For the Realtor venturing online for the first time, the Web can seem like a mess of alphabet soup.  As soon as you start looking for ways to promote your site, you get mired in it – RSS, CPC, SEO … the list goes on.  So, as a reference for you, here’s a quick list of some of the more common acronyms used across the Web, what they mean and, most importantly, how you can put them to use to increase your real estate business.

1. CPA
– What it stands for: Cost Per Action

– How it’s used: Cost per action is an advertising model in which the publisher serving the ads is only paid once the customer completes a certain action.  For example, you might run a CPA ad campaign where you pay $3.00 for any visitor who fills out a form to find out more about one of your listings.  There’s speculation the CPA model will become the dominent one on the Web in the coming years.

2. CPC
– What it stands for: Cost Per Click
– How it’s used: A cost per click ad campaign is one in which the advertiser pays only when a visitor clicks your ad. 

3. CPM
– What it stands for: Cost Per Impressions
– How it’s used: This is a throwback to the old days of advertising, where advertisers paid for a set number of impressions regardless of the number of clicks or actions.  This model faded from prominence online, but some sites like Facebook still let you purchase ads on a CPM model.  Additionally, many smaller sites operate on a CPM model if you are contracting for advertising privately.

4. CSS
– What it stands for: Cascading Style Sheets
– How it’s used: The cascading style sheet contains all the design information for a Web site – background colors, font families and sizes, borders, etc.  Every Web site is governed by a cascading style sheet which dictates how the content on a page is displayed.  Templates – like those we offer on our Single Property Sites – are basically unique cascading style sheets that give the page a certain look or feel.

5. CTR
– What it stand for: Click Through Rate
– How it’s used: The click through rate measure the number of times your ad was click divided by the number of times it was displayed.  It is a good metric to judge how attractive and effective your advertising copy is.

6. PPC
– What it stands for: Pay Per Click
– How it’s used: A pay per click campaign is one in which you advertise on a CPC model.  Commonly used to refer to the major PPC networks – Google Adwords, Microsoft Adcenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing.

7. RSS
– What it stands for: Really Simple Syndication
– How it’s used: Web sites offer RSS feeds as an easy way for their visitors to subscribe to updates.  Each time the site is updated, a new entry is automatically created in the RSS feed as well.  Visitors who are subscribed to the feed – usually through a browser or a dedicated RSS client – can see all the new content without having to visit the site.

8. SEO
– What it stands for: Search Engine Optimization
– How it’s used: Search engine optimization is an inexact science, designed to improve a Web site’s rankings for a certain keyword in the search engine.  There are dedicated SEO consultants who specialize in this service, but you’re able to work on your own SEO as well by building links with other Web sites and improving your on-page content.

9. SERPs
-What it stands for: Search Engine Results Page.
-How it’s used: Commonly used in conjunction with SEO.  SEO practicioners are constantly concerned with improving the number of SERPs their sites appear on, as well as their SERP rankings – how high they appear on the list.

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