Digital Marketing Glossary of basic terms & concepts
A/B Testing
A/B Testing is done to compare two variations of something against a variable. Often done to test the effectiveness of marketing tactics such as email marketing, landing pages, and different types of ads.
Average Position
It is a metric in Google Adwords that assists advertisers to know where, on average, their ads are showing in Google search results pages. There are frequently four ad slots available at the top of a search result page, so for the best results, advertisers typically require an average position between 1-4.
Affiliate Marketing
When a publisher (website with a lot of traffic, for example) receives compensation for leads that come from featuring an advertiser.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is a clickable text in a hyperlink. Getting your anchor texts directly improves the possibility of someone clicking on your link. The SEO best practices deliver that anchor text is related to the web page you are linking to, rather than generic text.
Alt Text
An attribute added to HTML code for images utilized to give vision-impaired website visitants with information about the contents of a picture. The best practice delivers that all images on a website need to have alt text and that the should be representative of the image.
API
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are computer programming rules. They’re a system of tools and resources that allow developers to take information from one service or application to create software for another Attribution Identifying which part of a marketing campaign, advertisement, or interaction had the greatest effect and ROI on a customer.
Audience
The group of specific people a brand targets with their marketing.
B2B
Business-to-Business, or B2B, describes businesses that sell to other businesses. Typically high volume sales.
B2C
Business-to-Consumer, or B2C, describes businesses that sell directly to consumers. Example: Apple or Adidas.
Backlink
Backlinks are incoming links to a webpage. When a webpage links to any other website, it’s called a backlink. In the past, backlinks were a significant metric for the ranking of a website. A site with a lot of backlinks tended to rank higher on all primary search engines, including Google.
Blogging
A personal or group of people updating, writing and maintaining a blog. Blogging is a pillar of content marketing. Bottom of the Funnel The last phase of the business cycle where customers are about to make a purchase or make an intended action.
Bounce Rate
The percentage of visitants to a website that leaves quickly without clicking or interacting with any section of the webpage. For instance, if 100 people visit a site, and 50 of them quickly leave, the website has a bounce rate of 50%. Websites intend to have as low of a bounce rate as possible, and averages point to be anywhere between 40-60%.
Bot
A bot is an automated program that visits websites, and sometimes it is also called as a “crawler” or a “spider.” A spambot visits sites for nefarious reasons, often showing in Google Analytics as junk traffic. However, Google uses a bot to crawl websites so that they can be ranked and added to Google search.
Call-to-Action
Associated with ads, a call-to-action is typically a button that prompts visitors to take an action. For example, “Shop Now” or “Call Now” buttons on a business page or advertisement.
Closed-Loop Marketing
The biggest benefit of inbound marketing tactics/software. Closed-loop marketing is being able to track every step of marketing to a user.
CMS
Content Management System (CMS). Web Applications that make website management simple and secure. Example: WordPress, Drupal, Kentico, Marketo
Content Marketing
The creation and sharing of online content (videos, images, infographics, articles, etc.).
Conversion Rate
The rate at which visitants to a website make the predefined goal. It is measured by dividing the number of goal achievements by the total number of visitants. For instance, if 100 people visit a website and 10 of them make the conversion goal, then the conversion rate is 10%.
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
It is a metric in paid advertising platforms that calculates how much money is spent to get a new lead or customer. It can be measured by dividing the total spent by the number of conversions, for a given period. For instance, if in a month a PPC account spends $1000 and takes 10 conversions (leads), then the CPC is $100.
CPC
CPC – Cost per click. How much an advertiser pays for each click on an advertisement.
Cross-Device
The multiple screens (for example, a desktop, an iPad, and iPhone) users have. Marketers try to determine which messages work best for which devices.
Crowdsourcing
Getting ideas, information, or input from other publishers, freelancers, clients, or members of your audience.
Crawler
It is an automated piece of software that scans websites. The name indicates how the software “crawls” into the code, which is why they are sometimes also referred to as “spiders.” It is utilized by Google to get new content and to determine the quality of web pages for their index.
