A program that sends an automatic form response to incoming emails.
B2B –
A business that sells products or provides services to other businesses.
B2C –
A business that sells products or provides services to the end-user consumers.
Bandwidth –
The amount of data that can be transmitted in a time period over a communications channel, often expressed in kilobits per second (kbps).
Barter –
To exchange goods or services directly without the use of money.
Brand –
The experience a customer has with a product or service that makes it different from others in the same category. More than just a name, a brand is where features, benefits, and customer perceptions meet. Successful brands have a unique identity, image, and emotional connection with their customers. It’s why we choose a brand over another every day.
Brand identity –
The experience a customer has with your product or service visually. A brand identity is made up of elements like the brand’s name, logo, color palette, and type style to convey a distinct brand image to customers. It also includes consistent standards for words, images, voice, and tone.
Brand image –
How customers perceive a business's products, services, and company as a whole. This is ultimately something you can’t control. But the goal of raising awareness of your brand, improving recognition, nurturing favorability, and winning affinity is to grow market share. A solid brand identity and relentless brand management are 2 keys to success.
Brand manager –
A marketing professional responsible for making sure the customer’s experience with a brand is brand-worthy. That means all messaging about the brand is aligned with the brand’s values, personality, identity, and target audience. Typical to-dos for a brand manager include performing a competitive analysis, developing marketing strategies, overseeing the creation of advertising campaigns, and managing the advertising budget.
Disintermediation –
The elimination of intermediaries in the supply chain, also referred to as “cutting out the middlemen.”
Exclusivity –
A contract term in which one party grants another party sole rights with regard to a particular business function.
FCC –
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a United States government agency that regulates communication devices and systems, which includes the Internet. They ensure all citizens have fair access to these communication platforms and that they’re safely performing in the interest of the public and national security. In most cases, the FCC is the agency responsible for crafting consumer protection rules such as privacy protections, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces these rules.
First-mover advantage –
A sometimes insurmountable advantage gained by the first significant company to move into a new market.
Forum –
An online community where visitors may read and post topics of common interest.
Freemium –
A technique where a business offers a free basic product, giving the customer an option to use an advanced version for a premium cost.
FTC –
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is tasked with promoting competition in the United States marketplace and protecting consumers. In the world of e-commerce and digital marketing, the FTC is responsible for providing rules and guidance around online advertising, which it refers to as the “rules of the road.” It enforces the CAN-SPAM Act to ensure email marketing isn’t misleading or harassing.
Guerilla marketing –
Unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.
Inbound marketing –
A marketing model whose sales performance relies on the initiative of its client base to find and purchase a product.
Integrated marketing –
The practice of aligning all marketing tactics to the same core messaging for a consistent customer experience with your brand. Through integrated marketing, communications tactics such as display ads, landing pages, email marketing, direct mail, and product catalogs all work in the same direction toward your marketing objectives. One example is making your call to action (CTA) consistent across all online and offline tactics for a particular campaign.
KPI –
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measures that help businesses evaluate their progress toward achieving important objectives. Although different businesses use different metrics, KPIs are always central to understanding how your company is performing and how you can improve that performance.
List broker –
A business that specializes in sourcing contact lists that direct marketers can rent for an email or marketing campaign. List brokers typically have access to a huge variety of lists and existing relationships with list owners. They also have expertise in recommending the best lists to use based on the target audience, brand, and marketing goals. In exchange for renting a list, the list broker typically charges a commission, which the list owner pays for.
Market share –
The percentage of the market for your product or service that you want to capture. The formula for market share is a company’s sales / industry sales over the same time period. To improve market share, companies may focus on strengthening customer loyalty or innovating products and services. They may also buy key competitors.
Moderator –
In a forum, someone entrusted by the administrator to help discussions stay productive and within the guidelines.
Netiquette –
Short for "network etiquette," the code of conduct regarding acceptable online behavior.
Network effect –
The phenomenon whereby a service becomes more valuable as more people use it, thereby encouraging ever-increasing numbers of adopters.
PayPal –
An online payment service that lets its users make purchases and receive payments via a user-defined email address.
PDF –
A Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file that looks like a printed document and is compatible across computer systems. Adobe Systems developed the .pdf format, which allows people to view, download, save, share, and print the file regardless of their computers’ operating systems or software. Business-to-business (B2B) promotions such as whitepapers and e-briefs are typically provided to prospects and customers in a PDF.
Podcast –
A series of audio or video files that are syndicated over the Internet and stored on client computing devices for playback later.
Shopping cart –
Software used to make a site’s product catalog available for online ordering, whereby visitors may select, view, add/delete, and purchase merchandise.
Sig file –
A short block of text at the end of a message identifying the sender and providing additional information about them.
Spam –
Inappropriate commercial message of extremely low value.
Sponsorship –
Advertising that seeks to establish a deeper association and integration between an advertiser and a publisher, often involving coordinated beyond-the-banner placements.
Vlog –
A blog that publishes video content.
Web directory –
An organized, categorized listing of websites.
Word-of-mouth marketing –
A marketing method that relies on casual social interactions to promote a product.
Social
Affiliate –
The publisher/salesperson in an affiliate marketing relationship.
Affiliate manager –
A person responsible for managing an online affiliate program for an affiliate merchant.
Affiliate marketing–
Revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model.
