Glossary of Common Web Marketing Terms
Sometimes it seems web marketers talk a different language! It's not meant to confuse clients on purpose, so to make sure you understand what some of the more common terminology really means, below is a list of terms explained in plain English.
Algorithm: A set of rules a search engine uses to rank websites for a particular search query (e.g., "hotels in London"). Each search engine has a slightly different set of rules and therefore often present search results slightly differently. These rules constantly change, especially Google's rules.
ALT Tags: Search engines read text, not images, so alt or alternative tags tell search engines what the image is about. When you move your mouse over an image on a website, you will see that picture's ALT tag or text.
Backlink: A link coming from another website back to your own, also called inbound links. Search engines use the quality and number of backlinking as an indicator of the popularity of a site.
Banned: When a search engine removes a site from its index because that site has broken the search engine's guidelines or violated its terms of service.
Banner: A graphical space usually used for advertising. A Banner Ad is often clickable and links to a specific offer.
Click through: Term used for online advertising where a user actually clicks a link or banner (see above) and brings up a specific web page. A common term for this type of online advertising, such as Google Adwords, is Pay Per Click because the advertiser pays for each time a visitor clicks and views their website.
Client: When your computer accesses information from the internet (or any network) and it becomes the client of the server that is hosting the information.
Crawlers: Search engine programs that travel the internet and index web pages by noting keywords and content. They are also called spiders or robots.
Description: Descriptive text you see when a website is shown in search engine results. This is one part of your website that Search Engine Marketing professionals may work on to help your rankings.
Domain: End part of a web address such as .com, .net, .gov, .org, etc. A URL is the full length description with the http:// at the start.
Domain name: Your full website address such as www.yourcompany.com. We use and recommend Go Daddy for domain name registration.
Document: Term used in web statistics for information that someone viewing a website wants to see, such as an image, web page or text file.
eCommerce: General term for Electronic Commerce which means selling over the internet.
Fold: Term originated from newspaper advertising, but on the Internet "above the fold" means the part of a website that is immediately visible without scrolling down.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language often called ‘code' is the standard language that web pages are written in.
Index: The part of a search engine that is used for storing all the information about websites.
Indexing: Pprocess whereby a search engine adds web pages to its database.
IP Address: This stands for internet protocol address and every device connected to the internet has one which acts as a unique locator.
ISP: This means internet service provider and represents any company that offers access to the internet.
Keyword Search: When someone uses a search engine to find appropriate websites by typing certain words or phrases (eg "wedding photographers"). The search engine will present websites in order of relevancy containing the words or phrases.
Link Popularity: Number of other websites that link to your site. Search Engines such as Google use this as a measure to help them rank your own site.
Meta Tag: Information not visible to users on a website, but it is loaded into areas of a web page to be found by search engines and help them rank the site in results.
Pay Per Click (PPC): Common term for advertising such as Google Adwords where an advertiser pays each time someone clicks from their ad through to their website. The advertiser agrees to a fixed amount for each click-through from their ad, and when their daily budget is reached then their ad may be removed so that no more people can see it and click on it.
Query: The word or words a searcher enters into a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or Bing. The search engine will then present the results in order of relevancy that match the query.
Referrer: Term used for website statistics that describes the URL that a visitor to your site came from before they got to you.
Registration: Process of making a request to a search engine to record your website in its index.
Relevancy Algorithm: Formula that individual searche ngines apply when a searcher types in certain words and the search engine tries to present web pages in the order of most relevance.
Robot: Search engine programs that travel the internet and index web pages by noting keywords and content. They are also called spiders or crawlers.
Search Engine: A searchable online database of web pages and other information. The most common are Google and Yahoo but there hundreds more. A search engine consists of one or more servers that store information and present it as results, spidering software that constantly searches for new web pages to add to the index database, and algorithms that decide the order of web pages shown in results as being most relevant to a specific search.
Server: A computer that holds information about a website or directory. All web pages are stored on a server and search engines such as Google have many powerful servers.
Spiders: Search engine programs that travel the internet and index web pages by noting keywords and content. They are also called robots or crawlers.
Traffic: Visitors to your site. The term is often used in search engine marketing and advertising when people talk about ‘driving traffic to your site'. For traffic to your site to be really valuable it needs to be targeted so that people who are genuinely interested in what you offer are finding your site.
Unique Visitor: A person with a unique address who has visited a website and the site webstats have recorded them. Webstats usually measure unique visitors by the day so that if you visit a website twice in a day you will be recorded as one unique visitor, but if you visit on a Monday and again on a Wednesday, then the webstats for that month will record you as two unique visitors.
URL: Stands for Universal Resource Locator that is simply an address that defines a unique resource such as a web page or email. A URL includes the full description such as http:// whereas a domain is just the name and the ending, e.g., yoursite.com
User Session: Recorded when someone with a unique address visits or re-visits a website. There is sometimes a set timeframe such as half an hour, and if a visitor re-enters after that timeframe another user session will be recorded. User sessions can be a measure for overall website activity but should not be used to measure individual users because the same user might have been recorded many times.
Visit: Another webstats term referring to a unique visitor visiting a website for the first time in a set timeframe (usually a day). This term is used a lot when talking about website traffic and usage and it needs to be clearly defined by the webstats you are using if it is to be useful.
