For people unfamiliar with the digital marketing landscape, it can be overwhelming to face a constant inflow of new terms and acronyms. Here we are presenting a comprehensive glossary providing crystal-clear and incisive definitions of the important digital marketing terms. With this digital marketing glossary, we aim to deliver the required learning that will help to effectively communicate and perceive the tactics and approach running today’s digital ecosystem.
Let’s make you familiar with the most useful digital marketing terms and definitions:
Affiliate Marketing: It is a performance-driven marketing tactic involving individuals and businesses to advertise other companies products and services, earning commissions for sales and lead generation. Businesses leverage this opportunity to enhance their market reach and minimize their marketing budget. Social media influencers often promote products and services to their subscribers and share links so that interested people can use the link to make purchases with discounts.
A/B Testing: It’s a procedure to compare two variants of a webpage, email, web form, or advertisement to get an idea of which one engages a larger audience and provides increased conversion rates.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): It is a highly targeted marketing strategy focused on developing relationships with high-value customers rather than chasing a broad market. ABM enables businesses to customize marketing campaigns per each client's specific requirements. It is an effective strategy for B2B organizations that are interested in serving a few large clients.
Analytics: The analytics system offers valuable insights concerning social media ad campaigns, PPC, and organic search. As a marketer, you can detect trends, measure efficiency, and make data-driven decisions to upgrade your strategies by collecting and evaluating data from multiple sources. Digital marketing basic terms like “analytics” are important to understand how to measure success and make business decisions.
Anchor text: The anchor text is the clickable text within a hyperlink. It takes the user to a different webpage or section of a website. It serves as a visual cue, indicating the destination of the link. Effective anchor text should be relevant and descriptive and encourage users to click.
Algorithm: The term algorithm refers to Google’s search algorithm, a specific set of rules that ranks websites in search results.
Alt text: Also known as Alternative text, Alt attribute, and Alt descriptions, it shows when you hold your mouse cursor on the website’s images.
API (application programming interface): It is the language of applications to interact with each other to gather information and use it for specific purposes.
Abandonment rate: In digital marketing, abandonment rate refers to two things. The first is when people depart from a website after visiting the homepage; also known as the bounce rate. The second is about people who add products to their shopping cart but don’t complete the checkout process.
Adsense: If you own a website, you can use this advertising system run by Google. The platform also provides opportunities to monetize by permitting Google to show advertisements on specific areas of your website.
Adwords: Whenever you search for something on Google, various search results appear on the search result page. According to your query, you get numerous links, and the ones shown as sponsored links are the search ad examples.
Backlink: It is an incoming link to a website originating from a different website. These links play a crucial role in enhancing ranking on the SERPs.
Bot: A bot is an automated software application that performs monotonous tasks and imitates human behavior.
Bounce rate: The number or percentage of people leaving a website from the homepage itself without visiting other pages refers to the bounce rate.
Blog hop: It is an online networking event where bloggers share links to each other's blogs. The purpose is to enable bloggers to share work related to a specific niche.
Breadcrumbs: : Inspired by the popular fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, Breadcrumbs make it easier for browsers to track their path from their present location. Here is an example. Home>Men>Men’s accessories>Watch.
Brand affinity: The emotional connection and loyalty towards a particular brand refers to brand affinity. It means how positively people perceive and feel about a brand, beyond just product or service quality. When a brand has a strong affinity, consumers are more likely to be loyal, advocate for the brand, and refrain from switching to competitors.
Broken link: A broken link is a page that no longer exists; the reasons are that either the page has been deleted or the URL has been altered. Whenever someone clicks on a broken link, they are shown a page with the message “404 error” and “page cannot be found.”
Browser: A browser is a software application acting as a gateway to the internet. Users access and view various types of online content through a browser. It evaluates web pages, rendering the text, images, videos, and other elements in a visually appealing format. The most popular browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge.
CAC: TheCustomer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a crucial metric. It measures the total cost of acquiring a new customer. It includes advertising, marketing campaigns, sales efforts, and other costs incurred to convert a potential customer into a paying customer. CAC is calculated by dividing the total cost of acquiring new customers by the number of acquired customers.
Canonical tag: It’s an HTML element that prevents duplicate content issues in search engine optimization by mentioning the preferred version of a webpage.
CDN: Acontent delivery network (CDN), also known as a content distribution network, is a network of servers around the world that stores website content, i.e., videos, images, and text information. The wide circulation of servers helps people browse the internet faster.
Churn: The term represents customers who ended their relationship with a business or employees who left their employers.