Affiliate merchant –
The advertiser in an affiliate marketing relationship.
Affiliate network–
A value-added intermediary providing services, including aggregation, for affiliate merchants and affiliates.
Affiliate sfotware–
Software that, at a minimum, provides tracking and reporting of commission-triggering actions (sales, registrations, or clicks) from affiliate links.
Facebook –
A social networking site located at facebook.com.
Facebook ads –
Ads that run exclusively through Facebook’s advertising platform. They can appear in Facebook’s feed, Messenger, and even on non-Facebook apps and websites. They come in a variety of formats such as single image, video, slideshows, and more and can be targeted to extremely specific audiences.
Facebook Ads Manager –
This is the interface where a business selects its target audience, sets its budget, formats its ads, and launches them. Facebook Ads Manager collects all of a business's ads’ performance metrics such as click-through rates, impressions, and engagements. Since Facebook also owns Instagram, this is where Instagram ads are set up and managed.
Facebook business page –
A business’s home on Facebook. At a minimum, it includes a name, description, profile, cover photo, and a call to action (CTA) such as “visit our website” or “give us a call.” These pages can include images, videos, and text about a brand and its products or services. They can also be promoted like ads to help find new followers. Business hours, location details, and even shopping widgets can be added to a Facebook business page to encourage followers to take specific actions.
Facebook profile –
A person's "home" on Facebook. This is similar to a Facebook business page but designed for a human (or the occasional pet), rather than a business. It typically includes basic information such as name, location, and profile picture. The Facebook profile is where a person's timeline, shared photos and videos, and other Facebook content lives. Profiles can be fully public or only visible to certain people based on selected privacy settings.
Hashtag –
A hash or pound sign (#) used before a word or phrase to label content and make it easier to find. Hashtags are common on social media and used to connect posts on related topics when clicked on. Hashtags can combine multiple words and are often styled with internal capitalization so they’re #MuchEasierToRead.
Instagram ads –
Instagram posts that promote a business’s products or services. The posts can appear in an Instagram feed, stories, or both. They can include images or video along with copy and a link to the web page of the company’s choice. The main advantage of advertising on Instagram is that it uses data Facebook users provide about themselves to help ads reach a highly targeted audience. (Facebook is the parent company of Instagram.)
Like-gate –
A barrier requiring a user to “Like” a brand’s page before they can access certain content from that brand on Facebook.
Payment threshold –
The minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program.
Social networking –
The process of creating, building, and nurturing virtual communities and relationships between people online.
Super affiliate –
An affiliate capable of generating a significant percentage of an affiliate program’s activity.
Two tier affiliate program –
Affiliate program structure whereby affiliates earn commissions on their conversions as well as conversions of webmasters they refer to the program.
Digital Marketing/Paid Media
A/B testing –
A method in marketing research where variables in a control scenario are changed and the ensuing alternate strategies tested, in order to improve the effectiveness of the final marketing strategy.
Ad copy –
The words in an advertising message to customers. Ad copy can be the headline of a display ad, the subject line of a marketing email, the call to action (CTA) of a Facebook ad, or the script of a video or TV spot. Ad copy is distinguished from ad design elements such as photography and illustration, although copy and design should always work together as a whole.
Ad extensions –
Specific information that can be tacked onto Google Ads to help them perform better. There are several options, including store location, call button, product pricing, seller rating, app download, and additional website links. Google doesn’t charge extra for having extensions. However, it does charge a pay-per-click (PPC) fee when users click on most types of extensions, just like when users click on an ad itself.
Ad network –
A service that offers online ad space for sale to advertisers. This space can represent inventory from hundreds and thousands of websites. A general rule is that some inventory is more valuable than others, so it costs advertisers more. Depending on the ad network, the payment structure may be based on cost per thousand impressions (CPM), cost per click (CPC), or cost per acquisition (CPA).
Ad space –
The space on a webpage available for advertisements.
Advertising budget –
The money a company puts toward promoting its products and services to its target audiences. An advertising budget typically spans the cost of paid media, photography, printing, mailing, and the support of advertising professionals. Some businesses set their advertising budget based on a percentage of sales. Regardless of the chosen method, keep return on investment (ROI) in mind. Any vendor should be able to give you a clear idea of what can be expected in return for the expense.
Advertising network –
A network representing many websites in selling advertising, allowing advertising buyers to reach broad audiences relatively easily through run-of-category and run-of-network buys.
Advertorial –
Advertising and editorial content combined. In a traditional printed magazine or newspaper, the line between ads and editorial articles is distinct. An advertorial brings the 2 formats together to educate readers about a product through an editorial-esque storytelling experience. They’ve become a popular online advertising tactic that is typically labeled "sponsored" or "paid" so as not to mislead users about the source of the information.
Animated GIF –
A graphic in the GIF89a file format that creates the effect of animation by rotating through a series of static images.
Audience segmentation –
Marketing strategy based on identifying subgroups within the target audience in order to deliver more tailored messaging for stronger connections. The subgroups can be based on demographics such as geographic location, gender identity, age, ethnicity, income, or level of formal education. Subgroups can also be based on behavior such as purchases made in the past. Psychographics come into play when you have access to insights about your audience’s values, attitudes, and beliefs.
Banner ad –
A graphical web advertising unit, typically designed to fit specific measurements.
