Digital Marketing Glossary

Term	Abbreviation(s)	Definition	Synonyms
Hashtag	#	This symbol represents a tag for categorization on Twitter. See “hashtag.”
301 Redirect		Method of redirecting an old web page to a new location. More simply, to display another web page for a web address. “301” implies that the move is permanent
302 Redirect		Method of redirecting an old web page to a new location on a temporary basis. In advertising, this entails the server sending a browser the location of a requested ad, rather than sending the ad itself.  Ad servers use 302 redirects to track ad requests and clicks
404 Error		“File not found” code for a Web page that displays when a user attempts to access a URL that has been moved, renamed or no longer exists. Used as a template for missing or deleted pages, designing a custom “404 page” in a user-friendly way can help people stay engaged with your site even when a given page turns up blank.
A/B Testing		Testing: A method used to compare different versions of digital ads or website landing pages in order to determine which one performs better. A typical A/B test for ads involves running the two ads simultaneously and then measuring which version gets a better response from the audience. When running an A/B test, only one element of the ads should be changed at a time. This is because the goal of these tests is to determine which variables generate the best responses from the audience. Once a winner is selected, it is then used as the next control and compared with another version to isolate and identify, the ad element that causes the audience to respond favorably to the ad.
Account-based Advertising		One tactic in an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy. It’s the practice of serving display advertising only to specified titles at the target accounts you designate. For example, if you’re marketing a new type of food packaging to General Mills, you might target multiple levels of responsibility, such as Senior Product Manager, Senior Product Marketer, VP of Product Marketing. Only people who work at General Mills and have these titles would be shown your ads.
Abandonment		When a user leaves a shopping cart that contains items prior to completing a transaction
Abort		When a web server does not successfully transfer a unit of content to a browser, often due to the user hitting the stop button or clicking another link prior to completion of the download
Above the fold		Area of a web page that can be viewed without scrolling
Acquisition Cost		Cost for an advertiser to acquire a new customer
Activity Audit		Independent verification of ad impressions, page impressions, clicks, total visits, and unique users for a set period of time
Ad Audience		The total number of people that have been exposed to or could possibly be exposed to an ad during any specific time period
Ad Banner		The most common form of digital advertising. These ad units, which include static graphics, videos and/or interactive rich media, are displayed on a web page or in an application.
AdCenter		Microsoft proprietary paid search advertising program
Ad Click		The action taken when a user interacts with an ad by either clicking on it with their mouse or by pressing enter on their keyboard.
Ad Impressions		The number of times an ad has been served, regardless of whether the user has actually seen or interacted with the ad in any way. (Also see: Ad Serving
AdWords		Google proprietary paid search advertising program
Ad Campaign		Collection of one or more ads	Ad Family
Ad Exchange		Groups that aggregate display ad inventory, allowing advertisers to compete for impressions via bid
Ad Inventory		Website publishers serve ads to visitors when they visit a web page. The number of potential ads that can be served is considered their ad inventory. For example, if The Gotham Times averages 1,000 visits to their home page in any given week, and they have space for two display ads on their home page, then their potential ad inventory is 2,000 impressions per week
Ad Network		Company that provides sales representation for dozens to thousands of sites by aggregating the ad inventory and selling ads across multiple sites, either as a "run of network" buy or as groups of sites by content category. Ad networks serve these ads from a central ad server
AdSense		Google AdSense is a pay-per-click advertisement application which is available to bloggers and Web publishers as a way to generate revenue from the traffic on their sites. The owner of the site selects which ads they will host, and AdSense pays the owner each time an ad is clicked.
Ad Serving		Delivery of ads by a server to an end user’s computer; Performed by a web publisher or third party ad server
Ad Space		Location where an ad can be placed on a website; Multiple ad spaces can exist on a single page
Ad Stream		Series of ads viewed by a user during a single visit to a site
Ad Targeting		Delivering ads to a pre-selected audience based on various attributes, such as geography, demographics, psychographics, web browsing behavior and past purchases. (Also see: Behavioral Targeting, Contextual Targeting, and Geographic Targeting.
Ad Transfer		Successful display of advertiser’s website after a user clicks on an ad
Ad Unit		Means of classifying ad types. Can include banners, buttons, daughter windows, pop-ups, interstitials, tag lines, etc. Traditional media ad units include 30-second radio or TV spots or full-page magazine ads
Address		Unique identifier for a computer or site, usually a URL

Affiliate		Individual or company that agrees to host a link on their website either to direct traffic to, or sell products in conjunction with, another site, in exchange for compensation
Affiliate Marketing		Marketing program where a website agrees to place a banner or link, or display products directly on their site, for the purpose of selling or promoting another site’s merchandise or services. Typically the linked site is paid either a commission based on a percentage of goods or services sold, or a flat fee
Affiliate Network		Third party companies that manage the relationships between affiliates and advertisers, often providing software that simplifies registration, tracking and reporting
Affinity Site		Content-specific website that provides links to related products or services (e.g. golf.com)
Aggregator		An Internet-based tool or application which collects and curates content (often provided via RSS feeds) from many different websites and displays it in one central location. Google Reader is one popular example of an aggregator
Akismet		A widely used application for blogging platforms, such as WordPress, that functions as a filter for trapping link spam, comment spam and other forms of undesirable user-generated content
Alerts		Notifications that can be set up for various search terms, events or website actions. These are often sent to an individual via email, e.g., whenever a company/product name appears on the Internet in newly published content. Alerts are usually sent to an individual via email.
Algorithm		Mathematical rules and calculations a search engine uses to determine the rankings of the sites it has indexed. Every search engine has its own unique, proprietary algorithm that gets updated on a regular basis. Google’s famously has more than 200 major components
Alt Attribute		A line of text used to describe the content associated with a non-text based file, typically an image. A traditionally strong correlation exists between use of keywords in these attributes and high rankings for the pages that contain them.
Alt Tag		HTML attribute typically used to provide alternate text when images cannot be displayed	Alternate Text
Analytics		Data and statistics about the users of a website and how they interact with the website. Analytics can be used to uncover information about how many people browse a website, how much time they spend on the website and the specific actions they take on the website. This information is then used to target audiences, understand consumer behavior, improve user experience and optimize advertising campaigns.
Anchor Tag		HTML tag used to create a link to another document or web page or to a bookmark within the current web page
Ancho Text		The non-URL text that is displayed in a hyperlink. For example, in this hyperlink to Fathom’s website, “Fathom’s website” is the anchor text. Careful use of anchor text can produce both reader and SEO benefits
Applet		Small program, or application, that is included in HTML web pages, and runs independently of servers or other connections. The most common Applets are based on the programming language Java
Application Programming Interface	API	Source code interface that an operating system, library or service provides to support requests made by computer programs
Application Service Provider	ASP	Business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network
Arbitrage		Payment arrangement in which a service provider agrees to take on the expense of a marketing campaign in exchange for a higher share of the potential profit; Provides a “no-risk” opportunity for clients to test new marketing channels
Atlas		3rd party ad serving and campaign management software
Attribution		The goal of attribution is to identify which touch, of the many possible, is most (or partially) responsible for a conversion, so ROI can be calculated. First touch, last touch, and multi-touch are common attribution models. For example, a sale might begin with an ad, lead to an email campaign, and end with a phone call from a sales person. With first-touch attribution, the ad would get the entire credit for the sale. With last-touch, the phone call gets all the credit. With multi-touch, the ad, the email and the phone call each get partial credit.
Audience		A group of people identified by a brand for ad targeting purposes. Facebook and Twitter, as examples, offer Custom Audiences and Tailored Audiences, respectively. To reach them, brands provide email addresses of consumers they want to target on those platforms. Some audiences are also known as "segments," groups of people that share the same characteristics or took the same online actions.
Avatar		A graphical representation of a real person, often seen in user profiles for online forums, social networks or chat/instant-message services. Avatars can be two-dimensional images, representing the author of a blog or microblog; or they can be three-dimensional figures, occupying space in a virtual world, such as Second Life
Baidu		A Chinese search engine for websites, audio files, and images
Ban		Removal from a search index when a page and/or entire website is deemed inappropriate for a given engine’s results, usually on a temporary basis until the offending site corrects itself.
Bandwidth		The amount of data transmitted or received over a period of time. Modem bandwidth is measured in kilo or mega bits per second (bps)
Banner		An ad unit on a web page. Banners are the dominant form, or unit, of advertising on the web. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has recommended standard ad sizes	Button
Banner Ad		Graphical image or small animation file embedded within a Web page and used for advertising, often containing a link to other sites, products, etc
Banner Farm		A web page, almost always on a free web host site, that consists of nothing but banners linked to affiliate programs
Behavioral Targeting	BT	Targeting or segmenting consumers according to previously tracked behavior such as web pages visited, searches, etc.

