Common Digital Marketing Terms & SEO Terms

301s – 301 is a status code for pages that have moved permanently. It is often used to redirect a client to a new server, or an updated location on the same server.

404s – 404 an error message displayed by a browser indicating that an Internet address cannot be found.

Above the Fold – Above the fold refers to the portion of a webpage that is visible (without scrolling) when the page is first loaded.

Accessibility – Accessibility refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e., unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers).

AI (Adobe Illustrator Document) – AI is the image format most preferred by designers and the most reliable type of file format for using images in all types of projects from web to print.

Alt Tags – An alt tag is the HTML text that appears while an image is loading or when a cursor is positioned over an image. Alt text is useful in Search Engine Optimization because it can include keywords that a search engine looks for in response to a query.

Analytics – Analytics refers to all the technology, programming, and data used in Search Engine Marketing to analyze a website’s performance or the success of an Internet marketing campaign.

Anchor text – Also known as link text, anchor text is the visible, clickable text between the HTML anchor and tags. Clicking on anchor text activates a Hyperlink to another web site. Anchor text is very important in Search Engine Optimization because search engine algorithms consider the Hyperlink keywords as relevant to the Landing Page.

Back Links – Also known as backlink, backward link, or inbound links, backlinks are all of the links on other websites that direct the users who click on them to your site. Backlinks can significantly improve your site’s search rankings, particularly if they contain Anchor Text keywords relevant to your site and are located on sites with high Page Rank.

Black Hat SEO – Black hat SEO is the term used for unethical or deceptive optimization techniques. This includes Spam, Cloaking, or violating search engine rules in any way. If a search engine discovers a site engaging in black hat SEO it will remove that site from its Index.

Bounce Rate – The percentage of website visitors who leave without visiting another page on that website. Bounce rates range widely depending on industry and niche. Although bounce rate can indicate potential content or website issues, it is not a direct ranking factor, according to Google.

Breadcrumb Navigation – A navigational element that helps users easily figure out where they are within a website.

Broken Links – Also known as a dead link, a broken link is a link that no longer points to an active destination or Landing Page. Search engines dislike broken links. Keeping all of your site’s links active is an important part of ongoing optimization.

Buyer Journey – The buyer journey identifies the different stages prospects move through, from first discovering a company to becoming a customer. From the “awareness” and “consideration” stage, through to the “decision” stage, prospects have different content needs.

Buyer Personas – A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers.

Cached Page – A cached page is a snapshot of a webpage as it appeared when a search engine last crawled it. 

Click Through – Click-through refers to a single instance of a user clicking on an advertising link or site listing and moving to a Landing Page. A higher Click-Through Rate (CTR) is one of the primary goals of Search Engine Optimization.

Content Marketing – Content marketing is creating, publishing, and promoting valuable free content to attract prospects and convert them into customers. It aims to inform, educate, and entertain prospects to increase brand trust and loyalty.

Conversational Keywords – Conversational keywords consist of a search by voice that includes more question and answer specific content for your audience.

Conversion – A conversion occurs any time a potential customer completes a desired action. This may include actions such as completing a sign-up form, downloading a content upgrade, scheduling a demo, placing a sales call or making a purchase.

Conversion Rate – Conversion rate is the next step up from Click-Through Rate. It’s the percentage of all site visitors who “convert” (make a purchase, register, request information, etc.). If two users buy products and one user requests a catalog out of ten daily visitors, a site’s conversion rate is 30%.

Crawl – Crawl is the total number of URLs search engines can and want to crawl on a website during a specific time period collecting data, following links, making copies of new and updated sites, and storing URLs in the search engine’s Index.

CTA (Call to Action) – An image, a button, or a line of text meant to prompt the user to take the desired action.

CTR (Click through Rate) – Click-through rate is the percentage of users who click on an advertising link or search engine site listing out of the total number of people who see it, i.e. three click-throughs out of ten views is a 30% CTR.

Customer Persona – Customer persona is also referred to as “buyer persona,” the customer persona is a description by a business of their ideal customer, based on existing customers’ demographics, behavior, and motivations. It helps businesses create appropriate, targeted content.

