Dictionary of Internet and eMarketing Terms
Part IV
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Packets
Means of dividing up and structuring information in a computer message for
reliable Internet transmission to the correct address.
Page Popularity
A measure of the number and quality of links to a particular page (inbound
links). Many search engines (and most noticeably Infoseek) are increasingly
using this number as part of the positioning process. The number and quality
of inbound links is becoming as important as the optimisation of page content.
A free service to measure page popularity can be found at http://www.linkpopularity.com.
Page View
Used in site statistics as a measure of pages viewed rather than server hits.
Many server hits may be made to access a single page, causing many separate
log file entries. Analysis software can determine that these server hits were
generated when a visitor viewed a single page, and group them together to
provide this more useful method of counting visitors. See also Hit and Unique
Visitor.
Partner Relationship
Management
Increasing efficiency in operation and maintain and improving relations between
a business and its partners.
Password Protected
Pages that can only be accessed after first entering a password identifying
the visitor as someone authorized to view the page. Used to deliver incentives
and premium content to visitors as they proceed through the customer development
cycle.
Payout Planning
Approach to advertising budgeting in which the dollars spent to advertise
are represented as an investment toward sales and profits.
Pay-Per-Click
In pay-per-click advertising, the advertiser pays a certain amount for each
clickthrough to the advertiser's Web site. The amount paid per clickthrough
is arranged at the time of the insertion order and varies considerably. Higher
pay-per-click rates recognize that there may be some "no-click" branding value
as well as clickthrough value provided.
Pay-Per-Lead
In pay-per-lead advertising, the advertiser pays for each sales lead generated.
For example, an advertiser might pay for every visitor that clicked on a site
and then filled out a form.
Pay-Per-Sale
Pay-per-sale is not customarily used for ad buys. It is, however, the customary
way to pay Web sites that participate in affiliate programs, such as those
of Amazon.com and Beyond.com.
Pay-Per-Lead
An ad pricing structure by which the advertiser pays the publisher according
to the number of sales generated by an ad.
Pay-Per-View
Since this is the prevalent type of ad buying arrangement at larger Web sites,
this term tends to be used only when comparing this most prevalent method
with pay-per-click and other methods.
Per Inquiry
An agreement between a media representative and an advertiser in which all
advertising fees are paid based on a percentage of all money received from
an advertiser's sales or inquires.
Percent-Of-Sales Method
Method of determining the advertising budget based on an analysis of past
sales, as well as a forecast for future sales.
Perceived Risk
A functional or psychological risk a consumer feels he/she is taking when
purchasing a product.
Personalization
Uses information for the tracking, mining and analyzing of data to customize
a person's interactions with a company's products, services, Web site and
employees.
Personalization Consortium
An alliance of major Web sites defending the use of personalization mechanisms.
Persuasion Process
The process used by advertising to influence audience or prospect attitudes,
especially purchase intent and product perception by appealing to reason or
emotion.
Placement
See Positioning.
Plug-In
Applet integrated with a browser that enables users to view text, images,
sound, and/or video in special formats.
Pointcast
A push technology that delivers requested information to a specific site.
Also the name of a proprietary news/advertising product.
Politeness Window
In order not to overburden any particular server, most search engine spiders
limit their access to each server. If your page is hosted on the same server
as thousands of other pages, the spider may never get the time to reach (and
index) your page. This can be a powerful argument for having your own server.
Pop-Up Box
A window containing an advertisement that appears separate from the window
the user is viewing. Usually popping up when the site is opened.
Pop-Under
A Pop-Up Box advertisement that opens when the site is opened but is not visible
until the browser window is closed.
Portal
See Gateway page. Can also mean Portal Site.
Portal Page
See Gateway Page.
Portal Site
A generic term for any site which provides an entry point to the internet
for a significant number of users. Examples are search engines, directories,
built-in default browser or service provider homepages, sites hardwired to
browser buttons, sites offering free homepages, e-mail or personalised news
and any popular (or heavily advertised) sites that significant numbers of
people may bookmark or set as default pages.
Positioning
The process of ordering web sites or web pages by a search engine or a directory
so that the most relevant sites appear first in the search results for a particular
query. Software such as PositionAgent, Rank This and Webposition can be used
to determine how a URL is positioned for a particular search engine when using
a particular search phrase. The GoHip Search site allows you to see positioning
information from many of the big search engines, displayed all on one page.
