect automatically causes one
URL to redirect to another and tells the Web (and search engines) that this redirect is permanent, as opposed to a temporary (302) redirect. 301 redirects are generally preferable for
Search Engine Optimization purposes and are therefore often referred to as
search engine-friendly redirects.
404 Server Code - The 404 or Not Found error message is a standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested. Having these on your site, generally as a result of broken links, sends negative feedback to Google, as it appears that the site is not well-maintained, and they should be fixed by removing the offending link or redirecting that URL to a working page. Removing and fixing these is critical to technical
SEO services.
Above the Fold - The part of the page you can see without scrolling down or over. The exact amount of space will vary by viewer because of screen settings. You often pay a premium for advertisement placements above the fold, which will add to the costs of
internet marketing services but may also add to results.
Algorithm - The term
search engines use for the formulae they use to determine the rankings of your
Natural Listings. Search engines will periodically send a
Spider through your website to view all its information. Their programs analyze this and other data to value your site and determine your relevance to a particular search as well as your ranking within that search. These algorithms can be very complicated (Google alone currently uses 106 different variables) and search engines closely guard their algorithms as trade secrets. Having a general understanding of the principles of the algorithm as they update is vital to
SEO, as websites that Google holds in higher regard are more likely to appear higher within the
rankings.
ALT Tags - HTML tags that are used to describe website graphics by displaying a block of text when a mouse hovers over it.
Search engines are generally unable to view graphics or distinguish text that might be contained within them, and the implementation of an ALT tag enables search engines to categorize that graphic and the page itself, which also allows for more
keyword usage within reason. There is also talk that business websites will all eventually be required to utilize ALT tags for all pictures to comply with certain American Disability Act requirements.
Anchor Text - The clickable words of a
hypertext link; they will appear as the underlined blue part in standard Web design. In the preceding sentence, “hypertext link” is the anchor text. As with anything in
SEO, it can be overdone, but generally speaking, using your important
keywords in the anchor text is highly desirable, as it gives
search engines a better understanding of the context of your pages. A hyperlink without anchor text is called a naked link, which does not carry the same value as a properly anchored link.
Backlinks - Links from other websites that point to any particular page on your site.
Search engines use backlinks to judge a site’s credibility; if a site links to you, the reasoning goes, it is vouching for your authority on a particular subject. Therefore,
Link Building is an incredibly important part of
Search Engine Optimization. How many links, the quality of the sites linking to you, and how they link to you all are important factors, and the continued growth of the number and quality of these links is hugely impactful on
rankings. Also called Inbound Links.
Baidu - Serving primarily China, Baidu is the largest non-US based
search engine in the world (although it was started in the United States). Sites can be optimized for Baidu and they offer their own
paid search service.
Banned - When pages are removed from a
search engine’s
index specifically because the search engine has deemed them to be violating their guidelines. Although procedures are starting to loosen up somewhat, typically a search engine will not confirm to you that your site has been banned or why it has been banned. If you knowingly did something against the rules (written or unwritten) that got your site banned, you can probably clean up your act and get back in the game. We hear stories, though, from time to time of companies hiring
Search Engine Optimization companies that deliver great, fast results, leave town, and then their website mysteriously disappears from the rankings. Google won’t tell them why their site got banned, so the company ends up left out in the cold unless another company can come in and reverse-engineer the issues, unravel the work, and get the search engine to reinclude the site. This is one of the dangers of
Black Hat SEO, and why we as a company deal only in
White Hat SEO.
Bing - Bing is Microsoft’s
search engine, which replaced live.com in June 2009. Bing results now power Yahoo!’s search for
paid search campaigns (except display; through Microsoft adCenter) and organic (except local listings) through an alliance entered into between the two Web giants in December 2009. The deal cleared regulatory concerns in early 2010 and was fully completed in November of the same year.
Black Hat SEO - The opposite of
White Hat SEO, these
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, tactics are attempts to trick the
Search Engines to get better
rankings for a website. Using black hat methods will eventually, if not immediately, get your site drastically lower rankings or
banned from the search engines altogether. While there are completely legal and ethical techniques you can use to improve rankings, if you design and market a website mostly for humans and not for the search engines’ Spiders, you should be okay.
Blog - Short for Web log, blogs are part journal, part website. Typically the newest entry (blog post) appears at the top of the page with older entries coming after in reverse chronological order, and there is generally an option to further categorize these posts, including options like
categories and
tags. Several blogging platforms exist; our favorite is
WordPress. These pages can help your website rank for terms that your homepage, service, product, and other high-level pages may not be able to rank for. As an example, be sure to visit our
online marketing blog.
Brand Stacking - Multiple page one listings from a single domain. Prior to 2010, a site would be fortunate if it had three first-page results for branded searches. Since Google tweaked its
algorithm to include Brand Stacking, that number has risen to as many as eight of the top search rankings, taking up the majority of page 1 in a Google search. This dominance in the
SERP significantly grows traffic, and with a well-designed site, it will grow conversions as well.
Buyer Persona - A fictional depiction of your target customers that serves as a valuable point of reference for various digital marketing strategies. Marketing professionals take considerations from buyer goals, industry research, customer data, demographics, and natural human behaviors when forming buyer personas. The ultimate goal of this practice is to create an image of your ideal customer. That way, you can personalize your site layout, develop new content, or tailor any marketing strategies to increase the chances of acquiring the customers you need to grow your business. This helps to align your
web design,
SEO,
PPC,
content, and
social media advertising, with all of it designed and operated to attract your ideal customer.
Canonical Tag - A canonical tag tells (most)
search engines which page is preferred when two URLs are similar or duplicate. In most instances, this tag is used when you have products or content that is accessible by multiple URLs or in some cases, even multiple websites. The tag is part of the
HTML head code using the attribute rel=canonical. Improper use of canonical URLs can lead to severe drops in
SEO performance.
Categories - Words or phrases that used to organize blog posts and other pieces of information, such as albums for photos. Categories are generally broader than
tags and used in instances when there will generally be multiple posts or other data points per category. This helps to organize a blog both for the reader and for the site administrator(s). Categories and tags, on a
WordPress site, will generally have their own pages, which may affect
SEO for the rest of the site.
ccTLD - ccTLD’s are “Country-code” TLD‘s showing what country a site is focused on or based in. Using Google and the United Kingdom as an example, Google UK is google.co.uk. Sometimes these ccTLD’s are two sets of letters separated by a period (e.g. “co.uk” for the UK or “com.au” for
Australia) and sometimes they are just one set of letters (e.g. “.fr” for France). The use of separate websites on unique ccTLD’s is typically viewed as the best way for exporters to target other countries via
search engine optimization. However, site owners can also target outside countries through other means such as through country-focused subdomains or even subdirectories. Proper use of ccTLD's is crucial to
international digital marketing efforts.
Content Management System - Content Management Systems (CMS) allow website owners to make text and picture changes to their websites without specialized programming knowledge of software like Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage. Content Management Systems can be edited by anyone with basic word knowledge via an internet connection. Templates within the CMS allow common pages, like blogs and service pages, to be replicated without the need to code a similar page. There is no need for length or costly web development contracts or the need to wait on someone outside your company to make changes. CMS examples include
WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. A CMS sometimes includes tools to help with
SEO, or allows for plugins that assist with the same thing.