Defective Links – A defective link is a link that has doesn’t lead to anything. This could be because of programming errors, or temporarily unavailable websites. Defective links make the job of the crawler more difficult, so could mean your site will appear lower down in search results.

Dwell Time – Dwell time is the amount of time that passes between the moment you click a search result and subsequently return back to the SERPs.

EAT – Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness

Engagement Rate – Engagement rate is the measure of how many people interacted with a social media post versus how many people saw it. It takes actions such as likes, clicks, shares, and comments into consideration. The calculation for engagement rate is the total number of engagements divided by total reach, multiplied by 100.

EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) – EPS is a file in vector format that has been designed to produce high-resolution graphics for print.

External Link – A link that directs from one site to another site. External links differ from internal links, which connect pages on the same site. They are important for citing sources, referring readers to useful resources, helping search engines calculate the popularity of websites (based on the number of links, link quality, and many more factors), and more.

Favicon – A favicon is a small icon associated with a particular website or page that is displayed in an Internet browser.

Featured Snippet – A featured snippet is a concise response to a Google search query. It's displayed on top of the general results, and also includes the page's publication date, title, and URL.

Geographical Targeting – Geographical targeting is the focusing of Search Engine Marketing on states, counties, cities, and neighborhoods that are important to a company’s business. One basic aspect of geographical targeting is adding the names of relevant cities or streets to a site’s keywords, i.e. Palm Street West Palm apartments. Another important element of geo-targeting is increasing your site’s presence on Local Search engines.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) – GIFs are most common in their animated form. In their more basic form, GIFs are formed from up to 256 colors in the RGB color space. Due to the limited number of colors, the file size is drastically reduced.

Google Analytics – A free web analytics program that can be used to track audience behavior, traffic acquisition sources, content performance, and much more.

Hashtag – Frequently used on social media platforms, a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#). Users can insert a hashtag to associate their posts with content on similar topics or search for content based around a hashtag.

Heatmap – A heatmap is a graphical representation of data that uses a system of color-coding to represent different values.

High-Resolution Image – DPI (dots per inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) are a unit of measure that determines if the density of pixels in an image is appropriate for the application being used. Best practices for printing an image will require it to be no less than 300dpi, high resolution.

HTML – The acronym HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create pages on the World Wide Web. HTML is a set of codes or HTML tags that provide a web browser with directions on how to structure a web page’s information and features.

Hyperlink – Also known as link or HTML link, a hyperlink is an image or portion of text that when clicked on by a user opens another web page or jumps the browser to a different portion of the current page. Inbound Links with keyword-relevant Link Text are an important part of Search Engine Optimization Strategy.

Image Alt Text – Alt text (alternative text), also known as "alt attributes,” describe the appearance and function of an image on a page.

Image Caption – An image caption is a brief explanation describing an image that will display below the image.

Image Description – Image descriptions provide textual information about non-text content that appears on your website.

Image Title – The title of the image to be displayed.

Inbound Link – Also known as a backlink, backward link, or backlinks, inbound links are all of the links on other websites that direct the users who click on them to your site. Inbound links can significantly improve your site’s search rankings, particularly if they contain Anchor Text keywords relevant to your site and are located on sites with high Page Rank.

INDD (Adobe Indesign Document) – Indesign is commonly used to create larger publications, such as newspapers, magazines, and eBooks.

Internal Links – An internal link is a link that connects two pages inside a single website. Internal links differ from external links, which point from one site to another. They are important for website usability and making it easy to help users find what they are looking for, and move from one page to another on a site.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) – JPEGs might be the most common file type you run across on the web. JPEGs are known for their "lossy" compression, meaning that the quality of the image decreases as the file size decreases.

Keyword – Keywords or keyword phrases are words that searchers type into search engines to find specific information. They are also included in the content to show search engines that your content is relevant.

Keyword Stuffing – This is bad practice and is very much old school SEO. It’s when a site attempts to manipulate its position in search engine results by concentrating on keywords.