Beta		A test version of a product, such as a website or software, prior to final release
BING		The most recent version of the Microsoft search engine	MSN; Live Search
Bit Rate		Measure of bandwidth that indicates the speed of data transfer, expressed in kilobits per second (kbps) or megabits per second (Mbps)
Blip		A “blip” can refer to a music or video clip which a user has posted via the popular media hosting sites, Blip.fm and Blip.tv
Black Hat SEO		The use of unaccepted or frowned upon SEO practices in order to get higher rankings and more traffic. If determined to have used these tactics, sites may be dropped from search engines or removed from high rankings
Blog		Short for “weblog,” this is a special kind of website for self-publishing, often done by the owner of the site (the “blogger”), but sometimes by a committee of authors who rotate by day, for example. Blogs typically record and categorize all content updates by date/time and topic for easy tracking by readers. The posts appear on a blog’s homepage in reverse-chronological order (thus the original term, “weblog”). Another feature of blogging is a space reserved for comments (usually following every post). These interactive sections can often be longer, and sometimes more interesting, than the original post. Visitors can view regular blog updates by going to the actual site or using an RSS feed aggregator like Google Reader.
Blogger		An individual who generates content for blogs, either personal or professional. Reasons for being a professional blogger are many: delivering timely commentary; showcasing expertise; engaging with audiences and fellow bloggers; and building personal brands. Some professional bloggers generate levels of esteem and prestige equivalent to that of journalists, an occupation which has also found value in blogging for the above reasons.
Blogroll		A list of recommended or similar blogs that a blogger lists on his or her own blog as a resource for the audience.
Bookmarking		The act of saving a website address for future reference. This can be done individually on an Internet browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, or through a dedicated social bookmarking site, such as del.icio.us. Social bookmarking allows visitors to easily share groups of bookmarks with each other across computers regardless of browser, as well as comment on and rate the stored content. Other social bookmarking sites include Digg, StumbleUpon and Mixx.
Bot		Programs written to scour the web automatically for various reasons (to index w eb pages, for spamming purposes, etc.)	Internet bots; spiders; web crawlers; web robots
Bounce Rate		Refers to the percentage of a given page’s visitors who exit without visiting another page on the same site. This term is often used in e-commerce in conjunction with merchandise shopping carts. Also known as “abandonment rate.” For example, suppose a website has 100 sessions in one day. (Note that this is different from 100 visitors. Any visitor could visit multiple times, and each time would count as a session.) If 75% of the visits are bounces, then the bounce rate will be 75%. A high bounce rate is often indicative of a poorly designed landing page. It can also indicate that a page completely fulfilled what the visitor was looking for, so the visitor did not need to keep clicking to find out more. (But more often it means the page failed, underscoring how important it is to design landing pages for visitor engagement.)
Bounty		The fixed acquisition cost a partner receives from a marketer for a defined action (e.g. credit card application)
Brand Awareness		The extent or level to which a potential consumer can recall and identify a particular product or service. Increased brand awareness is one of the two customary important goals for a digital advertising campaign (the other being a conversion of some kind).
Browser		A program that allows users to access documents on the World Wide Web. The browser interprets the HTML code on web servers and allows users to navigate, read and listen to information, and it performs "desktop" functionality, such as accessing mail and setting user preferences
Broken Links		Links to pages which no longer exist or have been moved to a different URL without redirection. These links usually serve pages with the “404 error” message (see “404 error”). Incidentally, most search engines provide ways for visitors to report on broken or “dead” links.
Business Intelligence	BI	Applications that gather, provide access to, and assist in analyzing information regarding company operations and subsets thereof
Cache		A place that stores web pages temporarily on the user’s hard drive (local cache) or on proxy servers used by ISPs, corporations and online services. Cached data is periodically updated by proxy servers
Caching		Copying a web page or ad to the cache for later reuse. When a user requests the page or ad, the browser first checks the cache for a version prior to requesting it from the server, reducing redundant network traffic
Call To Action	CTA	A phrase included within an ad, or a graphic element such as a button, which invites the audience to take a certain action. Examples include phrases such as Click to Read More, Download Your Free eBook Now,  or Click Here.
Cascading Style Sheets	CSS	SEO friendly web programming language, used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language, specifying the look and feel of a web page
categories		Ways to organize content on a site, especially blogs. One typical way to store both current and archival blog posts is by an alphabetical list of topical categories.
Channel		A distribution method; In advertising, it’s an outlet used by advertisers to reach audiences, such as direct mail or radio. Digital advertising includes channels such as display advertising, social media advertising, and mobile in-app advertising.	Channel of Distribution
Click Fraud		When a person or automated script imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad for the purpose of generating a charge per click without having an actual interest in the target of the ad

Click Through		Process of clicking through an online advertisement, banner, email or text link to a marketer's website	Click-thru
Click Through Rate	CTR	Measurement of ad interaction calculated by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad by the number of times the ad was shown	Yield
Clickstream		Record of the path a user takes through a website or across different sites
Click-to-call		Technology that enables the “pay-per-call” business model. Similar to pay per click, pay per call is a business model for ad listings in search engines and directories that allows publishers to charge local advertisers on a per-call basis for each lead (call) they generate
Client		Computer or software program that contacts a server to obtain data from the Internet or another network. Browsers and e-mail programs are examples of software clients
Cloaking		Black hat practice of showing a different web page to a search engine spider than what is normally seen. Typically used by spammers to falsely index site
Collaboration		In reference to Web 2.0, this concept states that shared contributions of large numbers of individuals, using social media tools, is a main driver of quality content on the Internet.
Collective Intelligence		The idea that a community or group of individuals is more efficiently capable of higher thought processes than an individual. Social-media applications of this concept include online communities which provide user-created informative content, such as Wikipedia.
Comments		Comments are content generated by users in response to an initial publication, most notably blog posts. These are usually posted below the blog entry, and can often be vehicles for creating advanced levels of discussion that increase the lifespan of blog posts. Comments are also typically associated with news articles, videos, media-sharing sites, and Facebook posts
Common Gateway Interface	CGI	Script allowing web pages to be created on the fly, based on information from text input or checkboxes
Comparison Shopping Engine	CSE	Websites that aggregate data from various merchants, either for free or for a fee, and provide tools for comparing different merchant offers
Congo		Congoo is a news-sharing social network that offers free subscription content across hundreds of broad and niche topics.
Connect Commerce		Predecessor to DoubleClick/Google DART Search software originally designed by Performics to manage affiliate marketing and expanded to manage paid search campaigns
Consumer Generated Media	CGM	Posts made by consumers within online venues such as Internet forums, blogs, wikis, discussion lists etc., on products that they have purchased. The term has evolved to include video, audio and multimedia posts created by consumers in support (or negative parody/in-protest) of products, brands and corporate institutions
Content Match	CM	Serving ads on Yahoo's content distribution network
Content		Any text, image, video, audio, app or other material published on the Internet for audience consumption published on the Internet for audience consumption.
Content Optimization		Building content around keywords
Contextual Ad		Ads matched to keywords extracted from content, typically displayed on non-search content pages
Contextual Targeting		Selecting audiences based on the type of content being displayed on a particular webpage.
Contextual Link Inventory		An extension of search engines where they place targeted links on websites they deem to have similar audiences
Conversion		A desired action taken by a website visitor, such as making a purchase, registering for an event, subscribing to an e-newsletter, completing a lead-gen form, downloading a file, etc
Conversion Pixel		A 1×1 image pixel placed on a web page (such as a thank-you page) which is triggered whenever a conversion occurs. Usually transparent
Conversion Rate	Conv, CR	This is the percentage of visitors to a site or ad who actually take a further action, like buying a product or filling out a survey. For example, if your primary goal is to collect survey data through your site, and 20 people visit it, but only 5 people complete the survey, you have a conversion rate of 25%.
Conversation Tracking		Monitoring how many conversions have occurred during any specific time period, and analyzing which ads led to the conversions.