Content Marketing - In opposition to traditional
online advertising methods,
content marketing is an inbound marketing practice that seeks to generate leads and traffic through the creation and distribution of content that caters to the needs of a defined audience of prospective customers. Content marketing as a strategy for
SEO service providers achieved critical mass in the latter part of 2012 following the release of the Penguin algorithm update by Google, which adjusted spam factors and affected a high percentage of
search queries.
Content Tags - HTML tags that define the essence of the content contained within the page, readable by search
spiders. These include Header and
Alt Tags. These generally convey the point of a page to a search engine, and proper use of them is a cornerstone of well-implemented
SEO practices.
Crawler - Component of a
search engine that gathers listings by automatically “crawling” the Web. A search engine’s crawler (also known as a Spider or robot) follows links to Web Pages. It makes copies of those pages and stores them in a search engine’s
index. Understanding how this crawler perceives the page, which is a different perspective than a human visiting the same page, is crucial to
SEO strategy.
Digital Marketing Funnel - How companies attract and retain clients through
search engine marketing. The six stages of the digital marketing funnel are:
- Exposure - this is done through SEO and PPC Ads, making potential customers aware of your site and your services/products.
- Discovery - When a potential customer clicks through your site to learn more about you, your product, and service
- Consideration - Potential customer considers purchasing your product
- Conversion - Potential customer buys something, or completes an actionable item on your site, like completing a form to request more information, turning them into an actual customer
- Customer Relationship - Maintain a good relationship with your client base through engagement, communication, and customer service
- Retention - Creating value for customers that they do not receive from competitors is crucial. By creating value and maintaining excellent service and user experience, customers often return or stay
By mastering this funnel, each
digital marketing service you partake in will become more effective, as you better understand what the customer needs from you at each stage.
Directories - A type of
search engine where business listings are gathered through submissions, information pulled from data aggregators (e.g. Acxiom), or a combination of the two. Websites are often reviewed and placed in a relevant category. Directories can be utilized for strengthening local
SEO and providing relevant referral traffic.
Domain Authority - Developed by Moz, domain authority is a score ranging from 0 – 100 that predicts how a website will rank on
search engines. It is often used by
SEO services to compare one site to another as well as track the improvement of a site over time. This score is derived from several different factors, including your expertise, the number of
backlinks, the user experience, and more.
Domain Name - A website’s main address. Direct Online Marketing™’s domain is
directom.com. This is not to be confused with
subdomains, which are separate sections of the website that exist with another bit of information in front of them, so an example would be es.directom.com.
eCommerce - The ability to purchase online.
eCommerce also goes by other super-snazzy names like etail. eCommerce is a field that continues to grow year over year, as consumers move away from shopping primarily in retail establishments and taking their purchasing online. Website features that allow eCommerce are commonly called shopping carts. Direct Online Marketing offers a wide variety of
online marketing services for eCommerce-based businesses.
Feed - Coming in an
XML language that uses either RSS or Atom formatting, feeds are an extremely popular way for organizations to get their messages through the clutter and into the hands of interested parties. With the simple click of an orange button (right), users can stay connected to a site’s content (Blogs, news, podcasts, etc.) automatically anytime their computers are connected to the internet. That button will connect you to the feed for our
digital marketing blog.
Google Merchant Center - Google Merchant Center is a tool that helps you upload your store and product data to Google and make it available to Google Shopping and other Google services. If you sell products online, it's more than likely that this is part of your
SEO strategy.
Google Business Profile - A free business listing in Google Maps that helps businesses show up when people do a local search. It used to be known as Google My Business, and you'll still hear this term from time to time, but the official term is Google Business Profile. Optimizing this listing is a key part of local
SEO strategy.
Google Penguin Update - In an effort to combat websites that may have participated in questionable
link building practices in order to manipulate
search engine rankings, Google launched the infamous Penguin update in April 2012. This update pertained mostly to sites who may have obtained backlinks by purchasing them or through established link networks. Essentially, sites should distance themselves from these practices and avoid using them in the future. Link building itself is still a very viable
SEO tactic, but it must be done the correct way.
Google Panda Update - Google is always trying to serve the best and most relevant
search results to satisfy their users. Part of their method involves looking at the length of content for a target
keyword. Previously, sites with a relatively low amount of content could compete against sites with lengthier and, theoretically, better content. Another aspect that the Panda update looks at is duplicate content. Essentially, if two or more pages on a site have the exact or very similar content, Google will devalue these duplicate pages in search
rankings. In February 2011, the Panda update to their algorithm sought to favor sites with more content than those with “thin” content. The most recent version reportedly rolled out as of July 2015 (Panda 4.2), but has since been rolled into Google’s ongoing
algorithm updates. This is one of the factors that makes quality content such a huge factor in
SEO.
Growth Hacking - Growth hacking is a highly efficient way to increase customer acquisition using the most effective tactics available to engage a specific buyer persona. Typically deployed in the “
Software as a Service” industry or startup environments, growth hacking often involves multiple marketing strategies and nimble product development practices to create a solution that rapidly scales the user base of a product/service.
SEO,
PPC,
social media advertising and
retargeting can all be core components of a growth hacking strategy, based on the goals of the business.
Header (or Heading) Tags - HTML heading and subheading tags are critical components of
search engine marketing, as often, both are graphical, thereby unreadable to search engine
spiders. Optimally, page titles should also be included to clearly define the page’s purpose and theme. All of the header tags should be used according to their relevance, with more prominent titles utilizing<h1>, subheaders using <h2>, and so on. Using these headers properly can be hugely important when working on improving
SEO rankings.
Hyperlink - Often blue and underlined, hyperlinks, commonly called “links” for short, allow you to navigate to other pages on the Web with a simple click of your mouse. This
hyperlink takes you to a page with more information about Direct Online Marketing™’s free consultations. There are
SEO ramifications to the way these links are placed and used on a site, as these links give search engines more context about the page and how it connects to other pages on your site.
Image Maps - Clickable regions on images that make
links more visually appealing and websites more interesting. Image maps enable
spiders to “read” this material, which is an
SEO play that may help to boost your traffic.
Inbound Marketing - Marketing services and strategies that successfully cause prospective customers to navigate to a website on their own accord, usually due to the consistent creation of engaging content. Examples include
SEO,
content marketing, blogging, and
email marketing to a list that is self-curated, in contrast to traditional advertising methods that get the attention of prospective customers through
paid advertising promotions.
Index - The collection of information a
search engine has which searchers can
query against. With crawler-based search engines, the index is typically copies of all the Web pages they have found from
crawling the Web. With human-powered directories, the index contains the summaries of all the websites that have been categorized.
Internal Linking - Placing
hyperlinks on a page to other pages within the same site. This helps users find more information, improves site interaction, and enhances your
SEO efforts by directing
link juice to its appropriate page.