Banner blindness –
The tendency of web visitors to ignore banner ads, even when the banner ads contain information visitors are actively looking for.
Banner exchange –
A network where participating sites display banner ads in exchange for credits which are converted (using a predetermined exchange rate) into ads to be displayed on other sites.
Beyond the banner –
Online advertising not involving standard GIF and JPEG banner ads.
BIMI –
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is an emerging security technology that helps authenticate email marketing and builds trust with customers. BIMI works with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC protocols to protect a domain from being used by malicious actors to send fraudulent email. It causes the business's logo to appear right next to the brand's messages in a user’s inbox, so that recipients and their email service will know these emails are really from the business.
Bing Ads –
Pay per click (PPC) ads that run on Bing and Yahoo search engines spanning desktop and mobile devices. Bing Ads is a form of paid search similar to Google Ads, and Google campaigns can be imported easily into Bing. Businesses can use both services without reinventing the campaign. Like Google Ads, Bing Ads can be targeted using customer geography and demographics, although specific capabilities vary.
Blog –
A frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links.
Bottom of the funnel –
A stage of the buying process leads reach when they’re just about to close as new customers. They’ve identified a problem, have shopped around for possible solutions, and are very close to buying.
Button ad –
A graphical advertising unit, smaller than a banner ad.
Buyer persona –
A semi-fictional representation of a business's ideal customer based on market research and real data about its existing customers.
Buzzword –
A trendy word or phrase that is used more to impress than explain.
Call to action (CTA) –
The part of a marketing message that attempts to persuade a person to perform a desired action.
Churn rate –
A metric that measures how many customers a business retains and at what value. To calculate churn rate, take the number of customers lost during a certain time frame, and divide that by the total number of customers at the very beginning of that time frame. (Don't include any new sales from that time frame.)
Classified advertising –
Ads appearing on the same page and grouped into categories in a list-like format. Common categories are real estate, home services, clothing, and cars. Compared to display ads, classified ads usually don’t have images alongside the ad copy - and they’re less expensive. They can be a cost-efficient advertising tactic for reaching people who are interested in a category relevant to a business's product or service. Classified ads also lend themselves naturally to localization.
Click-through –
The process of clicking through an online advertisement to the advertiser’s destination.
Click-through rate (CTR) –
The average number of click-throughs per hundred ad impressions, expressed as a percentage.
Closed-loop marketing –
The practice of closed-loop marketing is being able to execute, track and show how marketing efforts have impacted bottom-line business growth.
Comment spam –
Irrelevant comments posted to a blog for the sole purpose of dropping a link to the spammer’s website.
Contact form –
A page on a website that contains a brief questionnaire that allows users to provide information about themselves and indicate an interest in being contacted about the brand's products or services. Common form fields are first name, last name, email address, and area of interest. Essential elements of a contact form are a statement confirming the user is giving the business permission to make contact and a link to the company's privacy policy.
Content marketing –
Content marketing is a strategy businesses use to attract, engage, and retain customers by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media. This approach establishes expertise, promotes brand awareness, and keeps a business top of mind when it’s time to buy.
Contextual advertising –
A method of serving advertisements based on the content (i.e., overall context or theme) of a webpage.
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) –
A U.S. law passed in 2003 that establishes the rules for commercial email and commercial messages. It gives recipients the right to have a business stop emailing them, and outlines the penalties incurred for those who violate the law. CAN-SPAM is the reason businesses are required to have an "unsubscribe" option at the bottom of every email.
Conversion path –
A conversion path is a series of website-based events that facilitate lead capture. In its most basic form, a conversion path will consist of a call to action (CTA) that leads to a landing page with a lead capture form, which redirects to a thank you page where a content offer resides.
Conversion rate –
The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) –
The process of increasing the percentage of users who take the desired actions such as clicking on a website link or purchasing a product online. Two key conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies are A/B testing and personalized marketing. Both use analytics to uncover customer insights to help a business craft the right message to the right person at the right moment for better results.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) –
How much is spent to win a single paying customer. Cost per acquisition (CPA) is a marketing success metric that can be calculated for a campaign, a digital marketing channel (such as email), or across all channels and tactics. At a campaign level, the formula is total campaign cost / conversions (paying customers) = CPA. This metric is commonly used to determine the results of display ad and affiliate marketing campaigns.
Cost per action (CPA) –
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations.
Cost per click (CPC) –
The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through.
Cost per lead (CPL) –
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based on the number of qualifying leads generated.
CPM –
Cost per thousand impressions.
Creatives –
The products of copywriters, graphic designers, and other creative advertising people, or simply the people themselves. When looking at layouts, or mock-ups, of marketing emails, landing pages, or display ads, those are creative(s). When finalized, these pieces may be called “creatives” or digital “assets.” The people who imagined the assets, are also referred to as creatives.
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) –
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the amount of money a company spends to get a new customer. It helps measure the return on investment (ROI) of efforts to grow their clientele. CAC is calculated by adding the costs associated with converting prospects into customers (marketing, advertising, sales personnel, and more) and dividing that amount by the number of customers acquired.
Customer data platform (CDP) –
A central location for customer data from a variety of sources. It aggregates and organizes that data to create a single customer profile that can be used to optimize marketing and customer experience initiatives.