Cookie		Piece of information generated by a web server and stored in a user's computer to maintain data related to the user during navigation, possibly across multiple visits, and facilitate future access to that particular server. Cookies can identify users, instruct the server to send a customized version of the requested web page, and submit account information for the user
Copy		Text in an ad, or text written to be delivered audibly.
Cost Per Acquisition		The cost of acquiring one customer. Typically calculated by dividing the total amount spent on an advertising campaign by the number of customers acquired through that campaign.
Cost Per Action	CPA	Payment model wherein an advertiser compensates a publisher for ad space based solely on completion of actions such as sales or registrations; Also refers to the actual amount paid to the publisher when the action is completed	Cost Per Acquisition; Cost Per Order; Cost Per Sale; Pay Per Action; Pay Per Sale; Pay Per Visitor
Cost Per Click	CPC; PPC	Payment model wherein an advertiser compensates a publisher for ad space per individual click on an ad; Also refers to the actual amount paid to the publisher for each click	Pay Per Click
Cost Per Impression	CPI	Payment model wherein an advertiser compensates a publisher for every impression or ad shown; Also refers to the actual amount paid to the publisher per impression
Cost Per Lead	CPL	Payment model wherein an advertiser compensates a publisher for every sales referral or lead; Also refers to the actual amount paid to the publisher per lead
Cost Per Thousand	CPM	Payment model wherein an advertiser compensates a publisher for every thousand (Roman Numeral “M”) impressions distributed
Cost Per Transaction	CPT	In SEM, ratio of click charges to number of transactions
Creative		Design and content of an advertisement
Crawler		An automatic function of some search engines that index a page, and then visit subsequent pages that the initial page links to. As the cycle continues over time, search engine crawlers or “bots”/“spiders” can index a massive number of pages very quickly.
Cross Device		Involving multiple screens—those of laptops, tablets, phones, desktop computers or TVs. Marketers are trying to understand when their messages reach consumers on different devices throughout the day, identifying users accurately as they switch screens. Cross-device data lets marketers avoid repeating messages to the same person on different screens more than they want to, among other things.
Cross Device Targeting		Serving the same buyer targeted ads across multiple devices.
Crowdsourcing		In the context of social media, this is a process used by many social bookmarking sites where individuals are allowed to vote on news stories and articles to determine their value and relevancy within the site. Related to other social media concepts such as collaboration and collective intelligence, it can also be a research tool. Due to its significant popularity, this new word famously has entered standard English dictionaries in recent years.
Customer Relationship Management	CRM	Software used to list account contact information and manage account relationships
Daily Run Rate	DRR	Projected spend for each remaining day of the month based on MTD spend
Daily Run Rate offset	DRR offset	In SEM, click cost divided by daily run rate
DART for Advertisers	DFA	DoubleClick/Google 3rd party ad serving and campaign management software
DART for Publishers	DFP	DoubleClick/Google 3rd party software used by webpage publishers to manage ad inventory
DART Search	DS	DoubleClick/Google search marketing software that allows advertisers to manage paid search campaigns on Google,

Dashboard		Any area of administrative control for operating applications, especially social media settings, blogging software, and user profiles for websites that offer multiple customization options.
Daughter Window Ad		Separate window associated with a displayed banner.  May be rendered after the banner appears or after a user clicks on the banner
Deep Site Navigation		Linking key words or other creative to specific product/ category pages in a marketer's site
Del.icio.us		A popular social bookmarking site which allows members to share, store and organize their favorite online content
Deterministic		Data that can accurately identify a consumer for targeting ads, such as a visitor's login information for a website. Other deterministic data points are credit cards, phone numbers and addresses. (See "Probablistic.")
Digg		Not as popular as it once was, Digg is a tech-centric social bookmarking and crowdsourcing site with a large, devoted audience that famously directs server-busting traffic to websites that have articles linked from its popular top rankings.
Digital Marketing		Advertising that uses the Internet or other digital devices
Directory		An index of websites where the listings are compiled by hand, rather than by a crawler. Whether general or niche-oriented, the best of these sites are structured, reviewed and regularly updated by humans with transparent editorial guidelines.
Direct Response		A campaign or ad specifically created to encourage audiences to take immediate action.
Display Advertising		Form of online advertising which shows an ad on a web page, generally at the top, bottom, or one side of a page
Display Ads		Display ads can be graphics, videos, interactive images (a quiz or a game), and expandable (Also see: Expandable Banner).
Domain Name		The unique name that identifies an organization or other entity on the Internet. The domain name is part of the URL that tells a server where to forward a request for a web page. Every domain name consists of one high/top level designator (TLDs) such as .com, .gov, .net, etc. and one or more lower- level designators. The following example illustrates the difference between a URL and a domain name: URL: http://www.example.net/index.html Domain name: www.example.net Registered domain name: example.net
DMOZ		Also known as the Open Directory Project, this continually expanding directory is run by volunteers. It claims to be the largest (and is one of the most famous) of the human-edited directories.
DMP	Data Management Platform	The systems that brands use to make sense of any information they can find about consumers and the marketplace. Brands upload first-party data (consumer emails, sales figures, etc.) to a DMP and combine it with other data sets to make better decisions for their marketing.
DNS	Domain Name Service	The DNS is a name service which allows letters (and numbers) that constitute domain names to be used to identify computers instead of numerical IP addresses.
Doorway Page		A low-content page traditionally created expressly for the purpose of ranking on a search engine. Usually very keyword-heavy and user-hostile, most search engines now frown on these pages.
Drill Down		When a user accesses numerous pages of a site
DSP	Demand Side Platform	A demand-side platform is one of three key technologies used in the buying and selling ecosystem. Commonly referred to as a DSP, this software allows marketers and agencies to buy digital ads in automated fashion. Without it, marketers would have to call publishers to buy ads manually. A DSP is often coupled with a data management platform (see "DMP") for additional help reaching key audiences. The DSPs are where the advertisers manage their digital campaigns, setting up their automated bids, the types of impressions they want to buy and the ad creative they want to disseminate. They plug into ad exchanges and ad-supply platforms known as sell-side platforms (see "SSP").
Dynamic Ad Insertion		Process by which an ad is inserted into a page, in response to a user’s request versus a static or hard-coded ad placed on a page. With sophisticated ad server tools, ad placement can be determined by a visitor’s usage patterns, demographics and/or other preferences
Dynamic Advertising Reporting Technology	DART	Original DoubleClick product that ran online advertising campaigns; Now evolved to DFA, DFP, DART Search, etc.
Dynamic HTML	DHTML	Programming extensions for HTML that allow programmers to present web pages that are more interactive or animated than previous versions of HTML, but that do not require requests to be sent back to the originating server
Dynamic IP Address		IP addresses that are not assigned on a static, or fixed, basis. Many companies and online services economize on the number of IP addresses they use by sharing a pool of IP addresses among a large number of users. Dynamic IP addresses change for each user’s log-on
Dynamic Keyword Insertion	DKI	Inserting the text of a search query in the copy of an ad
Dynamic Website		Website with content that is not fixed

