Online Marketing Definitions
For new business owners who don’t have a marketing background, it can be overwhelming getting started. Digital marketing jargon and acronyms can make it all seem a bit impenetrable. But marketing is a necessary evil for every young company or sole trader. Getting to grips with basic digital marketing terms is a great idea and this digital marketing glossary will help you on your way.
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404 – A 404 error code will appear in a browser if a URL fails to return an active web page. 404 pages are bad for SEO.
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Alt Text/Alternative Text – The text that will be shown on occasions where an image does not load. Including Alt text for your images is best practise for SEO. It is normally a brief description of what is visible, but can be used to include additional keywords.
Anchor Text – The clickable text that acts as a hyperlink, taking you to a different web location. This could be a different web page or a location within the same page, like THIS one, which takes you to the definition of hyperlink on this very webpage.
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B2B – Business-to-Business models rely on selling services or products to other businesses.
B2C – Business-to-Customer/Consumer models sell products or services directly to customers, but are often middle-man retailers, unlike D2C.
Backlinks– See External Links.
Bounce Rate – A measurement for how many users interact with a web page. A high bounce rate indicates that users are not staying on a page long enough to interact and alerts web managers to a potential issue. High bounce rates may indicate that a page is failing to provide users with the information they were seeking. This may mean looking at addressing the content wholesale, or rethinking the keyword strategy behind the page which may return a more appropriate audience that finds the page relevant.
Browser – A software application designed for surfing the internet. For example: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari.
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Call To Action (CTA) – A CTA is the desired action we hope users will take when landing on a web page. CTAs often take the form of a button that leads to an action, such as adding an item to the basket or dialling a phone number.
Canva – An online tool for creating visually stimulating marketing materials of all kinds.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) – The click-through rate is a calculation of how many people see a link versus how many people click on it. (Clicks ÷ Impressions = CTR)
Content Creator – Content Creators create all kinds of marketing materials, both visual, aural and written. They work across a variety of marketing channels (social media, website, magazines etc.) but may specialise in certain areas. Content Creators will also use existing assets to create fresh and imaginative content where possible. For example, using a historic photoshoot collection to create updated social media posts.
Content Producer – Content Producers project manage the creation of new marketing materials, and may be more based on the logistics and practicalities rather than the creation itself.
Content Management System (CMS) – Content Management Systems are applications that power the visual and internal workings of content websites. This website uses a CMS called WordPress. Other CMS examples include Wix, Square Space and Joomla.
Conversion Rate – The ratio or percentage of successful conversions. A conversion is when a user makes a desired action, e.g. placing an order or filling in a form.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) – The development of digital strategies designed to improve the rate of conversion. See Conversion Rate for more.
Copywriter – A specialist in writing copy, i.e. any written marketing. From short pithy slogans to product descriptions to social media post captions to 3000 word articles, copywriters adapt their writing for all mediums. Some choose to specialise in topics of interest or experience.
Cost Per Click (CPC) – CPC is the metric for measuring how much a paid advert is costing for each new user. The cost will depend on the parameters set by marketers when creating the ad.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – CRMs are varied in their application, but are collectively understood to be tools that allow for easy communication with customers. This could be in the form of social media scheduling or managing replies to an inbox. CRMs integrate with other applications to create a centralised location for communication. For example, Hubspot, the world’s leading CRM, can integrate with all social media inboxes, webchats and internal email systems to manage the flow of communications, follow customer journeys across different platforms and produce analytical reports to help improve Conversion Rates.
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D2C – Direct-to-Customer/Consumer models are usually manufacturers or producers who sell directly to consumers, removing the need for middle-men.
Direct Traffic – Users who land on a web page by entering a specific URL into their browser, rather than via a link they have clicked on perhaps on Google or from a Facebook post.
Dofollow/Nofollow Links – When putting external links into a webpage, it can be designated as “dofollow” or “nofollow”. Dofollow links mean that search engines look at the authority of the linked website. This can be beneficial, because if the linked website has high authority, the linking website gains vicarious authority as a reliable distributor of information. If a linked website has low authority, a Nofollow tag can be used to prevent search engines from making a connection between the websites that might devalue the originating domain. See Domain Authority.
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eCommerce Platform – Applications that power eCommerce websites. Examples include Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento.
eCommerce Website – Websites that sell products or services.
Engagement Rate (ER) – The percentage of viewers who interact with a piece of content. In social media, engagement rate is usually calculated by taking the total number of followers divided by the number of interactions (likes/follows/shares). Content Creators and social media executives will calculate ER to analyse the success of a social media post.
Evergreen Content – A piece of content that has longevity. When produced correctly, a piece of evergreen content can be reused year after year with minimal updates. The information won’t be affected by changing circumstances and can act as a source for multiple other pieces of content. For example, if a gardening company writes a blog about How to Grow Tomatoes, every spring, they can reshare that blog on their social media channels. Content creators and organic marketers love evergreen content because it provides a foundation for good domain authority and continual sources for engagement.
External Links – Hyperlinks on a web page that link to a page on a different website. Also referred to as Backlinks or Outbound Links.
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Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a free online tool that, when correctly configured, analyses the behaviour of users on your website. It provides metrics for how they found the site, what they do on it and identifies areas for improvement.
Google Search Console – Google Search Console provides data on how people use Google and how Google sees you. It can look broadly at an entire domain or a specific landing page, to identify what keywords are most successful and where your pages appear in the ranking.
Graphic Designer – A Graphic Designer producers professional quality visual digital assets (e.g. logos, adverts, brochures). Designers will often work in collaboration with content creators and content producers in this process to ensure that the results fit the brief.
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Hashtag – Hashtags (#) are used to assist the categorisation of content on social media and on blogs. They further identify relevant topics or groups in relation to the content to increase impressions and improve the possibility of engagement. They behave in a similar way to keywords, providing databases and algorithms with data about the content in question.