Positioning Technique
A method of modifying a web page so that search engines (or a particular search
engine) treat the page as more relevant to a particular query (or a set of
queries).
Post
Enter a message on a news group or mailing list
Postcardware Postcardware is freeware (no-charge software that is freely shared) that requires only that the user send the software provider a postcard as a form of payment. The idea is to humanize the transaction, reminding the user that someone else shared something freely and the provider that someone is actually using the creation.
Post Testing
Testing the effects of an ad after it has appeared in the media.
Premium Content
Incentives, such as in-depth information, comparisons, interpretations, or
discounts that appear on pages that are either password protected or unlinked.
Press Kit
A collection of background and current information about a company for use
by the media.
Primary Demand Advertising
Advertising designed for the generic product category, as opposed to selective
demand advertising.
Privacy Statement
A written commitment on your Web site that outlines your firm's commitment
to protecting your customers' and prospects' privacy by not selling, sharing,
or loaning any information submitted by Web site visitors with any other firm
or organization.
Private Offer
An offer from a merchant that is made only to a particular affiliate or group
of affiliates.
Product Differentiation
Developing unique product differences with the intent to influence demand.
Product Life Cycle
A marketing theory in which products or brands follow a sequence of stages
including: introduction, growth, maturity, and sales decline.
Product Management
Assigning specific products or brands to be managed by single managers within
an advertising agency.
Product Positioning
The consumer perception of a product or service as compared to its competition.
Also, the placement of a product, either physically or conceptually, with
regard to its competition.
Product-Related Segmentation
A method of identifying consumers by the amount of product usage, usually
categorized demographically or psychographically.
Professional Advertising
Advertising directed toward professionals such as doctors, dentists, and pharmacists,
etc., who are in a position to promote products to their patients or customers.
Promotions
Includes various techniques to attract visitors to your site or to influence
purchasing or acceptance of a product or service.
Promotional Mix Using several different types of communication to support marketing goals which include Advertising, Personal selling, Publicity, and Sales promotions.
Promotional Product
A product imprinted with, or otherwise carrying, a logo or promotional message.
Also called an Advertising Specialty
Proof of Performance
Some advertisers may want proof that the ads they've bought have actually
run and that clickthrough figures are accurate. In print media, tearsheets
taken from a publication prove that an ad was run. On the Web, there is no
industry-wide practice for proof of performance. Some buyers rely on the integrity
of the media broker and the Web site. The ad buyer usually checks the Web
site to determine the ads are actually running. Most buyers require weekly
figures during a campaign. A few want to look directly at the figures, viewing
the ad server or Web site reporting tool.
Protocol
A standard procedure for processing data. On the Internet, a set of rules
that transmitting and receiving computers agree upon to exchange data. Examples
are Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP, File Transfer
Protocol (FTP) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Psychographics Characteristics
This is a term for personal interest information that is gathered by Web sites
by requesting it from users. For example, a Web site could ask users to list
the Web sites that they visit most often. Advertisers could use this data
to help create a demographic profile for that site.
Public Relations (PR)
Communication with various sectors of the public to influence their attitudes
and opinions in the interest of promoting a person, product, or idea.
Public Relations Advertising
Advertising by a corporation that focuses on public interest but maintains
a relationship to the corporation's products or agencies.
Public Service Advertising
(PSA)
Advertising with a central focus on public welfare, and is generally sponsored
by a non-profit institution, civic group, religious organization, trade association,
or political group.
Publicity
A type of public relations in the form of a news item or story which conveys
information about a product, service, or idea in the media.
Pull Technology
Typical Internet interaction in which an individual must specifically request
desired information.
Pulsing
The use of advertising at regular intervals, as opposed to seasonal patterns.
Pupilometrics
A method of advertising research in which a study is conducted on the relationship
between a viewer's pupil dilation and the interest factor of visual stimuli.
Pure-Play Company
A Web company that operates exclusively on the Web. For example, eToys, is
a pure-play Web company in that it has no brick-and-mortar retail stores-though
it does have traditional warehouses from which it ships products ordered online
by users.
Push Technology
Internet interaction that sends data to an individual without a specific request.
Also used for off-line advertising.
