Glossary


This glossary contains some of the more commonly used terms relating to Search Engine Assistance and SEO. You may also find our Websites Glossary and Consulting Services Glossary useful.

AdWords

AdWords is Google's primary advertising product. There are two types of AdWords advertisements:

  • Pay Per Click advertisements (PPC): The advertiser specifies the keywords that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click. These advertisments appear on the left hand side of the google search results pages as Sponsored Links. The advertisments are ranked by competition for the keywords and ad quality.
  • Site targeted advertisements: More prominent advertisments but more expensive, that are placed on sites relevant to they keywords specified by the advertiser.

Black & Hayden Consulting can create and manage both types of AdWords campaigns for your business. See our Search Packages for more information.



Keyword

In search marketing, a keyword is a word or phrase used in an internet search. A search optimised website will have content tailored to the keywords it expects visitors to find its site with. It is important to know which keywords internet searchers are likely to use when searching for your business/product/service. If you know the keywords they are using, you can implement those keywords on your website and attract relevant visitors.

PageRank

PageRank is an algorithm used to determine a website page's importance. Google uses PageRank to assign a number between 1 and 10 to each webpage in its index. The higher the PageRank value, the more important it is deemed to be.

Ranking

In terms of web searching and search engine optimisation, ranking refers to a website's position on a search engine results page. The higher the rank the more visitors the site is likely to receive. With appropriate search engine optimisation and search engine marketing a website can move higher up the list. The ranking of a site is constantly changing because of competition for keywords. Search engines use a complex algorithm to determine ranking. To achieve good rankings a website needs quality content, regularly updated content, keywords that match the content, and a website that is optimised for search engines.

SEM

An abbreviation for Search Engine Marketing which is the process of promoting a website by increasing their performance in search engine results pages.

SEO

An abbreviation for Search Engine Optimisation which is the process of optimising your website so it performs well in search engine listings.



SERPs

An abbreviation for Search Engine Results Pages which are the listings pages you will see after you have done a search. Generally the higher your website appears in a search engine results page the more traffic your website will receive.