Digital Marketing Terms Defined
This glossary consists of digital marketing terms that will help you understand commonly used terminology, abbreviations, jargons, and acronyms specific to different digital marketing practices like SEO, PPC, and web design.
A
Algorithm
An algorithm refers to a mathematical set of rules and guidelines that specify how a group of data behaves. When it comes to social media, algorithms help maintain order and assist in ranking search results and advertisements.
Alt Text
Image alt text is the written copy that appears in place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load on a user’s screen.
Analytics
Marketing analytics is the study of data to evaluate the performance of a marketing activity.
Anchor Text
Anchor text are the clickable words of a hyperlink. This text appears highlighted in a hypertext link and can be clicked to open the target web page.
B
Backlink
Backlinks are links from a page on one website to another. If someone links to your site, then you have a backlink from them.
Bounce Rate
The percent of sessions where a user only visited one page or did not complete any preferred events before leaving the website.
Brand Awareness
A term which refers to how familiar or recognizable your brand is to a particular audience. Also an objective for marketing campaigns which are typically measured by the number of impressions, or views that a campaign receives within a given time period.
Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty describes a consumer’s positive feelings towards a brand, and their dedication to purchasing the brand’s products and/or services repeatedly. It’s a faithful relationship between consumer and/or the brand, products, or business, regardless of competitor’s actions or product changes.
Business-To-Business (B2B)
Business-to-business, or B2B, refers to commerce between two businesses rather than between a business and an individual consumer. Manufacturing materials, clothing, car parts and semiconductors are B2B examples. Also, B2B sales include organizations that provide professional services (e.g. market research) to companies, and businesses that provide digital/software services (e.g. CRM).
Business-To-Consumer (B2C)
The term business-to-consumer (B2C) refers to the process of selling products and services directly between a business and consumers who are the end-users/customers. For example, Netflix is a B2C company by offering curated and self-produced content to directly to viewers in return for monthly subscriptions.
C
Call To Action
A phrase used to promote a specific action such as “Sign up today” or “click here to learn more.”
Campaign
Marketing campaigns are sets of strategic activities that promote a business’s goal or objective. A marketing campaign could be used to promote a product, a service, or the brand as a whole.
Chat Bot
Chat bot refers to a computer program used to conduct conversations via auditory or textual methods. The primary purpose for chat bots is to provide consumers with immediate customer service or information acquisition. The programs are designed to simulate human behavior and response.
Click Through Rate
The number of clicks received divided by the number of impressions (# of people who view your ad) received expressed as a percentage.
Content
Content refers to the media used in marketing such as images, videos, blogs, relevant articles, podcasts, and other related media.
Conversion Rate
The conversion rate is the number of conversions divided by the total number of visitors.
Copywriting
Copywriting is the act of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness.
Cost Per Click
The amount of money an advertiser pays for a click on a digital ad.
Crawling
The act of moving through website pages to read the content in order to appropriately index it. Search engines use programs called crawlers or bots to crawl the web.
Customer Journey
The customer journey is a map of the route a customer takes from the time they first encounter your brand to the time they make a purchase or perform a specific action.
D
Digital Advertising
Advertising on any online digital platform. This can include social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter as well as on search engines like Google or Bing and individual websites.
Digital Marketing
The segment of marketing that refers to marketing initiatives performed in the digital landscape. Common types of digital marketing include email marketing, SEO, SEM, digital advertising, social media marketing, copywriting, content marketing and more.
Digital Marketing Proposal
A digital marketing proposal refers to a brand, product, or service information and pricing provided to a consumer from a business or salesperson. A proposal is used in digital marketing to provide specific information and pricing on products and services a consumer or business is interested in purchasing. The end goal of proposals are to encourage sales.
Display Ads
Advertising that is shown on a web page that a consumer is using. Most often in the form of images, newspapers, magazines, banners or videos.
Domain Name
The portion of a URL which indicates the host or web server. Example: digitaltaskforce.com is a domain name.
E
Email Marketing
Email marketing refers to the use of email to convert prospects and customers to sales. Email marketing allows marketers to target their potential customers with personalized information on their brand, goods, and services to market.
Engagement Rate
Engagement rate refers to the percentage of followers or viewers that engage with a post. Engagement rate shows marketers/publishers the total number of people who interact with their published artwork. Various factors influence engagement such as users’ comments, share, likes, etc. Engagement rate is a metric strongly used in analyzing social media such as Instagram or Facebook.
Event Marketing
Event marketing refers to the promotion of a brand, product or service through promotional events such as a trade show or conference with real-time engagement. The marketing includes direct interaction of representatives with consumers. Event marketing is considered part of experiential marketing and content marketing.
Exit Page
The page from which a visitor leaves a website.
