32 Important Search Marketing Acronyms

Being that we work in an industry defined by acronyms (SEO) and have trouble sometimes determiniming the difference between SEO and SEM, SEM and PPC, or PPC and CPC; over at DP, KP started a thread listing SEO acronyms which I feel are quite useful (espcially for newbies or prepping before a meeting) and worth sharing, plus I added some of my own.

  1. BL = Backlink
  2. CPC = Cost Per Click
  3. CSE = Comparison Shopping Engine or Custom Search Engine (Google)
  4. CSS = Cascading Style Sheet
  5. DC = Data Center
  6. DMOZ = Directory – Mozilla
  7. HTML = HyperText Markup Language
  8. IBL = Inbound Link
  9. IPB9 = Internet Business Promoter
  10. LSA = Latent semantic analysis
  11. LSI = Latent Semantic Indexing
  12. OBL = Outbound Link
  13. ODP = Open Direcrory Project, See DMOZ
  14. OWBL = One way back link
  15. PPA = Pay Per Action
  16. PPC = Pay Per Click
  17. PR = PageRank
  18. RI = Regular index
  19. RSS = RDF Site Summary, Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication
  20. SE = Search Engine
  21. SEM = Search Engine Marketing
  22. SEO = Search Engine Optimization (Optimisation)
  23. SERP = Search Engine Results Page
  24. SI = Supplemental Index
  25. SSE = Yahoo! Search Submit Express
  26. SSP = Yahoo! Search Submit Pro
  27. SWL = SiteWide Link
  28. TBPR = Toolbar PageRank
  29. TR = Trust Rank
  30. VIPS = Visual-block Page Segmentation
  31. WP/WP4 = Web Position/Web Position 4
  32. XML = Extensible Markup Language

Missing anything? Be sure to share your favorite SEO acronyms in the coments below.

Written By:
PG

| Search Engine Journal | @lorenbaker

Loren Baker is the founding editor/creator of Search Engine Journal and remains an advisor and Editor In Chief to this publication.

More Posts By

Comments

  1. Alphane Moon says:

    You forgot:
    TLA = Text Link Ads
    (and Three Letter Acronym)
    :)

  2. Todd Mintz says:

    MSN…which could be seen as an Acronym.

    WTF (which I use in many different contexts) :.)

  3. Dave Davis says:

    GWO = Google Website Optimizer

  4. PPI – according to Google, it is being brought back
    Dhtml
    AJAX
    GYM (Google Yahoo MSN)
    SEW (yes, that has become a buzzworld)

  5. Hmmm…

    SES : Search Engine Strategies
    SMX : Search Marketing Expo

    Yeah.. TLA is big.

    SEL : Was for Search Engine Lowdown but now associated with Search Engine Land.

  6. Oh yes, how could I forget:

    BOTW :)

  7. Scott Fish says:

    How about one of the most important ones… ROI :)

  8. How about:

    PFL (Paid For Listings)
    P4P (Paid For Placement)
    CTR (Click Through Rate)
    CPM (Cost Per thousand)
    CPA (Cost Per Action)

  9. SMM – Social Media Marketing
    SMO – Social Media Optimization

    ???

  10. How about
    OMG how much does that keyword cost :-)

  11. Tyson says:

    I’m seeing FUD more and more each day.

  12. Mike says:

    UGC
    User Generated Content

  13. Brian Smith says:

    DFO = Data Feed Optimization

  14. YYYEEEAAA! = #1 in the SERPS

  15. Mark Dykeman says:

    Great list and great comments!

  16. And of course GAP = Google Advertising Professional.

  17. UCD – User Centered Design

  18. 海外SEO says:

    Nice post!

    How about these?
    LPO: Landing Page Optimization
    GWT: Google Webmaster Tools
    CMS: Content Management System

  19. SEO walker says:

    Thank you for a good info.

    SNS is Social Networking Service.

  20. Typo alert amigo.

    At the end of your list, after item #32, before the comments begin, you have a typo, namely:

    “coments”

    Cheers, and thanks for a “foine” list.

    Michael Zerman
    Adelaide AUSTRALIA

  21. Great, simple and use full

  22. kumpul says:

    ILU : I Love You
    HMIOT = Hi Mom Im On Tv

  23. Sac ekimi says:

    CPM is forgotten

    CPM = cost per mille

  24. Great Post!
    How about: GYM (Google Yahoo MSN)

  25. Great list. I’ve come across a few more:

    FFA – Free For All (links listings)
    PFI – Pay For Inclusion
    DRPs – Directory Results Pages
    KEI – Keyword Effectiveness Index
    PPR – Pay Per Rank
    PPV – Pay Per Visitor
    SEMPO – Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization

  26. For SEM you should not only SEO your website by acquiring BLs and IBLs and by submitting your site to DMOZs and Yahoo SSEs, but you should SMO your social sites too especially to get top results on SERPs which increases your ROI through conversions. With that said do not forget about PPCs and your PPAs as well as your OWBLs to up your Google PR and to boost your site traffic to increase your ROI. My final thought is that you must not forget to use RSS, extremely important in this day and age. Thanks.

    Signed,

    Your IPB9.

    Do these three and four letter acronyms confuse you? No problem you have Google, Wikipedia, and myself to explain them in detail.

    Free consults available.

    How much does your website earn you per month?

  27. Boston SEO says:

    Great extensive list. Definitely a good background list from beginner to expert SEOs. I don’t know if this was listed before but PPP- Pay Per Post.