Glossary

301 Redirect (permanent redirect)

Interpreted by search engine robots that the current domain is no longer valid. All links to the domain (and PageRank) are typically assigned to the site which is pointed to by the redirect. Used to amalgamate PageRank and give a single URL for a company or group of products. This redirect is implemented on the server (server-side).

404 Page not found

An error issued by a web server when there is no page at this address. This page can be customized to provide a more user friendly error and alternative information.

Active Google ads

Ads are displayed within the Google Adwords programme in response to a search within the search engines since they meet the Quality-Based Minimum bid criteria. See also Inactive Google ads.

Affiliate marketing

Typically, a commission based arrangement where referring sites (publishers) receive a commission on sales or leads by merchants (retailers). A lead may be based on data captured during an enquiry, or it could be simply a visitor to the site (a click), in which case it overlaps with paid-search marketing.

Agency commission

Paid to search agencies by the search networks borrowing a similar model to traditional media owners rewarding media buyers for selecting their media. Is evolving, with Google currently offering ‘Best Practice Funding’ in Europe favouring most rapidly growing companies and innovators.

Allowable cost per customer acquisition (Allowable CPA).

The maximum acceptable cost for gaining a new customer typically based on consideration of the average order value and/or lifetime value for gaining that customer type.

Bid management systems

Software or web based services which partially automate the management of paid search advertising across a range of paid search networks by applying rules to display ads for specific keyphrases at particular bids, positions and times to achieve specified business aims such as ROAS, ROI, Profitability, etc while minimizing cost.

Bounce rates

Proportion of visitors to a page or site that exit after visiting a single page only, usually expressed as a percentage.

Brand-term leakage

You lose potential clicks because other companies are advertising on your brand name or brand name plus related products.

Bridging pages

Pages often used by affiliates where the site simply leads on to other sites through an affiliate or ad link. Potentially penalised through the Google Quality Score since this will be assessed by the AdWords Robot “AdsBot-Google”.

Broad keyword matching

A match type where the ad is displayed even when the search term entered by the user is less closely related to that defined by the advertiser for displaying their ad. The search engine network determines related phrases such as when the words are typed in different order. With a broad match in Google, you also enable an Expanded Match.

Content network listings

Sponsored links are displayed by the search engine on third-party sites

Content network paid-search marketing

Sponsored links are displayed by the search engine on third-party sites. Ads are paid for on a PPC basis or on a CPM basis.

Contextual adverts

A form of content network listings where the ads displayed are based on automatic interpretation of the content of the page.

Click fraud

Clicking on sponsored links, typically arranged through competitors, for the sole purpose of costing the advertiser money.

Clickthrough rate (CTR)

The number of clicks on ad or link as a proportion of ads or pages served. Usually expressed as a percentage.

Conversion rates

Proportion of visitors to a page or site that convert to the outcome required, such as lead or sale, usually expressed as a percentage. Conversion rates can be measured as a proportion of visits or visitors.

CPA

Cost per acquisition – typically the promotional cost of acquiring a new customer

CPC

Cost per Click – the cost paid per click to the search engine

CPM (Cost per thousand or CPT)

A payment model for online advertising where the advertiser is charged for every 1000 views of the page containing the ad (page views or impressions) or more accurately, the ad itself (the ad is served 1,000) times.

Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on an end-user’s computer to enable web sites to identify them.
See also First party cookies, Third-party cookies, Persistent cookies and Temporary cookies.

Demographic paid search targeting

Specifically targeting an audience defined through their gender and age. Within Microsoft adCenter when you create a new order, you can select age and gender targets to show ads more frequently to these searchers. You do this by bidding more for keyword matches that meet your target demographic criteria. When you target audiences by age and gender your ads will also display to other customers, but you'll only pay the extra bid amount for customers that fit your targeted audience.

Domain

A label indicated by the domain naming system (DNS) to denote the Internet address (IP address) of a server. Global Top-level domains (gTLDs) include countries such as .co.uk, .fr, .de as well as .com etc.

Dynamic ad creative

The keyphrase entered is automatically used in the ad headline or text. In Google, the syntax {KeyWord:} is used to activate this feature when defining the ad headline or text. This typically results in greater relevance and higher clickthrough rates since the phrase entered matches that typed. A possible exception to this is when most advertisers for a keyphrase are using this approach, so there is little differentiation between them.

