About Us - Glossary of terms

 

Define Internet Marketing Firm?
An Internet Marketing Firm offers a service mix of Web design/development, Internet advertising/marketing and E-Business/E-Commerce consultancy.

Internet Marketing Firms rose to prominence in the early 90's by specializing in Interactive web design, media planning/buying and search engine submission. At best, Internet Marketing Firms help advertising agencies, business owners and professional webmasters penetrate on-line B2B and B2C market segments.

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Define Search Engine Marketing (SEM)?
Web Development combined with Search Engine Marketing is both an Art and a Science. The goal is to optimize a website's usability and ability to be found on Internet search engines and directories by employing relevant keywords, key phrases and page layouts.

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Define Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings.

SEO Web Design involves developing and writing web pages according to the guidelines and ethics of the search engines. Basic SEO may involve nothing more than ensuring a website does not unnecessarily become part of the invisible Web (the portion of the Web not accessible through Web search engines).

Before pages can be optimized, research must be done to determine which keywords to target. This involves finding relevant keywords and measuring them against the frequency to determine search popularity. The next step involves an assessment of the competition. The third step is to strategically align keywords with in the design and content of the website. Advanced optimization may include significant research into every element of page design, site structure, and Internet criteria.

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Define E-mail Marketing?
Email Marketing is a very versatile medium. Formats range from simple text to HTML & rich media. Content can be one-size-fits-all or highly customized. Frequency can consist of fixed, frequent intervals or sporadic intervals, with transmissions occurring only when something newsworthy comes along. Sophistication (and cost) can be very low or very high.

Along with the power of email marketing comes the abuse of email, commonly known as spam. Is spam email considered marketing? Technically, the answer is probably yes, but it is certainly not responsible email marketing. While some users fail to distinguish between permission marketing and email spam, spam is actually a major threat to legitimate email marketers, as a glut of messages could make the entire email medium less effective.

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Define SEO Web Development?
SEO Web Development is a set of methods aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings. This process involves the selection and coordination of specialized resources used to create the layout and structure of each web page.

Website usability is not just about making sure everything on the site works, but how quickly and easily visitors are able to make use of the site. Usability is a concern for search engine marketers because of its potential impact, positive or negative, on marketing metrics such as conversion rates, which in turn affect profitability.

  • how visitors find the site (search engine optimization)
  • how long visitors use the site (site stickiness)
  • how likely visitors are to return (repeat visitors)
  • how often visitors buy or register (conversion rate)

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Define Search Engine Spam?
Excessive manipulation to influence search engine rankings, often for pages which contain little or no relevant content.

Search engine spamming often gets confused with legitimate search engine optimization (SEO). While there is much gray area between the two extremes, in their most clear cut forms the terms are very different. Spamming involves getting a site more exposure than it deserves for its keywords, leading to unsatisfactory search experiences. Optimization involves getting a site the exposure it deserves on the most targeted keywords, leading to satisfactory search experiences.

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Define Keyword Marketing?
Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and phrases.

For online ad buyers, keyword marketing involves purchasing ad units, typically banners, on the search results page when a Web surfer searches for particular keywords and phrases. For search engine optimization professionals, keyword marketing involves achieving top placement in the actual search listings themselves.

The advantage of keyword marketing is the potential to reach the right people at the right time.

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Define Viral Marketing?
Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.

Viral marketing depends on a high pass-along rate from person to person. If a large percentage of recipients forward something to a large number of friends, the overall growth snowballs very quickly. If the pass-along numbers get too low, the overall growth quickly fizzles.

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Define Guerilla Marketing?
Unconventional marketing strategies intended to generate maximum results from minimal resources.

Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerilla Marketing is the perfect compliment to a strategic Internet marketing plan. Guerilla marketing can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare. Rather than matching marketing dollar for marketing dollar; guerilla marketers use low-cost marketing strategies to generate maximum impact.

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Define Link Popularity?
A measure of the quantity and quality of websites that link to your site. Link popularity is an example of the move by search engines towards off-the-page-criteria to determine quality content.

Off-the-page-criteria adds the aspect of impartiality to search engine rankings, as citations from other authors in the Web community help define a site's reputation. In theory, great sites will naturally attract many links, and content-poor sites will have difficulty attracting any links.

Link popularity assumes that not all inbound links are equal. For example, an inbound link from a major directory carries more weight than an inbound link from an obscure personal home page.

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Define Reciprocal Links?
Links between two sites, often based on an agreement by the site owners to exchange links. Bulks links can be purchased from Run-of-Network organizations.

Reciprocal links are based on an agreement by two sites to link to each other. Reciprocal linking is often used by small/midsize websites as an inexpensive way to increase Web site traffic and link popularity.

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Define Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)?
Online advertising payment model popularized by Google and Yahoo! search engines.

In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination website based on a pre-arranged per-click rate. Popular PPC advertising options include per-click advertising networks, search engines, and affiliate programs.

In the PPC model, the publisher does not have to worry about the sales conversion rate of the target site, and the advertiser does not have to worry about how many impressions it takes to attract the specified number of clicks.

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Define Banner Advertisements?
A graphical web advertising unit, typically measuring 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall (i.e. 468x60).

Banner Advertisements were initially judged primarily on the basis of
click-through rate (CTR). In the early days of the Web, click-through rates were generally much higher than they are now, perhaps due to the novelty factor. Other causes for the decline in CTR may include technical limitations, the awkward horizontal shape, poor banner design, an excessive percentage of run-of-network buys, and accumulated bad experiences of Web surfers.

Although click-through rates have gone consistently downward, the same can be said of banner ad prices. It is still possible to achieve a click-through rate many times the industry average by combining good placement and design. Combining below-average ad rates and above-average response rates can lead to an acceptable return on investment, just as in any other advertising medium.

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Define CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)?
The CPM model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in contrast to the various types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is only triggered by a mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale).

The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by the number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM equals a $10,000 total price.

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Define SEO Press Release Writing & Internet Distribution?
SEO Press Release writing is a specialized formula of links and keywords incorporated into public relations announcements. SEO Press Releases offer "Guaranteed Inclusion" in the search results of Dogpile, Excite, MetaCrawler, NBCi, Verizon, and WebCrawler for one full year.

Google/AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Teoma/Ask Jeeves search engines will also list the SEO Press Release in relevant search listings for an undisclosed length. The press release can also be distributed to specified geographic and demographic websites and off-line publications.

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Define Shopping Cart?
Software used to make a website's product catalogue available for online ordering, whereby visitors may select, view, add/delete, and purchase merchandise.

Shopping carts are available as standalone software or as part of hosted storefronts. Companies with special needs may prefer standalone software that can be integrated with their other systems. Companies with simple needs may prefer one-size-fits-all hosted storefronts.