Customer journey –
A detailed "map" that shows the full experience a customer has with a business. It shows every interaction with the company, even before and after they engage. By first understanding the customer journey, it will be easier to define goals and create the overall marketing experience the business wants to provide.
Customer relationship management (CRM) –
The goals of CRM are to retain current customers, increase their spending, and convert prospects into new customers. CRM technology is used to manage information such as a summary of each interaction, indicators of intent to purchase, and purchase history. Analytics are also used to provide real-time insight into cross-sell and upsell opportunities at the individual customer level.
Data Studio –
A free tool from Google that lets users make custom reports with data from Google’s marketing services and external sources.
Digital marketing –
Any marketing that uses electronic devices to convey promotional messaging and measure its impact. In practice, digital marketing typically refers to marketing campaigns that appear on a computer, phone, tablet, or other device. It can take many forms, including online video, display ads, and social media posts. Digital marketing is often compared to “traditional marketing” such as magazine ads, billboards, and direct mail. Oddly, television is usually lumped in with traditional marketing.
Direct mail marketing –
A type of direct marketing that’s delivered physically to a prospect’s mailbox through the United States Postal Service (USPS) or other delivery service. Postcards, flyers, and catalogs are common examples. Email marketing is the digital equivalent.
Display ads –
A type of online advertisement that combines text, images, and a URL that links to a website where a customer can learn more about or buy products. These ads can be static with an image or animated with multiple images, video, or changing text. Some display ads educate about the product while others are designed to entertain and engage through simple games or puzzles. Banner ads are a common form of display ads.
Distribution channel –
The path a product or service takes as it travels from where it is created to the person who will use it. In marketing, distribution channels are typically broken into business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). B2B deals with the interactions between companies to create products, while B2C focuses on how products get to the people who actually use them.
A widely recognized email protocol that helps people and businesses protect their email addresses and domains from being misused by third parties. It helps identify that an email sent is from the sender. This method of email authentication protects both senders and recipients from activities like phishing, spamming, and spoofing.
Drip campaign –
A series of automated emails sent to people who take a specific action. For any given action, the sender can choose how many emails to send and the rate at which to send them. These emails can be personalized with data like the contact’s name, and specific references to the action they took.
Drop shipping –
An e-commerce model where the seller doesn’t own any inventory or handle any of the shipping responsibilities. When a customer makes a purchase, the seller processes the order and transfers it to a third-party supplier such as a wholesaler or manufacturer, who prepares and ships the order. The seller only pays the supplier for an item after someone buys it, which makes drop shipping a popular option for entrepreneurs who want to start an online store quickly and with minimal overhead.
E-commerce –
The buying and selling of goods and services using the Internet. It starts when a potential customer learns about a product. It continues through purchase, use, and, ideally, ongoing customer loyalty. Data powers the most successful e-commerce operations, which take advantage of best practices such as targeted email marketing, audience segmentation, and marketing automation.
E-commerce website –
A website that allows people to buy and sell physical goods, services, and digital products over the Internet rather than at a brick-and-mortar location. Through an e-commerce website, a business can process orders, accept payments, manage shipping and logistics, and provide customer service.
eCPM –
Effective cost per thousand impressions (technically, “effective cost per mille”).
Email automation –
The use of predefined rules to trigger email messages based on specific actions customers take (or don’t take). Email automation takes repetitive tasks off a business's to-do list to free up time for other valuable tasks, such as responding to customer questions. It can help customers learn more about a brand, encourage them to keep coming back, or remind them of why they bought from the business in the first place.
Email list –
A list of email addresses that a business can send marketing emails to. Email lists are usually broken into smaller groups based on their interests or behaviors allowing for the customized messaging to be more relevant, interesting, and effective. To create them, businesses can collect email addresses at the time of purchase, through pop-up forms on a website, and a variety of other simple tactics.
Email marketing –
The promotion of products or services via email.
Email spam –
Unwanted, unsolicited email.
End user –
The person who uses a product or service.
Eye tracking –
Measuring and recording the movement of eyes as they look at a website. In digital marketing, eye tracking is often used to figure out what parts of a webpage or email people look at first or spend the most time looking at, which is often displayed as a heat map. Marketers use this data to strategically place elements, such as call-to-action buttons, where they are most likely to be seen and clicked on.
Ezine –
An electronic magazine, whether delivered via a website or an email newsletter.
Frequency cap –
A restriction on the amount of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement.
Geo-targeting –
A method of detecting a website visitor’s location to serve location-based content or advertisements.
Google Ads –
The software platform Google uses to power its ad network. Advertisers choose which keywords are most relevant to their products and how much they want to pay for their campaigns. The ads appear at the top of Google’s search engine results page (SERP) or on third-party websites and apps when someone searches for one of these keywords. Advertisers are billed on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, which means you’re only charged if someone actually clicks on your ad.
Google algorithm –
Algorithms are a list of mathematical calculations and if/then statements that decide what action a computer program should take. The Google algorithm is the rules-based system Google uses to sort through billions of websites to deliver relevant results to users’ search queries. The results are ranked in order of usefulness on the search engine results page (SERP). The algorithm also uses personal context, such as current location and past search history, to tailor the results.
