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Search Engine Marketing Glossary

Whether you've been working in search for many years, you are just starting running your first paid search campaign, or you are simply looking to hire a search marketing agency, understanding the terminology is important. We have provided a glossary describing the most important terms you'll need to know.

Analytics	Tracking software that tracks consumer use data for your website. It includes user data (where the user came from, what browsers are being used to see your site) and traffic source (where the users are coming from, what keywords visitors are using to find your website).
Backlinks / Inlinks	The number of links a website has from external sources. When a page links to your site, it is called a backlink, or an inlink.
Black hat SEO	The method of achieving a high rank in search results using illegitimate techniques that are often against the Google guidelines. Often provides short-term gains but can be deemed spam.
Content Newtwork	Allows you to display ads on sites outside of the search engines themselves. These ads are placed on websites that use the same or related keywords that you have targeted. The function is available in the Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing networks.
Google Adwords	A large pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform available to marketers. It displays ads in the Google search results and can provide access to the Google content network.
Linkbait	The method of developing content, whether written, images, videos or software for a site with the view of gathering links to it. This can be the creation of useful, intriguing or controversial content that encourages a user to link to the article.
Meta content	The content you include in the first part of your source code that describe each page of your site. The two most common meta tags are the "keywords" and "description" tages
Organic search	The listings in a search engine that you cannot pay for. Usually appears on the left hand side of the results pages. Sometimes referred to as the nautral search results.
Pay per click (PPC)	Also known as paid search or sponsored links is the method of purchasing paid advertising space on search engines. With pay per click campaigns, you can select which keywords will trigger your ad. You bid against your competitors for exposure on relevant keywords for your business.
Search engine marketing	The umbrella term that covers all forms of marketing using search engines to increase your website’s traffic. There are two search channels: search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)	The name given to a series of techniques that can be used to improve a site’s rank in a search engine’s organic search results. In Google, these are the results on the left hand side of the page, underneath the paid search results.
Social Media Marketing (SMM)	Social media marketing is a relatively new area of internet marketing. This involves placing ads on social media sites - for example facebook. Social media marketing can ensure your content is being seen by the most relevant markets.
White Hat SEO	The method of achieving a high rank in the search engines using legitimate SEO tactics that often match Google codes of conduct.
Yahoo Search Marketing (aka Panama)	The name of the pay-per-click (PPC) platform run by the online publisher network Yahoo. Ads run in Yahoo Search Marketing are displayed across the Yahoo, MSNLive search results and across the Yahoo Search Network.

home > resources > glossary

Search Engine Marketing Glossary

Analytics

Tracking software that tracks consumer use data for your website. It includes user data (where the user came from, what browsers are being used to see your site) and traffic source (where the users are coming from, what keywords visitors are using to find your website).

Backlinks / Inlinks

The number of links a website has from external sources. When a page links to your site, it is called a backlink, or an inlink.

Black hat SEO

The method of achieving a high rank in search results using illegitimate techniques that are often against the Google guidelines. Often provides short-term gains but can be deemed spam.

Content Newtwork

Allows you to display ads on sites outside of the search engines themselves. These ads are placed on websites that use the same or related keywords that you have targeted. The function is available in the Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing networks.

Google Adwords

A large pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform available to marketers. It displays ads in the Google search results and can provide access to the Google content network.

Linkbait

The method of developing content, whether written, images, videos or software for a site with the view of gathering links to it. This can be the creation of useful, intriguing or controversial content that encourages a user to link to the article.

Meta content

The content you include in the first part of your source code that describe each page of your site. The two most common meta tags are the "keywords" and "description" tages

Organic search

The listings in a search engine that you cannot pay for. Usually appears on the left hand side of the results pages. Sometimes referred to as the nautral search results.

Pay per click (PPC)

Also known as paid search or sponsored links is the method of purchasing paid advertising space on search engines. With pay per click campaigns, you can select which keywords will trigger your ad. You bid against your competitors for exposure on relevant keywords for your business.

Search engine marketing

The umbrella term that covers all forms of marketing using search engines to increase your website’s traffic. There are two search channels: search engine optimisation and pay per click marketing.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

The name given to a series of techniques that can be used to improve a site’s rank in a search engine’s organic search results. In Google, these are the results on the left hand side of the page, underneath the paid search results.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media marketing is a relatively new area of internet marketing. This involves placing ads on social media sites -

for example facebook. Social media marketing can ensure your content is being seen by the most relevant markets.

White Hat SEO

The method of achieving a high rank in the search engines using legitimate SEO tactics that often match Google codes of conduct.

Yahoo Search Marketing (aka Panama)

The name of the pay-per-click (PPC) platform run by the online publisher network Yahoo. Ads run in Yahoo Search Marketing are displayed across the Yahoo, MSNLive search results and across the Yahoo Search Network.