Earnings Per Click	EPC	Ratio of earnings to number of clicks
Effective CPC	eCPC	Effective Cost Per Click. Calculated as the average cost per click	Average CPC
Effective CPM	eCPM	Effective Cost Per Thousand. Calculated as cost/impressions/1000
Effective Revenue Share	ERS	Measurement of profitability, calculated as cost/sales. The inverse of ROI
Email Advertising		Clickable banner ads and links that appear within emails and e-newsletters.
Entry		A piece of writing posted to a blog, microblog, wiki, or other easy-access Web publishing platform.
Ethernet		Network that links computers together in local area networks
Expandable Banner		Banners that increase in size when a user hovers over them.
Extensible Markup Language	XML	Code system for creating open non-proprietary markup languages used for both the front-end and the back-end of web pages
Extranet		Intranet that is partially accessible to authorized outsiders via username and password
Eyeballs		Slang term for audience; the number of people that view a website or advertisement
Facebook		A dominant, free-access social-networking site which is available to companies and any person 13 years of age or older. Facebook was initially non-commercial and limited to students with a college email domain, but has since expanded to accommodate fan pages, paid advertising, and e- commerce stores.
Feed		A way of organizing a large volume of content, such as the inventory of products sold by an online retailer, so that it can be included in another database. Feeds are commonly used through services such as paid inclusion
File Transfer Protocol	FTP	Network protocol used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network, such as over the Internet
Firewall		Security barrier controlling communication between a computer and the Internet, based on rules established by the network administrator
Flash™		Refers to a form of video software developed by Adobe Macromedia that creates vector-based graphic animations that occupy small file sizes.
Flicker		A media-hosting network where users can upload and share image files. It is the largest photo- storage and photo-sharing site on the Web
Fold		Area of a web page that a user has to scroll to in order to see. Monitor size and resolution determine where on a web page the fold lies
Forum		An area on a website (or an entire website) dedicated to user conversation through written comments and message boards, often related to customer support or fan engagement
Frames		Multiple, independent sections used to create a single web page
Frequency		The number of times an ad is served to the same consumer during a specific time period. Since multiple users can often access the Internet from the same device, frequency is calculated based on the number of times an ad is delivered to a particular device’s browser.
Frequency Capping		Setting a limit on the amount of times an ad should be shown to a consumer within a specific time period.
Friends		Individuals connected to one another’s profiles on a social networking site, most frequently used in association with Facebook (e.g., Facebook friends).
Geo targeting		Selecting an audience for a campaign based on zip codes, designated marketing area (DMA), cities, states and countries.
Gigabyte	Gig	1000 megabytes
Google	GG	One of the largest search engines
Google Advertising Professionals	GAP	Certificate conferred by Google to individuals who meet specified knowledge about the AdWords program
Google PageRank	PR	Numeric value that Google uses to represent a page’s authority on the web
Graphical Search Inventory		Images and banner ads that are tied to particular search terms on a search engine. They are then displayed to the user after a related search term is entered.

Graphical User Interface	GUI	Graphical means by which users interact with a machine/computer program
Grey Hat SEO		Use of SEO practices that are not in outright defiance of search engine standards (black hat SEO), but that do not quite follow search engine requirements (white hat SEO)
Groups		Micro-communities within a social networking site for individuals who share a particular interest. LinkedIn groups are a particularly notable example of this phenomenon.
Gross Demand	GRD	Total number of transactions before adjustments for returns, fraudulent orders and canceled orders
H-Tags (H1, H2, etc.)		Also known as “header tags,” these page elements represent different levels of headings in HTML. From the largest (H1) to the smallest (H6), these define the titles/headings and sub- headings of Web copy. For SEO and reader benefits, headers should contain keywords wherever possible.
Hashtag	Symbol #	A symbol (#) placed directly in front of a word or words to tag a post on Twitter. It is often used to group tweets by popular categories of interest and to help users follow discussion topics.
Hashing		A way to hide personal information when it's shared between ad-tech partners. For instance, if a brand asks a publisher to target ads to its customer email list, the emails can be masked, kind of like translating them into a different language that only the computer knows.
Header Bidding		An innovation that recently took off, in which publishers offer ad inventory to multiple ad exchanges at the same time. It was developed mainly as a reaction to Google, which works with many publishers through DoubleClick to sell ads at auction. Google also works with advertisers, which gives it some advantages in winning ads at auction. Header bidding leveled the playing field for other ad exchanges to better compete for ad impressions, increasing earning potential for publishers.
Hit		A request to a web server for a file (web page, image, JavaScript, Cascading Style Sheet, etc.).  When a web page is uploaded from a server, the number of hits is equal to the number of files requested. One page load does not always equal one hit, because pages are often made up of multiple images and other files; Thus “hits” are an inaccurate measure of a website's popularity or web traffic
Homepage		Page designated as the main point of entry of a website, or the starting point when a browser first connects to the Internet
Host		Any computer on a network that offers services or connectivity to other computers on the network
Hyperlink		Known as “link” for short, a hyperlink is a word or phrase which is clickable and takes the visitor to another Web page. This page can be within the same site or on a completely different site. Instead of a full URL string, a word or phrase is typically displayed in the body copy for the linked page (see “anchor text”), which can bring both reader and SEO benefits.	Hypertext; Link
Hyperlink Reference	Href	Web address to a linked resource or document. Usually redirects user to another page. Href code is included behind ad creative and is invisible to users viewing the webpage
Hypertext Markup Language	HTML	Proprietary code system used to create the front-end of web pages. Browsers receive HTML pages from the Internet and use the information to display text, graphics, links and other elements as they were intended by the website’s creator
Hypertext Transfer Protocol	HTTP	Communications protocol for the transfer of information on intranets and the World Wide Web
Iframe		Also known as simply “frames,” these HTML tag devices allow 2 or more websites to be displayed simultaneously on the same page. Facebook now allows companies to create customized tabs for its fan pages using iFrames, a process which developers find much easier than using the previous “FBML,” or Facebook markup language.
Image Tag	Img Tag	A line of HTML code inserted on a web page that interacts with a cookie installed on a user’s machine and allows advertisers to track the source of a transaction	Web beacon, tag
Impression		An instance of an organic search-engine listing or sponsored ad being served on a particular Web page or an image being viewed in display advertising. In paid search, “cost-per- impression” is a common metric.	Ad Impression, Ad Request, Ad View
Inbound Link	IBL	A link from another website directed to yours, also known as a “backlink.” Related marketing areas that focus on inbound links include link popularity, social media and online PR, all of which explore ways to collect quality links from other websites.	Inlink
Index		The actual collection of data and websites obtained by a search engine, also known as “search index.”
Indexation		Number of pages from a particular domain that a search engine lists in their index