Algorithm: A set of rules a search engine uses to rank websites for a particular search query (e.g., "hotels in London"). Each search engine has a slightly different set of rules and therefore often present search results slightly differently. These rules constantly change, especially Google's rules.
ALT Tags: Search engines read text, not images, so alt or alternative tags tell search engines what the image is about. When you move your mouse over an image on a website, you will see that picture's ALT tag or text.
Backlink: A link coming from another website back to your own, also called inbound links. Search engines use the quality and number of backlinking as an indicator of the popularity of a site.
Banned: When a search engine removes a site from its index because that site has broken the search engine's guidelines or violated its terms of service.
Banner: A graphical space usually used for advertising. A Banner Ad is often clickable and links to a specific offer.
Click through: Term used for online advertising where a user actually clicks a link or banner (see above) and brings up a specific web page. A common term for this type of online advertising, such as Google Adwords, is Pay Per Click because the advertiser pays for each time a visitor clicks and views their website.
Client: When your computer accesses information from the internet (or any network) and it becomes the client of the server that is hosting the information.
Crawlers: Search engine programs that travel the internet and index web pages by noting keywords and content. They are also called spiders or robots.
Description: Descriptive text you see when a website is shown in search engine results. This is one part of your website that Search Engine Marketing professionals may work on to help your rankings.
Domain: End part of a web address such as .com, .net, .gov, .org, etc. A URL is the full length description with the http:// at the start.
Domain name: Your full website address such as www.yourcompany.com. We use and recommend Go Daddy for domain name registration.
Document: Term used in web statistics for information that someone viewing a website wants to see, such as an image, web page or text file.
eCommerce: General term for Electronic Commerce which means selling over the internet.
Fold: Term originated from newspaper advertising, but on the Internet "above the fold" means the part of a website that is immediately visible without scrolling down.
HTML: Hypertext Markup Language often called ‘code' is the standard language that web pages are written in.
Index: The part of a search engine that is used for storing all the information about websites.
Indexing: Pprocess whereby a search engine adds web pages to its database.
IP Address: This stands for internet protocol address and every device connected to the internet has one which acts as a unique locator.
ISP: This means internet service provider and represents any company that offers access to the internet.
Keyword Search: When someone uses a search engine to find appropriate websites by typing certain words or phrases (eg "wedding photographers"). The search engine will present websites in order of relevancy containing the words or phrases.
Link Popularity: Number of other websites that link to your site. Search Engines such as Google use this as a measure to help them rank your own site.
Meta Tag: Information not visible to users on a website, but it is loaded into areas of a web page to be found by search engines and help them rank the site in results.
Pay Per Click (PPC): Common term for advertising such as Google Adwords where an advertiser pays each time someone clicks from their ad through to their website. The advertiser agrees to a fixed amount for each click-through from their ad, and when their daily budget is reached then their ad may be removed so that no more people can see it and click on it.
Query: The word or words a searcher enters into a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or Bing. The search engine will then present the results in order of relevancy that match the query.
Referrer: Term used for website statistics that describes the URL that a visitor to your site came from before they got to you.
Registration: Process of making a request to a search engine to record your website in its index.
Relevancy Algorithm: Formula that individual searche ngines apply when a searcher types in certain words and the search engine tries to present web pages in the order of most relevance.
Robot: Search engine programs that travel the internet and index web pages by noting keywords and content. They are also called spiders or crawlers.
Search Engine: A searchable online database of web pages and other information. The most common are Google and Yahoo but there hundreds more. A search engine consists of one or more servers that store information and present it as results, spidering software that constantly searches for new web pages to add to the index database, and algorithms that decide the order of web pages shown in results as being most relevant to a specific search.
Server: A computer that holds information about a website or directory. All web pages are stored on a server and search engines such as Google have many powerful servers.
Spiders: Search engine programs that travel the internet and index web pages by noting keywords and content. They are also called robots or crawlers.
Traffic: Visitors to your site. The term is often used in search engine marketing and advertising when people talk about ‘driving traffic to your site'. For traffic to your site to be really valuable it needs to be targeted so that people who are genuinely interested in what you offer are finding your site.
Unique Visitor: A person with a unique address who has visited a website and the site webstats have recorded them. Webstats usually measure unique visitors by the day so that if you visit a website twice in a day you will be recorded as one unique visitor, but if you visit on a Monday and again on a Wednesday, then the webstats for that month will record you as two unique visitors.
URL: Stands for Universal Resource Locator that is simply an address that defines a unique resource such as a web page or email. A URL includes the full description such as http:// whereas a domain is just the name and the ending, e.g., yoursite.com
User Session: Recorded when someone with a unique address visits or re-visits a website. There is sometimes a set timeframe such as half an hour, and if a visitor re-enters after that timeframe another user session will be recorded. User sessions can be a measure for overall website activity but should not be used to measure individual users because the same user might have been recorded many times.
Visit: Another webstats term referring to a unique visitor visiting a website for the first time in a set timeframe (usually a day). This term is used a lot when talking about website traffic and usage and it needs to be clearly defined by the webstats you are using if it is to be useful.