Clickbait: A content headline or thumbnail of a YouTube video created or designed in such a way as to attract viewers. For example, “You won’t believe what happened after...” or a video thumbnail with a facial expression of shock.
CTR:In digital marketing to measure the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns Click-through rate (CTR) plays a major role. It projects the percentage of people clicking on an ad after seeing it. A higher CTR indicates that the ad is relevant, engaging, and effectively captures the audience's attention. It is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on an ad by the total number of impressions.
Clickstream: It informs about a user's online activity, capturing every click, page view, and interaction with a website. It provides valuable insights into user behavior, preferences, and the path they take through a website. By analyzing clickstream data, businesses understand how visitors navigate their sites, identify areas of interest, and enhance the user experience.
CMS: Users without detailed technical knowledge can create, manage, and update website content with the Content Management System (CMS). It offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies tasks such as adding pages, creating blog posts, managing images, adjusting fonts, and customizing website layouts.
CNAME: It refers to the canonical name. For example, let’s assume you have a website “menaccessories.com” and you directed the content of your other website “menstuff.com” to it. People trying to access “menaccessories.com” will also be able to watch the content of "menstuff.com.”
Conversion: When a website visitor completes a desiredjob or a marketing objective, such as registering for a webinar, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading an ebook.
Cookie: Whenever you visit a website, a file is stored in your computer through the browser. Cookies improve the user experience by storing login information and preferences so you don’t have to repeat certain tasks when you revisit the website. It also helps marketers with data analysis and managing advertising campaigns.
Copywriting: A communication focused on grabbing the attention of a target audience to make them interested in a particular product or service.
Cost per lead: CPL is a marketing metric that ascertains the average money spent to acquire a new lead. The formula to find CPL is dividing the total cost of a marketing campaign by the number of leads generated.
Cost per click: CPC is a metric that tells how much advertisers pay for each click on their ads. The formula to calculate CPC is the total spend on ads divided by total clicks.
Cost per million: CPM measures how much an advertiser spends for every 1000 views or impressions of an ad.
Crawling: The process of discovering new web pages and adding them to the search engine index refers to crawling; it is also known as spiders or crawlers. These bots systematically explore the internet, following links from one page to another. They collect information about the content and structure of each page, which is used by the search engine's algorithms to determine its relevance to search queries.
CTA: A CTA is designed to encourage a specific action from an online user. It guides visitors towards desired outcomes, such as purchasing, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading a resource. Result-driven CTAs are clear, concise, and visually appealing. Examples of CTAs include "Buy Now," "Learn More," "Sign Up," and "Subscribe." In digital marketing terms glossary, CTAs are crucial for understanding how to push conversions and achieve marketing goals.
DNS: Computers use IP addresses to access websites. A DNS stores domain names along with the corresponding IP addresses. As you punch a website name, the DNS service translates the domain name into its corresponding IP address.
DDoS: Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, is a scenario in which a website is bombarded with large amounts of fake traffic that makes it go offline.
Direct traffic: When you manually type a website domain name and visit the website, it refers to direct traffic.
Dofollow link: A dofollow link advises search engines to follow a particular link and gain access to the website to which it leads.
Domain: It's a unique name of a website on the internet. It helps users locate and access a specific website. For example, the domain "Y.com" identifies a website named "Y" located on the.com top-level domain.
Duplicate content: This scenario occurs when two or more web pages have similar types of content. This can be a problem in search engine optimization (SEO) because it can confuse search engines and lead to lower rankings.
Ebook: An electronic book is a digital version of a traditional book;it is created for audiences who prefer reading on laptops, desktop computers, tablets, or smartphones.
Embed: Embedding is placing content from one website or platform to another. With embedding you display external content, such as videos, images, or articles, on your website without hosting it. With this method, you provide a more exciting user experience.
Engagement rate: It’s a metric that gives details about the social media number of engagements, i.e., clicks, shares, likes, and follows.
External link: An external link is a hyperlink that transports visitors from your website to another website or online resource. It also directs users to relevant information, products, or services unavailable on your website. External links help build relationships with other websites, boost traffic, and provide additional value to your visitors.
FAQ: It can be a separate web page or a section where frequently asked questions are featured to help visitors with their common doubts about the product or service.
Follower: A follower is an admirer or someone who wants to be updated about everything for a particular company or an individual.
FTP: FTP stands forfile transfer protocol, It is a way to transfer files from one computer to another using an internet connection.
Funnel: A funnel represents various stages of a marketing campaign. At the initial stage, there are many interested people, and as they move further down the funnel, the number starts to reduce, finally ending at making the purchase.
Go-to-market strategy: This refers to a set of step-by-step marketing strategies that help in preparing and launching a product or service.
