D
database
an integrated collection of logically related records or files consolidated into a common pool which provides data for various applications
dayparting
Turning ad campaigns on or off, changing ad bid price, or budget constraints based on bidding more when your target audience is available and less when they are less likely to be available.
dead link
A link which is no longer functional.
dedicated server
One server which exclusively serves one website or a small collection of websites owned by a single person.
deep linking
Linking to a web page other than a site’s home page is called ‘deep linking’ and is a good way to show search engines that your site has a variety of original content, that is being accessed directly rather than through the links from your home page.
deep link ratio
The ratio of links pointing to internal pages to overall links pointing at a website
default page
The default page setting should be set to whatever the default (or index) page is in your site’s directories. Usually, this will be ‘index.html’, but on Windows IIS servers, it is often ‘Default.htm’ or ‘index.htm’. This information allows Google Analytics to reconcile log entries such as ‘http://www.example.com/’ and ‘http://www.example.com/index.html’, which are in fact the same page. Without the Default Page information entered correctly, these would be reported as two distinct pages. Only a single default page should be specified
delegation
The process of assigning name servers to a domain name.
de-listing
Temporarily or permanently becoming de-indexed from a directory or search engine.
demographics
Statistical data or characteristics which define segments of a population.
description
A short piece of descriptive text to describe a web page or website. With most search engines, they gain this information primarily from the meta data element of a web page. Directories approve or edit the description based on the submission that is made for a particular URL. Search engines typically display 150 characters from the description tag, so descriptions should include very specific, keyword-rich writing.
DHTML
Dynamic Htpertyext Markup Langugage
Digg
Social news site where users vote on which stories get the most exposure and become the most popular. Calls itself “the homepage of the internet”.
directory
An index of websites based mainly on human editing and categorization. In most cases the content is submitted to the directory, the editorial team will then approve a title and description and place the URL in an appropriate category. For example, Yahoo! is a human edited directory.
directory optimization
The process of creating a submission that is designed to increase the ranking according to relevant search terms. This process is especially important for paid submissions as an optimised submission greatly enhances the chances of receiving a good ROI.
distribution channel
chain of intermediaries, each passing the product down the chain to the next organization, before it finally reaches the consumer or end-user
DML
Data Manipulation Language
DMOZ
An Open Directory Project which is owned by AOL and run by volunteer editors is considered by many to be the largest and most trusted human edited directory of websites.
DNS
Domain Name System. Translates domain names to IP addresses. When a domain name is delegated to a name server, the domain name system ensures the name can be translated to the IP address of the web server.
DNS Propagation
As a new domain name is registered (or an existing one is transferred to a new DNS), the information must make its way around the entire internet. This process usually takes around 24 hours, during which time the domain will be inaccessible to many or all users.
DocStoc
An online sharing service for documents which allow users to view, upload, share and sell documents.
domain
A domain is the main subdivision of Internet addresses, the last three letters after the final dot, and it tells you what kind of organization you are dealing with. There are six top-level domains widely used: .com (commercial) .edu (educational), .net (network operations), .gov (US government), .mil (US military) and .org (organization).
Other, two letter domains represent countries; thus;.uk for the United Kingdom, .dk for Denmark, .fr for France, .de for Germany, .es for Spain, .it for Italy and so on.
Top level (TLD): .com, .gov, .net, .org, .edu, .tv etc
2nd level: business, shopping, search (these can contain letters, numbers, and hyphens)
3rd level: www1, www2, keyword (optional)
domain age
Relates to the age of the domain, page, account, content or other related historical data. “Ageing a domain” is a technique used to increase the value of a website because it typically ranks well, has sizeable Internet traffic and in the case of commercial websites, regular passive income.
domain flipping
The activity of purchasing a domain, building a website using the domain name, generating regular traffic to the site and selling it at a much higher price than its acquisition cost.
domaining
Domaining is an investment activity that involves buying domain names for financial profit by selling them later at higher prices.
domain mirror
A second domain name featuring the same web content of another website. typically using other variants of a domain name such as .info and .org.
domain name
a string of characters, usually letters, numbers, and hyphens that is used to define the location of a website
doorway domain
A domain used specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main domain. Rather than adding some pages to an existing site for search engine optimization purposes, a new site is set aside to be completely optimized.
doorway page
A doorway page is made specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main content. The pages themselves range from unique, content-rich pages to generic, keyword-stuffed pages.
downsell
A sales technique for inducing an interested buyer to purchase a less expensive, discounted or alternative item when he or she decides to leave a webpage without completing a purchase transaction. The goal is to acquire more customers even at less profits.
downstream
the transfer speed (usually that of an internet connection) by which data can be sent from the server to the client
Dreamweaver
A web development and editing software from Adobe offering a WYSIWYG interface.