Google Analytics –
A platform that measures and reports on website traffic. It provides information about how people use a website, which includes the most popular content, the time spent on each page, and what devices are used to browse. Google Analytics can be connected to Google Ads to learn which campaigns are driving the most traffic and converting casual visitors into customers. Additionally, the platform offers rich insights about your audience, such as terms they use to search and location data.
Google Data Studio –
A free tool from Google that lets users make custom reports with data from Google’s marketing services and external sources.
Google My Business –
A free service that lets a business provide more detail about itself when it appears in search. Beyond a URL and description, businesses can add photos, videos, telephone numbers, business hours, a delivery area, and links to reservation services. A cover photo and snippets from Google Maps and Google Street View help potential customers know what to expect when they arrive for the first time.
Google remarketing –
Also called retargeting, Google remarketing is the technology that enables Google Ads to follow potential customers as they move across the Internet. When a user visits a website, a small snippet of code on a website adds them to a remarketing list. Then, when they visit another website that uses the Google Ad network, they are served the ad. Google allows businesses to customize who sees the remarketed ads.
Go-to-market strategy –
A plan that helps launch a new business, product, service, or brand to its customers. It usually includes target audience research, the key differentiators in the market, and a planned approach for marketing and distribution.
Gross rating points (GRPs) –
A math equation that multiplies the number of times an ad is run by the percentage of the target audience that sees it, multiplied by 100. GRPs are commonly used in television ad buying to help media planners decide when and where to place their ads. GRPs can be calculated for online ads as well.
Guest blogging –
Writing a blog post to be published on another blog as a temporary featured author.
Hard bounce –
An email that is rejected by an email server for a permanent reason. An email may hard bounce if a recipient email address or domain name doesn't exist or the recipient email server has completely blocked the delivery. There are, however, occasionally times when a valid email address will hard bounce.
Heat map –
A visual representation of data that uses color to communicate areas of highest use or likelihood. A click map is a special type of heat map that shows which parts of webpages receive the most clicks. Using a scale of red (“hot”) to blue (“cold”), areas where people look or click the most are labeled with red. Web designers can combine the data from an eye tracking heat map and a click map to position call to action (CTA) buttons where they are most likely to be seen and clicked.
House ad –
Self-promotional ad a company runs on their own site/network to use unsold inventory.
HTML banner –
A banner ad using HTML elements, often including interactive forms instead of (or in addition to) standard graphical elements.
HTML email –
Email that is formatted using Hypertext Markup Language, as opposed to plain text email.
Hybrid model –
A combination of two or more online marketing payment models.
Impression –
A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed.
Inbound link –
A link from a site outside of your site.
Incentivized traffic –
Visitors who have received some form of compensation for visiting a site.
Interstitial –
An advertisement that loads between two content pages.
Key success factors –
The 5 elements that determine whether or not a company will be effective in capturing its target audience. The key success factors are strategic focus, people, operations, marketing, and finances. These factors are also known as strategic posture or competitive emphasis.
Keyword –
A word used in a performing a search.
Keyword density –
The number of times a keyword is used on a webpage out of the total number of words on the page. The higher the keyword density, the higher search engines will rank a page for relevance.
Keyword marketing –
Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and keyphrases.
Keyword research –
The search for keywords related to your website, and the analysis of which ones yield the highest return on investment (ROI).
Keyword stuffing –
The excessive, unnatural use of keywords on a web page for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes.
Leads –
A person who has shown interest in a company's product or service. “Lead” is a term used more often in the sale of business-to-business (B2B) products and services than retail or consumer packaged goods. Leads can come from website users who complete a contact form, trade show attendees who provide contact information in person, or lists purchased from another company such as a list broker. Sales and marketing professionals further vet, or “qualify,” leads to prioritize their fit with the company’s buyer profiles.
Lead magnet –
A specific deliverable that is offered to prospects in return for contact information, typically to join an email list.
Linkbait –
A piece of content created with the primary purpose of attracting inbound links.
LinkedIn Advertising –
A platform for promoting a company’s products or services on LinkedIn. Several formats are available, including text-only ads, sponsored ads with images and button links, and sponsored InMail communications. The LinkedIn advertising platform allows businesses to select a target audience based on criteria such as industry, title, and geographic location. It also provides reporting tools for analyzing ad impressions and click-through rate (CTR). A/B tests are part of the package as well.
LinkedIn profile –
An individual's landing page on LinkedIn. Like a resume, professional bio, or CV, the purpose of a LinkedIn profile is to describe the user's experience, education, and skills in a succinct format for potential employers or business partners.
Marketing analytics –
A math-based discipline that seeks to find patterns in data to increase actionable knowledge. Analytics employs statistics, predictive modeling, and machine learning to reveal insights and answer questions. In digital marketing, analytics is critical to understanding and predicting user behavior and optimizing the user experience (UX) to drive sales.
Marketing automation –
A process that enables technology to take over repetitive marketing tasks from people, freeing people to focus on strategy. Technology can automate scheduled email sends and social site postings. It can determine clear winners among deployed advertising options and optimize accordingly.
Marketing collateral –
Digital or print materials that accompany a primary advertising campaign. Collateral can refer to any printed or digital piece that supports and extends a campaign. Common digital collateral includes websites, landing pages, and banner ads.