F
Facebook Business Manager
A platform created by Facebook that is specifically designed to help marketers manage the Facebook ads and pages of multiple businesses from one central account.
Fractional CMO
A fractional CMO refers to a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), who helps provide executive marketing leadership to a business & initiates growth. A fractional CMO must have a broad knowledge of current marketing strategies and tactics.
G
Google Ads
Google Ads displays your ads when people search for products or services related to yours. Your ads can appear on Google Search and Maps, and across our network of partner sites.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a platform that collects data such as traffic from your websites and apps to create reports that provide insights into your business.
Google Business Profile
Also known as Google My Business, your Business Profile is a free tool that allows you to take charge of the way your business appears on Google Search and Maps. With your Business Profile, you can connect with customers, post updates, list your products and services, accept online orders, and more.
Google Search Console
A free tool with reports used to monitor how a website is being crawled, indexed, appearing, and performing in search results on Google.
H
Headers
(HTML Headers) An HTML element that defines the introductory content of a webpage. This information tells users what the next section of text will be about. There are headers of different weights which function as subheaders (H1, H2, H3, H4, ect.). This information is important for the user experience as well as telling search engines the information contained on the page and how important it is.
Heat Maps
A data visualization tool in the form of a map or a diagram that is often used in digital marketing to show how users have interacted with a website.
HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language) The coding language used to build almost all websites. HTML is the foundation of a website. It is often paired with CSS and Javascript for style and functionality. It is a standardized system for tagging text files to achieve specific font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects on web pages.
Hyperlink
A connection from one page, element, or document on the internet to another. This is typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on a screen.
I
Impressions
The number of times an ad, post or listing appeared. This does not always mean that a user actually viewed the ad, post or listing. Multiple impressions can come from the same person if that person saw the ad, post or listing more than once.
Indexing
A method of collecting, arranging and categorizing the information that crawlers, bots, or spiders find on websites, which allows pages to be seen on search engines.
Internal Link
A link from one page to another page on the same website.
K
Keyword
A keyword is a term used in digital marketing to describe a word or a group of words an Internet user uses to perform a search in a search engine or search bar. In paid search advertising, this word or phrase is used to match a search query to an ad.
Keyword Density
A measurement of the occurrence of a keyword on a page or website in relation to the total number of words on the same page or website. For example: if a keyword appears three times in a 100 word text the keyword density would be 3%.
Keyword Stuffing
Using a keyword an unnecessary amount of times in an attempt to attract attention & gain an unfair rank in search engines for that keyword in order to rank for that keyword. In terms of SEO, this is not a recommended tactic.
KPI
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric used to measure the success of a specific aspect of a business or organization. KPIs are typically used to track progress towards specific goals or objectives and can help a business understand whether it is on track to achieve its targets.
L
Landing Page
The web page a visitor first encounters when visiting a website.
Lead Generation
The process of creating and capturing consumer interest in a product, service, or business. This is usually measured by counting conversions, collecting contact information, or newsletter sign-ups. It is the demographic information of a customer who is interested in a specific product or service.
Local SEO
Local SEO refers to local search engine optimization. Local search engine optimization is similar to search engine optimization as it is to create visibility website or webpage visibility in the organic search engine results pages. Marketers use local SEO to market their business locally. Any business that has a physical location or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO.
Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords refers to a keyword phrase that is longer in length and is more specific in matching a user search query. A long tail keyword is not searched as often as short keyword phrases. However, when searched it has a higher search intent. Long-tail keywords get less search traffic, but will usually have a higher conversion value, as they are more specific.
M
Meta Description
A summary of a page’s content that appears on search engine results pages but does not appear anywhere on the actual page. It is writtren in the backend of a website. This is critical for search engines to understand page contents as well as giving users an idea of the information they will find after clicking the link.
Meta Tags
Meta tags refers to HTML snippets added to a web page’s code for web crawlers and search engines to better recognize the page content. Meta tags include various page information such as when that page was published, the page author and title, and image descriptions.
Meta Title
A meta title, also known as a title tag, refers to the text that is displayed on search engine result pages and browser tabs to indicate the topic of a webpage.
Meta Keywords
Meta keywords refer to a specific type of meta tag that appears in a webpage HTML code. The meta keywords are used to help search engines to understand the webpage topic. Meta keywords appear in the source code of a page and not on the visible page itself. For example, if the meta keyword “marketing” is often entered on a web page, the page will be easier to find when searching for “marketing”.
Mobile Friendly
A measure of how easy a website is to use and access on mobile devices.
N
Non-Index
Any page with the “noindex” directive on it will not go into the search engine’s search index, and can therefore not be shown in search engine results pages.