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QTVR
Quicktime Virtual Reality. A method of virtual reality display that provides
a 180- to 360-degree panoramic view from a fixed position or of a rotating
object.
Qualitative Research
A method of advertising research that emphasizes the quality of meaning in
consumer perceptions and attitudes; for example, in-depth interviews and focus
groups.
Quantitative Research
A method of advertising research that emphasizes measurement of incidence
of consumer trends within a population.
Query
A word, a phrase or a group of words, possibly combined with other syntax
used to pass instructions to a search engine or a directory in order to locate
web pages.
For details of which queries are being used, visit the GoTo.com Search Inventory
page. To "spy" on queries as they're entered, look at the Metaspy page. A
summary of what people actually search for can be found at http://www.synergy-marketing.com/search.html.
A free program called Word Market will collect search terms from the search
engines, and is available at http://www.softwaresolutions.net/free.htm. The
Canadian Email Business Network provides a Meta Tags/Keywords Search Engine
at http://www.cebn.com/metatags.htm which allows searches through thousands
of recent search engine queries.
Ranking
See Positioning.
Raw Hit
Visit to a single file on a Web page.
RealNames
An alternate website address system in operation at Altavista. Brand names
used in searches are mapped directly to the appropriate website, usually because
the company owning the brand-name has paid a fee to RealNames. http://www.realnames.com
Reach
The number of target consumers exposed to a particular marketing effort.
Referrer
The URL of the web page from which a visitor came. The server's referrer log
file will indicate this. If a visitor came directly from a search engine listing,
the query used to find the page will usually be encoded in the referer URL,
making it easy to see which keywords are bringing visitors. The referer information
can also be accessed as document.referrer within JavaScript or via the HTTP_REFERER
environment variable (accessible from scripting languages).
Referrer Log
Server records of which sources or URL addresses have launched a link to a
file on that server.
Refresh Tag
See the paragraph about HTTP_EQUIV under Meta Tag.
Register
A Web software program that reviews and totals prices for items in a shipping
cart, adds shipping and taxes, and arranges for customer payment.
Registration
The process of informing a search engine or directory that a new web page
or web site should be indexed.
Relational Database
Data stored in the form of related tables, each of which may have a different
record format. It can be randomly accessed by a search of keywords or fields
and reorganized on demand to provide maximum search flexibility.
Relevancy Algorithm
The method a search engine or directory uses to match the keywords in a query
with the content of each web page, so that the web pages found can be ordered
suitably in the query results. Each search engine or directory is likely to
use a different algorithm, and to change or improve its algorithm from time
to time.
Remailer
A remailer is an Internet site to which you can send e-mail for forwarding
to an intended destination while concealing your own e-mail address. E-mail
sent through a remailer is sometimes known as anonymous e-mail. There may
be valid reasons for wanting to conceal your e-mail address (and personal
identity) from an e-mail recipient. There are, of course, unworthy reasons,
too. However, advocates of anonymous e-mail and remailer services remind us
that having the right to conceal your identity in a note can, on occasion,
be socially useful and the practice should be possible. A small number of
Web sites provide remailer services. Until it was recently closed, the best-known
remailer was the Finland-based anon.penet.fi. It reportedly handled about
10,000 messages a day and had almost 700,000 registered users.
Rendering-On-The-Fly
The method used by VRML to create images of a three-dimensional environment
as the user points a cursor.
Reporting Template
Although the media have to report data to ad agencies and media planners and
buyers during and at the end of each campaign, no standard report is yet available.
FAST, the ad industry coalition, is working on proposed standard reporting
template that would enable reporting to be consistent.
Request For Proposal
A project posted by a company that is requesting bids from an outside contractor.
Reserve Price
The lowest price a seller will accept in an auction.
Response Rate
The percentage of responses generated from the target market.
Re-submission
Repeating the search engine registration process one or more times for the
same page or site. Under certain circumstances, this is regarded with suspicion
by the search engines, as it could indicate that someone is experimenting
with spamming techniques.The Infoseek and Altavista search engines are particularly
vulnerable to spamming because they list sites very quickly, and are thus
easy to experiment with. Both engines de-list sites for repeated re-submission
and Infoseek, for example, does not allow more than one submission of the
same page in a 24 hour period. Occasional re-submission of changed pages is
not normally a problem.