Marketing mix –
The 4 “P”s: price, product, promotion, and place (point of sale). A business's marketing mix covers these must-have elements when bringing a product to market. The marketing mix is inextricable from the marketing objectives in a business plan.
Marketing objectives –
The intended goals of a campaign. Common marketing objectives are customer acquisition, order value, engagement, and contribution to revenue. Objectives usually follow the SMART format: specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound.
Marketing plan –
The part of the business plan outlining the marketing strategy for a product or service.
Marketing research –
Gathering and analyzing information about a market to inform how best to offer a product or service to customers. Marketing research is based on the principles of scientific inquiry and should be objective and systematic. Common methods are focus groups, one-on-one customer interviews, online or telephone customer surveys, and A/B testing different advertising tactics.
Media kit –
A resource created by a publisher to help prospective ad buyers evaluate advertising opportunities.
Multivariate testing –
A method in marketing research where multiple variables in a control scenario are simultaneously changed and the ensuing alternate strategies tested, in order to improve the effectiveness of the final marketing strategy.
Narrowcasting –
Sending a media message to a highly targeted audience. The opposite of broadcasting, narrowcasting is also considered a form of niche marketing. Narrowcasting has been around since the days of radio. In modern practice, it spans traditional direct mail, TV, email marketing, paid search, online video, and in-person event marketing. Trade shows can also be a particularly valuable forum for business-to-business (B2B) marketing.
Non-profit marketing –
Marketing with objectives that advance a non-profit organization’s cause versus driving a business’s profitability. This is also referred to as “cause marketing.” Common goals for non-profit marketing initiatives include raising awareness, increasing donations, and growing the number of volunteers.
Opt-in email –
Email that is explicitly requested by the recipient.
Opt-out –
A type of program that assumes inclusion unless stated otherwise. Or, to remove oneself from an opt-out program.
Organic search –
The unpaid entries in a search engine results page (SERP) that were derived based on their contents’ relevance to the keyword query.
Pass-along rate –
The percentage of people who pass on a message or file.
Pay per click (PPC) –
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs.
Pay per lead (PPL) –
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying leads.
Pay per sale (PPS) –
Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying sales.
Permission marketing –
marketing centered around getting customer’s consent to receive information from a company.
Personalized marketing –
The practice of using analytics to make advertising messages and product experiences feel unique to each customer. Personalized marketing is much more than just inserting the customer name into the same marketing email that goes to every customer. It’s about reaching the right person with the right message at the right moment with the right suggestions.
Personalized product recommendations –
Suggestions to customers for products they may be interested in based on products they’ve already bought or viewed online. Personalized product recommendations, which mathematical calculations called algorithms determine on the back end, are a key feature of websites for cross-selling and upselling.
Pop-under ad –
An ad that displays in a new browser window behind the current browser window.
Pop-up ad –
An ad that displays in a new browser window that pops up.
Product differentiation –
What makes one business's product or service different and more appealing to customers than other options in the same category. Product differentiation is what gives a brand a competitive advantage in its market. Product differentiators can include better quality and service as well as unique features and benefits.
Product lifecycle –
The stages a product goes through during its time on the market. There are 4 stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The stage a product is in helps inform marketing objectives and promotional mix.
Product positioning –
The image of a product or service that a business wants members of the target audience to have in their minds. Because first impressions of a brand count, it can be helpful to craft a positioning statement that communicates how the product or service fulfills customer needs.
Product range –
A set of versions of one product from the same brand, each tweaked to appeal to a different audience segment. These versions are relatively slight variations on a theme instead of major departures in features and benefits.
Promotional mix –
The combination of promotions (advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity) used to deliver marketing messages to the target audience. A promotional mix should be planned out strategically to support marketing objectives.
Promotions –
Marketing communications designed to inform target audiences about products or services and persuade them to buy them. There are 4 general types of promotions: advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, and publicity.
Psychographics –
The target audience’s values, beliefs, and behaviors that are relevant to a product or service. Like demographics, psychographics can help segment an audience into highly relevant subgroups in order to tailor messaging and get better advertising campaign results. Psychographics give a peek into the minds of customers so the business can communicate more effectively.
Quality Score –
A Google Ads metric that rates how relevant pay per click (PPC) ads and landing pages are to the chosen keywords. Google doesn’t reveal its exact calculation, but the estimate is based on ad relevance to keywords, expected click-through rate (CTR), and landing page experience. To improve the Quality Score, Google recommends optimizing ads and landing pages as well as revisiting the keyword strategy.
Rate card –
Document detailing prices for various ad placement options.
Rectangle ad –
Any one of the large, rectangular banner sizes suggested by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Return days –
The number of days an affiliate can earn commission on a conversion (sale or lead) by a referred visitor.
Return on ad spend (ROAS) –
The ratio of the amount of revenue generated by an ad campaign to its cost. While similar to return on investment (ROI), ROAS is more focused on the hard cost of a campaign rather than on the overall value of running a campaign, which could include brand awareness or other marketing objectives.
Return on investment (ROI) –
An ad that displays in a new browser window that pops up.
Rich media –
New media that offers an enhanced experience relative to older, mainstream formats.
Run of network (RON) –
Ad buying option in which ad placements may appear on any pages on sites within an ad network.
Self-serve advertising –
Advertising that can be purchased without the assistance of a sales representative.