O
On Page SEO
This refers to the practice of optimizing individual web pages to rank higher in the search engines and on SERPS. Ranking higher most often equivalates to generating more traffic and clicks to your website.
Organic Search Traffic
Organic search traffic refers to a traffic source to a website that results from non-paid search engine results. Google and other search engines use various factors to rank websites for search engine results. Ranking factors include organic SEO. Organic SEO includes content marketing, blog posts, multiple landing pages, press releases, reviews, social media, and backlinks.
P
Page Speed
Web performance and a landing page speed refers to the speed in which web pages are downloaded and displayed on the user’s web browser. Page speed increases based on how well it’s optimized.
Paid Ad
Any advertising placement earned via a payment.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
A type of digital advertising in which advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their advertisements.
Q
Queries
Queries refer to a term used for an Internet user that types keywords and phrases into a search engine to search a topic. An example of a query is typing “Best digital marketing agency in Texas” into a search engine. The results would be on how to find local mechanics and local mechanics.
R
Reach
A display advertising metric which counts the number of users who have seen your ad. Video, display, and social media advertising often measure reach.
Retargeting
Showing advertising to an audience who has already interacted with a business in some way. For example, showing an ad to people who have visited a business’ website, but not yet purchased anything.
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)
A performance metric used to describe the amount of revenue generated from spending on advertising. It is calculated by dividing the revenue generated by the actual spending on advertising.
Return On Investment (ROI)
The amount of revenue returned to a business in regards to the amount spent to create that revenue.
S
Search Engine
An online tool, like Google, Yahoo or Bing, that provides results to answer a given search query.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is a method of promotion and advertising to help companies’ content rank higher among search engine traffic. SEM helps company’s improve the way content is ranked by search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
A methodology used to improve a website’s performance in organic search results. This means helping search engines better understand a website’s contents and providing users a better experience.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Site Map
A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them.
Slug
The portion of a URL which defines a specific webpage. For example in digitaltaskforce.com/blog, blog is the slug.
Social Media Marketing
A branch of digital marketing focused on marketing businesses on social media platforms using both paid and unpaid tactics.
SSL Certificate
Also known as Secure Sockets Layer A small data file/ digital certificate that enables encrypted connections and authenticates a websites identity between a web server and a browser to ensure site security.
T
Target Audience
A group of people that a business is trying to reach with it’s message, products, and/or services. This group is defined by a common set of characteristics such as demographic information, interests, or past purchasing behavior.
Title Tag
An HTML code tag/ element that defines the title of a web page. This is displayed in in the browser title bar on search engine results, but not on the actual page.
U
User Experience (UX)
A phrase used to describe how a visitor interacts with a website or computer application. It includes a person’s perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency.
User Interface (UI)
The user interface (UI) is the point of human-computer interaction and communication in a device. This can include display screens, keyboards, a mouse and the appearance of a desktop. It is also the way through which a user interacts with an application or a website.
V
Validated Learning
First discussed by Eric Ries, Validated Learning is the process of testing the hidden hypotheses we have about products and the desires of our audience.
Vanity Metrics
Vanity Metrics are metrics that look great and feel good but don’t give a true picture of what moves the needle. They may be completely irrelevant to the goal.
Video Marketing
Video marketing refers to a marketing strategy that integrates video with advertising. Video marketing is used for various types of promotion such as customer testimonials, how to videos, interactive videos, live stream events, and video advertisements. Also, videos can be used on various platforms aside from websites such as social media and emails.
Visits
Website visit refers to a metric used to calculate the total site navigations of a visitor to a website. The metric is one that is important in digital marketing as it is used in conjunction with the conversion rate to understand a site’s performance better.
V
Validated Learning
First discussed by Eric Ries, Validated Learning is the process of testing the hidden hypotheses we have about products and the desires of our audience.
Vanity Metrics
Vanity Metrics are metrics that look great and feel good but don’t give a true picture of what moves the needle. They may be completely irrelevant to the goal.
W
Website Analytics
Website analytics refers to the analysis and reporting of web data to better understand website visitor behavior. Specific data is measured and analyzed for an informed understanding of user behavior across web pages. This helps you better understand how to improve your overall website. The amount of time a visitor spends on a page, how many pages of a website visitors visit while on the site, how long they stay on the site, and how they arrive at the site are all measured and analyzed for website analytics.
Wireframes
A wireframe is a schematic representation of a web page, and its content, without its graphic elements. Wireframes are used for arranging a website’s architecture and functionality, navigation between pages and even for running tests with users. . The draft or sketch focuses on interactive functionality and the rough layout to quickly build the design/page. Wireframing requires experience and expertise in the web design field.
Y
YOAST
A highly valuable SEO plugin for WordPress websites that helps website owners to optimize their sites for search engines.