Revenue Share
In commission-based agreements, refers to the amount of money each party gets,
as negotiated between strategic partners. It is possible for more than two
parties to share revenue.
RFP
Request for Proposal
RFQ
Request for Quote.
Rich Media
The inclusion of expansive graphics, animation, audio, and/or video on the
Web site or in an online advertisement.
Ringmaster Person who maintains the master database for a Web ring.
Robot
Any browser program which follows hypertext links and accesses web pages but
is not directly under human control. Examples are the search engine spiders,
the "harvesting" programs which extract e-mail addresses and other data from
web pages and various intelligent web searching programs. A database of web
robots is maintained by Webcrawler.
robots.txt
A text file stored in the top level directory of a web site to deny access
by robots to certain pages or sub-directories of the site. Only robots which
comply with the Robots Exclusion Standard will read and obey the commands
in this file. Robots will read this file on each visit, so that pages or areas
of sites can be made public or private at any time by changing the content
of robots.txt before re-submitting to the search engines. The simple example
below attempts to prevent all robots from visiting the /secret directory:
User-agent: *Disallow: /secret
For more information, please refer to the Altavista robots.txt page.
ROI
ROI (return on investment) is "the bottom line" on how successful an ad or
campaign was in terms of what the returns (generally sales revenue) were for
the money expended (invested).
ROS
Run on site. When a banner ad is allowed to run anywhere on a site, not just
at specific position or on a specific page; usually a less expensive rate.
Rotation
Refers to the automated shuffling of banners on a site so that returning visitors
don't see the same thing for too long.
Roulette
Link on a page that sends visitors randomly to another page on the same site
or to another site.
Run-Of-Network
A run-of-network ad is one that is placed to run on all sites within a given
network of sites. Ad sales firms such as Latitude90 handle run-of-network
insertion orders in such a way as to optimize results for the buyer consistent
with higher priority ad commitments.
Run-Of-Site
A run-of-site ad is one that is placed to rotate on all nonfeatured ad spaces
on a site. CPM rates for run-of-site ads are usually less than for rates for
specially placed ads or sponsorships.
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Sales Force Automation
Assists companies in the sale process, including maintaining and discovering
leads, managing contacts and other sales-force activities.
Sales Promotion
Marketing activities that stimulate consumer purchasing and dealer effectiveness
through a combination of personal selling, advertising, and all supplementary
selling activities.
Sales Response Function
Refers to the effect of advertising on sales.
Sales Tracking The tracking and recording of all sales made.
S-Business
Secure e-business.
Scooter
The name of the Altavista search engine's spider.
Search Box
A link that allows visitors at a site to perform a search of part or all the
entire inventory of a merchant's site. The visitor types a keyword into the
text box provided on your site and then clicks Search. The user is taken to
the merchant's site where a Search Results page displays, containing links
to the appropriate place on the merchant's site. This is a good way to provided
your visitors direct access to the products they are interested in, thus increasing
the likelihood that they will make a purchase.
Search Engine
A server or a collection of servers dedicated to indexing internet web pages,
storing the results and returning lists of pages which match particular queries.
The indexes are normally generated using spiders. Some of the major search
engines are Altavista, Excite, Hotbot, Infoseek, Lycos, Northern Light and
Webcrawler. Note that Yahoo is a directory, not a search engine. The term
Search Engine is also often used to describe both directories and search engines.
Searchking
A smaller search engine which allows visitors to vote on the relevance of
the pages returned by their queries, thus ranking sites based on the opinions
of searchers. Unlike some of the major search engines, there is good customer
support. http://www.searchking.com.
Search Term
See Query.
Segmented Markets
People or companies with similar characteristics.
Server
A computer, program or process which responds to requests for information
from a client. On the internet, all web pages are held on servers. This includes
those parts of the search engines and directories which are accessible from
the internet.
Shared Server
A Web server that hosts the sites for multiple companies; commonly used for
low-cost Web hosting since each site doesn't require a separate computer.
Also called virtual server. Compare to dedicated server.
Shockwave
Macromedia's format for incorporating multimedia objects on Web pages.
Shopping Cart
A Web software program that tracks items a customer selects from an online
catalog.
Side Panel Ad
Advertisement that lays vertically on a Web site.
Sidewinder
The name of the Infoseek search engine's spider.
