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The Complete (A-Z) Guide to Online Marketing Terms (Jargons)

Divij Mehta

We have put together a complete list of Online (Digital) Marketing Jargons that provide basic understanding of the terms and the context in which they are used.

The Complete List of Online Marketing Terms

Much like Web Design, getting to know and understanding Online Marketing Jargon ASAP is going to be beneficial for not only individuals who are looking to carve a career in the Online Marketing space but also small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to boost their business and drive sales using ‘online’ marketing channels.

Here is a complete list of online marketing terms that will help you along the way. If we have missed on any of the terms chances are you will find them on another blog that we had recently done on Web Design Jargons.

Table of Contents

A

ADWORDS

The world’s largest and most common ‘Pay Per Click’ paid contextual search marketing program owned by Google started in 2001.

ANCHOR TEXT

SEO industry’s term for the clickable words of hyperlinked text. Using important keywords in the anchor text can help boost the rankings of a page from an SEO perspective.

AFFILIATE/AFFILIATE MARKETING

A form of internet marketing employed with the objective of increasing website traffic by way of partnering with other websites, individuals, or companies to send traffic to your site in exchange for fees or commissions

ALGORITHM

A program or set of rules (that are ever changing) used by search engines to determine what pages are the most relevant and thus to suggest for a given search query based on the search term entered.

ANALYTICS

Perhaps the most common Analytics program that comes to mind is Google Analytics! A program that provides website owners useful information like performance data on clicks, time, pages viewed, and website paths amongst other things so they can improve their visitor experience, and thus higher ROI.

AUTHORITY SITE

The amount of trust credited to a website by its users, industry experts, other websites and search engines for a particular search query.A link from an authority website is very valuable from an SEO perspective to build or reinforce creditability in a website.

ADCENTER

Similar to Google’s Ad words, adCenter powers paid search results on Microsoft’s bing, Yahoo! and other sites within its network.

B

BANNERS

A common form internet marketing branding campaigns,banners are advertisements placed on websites that are usually clickable made of static pictures, animations or interactive content. Banners can appear anywhere on a website- top, middle, bottom, or side and costs can vary depending on the position of the banner. Other forms of pay structures include CPM, CPC or flat costs for a definitive time period.

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING

A form of internet marketing whereby a user is repeatedly targeted with the same message by way of Ads based on previous search patters including purchases and websites visited.

BRAND STACKING

A process whereby a single domain may enjoy multiple page one listings as part of a search result.

C

CLICK THROUGH RATE (CTR)

A common internet marketing measurement tool for ad effectiveness, this measures the number of times an Ad is actually clicked on relative to the number of times the Ad is displayed.

CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING

Contextual advertising is advertising related content that allows use of keywords and the search engines will display these ads next to articles, blog posts, and other related Web pages associated with those keywords.

CONVERSION AND CONVERSION RATE

Conversion refers to a quantifiable measure that allows a website owner to measure the percentage or numbers of people actually converted and are engaging in the intended action. This could include direct online sale, a completed request form, or other lead transaction. Conversion rate also allows a website owner to measure the percentage of visitors actually getting converted relative to the number of visitors visiting website.

Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

An online advertising structure, the cost for which is based upon the actual achievement of a predefined or pre agreed action such as a lead, registration, or sale.

Cost per Click (CPC)

A common form of online advertising whereby a website owner sets a toppre-determined amount they are willing to spend to have their advertisement (listed on search engines) clicked by a visitor and thus directed to your website.

Cost per Impression (CPM)

A common online advertising form especially for Banner Advertising, similar to CPC, CPM refers to the set cost a website owner is willing to pay for every 1,000 Impressions the ad receives.

Canonical issues (content duplication)

A very common issue faced by website owners and web marketing specialists resulting in websites being penalised even when the intention was to not produce duplicated content. For instance where a website sells the same product in multiple colours and has a different page dedicated to each colour and the content of the product in question remains the same across all pages. This would result in the search engine not knowing which page to index given they would all be the same. Therefore, one way to tackle this issue is the use of Canonical URLs especially where multiple pages may have very similar or identical content.

Click fraud

An unethical practise whereby a PPC Ad receives improper or bogus clicks usually from the same ISP and without a conversion with the intention of driving up Ad spend for a business and eventually discourage advertising all together.

D

Directories

A type of search engine or Internet databases where business listings are gathered through submissions, information pulled from data aggregators (e.g. Acxiom), or a combination of the two and managed by humans, as opposed to crawling robots. Directories can be utilized for strengthening local SEO.

