Understanding digital marketing vocabulary is crucial for effectively planning and managing campaigns in today’s digital landscape. This extensive digital marketing dictionary covers over 70 relevant digital marketing terms spanning core disciplines like search engine optimization, pay-per-click ads, and web analytics. Definitions are presented alphabetically by letter for easy reference with supplemental information to clarify concepts. Whether you are a marketing newbie or a seasoned pro, use this guide as your go-to reference for defining common and niche marketing terminology to enrich your overall knowledge.
The glossary contains important foundational language as well as buzzwords and jargon even avid marketers may find opaque or struggle with at times. By building strong literacy around these terms, you will boost comprehension of digital marketing resources, tactics, deliverables and measurement. Reference this dictionary early and often to ensure you can confidently navigate marketing discussions and materials.
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A
Affiliate Marketing: Referring customers to online stores for a commission on sales.
A/B Testing: Comparing two versions of content to see which performs better.
Ad Blockers: Browser extensions that block ads from displaying.
Ad Exchanges: Ad network platforms for buying or selling digital ad inventory.
Ad Inventory: The number of ad spaces available on a website.
Ad Servers: Advertising technology that stores, manages and displays ads.
Ad Viewability: Whether an ad was seen by actual people according to industry standards.
Adapters: Allows different advertising networks or tools to interact with each other.
AdWords: Google’s advertising program where companies bid on keywords.
Algorithm Update: Change in how search engines rank pages.
Alt Text: Descriptive text for images to aid accessibility.
Analytics: Process of reporting and analyzing performance data.
Attribution: Determining influence of marketing channels on conversions.
Audience Targeting: Grouping users with shared interests for ad campaigns.
Augmented Reality (AR): Technology enhancing experiences by overlaying digital elements onto real environments.
Authoritative Backlinks: Backlinks from sites considered reputable sources.
Automation: Technology and software to complete repetitive tasks.
B
Backlinks: External websites linking back to your page.
Banner Blindness: Website visitors ignoring banners due to overexposure.
Banners: Rectangular graphic ads on websites.
Banner Ads: Graphic display ads embedded into web pages.
Big Data: Extremely large data sets analyzed to reveal user patterns.
Black Hat: Unethical optimization tactics violating search guidelines.
Blog: Website containing reverse chronological articles.
Bounce Rate: Percentage of visitors leaving website without further engaging.
Brand: Recognizable identity, style or preferences of a company.
Branded Keywords: Trademarked brand names used as keywords.
Branding: Establishing name recognition and perceptions of business.
Breadcrumbs: Website navigation showing page hierarchy.
Broken Link: Hyperlink directing to a non-existent webpage.
Bugs: Errors, defects or problems causing tech issues.
Business Listings: Key business info displayed on directory sites.
C
CAD (Cost Per Acquisition): Advertising payments based on conversion rate.
Call Tracking: Measuring the number of calls generated from campaigns.
Call to Action (CTA): Content prompting visitors to take action.
Campaign: Series of planned, coordinated marketing messages and ads around a theme.
Cannibalization: When promotions steal sales from your other campaigns rather than new buyers.
Canonical Tag: HTML element telling search engines which page version to prioritize.
Chatbot: Software that can converse with website visitors and customers.
Clickbait: Deceptive hyperlink text teasing intriguing content.
Click Fraud: Fake or invalid ad clicks draining campaign budgets.
Clickstream Data: User journey across websites tracked to understand behavior.
Click-Through-Rate (CTR): Ratio of ad clicks to number of impressions.
Cloaking: Displaying one version of a webpage to search engines, another version to users.
Clicks: Number of times website element or ad is clicked on.
Conversion Funnel: Model of the customer journey from awareness to purchase.
Content Curation: Finding and gathering relevant online content and resources.
Content Gap: Missing or outdated website content compared to competitors or searches.
Content Marketing: Creating informative online content to attract customers.
Contextual Advertising: Targeted text/display ads based on webpage content.
Conversion Rate: Percentage of website visitors that convert into leads/sales.
Cookies: Small data files from websites stored on visitor devices.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Advertising payments based on conversion rate.
Cost Per Click (CPC): Advertising payments based on clicks received.
Crawl: Search engine bot scanning webpages to update search indexes.
Crawl Budget: Limit search engines place on pages crawled per session.
Crawl Errors: Issues search bots have crawling website pages.
Crawl Rate: Frequency that search engines crawl website pages.