Keyword Difficulty - A metric commonly used in
search engine optimization that determines how much on-page targeting and offsite
link building will be required to
rank for a phrase. Also commonly referred to as KPI, most tools that monitor keyword difficulty use a percentage scale of 1-100, with phrases ranked in descending order. Therefore, a search phrase that requires more effort to obtain a top rank in the search engines – and therefore a high keyword difficulty – will typically receive a score that approaches 100 (or 1.00), whereas a search phrase that requires less effort to obtain a top rank will have a keyword difficulty that is closer to 0 (0.00).
Keyword Stuffing - When the Web was young and search engines were starting to gain in popularity, some smart website owners realized that the
search engine algorithms really liked some Meta Tags, so they started stuffing a bunch of
keywords, often with high search volumes and no relevancy to the site, into the title, description, and keyword tags. Sites instantly rocketed to great
SERPs. Soon thereafter, the search engines changed their ranking formulae and the sites lost their
positions or were outright
banned. In the current landscape of search engine algorithms, it's best to write high-quality content that makes use of your targeted keywords without an emphasis on specifically repeating these keywords.
Keyword Tags - HTML tags which define the
keywords used on Web pages. Meta keyword tags used to carry great weight with some older search engines until they caught up with the spammers using this practice and modified their algorithms. Today, Google is officially on record for not giving these tags any weight, making the
optimization of your pages even more critical than before.
Link Building - The process of obtaining hyperlinks (links or backlinks) from one website back to your own. Link building is of critical importance for successful
SEO. Due to algorithm updates, link building has become particularly challenging. Gone are the days of haphazard, irrelevant links, as lazy link building can get you penalized on
search engines. Today’s link-building strategies must be strictly
white hat: the site you are seeking links from should be earned organically, through practices such as
content creation, from sites that are relevant to your industry. Earning relevant links from high-authority sites will help your site rankings on the
SERPs.
Link Juice - An SEO term that refers to the equity passed to a site via links, either
internal or external. High-authority, high-traffic sites have more link juice, which will more positively affect your rankings, than a low-authority, low-traffic site. The more link juice your site has, the more positively the
search engines will view it, and gaining this link juice is a cornerstone of most
SEO strategies.
Link Popularity - A measure of how many websites link to yours, how popular those linking sites are, and how much their content relates to yours. Link popularity is an important part of
Search Engine Optimization, which also values the sites that you link out to. Think of an
inbound link as a vote of confidence in your website and your organization as a whole.
Link Reclamation - This is when outreach is performed to earn
backlinks to your site. The situations in which this occurs can be if your domain name changes, a re-branding occurs, or when your brand is mentioned online (in an article, blog post, etc.) and there is no link from the mention going back to your website, creating the opportunity for a new link. When this happens, link reclamation involves reaching out to the blogger, news outlet, or webmaster and requesting that a link to your site be added to the appropriate
anchor text.
Local Search - A huge and growing portion of the
search engine marketing industry. Local search allows users to find businesses and websites within a specific local geographic range. This includes local search features on
search engines and online yellow page sites. Optimizing for local search requires different practices than for traditional
Search Engine Optimization, though the two branches tend to affect one another.
Local Business Listings - What are Local Business Listings? - Each of the major
search engines offers local business listings that appear next to maps at the top of the page on many locally targeted searches. Businesses may either submit new requests or claim existing local business listings if the search engines have already added the company to the results, and for service area-based businesses, this can be one of the most crucial pieces of the
SEO strategy. Having a website is not required for having a local business listing, though it can increase the effectiveness of the listing.
Below are a couple of the types of Local Business Listings that are important for Local SEO and making sure your business is found within search engine search result pages:
Google Business Profile - A Google Business Profile, formerly known as Google My Business, is an online local business listing that helps local businesses manage their presence on Google Search and Maps. It allows businesses to provide important information such as address, phone number, hours of operation, and customer reviews. This tool is essential for Local SEO, enhancing visibility for businesses in local search results.
Bing Places For Business - A Bing Places for Business profile is an online local business listing service that allows local businesses to manage their presence on Bing search engine and maps. It enables businesses to update and display essential information such as location, contact details, and hours of operation, playing a vital role in Local SEO. This profile helps improve visibility in local search results on Bing.
Long Tail Keywords - Rather than targeting the most common
keywords in your industry, you can focus on more niche terms that are usually longer phrases but are also easier and quicker to rank for in the
search engines. Long tail keywords can amount to up to 60% or so of a site’s search traffic. Discovering these keywords via research and implementing them in an accurate, natural way is a very common
search engine optimization strategy.
Mention - When your brand is mentioned on a website. Getting mentioned on another website is an excellent way to build up your
backlinks, or to reach out and do
link reclamation. The more mentions that your brand gets from relevant (preferably high authority) websites, the better your site will rank on
SERPs. Creating a strategy for a continuous flow of new backlinks is a cornerstone of
SEO services.
Meta Tags - (see also keyword tags, description tags etc.) – Meta tags allow you to highlight important
Keywords related to your site in a way that matters to
Search Engines, but that your website visitors typically do not see. Meta tags have risen and fallen in terms of valuation by internet marketers and search engines alike (see Keyword Stuffing), but they still play an important role in
Search Engine Optimization. Examples of meta tags include
Header Tags and
Alt Tags.
Microsites - a site created by a business or online publisher, for a specific purpose, that functions independently from the primary website of a business/publisher. While the microsite is independent, it still has the capacity to generate relevant traffic to a business for sales, lead generation, or referrals to a primary website. Microsites are generally created for events, specialized topics or services, or for content creation on a specific topic.
Natural Listings - Also referred to as “organic results”, a natural listing is the non-advertised listings in
Search Engines. Some search engines may charge a fee to be included in their natural listings, although most are free. How high or low your website is ranked depends on many factors, two of the most important being content relevance and
Link Popularity. The improvement of these rankings is completed through
search engine optimization, among other services.
Naver - Naver is Korea’s largest
search engine and Web property. They offer
paid search programs, although their pay-per-click program for non-Korean marketers has primarily been offered through Yahoo! / Overture – Korea. Naver’s closest Korean competitor is Daum.
Outbound Links - Links on any Web page leading to another Web page, whether they are within the same site or another website. The correct usage and placement of these links is crucial to
search engine optimization, as well as a positive user experience.
PageRank - PageRank is a value that Google assigns for pages and websites that it
indexes, based on all the factors in its algorithm. Google does release an external PageRank scoring pages from 1-10 that you can check for any website, but this external number is not the same as the internal PageRank Google uses to determine
search engine results pages. All independent search engines have their own version of PageRank, and working within these parameters is the foundation of
search engine optimization. Potentially interesting fact: PageRank was named for Google’s Larry Page and it is calculated at the page level – pun fun!
Permission Marketing - Along the lines of
Opt-in registrations, permission marketing focuses on receiving the consent of users before being contacted or, in some cases, even seeing an advertisement. Permission marketing is centered around the concept that people are increasingly tuning out the barrage of
online advertisements they see each day. Its focal tenet is that a business will have a better chance of gaining a client when the client first gives permission to be sent an ad or contacted.