Expanded match

This is a match type feature of Google Adwords which is automatically part of a broad keyword matching. It means Google will display your ads when a user enters search terms which are synonyms, related phrases, and plurals of your keyword.

Exact match

A match type which specifies that the ad should be displayed only when the exact phrase with no words associated are entered as the search term. For example, if the phrase match is defined by the advertiser as “plasma tvs”, the ad will only be displayed when the search engine user types this phrase, NOT when additional words extend the phrase such as ‘cheap plasma tvs’ or ‘plasma tvs sale’. First party cookies Cookies served by the site the user is visiting

Gap analysis

Assessing the difference between the potential search volume on a phrase with the volume you actually receive (separated into SEO and PPC).

Generic search phrase

A simple keyphrase without any qualifiers such as ‘car insurance’

Google APIs

Google APIs are an ‘Application Programming Interface’ which enables any third party to develop software which call Google functions to perform queries with specific keyphrases. It requires the use of a Google API key. Google has different APIs, e.g. for Web (search engine), Mapping, Adwords and Desktop. Developing programmes which interface with the API can help agencies or clients gain competitive advantage through performing more sophisticated analysis.

Google API Key

Effectively a username issued by Google to control access to the different Google APIs .

Google Quality Score

An assessment by Google AdWords of an individual ad triggered by a keyword which, in combination with the bid amount determines the ranking of the ad relative to competitors. The primary factor is the clickthrough rate for each ad, but it also considers the match between the keyword and the occurrence of the keyword in the text, historical clickthrough rates and the engagement of the searcher when they clickthrough to the site.

Inactive Google ads

Ads are not displayed within the Google Adwords programme in response to a search within the search engines since they don’t meet the Quality-Based Minimum bid criteria. However, they may still appear on the content network for relevant sites. Ads are marked as ‘Inactive for Search for keywords within Adwords campaign management.

Keywords

The words that are specified with the search ad network campaign management system for which you want your ads to display. In this report we distinguish these from keyphrases.

Keyphrase analysis

A structured approach to identification of key phrases used to attract visitors to your site through search marketing

Keyphrase qualifiers

These are added to the generic keyphrase (e.g. car insurance) to narrow the search, e.g. ‘car insurance uk’.

Keyphrase variants

Different forms of a given keyphrase, i.e. plurals and different word sequence. Careful analysis of these can give better results. Keyphrases The search query typed by the searcher into the search engine.

Keyword matching

A paid search technique which gives precise control of which ad you display for the combination of keywords entered by searcher as their searchterm. Keyword matching is controlled through different match types.

Keyword portfolio strategy

Keywords bids are managed as a group rather than individually enabling bids to be set higher on some terms (typically head terms) and lower on others (typically tail terms).

Long-tail concept

A frequency distribution showing the typical decline in popularity of items within a sector when a consumer has a choice in selecting these items. In search, the most common search terms for a site or market sector have much higher volumes than the less common phrases, which together are important in generating qualified visitors.

Match types

These are rules defined by the search networks for controlling when advertisers ads are displayed dependent upon the search term entered by the search engine users. The three main types are precise matching, broad matching and negative matching.

Natural or organic listings

The pages listing results from a search engine query which are displayed in a sequence according to relevance of match between the keyword phrase typed into a search engine and a web page according to a ranking algorithm used by the search engine.

Negative matching (excluded words)

This match type prevents the ad being displayed when the search term entered by the user contains a word which has been defined by the advertiser as not relevant for displaying their ad.

Page tag-based tracking.

A Javascript code section is placed on your sales or registration confirmation or other value event pages and when the page is loaded it records the event on a server which can be related back to a cookie which was placed when the ad was clicked upon.

PageRank

Google’s trademarked approach to assess the value of a web page based on the number of inbound links or backlinks.

Paid listings of a search engine

A relevant ad with a link to a company page is displayed when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. A fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click mainly determining its position.

Paid for inclusion (PFI)

The advertiser specifies pages with specific URLs for incorporation into the search engine organic listings. There is a setup fee and/or annual fee and Pay Per Click charge. Yahoo! Search Submit is the best known programme.

Paid-search marketing

There are two types of paid-search marketing: Pay Per Click paid-search engine marketing and Content-network paid-search marketing (which may be on a PPC basis or on a CPM basis). A relevant text ad with a link to a company page is displayed when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. A fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click mainly determining its position.

