Custom Error Page | SEO Glossary: C

You can customize the content and the look-and-feel of the default page that is displayed on your web server when a 404 File Not Found error occurs. A good 404 error page has a friendly message explaining that the page they requested doesn't exist at the location, a site map to encourage the user to continue exploring the site, a search box so the user can conduct a search, and a look-and-feel that matches the rest of the site, including navigation of course. Creating a custom 404 error page not only helps keep visitors in your site, it is also an important part of the search engine optimization process. Inevitably pages on your site will get moved and removed over time. When a search engine spider returns to your site to reindex those now non-existent pages, they will have a set of links to explore in the form of the site map on the custom 404 page. You can test for whether a site has a custom 404 error page by trying to access a web page with a nonsense filename after the domain name in the web site address. For example: www.yourcompany.com/blah

CTR - Click Through Rate

Click Through Rate is a measure of the number of clicks received from the number of ad impressions delivered. 

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) | SEO Glossary: C

The cost incurred or price paid for a thousand impressions.

Cost Per Sale (CPS) | SEO Glossary: C

Pricing based on the number of sales transactions your ad generates. Since users may visit your site several times before making a purchase, you can use cookies to track their visits from your landing page to the actual online sale. Also known as cost-per-acquisition or pay-per-sale.

Cost Per Order (CPO) | SEO Glossary: C

Pricing based on the number of orders received as a result of your ad placement. Also known as cost-per-transaction.

Cookie | SEO Glossary: C

Information placed on a visitor's computer by a web server. While the web site is being accessed, data in the visitor's cookie file can be stored or retrieved. Mostly cookies are used as unique identifiers (i.e. user IDs or session IDs) to isolate a visitor's movements from others' during that visit and subsequent visits. Other data that may get stored in a cookie include an order number, email address, referring advertiser, etc.

Conversion Rate | SEO Glossary: C

The rate at which visitors get converted to customers or are moved a step closer to customer acquisition

Call To Action | SEO Glossary: C

Call to action words are "doing words" such as "Click here", "Buy Now", "Enter Now" or "Click to download"

and

A call to action is copy used in advertising to encourage a person to complete an action as defined by the advertiser.

Cache | SEO Glossary: C

Copies of web pages stored locally on an Internet user's hard drive or within a search engine's database. A cache is the reason why web pages load so quickly when a user hits the Back button in their web browser, since the page is not being re downloaded off of the Internet. Google is unusual among search engines in that it allows Internet users to view the cached version of web pages in its index. Simply click on the word "Cache" next to the search result of interest and you will be taken to a copy of the page as Googlebot discovered and indexed it.This feature of Google makes it easy to spot cloaking..

Broad Match | SEO Glossary: B

Broad Match is a form of "keyword matching" and refers to the matching of a search listing or advertisement to selected keywords in any order.

This means if selected keywords are "running shoes", then ads or a search listing may be displayed if the users searches upon the following example keywords:

Any Order: "shoes running"
Synonym: "running sneakers"
Plural, Singular: "running shoe"

Broad match terms are less targeted than exact or phrase matches.

Bridge page | SEO Glossary: B

"Bridge page" == "Doorway page" ==> Also known as a "bridge page" or a "gateway page". A doorway page is a web page full of keyword-rich copy that doesn't deliver any useful information on it other than a link into the site, and whose sole purpose is to be fed to the search engines.

Bot | SEO Glossary: B

Bot:- Short for robot. See "spider"

Blacklist | SEO Glossary: B

Lists that either search engines or vigilante users compile of search engine spammers, which may be used to ban those spammers from search engines or to boycott them.

Black Hat SEO | SEO Glossary: B

Black Hat SEO is sometimes called spamdexing (the opposite of White Hat SEO). Black Hat SEO can be any optimization tactics that cause a site to rank more highly than its content would otherwise justify or any changes made specifically for search engines that don�t improve the user�s experience of the site. In other words, Black Hat SEO is optimizations that are against search engine guidelines. If you step too far over the mark, your site may be penalized or even removed from the index.

For example, adding product reviews to e-commerce site is encouraged, because it adds useful content to the site. However, using bait-and-switch techniques to create a doorway page that hooks people querying for information on soccer, it then leads to information about health products will be unacceptable.

The following Black Hat SEO tactics should be avoided to keep your site away from penalties:
� Keyword, anchor text and domain name stuffing.
� Using hidden text or links
� Using techniques to artificially increase the number of links to your pages, such as link farms
� Excessively cross-linking sites to increase link popularity
� Cloaking, delivering different pages depending on the IP address and/or agent who is requesting it
� Doorway / Gateway / Jump Pages
� Duplicate content taken from other sites
� Auto-generated content of no value to the end user
� Spamming forums or blogs
� Excessive outbound links to websites that use high risk techniques or spam

Bidding | SEO Glossary: B

Bidding means placing a bid price that you are willing to pay as an advertiser on a pay-per-click search engine. The highest bid for a given keyword achieves the top spot in the PPC search results. In Overture, the top three bids are "featured" on Overture's partners' sites, including AOL, Altavista, Infospace, and others. The minimum bid amount on Overture is 5 cents per click through.

Pay-per-click (PPC):- a pay-for-performance pricing model where advertising (such as banners or paid search engine listings) is priced based on number of click troughs rather than impressions or other criteria. Overture is an example of a search engine which charges advertisers on a pay-per-click basis.

Bid management tool | SEO Glossary: B

Software or an ASP service used to manage bids on pay-per-click search engines such as Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and Google AdWords.

Beyond The Banner | SEO Glossary: B

Any advertisement that is not a banner, such as an interstitial or a pop-up ad.

Beacon | SEO Glossary: B

A line of code placed in an ad or on a web page that helps track the visitor's actions, such as registrations or purchases. A web beacon is often invisible because it's only 1 x 1 pixel in size and has no color. Also known as web bug, 1 by 1 GIF, invisible GIF or tracker GIF. 

Banner Ad | SEO Glossary: B

A graphic image, usually a GIF or JPEG, that can be placed anywhere on a web page, most frequently centered across the top. The tile ad is a smaller counterpart, typically grouped with other tile ads along a side margin. The standard banner ad is 468 x 60 pixels; the most common size for tile ads is 125 x 125 pixels.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau regulates guidelines and standards for display advertising sizes

Banned | SEO Glossary: B

When a search engine blocks your site from appearing in its search results.