Signature File
three- to six-line, text-only, electronic file used as an online identity.
Like an electronic business card.
Siphoning
The use of various means to steal another site's traffic. Techniques used
include the wholesale copying of web pages (with the copied page altered slightly
to direct visitors to a different site, and then registered with the search
engines) and the use of keywords or keyword phrases "belonging" to other organisations,
companies or web sites.
Sitecast
A Web-based, real-time event that incorporates streaming video, audio, graphics,
and chat lines with prerecorded information. Sometimes called Webcast.
Site Hit
See hit.
Site Index
An online map, outline, or plan of a Web site that enables viewers to access
quickly any portion of the site.
Site Launch Public advertisement and notice that a site is available for use; usually takes place within a specific time period and/or is keyed to a specific event.
SiteSweeper
Apparently no longer distributed, SiteSweeper was a program that tested and
reported on the validity of the hypertext link on the pages in a Web site.
SiteSweeper tested links to external Web sites as well as links between pages
on the same site. This kind of program is generically called a link checker.
Site Traffic
The amount of activity on a Web site. This is usually measured in page views
or visitors.
Skewing
Artificially changing search engine results so that, for example, popular
queries will return artificially created listings. Infoseek is currently experimenting
with this technique, using a small group of reviewers to artificially force
higher relevance for certain sites.
SLIP
Serial Line Internet Protocol. Type of Internet account needed to access Web
servers.
Slurp
The name of the spider used by Inktomi.
Smart Pull
A content distribution model by which criteria are applied to automatically
deliver customized content.
Snap
A large directory. The URL is http://www.snap.com.
Sniffer
The name of the filter program used by the Infoseek search engine to prevent
spamdexing. It detects multiple mirror pages, font and background spoofs,
multiple title tags, keyword stuffing and possibly other types of spamdexing.
Spam
Unwanted advertisements sent through e-mail or posted inappropriate on news
groups.
Spamdexing
The alteration or creation of a document with intent to deceive an electronic
catalog or filing system. Any technique that increases the potential position
of a site at the expense of the quality of the search engine's database can
also be regarded as spamdexing - also known as spamming or spoofing.
Spamming
See spamdexing. Spamming is also used more generally to refer to the sending
of unsolicited bulk electronic mail, and the search engine use is derived
from this term.
Special Offer
Deals offered to affiliates that are typically linked to a specific promotion
(such as a product, a holiday, ect.) These deals can be public or private
offers that are available for a limited time, at increased commission, for
a particular product or products, or a combination of these.
Spider, Spyder
That part of a search engine which surfs the web, storing the URLs and indexing
the keywords and text of each page it finds. Please refer to the Search Engine
Watch SpiderSpotting Chart for details of individual spiders. See also Robot.
Splash Screen
An introductory page or screen that users may see before they reach the home
page for a Web site. Often created to identify a referring link, to maximize
a site for keywords, or to allow software time to load.
Spidering
The process of surfing the web, storing URLs and indexing keywords, links
and text.
Typically, even the largest search engines cannot spider all of the pages
on the net. This is due to the huge amount of data available, the speed at
which the new data appears, the use of politeness windows and practical limits
on the number of pages that can be visited in a given time . The search engines
have to make compromises in order to visit as many sites as possible, and
they do this in different ways. For example, some only index the home pages
of each site, some only visit sites they're explicitly told about, and some
make judgements about the importance of sites (from number and quality of
inbound links) before "digging deeper" into the subpages of a site.
Splash page
Similar to a gateway page but provides an initial display which must be viewed
before a visitor reaches the main page. This usually acts as a kind of "opening
title" sequence, and can be extremely annoying.
Sponsor
Cost-effective type of advertising on the Web, usually featuring a small banner
ad below the fold linked to another site.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship is an association with a Web site in some way that gives an advertiser
some particular visibility and advantage above that of run-of-site advertising.
When associated with specific content, sponsorship can provide a more targeted
audience than run-of-site ad buys. Sponsorship also implies a "synergy and
resonance" between the Web site and the advertiser. Some sponsorship is available
as value-added opportunities for advertisers who buy a certain minimum amount
of advertising.
Spoofing
See spamdexing.
Sprite
A small-animated image in GIF format.
SSI
Server Side Includes. Used (for example) to add dynamically generated content
to a web page.