Search engine marketing, by its nature, can be thought of as a type of permission marketing – showing advertisements to people already searching for that information – as long as the ad is relevant to what they are searching.
Premier Google Partner - This valuable designation was added in 2016 to recognize the top-performing agencies that meet additional certification and company performance requirements in terms of
SEO and
PPC services that work primarily with Google.
Press Optimization - The optimizing of press releases for search engines. This process has many similarities to Search Engine Optimization, although it focuses much more on Keyword use in content creation in regards to how press releases are often picked up by Blogs and other forms of new media.
Query - Query is another term for “
keyword” or “
search term.” Within Google Ads, search query reports show the actual terms that searchers used to click on your
PPC ads, as opposed to the advertised keyword that is in your account. These two sets of words may or may not be the same, and part of PPC ad management is to continually work to align these where possible.
Rank - How well a particular Web page or website is listed in the
Search Engine’s Results Page outside of sponsored listings. For example, a Web page about apples may be listed in response to a query for “apples.” However, “rank” indicates where exactly it was listed – be it on the first page of results, the second page or perhaps the 200th page. Alternatively, it might also be said to be ranked first among all the results, or 12th, or 111th. Overall, saying a page is “listed” only means that it can be found within a search engine in response to a query, not that it necessarily ranks well for that query. Also known as position.
Search engine optimization is all about improving this ranking through a variety of strategies, both on the page itself and in actions taken outside of the page.
RankBrain - Another notable Google
algorithm update is known as RankBrain. In October 2015, Google announced that machine learning (Artificial Intelligence) had been deeply ingrained into Google search and is supposedly the third most important search
ranking factor. Going beyond just
keywords, Google is trying to understand the diverse ways in which users turn to
search engines to answer their queries, for which
SEO is always trying to adapt and adjust to keep clients at the top of the
organic rankings.
Reciprocal Link - A link exchange between two sites, generally as part of a greater
link-building strategy. Both sites will display a link to the other site somewhere on their pages. This type of link is generally much less desirable than a one-way
inbound link, in terms of
link juice for
SEO.
Robots.txt - A file that is used to keep Web pages from being
indexed or to tell which pages you want a search engine to index. While some
spiders can ignore the directions within, having this file correctly formatted is critical to your site's health from the perspective of
search engines.
Schema Markup - An important tactic employed in
SEO, schema markup is a piece of code you can add to a page’s HTML to help
search engines understand what is your website about and what type of information it contains. It pairs up words with specific values that help the search engines to categorize and
index your content. Basically, instead of hoping Google understands what you are, you tell it directly through pieces of code that the search engine
robots are able to read, process and use to return more informative results to users. For example, if you’re a dentist or brick-and-mortar store you might want to point that out using the proper tags so you won’t have to rely solely on
keywords. If you want to check which are Schema markups available and how to add the relevant ones to your website, check out their official website. (this definition was submitted by Jessica from Guarana Technologies, a mobile app development agency based in Canada)
Scraping - The process of copying content from one Web property and using it on another. In other words, stealing content.
Scraping technologies have evolved because of the need for content and to stay ahead of legitimate content creators trying to protect what they’ve written. Some companies offer content monitoring to help protect against scraping. In essence, think of it as a black hat tactic for
content marketing, best to be avoided.
Search Engines - Search engines are places people go to search for things on the internet, such as Yahoo!, Google, or Bing. Most search engines provide websites with two ways of appearing: Natural (organic) listings and Paid listings.
Natural Listings, also referred to as organic listings, appear based on the search engines’ own formulae. You can’t pay to have your site listed higher (although some search engines require that you pay to be included in the Natural listings), but you can perform
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Paid Listings usually appear above or to the side of Natural listings and are typically identifiable as advertisements. The most common cost for advertising on Paid listings through Paid Search is
Pay-per-Click (PPC).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - A fancy way of saying “making your site search engine friendly.”
Search engine optimization is typically difficult to do on your own, especially given the increasing complexity and differences among all the search engines. Two important factors that rank highly in all major search engines are Link Popularity (how many websites – and how highly ranked those sites are – link to you) and relevant content (how pertinent information on your website or a particular Web page is to a search).
Search Terms - A search term is a word or group of words that a person types into a
Search Engine to find what they are looking for. Based on what a company sells, a website should incorporate the most popular or most popular specific search terms into the copy as
Keywords. Figuring out the appropriate search terms to put into a website and to advertise on is a huge part of a Search Engine Marketer’s job, and generally falls under the scope of
SEO services.
Spam - Can refer to unwanted data sent via email or put on a website to game a
search engine. You’re probably aware of spam in the classic email sense and are hopefully also aware of the strict standards and penalties associated with the CAN-SPAM Act. Spam to a search engine is Web content that the search engine deems to be detrimental to its efforts to deliver relevant, quality
search results. Some search engines have written guidelines about what they consider to be spamming, but ultimately any activity a search engine deems harmful may be considered spam, whether or not there are published guidelines against that practice. Examples of spam include the creation of nonsensical
doorway pages designed to please search engine algorithms rather than human visitors, or heavy repetition of search terms within a page (i.e., the search terms are used tens or hundreds of times in a row). Spam derives its name from a popular Monty Python skit.
Spider - A noun and a verb,
Search Engines have spiders crawl through all the linked pages of a website to gather information to include the site in their
Natural Listings and also use to determine their ranking on various
Search Terms. Understanding how these spiders work is crucial to
SEO, as both
keyword usage and technical factors can play a part in how a spider sees your site.
Stickiness - How often people return to a website. Constant updates, news feeds, and exclusive content are all ways to make a site stickier. This stickiness should be considered in both
SEO and
web design, to entice people to visit the site more than once by giving them valid reasons to do so.
Subdomain - Also referred to as a 3rd-level domain, a subdomain is very simply a domain that is part of a main domain. “54.236.248.236/dom” is a subdomain. “.com” is the
top-level domain, “directom” is the second level, and “www” is the third. Subdomains can be created at any time with no limit and without a registrar, though you may want to consider the
SEO ramifications. A common reason to create subdomains would be to differentiate a sector of your business such as “info.yoursite.com” or “tools.yoursite.com.”
Submission - The act of submitting a
URL for inclusion into a search engine’s
index. Unless done through paid inclusion, submission generally does not guarantee listing. In addition, submission does not help with
rank improvement on crawler-based search engines unless
search engine optimization efforts have been undertaken. Submission can be done manually (i.e., you can fill out an online form and submit) or automated, where a software program or online service may process the forms behind the scenes.
Tags - Words or phrases used to describe and categorize individual
blog posts, videos, and pictures. Correctly using tags organizes content for users and can help with visibility through
SEO and
social media optimization.
Topic Modeling - An
SEO strategy that is used when creating or optimizing content based on the primary
keyword selected for a web page. Identify keywords related to the same subject as the primary keyword to utilize as secondary keywords, then include / optimize content around the new keywords for a more robust page around the same topic.