D
Data Feeds: Regular data transfers between marketing systems and databases.
Data Hygiene: Process of maintaining clean, current and accurate data.
Data Visualization: Using charts, graphs and maps to illustrate information visually.
Demand-Side Platform (DSP): Technology platform that buys digital advertising in an automated way.
Depth of Crawl: How deeply search bots crawl internal site architecture session to session.
Direct Traffic: Website visits occurring when users type URL directly into browser.
Display Ads: Visual banner ads promoting brands and products.
Dynamic Content: Website content that changes based on user behavior.
E
Earned Media: Free publicity gained through promotional efforts causing interest.
Ecommerce Analytics: Analysis of ecommerce activities like sales, traffic, conversion rates.
Email Automation: Using autoresponder systems to trigger emails based on actions.
Email Deliverability: Emails arriving reliably in subscriber inboxes without blocking.
Email Marketing: Communicating promotions and content to subscribers via email lists.
Engagement: Level of visitor attention, interest or interaction with content.
Engine Results Page (SERP): Search engine listing page displaying results.
ETL (Extract, Transform, Load): Process of data extraction from sources, transformation and loading into final target database.
F
Frequency Capping: Limit placed on number of times each user sees same ad within time period.
Full-Service Agency: Agency providing range of marketing services including planning, creating, managing campaigns.
G
Gatekeepers: Individuals deciding if salespeople get access to decision makers.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): European regulation ensuring protection of individual data privacy.
Geofencing: Targeting users within virtual geographic boundaries with location-based mobile ads.
Geotargeting: Displaying content or offers customized to user’s geography.
Growth Hacking: Speedy experimentation of marketing tactics to boost measurable growth.
H
Hashtag: Keyword preceded by hash sign to categorize social messages.
Heat Map: Visual representation of user activity levels on web page.
House Ads: Free ads for cross-promoting brand’s own products/services.
HubSpot: Inbound marketing and sales software platform.
I
Impression: Single appearance of an ad served to one internet user.
Inbound Links: External links from other sites directing users to your website content.
Inbound Marketing: Creating content and resources to draw visitors in on their own.
Infographics: Visual representations of information, data or knowledge.
Insights: Important learnings, discoveries and revelations derived from data analysis.
Intent Data: Search engine and web browsing data revealing user intent and motivation.
J
Journey Mapping: Illustrating ideal end-to-end customer experience across touchpoints.
Just-in-Time Marketing: Displaying contextual promos tailored to interests at that moment.
K
Keyword Cannibalization: When you target multiple closely related keywords, hurting rankings for all terms.
Keyword Density: The percentage of words on page that match target keyword phrases.
Keyword Difficulty (KD): Metric indicating how hard it will be to rank for a given keyword.
Keyword Stuffing: Overoptimizing by unnaturally repeating keywords many times to manipulate rankings.
Knowledge Graph: Sidebar information display in Google providing quick facts for searches.
L
Landing Page: Page leading traffic clicks terminate at to deliver intended message/offer.
Latency: Time required to retrieve the first byte of data from server.
Lead Generation: Initiating consumer interest to ultimately convert into sales pipeline.
Lead Magnet: Offering given in exchange for user contact information like guides, trials etc.
Lead Nurturing: Maintaining ongoing touchpoints with prospects not yet ready to buy.
Lifetime Value: Total revenue generated from customer over entire relationship.
Link Bait: Interesting, shareable content intended to attract inbound links.
Local Pack: Map and address listings for local search results.
Local SEO: Optimizing online visibility in Google Maps and local search.
Long-Tail Keywords: More specific multi-word keyword phrases with lower competition.
M
MAU (Monthly Active Users): Number of unique users active within the past 30 days.
Metrics: Quantitative measures used to track, monitor and assess performance.
Micro-Conversions: Smaller website actions that may ultimately lead to macro-conversions.
Micro-Influencers: Social media personalities with smaller, niche audiences driving high engagement.
Multi-Channel Funnels: Analyzing interplay between ad channels influencing conversions.
N
Native Advertising: Paid ads blending seamlessly into surrounding content for natural look/feel.
Negative Keywords: Advertising keywords explicitly excluded from campaigns.
Net Promoter Score: Customer loyalty and satisfaction metric.
New Visitor: First-time sessions from users never having visited the site before.
Nofollow Link Attribute: HTML code stopping search engines from counting link metrics.