Stealth Script
A CGI script which switches page content depending on who or what is accessing
the page. See agent name delivery.
Stemming
A function of some search engines and directories which allows results to
be returned from some or all keywords based on the same stem as the keyword
entered as a search term. For example, when stemming is switched on, a search
for the word dance will return matches for any word whose stem is danc-, matching
the keywords dance, dancer and dancing.
Stickiness
The qualities of a site that encourage viewers to remain on the site for an
extended period of time.
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.
Storage Service Provider
Also see two related terms, application service provider and management service
provider. On the Internet, a storage service provider (SSP) is a company that
provides computer storage space and related management to other companies.
In addition to the storage itself, SSPs typically offer periodic backup and
archiving and some offer the ability to consolidate data from multiple company
locations so that all locations can share the data effectively. Customers
may be billed a monthly rate and for each managed terabyte of storage. Two
leading SSP companies are Storage Networks and Managed Storage International.
Some companies specialize in providing limited storage service, such as periodic
remote backup, to individual computer users and small businesses. An example
is @Backup.
Store-Building Program
Web software that incorporates all the elements needed to display and sell
products online, including catalog, shopping cart, checkstand, and transactional
elements.
Storefront
E-commerce-enabled Web pages that are hosted elsewhere (that is, they are
not part of your site's URL) and display products for sale, to facilitate
transaction. Many affiliate solutions providers enable affiliates to use storefronts
that are dynamically updated; however the ability to modify the design of
these pages (to match your own site look-and-feel) is quite limited.
Storelet
Prepackages selections of handpicked products in a rectangular format that
can be dropped into any affiliate page alongside the affiliate's content;
a Cross-Commerce.com feature. Like storefonts, storelets automatically receive
updated content. Unlike storefronts, storelets reside on your page and can
be modified to match your site design.
Streaming Audio
Sound files audible as they are transmitted over the Internet.
Streaming Media
A form of sponsorship linked to streamed audio and video content. Very effective
branding, particularly amongst teenagers and kids and very effective when
used for the advertisement of events.
Streaming Video
Video images that can be viewed as they are transmitted over the Internet.
Style Sheet
formats every Web site the user visits, according to that user's personal
preference.
Subaffiliate
Refers to an affiliate's affiliate in a multi-tier program or to multiple
accounts at multiple Web sites owned by an affiliate.
Subject Header
The "headline" of your e-mail, the first words that catch the recipient's
eyes. The more benefit-oriented your subject headers, the more likely your
e-mail will be read.
Submission Service
Any agent which submits your site to many search engines and directories.
Useful to get listed with many of the minor search engines, but don't rely
on such services to get listed with the major search engines. Many of these
services are automatic and run from web sites. Others run off line. Some are
free. Beware of supplying your email address to the so called FFA (free for
all) services - you may receive lots of spam.
Subsidy E-Publishing
Fee-based e-publishing services.
Subscribe
Add one's e-mail address onto a mailing list or news group.
Supertitial
An online advertisement the "pops up" after a viewer has left the site.
Sysop
Systems Operator. Manager of a bulletin board system, news group, online service,
or special interest group sites.
System Caret
The blinking vertical bar associated with editing text.
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Tag
line
A brief phrase of three to five words that encapsulates a company's purpose
or marketing message; often appears on business cards or in signature blocks.
Target
Market
A group of people to whom a company directs its marketing campaign, products,
or services.
Text Link
A hyperlink pointing to a merchant's site that is not accompanied by a graphical
image. Affiliates can use text links rather than graphical links on their
sites. Text links are easy to use, require little space on the page, save
download time, enhance usability, and are the most clicked-on type of links
available. Text links also enable affiliates to link a merchant's site from
a word or phase.
.
Thread
A topic of discussion in a news group or forum.
Time to Market
The speed at which a company can begin to sell its product or service.
Title
The text contained between the start and end HTML tags of the same name. This
text is associated with (but not displayed in) the web page containing these
tags, and is displayed in a special position (usually at the top of the window)
by the web browser.
Title text is important because it normally forms the link to the page from
the search engine listings, and because the search engines pay special attention
to the title text when indexing the page.
Don't confuse this text with heading text within the web page which often
looks like the title. Usually this will be rendered either using the HTML
heading tags or just rendered with a large font size.