Insertion Order	IO	Specifications of an advertising campaign, including payment terms and definitions
In Search Advertising		In search advertising, the position of the ad within the results is determined by bidding. The highest bidder on a keyword usually gets the top position
Instant Messaging	IM	A service where individuals can communicate through a real-time, text-based interface over an Internet connection. The exchange of small files and screen-sharing are also typically available on these platforms. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) is one of the most famous (and original) American examples of this software. Many other software programs provide this functionality, including Skype, Facebook, Gmail, and corporate videoconference clients.
IP Address		This series of numbers and periods represents the unique numeric address for each Internet user.
In-Stream Video Ads		Video ads played before, during or after the video content the publisher is delivering to the consumer.
Interactive Advertising Bureau	IAB	Advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry
Internet		Worldwide system of computer networks providing reliable and redundant connectivity between disparate computers and systems using common transport and data protocols known as TCP/IP	The Net; The Web
Internet Protocol Address	IP Address	A numerical identification that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication
Internet Service Provider	ISP	Business that provides Internet access to consumers
Interstitial Ads		Ads that appear between two different content pages, served when a website visitor navigates from one page on a website to another. A best practice in mobile marketing is to avoid using an interstitial as a popup that blocks initial access. For example, when the user tries to access the Gotham Times on their mobile, they are interrupted by an interstitial ad (offering the Gotham Times app) that they have to either accept or close before they can proceed to the site.
Intranet		Network based on TCP/IP protocols that belongs to an organization and is only accessible by the organization’s members
Inventory		Number of ads available for sale on a website
Java		Programming language that supports enhanced features such as animation, ecommerce and real-time updating
Jaiku		A cousin of Twitter, this now-defunct microblogging social network and mobile-phone app was started in Finland and later purchased by Google.
JavaScript		JavaScript is a relatively simple scripting language which can be seamlessly integrated with HTML and is used on many websites. JavaScript is less complex and consequently, less powerful than Java.
Kaboodle		A social shopping network where members create their own shopping lists and find, suggest and share products and reviews.
Key Performance Indicator	KPI	Metric identified by client as most important performance measurement
Keyword	KW	Word/Words submitted by advertisers that are used by search engines to match search ads to queries submitted by users
Keyword Density		Frequency with which a keyword or keyword phrase is used on a given web page
Keyword Density Analyzer	KDA	A tool that assists web developers achieve an optimum level of keywords
Keyword Effectiveness Index	KEI	Index that compares the number of searches for a keyword with the number of search results to pinpoint which keywords are most effective for a campaign
Keyword Proximity		The relative placement of keywords in prominent areas of a Web page, including the distance between keywords in the visible text.
Keyword Streaming		The practice adopted by search engines to group search results not only by exact keyword matches, but also by variations of keywords in semantic groups, such as singular-plural, related suffixes, and synonyms.
Landing Page	LP	A stand-alone Web page that a user “lands” on, commonly after visiting a paid search- engine listing or following a link in an email newsletter. This kind of page often is designed with a very specific purpose (i.e. conversion goals) for visitors.
Latent Semantic Indexing	LSI	Algorithm used by Google (and possibly other search engines) to determine how words are related to each other in the context of a web page
Lead		A potential customer. In digital advertising a lead is someone who has given you their contact information, often by signing up for a newsletter or filling out a form to download an eBook or other gated content.

Link Building		Efforts to improve and increase the incoming links to a site, such as manually researching and adding links from relevant websites or online directories, in order to been seen as a more relevant match for a search query by search engines; Can contribute to increased rank in search engine results
Link Checker		Program that scans websites for dead links. Most link checkers generate reports that list all dead links on a site	Link Checking
Local Area Network	LAN	Group of computers linked together at one physical location
Link Farm		A website exclusively devoted to listing a very large number of links without groupings, categories, or structure. These sites are largely discredited by major search engines, and your site’s engagement with one can potentially lead to ranking penalties.
Link Popularity		A measurement of the number and quality of sites that link to a given site, especially as cataloged in a search-engine index.
LinkedIn		A business-oriented social networking site for professionals. Much like Facebook, LinkedIn allows members to connect with other users on the network, share status updates, and participate in groups and chats, although with a career focus.
Listings		A listing is a website’s presence in a search engine or directory, and is not necessarily indicative of its search-engine positioning.
Lookalike Audience		If you’re like most businesses, you know who your customers are from a demographic and even psychographic point of view. A Lookalike Audience targets people who are similar to your existing customers which helps improve your conversion rates. You can use Lookalike Audiences when you’re running online display, Facebook, mobile display or just about any other kind of digital marketing campaign.
Loyalty Site		Website established for consumers who choose to shop through that particular site in exchange for money back, "points”, or other rewards (e.g. MyPoints.com)
Member-by- Member Tracking	MID Tracking	Technology that allows clients to track user purchases in order to reward loyal members for shopping through their website, do a better job of personalizing their site for members, or to gather additional member data for other marketing initiatives
Meta Data		Web page specific, descriptive information that helps a search engine identify the purpose and topic of a given web page
Meta Keywords Tag		In the past, this tag allowed page authors to insert a massive list of keywords related (and occasionally unrelated) to a page in order to game search-engine results. Today, this tag’s potential to influence rankings has diminished to the point where it is widely disregarded by major search engines.
Meta Description Tag		A tag on a Web page located in the heading source code containing a basic description of the page. It helps search engines categorize the page and can potentially inform users who come across the page listing in search results.
Meta Search Engine		A search engine that does not compile its own independent results, but rather pulls data from two or more search engines, such as Dogpile.com.
Meta Tags		Also called meta-data, this information found in HTML page headers used to be the bread and butter of SEO marketing tactics. Still used today despite widely perceived diminishing relevance to search-engine rankings, the most common are the “title,” “description,” and “keyword” tags (see below).
Microblog		A microblog is a social media utility where users can share short status updates and information. The most famous example is Twitter, which combines aspects of blogs (personalized Web posting) with aspects of social networking sites (making and tracking connections, or “friends”).
Microsoft Ad Center		The pay-per-click (PPC) search-engine advertising program provided by Microsoft in conjunction with its Bing search engine, now also populating Yahoo! search results.
Microsoft Network	MSN	A collection of Internet services provided by Microsoft, including a portal and search engine (now rebranded as Bing)	Bing
Mirror Site		Duplicate copy of a website already in existence, used to increase response time for high- volume sites.
Mobile Marketing		Marketing via mobile platforms, such as mobile phones
Mobile Search		Any Internet search conducted via a mobile device.
Monthly Run Rate	MRR	Average sales times number of days in the month
Mouse over		Placing the mouse over an object without clicking
Multichannel Marketers		Marketers that have more than one form of retail distribution, e.g. outlets, catalogs, online, etc.
Multi Messaging Service	MMS	Enhanced mobile messaging capability that allows messages to include engaging content such as pictures, embedded video, etc.
My Client Center	MCC	Google AdWords client management interface
My Space		A once-leading social-networking site, the music-themed MySpace allows more freedom for users to personalize their profiles than other social-networking sites, such as Facebook, which are more structured. Though its membership has shrunk significantly from its peak, the community is still popular among musicians as a platform for sharing music and interacting with fans.
Native Advertising		Any paid advertising that is indistinguishable in form from the channel being used to present it. Examples of native advertising include sponsored content on news websites and Facebook timeline ads.
Natural Linking		When one site links to another without any compensation
Natural Search Optimization	NSO	Efforts to enhance the probability that a search engine spider will index and rank a website high within the search engine results for a specific query	Search Engine Optimization; SEO
Natural Search Results		Search engine results that make up the body of the search engine listings; ranked on relevancy only	Organic Results

