Our dictionary of Search Engine marketing terms:

Competitor Buster

Some Pay-Per-Click advertisers simply set a high max bid so that they can maintain position without constantly updating their bids i.e. creating a bid gap. However they usually only pay £0.01 above the max bid below. Competitor Buster is our method for forcing your competitors to pay their max bid, compelling them to bid sensibly, or pay through their nose. See also Gap Surfing.

Gap Surfing

Gap Surfing is our technique used when managing Pay-Per-Click campaigns. Instead of bidding for position, we place listings in the position which has the largest big gap in the market - usually within the top 5 positions.

By constantly analysing bid gaps 24/7, our method is dramtically more efficient. For competive markets e.g travel, we have reduced campaign costs by a much 50% with hardly any difference in visitor numbers. See also Competitor Buster.

Link Management

A system used to exchange links (reciprocate) with other web sites. We actively procure high quality, relevant links to increase your link popularity and Page Rank. Linking sites must continually adhere to our guidelines, be Search Engine visible and maintain reciprocation. See also Page Rank.

Link Popularity

The number of pages that link to a particular page. This can be pages from within the same site, or pages from other web sites. The latter is more important. See also Page Rank.

Organic Search Engines

These are the well known traditional search sites that use automated programs called "spiders" or "robots" to index (reference) a website based on its content. The information indexed goes into large databases - effectively an Internet roadmap. You submit your web page to a search engine and the spider will attempt to index your entire site. You can influence the ranking of your site by utilising web page optimisation techniques. However, you can not buy position. Almost all organic Search Engines now also include Pay-Per-Click listings (see next definition).

Example organic engines include Google, Yahoo, Inktomi, AskJeeves/Teoma, Mirago, InfoSpace.

See our Search Engine relationship chart.

PageRank

A term from Google, PageRank (PR) relies on link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value i.e. popularity. It can be generally said that the higher the PR of a page, the higher it will appear in the results of a Google search for a relevant query.

However, it is not just the volume of links (analogous to votes) a page receives that improves PageRank. Google also analyses the page that 'casts' the vote (makes the link). For example, how many other pages does that page also link to, apart from yours?. Votes cast by pages that are themselves 'important' (re: Search Engine visible) weigh more heavily and help to make other pages important. Conversely, linking to a site that is practicing unethical techniques (trying to cheat at getting a high PR) will harm your site.

Pay-Per-Click Search Engines (PPC)

PPC Search Engines are Search Engines that serve up sponsored listings on their own results pages as well as to other search engines. Typically 3-5 featured listings are included at the top, or to the side, of an organic results page.

When a visitors' search includes these keywords the featured listings are listed in order of value, so that the highest bid for that particular keyword is ranked #1, the second highest bid #2 and so on. There are no page optimising techniques to worry about and your listing can be active within 3-5 working days of opening an account. One misconception is that the advertiser is paying to be 'placed' in the number 1 position. In fact the advertiser is only billed if a visitor actually clicks on their link and visits their site, hence the name Pay-Per-Click. See also Organic Search Engines, PPC Management.

Example PPC engines include Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing), Google AdWords and MIVA.

See your Search Engine relationship chart.

PPC Management

PPC Search Engines allow advertisers to pay (bid against other advertisers) for keywords - see the definition for PPC Search Engines. The PPC model is great for getting you instant traffic. However without proper management, you either pay through the nose for your visitors, or you get left behind by your competition.

Our independent PPC management service uses sophisticated 'Gap Surfing' techniques, not available on the PPC Search Engines themselves, to get the best performance from your accounts. For one client, we literally halved their online budget overnight - without any loss of sales!

See also Organic Search Engines, PPC Search Engines, Gap Surfing, Competitor Buster.

Search Directories

Human reviewed category listings that rely on submissions from site owners - the electronic version of the Yello Pages. However, there is no guarantee your site will be included and which category and what text is used to describe your site is the responsibility of the reviewer. However optimisation techniques can still be used to improve ranking.

Example directoriess include Yahoo Directory, DMOZ and LookSmart.

See your Search Engine relationship chart.

Search Engine Marketing

The service of promoting a website with the Internet Search Engines using a variety of techniques. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a 'black art'. Yes, it is technical and requires programming skills, logical thought and good data analysis. However it still uses real world marketing principals (i.e. good headline writing, good content/copy etc.) that is applied in a technical way.

The difficulty lies in the fact that Search Engines do not publish a rule book on how to gain a good position. Therefore a lot of work goes into 'reverse engineering' results to understand the process. Hence the need for good web analytics.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The on-going re-structuring of html content of a web page/site i.e. one part of the Search Engine Marketing process. The process requires the careful re-writing of content from a Search Engine's point of view. Our analogy is that of a newspaper editor writing content for his/her front page in order to engage the reader - consider a Search Engine as a special type of visitor. In that way a Search Engine will rank the page highly for relevant searches.

See also Search Engine Marketing.

Search Engine Promotion

See also Search Engine Marketing.

Web Analytics

Data capture and reporting to  measure web site traffic and online behaviour of your visitors, thus providing you with in-depth knowledge about your traffic patterns. Web analytics is provided via our Google Analytics data centre, which allows you to make business sense out of your visitor behaviour and therefore provides foundations to help you optimise your website for usability and calculate an ROI.

Website Accessibility

See Website Usability.

Web Site Promotion

Often this is simply the same the definition as for Search Engine Marketing. However it can also mean the marketing of your web site using all media types. For example, Search Engines, email marketing, banner advertising, radio, TV broadcasts etc.

Website Usability

The visitor experience of your site. This should be optimised for a particular 'goal' or call-to-action (CTA) e.g. a purchase, a brochure request, or simply to view a certain page. A visitor should be able to get to any page on your web site within 3 mouse clicks. Page downloads should always be optimised for speed - regardless of broadband coverage.