CTR
Clickthrough Rate is the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown (clicks divided by impressions = CTR). Editorial Calendar A calendar used for scheduling, creating, drafting, and even tracking the content of a blog.
Email Marketing
Emails that solicit something to users. Used to promote, advertise, request, connect, or even just build loyalty.
Engagement
The amount of interaction a piece of content gets from users. Measured by likes, shares, comments.
Evergreen Content
that has a value that last past the publish date and continue to be used and referenced by users long after it’s created.
Forms
Where users input their information on a web page in exchange for something. For example, filling out a contact form with name and email information in exchange for a free downloadable ebook.
Google Ads
Google’s advertising system in which marketers bid on specific keywords to make their PPC ads appear in search results.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console aka webmaster tool is a free tool offered by Google for webmasters. Within the tool are different areas that cover data on how a website is performing in search. It varies from Analytics – it does not measure traffic, it measures only a web site’s visibility on search pages, and indexability by Google crawler bots.
Google My Business
A free tool for businesses and brands to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. Used to verify and edit business information.
Featured Snippet
A shortened piece of information that Google draws from a website and places right into search results, to show quick answers to common queries. Featured snippets seem in a block at the top of search results with a link to the source.
Hard Bounce
A hard bounce is an e-mail message which has been returned to the sender because the recipient’s address is wrong or invalid. A hard bounce may happen because the domain name does not exist or because the recipient is unknown, is misspelled, or is blocked. The email marketers will already be well aware of this marketing term.
Hashtag
A word or phrase following a hash sign that’s used to identify and group-specific topics.
Heatmap
A Heatmap is a graphical representation of how the users interact with your website. Heat mapping software is utilized to track where the users click on a web page, how they scroll. Heatmaps are used to gather user behavior data to help in designing and optimizing a website.
Header Code
On a website, a specific code is located in the universal header section so that it can be accessible overall pages of the site. Typically in the header code, you will find things like Schema Markup, AdWords Code, Analytics Code, and other tools utilized for tracking data over a website.
Hreflang Tag
It is a code in the HTML of a website that reveals search engines like Google which spoken language a web page is practicing. These are particularly useful for sites that have versions of pages in various languages, as they help Google understand which web pages are relevant and which should be shown to specific audiences.
HTML
An acronym that stands for HyperText Markup Language which is used to write web pages. HTML is at the root of every web page in existence.
HTTPS
HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. It is a secured version of HTTP, which is utilized to define how data is formatted and transmitted over the web.
HTTP
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. It is the protocol utilized by globally to define how data is formatted and transmitted. When you visit a website into your web browser and press enter, this sends an HTTP command to a web server, which instructs the webserver to fetch and transmit the data for that website to your browser.
Impressions
The number of times a user sees or interacts with an ad in any way. Inbound Link A link on another website to your own website.
Influencers/Influencer Marketing
Marketing that uses leaders or popular icons of a market to promote your brand.
Infographic
A visual representation of a piece of content or data. Often used to condense a lot of information, such as statistics, into an easy to understand, visually appealing image.
Interstitial Ads
Ads that pop up when a user clicks to a new page online.
Index
The Index refers to all of the pages on a website that Google has crawled and stored to be displayed to Google searchers. When utilized as a verb, it relates to the act of Google copying a web page into its system.
Keywords
Topics and phrases that get indexed in search results. In paid search advertising, advertisers try to rank for keywords relevant to their business that users will search for.
Keyword Stuffing
Stuffing of keywords is the practice of adding a lot of keywords into Web content and meta tags in the attempt to artificially increase a web page’s ranking in search results. Search engines may now penalize or ignore such keyword-stuffed pages, save for extremely difficult or lengthy keyword phrases.
Keyword Stemming
Search engines group search results not only by specific keyword matches but also by changes of keywords in semantic groups, such as singular-plural, relevant suffixes and synonyms. Search engines view these similar keywords as synonyms. As a result, “keyword stemming” can subsequently help increase your reach.