Netiquette		Informal rules of conduct for online behavior
Ning		A hosting service with a set of community-building tools that allows anyone to create a social network.
Non-registered User		Someone who visits a website and elects not to, or is not required to, provide information, and hence may be denied access to part(s) of the site
NO Follow		“Nofollow” is an append which is coded into the HTML markup of a hyperlink. It is used to prevent a search engine from indexing a link to a particular Web page. Some strategic uses of external “nofollow” are associated with link popularity management, e.g., for site owners that do not want to give full “follow” credit to links posted by users in their forums or blog comments.
Open Source Software		Computer software with a special license that allows users in the general public to edit and improve the source code. Famously exemplified in the Firefox Web browser and Wikipedia encyclopedia, it is an example of the kind of collaboration that is encouraged under the Web 2.0 ethos. Contrast with closed, propriety software that does not share its codebase beyond an exclusive group of authorized developers.
Organic Listing		Also known as “natural” listings, these are search-engine results that have not been purchased. They are calculated solely by an engine’s algorithm and are based on the merits of the listed pages. Typically, most search engines will display several sponsored ads related to search terms (often separated by background color or otherwise highlighted) before displaying the non-paid listings.
Opt-in		When a user gives a company permission to use data collected from or about them for a particular reason, such as to market the company’s products and services	Permission Marketing
Opt-out		When a company states that it plans to market its products and services to an individual unless the individual seeks to be removed from the company’s mailing list
Outbound Link	OBL	Any link on a Web page to an external Web page.
Overlay		Advertising that floats over webpage content, graphics or videos. Overlays cannot be blocked by ad-blocking software. One kind of overlay is called a “ lightbox.” These ads begin as a standard, scalable ad unit. If a user engages by hovering over the ad for some set amount of time (often two seconds), the ad expands (to as much as near full-page), while the page behind it dims, increasing emphasis on the ad. Advertisers pay for the number of times the ad is expanded
Packet Sniffer		Program used to monitor and record activity and detect problems with web transactions on a network
Page		Individual group of HTML documents that may contain images and media objects (graphics, java applets, etc.), as well as text. A collection of one or more pages forms a website.  A page can contain one or more ads
Page Display		Successful transmittal of a page to a user’s browser	Page View
PageRank		A former proprietary method of Google (now disavowed) for measuring the popularity of a Web page. Much-debated in the SEO community, the measurement is believed to be influenced chiefly by the number and quality of inbound and outbound links associated with a given page. Updated infrequently, this rank was indicated as a number between 1 and 10 most commonly displayed in a green bar chart in the Google toolbar add-on for browsers. The SEO community consensus opinion is that the measurement was nothing more than Google’s incomplete assessment of the relative strength of a website.
Page Request		Request by a user’s browser for an HTML document. Pages requested are not always fully downloaded or seen by the user (e.g., the user may stop before the page download is complete), so a page request is not equal to a page display
Paid Inclusion	PI	Service that blends natural and paid listings in the same results, allowing advertisers to submit and monitor entries in the natural search results; Applies to Yahoo! only
Paid Linking		Compensating a website to host a link to your site in order to been seen as a more relevant match for a search query by search engines; Only effective when sites with a logical relationship are linked
Paid Listing		Listings sold to advertisers for a fee. Also known as “paid placement.” See “pay-per-click.”
Paid For Performance		A paid-search system nearly identical to (and essentially synonymous with) pay- per-click.
Paid Search		Advertisements that appear on search engine results pages based on the search engines matching the ad to queries entered by users	Sponsored Links; PPC Ads
Panama		Yahoo proprietary paid search advertising program
Pay Per Call		Similar to pay per click, pay per call is a business model for ad listings in search engines and directories that allows publishers to charge local advertisers on a per-call basis for each lead (call) they generate. The term "pay per call" is sometimes confused with "click to call". Click-to-call, along with call tracking, is a technology that enables the “pay-per- call” business model.
Pay Per Click	PPC	this type of paid search marketing involves placing advertisements that run above or besides (and occasionally below) the free search-engine listings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo!. Typically, to get the highest position among these ads, website owners place a per-click bid. It’s not uncommon to participate in a bidding war for coveted top spots. For example, if a website’s listing is among the top 3 advertisements on a page, the same ad appears in the same location on partner websites. Some marketing firms, including Fathom, provide bid management services to get the most value for each search term.
Portable Document Format	PDF	Is a type of file for viewing documents, created by Adobe. PDFs are especially suitable for print-out viewing, so the format is a good choice for sharing high-value collateral like white papers and guides.
Performance Marketing		Marketing methodology in which advertiser payments are tied to set campaign objectives such as clicks, sales, ROI targets, etc.
Peer To Peer	P2P	Refers to any type of interaction between two or more people within a specific social network. Most viral media by definition get their popularity via such P2P sharing. The term is also widely associated with (often illicit) file-sharing networks for music and movies, though not exclusive to that realm.

Persistent Cookie		Cookies that remain on a hard drive until they expire or are deleted by the end user, as compared to a cookie that is only active until an application is closed
Personally Identifiable Information	PII	Personal data such as name, e-mail address, phone number, etc. that can be used to identify an individual
Pixel		Basic unit of color on a computer display or monitor.  The pixel size depends on the resolution of the display screen. A related term is DPI (dots per inch) where dots mean pixels. A lower resolution setting means fewer dots per inch on the screen and therefore images may appear blurred or distorted
Platform		Type of computer or operating system on which a software application runs, such as PC, Macintosh or Unix
Personally Identifiable Information I	PLL	This is any data that can be directly connected to a consumer and reveals who they are. Many ad-tech companies and platforms take measures to avoid sharing any PII from their users.
Plug-in		Program or application that can be easily installed and used as part of a web browser. Once installed, the browser recognizes a plug-in application and its functions are integrated into the main HTML file being presented
Podcast		A series of audio or video content which can be downloaded and listened to/viewed offline (or a particular episode in that series, e.g. podcast #6 of The Sporkful). A podcast is essentially an asynchronous Internet version of a “broadcast,” but to a very specific audience of willing subscribers. Podcasts are sometimes created to provide stand-alone copies of existing radio or televisio programming (such as daily/weekly shows), but they may also consist of entirely unique content intended for devoted Web-based subscribers.
Popup Ad		A form of advertisement which automatically opens (or “pops up” in) a new window in a browser to display an ad. Also seen in the form of “pop-under” ads, a slightly less intrusive version. These interruptive approaches to advertising are generally disliked (and therefore ignored) by Internet users. Many browser-based and stand-alone software programs exist to block these ads.
Pop Under		Identical to a pop-up except it loads under your current webpage. It’s generally assumed to be less intrusive than a pop-up because visitors often don’t see it until after they’ve clicked to close their current browser session
Portable Document Format	PDF	Digital format developed by Adobe for distributing digital text files
Portal		A website used as an entry point when accessing the web; usually offer news, information, entertainment, email, shopping and other services
Private Market Place	PMP	An exclusive auction that is invite-only. The publisher makes inventory available to only select brands, who then buy through real-time bidding. It's different from programmatic direct, because it's still an auction-based system
Probabilistic		Using data points to guess who the consumer is on the other side of the screen. Knowing where a person is, what time it is and the device in use help, but not with nearly 100% confidence. This type of data is considered less accurate than deterministic (see "Deterministic"), though many say a blend of the two yields the most accurate results
Profile		A profile is a personal page within a social network created by a user for sharing with others on the network. The profile provides basic biographical information and often links to the profiles of the user’s friends/connections
Profiling		Tracking information about consumers’ interests by monitoring their movements online
Programmatic Direct		When a publisher sells ad inventory directly to an advertiser for a set price, meaning it's not sold through an auction. This also is known as programmatic guaranteed. It gives the advertiser assurances over where ads run, and the publisher price stability. The ads are still served programmatically.
Programmatic Media Buying		An automated method of buying media which ensures that advertisers are reaching the right person, at the right time, in the right place. The ads are bought based on a set of parameters pre-defined by the company placing the ads. Programmatic advertising uses data to make decisions about which ads to buy in real time, which improves efficiencies and increases the effectiveness of the ads. (See also, Ad Exchange.)
Protocol		Uniform set of rules that enable two devices to connect and transmit data, including error controls, data compression methods, etc.
Proxy Server		Technique often used by ISPs, corporations and online services for caching information on a web server to act as an intermediary between a browser and the server. Proxy servers hold the most commonly and recently used content in order to provide users with quicker access
Quality Assurance	QA	Testing to ensure desired outcomes for programs
Quarterly Business Review	QBR	Quarterly review of program status and progress on annual plan
Quality Score		Quality Score - is Google's rating of the quality and relevance of both your keywords and PPC ads. It is used to determine your cost per click (CPC) and multiplied by your maximum bid to determine your ad rank in the ad auction process.
Query		Request for information, often through a search engine
Ranking		The position of a website’s listing(s) in search-engine results pages. The higher a rank for a specific keyword, the more generally visible a page is to search-engine users.
Rapid Inclusion		The indexing of websites in search engines and directories based on a per-page fee. As opposed to free submissions, where indexes are updated every few weeks (or less frequently), rapid indexing occurs every 48-72 hours.
Reach		Number of unique visitors, or percent of specified target audience, to a site or group of sites within a specified session or other period of time

