A/B Split: comparing two versions of an advertisement to see which one performs better. You compare two ads by showing the two variants (A and B) to the same audience visitors at the same time.
Above the Fold: the part of a website that appears on the page without scrolling down
Alt Tags: also called “alternative text”, “alt attributes” or “alt descriptions”. Text associated with an image in a page’s HTML. This tag gives context to the picture for crawl bots, visually impaired users, and users that have chosen not to load pictures. (This text provides a visual description)
Analytics: the measurement, collection, analysis, and reporting of web data based on how visitors used a company’s website
Anchor text: the visible, clickable text for a hyperlink
API: stands for Application Program Interface. Is a set-out routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications
Backlink: an incoming hyperlink from an outside website back to yours
Black/White/Gray Hat SEO: descriptive of SEO techniques and their compliance to search engines’ policies. White hat connotes practices adhering to policies. Black hat techniques are disapproved and penalized. Grey may not specifically be disapproved but includes disingenuous or ill-advised methods.
Bounce Rate: the percentage of website visitors who leave a website after one visiting one page briefly
Call-to-Action: an image, line of text, link, or button that is an attempt to provoke an action out of the reader, visitor, or audience
Click Through Rate (CTR): the percentage of people who visit a website or splash page who got there through a web advertisement
Cloud-based: computer resources made available on-demand, located on remote servers of the internet. These resources include applications and services that do not need to be physically on a user’s device – usually accessed through a web browser.
Content: any material used for websites or advertisements ex. Blogs, graphics, photos, or videos
Conversion Rate: the percentage at which you get the user to take desired actions (ex. comment, click, or subscribe)
Copy: text in an ad, website, blog, etc.
Cornerstone Content: the best four or five pieces of content on your website. These are specifically marked to identify them as well-written, and explanatory of your offerings. They are foundational to your identity.
Cost per Acquisition (CPA): (cost per acquisition) the amount of money it takes to acquire one customer
Cost per Click (CPC): the amount of money advertiser pay per click on an advertisement
Cost per Thousand (CPM): cost per one thousand impressions
Customer Retention Rate: the percentage at which a customer repeats business with a company
Demographics: the informational makeup of a group of a targeted audience ex. Age, income, occupation, marital status, etc.
Domain Authority (DA): is a search engine ranking score predict or compare how well sites will rank in SERP. This is a 1 to 100 logarithmic scale, which means a change from 3 to 4 is much easier than from 19 to 20 – See also: Page Authority; SERP
Evergreen Content: content created that continues to stay fresh for SEO
Exit Intent: an advertisement pop-up on a website displaying an offer that appears when a visitor is leaving a website
Featured Snippet: also called “position zero” or “answer box.” You’ll find this Google search result in a position of prominence over organic results and advertisements. Results are usually short paragraph, list or table format.
Follow / No-Follow Links: Follow links pass both link juice and referral traffic to the destination. No-follow links pass only referral traffic.
Funnel: a system that tracks the stages a customer or lead goes through from the beginning stages of the buying process to eventually them making a buying decision
Geo-Targeting: the selection of an audience based on city, state, zip code, or even DMA region
HTML: Acronym – HyperText Markup Language. A programming language intended to guide how a web page looks and functions in a user’s web browser.
Hyperlink: also just “link.” A way to navigate to another page or resource. Contains anchor text, as well as a destination. Commonly used in HTML, can also include settings about how a user interacts with the destination.
Impressions: the number of times an advertisement is served, regardless of whether or not a person actually viewed the advertisement
Infographic: an image, usually a chart or diagram, that is used to represent information or data
Keyword/s: a specifically used word or set of words in websites, advertisements, blogs, etc. that are frequently searched in a search engine to bring visitors to a company’s website, advertisement, or blog.