Keyword Density
Keyword density points to the percentage of how often a keyword seems on a webpage content with the total words on that webpage.
KPI
The measurement of how well a company is achieving its business objectives.
Landing Page
A page strictly used for leads that promotes, markets, or informs about a particular offer, event, or item.
Leads
A user who shows interest in products or services (people who fill out information forms, request more info, etc.).
Link Building
The process of trying to get external pages to link to a specific website or page on a website.
Long-Tail Keywords
Specific search phrases containing keywords of 3 or more words.
Lookalike Audiences
It is a targeting option offered by Facebook’s ad service. This audience is generated from a source audience, and from this list, Facebook will identify common characteristics among the number of audience members. Facebook will then target users that expose similar qualities or interests.
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing)
A search engine indexing method that creates a relationship between words and phrases to form a better understanding of a text’s subject matter. It helps search engines serve up results to queries with higher precision. Google rewards websites which include relevant LSI keywords with higher rankings and more traffic.
Map Pack
The section of Google search results pages emphasizing three businesses listed in a local map section. The map pack shows up for queries with local intent, a general business type, or a “near me” search.
Middle of the Funnel
The middle stage of the user/business cycle in which a visitor further investigates products, services, or solutions.
Meta Snippets
of text that describes a page’s content and appears in a page’s code. Meta is comprised of Meta Keywords Attribute, keywords that are relevant to the page;
Meta Description
One of the meta tags that describe the web page in 320 characters. The meta description is an essential aspect of a web page because it is what looks in Google searches and other search engines results.
Meta Tags
HTML snippets added to a webpage’s code that include contextual information for web crawlers and search engines. Search engines utilize metadata to help determine what information from a webpage to display in their results.
Mobile Marketing/Optimization
Optimizing marketing, advertising, and website performance for mobile devices (phones, tablets).
Native Advertising Subtle
advertising that relates to the platform it’s appearing on to seem natural and part of the user’s experience. Unlike interstitial ads, native ads aren’t interruptive and appear one with the platform it appears on.
No-Follow Link
A link used to tell search engine crawlers not to follow back to linked websites. Used to avoid search violations or affiliations with spam.
Organic
It is a source of traffic to a website that comes by clicking on a non-paid search engine result. Organic traffic is the primary measurement of an SEO campaign and converts as a site ranks better for keywords, or ranks for more keywords in search engines.
Off-Page Optimization
Incoming links and references that impact the ranking/indexing of a webpage in search results.
On-Page Optimization SEO
based on a single webpage that works with the mechanics of a specific page (title tags, the URL, HTML).
Page Views
An instant of an internet user visiting a specific page on a website. Used by marketers to evaluate the reach of a website.
Penalties
Negative effects to a website’s search rankings based on algorithm updates or manual review of a website made by a search engine.
PPC
A paid form of advertisers used by marketers through tools like Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. The advertiser pays the tool every time a user clicks on the ad, thus giving it the name Pay-Per-Click.
Quality Score
It is a rating of Google AdWords which is calculated by the relevance and quality of keywords utilized in the PPC campaigns. These scores are determined mainly by the relevance of ad copy, expected click-through rate, landing page quality. Quality score is an element in planning ad auctions, so having a high score can lead to more top ad rankings at lower costs.
Responsive Design Website
development that adapts to how users view a website. Example: a website that is designed to respond accordingly to a user that is on a desktop and a user that is on a tablet.
Remarketing
The practice of putting targeted ads in front of an audience/user that has viewed your website or products before as they browse another website on the internet. Example: seeing a pair of shoes you abandoned in a shopping cart appears in an advertisement while checking Facebook.
Robots.txt
It is a text file stored on a website’s server that incorporates basic rules for indexing robots which “crawl” the website. This file enables you to accurately allow (or disallow) specific files and folders from being viewed by crawler bots, which can keep your indexed pages limited to only the web pages you want.
Rich Snippets/Text
The term used to describe a data markup that site managers can add to their existing HTML that allows search engines to better understand each page’s information.