Three Way Linking - A
link building strategy designed to create two one-way links between sites that want to complete a link exchange. When using this
SEO link building tactic, one website owner involved in the exchange of links typically has access to more than one property. After adding an external link from one site (in this example, “Site A”) to another destination (“Site B”), then Site B places a external link to a third domain (“Site C”). Therefore, a three way link exchange is completed when Site A links to Site B, and Site B links to Site C.
TLD - TLD stands for Top Level Domain. The TLD is determined by whatever comes at the end of a domain name at its root – meaning without any page names. So for example, the TLD for our site, 54.236.248.236/dom, is “.com.”
URL - Uniform Resource Locator. These are the letters and symbols given to a
browser that make up the address of specific Web pages. For example, this page’s URL is “https://bapkel.com/glossary/url/”. From an
SEO perspective, it's best to have the cleanest, shortest, but most concise, URL possible for any given webpage.
Universal Search - The placement of multiple types of results within a general search so that a user receives images, videos, local search results, news articles, and more next to general Web pages. Also called blended search.
Usability - How easy it is for a user to navigate a website and find the information he or she is seeking.
White Hat SEO - Used to describe certain
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods, being “white hat” means using only SEO techniques that are completely above board and accepted by the
Search Engines. Doing the opposite (
Black Hat) can lead to your website seeing its
rankings drop drastically – or being banned altogether – even if the search engine optimization tactics aren’t currently banned by search engines.
Wiki - A user-written, -controlled, and –edited site. Anyone with web access can change information appearing on Wikis, which can be about broad or specific topics. Wikis are becoming increasingly popular websites as people search for quality and (hopefully) unbiased information. The best known example is Wikipedia.
WordPress - WordPress (WP) is an extremely popular
Content Management System. Developed originally for blogs, WP offers a great degree of flexibility and functionality. This site – and our
digital marketing blog – are examples of sites built using this system. A wide library of plugins makes WordPress a viable CMS option for many different industries and website types, allowing flexibility in your
SEO and
PPC efforts.
Yandex - Yandex is the fastest-growing
search engine in the world, serving primarily Russia and other countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. It has been experimenting with an English-based search engine, but its main operations are for its Cyrillic engine. They also offer a Google Ads-like
paid search program: Yandex Direct.
Search Engine Marketing - Q: What Is Search Engine Marketing?
A: The definition of
Search Engine Marketing is simple - it is purely just all forms of marketing involving search engines – chiefly
Search Engine Optimization and
Paid Search Marketing. Sometimes this term will also be used to refer to Paid Search exclusively, but it's generally an umbrella term that includes all forms of digital marketing with a focus on
search engines. Search Engine Optimization, AKA SEO is often confused as being SEM, but typically SEM, the abbreviation of Search Engine Marketing, focuses on the paid side of search engines.
For more information on our Search Engine Marketing services, like Paid Search Advertising or Direct Online Marketing's SEO services, check out our full line of services below:
Internet Marketing Services Above the Fold - The part of the page you can see without scrolling down or over. The exact amount of space will vary by viewer because of screen settings. You often pay a premium for advertisement placements above the fold, which will add to the costs of
internet marketing services but may also add to results.
AMP - An acronym for the Google-backed Accelerated Mobile Pages Project was announced by Google in October 2015. It was designed as an open-source initiative for publishers to create content that loads quickly on mobile devices, as most of the standard page-building techniques from before this time were built primarily for desktop browsing. AMP consists of three parts: AMP HTML, AMP JS & Google AMP Cache. As things currently stand,
mobile-friendly web design is paramount to maintaining good
rankings on
search engines. For more information see the
AMP Project website.
Buyer Persona - A fictional depiction of your target customers that serves as a valuable point of reference for various digital marketing strategies. Marketing professionals take considerations from buyer goals, industry research, customer data, demographics, and natural human behaviors when forming buyer personas. The ultimate goal of this practice is to create an image of your ideal customer. That way, you can personalize your site layout, develop new content, or tailor any marketing strategies to increase the chances of acquiring the customers you need to grow your business. This helps to align your
web design,
SEO,
PPC,
content, and
social media advertising, with all of it designed and operated to attract your ideal customer.
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) - Defines how
HTML elements such as layout, colors, & fonts will be displayed. External style sheets can be stored in CSS files, which allows for faster loading pages, smaller file sizes, and other benefits for visitors,
search engines, and designers. The advent of CSS has a huge impact in the way modern websites look, with
Javascript bolstering this modernization. However, improper use of CSS and Javascript can lead to slow loading speed, improperly rendered pages, and user-unfriendly experiences, all of which are detrimental to
SEO efforts.
Cloaking - Showing a
search engine spider or bot one version of a Web page and a different version to the end user. Several search engines have explicit rules against unapproved cloaking. Those violating these guidelines may find their pages penalized or banned from a search engine’s
index. As for approved cloaking, this generally only happens with search engines that offer a
paid inclusion program. Anyone offering cloaking services should be able to demonstrate explicit approval from a search engine for what it is they intend to do, otherwise, this practice falls under
Black Hat SEO and brings similar consequences.
Content Management System - Content Management Systems (CMS) allow website owners to make text and picture changes to their websites without specialized programming knowledge of software like Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage. Content Management Systems can be edited by anyone with basic word knowledge via an internet connection. Templates within the CMS allow common pages, like blogs and service pages, to be replicated without the need to code a similar page. There is no need for length or costly web development contracts or the need to wait on someone outside your company to make changes. CMS examples include
WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. A CMS sometimes includes tools to help with
SEO, or allows for plugins that assist with the same thing.
CSS - CSS – short for Cascading Style Sheet. CSS plays a vital role in digital marketing, particularly in
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising. By enabling the creation of well-structured, visually appealing, and responsive websites, CSS enhances user experience, which is a key factor in SEO rankings. Additionally, effective use of CSS can improve website load times and mobile-friendliness, both of which are important for SEO and can positively influence PPC ad quality scores, leading to better ad placements and potentially lower costs.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Software solutions that help enterprise businesses manage customer relationships in an organized way. An example of a CRM would be a database containing detailed customer information that management and salespeople can reference in order to match customer needs with products, inform customers of service requirements, etc. The information contained within the CRM can be valuable for
PPC advertising,
email marketing,
retargeting and more.
Domain Name - A website’s main address. Direct Online Marketing™’s domain is
directom.com. This is not to be confused with
subdomains, which are separate sections of the website that exist with another bit of information in front of them, so an example would be es.directom.com.
Doorway Page - A Web page created to rank well in a
search engine’s
organic listings (non-paid) and delivers very little information to those viewing it. Instead, visitors will often only see a brief call to action (i.e., “Click Here to Enter”), or they may be automatically propelled past the doorway page. With cloaking, they may never see the doorway page at all. Several search engines have guidelines against doorway pages, though they are more commonly allowed through
paid inclusion programs. Also referred to as bridge pages, gateway pages and jump pages and not to be confused with
Landing Pages. Essentially, given the recent updates to Google's algorithm, these pages continue to lose value in the modern web landscape and are avoided in proper
SEO strategy.
Growth Hacking - Growth hacking is a highly efficient way to increase customer acquisition using the most effective tactics available to engage a specific buyer persona. Typically deployed in the “
Software as a Service” industry or startup environments, growth hacking often involves multiple marketing strategies and nimble product development practices to create a solution that rapidly scales the user base of a product/service.
