Marketers tend to use a lot of jargon, acronyms and labels. To help with the unneeded learning curve, I've created this list of Internet marketing definitions. By no means is this a complete list, but it should clear the lines of communication a bit.

Internet Marketing Acronyms

CPC - Cost per click - The same as Pay Per Click. A type of advertisement where the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the advertisement.

CPM - Cost Per Thousand - The cost per thousand impressions.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheet - A type of Web site file that is used to define stylistic elements of a Web site. 

CTR - Click Through Rate - The ratio of people that clicked through to Web site compared to the total number of people that saw your advertisement, search result or listing.

PPC - Pay Per Click - A type of advertisement where the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the advertisement.

RSS - Real Simple Syndication -A set of feed formats that allow sites with frequently updated content such as podcasts, blogs and news sites to be easily followed via bookmarks, readers or aggregators.

SEM - Search Engine Marketing - The practice of buying contextual ads that appear near search results.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization - The practice of helping a Web site rank well for specific, targeted keywords.

SERP - Search Engine Ranking Page - The page(s) a search engine displays with relevant results based on the search inquiry.

Internet Marketing Terms

Above the Fold - A term that comes from the newspaper industry. In the traditional sense, it referred to the content that appeared above the crease on a newspaper. In internet marketing terms, it refers to the position of content visible before requiring the visitor to scroll down.

Alternative (Alt) Text - The text used to describe what is contained inside of an image. It helps search engines properly index images and can act similarly to anchor text.

Analytics - A tool that tracks and reports Web site usage data to webmasters. Offered for free, by subscription or as a software package.

Anchor Text - The text used to describe the content provided on an external page that is being linked to from another Web page.

Authority - A site's relevance on a particular topic or keyword. Usually determined by the number of quality inbound links.

Bait and Switch - In internet marketing terms, this is the practice of generating links to your Web site to gain authority and then changing the content of the Web site to capitalize on the market position your inbound links provide. In a traditional marketing sense, it means to engage a potential customer by advertising a sale or promotion, but not fulfilling the advertised deal once the customer is at the store, and instead, trying to sell that person a higher priced substitute.

Blog - An informal means of distributing content quickly through a Web site.

Bounce Rate - The number of people that immediately leave a web page upon entering the page.

Content - Indexable information found on a Web site that is used to provide information and help convert visitors into leads.

Conversion - A conversion is the completion of a desired action or goal. The types of conversions or desired actions can include, but is not limited to, a sale, a completed form, a phone call or a completed survey.

Conversion Rate - The ratio of visitors that complete a desired action versus the number of visitors that do not.

Del.ici.ous - A tool that allows people to store bookmarked sites online vs. on a particular web browser that is tied to one computer. It also allows

Demographics - Quantitative data that defines a population into segments based on common characteristics, such as gender, race, household income, age and education.

Digg - A web site that allows its members to vote on the quality of internet content so that it gets distributted to other Digg members and site visitors.

Exit Rate - The number of people that leave a web site from a particular page.

Favicon - The small image that is related to a Web site and often displayed in a URL bar on a Web browser, a list of bookmarks or on browser tabs.

Keyword - A targeted word or set of words which a web site owner aims to provide relevant content to in hopes of ranking high in search engines to reach an intended target audience.

Keyword Stuffing - Overloading the keywords meta tag on a Web page or site with hopes of garnering higher search engine rankings related to that term as a result.

Link Bait - A micro-site, article, list or web site feature with the hopes of gaining links to increase search rankings.

Link Building - The practice of gaining inbound links to a Web site to increase its authority for targeted keywords.

Media Relations - pitching stories to news sites with hopes of gaining idea distribution, credibility, goodwill and inbound links.

Nested Tables - An old style of building a Web site using tables layered on top of one another. Has been widely displaced by cascading style sheets.

Psychographics - Qualitative data that defines a population based on personality, values, lifestyle, and behavior.

Referring Site - A Web site that sends a site visitor to another Web site via a link.

TypePad - A service that offers managed blog hosting with a variety of customization depending on the level of service a content provider buys.

Web Form - A set of fields to be completed by a site visitor in return for something (a phone call, a newsletter, a white paper, a stock report, a free download, etc.)

WordPress - A content management plug-in for web site domains that aims to provide quick and easy publishing.