Hyperlink – A clickable digital word or icon that takes the user to a web page.
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Impressions – An impression is when a web page or social media post is seen, but not necessarily engaged with. For example, your link might appear on the first Google results page for a given keyword and get thousands of impressions because it will appear on thousands of computer screens, but a click is when someone actually engages with the link and lands on your website. More impressions will increase the likelihood of an interaction and so marketers seek to increase impressions by using popular keywords and hashtags.
Internal Links – Hyperlinks on a web page that link to a page within the same website.
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Keywords (or Keyphrases) – A word or phrase that can be used to identify a piece of online content. Keywords can be used very effectively in organic marketing to pinpoint popular and/or relevant search terms that the desired audience are using. It is important to be selective and to distribute them wisely. Keywords are important for SEO and are often used to improve metadata.
Keyword Density – The frequency of a keyword’s presence in a piece of copy. Keyword density should be balanced, to avoid excessive usage that will muddy the clarity of the text. If keyword density is too high, users will be put off from reading and Google will penalise the website. Optimum keyword density will help improve a page’s SEO.
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Landing Page – The first web page a user lands on or arrives at when viewing a website. Any web page can be a landing page, but most websites will have “key landing pages” which get the most traffic, e.g. the homepage.
Listicle – An article that takes the form of a list, often numbered or bullet pointed.
Lookalike Audience – Used for paid advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, a lookalike audience is created by a set of rules which analyse a collection of profiles (usually existing followers) and then seek out similar profiles to show your ad to.
Long Tail Keywords – Long tail keywords are keywords which use longer, more specific search terms. They will often have lower search volumes but better click-through rates because content should be extremely relevant to them. Marketers will use long tail keywords if they are looking for a niche audience and using highly specific, unique content.
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Meta Description – The description given to a web page that is shown in search engine results and is essential to SEO. An SEO-friendly meta description will include relevant keywords, be informative and appropriate to the content of the page being described and be under 160 characters.
Metadata – The information used by search engines to categorise and evaluate web pages. Well-executed metadata is essential for good SEO. Metadata is comprised of a number of things, including html tags within content, such as headers and hyperlinks, page titles (metatitle) and page descriptions (meta description).
Metatitle – The name given to a web page that is shown in search engine results. A Metatitle may be distinct from the internal website page title, in order to help improve SEO. A metatitle should include relevant keywords, be relevant to the page and under 60 characters. See Metadata for more.
Multimedia Content – Content that uses a variety of sensory and written stimuli. For example, a written article may also contain a video or podcast element.
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Organic Marketing – Organic marketing is any form of “free” digital marketing that applies to the school of slow and steady growth over the short but rapid engagement of paid ads. SEO relies on organic marketing to create a sustainable Google ranking, built on a solid foundation of good content and high user engagement. Examples of organic marketing methods include email campaigns, social media posting and blogging.
Outbound Links – See External Links.
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Page Speed – Page speed is the how long it takes for a page to load up on a browser. Users are impatient, so high page speeds are important. A low page speed is likely to result in higher bounce rates, because users get frustrated by an empty screen and leave before the page has finished loading. Things that can be detrimental to page speed include large videos and images.
Pay Per Click (PPC) – Pay Per Click is a kind of paid ad that incurs a cost to the marketer whenever a user clicks on a link. PPC ads will usually appear above the organic search engine results after entering a search term. Marketers bid for keywords, with the higher bids sitting higher in the search results. Higher bids will get more impressions and clicks but will lead to a higher Cost Per Click.
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Redirect – A redirect is when a URL relocates users to an alternative URL before loading up a web page. Redirects are employed to ensure internet users land on an appropriate page instead of a defunct one that would return a 404 error code (common during website rebuilds), or in instances where multiple domains are owned to increase online presence. A 301 Redirect is a permanent change; a 302 Redirect is a temporary one.
Remarketing – Remarketing is a kind of paid ad campaign that targets users who have already viewed a web page or product. Many web pages will leave a cookie stored on your browser when you visit. Remarketing campaigns look for users with their cookie and display those ads to them on other websites and apps.
Responsive Website – Responsive websites react to the size of the screen they are being viewed on. The majority of modern websites are now built to respond to a screen the size of a mobile so that they are more easily viewed and interacted with no matter the size of the screen and will usually have an optimised layout specifically for mobile phones. This is very important for UX because more than half of all internet traffic now goes through mobile phones.
Return On Investment (ROI) – A positive ROI will show a campaign’s revenue in excess of the amount invested.
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SaaS – Software-as-a-Service businesses are those that sell digital tools.
Search Engine – A database that crawls the internet for web pages, analyses their contents and returns filtered results to users in response to a search term, often using keywords to categorise data.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – Using knowledge of search engine algorithms to improve web page rankings.
SME – Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise.
Sole Trader – An individual who works on freelance contracts and is not part of a larger business.
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Unique Visitors – Unique Visitors refers to users who have not visited a domain before. This can be useful when comparing to the number of Returning Visitors, to better understand the behaviour of users and segment traffic for analysis.
URL – A web address that takes you to a specific web page on the internet. Any http:// or www. web address is a URL.
UTM Tracking Code – A UTM tracking code is an addition that can be added on to a URL to better identify how well a hyperlink is performing. This may be useful in identifying where traffic is coming from.
UX – UX is shorthand for User Experience. People who work in UX are always looking to improve the usability of digital applications, including web pages and apps. The goal with UX is to make everything as simple and user-friendly as possible. The user’s journey should require as few clicks as possible, with concise information provided as required with each step.
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Wireframe – A wireframe is a draft or sketch of a new web page that focuses on layout and details the expected functionality of a page prior to development.
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