Reciprocal Link		A link to a website that is reciprocated in the form of a backlink, often prearranged by sites with mutually benefitting audiences. If abused, e.g., two sites with no topical relation decide to link to each other (and many other sites) exclusively for the sake of linking, penalties from search engines could result. See “link farm.”
Redirect		One server assigning the content serving function to another server, often operated by a third company. For example, a web publisher’s ad management server might re-direct to a third-party hired by an advertiser to distribute ads
Referral Link		Place on another site from which a user accessed a particular web page
Registration		Process by which users visit a website and elect, or are required, to provide certain information about themselves. Non-registered users may be denied access to a site requiring registration. Sites use registration data to enable or enhance ad targeting
Repeat Visitor		Unique visitor who has accessed a website more than once over a specific period of time
Retargeting/Remarketing		Serving ads to people who have previously visited your website
Return on Advertising Spend	ROAS	Variant of ROI which does not include non-advertising related costs in the calculation of profitability; Calculated as revenue from a given ad source/cost associated with ad source
Return on Investment	ROI	Rate of return which is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment; Calculated as sales/costs	Revenue
Return Visits		Average number of times a user returns to a site over a period of time
Revenue Share	Rev Share	Dividing commission from a transaction or deal among the interested or vested parties
Rich Media		Technologies that enhance interaction, multimedia and transaction activity between users and the ad or web content. Some rich media can require a plug-in to run
Robot		Also known as “bot.” See “crawler.”
Robot.TxT		A small text file included on a website that directs a search engine to include/exclude specific pages from its index. It can be submitted manually to search engines to ensure the latest version is followed regardless of the “crawl cycle.”
Return Of Investment	ROI	An acronym for “return-on-investment.” ROI is the percentage of profit from a given digital marketing activity. For example, if you pay $50 a month for CPC advertising, and it leads to $500 in profit, your ROI would be 1000%.
Really Simple Syndication		“Really simple syndication” is the process by which content such as blog posts or podcasts can be updated regularly and syndicated to subscribers in feeds. RSS feeds enable users to access content updates from various outlets—e.g. their favorite blogs, news sites, and digital audio/video providers—all in one central location.
Scripts		Files that initiate routines such as generating web pages dynamically in response to user input
Search Advertising		Another term for Paid Search.
Search Engine	SE	Program that indexes web pages, then attempts to match entries relevant to a user's search requests
Search Engine Marketing	SEM	Act of marketing a website via search engines, whether by improving rank in organic listings, purchasing paid listings or a combination of these and other search engine-related activities
Search Engine Optimization	SEO	Efforts to enhance the probability that a search engine spider will index and rank a website high within the search engine results for a specific query	Natural Search Optimization; NSO
Search Engine Referral		This statistic represents a visitor who arrives at a website after clicking through a search-engine results listing.
Search Engine Results Page	SERP	Listing of results generated by a search engine in response to a search query, including both natural listings and related paid advertisements
Search Term		The precise word or phrase(s) entered into a search engine by a user (also called a “query”).
Second Life		A 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents.
Sequential Messaging		Hitting a consumer with one message, then a different one and then another to guide them toward buying or taking some other action. Sequential messaging, also known as sequential targeting, often requires cross-device capabilities to accurately reach the same consumer across screens when they visit different digital properties.
Shopping Search		A specialized type of search or dedicated search engine that indexes groups of products, prices and reviews for side-by-side comparison, especially helpful for shopping online.

Server		Computer that makes services available to client computers on a network
Service Level Agreement	SLA	Contractual agreements between a project team and client identifying the services included in a program
Session		Series of page requests made by a browser to a website. If there has been no activity for a period of time (time out), followed by the resumption of activity by the same browser, a new session is considered started. There is no standardized measurement for a session length, however, 30 minutes is the most commonly used "time out" period	Visit
Session Cookies		Temporary cookies that are erased at the end of a session
Shockwave		Plug-in that allows users to view multimedia content through a browser
Shopping Cart		Program that lets users make product selections from more than one page before making a purchase	Cart
Short Message Service	SMS	Standard for sending text message via mobile handsets. Limited to 160 characters
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol	SMTP	E-mail transfer protocol
Skins		Customized sets of graphics that allow users to change the look of a site without changing settings or functionality
Slide share		A popular presentation- and document-sharing social network, especially useful for B2B marketing.
Sniffer		Software that detects capabilities of the user’s browser, such as plug-ins, bandwidth, resolution, etc.
Social Advertising		Running paid ads on online social networking platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Social Media		Refers to all online tools and places that are available for users to generate content and communicate through the Internet. These media include blogs, social networks, file-hosting sites and bookmarking sites, among others.
Social Network		A site or community on the Internet where members can interact with one another and share content. This term is more or less used interchangeably with “social media” in reference to Internet marketing.
Social Marketing		Use of social media sites like blogs, photo and video sharing sites, and social networking sites to market products and services
Social Media Optimization	SMO	Generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites
Social Network		Online networks that allow users to connect with one or more groups, share content, post news, embed links, etc.
SPAM		Unsolicited commercial e-mail; Any search engine marketing method that a search engine deems to be detrimental to its efforts to deliver relevant, quality search results
Sphinn		A niche social-bookmarking website for online marketers.
Spider		Same As Crawler
SPAM Filter		Software designed to identify and remove unsolicited commercial messages before a user sees them
Splash Page		Typically an introductory web page that is graphics-heavy, and does not contain much content, but is designed for attention-grabbing purposes
Squidoo		A popular UGC site that allows members to create easy-to-build, single-page websites (called “lenses”) featuring whatever topic they choose. Typically, marketers use these pages to aggregate other content from across the Web under a common theme.
Sell Side Platform	SSP	While marketers use DSPs to buy digital ads, publishers use SSPs to sell them. Publishers use SSPs to offer inventory to ad exchanges, networks, trading desks—anywhere that has a pool of demand. They also use SSPs to set the terms of the auctions and manage private auctions, known as private marketplaces, where select advertisers are invited to participate. An SSP gives them control over who can advertise and the types of ads that run. Like DSPs, SSPs also plug into data- management platforms.
Static Website		A website or web page whose content is fixed

