Search engine marketing (SEM), like many other fields, is full of acronyms. Those of us that are veterans assume everybody knows what we mean by “the ROI of PPC” and similar statements. If you’re new to SEM, though, you’re probably lost in the alphabet soup. So, I’ve attempted to post a list of common acronyms here.
CPC: cost per click
CPM: cost per thousand
CS: customer service
CTR: click-thru rate
DTC: Direct Traffic Center (Yahoo’s old pay-per-click user interface)
G: Google
GYM: Google / Yahoo / MSN
PPA: pay per action
PPC: pay per click
QS: Quality Score
ROI: return on investment
SE: search engine
SEL: Search Engine Land
SEM: search engine marketing / search engine marketer
SEO: search engine optimization
SERP: search engine results page
SEW: Search Engine Watch
T&Cs: terms and conditions
UI: user interface
Y: Yahoo
YSM: Yahoo Search Marketing
GYM = Google, Yahoo, MSN
Good one, Michael – thanks! I’ll add it to the list.