Google Analytics: It’s a free tool that tracks websites and mobile traffic and provides reports about page views, trending keywords, audience behavior, and more.
Handle: A handle is a username or screen name representing a user on a social media platform. It offers a personalized online identity to interact with other users. Handles should be memorable, easy to remember, and relevant to the user's interests or brand. For example, on Twitter, a handle might be @painteruser.
Hashtag: Your content becomes more discoverable with the use of hashtags; #; for example, if you are posting something on X or Instagram, adding trending hashtags amplifies the reach.
Header image: It’s the image at the top of a website or a blog; mostly it is related to the niche of the website or the idea that a blog provides to its readers.
Heading tags: Heading tags serve the purpose of structuring the content. For example, the H1 tag represents the title, while the H2 tag is for the subtitle.
Hero image: A hero image is the central visual element that welcomes visitors to a website, generally occupying a large portion of the homepage or landing page. It's designed to grab attention, communicate the brand's message, and encourage users to explore further.
Home page: The first page a visitor encounters on a webpage is the home page. It’s the gateway to the website, providing an overview of the content and guiding users towards their desired information. A well-designed homepage should be visually appealing, easy to navigate, and communicate the website's purpose and value proposition.
HTTP: A hypertext transfer protocol is a protocol that is used to transfer data over a network.
HTML: The hypertext text markup language is a language used to create the basic structure of a website.
HTTPS: It is a more secure version of HTTP as it allows a secure data transfer between users and websites.
Hyperlink: A hyperlink allows you to jump onto different pages within a website or it directs you to another website.
Impressions: The total number of times an ad has been seen by a target audience, whether it was clicked or not. This metric measures the visibility and reach of an ad campaign. A high number of impressions means the ad has been displayed to a large audience, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was effective in driving clicks or conversions.
Inbound link: It’s a hyperlink pointing to your website from another site. An inbound link is also known as a backlink. These links are valuable for search engine optimization (SEO) because they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content relevant, trustworthy, and valuable.
Index: It’s a database storing information about websites that the search engines have identified.
IP address: It’s a unique number that assists in identifying a device connected to the internet.
Javascript: JS is a programming language used to create interactive web pages.
Keyword: A keyword is a particular sentence or phrase that online audiences use to search for a specific product or service. It plays an important role in terms of SEO and PPC.
Landing page: A landing page is an independent webpage created to collect information from potential customers and motivate them to take specific action.
Lead: An organization or individual that shows interest in your product or service can be a lead.
Lead Magnet: A free downloadable ebook, whitepaper, or case study is an example of a lead magnet that a user can download in return for providing a name and email address.
Lead nurturing: Lead nurturing involves creating a series of online communications such as emails, YouTube videos, or social media posts to keep your target audience engaged and motivate them to explore your offerings.
Link building: Under search engine optimization (SEO), link building is a process to get webpages from trustworthy and authoritative websites linked to your website pages to enhance rankings in organic search results.
LMS: Alearning management system allows you to create and manage online learning programs; you don’t need any programming knowledge to run such platforms.
LTV: Lifetime value is a metric that estimates how much revenue a client will generate during their relationship with your business.
Longtail keyword: Longtail keywords are more specific, for example, “black shoes for the office." The keyword here shows the clear and strong intention of the user.
Marketing automation: It is the process of automating various monotonous marketing tasks such as drip campaigns, email newsletters, email follow-up emails, or social media scheduling.
Marketing funnel: A customer goes through various stages in marketing, such as awareness of the offering, purchasing, and then becoming loyal to that particular brand.
Meta Description: It is a preview of the content of a webpage that users can see in the search results.
Niche: Niche in digital marketing is about focusing on a special group of people having specific interests and preferences.
Navigation: When you visit a website and can easily move to various pages and sections and also find the information you are looking for, this whole process is known as navigation.
No-follow link: A no-follow link tells search engines not to follow a particular path; this means that search engines will not count that link as a vote of trust for the website it points to.
No Index: A no-index tag informs search engines not to index a particular page.
Organic traffic: When an online visitor comes to your website through search engine result pages (unpaid ads), it is called organic traffic.
On-page optimization: Under on-page optimization, the focus is to take all possible measures within the website to improve the website's position in the search results.
Off-page optimization: Off-pagesearch engineoptimizations done outside your website boundaries, such as link building, managing online reputation, boosting social media engagement, or connecting with influencers.
Open rate: It's a metric that tells how effective your email marketing campaign is by finding the percentage of subscribers who open your email out of the total number of subscribers.