Doorway

Often confused with Landing Pages, A doorway is a web page that is designed specifically to attract traffic and rank well in a search engine’s organic listings but isn’t very informative to its viewers. Often such a page is associated with the intention of getting a visitor to undertake a specific action e.g.: “Click Here to Enter”

Day Parting

This refers to serving ads at different times of the day and days of the week, or even changing bids or copy / creative at different times to cater to a different audience often with the intention of creating more relevance for the end user.

De-listing

Removal of a webpage or entire website from a search engines Index.

Description Tags

These are HTML tags that briefly describe your website for the search engines to understand when a phrase or keyword is being searched for. Therefore including the main keywords of the page in describing it will ensure more accurate and frequent display of your website in appropriate searches.

E

EdgeRank

A Facebook specific algorithm used to rank business / brand pages to determine which posts will appear in the Newsfeed of followers connected to those pages. The higher the EdgeRank, would imply more chances of the business / brand pages to appear in the Newsfeeds of followers.

Ego Keyword

A keyword that a business feels they need to rank regardless of ROI or cost and in either organic or paid search listings.

Email Campaign System

The ability of a website owner to reach out to all or part of their current or potential customer’s database by way of a bulk standardised email that can be segmented based on a number of factors to make the message more specific and relevant to the recipient.

Enhanced Bidding

A Google AdWords specific feature whereby the website owner is giving Google the power to adjust the bidding with the intention of increasing conversions.

Eyetracking

Using high speed cameras to monitor and record the eye movements if a website vistor to determine which part of a webpage or a website is most popular and generates interest or otherwise. This can be a useful tool in effectively managing and creating engaging content and thus increasing overall website traffic.

F

Feed

Coming in an XML language this is content delivered to the user based on their preferences via special websites or programs such as news aggregators cutting through the clutter.

G

Geo-Targeting

The process of specifically segmenting a group of audience and targeting them with the message in question. Major search engines offer web marketers the ability to reach potential clientsin their Pay-Per-Click campaigns by their physical location.

Graphical Search Inventory

Banners, pop-ups browser toolbars and rich media amongst other types of advertising that are coordinated to search keywords.

H

Header (or Heading) Tags

HTML heading and subheading tags that define the page’s purpose and theme are important components for search engine marketing or SEM.

Hub

A trusted web page containing high quality content that links out to related pages.

I

Index

Process for collecting and storing data across the web as a repository of webpages and their content used by search engines when a query is submitted by a user and retrieved as part of the search result for the user.

Internal Linking

Inserting hyperlinks on a page within the same web site with the intention of creating a simplified and easier user experience by way of providing more information, improving site interaction, and overall improving SEO efforts. This also indicates to a search engine the ‘creditability’ of a website.

K

Keyword

Keywords are words or a group of words used by a user to run a search. Keywords are used by web marketers as part of an SEO Campaign to attract visitors to a website.

Keyword cannibalization

The practice of excessive and repeated use of the same keyword on multiple webpages with a website that ultimately makes the user as well as the search engine confused in determining the most relevant pages as associated with the specific keywords.

Keyword density

The unusually high percentage or number of times a particular keyword is used on a webpage. This can result ina webpage being penalised by the search engine.

Keyword research

The practise of determining appropriate keywords to be employed for a business that will be relevant and appropriate as part of an SEO campaign in order to generate positive results.

L

Link Building

A critical component of SEO, Link building is the Process of obtaining hyperlinks (links) from websites back to yours employing multiple link building strategies such as content creation and building relationships with influencers who can share content and naturally link to your site.

From an SEO Perspective, there are two types of Links; Internal and External and both link structures are important when managed in an organized and convenient link structure as opposed to unnatural links or link schemes that can result in a webpage being penalised.

Link Popularity

This is an important part of SEO as it helps determine the ‘creditability’ and overall popularity of your own website depending on how many websites link to yours, how popular those linking sites are, and how much their content relates to yours.

Local Business Listings

This allows a website to have a presence on a search engine and be ‘found’ even without an actual website.

Long Tail Keywords

Longer phrases as opposed to individual keywords that are just as easier and quicker to rank for in the search engines as individual keywords.

M

Meta Search Engine

Rather than crawling the web itself this is a search engine that gains listing from two or more other search engines.

