Glossary
Alexa Rank:
A service that calculates the popularity of websites. Currently Google is the No. 1 site on the web followed by Facebook. A site’s Alexa rank is essentially a measure of its traffic.
ASP / .NET:
Programming languages designed by Microsoft used in many web applications that function only in Microsoft hosting environments.
AdWords:
Google’s advertising product, which offers pay per click advertising, cost-per-thousand (CPM) advertising, and site-targeted advertising. AdWords ads are short, with just a headline and two text lines, and can be placed on www.google.com, and on Google’s partner networks.
AdCenter:
Microsoft and Yahoo’s platform for pay per click advertising. In 2006, the two companies combined efforts in order to usurp marketshare from Google’s AdWords. The successful result is now known as adCenter. Previously, Yahoo’s platform of text-based ads, or pay per click ads, was served by Overture, and MSN (now Bing) shared its profits on Yahoo’s platform, Overture.
Google TV advertising:
TV advertising offered through Google’s AdWords program. This platform allows advertisers to upload high-definition videos through Google and display them on national TV. Ads can be targeted to specific demographics or displayed on specific television programs. The platform offers a variety of options to track campaign effectiveness. Ads are purchased in a similar way to clicks and search marketing, allowing advertisers to bid against each other for ad space.
HTML or Hypertext Markup Language:
The markup language for web pages. HTML provides structure for content and sometimes describes the content. Although the web utilizes a variety of different languages like CSS, PHP, ASP, Javascript, jQuery, HTML is the most basic language displayed and read by search engines.
Backlinks:
See “Links.”
Content Management System or CMS:
An easy-to-use user interface for updating web content.
Drupal:
An open source content management system.
PageRank:
A search engine metric or measurement that represent a website’s authority. Invented by Google’s Larry Page, PageRank is calculated by the number and authority of links to a given website, among other factors. A website can have a page rank in between 0 and 10, 10 being the most authoritative and 0 being the least.
Search marketing:
A general term referring to SEO, PPC and other online techniques intended to attract customers through the search engines.
Links:
Hypertext elements that reference other website or pages. Links are the building blocks of SEO. Also referred to as backlinks, incoming links, inlinks, inbound links or hypertext links, links carry authority in the eyes of the search engines and increase the popularity of a website.
One-way links:
Links from one website to another that do not require return links.
Reciprocal links:
Links that are exchanged between two websites.
Three-way linking:
A means of exchanging links: Website A offers a link on Website B to attain a link from Website C.
Link Reputation Management:
A term referring to a variety of techniques intended to manage the online reputation of a brand or individual. These techniques include the management of customer review responses and the creation of positive content that pushes negative press off the first few pages of search engine results.
Schema
A standardized format and structure of semantical HTML. Schema improves indexability by search engine spiders. It can lead to better conversion via rich snippet features.
Mobile marketing:
Marketing directed to mobile devices. This can include mobile apps, mobile, websites text message, paperclip marketing, mobile search engine optimization and more.
Mobile website:
A site specifically designed to display properly on a mobile device such as an iPhone, Android or other smart phone. Many mobile sites use the same content as there parent websites. If designed properly, any updates on the website are immediately and automatically uploaded to the mobile site.
Mobile application:
A software program intended to run on a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPad, Android or the like. Similar to a computer program, a mobile application can perform a variety of functions and may be able to integrate with a website.
Pay Per Click or PPC:
On-line advertisements that typically charge advertisers only when visitors click on the ads. Google’s AdWords platform is the largest pay per click advertising network in the world. Other platforms include Microsoft’s adCenter, and Facebook Ads.
Google Bot:
The crawler or spider used by Google to scan and retrieve data from websites.
Search Engine Bot, Spider, or Crawler:
Computer programs used to retrieve data from websites and make ranking decisions for search engines.
Search engine optimization or SEO:
The process of attracting more visitors through organic search and improving the website’s ranking or position in search engine results. A variety of techniques and strategies can be used in search engine optimization.
SERP or Search-Engine Result Page:
The page displayed after a search query.
CSS or Cascading Style Sheets:
Typically a file containing instructions on how to render or display a webpage on browsers, handheld devices, projectors, etc. A CSS file is usually separate from an HTML page, and can control the styling of the web page without affecting the HTML page. Well-written websites have CSS files that control all the styling of the elements on the page. By keeping the styling markup from the HTML page, CSS files lighten the load of the HTML page, creating a better code-to-text ratio and a quicker download.
JavaScript:
A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems Corporation. It is utilized for many web applications and is an effective language for developing motion elements on the screen like drop-downs, scroll-overs and many other simple animations. Java Script is not readable by search engines at this time.
jQuery:
An open source JavaScript library of common functions and utilities. jQuery allows accelerated development, lightweight footprint, and increased complexity of client-based JavaScript applications. Now the most popular JavaScript library in the world, jQuery allows programmers to provide logical chained methods.
PHP:
Initially “Personal Home Page”, PHP now refers to an open source, C-based, programming and server-sided scripting language used to create dynamic websites and power millions of open source projects today.
MySQL:
An open source relational database management system used in many web applications.
WordPress:
An open source content management system. Initially intended as a blogging system, it’s now one of the most popular platforms.
ColdFusion:
A programming language developed by Adobe, used for a variety of web-based functions including database calls.
Viral marketing:
Content shared widely by a user base at no additional cost to the advertiser (after content was generated). Using an ever-increasing array of media tools like the features on Facebook, users can widely share interesting content with their friends. Viral marketing offers big opportunities for advertisers who generate creative content.