Digital marketing jargon buster
Analyticsor Web Analytics Tools The analysis of data generated by people’s activity on
websites or mobile apps, for the purpose of discovering ways to improve websites and
marketing campaigns.
E.g. “I’m using web analytics tools to come up with ideas to redesign my website.”
App (Application) A program designed to run on smartphones, tablets and other mobile
devices.
E.g. “My house needs painting, so I used a local app to find a reputable service near me.”
Banner Ad A form of advert found on web pages and mobile applications, usually in image
format.
E.g. “I’m using banner ads to bring new customers to my website.”
Blog A regularly updated website written by an individual, typically in a conversational style,
and focused on a specific subject.
Browser A computer program used to navigate the Internet on computers, tablets and
smartphones. Examples include Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.
E.g. “I’m not sure why my website looks different depending on the browser a person is using.”
Clickthrough Rate (CTR) The number of times people click on an item of interest, like an
advert, in comparison to the number of times users are exposed to that item.
E.g.: “My clickthrough rate on ads about external painting is 2%, but my CTR on ads about
indoor murals is less than 1%.”
Content The digital material available to users, via text, video, audio, images, etc.
E.g. “I’m adding more image and video content to my site, so it’ll be more engaging.”
Conversionor Goal The action you want visitors to perform. Examples include ecommerce
purchases, form submissions, phone calls, and video views.
E.g. “My main goal is for people to book a consultation on my website, but signing up for my
email newsletter would also be a conversion.”
Conversion Optimization The process of increasing the percentage of visitors who complete
your goals.
E.g. “Once I add a new line of faux finishes to my website, I’m going to start focusing on
conversion optimization.”
Conversion Rate The ratio of conversions to visits, often used to measure digital
performance.
E.g. “I’m not sure why, but my conversion rate on external painting is very low for male visitors.”
Cost per Click The amount of money required to produce a single click on a digital
advertisement.
E.g. “Cost per click prices seem to be higher during weekends, so I’m only running my
campaigns during the week.”
Crawler or Spider A program designed to systematically browse content on the Internet and
collect information about it to help searchers find what they’re looking for.
E.g. “I’m scared of spiders, but not the ones that help my website appear in search engines.”
Desktop A nonmobile device like a personal computer or laptop computer.
E.g. “I prefer to use a desktop computer at home, but when I travel I use my tablet.”
Ecommerce The sale of products and services online.
Email Marketing The process of using email messages to share information and promote
products and services.
Home Page The introductory or “main” page of a website.
E.g. “On my home page, visitors can see examples of my most beautifully painted houses.”
HTML Hypertext Markup Language. A language used by web developers to create websites.
E.g. “My website was written using HTML.”
Impressions The number of times an advert is displayed.
E.g. “My new marketing campaign for kitchen painting has received thousands of impressions,
but I’m not sure if I’ve booked any sales yet.”
Index A searchable catalogue of web pages and digital content used by a search engine to
provide relevant results.
E.g. “Before my site appeared in the search engine’s index, people couldn’t find my website
when they searched for foyer murals.”
Keyword A word or a phrase typed into a search engine, which businesses can target as part
of their advertising campaigns.
Landing Page The first page on a website that a person usually sees—not necessarily the
home page of that website.
E.g. “I’m adding a coupon to my landing page so that my website visitors will be encouraged to
buy.”
Link A text or image that provides a link from one web page or website to another.
E.g. “When a major home decor blog linked to my website, I got a lot more visitors.”
Mobile Device A portable device, such as a smartphone or tablet, capable of connecting to
the Internet and running applications.
E.g. “Grandma got a tablet and a smartphone for her birthday, so now she’s using mobile
devices just like her grandkids.”
Natural Listings or Organic Listings Results from a search engine that are notpaid adverts.
E.g. “The higher my website ranks in a search engine’s natural listings, the more website traffic
I’ll get.”
Paid Listings Advertisements that appear on search engines results pages.
E.g. “I’m thinking about paying to have my website appear in the paid listings, so that I can bring
more customers to my website.”
PayPerClick (PPC) An advertising system in which advertisers pay for users to click on their
advertisements.
E.g. “I’m going to use payperclick adverts to promote my new faux finishes.”
Queryor Search Term The keyword or phrase a user types into a search engine in order to
find what they’re looking for.
E.g. “When people use the search term ‘hairdresser’ they might be looking for tips on how to do
it themselves or a service to do it for them.”
Ranking A listing’s position on a search engine results page.
E.g. “With a lot of work, I’m hoping to get my website to the #1 ranking on search engines.”
Search Engine A tool that indexes and returns relevant digital content in response to users’
keywords. Popular Internet search engines include Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Baidu,
Yandex and more.
E.g. “I use search engines to look for trends in home decor.”
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The practice of making changes to web pages, content,
and the promotion of that content to improve visibility in the organic—or unpaid—search engine
results.
E.g. “Investing in SEO helped my website get a higher ranking in search engine results.”
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) A form of advertising that allows you to bid for your
advertisement to show along with search results for keywords that people are typing in. This
lets businesses be seen by people at the very moment they’re searching for the things a
business offers.
Example: “SEO is a long process, but using SEM helped me get a lot more website traffic really
quickly.”
Search Engine Results Page (SERP) A list of results appearing in a search engine in
response to a user’s search query.
E.g. “After I searched for ‘buy highgloss paint in bulk’ I noticed that the SERP had both natural
listings and paid listings.”
Sessionor Visit A group of interactions that take place on your website within a given time
frame. For example a single session can contain multiple page views and ecommerce
transactions.
E.g.“My website got 2,000 visits last month, but what I really care about is whether those visits
resulted in sales.”
Social Media Content such as text, images, or videos, created by individuals and shared
across the Internet.
E.g. “Social media changes all the time, so I hired my niece to help me create a social media
strategy.”
Social Network A community of individuals creating and sharing content.
E.g. “Social networks could be a good place for me to showcase my beautiful foyer murals and
maybe get new customers.”
Traffic Acquisition The process of attracting visitors often referred to as traffic to
websites, mobile apps and other digital assets.
E.g. “My acquisition strategy focuses on targeting people who have recently bought old houses.”
Unique Visitor A single visitor to a website during a specific period of time.
E.g. “No matter how many times Uncle Bob visits my website, he’s still just one unique visitor.”
URLor Uniform Resource Locator The unique address of a page or piece of digital content
on the Internet.
E.g. “Aunt Sue, you can access my website by typing the URL into your browser.
