Digital Marketing is a growing field which is filled with terms, acronyms, glossaries, and jargons.

If you are new to the digital marketing industry, understanding the complex digital marketing terminology and jargons that rules the industry can be complicated.

Here, I have gathered a comprehensive list of digital marketing terms to know in this emerging industry.

I have even put together the digital marketing terminology PDF version for you to download!

So, let’s have a broad look at the essential digital marketing terms and definitions in the arena.

1. Lead

A potential consumer in the sales funnels who has communicated with a business with the intent to purchase by a call, email, or online form fill.

2. CTR – Click Through Rate

Click-through Rate recognizes the percentage of people who click on the link. Regularly placed in an email, an ad, website page. Etc. The higher the CTR percentage, the more people went through. CTR is essential for many parts of the Digital world.

3. 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.

4. 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).

5. 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%.

6. 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 the 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.

7. CTA (Call to Action)

An element on a web page utilized to drive visitors towards a particular action or conversion. A CTA can be a clickable button with text or an image, and typically uses an imperative verb phrase like: “call today,” “enroll now,” “buy now.”

8. Keyword

A keyword is a word that your audience or customers used to search for related topics on search engines. If you want to about a boutique shop, a relevant keyword could be “Buy boutiques” [short keyword] or “Looking to purchase goods from a boutique shop” [long tail keyword]

9. Landing Page

The target webpage a user lands on after clicking on a link (either in an ad or link, etc.). Some landing pages are created with the purpose of lead generation, and other pages are with the goal of directing the flow of traffic throughout a website.

10. CPC – Cost per Click

Cost per Click (CPC) is a pricing model where firms are charged by publishers for every click people make on a displayed/test ad which leads people to your company’s website (hopefully to a landing page!).

11. Conversion

When a visitant takes the desired action while visiting your website, it is called conversion. This can be a purchase, membership signup, download or registration for the newsletter.

12. Impressions

This term is utilized to define the number of times a company’s ad will appear to its targeted audience. The impression could also be related to a website and the number of times the web page appear in total.

13. Paid Traffic

Paid search is when a company bids on keywords and makes advertisements around those keywords to be displayed on search engines. These results appear separately, either on the top, bottom or right side of a search results page. Paid traffic also encompasses any form of paid advertisement that directly points to your website.

14. SEO – Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization is a method a company optimizes its webpage enabling the website to rank higher on a search engine’s results pages (SERPs). The higher your ranking, typically more traffic is generated (if the keyword has traffic) and more targeted traffic.

15. Keyword Stuffing

This is the practice of utilizing a lot of keywords in content for purposes of making it more visible on search engines. If you do it, you will be penalized by search engines. Never keyword stuff, just provide excellent and valuable content.

16. 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)

17. 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.

18. 404 Error

The error message that arrives when a visitor tries to go to a web page that does not exist in the server.

19. White Hat

It is a term of ethical digital marketers who don’t participate in work that could be viewed as spam or as unethical.

20. UX

User Experience is otherwise called as UX, and it refers to how a user interacts with a website or app. UX can be shaped by testing differences in CTAs, colors, page layouts, content, etc to increase conversion rates. Having a great UX is essential to have a good business, as it drives recurring users and engagement.

21. UI

UI stands for User Interface, and it is an area with which a user interacts with something by a digital device. Good UI should be fluid and comfortable for most people to understand.

22. 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 AdWords, utilize tracking codes so that they can track data about users who view a website.

23. Title Tag

An HTML element that is utilized to describe the particular topic of a web page. The title tags are displayed in the tabbed top bar of a browser. In SEO, it is a best practice to have definitive title tags emphasizing your main keywords, rather than something basic like “home.”

24. 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, Google uses a bot to crawl websites so that they can be ranked and added to Google search.

25. 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 in seen the form of hundreds of low-quality backlinks that were created by a black hat SEO to handle rankings.

26. Slug

It is a portion of URL that comes after the .com. For example, the homepage might be https://www.punith.com, 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://www,punith.com/all-about-amp/

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. SERP

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. It is emphasizing a list of search results that are delivered to the searcher after they enter a query.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. Remarketing

It is also known as retargeting, a type of paid ad that enables marketers to show ads to clients who have already visited their website. Once a customer visits a site, a small piece of data called a “cookie” would be stored in the user’s browser. When the user then visits other websites, this cookie can allow remarketing ads to be shown. It allows advertisers to “follow” users around in attempts to get the user back to the original website.

