Glossary

above the fold — Positioned in the top half of a page for prominence and visibility. This is a holdover from the print world, when newspaper editors aimed for placing the most important stories in the upper half of the front page of a broadsheet so they’d still be visible even when the newspaper was folded. On a webpage, the best placement is also said to be above the fold, meaning that a user doesn’t need to scroll down to see it.

active traffic — The people who visit search engines and actively search for specific keywords or key phrases. Because they’re already actively searching, all you need to do is place your brand in their path. That’s why search engine marketing (SEM) works well as a performance marketing vehicle. Using “long-tail” search terms, you can target people who are farther along in the sales cycle or decision path.

app — Application software running on a computer, a mobile device or other platform (for example, an iPhone or Facebook.) App is really a generic term for any standalone bit of software.

backlinks — Inbound links pointing to a webpage on your site, either from pages on other domains or from other pages of your own site.

conversion rate — The number of visits to a website that result in a sale, a subscription, a request for information or other desired action. This is often expressed as a percentage. For example, if a web site has 50 visitors and 10 of them convert, then the site has a 20% conversion rate.

CPA — Cost-per-acquisition or cost-per-action. CPA may refer to the cost of acquiring a customer or it may describe a pricing model where what online advertisers pay is based on the number of qualifying actions (when a visitor completes a sale, subscription, registration or other desired action.) When used in the latter sense, a CPA is a unit cost.

CPC — Cost-per-click. The unit cost in a PPC (price per click) pricing model where an advertiser pays whenever someone clicks on a link leading to their website.

CPM — Cost-per-mille. This means the cost-per-thousand ad impressions (literally, cost per mille with the M coming from the Latin word for thousand.) A CPM pricing model is a system where advertisers pay for the number of times an ad is viewed. The unit cost is typically expressed not as a price for a single impression but as a price per thousand impressions because ad views are often sold in blocks of 1,000. CPM pricing originated with print advertising, but also applies to broadcast media, direct marketing and online advertising.

CTR — Click-through rate. This is the percentage of people who see a link and click on it. Typically, only immediate responses are counted, so CTR may not reflect the cumulative effect if there are delayed responses (meaning that someone sees a link and goes to that URL directly later.)

creative — When used in a noun form refers to the creative components of an ad: typically, the copy and the images.

house list — The list of users who have signed up to receive email communications from you. This is typically a permission-based list where users have opted to join. You can use your house list to nurture customer relationships, market, cross-sell or up-sell.

impression — A single ad view. Note that cost per impression is generally expressed not as a unit cost for a single impression, but rather as a cost per thousand impressions (see CPM.)

keyword — A word used in a search engine query. The amount of traffic a page gets from search depends to some extent on how relevant the page content is to the keywords used in search queries. A keyword phrase is simply a multi-word phrase used as a search term.

keyword density — The number of keywords that appear on a page expressed as a percentage of the total number of indexable words on the page.

keyword research — The process of investigating what keywords are appropriate for a site and analyzing which may yield the highest return.

landing page — The specific webpage a user is sent to when they click on a link. Attempts to improve conversion rates often involve testing different landing pages to see which perform best.

metadata — Information placed in the code of a webpage (using metatags) in order to pass information to search engines and browser software that describes the page. This typically includes a page title, a page description and keywords. Metadata is rarely seen by customers and prospects visiting a site.

opt in — Choosing explicitly to join a mailing list or permit mailings to be sent to you.

re-tweet (RT) — Pass along a Twitter message that someone else posted originally, usually giving credit to the original poster.

ROI — Return on investment. This refers to the profit generated by an activity expressed as a percentage of cost. For example, if the total cost of a pay-per-click campaign was $200 and the revenue generated by the campaign was $1000, then the ROI of the campaign would be 500% ($1000 profit divided by a $200 investment multiplied by 100.)

search algorithm — A set of rules used by a search engine to determine the order of the results returned for a specific query. The reason that search results can vary depending on which search engine you’re using is that each search engine develops its own unique search algorithms.

seeding — Typically this refers to a strategy of increasing visibility by leaving comments, links, or other entries in blogs, forums and other online venues. Seeding can also refer to a particular kind of online outreach that seeks to engage the individuals behind influential blogs, but that’s a less common meaning.

SEM — Search engine marketing. This includes both natural search (the organic results of a search) and paid search (paid advertising that appears on search engine results pages.)

SKU — Stock keeping unit. An acronym that refers to an alphanumeric identifier used for specific products stocked by a retailer or wholesaler.

URL — Uniform resource locator. The address of a specific webpage (not just the overall domain.)

UX — User experience. This encompasses all aspects of an end-user’s interaction with a company, its products or services. In a more limited usage, user experience can also refer specifically to the experience of a digital environment (like a website or software application.)