KPI (Key Performance Indicator) – KPIs are measurable data points that help prove that your organization is on track to meeting its goals. Examples of Marketing KPIs are leads, conversions, revenue, page views, and followers.

Lead – A lead is a prospective customer that has shown an interest in a business, a product, or a service. Typically, leads are captured when they respond to an ad or a call to action within content.

Longtail keywords – A long-tail keyword is a very specific keyword phrase that contains at least three words which are used to target niche demographics rather than mass audiences. They also have very low competition and search volume.

Low-Resolution Image – DPI (dots per inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) are a unit of measure that determines if the density of pixels in an image is appropriate for the application being used. Websites display images at 72dpi, low resolution. This resolution will look crisp on the web but not for print.

Medium Tail keywords – Medium Tail keywords are moderately competitive key terms that consist of 2-3 words. They are more specific than short-tail keywords but have more search volume than long-tail keywords.

Meta Data:

Meta Description Tags – Meta description tag is a short HTML paragraph that provides search engines with a description of a page’s content for search engine Index purposes. The description tag is not displayed on the website itself, and may or may not be displayed in the search engine’s listing for that site. Search engines are now giving less importance to description tags in lieu of actual page content.

Meta Tags – Meta tags are HTML tags placed in a webpage that contain information for Crawlers and web browsers. Types of Meta tag information include page descriptions (Description Tag), page-relevant keywords (Meta Keywords Tag); whether a page can be indexed (Meta Robots Tag), copyright, page refresh dates, and redirection instructions.

Mobile-First Indexing – Mobile-first refers to a design philosophy of building web sites that prioritize user experience on mobile devices.

Off-Page SEO – Off-page SEO refers to tactics intended to improve a website’s search engine rankings by affecting factors on third-party sites.

On-Page SEO – On-page SEO refers to tactics intended to improve a website’s search engine rankings by making changes to a site’s content and metadata. That includes optimizing title tags, editing meta descriptions for improved click-through rates, incorporating keywords into content, and more.

Online Directories – A website submission service where your website is added to the proper category in a searchable online directory which enhances your site’s visibility and creates relevant inbound links to your website.

Open Rate – Open rate is an email marketing metric that gauges the percentage of email recipients that open a newsletter or other marketing email. It’s calculated by dividing the number of emails sent by the number of emails opened, excluding emails that bounced.

Outbound Links – Also known as external links, outbound links refer to those hyperlinks that point to any domain other than the source domain where the link exists on.

Page Redirect – Otherwise known as a URL redirect, is a web server function that sends a user from one URL to another.

Page Speed – Page speed is a measurement of how fast the content on your page loads.

Page Title Tag – A HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a Web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.

PDF (Portable Document) – PDFs were invented by Adobe with the goal of capturing and reviewing rich information from any application, on any computer, with anyone, anywhere.

Permalink – A permanent link is a URL or link to a website that is intended to remain unchanged for many years.

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) – PNGs are amazing for interactive documents such as web pages, but are not suitable for print.

Press Release – A press release is written communication that reports specific but brief information that is typically tied to a business or organization and is provided to media through a variety of means.

PSD (Photoshop Document) – PSDs are files that are created and saved in Adobe Photoshop, the most popular graphics editing software ever. This type of file contains "layers" that make modifying the image much easier to handle.

Rank – Also known as position, rank is the place a website occupies relative to the first listing on an Algorithmic Results page in response to a Keyword query. The first page displays Listings in the one through ten positions, the second page eleven through twenty, etc. Businesses trying to get their site into a top-ten rank will often employ a Professional Search Engine Optimization company. Consumer studies have shown that most search engine users click only on sites that occupy a top-ten rank.

RankBrain – RankBrain is a machine learning-based search engine algorithm, which helps Google to process search results and provide more relevant search results for users

Raster – Raster images are constructed by a series of pixels, or individual blocks, to form an image. JPEG, GIF, and PNG are all raster image extensions.

RAW (Raw Image Formats) – RAW images are uncompressed digital photos that save image data exactly the way the image was captured by the camera’s sensor.

