Real Estate Website & Search Engine Optimization Glossary

Backfill  
The slope of the ground around a house.

Back Links
Inbound links pointing to a web page. Also known as backlinks or inlinks.

Balloon Mortgage
Mortgage in which the remaining principal balance becomes fully due and payable at a predetermined time. Most of the time, balloon loans have level payments until the note becomes due and payable.

Balloon Payment
The final payment of a mortgage which is larger than the regular payment; it usually extinguishes the debt.

Bankruptcies
A court action to restructure debt.

Banned
When a search engine blocks your site from appearing in its search results.

Basis
Original cost of property plus value of any improvements put on by the seller minus the depreciation taken by the seller.

Behavioral Targeting
Ad targeting based on past recent experience and/or implied intent. For example, if I recently searched for mortgages then am later reading a book review the page may still show me mortgage ads.

Beneficiary
The lender named on the mortgage note. One entitled to the proceeds of property held in trust; also proceeds of wills, insurance policies, or trusts.

Bid Management Tool
Software or an ASP service used to manage bids on pay-per-click search engines such as Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and Google AdWords.