Search and Social Media Glossary

This glossary of terms is about Search – and everything related. It is designed to help those that are new to this industry get a better understanding of the terminology. Below you will find a list of terms, definitions and industry acronyms in alphabetical order.

Anchor Text
Anchor text is the visible information in the clickable section of a link.

Avatars
Avatars are graphical representations of a user’s self or alter ego. Avatars can be used in blogs, forums and popular in online gaming sites.
See also “Blogs”.

Backlinks (BLs)
Backlinks, also known as inbound links (IBLs), are links to your website, blog or online profile. They send web traffic from referring sites as well as build your credibility with search engines.

Black Hat SEO
A Black Hat SEO optimizes a website using unethical techniques – also known as search engine spammers. This can result in getting a site banned by the search engines.
See also “White Hat SEO”.

Blogs
Blogs are frequently updated online journals that often appear in chronological order.

Blogosphere
The blogosphere is the total “atmosphere” in which all blogs and bloggers are found.
See also “Blogs”.

Buzz Monitoring
The process of tracking, monitoring and managing what consumers are saying about your company on Social Media sites.
See also “Social Media”.

Click Through Rate (CTR)
The click through rate is the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad appears.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
The cost-per-click is the amount search engines charge advertisers for a click on their paid search ad.
See also “Pay-Per-Click”.

CPC
CPC is an acronym for Cost-Per-Click. It is also commonly known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC).
See also “Pay-Per-Click”.

CTR
CTR is an acronym for Click Through Rate.

Digg
Digg is a Social Media site where people discover, share and recommend content from anywhere on the web through links and stories. Content is then voted and commented on by other users. Highly voted content is referred to as “digging” and poorly voted content is known as “burying”. The most popular (or most Dugg) stories appear on the homepage.

Facebook
Undoubtedly the most popular Social Media site with over 250 million active users, Facebook allows users to connect with friends, send messages, post videos and pictures, create events and much more.

Flickr
Flickr is a Social Media site that specializes in photo and video sharing. It is very popular among photographers and is often used as an outlet for bloggers to post their images and videos.
See also “Blogs”.

Friends
Most Social Media sites, such as Facebook, allow users to become friends with others. By becoming friends, users can view their friends’ content, profiles, and activity. Other Social Media sites use different terminology for this feature. LinkedIn for example calls them “Connections” while Twitter refers to them as “Followers”.
See also “Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter”.

Hashtags
Hashtags are used by putting a hashmark(#) in front of a word to tag it as a keyword. Hashtags are often used to search specific topics discussed in Tweets on Twitter.
See also “Tags, Tweets, Twitter”.

Inbound Links (IBLs)
See “Backlinks”.

Keyword / Keyword Phrase
A keyword is the word a search engine user types into a search engine’s search box. Also known as search term, query term or query. The term for two or more keywords is Keyword Phrase.

Landing Page
A landing page, also known as a destination page, is the first web page on a site that a web visitor lands on.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional Social Networking site that basically acts as an online resume allowing users to post past and current work experience, education credentials, make connections and even personal recommendations from other LinkedIn users.

Lurker
A Lurker is someone who reads Social Media content but rarely participates or contributes. It is estimated that lurkers make up over 90% of online groups. Lurking often occurs due to a lack of online trust.

Meta Description
Meta description is the text (usually in summary format) that is placed within the non-visible section of a website to describe to the search engines what the web page is about.

Microblogging
Microblogging are basically really short blog posts. Tweets on Twitter are often used as examples of microblogging.
See also “Blogs, Tweets, Twitter”.

Network
Facebook allows users to join networks. Networks are broad social groupings such as cities, workplaces, schools and regions.
See also “Facebook”.

“On Page” SEO
“On Page” Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing your site for search by revising page titles, headings, content, and by placing your selected keywords (in the right place), to improve search engine rankings.

Page Rank (PR)
Page Rank is a method developed by Google to help identify the importance of a web page. The higher the PR number (ranges from 0 – 10), the better a page generally ranks in a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). A major contributing factor is number and quality of inbound links. PR is only one of the many factors in the algorithm used to determine the ranking of a web page.

Pay For Inclusion (PFI)
Pay For Inclusion is payment made to search engines or company listing service be included in search results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
PPC is an Internet advertising method whereby advertisers pay only when their ad is clicked on and web visitors go to their site. PPC search engine ads (such as Google AdWords) are driven by keyword searches that are bid on by the advertiser.
See “Cost-Per-Click”.