Responsive Web design – Responsive Web Design is the concept of developing a website design in a manner that helps the layout to get changed according to the user’s computer screen resolution.

Rich Snippet – Rich Snippets are a type of on-page mark-up. They are the extra bits of text that appear under search results.

ROI (Return on Investment) – ROI is the amount of revenue a company generates per dollar spent on the tactics used to market your product or service. This is important to measure to ensure that marketing activities are helping to build a business (rather than act as a cost center).

Schema – Schema markup is a type of code that is added to a website so that search engines such as Google show informative data about the website to visitors.

Search Bar – A search bar is a location within a browser that allows you to search the Internet for what you need to find.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) – SEM is the practice of using paid advertising and Natural Search Engine Optimization to increase the visibility of a business and its content in search engine results pages.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – SEO covers all strategies that are aimed at making a website easier for search engines to index and rank. SEO is the modification of a website for the purpose of improving its natural Rank on Search Engine Results Pages. This is done through a combination of SEO strategies such as directory and search engine Submission, website optimization, content writing, and improved Link quality.

SEO Audit – A SEO audit is a process for evaluating the search engine friendliness of a website. The SEO audit will check the website against a checklist and come up with recommendations of what needs to be fixed and changed, so the performance is improved.

SEO Best Practice – Optimizing your site for a human audience, making it more valuable and accessible to visitors.

Short Tail Keywords – Short Tail Keywords are very short, consisting of one or two words (example: digital marketing). They are highly competitive and very difficult to rank.

SMO (Social Media Optimization) – Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ to increase brand awareness, promote content sharing, generate leads, and boost SEO.

Social Media – Social media are websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Social Media SEO – Social media SEO refers to how social media activities can boost your website’s organic traffic through search engines.

Social Networks – Alternatively referred to as a virtual community or profile site, a social network is a website that brings people together to talk, share ideas and interests. This type of collaboration and sharing is known as social media.

Social Proof – Social proof refers to people’s reliance on the feedback and actions of others to determine what is right and what is wrong in a given situation.

SSL Certificate – Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates, sometimes called digital certificates, are used to establish an encrypted connection between a browser or user's computer and a server or website.

Stock Photos – Stock photography is the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses.

Testimonials – A testimonial consists of a person's written or spoken statement testifying to someone’s character and qualifications or the virtue of a product.

TIFF (Tagged Image File) – A TIF is a large raster file that doesn't lose quality. This file type is known for using "lossless compression," meaning the original image data is maintained regardless of how often you might copy, re-save, or compress the original file.

UGC (User-Generated Content) – UGC is any content created by members of the public, rather than by employed professionals. UGC – such as a product review or customer photo – is more authentic than company-generated content, so it helps to build brand trust.

UI (user interface) – UI is everything designed into an information device with which a person may interact.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – URL is the unique address assigned to a page on the World Wide Web. URLs, shown in the browser address bar, send users to a specific page or resource online.

UX (user experience) – UX refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service.

Value Proposition – A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered and acknowledged and a belief from the customer that value will be delivered and experienced. A value proposition can apply to an entire organization, or parts thereof, or customer accounts, or products or services.

Vector – Vector images are far more flexible. They are constructed using proportional formulas rather than pixels. EPS, AI and PDF are perfect for creating graphics that require frequent resizing.

Video SEO – Video SEO describes optimizing video content for search engine traffic. The goal is to have your video content appear in video search engines as well as in the organic search results directed to your site.

Voice Queries – A voice query allows users to search by speaking on a mobile phone or computer.

Voice SEO – Voice SEO is the optimization of keywords and keyword phrases for searches using voice assistants.

Website Analytics – Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.

Website Links – A website link is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow either by clicking, tapping, or hovering.

Website Navigation – The website’s navigation system is like a road map to all the different areas and information contained within the website.

White Hat SEO – White Hat SEO refers to any practice that improves search rankings on a search engine results page while maintaining the integrity of your website and staying within the search engines' terms of service.

XML sitemap – An XML sitemap is a document that helps Google and other major search engines better understand your website while crawling it.