Drupal
A free and open source modular framework and content management system (CMS) written in the programming language PHP.
duplicate content
Duplicate content is a term used in the field of search engine optimization to describe content that appears on more than one web page, within the same web site. When multiple pages within a web site contain essentially the same content, search engines such as Google can penalize/not display that site in any relevant search results. The search engines may identify pages as duplicated if they detect canonical issues (see term).
dynamic content
Content which changes over time or uses a dynamic language such as PHP to help render the page.
dynamic languages
Programming languages such as PHP or ASP which build web pages on the fly upon request
dynamic rotation
Advertisements or graphics that rotate on a timed basis.
E
Ecommerce site
A website devoted to retail sales.
editorial links
Links that were earned, not bought or bartered.
ego keyword
A keyword (often a brand) that an individual or organization tries to rank for in either or both organic listings or paid search results, often regardless of cost and Return on Investment (ROI).
Electronic Mail, text files that are sent from one person to another.
email blacklist
Lists of domains or IP addresses of known and suspected scammers. Emails from the blacklist are usually blocked by an ISP.
email marketing
is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing.
However, the term is usually used to refer to: Sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business. It is highly desirable to manage email marketing via an autoresponder to prevent your messages being viewed as spam.
email newsletter
Ideally used with the help of an autoresponder like Aweber, this is a marketing tool used to send product updates, information and news to a group of clients or subscribers of a website.
email spam
Unwanted, unsolicited email.
emoticons
The online means of facial expressions and gestures.
Examples: 🙂 Tip your head to the left and you will see the two eyes and smiling mouth. Use them where applicable in chats and email. Other emotions include: 🙁 sad :0 surprised o:) innocent.
emphasis <em>
An HTML tag used to emphasize text
EMR
Exact match result – A search result that precisely matches a user’s search term.
entry page/landing page
The page on which a user enters a website.
entrepreneur
One who conceives, organizes and manages a productive venture and its risks in order to gain profit.
EPC
Earnings Per Click. This number is given by dividing your revenue earned by the number of clicks you sent to the offer. For example, if you send an offer 100 clicks and earn $5.00 then your EPC would be $0.05
ethical SEO
Using SEO techniques that do not manipulate results and which do not take unfair advantage of search algorithms.
everflux
Major search indexes are constantly updating. Google refers to this continuous refresh as everflux
exclusivity
Some advertising networks demand exclusivity which is a contract term in which one party grants another party sole rights regarding a particular business function. They may demand exclusivity within their product category, but they are exceptions, as few affiliate programs are in a position to make extra demands.
expert (or authority) document
Quality page which links to many non-affiliated topical resources
extending the free line
Internet marketers often offer products and information for free in return for a persons name and email address. In the past they would follow up with an email with a sales pitch. Current best practice is to offer more for free, and gradually increase the value of the offer as the relationship grows. This has been called ‘extending the free line’.
external link
Link which references another domain.
eyetracking
A process that allows testing of Web sites for usability or any other purpose
ezine
Ezines are electronic magazines, that are usually delivered via an email newsletter or a Web site. They can vary greatly in size and scope, from irregular newsletters to daily journals sent to thousands of subscribers.
ezine directory
This is a directory of ezines (electronic magazines), typically of the email variety. Ezine directories have been established to help people find the ezines they want to subscribe to. They are often organized into high- level categories similar to other general Web directories, with a search function to help with navigation
F
Internationally a hugely-popular social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. This networking platform allows registered users to build a network of friends, share online resources and pictures and create Pages for businesses and other organizations.
facebook ads
These are the ads that appear down the right hand side of the Facebook page. They have proved to be extremely effective for internet marketers, particularly those who have learned to design the effectively, or to enlist the help of the experts – ask me who .
fair use
The stated exceptions of allowed usage of work under copyright without requiring permission of the original copyright holder. Fair use is covered in section 107 of the Copyright code.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
FAQ is a commonly used abbreviation for “Frequently Asked Questions.” Most Internet sites will have a “FAQ” to explain what is in the area and how to use its features.
favicon
This is a small icon that is used by some browsers to identify a bookmarked Web site and favicon files are recognized by the “.ico” extension. Special applications are available to create this type of file. Once created, the favicon.ico file is placed in the root folder of the Web site.