Title Bar Branding
An excellent opportunity for an advertiser to associate their brand with a
specific website or piece of content. The advertiser's logo is placed within
the main title of a specific page or pages on the host site and along with
a short piece of text, e.g. "sponsored by" or "brought to you by."
TITLE Tag
In HTML code, the line that contains the words that appear in the title bar
of a Web site.
Toolbar
A type of sponsorship that is very effective because of its ability to be
placed within the context of a page. They are not animated but can be image-mapped,
making them especially useful for consumers.
Toolbox
A sponsorship type of rich media that provides ample room both for advertiser
branding and to serve as a tool for the user. While no animation is allowed
in toolboxes, they can be image mapped.
Top-Referring Sites
Sites that most frequently refer visitors to another site.
Tracking Software
Software residing on a server that measures the number of unique visitors
who visited your Web site, how long they spent, and what Web sites they came
from.
Trade Advertising
Advertising designed to increase sales specifically for retailers and wholesalers.
Trade Character
People, characters, and animals that are used in advertising and are identified
with the products, e.g. Jolly Green Giant and Tony the Tiger.
Trade Name
The name under which a company operates.
Trade Stimulants
Sales promotions directed toward retailers and distributors that are designed
to motivate them both and increase sales.
Trademark
Icon, symbol, or brand name used to identify a specific manufacturer, product,
or service.
Traffic Log
Summary of visitors to your Web site, maintained on your server, identifying
visitors by computer number, the time of day they visited, the pages they
visited, the length of time they spent at each page, and the previous and
next Web pages they visited.
Traditional Direct
Marketing
Includes sending information by mail and using telemarketers to contact prospective
customers.
Traffic
The visitors to a web page or web site. Also refers to the number of visitors,
hits, accesses, etc., over a given period.
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Unaided
recall
A research method in which a respondent is given no assistance in answering
questions regarding a specific advertisement.
Unfair Advertising
Advertising that is likely to harm the consumer. The FTC has the power to
regulate unfair advertising that falls within a very specific legal definition.
Unique Selling Proposition
The unique product benefit that the competition cannot claim.
Unique Visitor
A real visitor to a web site. Web servers record the IP addresses of each
visitor, and this is used to determine the number of real people who have
visited a web site. If for example, someone visits twenty pages within a web
site, the server will count only one unique visitor (because the page accesses
are all associated with the same IP address) but twenty page accesses.
See also hit and page view.
Unlinked Page
The title of an unlinked page does not show up on your Web site's navigation
bar. Instead, the pages specific URL, or page locations, must be copied or
typed in. Unlinked pages are used to provide premium content used as an incentive
to encourage visitors along the five-stage customer development cycle.
Vertical Portal
A specialized Web site offering a great deal of information, links, and news
about a specific subject.
Unsubscribe
Remove name from an e-mail list
Upsell
To encourage a customer to purchase a more expensive item, an add-on, or related
product.
URL
Universal Resource Locator. An address which can specify any internet resource
uniquely. The beginning of the address indicates the type of resource - e.g.
http: for web pages, ftp: for file transfers, telnet: for computer login sessions
or mailto: for e-mail addresses.
URL Submission
See Registration.
User Session
A user session is someone with a unique address that enters or reenters a
Web site each day (or some other specified period). A user session is sometimes
determined by counting only those users that haven't reentered the site within
the past 20 minutes or a similar period. User session figures are sometimes
used, somewhat incorrectly, to indicate "visits" or "visitors" per day. User
sessions are a better indicator.
Utility
The value a consumer receives from a product's design.
Value
chain
According to John Del Vecchio writing for Fool.com, a value chain is "a string
of companies working together to satisfy market demands." The value chain
typically consists of one or a few primary value (product or service) suppliers
and many other suppliers that add on to the value that is ultimately presented
to the buying public.
Value-Added Network
(VAN)
VAN is also an acronym for virtual area network. A value-added network (VAN)
is a private network provider (sometimes called a turnkey communications line)
that is hired by a company to facilitate electronic data interchange (EDI)
or provide other network services. Before the arrival of the World Wide Web,
some companies hired value-added networks to move data from their company
to other companies. With the arrival of the World Wide Web, many companies
found it more cost-efficient to move their data over the Internet instead
of paying the minimum monthly fees and per-character charges found in typical
VAN contracts. In response, contemporary value-added network providers now
focus on offering EDI translation, encryption, secure e-mail, management reporting,
and other extra services for their customers.
