AdSense

A contextual advertising program by Google

AdWords

A system to advertise on Google & partner sites on a CPC (cost per click) basis.

Algorithm

A mathematical formula used by search engines to catalogue and determine relevancy for a search query. Search engine algorithms change constantly to thwart the efforts of Search Engine Optimizers who use Black Hat techniques in hopes of gaining top positioning.

Affiliate

Someone who establishes a business that is in-between the original manufacturer and the end customer. Often one who drives customers to a retailer and is paid a percentage of the sale.

Auto Bidding

A type of keyword bidding in which an advertiser sets a maximum bid for a specific keyword but may pay less for each click through of that keyword. For example, if Advertiser A bid $0.10 on a keyword, but the next highest bid (Advertiser B) on that keyword is $0.05, then Advertiser A will pay only $0.06 for each click through. However, if Advertiser B changes his/her bid from $0.05 to $0.09, then Advertiser A will pay the full $0.10 (Advertiser A's maximum bid) for each click through.

Bid Gap

A Bid Gap is the difference between what you are currently paying for a click and the minimum you need to pay to still remain above your next highest competitor in the search results.

Bid Jam

Jamming a Competitor such that he pays the maximum amount that he is bidding

Bid War

A situation where all the advertisers compete for the top slots by bidding the same maximum CPC

Blog

A self-published, managed and maintained internet diary. Typically updated daily or weekly. Companies now use blogs as a vehicle to extend their brand and improve their organic search saturation..

Browser

Program that displays web pages from the Internet to your computer. The most popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. There are many other types of browsers such as Mozilla’s Fire Fox which are not attached as much by viruses..

Budget

The amount of money that an advertiser sets aside for an advertising campaign. Different publishers allow for advertisers to set daily, weekly or monthly budgets.

Click Index

Scoring system to help understand the performance of our listings as compared to the competitor.

Click-Through

When a user selects a hyper text link. The Click refers to the noise an input mouse makes when a button is depressed. The through refers to the act of going "through" the link. Many web statistics are kept on click-throughs (sometimes abbreviated as Click-Thru). Some advertising systems are based on paying sites when someone actually Clicks-Thru to a new site.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The percentage of searchers who click on an ad vs. how many time the ad is actually shown.. This number is determined by dividing actual clicks by impressions (how many times that ad is shown).

Click Tracking

The use of scripts in order to track inbound and outbound links.

Content Match

A lead source that displays listings when users are viewing related content on a partner site page

Conversion Rate

The relationship between visitors to sales or actions. If 1 person out of 100 purchases a sites product, it has a conversion rate of 1 to 100 or 1%.

Conversions

When a customer clicks an ad and then makes a purchase within the same session that the click took place. Conversions can be recorded in different ways - some PPC accounts only measure the amount of contacts instead of actual sales made.

Cookie

Information that is downloaded by your browser from a web site and stored in a folder for future reference by that website. The information in the cookie can be used to customize the web site on the users return visit, such as targeted advertising and displaying the most relevant products.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

What the advertiser pays for a specified action such as a purchase.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

With this you are charged for every click your link on someone's website receives.

CPC Services

The art of managing ppc accounts and placement through bidding.

Cost Per Thousand. (CPM)

What an advertiser pays for each 1000 impressions.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

The % which people click on a link when displayed on a page. If a page is viewed 10 times and a visitor clicks once, then the CTR is 10%

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Destination URL

The page a user is directed to once the ad or hypertext link is clicked.

Directories

A Search Engine where that gathers and reviews all submitted listings by humans rather than an algorithim. The largest and most popular directory site is Yahoo!

Display URL

A display URL is the web address that will be shown to viewers.

Domain Name

A domain name is a registered address for a web site such as www.parallelpath.com.

Fast Track

Overture’s bid management program.

Frame

Frames divide a web page into sections that have scroll bars and can scroll independently of each other. Frames are one method of organizing a web page but are not SEO friendly and thus aren’t used very often.

Geo Targeting

An advertisement targeted at a specific geographical region, area or location

Google

The leading Search Engine.

Hypertext MarkUp Language (HTML)

A simple programming language used to create web pages which happens to be the most effective language for Search Engine Optimization.. HTML is the underlying code for most web pages on the Internet. Browser reads this code and display the text and images that make up the page.

Hyperlink

A piece of text or picture on a website page that when clicked delivers the user to another web page.

Inbound Link (IBL)

A text or graphical link from one site to another usually containing a popular keyword for the site its directed at.. Google, Yahoo, & MSN algorithms base a site’s popularity on the quality & quantity of inbound links from relevant third party sites helping to determine natural search ranking.

Index

The collection of information (contained in a large database) a search engine has that searchers can query against. With crawler-based search engines, the index is typically copies of all the web pages they have found from crawling the web. With human-powered directories, the index contains the summaries of all web sites that have been categorized.

Internet Protocol (IP)

The underlying protocol used for transferring information over the Internet.

IP Address

The Internet Protocol (IP) address is an underlying numerical address for domain names. The user sees the domain name but the computer uses the underlying IP address. IP addresses are made up of four sets of numbers (443.74.37.143). The first two numbers are for the institutional network, the third number represents the local network and the last is for the individual computer. Every computer must have a unique address. When you connect to the Internet your local service provider will assign you your own IP address.