Fcommerce
Facebook commerce, which refers to any activity involving buying and selling from a Facebook business page.
feed
Many content management, systems such as blogs, allow readers to subscribe to content update notifications via RSS or XML feeds.
feed reader
Software or website used to subscribe to feed update notifications.
FFA
Free-for-all links list, where there are no qualifications for adding a link. They are just raw link pages with no categorization, no review, and no traffic. On the plus side, many do offer marketers the gratification of instant submission — something not found easily elsewhere — although the gratification does not last long.
These are what make up most of the products designed to “submit your site to thousands of search engines and directories.” While this sounds like a potentially good source of visitors, the reality is that these sites get very little worthwhile traffic, and their benefits in terms of link popularity are doubtful.
file transfer
The transfer of a file from one computer to another over a network.
Firefox
Popular open source web browser.
firewall
A security barrier placed between an organization’s internal computer network — either its IS system or intranet — and the Internet. It keeps your information in, and unwanted people out. It consists of one or more routers which accept, reject or edit transmitted information and requests.
first-mover advantage
This is often an insurmountable advantage gained by the first significant person or company to move into a new market. While the first-mover advantage was initially touted as crucial in the Internet economy, there is a growing backlash against it. First-mover advantage can be instrumental in building market share, but this may or may not translate into business success.
fiverr
Fiverr is an Israel-based global online marketplace offering tasks and services starting at $5. Entrepreneurs and freelancers can use Fiverr to monetize sell their services. Customers in need of services can find and commission that service directly through the site.
Fiverr.com was founded by Micha Kaufman and Shai Wininger with the aim of providing a platform for people to buy and sell a variety of small services typically offered by freelance contractors, such as writing, graphic design and programming. Fiverr operates in more than 200 countries and brings in revenue by taking a percentage of each sale that is made through the platform.
flame
An intentionally crude or abusive email message or usenet post. Rule: Don’t do it. Ever. Not only is it bad netiquette, you leave a trail.
flash
A vector based animation program that has become a popular technology used to deliver content. Currently search engines have difficulty indexing flash effectively as robots cannot read the text that is held within.
Flickr
A social network based on an online picture sharing platform which allows users to store photos and share them online through profiles, groups, sets and other methods.
flog
A fake blog, an electronic communication form that appears to originate from a credible, non-bias source, but which in fact is created by a company or organization for the purpose of marketing a product, service, or political viewpoint
folksonomies
These are also known as ‘collaborative tagging’, ‘social classification’, ‘social indexing’, and ‘social tagging’. The practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content.
forms
The pages in most browsers that accept information in text-entry fields. They can be customized to receive company sales data and orders, expense reports or other information. They can also be used to communicate.
forum
As online communities where visitors may read and post topics of common interest, forums can be a useful for anyone doing business online, both in terms of reading the content and actively participating in the discussions. Participation can help you achieve recognition within that community, and may even generate targeted business leads. Some forums do not allow any hint of self-promotion, some are geared specifically towards self-promotion, and many fall somewhere in between, limiting URL’s to an off-the-page member profile.
There is little doubt that with internet marketing forums in particular, you get what you pay for, and the one I recommend is James Schramko’s SuperFastBusiness.
frames
Frames are structures that allow for the dividing of a Web page into two or more independent parts. They are often used to keep one or more parts of a Web page static while another part of the page is scrolled or loaded. Benefits can include faster page loading and the ability to keep a navigation bar present on the visible part of the page.
free
Free stuff (products, shipping, content). Although free offers are, by definition, without monetary cost, there are often non-monetary costs to be considered. Personal information is often the non-monetary currency of choice, and consumers must weigh the value of free offers against the cost of sharing personal information. Internet marketers often use the strategy of ‘extending the free line’ to offer free resources, building trust, before they offer anything for sale.
free line
The free line is a first step in the movement of prospects from free resources to paid products to high-end back end products. Offering free content gets people into your sales funnel. If you imagine a funnel or inverted triangle with the widest point at the top, the free line would be at the top of the triangle and all of your free stuff would be outside your funnel. (see ‘moving the free line’)
freelance
Working for yourself! Provide your skills to internet marketers who want to outsource tasks they’d prefer not to do.
freeware
Shareware, or software, that can be downloaded off the Internet — for free.
frequency
The number of times an ad is delivered to the same browser in a single session or time period. A site needs to use cookies in order to manage ad frequency.
frequency cap
Frequency capping is the restriction placed on the number of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement. It is often used as a way to avoid banner burnout, the point where visitors are being overexposed and response drops.
fresh content
Content which is dynamic in nature and gives people a reason to keep paying attention to your website. Kerry Finch Writing supplies quality fresh content to business all over the world
frogblog
A blog network that a spammer or active blogger “hops” around publishing short posts in order to keep them active. Frogblogs often appear with numerous Javascript ads in all of their margins.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. A protocol that allows the transfer of files from one computer to another. FTP can also be used as a verb.
fuzzy search
Search which will find matching terms when terms are misspelled (or fuzzy).