Sitelink –
An ad extension that places more than 1 link in a paid search ad. Sitelinks are typically free to use. And just like any other pay per click (PPC) ad, they don’t incur a charge unless someone clicks on the link.
Skyscraper ad –
An online ad significantly taller than the 120×240 vertical banner.
Soft bounce –
An email that is rejected by an email server for a temporary reason. An email may soft bounce if a mailbox is full, the recipient email server is down or offline, or the email message is too large.
Surround session –
Advertising sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.
Target audience –
The people a business want to reach with its marketing efforts. These are the consumers who will be most interested in the products or services - and most likely to convert from leads into customers. Target audiences can be based on demographics (age, gender identity, location), psychographics (aspirations, concerns, values), or behavior (likely to buy online). Target audiences are often broad and varied, so audience segmentation can help deliver a more personalized and effective message.
Text ad –
Advertisement using text-based hyperlinks.
Tracking code –
A small piece of JavaScript placed on a website that sends data to Google Analytics. The tracking code is what enables Google Analytics to report information about audience, how user got to a website, how long they stayed, and what they did while they were there.
Trick banner –
A banner ad that attempts to trick people into clicking, often by imitating an operating system message.
Twitter Advertising –
Twitter’s advertising platform. Twitter ads are tweets that are promoted to a specific target audience. Since they are tweets, they can include text, images, video, or polls. Character count restrictions still apply. Ads can be targeted based on location, interests, or other pages the user follows. This can help a business gain followers and get engagements, such as likes and retweets. It can also drive traffic to a website or increase brand awareness.
Underdelivery –
Delivery of less impressions, visitors, or conversions than contracted for a specified period of time.
Unique selling proposition –
The reason people should buy a business's products or services according to its marketing and advertising. In any ad, the unique selling proposition can be summed up as “buy X, and you’ll get Y.”
Vertical banner –
A banner ad measuring 120 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall.
Viral marketing –
Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.
Vision statement –
A short description of a company’s goals for the future. Vision statements tend to be highly aspirational, serving to motivate employees while guiding day-to-day decision making. Vision statements (future goals) are often paired with mission statements (today’s goal) and value statements (how a company goes about reaching all of its goals).
Welcome email –
A message to a new subscriber or customer. Welcome emails are a follow-up to a newsletter signup, service subscription, loyalty program, or any initial or next-level interaction with a business. Welcome emails give a business the opportunity to build relationships, tell brand stories, and, ideally, turn subscribers into customers. They’re a great candidate for marketing automation, especially if sent in a series.
Yahoo Advertising –
Yahoo’s ad platform. Yahoo offers various formats and placements much like other ad networks. Pay per click (PPC) ads on appear on its search engine results page (SERP). Display ads are served on its homepage, content portals, and articles pages and can be re-served to viewers much like Google remarketing ads.
YouTube Advertising –
Video ads that appear across YouTube. Since Google owns YouTube, YouTube advertising shares many of the core features of Google Ads, but with 1 big difference: - they're videos. Ads can play before (“pre-roll”) or after (“bumper”) a video a user has selected. They can also be inserted into the middle of a playlist (“TrueView”) or a video longer than 10 minutes (“mid-roll”). YouTube ads can be pay-per-click (PPC) or pay per view based on their length and placement.
Search Engine Optimization
Anchor text –
The wording of a link on a website, in an email, or within another digital asset. Anchor text is an important part of the user experience. It should be clear where links are going and users should be satisfied that the destination is what they expected. Search engines also take the anchor text into account when they rank site pages for relevance.
Black hat SEO –
Black hat SEO is an approach to search engine optimization (SEO) that focuses on gaming the system and disregards the human experience. These practices don’t follow search engine rules, and search engines can exclude entire sites for using them.
Description tag –
A page made specifically to rank well in search engines for particular keywords, serving as an entry point through which visitors pass to the main content.
Doorway page –
The wording of a link on a website, in an email, or within another digital asset. Anchor text is an important part of the user experience. It should be clear where links are going and users should be satisfied that the destination is what they expected. Search engines also take the anchor text into account when they rank site pages for relevance.
Featured Snippet –
A section of Google’s search engine results page that tries to answer a question without a person having to click through to another web page. They include Google’s best guess at an answer, the title of the page the answer comes from, the page’s URL, and an image from the page. While featured snippets are designed to save time for the person searching, they’re mostly machine generated and aren’t fact checked.
Google Search Console –
A Google tool that helps a business optimize its website content to improve its performance and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Businesses can submit URLs and full sitemaps to the Google Search Console to make sure the site's most important pages are indexed in Google’s search engine. It makes recommendations about how to structure the content so it appears as “rich results” on the search engine results page (SERP).
Hreflang tags –
An HTML tag that helps search engines find and display content in a specific language when a website uses multiple languages. Hreflang pages also solve the problem of duplicate content penalties. Hreflang tags help search engines understand when content is customized to specific audiences rather than being duplicated as a search engine optimization (SEO) trick.
Keywords tag –
META tag used to help define the primary keywords of a web page.
Link building –
The process of increasing the number of inbound links to a website in a way that will increase search engine rankings.
Meta description –
A brief summary of what a web page is about in the HTML code of the page. Character counts may vary by search engine, but 160 characters with spaces is a good guideline. Search engines consider meta descriptions when ranking a page for relevance to user searches, but it’s not one of the most important factors.