SEO,
PPC,
social media advertising and
retargeting can all be core components of a growth hacking strategy, based on the goals of the business.
HTML - An abbreviation of HyperText Markup Language, the programming language used in websites. Developers use other languages, like
Javascript, that can be read and understood by HTML to expand what they can do on the Web. Understanding how this code is built and understood is a key facet of
web design.
JavaScript - JavaScript – not to be confused with its distant cousin Java – is an Object Oriented Programming language developed by NetScape. It is used primarily to improve user experiences on websites with enhanced functionality, though an excess of the language being used on a page can lead to code bloat and site speed slowdown. Balancing functionality and speed is a key part of modern
web design.
Marketing Automation - Software suites that combine a variety of popular
online marketing strategies like
email,
social media, CRM and
SEO into one platform. In addition to efficient and automatic completion of a variety of marketing tasks, these software suites also allow marketing teams to view a more direct correlation between their efforts and
ROI from online marketing.
Microsites - a site created by a business or online publisher, for a specific purpose, that functions independently from the primary website of a business/publisher. While the microsite is independent, it still has the capacity to generate relevant traffic to a business for sales, lead generation, or referrals to a primary website. Microsites are generally created for events, specialized topics or services, or for content creation on a specific topic.
Mobile-Friendly - In today’s world, it is essential that your site is optimized for mobile users. The site display must be able to shrink down to display on a mobile device while still being functional and user-friendly. There are 3 ways to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly:
- Responsive Web Design: Serves the same HTML code on the same URL no matter what device while rendering the display based on screen size.
- Dynamic Serving: Uses the same URL regardless of the device; however, generates a different version of the HTML depending on the device and what the server knows about the user’s browser.
- Separate URLs: Serves different code to each device on separate URLs. After detecting the device, this configuration redirects the to the appropriate page.
Be sure to check the mobile-friendliness of your site with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test Tool. If you need assistance in getting your site to be mobile-friendly, this is part of the purview of our
SEO services.
Mobile Marketing - As cell phone technology advances, advertisers can reach their target audience virtually anywhere. While mobile marketing is really just an extension of
online marketing, it provides businesses with many new opportunities and challenges. How does your website look on your iPhone or Android? Given that part of search engines' ranking criteria is user experience, does the page speed remain high when viewed on a mobile device? And how do your
paid ads look when viewed on a phone?
Pop-Under - An
online advertisement that opens in a new
Web Browser window once you visit a particular page or take some other action. Considered less annoying than Pop-Up ads because the new window appears behind the existing one.
Rich Media - Web advertisements or pages that are more animated and/or interactive than static
Banners or pages. This can include images, animations, videos, dynamic scripts, and more. However, having too much rich media within the context of a page can lead to slowdown, giving a negative user experience, so it's best to ensure that rich media is always delivered in an optimized format.
Stickiness - How often people return to a website. Constant updates, news feeds, and exclusive content are all ways to make a site stickier. This stickiness should be considered in both
SEO and
web design, to entice people to visit the site more than once by giving them valid reasons to do so.
Subpage - A page that appears below the top-level pages in a website’s navigation. These pages often appear as drop-downs in a top navigation bar or sidebar menu. Think of subpages as “child pages” of the “parent page.” For example, www.yoursite.com/about-us/ would be a subpage of www.yoursite.com while www.yoursite.com/about-us/contact is a subpage of www.yoursite.com/about-us. Structuring these pages in a way that makes sense is crucial to
web design and
SEO, as a clear structure helps Google better understand your site and the content found on each page.
Web 2.0 - A trendy buzzword for the
internet marketing services industry, but also a legitimate idea and movement: the internet as a platform.
Wikis, MySpace, and user-edited search all operate under this premise.
Web Browser - The program you use to access the internet. Common browsers include Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Apple’s Safari, and Mozilla Firefox.
WordPress - WordPress (WP) is an extremely popular
Content Management System. Developed originally for blogs, WP offers a great degree of flexibility and functionality. This site – and our
digital marketing blog – are examples of sites built using this system. A wide library of plugins makes WordPress a viable CMS option for many different industries and website types, allowing flexibility in your
SEO and
PPC efforts.
XML - Extensible Markup Language. Content developers use this language with a variety of forms of content, including text, audio, and visual in order to allow users to define their own elements and pull the data at their pace. XML has played a huge part in the transformation of the Web towards Web 2.0.
Z-Index - Using the z-index property of
CSS allows you to better control over the positioning of overlapping elements. This element is sometimes used for
black hat SEO purposes.
Canonical Tag - A canonical tag tells (most)
search engines which page is preferred when two URLs are similar or duplicate. In most instances, this tag is used when you have products or content that is accessible by multiple URLs or in some cases, even multiple websites. The tag is part of the
HTML head code using the attribute rel=canonical. Improper use of canonical URLs can lead to severe drops in
SEO performance.
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) - Defines how
HTML elements such as layout, colors, & fonts will be displayed. External style sheets can be stored in CSS files, which allows for faster loading pages, smaller file sizes, and other benefits for visitors,
search engines, and designers. The advent of CSS has a huge impact in the way modern websites look, with
Javascript bolstering this modernization. However, improper use of CSS and Javascript can lead to slow loading speed, improperly rendered pages, and user-unfriendly experiences, all of which are detrimental to
SEO efforts.
Categories - Words or phrases that used to organize blog posts and other pieces of information, such as albums for photos. Categories are generally broader than
tags and used in instances when there will generally be multiple posts or other data points per category. This helps to organize a blog both for the reader and for the site administrator(s). Categories and tags, on a
WordPress site, will generally have their own pages, which may affect
SEO for the rest of the site.
ccTLD - ccTLD’s are “Country-code” TLD‘s showing what country a site is focused on or based in. Using Google and the United Kingdom as an example, Google UK is google.co.uk. Sometimes these ccTLD’s are two sets of letters separated by a period (e.g. “co.uk” for the UK or “com.au” for
Australia) and sometimes they are just one set of letters (e.g. “.fr” for France). The use of separate websites on unique ccTLD’s is typically viewed as the best way for exporters to target other countries via
search engine optimization. However, site owners can also target outside countries through other means such as through country-focused subdomains or even subdirectories. Proper use of ccTLD's is crucial to
international digital marketing efforts.
Click through Rate (CTR) - Number of clicks divided by number of impressions. Click-through-rate is a common internet marketing measurement tool for
digital advertisement effectiveness. This rate tells you how many times people are clicking on your ad compared to the number of times your ad is shown. Low click-through rates can be caused by a number of factors, including copy, placement, and relevance, and may indicate that your ad needs to be modified for maximum effectiveness.
Cloaking - Showing a
search engine spider or bot one version of a Web page and a different version to the end user. Several search engines have explicit rules against unapproved cloaking. Those violating these guidelines may find their pages penalized or banned from a search engine’s
index. As for approved cloaking, this generally only happens with search engines that offer a
paid inclusion program. Anyone offering cloaking services should be able to demonstrate explicit approval from a search engine for what it is they intend to do, otherwise, this practice falls under
Black Hat SEO and brings similar consequences.