Meta Tags

Two or three sentence description that the search engines rely upon the most to determine what the page is about and used in search results under the page title that a user will read and then determine whether or not to proceed to your website therefore it’s important to have unique and accurate META title and description tags.

Mirror site

The exact same website but at a different address web address.

Microblogging

Twitter is a good example of this whereby users can publish content 140 characters or less.

N

Natural Listings

Or Organic listing, are non-advertised, non-sponsored listings in Search Enginesfor Web sites that are indexed, and ranked for search placement which may attract a small fee or be completely free.

O

Outbound Links

Or external Links on a website leading to another website or webpage within the same website.

Off-page SEO

Part of SEO strategies whereby promotional means beyond the code or design of a website is used in order to raise its rankings. A good example of this would be social media marketing.

On-page SEO

Factors on a webpage within the control of the webmaster to enhance website rankings. These include search engine friendly URL’s, relevant content, good internal linking, fast loading pages, logical and clear navigation and employing Sitemaps.

P

PageRank

This refers to the value a search engine associates or attaches to a webpage or website it indexes based on a number of factors as part of its algorithm.

Paid Inclusions or Paid Listings

As opposed to Natural, organic listings, this refers to an online marketing campaign whereby web pages are included in a search engines index or directories on a CPC Basis for a payment but without any guarantee of rank or placements.

Paid Search

Similar to Paid Inclusions or Paid Listings, this is a form of paid marketing whereby web marketers pay to be listed within the Search Engine Results Pages for specific keywords or phrases.

Press Optimisation

The optimisation of press releases for search engines.

Q

Quality Score (QS)

This refers to a numerical score assigned to your Ads by Google based on mainly three components – ad quality; ad relevance); and landing page experience. The higher the QS is for an Ad, the higher are the chances the Ad will appearat lower bids and actual costs per click.

R

Reciprocal link

Two websites that link to each other and exchange these links.

Regional long tail (RLT)

A long tail keyword or one with multiple words and/or phrases part of which are names of a city or a region.

Ranking Report

An analytical report that demonstrates in detail the performance of a web page or website in search engines before, during and after SEO campaigns.

Retargeting

When a user visits a webpage or a website, cookies may be placed on their browser and your Ad continues to follow them on different websites as long as your Ad is permitted by the Advertising network running Ads on that particular website.

Run of Site (ROS)

The ability of online advertisements including Banners to appear ona particular website in any placement and on any page.

S

Scraping

Plagiarising or stealing of content from webpages and reproducing the same as your own without any permissions or approvals.

Search Engine Marketing

Marketing acts mainly focussing on a ‘selling and promoting’ a Website. SEM includes search engine optimization, paid listings, email marketing, banner ads, and other search-engine related services and functions to increase exposure and traffic to a Web site.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Process of optimising a website and its content or increasing the number of visitors to a web site so that it can easily be indexed by search engines based on a high rank in search results. SEO is increasingly becoming difficult to attain on your own often requiring assistance for SEO specialists given the ever increasing competition in the online world with more and more websites competing for the same position; to be on ‘page 1’ with higher rankings and original and relevant content.

Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM)

This refers to Online reputation management for a business and a website by way of strategically positioning themselves on search engines employing techniques such as Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Marketing, Press Optimization, Blogging, andSocial Media.

Submission

Submitting a URL to a search engine for indexing.

Search engine spam

Pages created for search engines to produce inappropriate or less relevant results when submitting particular queries.

Sock puppet

Used to create multipleprofiles on the same website and hide the real identity of a person; posing as multiple identities to undertake an action on a webpage such as comment on forum discussions or blog posts.

Social media marketing

Undertaking marketing acts by way of utilising social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn amongst others.

T

Tags

Words or phrases used to describe and content to create high user visibility and overall better SEO results.

Topic Modelling

An SEO strategy focussing on adopting similar or supplementary or secondary keywords to a primary keyword and including / optimizing content around the new keywords.

Tracking Code

A method of determining the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns specifically to track the effectiveness of various aspects of an advertisement.

Trust rank

Using quantifying link relationships to differentiate between valuable pages and spam.

U

User generated content (UGC)

Content created and published by users on Social Media, wikis, Folksonomies, and some blogs.

W

White hat SEO

Opposite to Black Hat techniques, this is a SEO technique focussing on doing the right thing; best practice guidelines and optimising websites in a way that is acceptable by Search Engines as opposed to optimisation by way of manipulating search engines.

Walled Garden

A group of pages with very low page ranks usually; which link to each other, but not with any other external pages.

 

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