Venture Capitalist
Individuals or groups that generate the financial support of a growing enterprise,
usually claiming a certain degree of ownership in the company.
Vertical Portal
A specialized Web site offering a great deal of information, links, and new
about a specific subject.
View
A view is, depending on what's meant, either an ad view or a page view. Usually
an ad view is what's meant. There can be multiple ad views per page views.
View counting should consider that a small percentage of users choose to turn
the graphics off (not display the images) in their browser.
Viral Marketing
Using members of a target audience to distribute a marketing message to other
potential customers, e.g., forwarding an e-mail newsletter
Virtual Domain
A domain hosted by a virtual server account.
Virtual Reality
Computer-mediated method for interacting with a three-dimensional environment.
Virtual Server
An account on a hosting company server, usually linked to its own domain.
This provides an inexpensive way to run a web site with its own top level
domain, and is usually indistinguishable from having a separate physical server,
except that the virtual server may share an IP address with other virtual
servers on the same machine. A virtual server account is fine for most uses,
but will often be slower to respond than a physically separate server, and
physical access to the machine will seldom be allowed. The cost of a virtual
server account is a small fraction of that needed to run a real server, mainly
because of the expense of the dedicated line needed to connect the server
continuously to the rest of the net.
Visitor
A person who goes to a specific Web site. Sites often define their traffic
levels in terms of the number of visitors they've had in a given time period.
Visit
A visit is a Web user with a unique address entering a Web site at some page
for the first time that day (or for the first time in a lesser time period).
The number of visits is roughly equivalent to the number of different people
that visit a site. This term is ambiguous unless the user defines it, since
it could mean a user session or it could mean a unique visitor that day.
VRML
Virtual Reality Modeling Language. Programming language for displaying three-dimensional
space as if the viewer were moving through it in any direction.
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WAN
Wide Area Network. Links distant computer systems.
Wear Out
The point reached when an advertising campaign loses its effectiveness due
to repeated overplay of ads.
Web conferencing
Allows businesses to meet and collaborate online, in real time from anywhere
in the world.
Web Copywriting
The writing of text especially for a web page. Similar to the writing of copy
for any other type of publication, good web copywriting can have a great effect
on search engine positioning, so it forms a major part of optimization.
Webcrawler
One of the largest search engines. The URL is http://www.webcrawler.com.
Web Page
A page of a Web site.
Web Ring
A popular form of relationship whereby a group of Web sites elects to make
all of their sites accessible from other sites within the group. By agreeing
to place links to some, all, or randomly selected members of the groups, sites
from a "ring" that is easily navigated by users. Web rings can be big or small,
inclusive or exclusive (not every site can join), and are usually made up
of sites related by some common theme or topic.
Web Site
A collection of documents made available to users by a publisher on the Internet.
These can include news and entertainment centers as well as corporate information
sites.
White Paper
An in-depth policy or background statement on a subject or technology, usually
several pages long.
Whois
Computer Database of domain names
WML
Wireless Markup Language.
WWW
World Wide Web. Portion of the Internet that contains data, graphics, sounds,
and video, and is accessed through a graphical interface.
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XML
Extensible Markup Language. A new language which promises more efficient data
delivery over the web. XML does nothing itself - it must be implemented using
'parser' software or XSL.
XSL
Extensible Scripting Language - an XML style sheet language supported by the
newer web browsers Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape 5.
Yahoo
Similar to a search engine, but with a database generated by hand, this is
the world's most used directory of web sites. The main URL is http://www.yahoo.com.
It is notoriously difficult to get listed in Yahoo and, once listed, even
more difficult to get your listing changed or to get out! To increase the
odds of getting listed, try the following:
Select the three categories you want to be listed in very carefully. Consider
the regional categories. Ensure that the categories match the content of your
site.
Apply to one of their local subsidiaries for your own country or city.
Make sure that your site is well-designed and easy to navigate.
Ensure your site has no dead links.
Ensure that your pages download quickly.
Provide good contact information on your site.
If you manage to get listed, keep the e-mail they send you. You can e-mail
the same person subsequently to get your listing changed.
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