Stickiness		Metric that refers to the capacity of a site or an ad to maintain a visitor’s attention (page views or minutes per page) for an extended period of time
Stock Keeping Unit	SKU	Unique identifier for each of the distinct products and services that can be ordered from a supplier
Streaming Media		Technique that allows audio and video files to start to run and does not require that a file completely download before the user can see or hear the content. Streaming media improves the users’ experience in viewing rich media
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats	SWOT	Review of marketing strategy highlighting internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats
Style Sheet		A design template used for defining the layout of multiple pages within a website, most commonly seen in the form of “CSS” (cascading style sheets).
Submission		The process of registering a site with a search engine or Web directory. It does not guarantee inclusion, but can lead to it being reviewed or crawled. It offers no guarantee of ranking. The process can be done manually or by using commercial software packages.
Supplemental Results		Secondary index of Google search results not included in the main index due to low PageRank
Subscribing		The process of opting in to an email newsletter or adding an RSS feed to an aggregator (e.g. for reading blog updates).
Tag		A keyword (often in a string) which is attached to a blog post, tweet (see “hashtag”), social bookmark or media file. Tags help categorize content by subject.
Targeting		Showing ads to users that have been determined to be most interested in the content based on demographics, geography, behavior, etc.
Technorati		A leading blog search engine that aggregates blog content and scores blogs’ popularity or influence.
Third Generation	3G	Mobile network infrastructure deployed in 2007 that supports higher data speeds
Third-Party Ad Server		Independent outsourced companies that specialize in managing, maintaining, serving, tracking, and analyzing results of online ad campaigns
Title Tag		Meta data element that determines the actual "title" of a given web page
Token		Tracer or tag attached by the receiving server to the address of a page requested by a user.  Used to count unique users
Top Level Domain	TLD	The label that follows the last dot of a fully qualified domain name, e.g., .com, .net, .org, etc.
Tracking Links		Code that allows software to track costs and sales of an online advertising campaign
Trading Desk		Where agencies enter into the equation, via in-house programmatic buying platforms for their advertising clients to buy ad space online. The trading desks work through demand-side platforms to buy digital inventory. The agency trading desks often buy large pools of digital media and re-sell it to clients, theoretically getting a better price buying in bulk.
Traffic		Number of page views reported by a site from its log files, generally on a monthly basis. Traffic can be reported for the entire site or for sections, channels or most requested pages. Site traffic can be audited by third-party companies to authenticate numbers
Transfer Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol	TCP/IP	Software protocols that run the Internet, determining how packets of data travel from origin to destination
Tweet		A “tweet” is the special name for an entry made on the microblogging site, Twitter. Up to 140 characters long, tweets can consist of random status updates, news, commentary, or anything an individual wants to communicate to followers at that moment, including personal messages to other users or groups and links to external content (articles, photos, videos).
Tweet Up		A take-off on “meet-up,” a Tweetup is a meeting organized for friends, fans and/or strangers on Twitter. Also known as a “Tweetchat,” it can be used in marketing for consumer engagement and brand awareness by building and educating large communities of people.
Twitter		Twitter is a microblogging platform which allows users to create profiles, share short updates on a timeline, and engage with other users, much like a social-networking site.
User Generated Content	UGC	is defined as "any form of content such as blogs, wikis, discussion forums, posts, chats, tweets, podcasts, digital images, video, audio files, advertisements and other forms of media that was created by users of an online system or service, often made available via social media websites".
Unique Visitor		Also known as “absolute unique visitor,” this statistic represents visitors to a website that are counted once in a given time period despite the possibility of having made multiple visits. Determined by cookies, unique visitors are distinguished from regular visitor counts which would classify two or more visits from the same user as multiple visitors.
Uniform Resource Locator	URL	This string of letters and numbers separated by periods and slashes is unique for every Internet page. A page’s address must be written in this form in order to be found on the World Wide Web.
Universal resource locator	URL	This string of letters and numbers separated by periods and slashes is unique for every Internet page. A page’s address must be written in this form in order to be found on the World Wide Web.
User Sitemap		A page containing structured links to every other important page on a particular website grouped by topic or navigational hierarchy. These pages are equally useful for people and search-engine spiders alike, as they provide a categorized look at every page on a website at a glance (with hyperlinks).

Unique Visitor		Individual visitor to a website. If someone visits ten pages within a website, the server will count only one unique visitor because the page accesses are all associated with the same IP address	Unique User
User Interface	UI	Means by which users interact with a machine/computer program, generally a graphical interface
View Through		Used to measure a consumer’s behavior after they’ve been served an ad. If the view through window is set to 90 days, the consumer’s relevant actions within that time period can be attributed to the ad.
Viral Marketing		Self-spreading marketing approach that is created when visitors to a site also promote the site. Promotional methods include software trading, word of mouth and "pass-along" content
Voice Over Internet Protocol	VOIP	This technology allows a user to make phone calls (with potential video) via a computer with an Internet connection or a wireless-enabled mobile device. The most famous example of a VOIP provider is Skype.
Visit Duration		Length of time the visitor is exposed to a specific ad, website or page during a single session
Web 2.0		This complex term covers many dimensions of the contemporary Web, including quick user access to streaming video, audio, images and other popular content. It can be generally used to describe interactive, community-driven content, namely blogs, file-hosting, UGC, and social-networking sites. Web 2.0 is also a philosophy that the Internet should be used more as a public-access platform and less as a vehicle for traditional, one-way publishing. Related concepts include collaboration, crowdsourcing and the use of open-source software.
Webinar		A Web-based seminar containing audio and video, often in the form of a slide deck.
Web Conference		A “virtual” meeting of attendees where audio and visual content (including computer screens or live video feeds) can be shared freely over the Internet, so that attendees can have a close approximation to an in-person meeting despite being in different physical locations. Web conferencing takes advantage of a number of different social tools, including VOIP and instant messaging. GoToMeeting is one popular example of Web conference software. (Full disclosure: Fathom uses GoToMeeting.)
Web Server		A computer program that is responsible for accepting HTTP requests from clients, such as web browsers, and serving them HTTP responses along with optional data contents, which usually are web pages such as HTML documents and linked objects (images, etc.); A computer that runs a computer program as described above
Website		A collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network.
Wet paint		A UGC website that combines aspects of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks, allowing any user to create and share online content
White Hat SEO		Use of SEO practices that follow search engine requirements
Wide Area Network	WAN	Connectivity between a number of computers not located at the same physical location
Widget		Small application deigned to reside on a desktop or within a web portal offering useful or entertaining functionality	App
Wi-Fi		A family of wireless LAN standards used for Internet connectivity
WIKI		Refers to any page or collection of pages on the Internet or an intranet that can be easily edited by the public or a select group of registered visitors. Wikis are examples of collaboration. See “Wikipedia,” the most famous example of a wiki, below.
Wikipedia		A free, open-source, multilingual encyclopedia consisting of heavily edited user-generated content on topics of nearly every sort. The largest encyclopedia in the world, Wikipedia is administered by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit group. One defining characteristic of Wikipedia is its insistence on not publishing original research, but rather being an authoritative clearinghouse of citations of other material already published on the Web.
WIMAX		Wireless WAN standard designed to provide portable broadband access, providing coverage over large physical areas
Wireless Application Protocol	WAP	Standardized set of communications protocols for wireless devices that enable secure access to e-mail and the Internet
Wireless Application Service Provider	WASP	Organization that provides content and applications for wireless devices
World Wide Web	WWW	Interconnected universe of computers using common protocols to communicate and view content via the Internet
XML Sitemap		An XML file for search engines containing a list of URLs on a particular domain. This file can be used to supplement regular indexing, where a bot/crawler goes out and visits each page of a site by itself.
Yahoo Search Submit Pro	Y!SSP	Yahoo's paid inclusion program

Yahoo!	Y!	Popular Search Engine developed by Yahoo!
Yahoo Answer	YA	An online question-and-answer community where anyone can ask a question on any topic and get immediate answers from real people, which are in turn rated or voted on. These types of communities are popular, and multiple websites follow a similar model of using the “wisdom of crowds” for answers. One example is the more exclusive, sophisticated version seen at Quora.
Year over Year	YOY	Results for the current year compared to the same period in the previous year
Year to Date	YTD	Data including all activity for the current year, up to the current date
YouTube	YT	The most popular video-hosting and video-sharing site, it is also currently the largest search engine after Google (incidentally, also owned by Google). Users can view, upload and comment on video content for no charge, though companies can pay for sponsored promotion of videos or to have enhanced branding and design capabilities on their profile pages, known as “channels.”