Glossary of Common Industry Terms

SEM (Search Engine Marketing): a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote Web sites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). SEM methods include, but are not limited to, search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization): the process of designing and updating a Web site such that it's likely to show up in organic listings relevant user queries on popular search engines like Google®, Yahoo® and Bing®.

PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising): Internet advertising model used on search engines and advertising networks where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's Web site.

Social Media: umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology and social interaction among users with common interests.

Keyword Phrase: string of words that together make up a search query.

Impressions: any time your advertisement/listing appears on a web site.

Clicks: any time your advertisement is clicked.

Click through rate (CTR): a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. Divide the number of clicks the ad received by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).

Google Quality Score: component used to determine the ranking of your ad on Google. Quality score is compromised of your keyword click-through-rate, relevance of ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors.

ROI (Return on investment): the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested.

Inbound Link: any incoming links from a web page to another web page. Inbound links are also known as 'back links'

Outbound Link: any outgoing link from a web page/web site to another Web page/Web site. These links point 'out' to another Web page or Web site.

CPC (Cost per click): the price an advertiser must pay for each click on their advertisement.

CPM (Cost per 1,000 impressions): commonly used advertising measurement where an advertiser agrees to pay a certain amount for every 1,000 times their ad is shown.

Site Map: a representation of the architecture of a Web site, typically organized in a hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.

Spiders/Bots: an automated program which analyzes Web sites to provide information to search engines – often for the purpose of indexing (ranking) Web sites.

Blog: online forum where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more – commonly referred to as a 'Web Journal'.