Keyword Difficulty: involves a numerical index to compare the amount of effort required to rank for specific words. Among other factors, these indices look at the competition within the SERP. – See also: SERP
Keyword Stuffing: is a practice (NOT recommended) involving loading a web page with many keywords and variations with the intent to manipulate search engine results in favor of this page. Keywords often appear out of context, grammatically awkward, or even lumped in a group.
Landing Page: the place where users arrive on a web page or website after clicking an ad, search result, or hyperlink from a third-party source
Lead: a prospective consumer or client
Link Juice: a non-technical term used to illustrate how web pages gain or give value to other pages with linking techniques. Link juice “flows” from one page to another in specific ways.
Long-Tail Keyword:
- a keyword that consists of three or four that make up a phrase ex. “Waterfront homes Traverse City”
or
- less frequently searched keywords that are easier or less expensive (long-tail of a distribution curve)
Meta description: a concise summary of the current web page stored in the HTML of the page. This description is included (in part or whole) in a search engine results page (SERP) at search engine discretion.
Meta Keywords: An outdated feature that used to signal to search engines what a page was about from within the page’s HTML. These days, search engines usually ignore them. Your meta-keyword may penalize you if it isn’t also in the page content.- See also: HTML
Mobile Optimization: is the process of ensuring that visitors who access your site from mobile devices have an experience optimized for the device.
Native Advertising: paid advertising that is made to look like the channel being used to serve the ad
Niche: a small, targeted, specific group of people at which products and services organizations advertised to
On-Page Optimization: efforts taken directly to a website to improve its ranked position in search engine rankings for specific keywords.
Open Rate: the percentage at which readers open an email
Page Authority (PA): is a search engine ranking score to predict how a specific page will rank in SERP. This is likewise a logarithmic scale from 1 to 100. – See also: Domain Authority; SERP
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): an advertising method where advertisers only pay when users click their ad online
Persona: generalized characteristics about a specific target market then made into a fictional person
Pogo-sticking: is an element of Google’s algorithm that tracks when search traffic doesn’t spend much time on a page before returning. By utilizing, Google can adjust the search results to include things that actually answer the user’s query. – See Also: Bounce Rate
Programmatic Marketing: the algorithmic purchase and sale of advertising space in real time. During this process, software is used to automate the buying, placement, and optimization of media inventory
Psychographics: the informational makeup of a person or target market that exclusively includes buyer habits, hobbies, spending habits, and their values
Qualitative Data: information about qualities, can’t be measured with numbers
Quantitative Data: information that can be measured and written numerically
Robots.txt File: tells web crawlers and robots which pages of a website are off-limits. These pages should not be scanned or processed.
Referral Traffic: Google’s method of reporting visitors to a website that come from sources outside of their search engine (such as links from other websites)
Retargeting: a marketing tool used to continually put a marketing message or offer in front of a user who has visited a company’s website
Rich Media: content that has unique advanced features like graphics, polls, and videos
Return on Investment (ROI): a profitability measurement that evaluates the performance of a business based on the amount of money they are making compared to how much they are spending on an advertisement
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): the process of optimizing a website so that it can be quickly found and indexed by a search engine, typically Google
Search Intent: the specific goal of the search. For example, is the search “Red Wings” intended to purchase work boots, display the current game score and league stats, find directions to the arena, or purchase branded merchandise?
Seed Keywords: base or foundational words used to start building a more comprehensive keyword list. Often, these are the short-tail keyword ideas that one thinks they want to rank for.
Segmentation: the process of dividing a target market into smaller groups or segments based on similar characteristics
SERP: Acronym – Search Engine Results Page. The displayed results from an internet query on a search engine.
Sitemap: a model of a website’s content created for search engines an/or users to tell them which pages they are welcome to visit. Usually structured as a hierarchy, and commonly a page or .XML document.
Splash Page: See landing page
Tracking Pixel: a snippet of code designed to identify/mark a visitor to a website or landing page. Useful for analytics or communicating on outside platforms. See Retargeting
Unique Visitors: a person who visited a website for the first time
Visit/Visitors: a count of times a user visits a website/ a user who visits a company’s website