Glossary
A
AdWords: The advertising elements of Google search.
Affiliate: In the case of online marketing, a marketer who recruits persons to their website in
the hope of selling the consumer exchange for a commission from a third party.
Affiliate Network: A group consisting of sellers and marketers who are joined by a third party
(the Affiliate Network) to bring products and/or services to the consumer.
Analytics: Any and all analysis provided to you by your Affiliate Network, by Google AdWords
or by an online advertising network. Analytics provides numeric analysis of ad campaigns,
weeks/months comparisons, etc. Analytics refers to all the data you might receive from any
source that shows you the number of conversions, the number of clicks, and more.
B
Back end: The “behind the scenes” pages of your website. Every page of your website has a
back end that needs to be properly “optimised” in order to get the highest search engine ranking.
Black Hat: SEO tactics that are considered negative by search engines in that they try to
redirect traffic in a manner that is not natural or preferred for quality traffic. Such tactics
include keyword stuffing, hidden links and pages, and unnatural redirects. Sites that use these
tactics are at risk of being removed by Google or other search engines.
Bots: Website crawlers that scan the web for the purpose of indexing it. The results of this
indexing form the basis of organic search results.
C
Content: Articles, videos, graphics, etc. on your site that is aimed at helping the consumer.
This content not only helps the consumer, but by posting keywords in the content (and on the
back end) it allows the search engines to find you and to rate your site. The better content you
have, the higher your organic SERP will be.
Conversion: A sale. When a consumer comes to your site and purchases a product, they are
said to have “converted.”
CPC – Cost per Click: The cost to PPC advertisers for a consumer to click on their page
CPM – Cost per thousand: The cost of 1,000 people viewing a web page.
D
Domain: The website name.
Duplicate content: Content that appears on more than one site. It is desirous that you post
original content on your website. The search engine ranking systems penalize duplicate content.
E
EPL – Earnings per Lead: The amount of money earned per lead.
External Links: Links that connect to content outside of your own website.
F
Footer: Generally, the very bottom of every page on a website which often, but not always,
contains disclaimers and links to all departments (categories) on the website.
G
H
Hyperlink: A link to another web page. It may be another page on your site, or it may “link” to
an entirely different site. It is used to make navigation on your own site easier, and in the case
of linking to a different site, it often acts as a “footnote.” In creating your content, you may
“quote” from a source, and linking to that source is considered good practice.
I
Inbound Links: Links that come from another website to your site. These are considered
strong indications that your site is a quality site according to the various search engines. The
search engines are getting better at finding fake links.
Internal Links: Links to other content (pages) on your own website. Marketers often use
these to make site navigation easier for the visitor.
J
K
Keyword: Words or phrases that people search for on the web. As a marketer, you will use
these in your content to attract search engines and ultimately the searcher. For example, if I live
in Los Angeles and am looking for a florist, I might search for “florist LA.” Websites with this
keyword will more than likely show up at the top of the organic search result.
L
Lender: The provider of funds, which are paid back in either increments or a lump sum.
Link Farm: An old, now discredited, method of gaining inbound links. These were sites where
you could buy links to your site. Search engines penalize sites that use this practice to gain
inbound links.
Long Tail (search): Searches with more than two or three words. Searches use these when
they are looking for something very specific that one or two words can’t describe. Marketers’ use
hyperlinks on these longer keyword phrases in an effort to come up first in an organic search in
a less competitive keyword arena.
For example, if I’m looking for a particular kind of insurance in my neighborhood, I might
search for something like this: “commercial insurance in Canton Maryland.” Because there are
many different “Cantons,” it’s important to add the state, so that my search will be accurate. An
insurance agency with those keywords will likely come up first in my search.
M
Merchant: The seller, who in our case is the lender.
Meta Tag(s): Words or phrases that appear in the header of a web page. These help search
engines find and rank your site.
N
Negative keyword: Words or phrases that keep your ad from showing when the searcher uses
them.
O
Optimize (or optimization): The process of creating your website and its content to be read
by search engine bots. Without this, search engines are unaware of your website and its
contents.
Organic search: The non-paid search result. To use Google search as an example, the paid
ads appear at the top and to the right of the page. Below the paid ads are the non-paid or
organic listings.
P
Page Rank: The page number of search results. Can be found at the bottom of the search
results page. The lower the number (1 is best,) the better the result.
PPC – Pay Per Click: Type of internet marketing where advertisers pay a small fee to the
search engine each time someone clicks on their ads.
Platform: What the hardware or software runs on. The platform can be described as the
“bone” of the hardware or the program you are running.
Q
R
Redirect Links: A link that sends the visitor to a different page.
ROI – Return on Investment: The amount of money earned against the amount of
advertising and/or marketing dollars spent. This is often used in comparing AdWords
campaigns to study effectiveness.
S
SEO – Search Engine Optimization: The process of coding a website and its pages to rank
better on search engines. It focuses on keyword optimization.
SERP – Search Engine Results Placement: The position a site appears on organic search
results.
T
TdotUK: One United Network
Traffic: The number of visitors to your site and to its various pages. This process is extremely
important so you can study how your site is performing. For example, is it getting more visitors
than a month ago? A year ago?
It’s important to know what pages get the most traffic so that you can see which pages are
leading to the most conversions. This will allow you to figure out which pages need some
content updates and which should be left alone.
Title Tag: The title at the top of the web page. It’s the main way search engines find and index
your site.
U
V
W
Webmaster: The party or parties who are responsible for a website.
White Hat SEO: SEO tactics that are industry accepted.
X
Y
Z
Other:
301 Redirect: A permanent redirect of a webpage. A search engine ignores the redirect page
and reads the new page.