Consumer Data - How an individual interacts with marketing efforts or a website. This is a very specialized, linear approach to interpreting digital marketing data, and allows a brand to hone in on key influencers, rather than the audience as a whole. Going off of this information, a brand can better target marketing efforts to a particular segment of their audience. While this is separate from standard website
analytics services, it's tied to the capabilities that these analytics services provide.
Content Management System - Content Management Systems (CMS) allow website owners to make text and picture changes to their websites without specialized programming knowledge of software like Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage. Content Management Systems can be edited by anyone with basic word knowledge via an internet connection. Templates within the CMS allow common pages, like blogs and service pages, to be replicated without the need to code a similar page. There is no need for length or costly web development contracts or the need to wait on someone outside your company to make changes. CMS examples include
WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. A CMS sometimes includes tools to help with
SEO, or allows for plugins that assist with the same thing.
Content Marketing - In opposition to traditional
online advertising methods,
content marketing is an inbound marketing practice that seeks to generate leads and traffic through the creation and distribution of content that caters to the needs of a defined audience of prospective customers. Content marketing as a strategy for
SEO service providers achieved critical mass in the latter part of 2012 following the release of the Penguin algorithm update by Google, which adjusted spam factors and affected a high percentage of
search queries.
Content Network - Each major
search engine offers a form of a content network within its
paid search interface, typically referred to as content networks, although Google just renamed its content network as the Google Display Network. Within Google Ads, advertisers have two options for content network advertising:
- Pick sites. With this option, you can choose the actual sites, or in some cases, sections and pages of sites, on which you want to display your ads.
- Contextual advertising. Contextual advertising allows you to use keywords like you would in traditional paid search advertising and the search engines will display your ads next to articles, blog posts, and other Web pages that are related to those keywords.
- Interest categories. Target users who display a common interest like sports, travel, shopping, etc.
Both options are great for inexpensive brand awareness on massive scales in addition to more direct means such as lead generation. The days of buying remnant display ads not being worth it are behind us.
Content Tags - HTML tags that define the essence of the content contained within the page, readable by search
spiders. These include Header and
Alt Tags. These generally convey the point of a page to a search engine, and proper use of them is a cornerstone of well-implemented
SEO practices.
Contextual Advertising - A feature offered by major
search engine advertisers that allows your
digital advertisement to be placed next to related news articles and on other Web pages. Contextual advertising seeks to match Web content from the
display page with your advertised search term(s). Contextual advertising isn’t perfect (what in life is?), but it’s come a long way from its inception to the point where it can provide great value to advertisers when used correctly.
Conversion Rate - This statistic, or metric, tells you what percentage of people is converting (really!). The definition of a “conversion” depends upon your goals and measurements. It could mean a sign up for free information, a completed survey, a purchase made, or other.
Conversion Rate Optimization - Depending on what your site deems as a conversion, some steps can always be taken to improve the likelihood that visitors to your site will perform a conversion-driven action, like completing a form or a purchase. Typically, this means changing certain aspects centered around the conversion and the steps required to complete it. For example, if you have an
Ecommerce site, you may change the orientation of certain elements or their physical appearance like the color of the “Add to cart” button, or removing certain steps to make it easier to purchase an item. Conversion rate optimization relies heavily on A/B testing as what may work for one website may not necessarily work for another. This is sometimes lumped under
SEO, but most agencies consider CRO to be a separate service. Learn more on our
conversion rate optimization service page.
Cookie - Think of cookies like Batman’s Bat Tracer. When you visit a website, Batman sticks a cookie on your browser to follow you around. Batman can then go back to his Bat Cave and watch where you’re going and where you’ve been. A little Big Brother-ish to be sure, but cookies also provide direct benefits to surfers, including remembering passwords and bringing you offers in which you are genuinely interested (see
Behavioral Targeting). This tracking helps to reinforce the data provided by
Google Analytics and similar analytics platforms.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA) - An
online advertising cost structure where you pay an agreed-upon fee per actionable event, such as a lead, registration, or sale. To simplify, an advertisement under the standard
PPC ad cost structure will cost more every time someone clicks on it, whereas a CPA ad only costs when someone completes the process that the ad points them toward.
Cost per Click (CPC) - A common way to pay for online advertising, particularly on
search engines, CPC means you pay a pre-determined amount each time someone clicks on your advertisement to visit your site. You usually set a top amount that you are willing to pay per click for each search term, and the amount you pay will be equal or less to that amount, depending on the particular search engine and your competitors’ bids. Also referred to as Pay Per Click (PPC) or
Paid Search Marketing.
Cost per Impression (CPM) - A common
internet marketing cost structure, especially for
banner advertising. You agree to pay a set cost for every 1,000 Impressions your ad receives. Search engine marketing may involve CPM costs for Contextual Advertising. This internet advertising pay structure should really be called Cost per 1,000 Impressions, but it generally gets shortened because the idea remains the same, the concept being that of paying for impressions.
Crawler - Component of a
search engine that gathers listings by automatically “crawling” the Web. A search engine’s crawler (also known as a Spider or robot) follows links to Web Pages. It makes copies of those pages and stores them in a search engine’s
index. Understanding how this crawler perceives the page, which is a different perspective than a human visiting the same page, is crucial to
SEO strategy.
CSS - CSS – short for Cascading Style Sheet. CSS plays a vital role in digital marketing, particularly in
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and
PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising. By enabling the creation of well-structured, visually appealing, and responsive websites, CSS enhances user experience, which is a key factor in SEO rankings. Additionally, effective use of CSS can improve website load times and mobile-friendliness, both of which are important for SEO and can positively influence PPC ad quality scores, leading to better ad placements and potentially lower costs.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Software solutions that help enterprise businesses manage customer relationships in an organized way. An example of a CRM would be a database containing detailed customer information that management and salespeople can reference in order to match customer needs with products, inform customers of service requirements, etc. The information contained within the CRM can be valuable for
PPC advertising,
email marketing,
retargeting and more.
Schema Markup - An important tactic employed in
SEO, schema markup is a piece of code you can add to a page’s HTML to help
search engines understand what is your website about and what type of information it contains. It pairs up words with specific values that help the search engines to categorize and
index your content. Basically, instead of hoping Google understands what you are, you tell it directly through pieces of code that the search engine
robots are able to read, process and use to return more informative results to users. For example, if you’re a dentist or brick-and-mortar store you might want to point that out using the proper tags so you won’t have to rely solely on
keywords. If you want to check which are Schema markups available and how to add the relevant ones to your website, check out their official website. (this definition was submitted by Jessica from Guarana Technologies, a mobile app development agency based in Canada)
Scraping - The process of copying content from one Web property and using it on another. In other words, stealing content.
Scraping technologies have evolved because of the need for content and to stay ahead of legitimate content creators trying to protect what they’ve written. Some companies offer content monitoring to help protect against scraping. In essence, think of it as a black hat tactic for
content marketing, best to be avoided.
