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Search engine marketing glossary - C

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Call to action

The intended response a web site owner wishes site visitors to take when they view a web page. Various calls to action include order, purchase, subscribe, download, and click here.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

A feature of HTML developed by the W3C. They enable web designers and end users to create style templates (sheets) that specify how different text elements (paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, and so on) appear on a web page. Style sheets can also be used for positioning elements on a web page. Currently, not all browsers express CSS formatting in the same manner.

CGI

Abbreviation for common gateway interface. CGI refers to programs used to produce content for browser delivery. Common CGI programming languages include Perl, C, Java, and Visual Basic.

Classification

The process of organizing information into topical categories, usually in a hierarchical structure.

Click-through or click-thru

The process of clicking a link from one web page to go to another web page. In search engine marketing, it is the process of clicking a link from a search results page to a specific web page.

Click-through popularity or click-thru popularity

In search engine marketing, the number of times end users click the link from search engines to a web site and how long end users stay on the site after they click the link from the search engine. Some search engines use click-through popularity to determine relevancy. Also known as click tracking.

Cloaking

The process of delivering custom content to a search engine spider that is hidden from site visitors. With cloaking, search engine spiders see one page, and visitors view another page with different content.

Clustering

Listing only one or two pages from each web site in a search engine's or directory's list of search results.

Comment tag

An HTML tag used to hide content from browsers. Comment-tag content is placed between the <!- - and - -> symbols. Most search engines ignore the content placed between these symbols.

Concept search

A search for documents related to a keyword or keyword phrase. Different from a search specifically containing the keyword itself.

Content page

Another term for an information page. See information page.

Conversion rate

The measure of the number of specific calls to action divided by the total number of unique page visitors. For example, if 10 visitors purchase a product or service and 100 visitors view the web page, the page has a conversion rate of 10 percent.

Cookie

A message given to a web browser by a web server. One of the main purposes of cookies is to identify web site users/visitors and possibly prepare customized web pages for them.

Counter

A program or script that measures the number of hits on a web page. Can also measure the number of page views on a web site.

CPA

Abbreviation for cost per action. Type of advertising in which a web site gets paid each time an end user performs a desired action.

CPC

Abbreviation for cost per click. Type of advertising in which a web site gets paid each time an end user clicks a link to the advertiser's web site.

CPM

Abbreviation for cost per thousand. Type of advertising in which a web site gets paid based on the number of impressions. Calculated in blocks of 1000.

Crawler

Another word for a search engine spider. See spider.

Cross linking

Linking among web pages within the same web site.

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