Glossary - Understanding Sponsored Search - page 260

rate, ad text relevancy, the keyword's historical performance, and the quality of the
landing page (Source: Quirk) (see Chapter 4 ads).
Query : a series of terms entered by a searcher into a search engine. The keyword
or keyword phrase a searcher enters into a search field, which initiates a search and
results in a SERP with organic and paid listings (Source: SEMPO) (see Chapter 3
keywords).
Query length : the number of terms in a query (see Chapter 3 keywords).
Query parameter : an individual piece of a query string consisting of a parameter
name and a value for the parameter (Source: WebTrends) (see Chapter 3 keywords).
Rank : a measure of which position an ad is in the SERP listings. How well posi-
tioned a particular Web page or Web site appears in search engine results. For exam-
ple, if you rank at position #1, you are the first listed paid or sponsored ad. If you
are in position #18, it is likely that your ad appears on the second or third page of
search results, after seventeen competitor paid ads and organic listings. Rank and
position affect your click-through rates and, ultimately, conversion rates for your
landing pages (Source: SEMPO) (see Chapter 4 ads).
Ranking : in search, ranking is used to describe the relative position of a Web page in
the SERPs (Source: Quirk) (see Chapter 4 ads).
Rational actor : a value-maximizing unit in the sense that, with respect to the actor's
own values and preferences, the actor makes choices in such a way as to maximize
outcomes (see Chapter 5 customers).
Reach : the estimated number of individuals in the audience. The size of the audience
reading, viewing, hearing, or interacting with a message in a given period of time.
Reach can be understood as either an absolute number or a fraction of a population
(Source: WebTrends) (see Chapter 6 BAM!).
Real time : events that happen live at a particular moment. When one chats in a chat
room, or sends an instant message, one is interacting in real time (Source: IAB) (see
Chapter 2 model).
Recency : the number of days since a visitor's most recent visit during a reporting
period. See also frequency (Source: WebTrends) (see Chapter 5 customers).
Referral fees : fees paid by advertisers for delivering a qualified sales lead or pur-
chase inquiry (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 2 model).
Referral link : the referring page or referral link is a place from which the user clicked
to get to the current page. In other words, because a hyperlink connects one URL to
another, in clicking on a link the browser moves from the referring URL to the desti-
nation URL. Also known as source of a visit (Source: IAB) (see Chapter 2 model).
Relative conversion rate : The expected change in conversion rate in relation to rank
1 (see Chapter 7 analytics).
Relevance : describes how pertinent, connected, or applicable something is to a given
matter. The measure of the accuracy of the search results; in other words, it is a mea-
sure of how close the documents listed in the search results are to what the user was
looking for (Source: SearchEngineDictionary.com) (see Chapter 4 ads).