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

A company that provides connections to the Internet..

Impression

The number of times an ad is displayed on Google, Yahoo, or MSN or other advertising websites

Java

A Sun Microsystems developed programming language often used for Internet related applications.

Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG or JPG)

A graphic file format. JPEG pictures can be created in most graphics applications. JPEGs are used for more complex images.

Keyword

A word or phrase that is typed into a search engine also reffered to as a search query. Keyword mainly refers to popular words which relate to a website

Keyword Phrase

Refers to two or more keywords combined to form a search query.

Keyword Research

Doing research on a single keyword to find its relatives and related keywords. This is often done to find the highest producing keywords

Keyword Search

A search for documents containing one or more words that are specified by a user.

Landing Page

The specific web page that a visitor lands on after clicking a payperclick ad.. Often, this page is optimized for a specific keyword term or phrase.

Landing Page Design & Development

The act of designing and developing a page often used specifically for ppc advertising that is optimized for a specific keyword or group of keywords with the hope of increasing conversions and decreasing a websites bounce rate. To find out how Parallel Path can help you increase conversions click

Manual Bidding

Monitoring or Updating your bids Manually.

Match Types

Match Type or Keyword matching options are different methods of targeting your ads to users.

Maximum Bid

The Maximum amount an advertiser is willing to pay for each click on an ad.

Maximum Cost Per Click (CPC)

The Maximum price that you pay when a user Clicks on your ad.

Meta Tags

META tags are placed in the HTML code of a web page. They are used to describe a page and be used as a simple easy way to define properties of a page. Each META tag has an attribute and a value.

Minimum Bid

This is the minimum amount of money that you are willing to pay for a single click on an ad.

Natural Search / Organic Search

Search results that are shown due to relevancy to the search terms, not by sponsored placement. Also referred to as "organic", "natural" or "algorithmic" search

Negative Keywords

These are filtering words. If your keywords contain a negative keyword, and that word is included in a search term, your ad will not show.

Organic Listings

The Free listings that are displayed in the Search Engine are called Organic Listings

Organic Search Engine Optimization

The study and execution of implementing highly specialized techiniques for improving a web pages ranking in the natural search listings in Search Engines such as Google, MSN, & Yahoo.

Outbound Links

Links on a web page leading to other web pages on a different URL..

Overture

A Yahoo! owned PPC company. As well as providing Yahoo! with their PPC listings they also supply several other search engines and portals with PPC listings such as MSN

Page View

The number of times a page is viewed

Page Rank

A Google based ranking system that ranks the validity of website pages against its algorithm. Pages are given ranking of 1-10.

Paid Search Engine Management (link to landing page & opt page)

The business of managing a companies paid search marketing efforts. Can include pay per click, shopping engines, paid placement, banner ads, etc…

PayPerClick Management

An individual or a company who manages payperclick advertising accounts established with such companies as Google, MSN, & Yahoo.

PayPerClick (PPC)

Pay-Per-Click search engines charge websites on a per click basis.

PPC Bid Management

The art of managing ppc accounts and placement through bidding.

PPC Campaign Analysis

The practice of analyzing an existing payperclick advertising account in hopes of improving its conversions, CTR, and ROI. A service offered by Parallel Path.

Premium Listings

The listings in Search Engine advertisers pay for every click the ad receives.

Rank

How well a particular web page or web site is listed in a search engine or advertising results.

Reciprocal Link

The act of trading links with another website. Used to be a very effective way of building page rank but has been decreasing in effectiveness. Reciprocal linking is still a great way to build free traffic.

Return On Investment (ROI)

When referred to in the context of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), ROI refers to numerical, percentage or ratio of revenue generated over total cost of initiatives.. ROI often factors in paid search and associated management costs, but can generate a more complete analysis by factoring in profit (real cost). If ROI is measuring PPC advertising only, it is often referred to as Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

Real Simple Syndication (RSS)

RSS is a fairly new and easy way to distribute content via the web. For email marketers, it is a way to distribute messages and avoid spam filters. RSS applications include email newsletters, blogs & even Websites. RSS feeds require a special “reader” to view its content.

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Search Engine Submission

The act of submitting specific domains or URL’s to search engines like Google, MSN and Yahoo! to ensure the web page gets crawled or indexed.

Search Engines

There are hundreds of millions of web pages on the Internet. A search engine is an Internet based program for searching the Internet for ones on particular topics. Usually you type in a keyword or a series of keywords into the search engine and it goes and finds the web pages that are most relevant to those keywords.

Search Term

The words that are typed into a search engine search box. Also called Search Words, Keywords, and Queries

SEM/SEO/SEP

Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Search Engine Placement all refer to boosting your website ranking high in the results of popular search engine queries.

Server

A computer dedicated to serving information to client computers or other hardware.

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

Protocol used for sending e-mail.

Spiders

Computer robot programs, referred to sometimes as "crawlers" are used by search engines to search the World Wide Web via the Internet, visit sites, databases, and keep the search engines database of web pages up to date.

Traffic

The visitors to a website.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

A URL is the address of a web page.

Web Server

A computer, which is permanently online and is used to host web pages for the Internet.

Yahoo!

An internet portal, directory, and search engine.