Glossary of terms used

Not familiar with some of the terms used on this site? Look them up in our alphabetically ordered glossary. Still can’t figure out something? Make an enquiry and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Algorithm: the set of criteria a Search Engine uses to determine the relevancy of a specific web document to a specific keyword or key phrase. More relevant documents rank higher in the search results for the keyword or key phrase.

Bulk visitors: untargeted and undifferentiated visitors sold in bulk in the form of page views. Buying bulk visitors is a very low cost way of getting traffic to you site but it’s also very ineffective because the traffic in totally untargeted.

CGI: Common Gateway Interface. This is the part of your web space where web-based executable files (programs), usually referred to as scripts, are stored.

Conversion rate: each time a visitor to your site takes action (completes a form or makes a purchase are the two most typical actions) that’s a conversion. The conversion rate is the average number of conversions over a given period of time, divided by the average total number of visitors over the same period of time, usually expressed as a percentage.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. The method to transfer web files into the web space of a Client. This is needed to upload the pages we create to your server (host), so they can be served to a visitor.

Geo-targeting: driving relevant traffic from a specific geographical location to a web site.

Index page: the home page of a web site. The website’s web space is configured to serve up this page when the main domain name is called.

Indexing: the process of cataloguing web documents by Search Engines. Web pages that aren’t included in a given Search Engine’s index cannot be included in its search results.

Keyword (key phrase): keywords are used by Search Engine surfers to find the information (web pages) they are looking for. Most surfers need to combine several keywords into a key phrase, to narrow down the search.

Offline: outside the Internet. Usually meaning printed press, radio and television.

Pay per Click (PPC): a form of advertising whereby the advertiser only pays when an Internet user clicks on the advertiser’s advert(s).

PayPal: the world’s largest third party credit card processor. PayPal applies no monthly fees or set-up fees.

Ranking: the position of a web page that’s included in a Search Engine’s search results page, on that same results page. The higher the position, the more traffic the web page will receive from searchers.

Search Marketing: short for Search Engine marketing. A method of marketing and advertising by making sure a web page(s) is included in a Search Engine’s search results.

Semantics: in a general sense; “significant meaning”. In our context, used to indicate that a particular text is truly relevant to its subject matter. Search Engines use semantic understanding to determine the relevancy of a particular web page to the keywords to which it pertains to be relevant.

Spamdexing: the process of trying to manipulate a Search Engine’s ranking of web pages, by various means of spam.

Spider: the software Search Engines use to find documents on the Internet by following hyperlinks. Also known as crawlers, robots or bots.

Targeted: in our context, a targeted visitors is a visitor that’s actively looking for web content on your website.

Traffic: in our context, a stream of visitors to your website.

Web space: where the files that make up web pages are stored. Web space is normally provided by a server or host.