Search Engines - Search engines are places people go to search for things on the internet, such as Yahoo!, Google, or Bing. Most search engines provide websites with two ways of appearing: Natural (organic) listings and Paid listings.
Natural Listings, also referred to as organic listings, appear based on the search engines’ own formulae. You can’t pay to have your site listed higher (although some search engines require that you pay to be included in the Natural listings), but you can perform
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Paid Listings usually appear above or to the side of Natural listings and are typically identifiable as advertisements. The most common cost for advertising on Paid listings through Paid Search is
Pay-per-Click (PPC).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - A fancy way of saying “making your site search engine friendly.”
Search engine optimization is typically difficult to do on your own, especially given the increasing complexity and differences among all the search engines. Two important factors that rank highly in all major search engines are Link Popularity (how many websites – and how highly ranked those sites are – link to you) and relevant content (how pertinent information on your website or a particular Web page is to a search).
Search Retargeting - A specific type of
Retargeting that allows an advertiser to show ads to searchers of given
keywords who have never visited the advertiser’s site. This form of
PPC advertising is useful in gaining new impressions from users who are likely to fall within the target demographic that the advertiser is looking for.
Search Terms - A search term is a word or group of words that a person types into a
Search Engine to find what they are looking for. Based on what a company sells, a website should incorporate the most popular or most popular specific search terms into the copy as
Keywords. Figuring out the appropriate search terms to put into a website and to advertise on is a huge part of a Search Engine Marketer’s job, and generally falls under the scope of
SEO services.
Shopping Ads - Formerly known as Product Listing Ads (PLAs), these ads appear in both Google and Bing
search results as images of individual products above the search results. These ads are specifically for
ecommerce companies and instead of using
keywords, ads are triggered by searches containing words in the product’s title, description, or attributes.
Site Retargeting - The most common form of
retargeting: displaying your
digital ads to a visitor based on a visit to your site, or individual page of your site. These cookie-based ads can appear on any publisher throughout the
ad network being used. Various targeting options exist, including only showing ads when a certain page has been visited (such as a landing page) and when an action has not been completed (e.g. a conversion).
Social Commerce - Selling goods directly online through
social media channels. Just like “electronic commerce” was shortened to “
ecommerce”, social commerce is sometimes shortened to “s-commerce” or “f-commerce,” the latter short for “Facebook commerce.” Companies may choose to use only social commerce channels for sales, or use it as part of a larger digital marketing mix, though relying solely on social commerce means that a company will have to make a concentrated effort on
social media marketing.
Social Media - A type of online media where information is uploaded primarily through user submission. Web surfers are no longer simply consumers of content, but active content publishers. Many different forms of social media exist, including more established formats like
Forum and
Blogs, and newer formats like
Wikis, podcasts,
Social Networking, image and video sharing, and virtual reality.
Social media marketing is quickly growing as a part of the overall digital marketing landscape.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) - An online marketing mix that utilizes the different strategies available through
social networking sites to promote a product or service.
Social media marketing combines traditional
online advertising elements that are native to social networks with the creation of “shareworthy” content that users of social media are likely to promote through their accounts. A highly effective strategy for companies interested in driving brand awareness with highly targeted demographics.
Social Networking - A type of
Social Media, Social networking websites allow users to interact and create or change content on the site. These sites, which businesses are now using for
social media marketing purposes, allow users to create their own websites / online spheres (e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook), share photographs (e.g. flickr), microblog / text small bits of information to their personal community (e.g. Twitter) or recommend information for others to find on the Internet (e.g. del.icio.us and Digg). The sites in this last grouping are also referred to as social bookmarking or social news sites. There is also a growing number of sites that are heavily dependent on mobile and geographic locations, such as foursquare.
Spam - Can refer to unwanted data sent via email or put on a website to game a
search engine. You’re probably aware of spam in the classic email sense and are hopefully also aware of the strict standards and penalties associated with the CAN-SPAM Act. Spam to a search engine is Web content that the search engine deems to be detrimental to its efforts to deliver relevant, quality
search results. Some search engines have written guidelines about what they consider to be spamming, but ultimately any activity a search engine deems harmful may be considered spam, whether or not there are published guidelines against that practice. Examples of spam include the creation of nonsensical
doorway pages designed to please search engine algorithms rather than human visitors, or heavy repetition of search terms within a page (i.e., the search terms are used tens or hundreds of times in a row). Spam derives its name from a popular Monty Python skit.
Spider - A noun and a verb,
Search Engines have spiders crawl through all the linked pages of a website to gather information to include the site in their
Natural Listings and also use to determine their ranking on various
Search Terms. Understanding how these spiders work is crucial to
SEO, as both
keyword usage and technical factors can play a part in how a spider sees your site.
Stickiness - How often people return to a website. Constant updates, news feeds, and exclusive content are all ways to make a site stickier. This stickiness should be considered in both
SEO and
web design, to entice people to visit the site more than once by giving them valid reasons to do so.
Structured Snippets - Structured snippets allow your
digital ads to highlight specific aspects of your products and services. These
ad extensions provide context on the nature and variety of your products and services before visitors click through to your site, increasing your
click-through rate by increasing the relevance of your ad to the user.
Subdomain - Also referred to as a 3rd-level domain, a subdomain is very simply a domain that is part of a main domain. “54.236.248.236/dom” is a subdomain. “.com” is the
top-level domain, “directom” is the second level, and “www” is the third. Subdomains can be created at any time with no limit and without a registrar, though you may want to consider the
SEO ramifications. A common reason to create subdomains would be to differentiate a sector of your business such as “info.yoursite.com” or “tools.yoursite.com.”
Submission - The act of submitting a
URL for inclusion into a search engine’s
index. Unless done through paid inclusion, submission generally does not guarantee listing. In addition, submission does not help with
rank improvement on crawler-based search engines unless
search engine optimization efforts have been undertaken. Submission can be done manually (i.e., you can fill out an online form and submit) or automated, where a software program or online service may process the forms behind the scenes.
Subpage - A page that appears below the top-level pages in a website’s navigation. These pages often appear as drop-downs in a top navigation bar or sidebar menu. Think of subpages as “child pages” of the “parent page.” For example, www.yoursite.com/about-us/ would be a subpage of www.yoursite.com while www.yoursite.com/about-us/contact is a subpage of www.yoursite.com/about-us. Structuring these pages in a way that makes sense is crucial to
web design and
SEO, as a clear structure helps Google better understand your site and the content found on each page.
Search Engine Marketing - Q: What Is Search Engine Marketing?
A: The definition of
Search Engine Marketing is simple - it is purely just all forms of marketing involving search engines – chiefly
Search Engine Optimization and
Paid Search Marketing. Sometimes this term will also be used to refer to Paid Search exclusively, but it's generally an umbrella term that includes all forms of digital marketing with a focus on
search engines. Search Engine Optimization, AKA SEO is often confused as being SEM, but typically SEM, the abbreviation of Search Engine Marketing, focuses on the paid side of search engines.
For more information on our Search Engine Marketing services, like Paid Search Advertising or Direct Online Marketing's SEO services, check out our full line of services below:
Internet Marketing Services 
