SEO, SEM & Other FAQ

Below are answers to the most frequently asked questions we hear related to SEO, SEM and other often-used acronyms and terms.

What is …?

Search Engine – web search tools or engines, which search for information on the internet based on criteria (keywords) entered by a user, and presents search results to them, usually in a list format

SEO – Search Engine Optimization, the art and science of optimizing a website to improve it’s visibility and “organic” search results in search engines such as Google.

Keyword – a specific word or string of words (sometimes called long-tail or short-tail keyword string) targeting a specific topic.

Google Map / Places Page – web mapping service from Google that serves as local business listing/locator and is sometimes presented on a search results page top right section.

Organic Search Results - “unpaid” search engine results based a website’s relevance for a particular keyword or keyword strings. Factors considered by the search engine are likely to include quality and quantity of website content, social media & other inbound links, frequency of website updates, age of website, and much more.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing, internet advertising that uses primarily PPC advertising campaigns to present ads to viewers using a particular search engine. May also utilize other secondary tactics.

Google Adwords – A Google search engine advertising campaign that uses PPC ads to reach a target audience. Ads are typically presented either at the very top, very bottom, or extreme right/top side of a search results page for maximum visibility.

PPC – Pay-Per-Click, a type of internet marketing or advertising whereby the advertiser only pays for the ad if the viewer clicks on it (to go to the website); ie, if the CPC is $10/click, and the advertiser has a maximum monthly spend budget of $50, then after 5 viewers have clicked on the ad, their budget will be exhausted and the ad will stop being presented (unless they increase their budget, or until the next month when the ad starts running again).

CPC – Cost-Per-Click, the amount that is deducted from the Adwords budget each time a viewer clicks on a PPC ad.

PPI – Pay-Per-Impression, Display Network Advertising, a type of internet advertising whereby the advertiser pays for the ad based on volume of “impressions” or users that viewed the ad; ie, for every 1K viewers, they might pay $50.