ROI
An acronym for return on investment. ROI measures the benefit, or return, on expenditure.
301 Redirect
A method of redirecting a user from one web page to another web page. This type of redirect is to be utilized for permanent redirects (example: you own a website A.com and website B.com, but you only need one site. You would 301 redirect each traffic from website B.com to website A.com so that all users end up on a website A.com)
302 Redirect
A method of redirecting a user from one page to another web page, utilized for temporary situations only. For permanent redirects, preferably use a 301 redirect.
404 Error
The error message that arrives when a visitor tries to go to a web page that does not exist on the server.
Canonical (rel=canonical)
A piece of code that is added to the HTML head of a webpage to intimate to Google whether a bit of content is original or duplicated from somewhere else. The original content should canonical to itself, and a content taken from another place should point the canonical to the source URL. It can also be used to prevent duplicate content issues within a website.
Referral
A medium indicated in Google Analytics that represents a website visit that came from another website. When the users click on a link to another, external webpage, they are said to have been “referred” there.
Redirect
A method by which a web browser takes a user from one page to another page without the user clicking. There are several types of redirects (the most common of which is the 301 redirect), which assist different purposes. Typically, it helps to enhance the user experience across a website.
Reciprocal Link
Two websites linking to each other, typically for the express intention of improving both’s search engine ranking. These types of links are sometimes considered manipulative by search engines, which can acquire a penalty against both websites.
SaaS
An acronym that stands for Software as a Service. SaaS is a software licensing and delivery service and is sometimes referred to as “software on-demand”.
SEO
An acronym for search engine optimization. SEO is the process of manipulating a website or web page to in turn effect its position in search engine’s unpaid results.
SEM – Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing(SEM) is a method that companies can get higher placement on search engines by bidding on search terms.
SERP – Search Engine Results Page
Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the list of results given by a search engine after a search query is executed. Mostly, if you are looking for where your website ranks for “Best Digital Marketing Company,” a SERP report will let you understand that your website is ranked #4. That means your site is in the Fourth position (1st page).
Social Media Digital platforms
designed to allow the creation and sharing of information. Top of the Funnel The first stage of the online/business cycle in which leads are just beginning to interact with UI
Spider
An automated program that visits websites, sometimes also referred to as a “bot” or a “crawler.” A spam spider visits sites for strong reasons, often showing in Google Analytics as junk traffic. Despite this, Google uses a bot to crawl websites so that they can be ranked and added to Google search.
Spam
A broad term that covers various nefarious activities in digital marketing that are made either to boost a website rank better. Spam is usually seen in the form of hundreds of low-quality backlinks that were created by a black hat SEO to handle rankings.
Slug
It is a portion of a URL that comes after the .com. For example, the homepage might be https://bergdigital.ch, but for another landing page, a slug will be added to the end of the URL to direct the browser to a webpage within a website, i.e., https://bergdigital.ch/about
Sitemap
An XML file or page on a website that has a collection of all the web pages and posts for search engines to crawl. This document helps search engines quickly crawl all of the content that they should be aware of on a particular website.
Sessions
A metric in Google Analytics that measures one user interacting with a website while a given period, which Google defaults to 30 minutes. A session is not subordinate to how many pages are viewed, so if a person goes to a website and looks around at many web pages for 20 minutes, it would count as one session.
Schema Markup
It is a code that is added to the HTML of a website for giving search engines more relevant information about a place, product, business, person. It is also known as structured data or rich snippets.
Tracking Code
A script, generally placed in the header, footer, or thank you page of a website that transfers the information along to software tools for data collection purposes. Tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads, utilize tracking codes so that they can track data about users who view a website.
User Interface (UI)
User interface refers to how a user and software (website or app) interact. The goal for most marketers is to have a user-friendly UI that results in positive user experience.
UX User experience or UX
UX, User experience references the overall experience a person has when using a product, website, or application.
Viral Content
A piece of content, such as an image, video, or article, that rapidly spreads online through social sharing and website links.