Ecommerce Glossary R-S | SearchFit Shopping Cart Glossary
A performance measure that is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment, and the result is then expressed as a percentage or ratio. ROI is a very popular metric because of its versatility and simplicity. In simple terms, a user will pose the question: is spending the money worth it?
A Web Search Engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images, or other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in newsgroups, databases, or open directories (directories that are easily edited by users). Unlike web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input. Common search engines include Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Searching for something within a search engine typically yields thousands, if not, millions of results.
Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines via natural or organic search results for targeted keywords. As a marketing strategy for increasing a site's relevance, SEO considers how search algorithms work and what people search for. SEO efforts may involve a site's coding, presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent indexing by search engines. Other, more noticeable efforts may include adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and making the site more appealing to users.
A measure of the success of a web page or website. Basically, Search Engine Ranking is the placement of a user's website within a search engine's results page after a specific keyword search has been conducted. Most search engines default to ten organic or natural listings per page. Many include sponsor links at the top or to the right of the organic results. Many searchers will stop searching after the first page or two, so optimizing a website correctly can have a profound influence on traffic to a website. Online and downloadable tools exist to discover the ranking of a web page for a particular keyword or subject.
Search Engine Spiders, crawlers, and bots are essentially the same thing. They are programs that browse the World Wide Web in a methodical and automated manner. This process is called web crawling or spidering. Many sites, search engines in particular, use spidering as a means of providing up-to-date data. Web crawlers are mainly used to create a copy of all the visited pages for later processing by a search engine that will index the downloaded pages to provide fast searches. Crawlers can also be used for automating maintenance tasks on a website, such as checking links or validating html code. Crawlers can also be used to gather specific types of information from web pages, such as harvesting e-mail addresses (usually for spam).
A shopping cart that is safe for customers to use is known as a Secure Shopping Cart. A secure cart generally encrypts personal information (including credit card numbers, etc.), making it very hard for anyone other than the site's owner or administrator to access and decipher data.(See Ecommerce Security for a further explanation).
Shortened form of Search Engine Optimization. "SEO" may also refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who perform optimization efforts either in-house or for clients.Because effective SEO may require changes to the html source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, URLs, and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.
A Shopping Cart is essentially software that makes a user able to purchase a product, good, or service from an ecommerce website. Similar to a cart or basket at a grocery store, "purchased" goods are kept in a shopping cart until the user is ready to check out and pay.
A company or firm that hosts a client's shopping cart typically on their own server. This "hosting" might take a user to a different page or website altogether to complete the sale of a good, product, or service.
Any online or internet shopping cart including shopping cart software is technically a Shopping Cart Program. Ecommerce website owners typically employ shopping cart programs to allow their customers to buy products, goods, or services on their site. A good program will provide the owner or administrator with a wide variety of features and services.
A service that allows a store owner or administrator a number of options. Generally speaking, Shopping Cart Services can provide hosting, various shopping cart software, and design. Special features such as applicable tax and shipping calculations are common services of various shopping carts.
Also known as a shopping cart program, Shopping Cart Software is used in ecommerce to assist people in making purchases online. The software allows online shopping customers to place items that they want in the cart. Upon checkout, the software typically calculates a total for the order, including shipping and handling (i.e. postage and packing) charges, as well as applicable taxes. Shopping cart software plays an integral role in running a successful online business, and SearchFit's search engine-friendly shopping cart is the best at guaranteeing results.
A Shopping Cart Template refers to the design or CSS of a particular shopping cart. Some shopping carts already provide a default template, while others allow for changes and customization depending on the owner's preferences. Choosing the correct template is very important as it should not interfere with the products (including pictures, descriptions, and other details) within a site, or the site's overall usability.
Also known as a Sponsored Ad, a Sponsored Link is a paid advertisement/link to a website. These links generally appear after a search has been typed into a search engine, and appear either at the top in the form of a banner, along the sides, or even at the bottom. Typically, these links are either set in a bold font, are larger than the standard text on the page, or have some sort of colored background. Pay per click, Google Ad Words, and other advertising campaigns use these links on search engine results pages.