G
gamification
The application of concepts and techniques from games to other areas of activity, for instance as an online marketing technique.
GAP
Google Advertising Professional is a program which qualifies marketers as being proficient AdWords marketers
gateway
A link from one computer system to a different computer system.
gateway page (doorway page)
Web page which is designed to attract traffic from search engines and redirect them to another site or page, resulting in different content served to search engines and users.
geo targeting
Delivery of ads specific to the geographic location of the searcher. Geo- targeting allows the advertiser to specify where ads will or won’t be shown based on the searcher’s location, enabling more localized and personalized results.
geographical segmentation
The use of analytics to categorize a site’s web traffic by the physical locations from which it originated.
GIF (Graphic Interchange Format)
GIF is a graphics format that can be displayed on almost all web browsers. It is a common compression format used for transferring graphics files between different computers. Most of the “pictures” you see online are GIF files. They display in 256 colors and have built-in compression. GIF images are the most common form of banner creative.
GIF89a or Animated GIF
A GIF animation tool that creates sequences of images to simulate animation and allows for transparent Background colors. Animated GIF’s can generate higher response rates than static banners.
gizmo
Also known as gadget or widget, gizmo is a small application used on web pages, providing specific functions such as a hit counter or IP address display.
Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. Users may access Gmail as secure webmail, as well as via POP3 or IMAP4 protocols. Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though still in beta status at that time. The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009, along with the rest of the Google Apps suite.
The world’s leading search engine in terms of reach. Google pioneered search by analyzing linkage data via PageRank. Google was created by Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Oh the Google list could go on forever, but………
Googleganger
A person who shares your name and who gets mixed up with you in Google searches
Googlebot
Google uses several user-agents to crawl and index content in the Google.com search engine. Googlebot describes all Google spiders. All Google bots begin with “Googlebot”; for example, Googlebot-Mobile: crawls pages for Google’s mobile index; Googlebot-Image: crawls pages for Google’s image index.
Instructions to Googlebot can be directed in the robots.txt file. Googlebot statistics can be viewed with web analytics software, on webserver logs, and in Google webmaster tools.
Googleplex
Nickname for Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Google AdWords
Google’s advertisement and link auction network were keywords are sold on a cost per click basis.
Google AdSense
Google’s contextual advertising network which allows advertisers to automatically publish relevant advertisements near their content and share the profits from ad clicks with Google.
Google analytics
This is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that the product is aimed at marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists from which the industry of web analytics originally grew.
Google base
Free database of semantically structured information created by Google.
Google bombing
Making a pank rank well for a specific search query by pointing hundreds or thousands of links at it with the keywords in the anchor text.
Google bowling
Knocking a competitor out of the search results by pointing hundreds or thousands of low trust low quality links at their website.
Google checkout
Payment service provided by Google which helps Google better understand merchant conversion rates and the value of different keywords and markets.
Google Chrome
Google’s web browser, fast overtaking Firefox as the browser of choice for internet marketers. Reason? Speed, simplicity and security and the ability to customize.
Google dance
Some internet marketers reference “Google Dance” as the time just after the search engine results pages change because of a change in Google algorithms.
Google Drive
Web-based office applications such as word processing, presentations and spreadsheets which users can use to view and edit documents online, promoting collaboration on real-time.
Google Earth
A virtual globe, map and geographic information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by Google in 2004.
Google Instant
An automatic search feature which anticipates a user’s search query and displays possible results in real time as the searcher types a query.
Google juice
Trust or authority from Google which flows through outgoing links to other pages.
Google Keyword Tool
Keyword research tool provided by Google which estimates the competition for a keyword, recommends related keywords, and will tell you what keywords Google thinks are relevant to your site or a page on your site.
Google Maps
Google Maps is a basic web mapping service application and technology offered by Google, free (for non-commercial use). It powers many associated map-based services, including the Google Transit, Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API.
Google OneBox
The portion of the search results page above the organic search results which Google sometimes uses to display local and vertical search results from Google Maps, Google News, Google Base , and other Google owned vertical search services.