O
Omnichannel: Providing seamless, consistent customer experiences across all touchpoints and channels.
On-Page SEO: Website optimization factors visible to search engines like content, HTML tags and site speed.
Ontology: How search engines understand concepts, relationships and properties of entities on the web.
Open Rate: Email marketing metric – the percentage of subscribers opening an email campaign.
Opt-In: User consenting to receive future communication like email, SMS and telephone.
Organic Search: Website visitors referred via search engines without paid advertising.
Outbound Link: Hyperlink redirecting visitors off your current webpage to external sites.
P
Page Authority: Metric from 1-100 predicting how well a specific page will rank in SERPs.
Page Speed: Measurement of how fast website pages load.
Pageview: Instance of a webpage being loaded by user’s browser.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): Digital advertising model charging advertisers when users click their ads.
Penguin Algorithm Update: Search engine filter punishing websites engaging in manipulative SEO tactics.
Personas: Fictional representations of ideal target buyers based on data of who they are and what they want.
Pixel: Code snippet on website enabling ad analytics, tracking and retargeting.
Plugins: Software enhancing website functionality like forms, analytics, live chat etc.
Pogo-Sticking: Search result behavior when users click a SERP listing then instantly click back to try another result.
Q
Qualified Traffic: Website visitors matching the demographic, interests and intent of ideal potential customers.
Quality Score: Google Ads metric determining ads relevance to keywords and searchers.
Query: Words and phrases users type into search engines when looking for information.
Query Deserves Freshness (QDF): Google search algorithm factoring page update recency into rankings for breaking news-related queries.
R
RankBrain: Google machine learning AI that interprets language and contexts to improve search results.
Real-Time Bidding (RTB): Automated process where ad impressions are bid on individually in real-time.
Reciprocal Links: Participating websites agree to link back to one another.
Referral Traffic: Visitors directed from other 3rd party websites via links.
Relevance: Matching website content quality and topics to user’s search interests and intents.
Remarketing Ads: Serving ads across sites and devices to those who previously visited website.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated per amount spent on ads.
Return Visitor: Repeat sessions from same users who have been to site before.
Robots.txt: Instructions about what webpages or directories search engine bots can or cannot crawl.
S
Schema Markup: Enhanced HTML code that adds more context and descriptors so search engines better understand webpages.
Search Console: Google’s webmaster portal providing SEO insights about websites.
Search Intent: Motivation and purpose behind a user’s search query – commercial, informational, transactional etc.
Search Terms Report: Identifying keywords visitors searched to then land on your site.
Searcher Satisfaction: Effectiveness of website in fulfilling searcher needs and providing helpful information.
T
Targeting: Determining specific demographics, interests and behaviors of ideal audience for ads.
Taxonomy: System for classifying and organizing related keywords and content topics.
Text Ads: Short text-based ads with headlines, descriptions and display URLs.
Top of Funnel: Upper stage of sales funnel when consumers are just becoming aware of a product or service.
Traffic: Number of visitors coming to a website over given time period.
Transactional Email: Confirmation emails like receipts, alerts and notices sent due to specific activity.
U
Unbounce Page: Standalone landing page built specifically for ad campaigns instead of general website pages.
Unique Visitors: Number of unduplicated visitors to your websites over specified time frame.
URL Parameters: Appending tracking variables to end of URLs to collect analytics insights.
User-Generated Content: Authentic content created and shared by brand users and fans.
V
Value Proposition: Short statement summing up primary differentiator and customer benefit of product/service.
Vanity Metrics: Metric perceived to signify success but with unclear business value like social media followers.
Venture Capital: Investment in exchange for equity stake in emerging companies judged as having long term growth potential.
View-Through Conversions: Users who viewed an ad then converted later without clicking ad initially.
W
Web Analytics: Collecting, measuring, analyzing and reporting website data to optimize performance.
Website Heatmap: Visual representation of webpage areas receiving more (hot) or less (cold) click activity.
White Hat SEO: Ethical optimization practices conforming to search engine guidelines.
Whitepaper: In-depth report designed to showcase expertise and thought leadership on topic.
X
XDM (Experience Data Model): Standardized framework for managing and integrating customer data across systems.
Y
Yield Management: Adjusting ad serving to maximize campaign performance based on budgets, caps, pacing and more.
Z
ZoomInfo: Popular B2B database provider aggregating intelligence on companies and professional contact data.