Opt-in form: It’s a sign-up form that usually pops up on a website when a user visits; its purpose is to collect the names and email addresses of the visitors.
Opt-in rate: It’s the ratio of people who sign up through your opt-in forms divided by the total number of users who visit your website.
Page view: The total number of times a webpage has been viewed.
Permalink: A permanent link, or Perma link, is a URL used to refer to a specific web page.
Personal branding: It is about marketing yourself; if you are good in a particular domain, like video editing or dancing, or if you are a good motivational speaker, then you try to market yourself to gain followers and influence people.
Plugin: Plugins are the software that provides you with extra services that are usually not found in the original software or platform. For example, WordPress is a CMS that integrates with multiple plugins to offer users the best experience.
Podcast: Podcasts can be long video sessions where the host discusses various domains of the topic just to provide more insights to the viewers.
Pop-up: It’s a box that suddenly appears on the screen when a user visits a website. It is placed, and the pop-up time is controlled so that it doesn’t irritate the user. The purpose of pop-ups is to grab the attention of the visitors and request that they provide their name and email address.
PPC: Pay-per-click is a digital marketing model where advertisers pay when an online audience clicks on their ad.
PPA: Under PPA, the advertiser pays only when a particular action is carried out.
Qualified Lead: A qualified leadIs a potential customer examined by the sales team and is an ideal candidate for your company's product or service.
Quality Score: It is a grading system of Google to evaluate the quality of an advertisement.
Query: A query is a phrase or sentence entered in the search box of Google or Bing to find something.
Referral: When you are using a service and you invite your friends and family members to try and use the same service. Often these referrals involve discounts and offers.
Referral traffic: When a visitor visits your website through a direct link on another website.
Render: Rendering is creating visual content, such as images, graphics, or animations, from digital data. It translates the data into a visual representation that can be displayed on a screen or printed. It requires powerful computing resources and specialized software and is a complex process.
Response rate: Thetotal number of people responding to a content against the total number of people who received it.
Responsive design: It is a technique in web design that focuses on adapting to various screens to make the content properly visible to users.
Remarketing: Remarketing is a process of showing ads to the visitors who visit your website.
ROI: Return on investment is revenue earned on every dollar spent on digital marketing campaigns.
SEM: Search engine marketing is also known as PPC (pay-per-click). It is a paid service that helps brands and websites appear higher on search results.
SEO: Search engine optimization is a process to optimize website content, i.e., blogs, images, meta descriptions, alt text, mobile responsiveness, and URL structure; it also involves technical SEO.
SERP: Search engine results pages, properly known as SERP, are the pages that a search engine returns when a user enters a search query.
Server: When you punch a website address in your browser, it sends a request to the server; the server then analyzes the requests and sends back the response to your browser, which is shown on your screen.
Sitemap: A sitemap informs visitors and search engines about the structure of a website.
SMTP: Simple mail transfer protocol, or SMTP, is the technology behind transferring email messages between sender and recipient.
SMM: Social media marketing refers to all the marketing activities performed on various social media channels i.e., Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, LinkedIn etc.
Social Proof: Sometimes, you follow a brand or try its product or service because of the huge followers, likes, and comments on its various posts. The faith shown in the brand through social media platforms is referred to as social proof.
Social Selling: Today, social media platforms are used to build relationships and share relevant content with potential customers to make them purchase your products or services.
SSL: Secure socket layer (SSL) ensures that the information exchange between the server and the browser happens securely.
Title Tag: The title tag is crucial for SEO as it helps search engines understand what your page wants to convey.
UI: User Interface is the design and layout of a website or a mobile application that users interact with.
URL: A URL is a uniform resource locator; it is the address of a webpage.
UGC: User-generated content is created by users. For example, Go Pro’s content or Red Bull's content is a good example of UGC.
UX: User experience refers to the overall experience a user has while engaging with a website or mobile application.
Visual encoding: Visual encoding involves utilizing visual elements such as graphics, videos, and images to make the content more appealing to the target audience.
WYSIWYG: The full form is What you see is what you get. It’s a kind of platform that enables you to check how your final content will appear.
XML: XML is an extensible markup language. It is used in website development to save and transport data.
YMYL: YMYL stands for your money, your life; it is related to websites that provide information that can alter a user's financial or physical state, for example, medical, legal, or financial advice.
Zero Party Data: Thepersonal information consumers share with brands refers to zero-party data. It's considered more valuable than other forms of data because it comes directly from the source, offering a deeper understanding of customer preferences, intentions, and motivations. This digital marketing terminology is becoming increasingly important as businesses seek to build stronger relationships and deliver highly personalized experiences.