Pay Per Click (PPC) paid-search marketing

A relevant text ad with a link to a company page is displayed on the SERPs when the user of a search engine types in a specific phrase. A fee is charged for every click of each link, with the amount bid for the click mainly determining its position.

Persistent (permanent) cookies

Cookies placed on a a users which are permanent between multiple sessions. Useful for identifying repeat visits to sites

Persuasion

An approach to website design which involves maximising returns from web investments based on web analytics, heuristics and usability.

Phrase match

A match type specifying that and should be displayed when the phrase plus other words are entered as part of the search term. For example, if the phrase match is defined by the advertiser as “plasma tvs”, the ad will displayed when the search engine user types this phrase, plus additional words extending the phrase such as ‘cheap plasma tvs’ or ‘plasma tvs sale’.

Precise keyword matching

A match type where the ad is displayed when the search term entered by the user is very closely related or identical to that defined by the advertiser for displaying their ad. Common approaches are the phrase match and exact match of Google Adwords and Microsoft adCenter and the advanced match of Yahoo! search marketing.

Quality-based positioning

The position of an advertiser’s ad in the sponsored listings is dependent not only on the amount they bid, but also on the relevancy of the ad determined, in particular through its clickthrough rate and other quality score factors.

Quality-based bidding

Bidding to set your position in the sponsored listings results is determined not just by price, but by a combination of other relevance factors indicated by the quality score.

Quality-Based Minimum Bids.

A Google feature which means that ads for a keyword will only be displayed as Active Google ads for ads which are above its quality threshold for the Quality Score. Inactive Google ads may still appear on the content network, of which more shortly.

Quality Score

See Google Quality Score

Robots

Automated software agents located on a search engine server that collect page data from different sites by following links between pages and sites. Robots follow policies which determine how often they visit a site. Search engine robots collect data about each page which is added into the search engine index.

Robots.txt

Robots.txt is text file located on the root directory of each domain used to instruct a robot to include or exclude page(s) from a site. See http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/exclusion-admin.html for required format.

Search engine marketing (SEM)

Promoting an organization through search engines to meet its objectives by delivering relevant content in the search listings when they search and encouraging them to click through to a destination site. The two key techniques of SEM are SEO (SEO) to improve results from the natural listings and Paid-search marketing to deliver results from the sponsored listings within the search engines through Pay Per Click (PPC) paid-search engine marketing and through Content-network paid-search marketing (which may be on a CPC basis or on a CPM basis). is about connecting the searchers with information which will help them find what they are looking for and will help site owners generate revenue or disseminate information.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

A structured approach used to increase the position of a company or its products in search engine natural or organic results listings for selected keyphrases.

Search engine results page (SERP)

The page(s) containing the results after a user types in a keyphrase into a search engine. SERPS contain both natural or organic listings and paid or sponsored listings.

Search journey

The sequence of searches a user will type in and the different types of sites they will visit from when they start searching until they find what they are looking for (this is a purchase on a transactional site). Companies should be able to track at an individual user level to review the ranges of searches entered.

Share of search

Proportion of paid search clicks for a particular keyword or product category. Available through a service such as Hitwise.

Shopping comparison engine

A site like Kelkoo, Pricerunner or Shopping.com which compares prices of different products and

Strategic target keyphrases

Important target keyphrases that are targeted for SEO and potentially paid search since they combine high volume and intent to purchase or other required site outcome, consistent with usage by the site’s target audience.

Temporary (session) cookies

Cookies used for tracking within pages of a session such as on an E-commerce site

Third-party cookies

Cookies served by another site to the one the user is currently viewing – typical for portals where an ad network will track remotely or where the web analytics software places a cookie. These are typically persistent cookies.

Trusted feed

A trusted feed is an automated method of putting content into a search engine index.

Underbudgeting

Your ads are not displayed throughout the day because your specified budget is too low.

URL parameter-based tracking.

The referrer and details of the search are indicated in the URL tracking parameters (query string) and the sale is monitored once the user is on the site, either through placing cookies or tracking the visitor through some form of session identifier which is part of the content/commerce management system.

User agent

The client application or software service which initiates a request for a web page. Examples include web browsers and spiders.

Usability

An approach to website design intended to enable the completion of user tasks and to improve the user experience. Typically measured by increasing task completion rates and decreasing completion time (or number of clicks).

(Econsutancy)