Paid Listings, as opposed to Natural Listings or Organic Listings, are sites that appear on a Results Page because money was paid to the search engine for inclusion and/or position. Paid listings are used as an all-inclusive term for the practices of Paid Inclusion and Paid Placement.

Paid placement is a program in which advertisers’ listings are guaranteed to appear on a Results Page when particular Keywords are searched. The ranking of paid placement listings is determined by competitive bidding. Unlike Paid Inclusion listings, paid placement listings are usually displayed separately from Natural Listings and are labeled as advertisements or sponsored links. Google and Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) are two of […]

Also known as cost per click or pay for performance, pay per click is an advertising revenue system used by search engines and ad networks in which advertising companies pay an agreed amount for each click of their ads. This Click-Through Rate-based payment structure is considered by some advertisers to be more cost-effective than the Cost Per Thousand payment structure, but it has at times […]

Also known as rank, position is the place a website occupies relative to the first listing on an Algorithmic Results page in response to a Keyword query. The first page displays Listings in the one through ten positions, the second page eleven through twenty, etc. Businesses trying to get their site into a top ten position will often employ a Professional Search Engine Optimization company. […]

Position reporting is the monitoring of daily changes in search engine Position for indexed URLs that have been optimized for specific keywords by a Search Engine Optimization Company. Position reporting is also used to generate a Search Engine Ranking Report.

Professional search engine optimization is the modification of a website by an SEO company in order to increase its Position and Page Rank and improve its Click-Through Rate and Conversion Rate.

A query is a question or instance of questioning. A search engine query is a user’s request for the information (i.e. WebPages) in a search engine’s Index that is most relevant to a Keyword or set of Search Terms. Query is sometimes used to mean the actual keywords a user enters in a search box.

Also known as position, rank is the place a website occupies relative to the first listing on an Algorithmic Results page in response to a Keyword query. The first page displays Listings in the one through ten positions, the second page eleven through twenty, etc. Businesses trying to get their site into a top-ten rank will often employ a Professional Search Engine Optimization company. Consumer […]

A reciprocal link exchange is a Quid Pro Quo arrangement or link exchange between two sites. Reciprocal links usually lead to the home page of the associate site.

Also known as search engine registration or search engine submission, registration is the submission of a URL to a Directory or Search Engine for inclusion in its Index. Registration is usually free but can also require payment. Registration is a basic but not so important part of Search Engine Optimization.