There are so many terms used when dealing in internet marketing, there are bizarre phrases and abbreviations, so many that can be misinterpreted by many, let alone how it must seem to a person who doesn’t know much about the internet or digital marketing!

Here is a list of commonly used terms, phrases and abbreviations – Terminology:

Algorithm – The formula that determines how a web page will rank in the search results pages of a search engine.

ALT text – The text that appears when you put your mouse on top of an image or a picture.

Anchor Text – Also known as Link Text, the clickable text of a hyperlink.

Back Link – A link from a site outside of your site, it’s also referred to as an inbound link.

Below the fold – Content of a web page that is not seen by the consumer unless the consumer scrolls down.

Blind Traffic – Low quality traffic generated by misleading banners or SPAM.

Clustering – In search engine search results pages, clustering is limiting each represented website to one or two listings.

CMS – Content Management System

CPA – Cost Per Action.

CPC – Cost Per Click.

CPM – Cost per 1,000 impressions.

CSS – Cascading Style Sheets.

CTR – Click Through Ratio / Click through rate

Email spam – Unsolicitored mail

EPV – Earnings Per Visitor.

FFA – Free for all

Filter Words – Words such as is, am, were, was, the, for, do, ETC, that search engines deem irrelevant for indexing purposes.

Hit – A single access request made to the server.

IBL – Inbound Link. A link from another site to your site.

IM – Instant Messaging

Incentivised traffic – Low quality traffic generated by misleading banners, inappropriate use of hooks or promotions

Inbound Link – A link from a site outside of your site.

LS – LookSmart

ODP – The Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org/)

Opt-in – To actively choose to be included in further marketing activity or newsletter etc

Opt-out – To actively choose for your information not to be used for further marketing activity

Outbound Link – A link from a page of your site to another site.

Page Views – The number of times distinct pages of a website are served.

PPC – Pay Per Click. In networks such as Adwords, YSM, MSN or Miva

Query – The execution of a search on a search engine.

RFP – Request for Proposal.

ROI – Return of Investment.

SE – Search engine or SEs (Search Engines)

SEM – Search engine marketing.

SEO – Search engine optimization / optimization

SEP – Search engine placement / Search Engine Positioning

SERP – Search Engine Results Page.

SPAM – Deliberately over using terms and phrases inappropriately or the over use of an online medium (unsolicitored).

Stemming – Word variations. For example, if I entered the query “swim”, a search engine that supports stemming might return results that include “swimming” or “swims”.

Stop Word – A word which is ignored in a query because the word is so commonly used that it makes no contribution to relevancy. Examples are common net words such as computer and web, and general words like ‘get’, ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘the’ and ‘you’.

Unique Visitor – An instance of a unique site connecting to your server, for example a visitor that had visited your site more than once in a 24 hour period would be classed as one unique visitor.

URL – Universal Resource Locator.

USP – Unique Selling Proposition / Unique Selling Point

W3C – World Wide Web Consortium

WWW – World Wide Web