PFI
PFI is an acronym for Pay For Inclusion.

Podcast
Podcasts are audio or video files that can be downloaded automatically through a subscription to a website so you can view or listen offline. Podcasts were made popular by the iTunes Store which offers a variety of podcasts from radio programs, to stand up comedy to full-length movies.

Profiles
Most Social Media sites allow users to create their own personal profile. These profiles often provide personal information such as name, age, occupation, education, interests, etc. Profiles also often feature a profile picture that can be posted by the user.

Retweets
A Retweet occurs when somebody copies a Tweet from someone in their network and shares it with their network. Retweeting causes important and valuable information to be spread into other various networks. This phenomenon represents the most viral aspect of Twitter.
See also “Tweets, Twitter”.

RSS Feeds
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. These feeds allows users to subscribe to content on blogs and other Social Media sites and have it delivered to you through a feed without actually visiting the site.
See also “Blogs”.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing is a general term that encompasses the entire field of search visibility. It is a form of Internet marketing focused on improving website ranking in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the organic ranking position of a website in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). It can also be described as getting the desired results from organic search. It falls under the term of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in the search visibility field.

Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
Search Engine Results Pages refers to the web pages displayed after a search engine user performs a keyword/phrase query.

SEP
SEP is an acronym for Search Engine Placement.

SERM
SERM is acronym for Search Engine Reputation Management.

Snippet(s)
Snippets appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) as natural listings. They are based on a web search query. A snippet includes a title, summary and a web link.

Social Media
Social Media is online communication, or web-based conversations, that are centered on user interaction within unique communities around shared interests.

Splash Page
A splash page is a web page that is an introductory page (also known as a pre-home page). Splash pages typically either display a large graphic or a Flash animation. You need to click this page to “enter” the site or you are redirected after a Flash demo is completed.

Tags
Tags can have many meanings in Social Media. Often times they are simply keywords selected by the creator attached to an item such as a blog post to help readers search and sort through the content. On Facebook however, tags are used to indicate individuals in pictures, videos and notes. Twitter often uses Hashtags to identify keywords.
See also “Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Hashtags“.

Title Tag
Title tag, also known as website title, appears in the title bar of a web browser. This is what your web visitor will see when they launch your site. This title is also what is captured when they bookmark your site. It is also commonly what appears as a title in natural listings on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Tweets
Tweets are short, 140-character answers to the question “What are you doing” asked by Twitter, a popular Social Media site. These responses can be viewed on an individual’s home page, as well as by all of their followers. Tweets can be answered via the web, instant messaging or text messaging, making it very easy for subscribers to use.
See also “Twitter”.

Twitter
Twitter is a free online Social Networking site that allows users to connect with one another and communicate using real-time short messages, known as Tweets.
See also “Tweets”.

Unique Visitors
Unique visitors represents the number of visitors to your website, counting each one only once, within a specified time period. Web analytics is the software used to capture and collect this web traffic data.

URL
URL is an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator. It is also commonly known as a web address.

Vimeo
Vimeo is a video-driven Social Media site that allows embedding, sharing, video storage, and user-commenting on each video page. As opposed to YouTube, Vimeo caters to a higher-end, more artistic crowd with a higher bitrate, resolution and HD support and does not allow any obscene videos or commercials
See also “YouTube”.

Viral Video
A viral video is an online video clip that gains widespread popularity through a variety of Social Media outlets such as Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube and blogs. Viral videos are often referred to as word of mouth marketing as their popularity is often determined by the audience spreading the information to others.
See also “Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, Blogs”.

Vlogs
Vlog is a term used to describe a video blog. Unlike normal blogs which are generally text based, vlogs complete the same goal in video format.
See also “Blogs”.

Web Analytics
Web analytics is the technology approach to capturing and collecting web traffic data. The primary focus of this type of analytics is to analyze the behavior of website visitors. This analysis can be used to improve a website or an Internet marketing campaign.

White Hat SEO
A White Hat SEO optimizes a website using ethical techniques that adhere to search engine guidelines.
See also “Black Hat SEO”.

Wiki
A Wiki is a website that easily allows creation and editing of content on a series of inter-linked web pages. Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia created by tens of thousands of worldwide users, is probably the most well known wiki.

YouTube
YouTube is a free online Social Media site that allows users to upload and share videos with other user.

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