Google Panda
Google Panda is a change to Google’s search results ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011. The change aimed to lower the rank of “low-quality sites” or “thin sites”, and return higher-quality sites near the top of the search results. CNET reported a surge in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites containing large amounts of advertising. This change reportedly affected the rankings of almost 12 percent of all search results.
Soon after the Panda rollout, many websites, including Google’s webmaster forum, became filled with complaints of scrapers/copyright infringers getting better rankings than sites with original content. At one point, Google publicly asked for data points to help detect scrapers better. Google’s Panda has received several updates since the original rollout in February 2011, and the effect went global in April 2011. To help affected publishers, Google published an advisory on its blog, thus giving some direction for self-evaluation of a website’s quality. Google has provided a list of 23 bullet points on its blog answering the question of “What counts as a high-quality site?” that is supposed to help webmasters “step into Google’s mindset”.
Google Penguin
Google Penguin is a code name for a Google algorithm update that was first announced on April 24, 2012. The update is aimed at decreasing search engine rankings of websites that violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines by using now declared black-hat SEO techniques, such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, participating in link schemes,[5] deliberate creation of duplicate content, and others.
By Google’s estimates, Penguin affects approximately 3.1% of search queries in English, about 3% of queries in languages like German, Chinese, and Arabic, and an even bigger percentage of them in “highly spammed” languages. On May 25, 2012, Google unveiled the latest Penguin update, called Penguin 1.1. This update, according to Matt Cutts, was supposed to affect less than one-tenth of a percent of English searches. The guiding principle for the update was to penalise websites using manipulative techniques to achieve high rankings. Penguin 3 was released Oct. 5, 2012 and affected 0.3% of queries.
Google Places
Known initially as Google Local, Google Places enables local search results to appear above organic lists when an Internet user looks for anything with a specific location such as “dentist in Toronto”. The results show alongside a map with a red circle indicating the approximate location of a business.
Google+
Google’s social network which allows users to share content through applications such as Circles and Hangouts.
Google Sitelinks
On some search results where Google thinks one result is far more relevant than other results (like navigational or brand related searches) they may list numerous deep links to that site at the top of the search results
Google Sitemaps
Program which webmasters can use to help Google index their contents
Google Suggest
Google search feature that automatically displays suggested topics upon detecting the text entered in the search query box.
Google Suggestor
Free online tool for collecting keywords and copying them into a document, useful for keyword research.
Google Tags
A feature which allows local businesses that are listed in Google Places to add a special coupon for new customers. The Google Tag is also used for promoting specific items by adding a clickable link to the relevant web page, just below the local listing.
Graphical Search Inventory
Non-text-based advertising that is displayed based on the relevance of surrounding content. Includes banners, pop-ups, toolbars and rich media.
Golden Triangle
Eye-tracking studies show an “F” shaped pattern that most people tend to look at most often when looking at Search Engine Results Pages. These patterns vary slightly among the different Search Engines, but show the importance of placement among Natural Listings and Pay-per-Click ads.
Google Supplemental Index
Index where pages with lower trust scores are stored due to duplicate content, excessively complex URLS, or questionable hosting sites.
Google Traffic Estimator
Tool which estimates bid prices and how many Google searchers will click on an ad for a particular keyword.
Google Trends
Tool which allows you to see how Google search volumes for a particular keyword change over time.
Google Webmaster Tools
A free web service by Google for webmasters. It allows webmasters to check indexing status and optimize visibility of their websites.
Google Website Optimizer
Free multi variable testing platform used to help AdWords advertisers improve their conversion.
gray-hat SEO
Search Engine Optimization tactics that fall in between Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO. Gray hat SEO techniques can be legitimate in some cases and illegitimate in others. Such techniques include Doorway Pages , Gateway Pages, Cloaking and duplicate content .
gross exposures
Each time a Web server sends a file to a browser, it is recorded in the server log file as a “hit.” Hits are generated for every element of a requested page (including graphics, text and interactive items). If a page containing two graphics is viewed by a user, three hits will be recorded – one for the page itself and one for each graphic. Webmasters use hits to measure their server’s work load. Because page designs vary greatly, hits are a poor guide for traffic measurement.
guestbook spam
A type of low quality automated link which search engines do not want to place much trust on.
guerilla marketing
Guerilla marketing is a term coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, and is an unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources. It is more about matching wits than matching budgets. Instead of sending their marketing dollars forth like infantry divisions, guerilla marketers snipe away with their marketing resources for maximum impact.