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. 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.

38. Penalty

It is an infraction issued by Google. It is given to a webmaster, for breaking Google’s guidelines. The issues that caused the penalty will want to be fixed before the penalty is lifted. Once the penalty is lifted, it might still take some time to return to the previous rank in Google search results.

39. 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.

40. Nofollow

An HTML link attribute that communicates to spiders and search engines that the link to the target web page should NOT transfer SEO equality. According to Google’s guidelines, any link that is unnatural should have a no-follow tag.

41. 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.

42. 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.

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. Index

The Index refers to all of the pages in 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 their system.

49. Keyword

A word or phrase indicative of the main theme in a piece of content. When you are searching in a search engine, you typed in a keyword, and the search engine provides you results based on that keyword. One primary Goal of SEO is to have your website show in searches for as multiple keywords as possible.

50. Hyperlink

A hyperlink is an HTML code that creates a link from one webpage to another web page, often characterized by a highlighted word that takes you to the specified location when you click on that link.

51. 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.

52. 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.

53. 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 web server to fetch and transmit the data for that website to your browser.

54. 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.

55. Header Code

On a website, a specific code is located in the universal header section so that it can be accessible over all 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.

56. Hashtag

It is a phrase starting with the symbol “#” used in social media as a method for tagging content for users to discover. Adding hashtags to a post enables users to find that post when searching for that topic. This can be utilized for identifying users looking for broad topics on social media.

57. 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.

58. 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.

59. Google My Business

Google My Business is a free tool for businesses and organizations to handle their online presence on Google, including Search and Maps. By verifying and updating your business information, you can both help clients to get you and explain them the story of your business. Google My Business is vital to local SEO campaigns, as this is directly compared to location-based searches.

60. Google Adwords

AdWords is an online advertising There are normally four available ad slots at the top of a search result page, so for the best results, advertisers typically want an average position between 1-4.service created by Google to assist you in marketing your products or services in the Google Search Engine, and its affiliate websites, through the use of a placed text ad that seems when people search for phrases compared to your offering, this looks like a “sponsored link.”

61. 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.

62. Dofollow

It is a phrase that indicates a hyperlink absent of a “no-follow” tag. By default, a hyperlink is a do-follow link till a “no-follow” piece of code is attached to it. The Do-Follow links pass SEO equity to the target URL, while “no-follow” links do not.

63. 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 spend 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.

64. Keyword Proximity

Keyword Proximity points to the distance between two words or phrases, or how close keywords are to each other within a body of text. For instance, a website contains the keywords that make up the search term “Detroit Corporate Photographer” in the sentence “Detroit Photographer Blake Discher specializes in corporate photography.”

65. 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%.

66. Campaign

It is a series of advertising messages that share a theme, and sell a service or product. Within the context of digital marketing, campaigns can be driven by a search including display network advertising platforms, email, social media, or any other online platforms.

67. Bot

A bot is an automated program which 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.

68. 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.

69. Blog

A blog is a web page or a website that is continuously updated with new written content. Blogs are an essential section of a site in digital marketing, as they give fresh new content on a consistent basis which can assist to attract new visitants, retain existing visitants, and give authority signals to Google.

70. Black Hat

it is a slang for an unethical digital marketer or SEO who uses spammy tactics to rank websites, mass directory link building, negative SEO, or like article spinning.

71. Hyperlocal

To build a loyal local customer base, it’s essential to be accepted as part of the community. Hyperlocal advertising is an efficient method to achieve this goal. Hyperlocal means an area close to home—the people within walking or driving distance to a specific destination or those associated with one identifiable community.

72. 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.

73. 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. Best practice delivers that all images on a website need to have alt text and that the should be representative of the image.

74. 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.

75. 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.

Conclusion:

Hence, these are the most valuable digital marketing terms and definitions. I hope this was an informative & useful article to you for learning about digital marketing terminologies. If I have missed any other terms and glossary, let me know in the comments.