Meta keywords –
Words and phrases in the HTML meta keywords tag of a webpage. Meta keywords help search engines identify what the page is about and rank its relevance to user searches accordingly. The keywords in the tag should reflect the content of the page. Otherwise, search engines will disregard the meta.
Search engine –
A site that indexes documents, then attempts to match documents relevant to the users search requests.
Search engine optimization (SEO) –
The process of choosing targeted keyword phrases related to a site, and ensuring that the site places well when those keyword phrases are part of a web search.
Search engine spam –
Excessive manipulation to influence search engine rankings, often for pages which contain little or no relevant content.
Search engine submission –
The act of supplying a URL to a search engine in an attempt to make a search engine aware of a site or page.
Search query –
The string of words users enter into a search engine to receive a result. Search queries are the raw text that people type into the search engine. Reviewing search queries that lead users to a business's website can help determine which keywords to include for search engine optimization (SEO).
Search retargeting –
The use of a site visitor’s search history as a basis for the ads that the visitor will see.
Search engine results page (SERP) –
A page of search engine listings, typically the first page of organic results.
Site search –
Search functionality specific to one site.
White hat SEO –
Search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that benefit both websites and the people who use them. White hat SEO fights for the users. It also improves the accessibility and quality of a website’s content, boosting its ranking and relevance.
UI & UX Design/ Web Development
Above the fold –
The section of a webpage that is visible without scrolling.
Ad blocking –
The blkocking of web advertisements, typically the image in graphical web advertisements.
Alt text –
Text that shows in place of images or pops up when hovering a mouse over an image. Alt text, or alternative text, is written into the HTML code of a webpage to describe an image in case the image doesn’t show. This can happen for a few different reasons. Some users may have images turned off so websites load faster. Other users may have low vision or blindness, so they use special screen readers that translate webpage text into an audio or a Braille-like touch format. Alt text also helps search engines "understand" images better.
Application Programming Interface (API) –
APIs are a series of rules in computer programming that allow an application to extract information from a service and use that information either in their own application or in data analyses. APIs call one application and get information to bring over to use in a specific program. APIs facilitate the data needed to provide solutions to customer problems.
Backlinks –
Links on websites other than a business's own that go back to a page on their website. Backlinks are also called inbound links because they represent traffic coming to the website from somewhere else. The quality and quantity of backlinks can help a website rank higher in search engines such as Google and Bing. Backlinks are considered an indicator of how popular a website is with users.
Blog –
The short form of "web log." A blog is a collection of journal-like articles written about a particular topic and published on a website. New articles are added frequently and comments from users are encouraged. Anyone can publish a blog. Successful bloggers attract advertisers through affiliate marketing because they add credibility to the messaging for their followers.
Bounce rate –
In web analytics, the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing a single page. In email marketing, the percentage of emails in a campaign that are undeliverable.
Breadcrumbs –
Digital breadcrumbs are a form of website navigation that shows users the sections they’ve visited in the order they visited them so they can retrace their steps easily.
Caching –
The storage of web files for later re-use at a point more quickly accessed by the end user.
Canonical URL –
The "master version" of a page on a website - this is what the site owner wants search engine crawlers to find. As marketing campaigns are launched and users are tracked, information gets added to the end of unique page URLs. From the crawlers’ point of view, this means there are multiple versions of the same page without a clear indication of which one is "right." When a canonical URL is set up in the page's HTML, this tells search engines which version of the page is intended for visitors to see.
Cascading style sheet (CSS) –
A language that dictates how a web page looks. It covers layout, colors, fonts, font sizes, and more. The advantage of using CSS is that its rules can apply (cascade) across all of the webpages, reducing the time to code each page from scratch. CSS also enables responsive web design, which aims to reuse code across desktop and mobile devices and keep the user experience (UX) consistent.
CDN (content delivery system) –
A system of geographically distributed servers designed to accelerate the delivery of webpages and files by routing user requests to the server that’s in the best position to serve them.
Cookie –
Information stored on a user’s computer by a website so preferences are remembered on future requests.
Data transfer –
The total amount of outbound traffic from a website, typically measured in gigabytes (Gb).
Dedicated hosting –
Hosting option whereby the host provides and is responsible for the equipment, dedicating an entire server to the client’s websites.
Deep linking –
Linking to a webpage other than a site’s home page.
Domain –
A domain or domain name is what comes between the @ in your email address and the .com, .org, .net, etc. Domains help customers find and remember where a business is located on the Internet. A subdomain is a portion of a domain that can be used to help increase deliverability of email marketing.
Domain name –
Location of an entity on the Internet.
Domain name system (DNS) –
This takes a human-friendly Internet address and translates it into a computer-friendly IP address a web browser can use to find and display a website. DNS is often described as the “phone book” of the Internet that does the heavy lifting of remembering the “phone number” of a website so humans only have to know the name.
Error 404 –
File not found, an error a web browser flags. A 404 error message can be the fault of the user or the publisher of the website. This can happen when a webpage has been deleted and no longer exists, which is also called a broken link. To prevent these errors, create a redirect to take the user to the new location of the page. Setting up a standardized error 404 page for a domain can help improve a users’ experience, especially if a search bar or list of similar content is provided.
Extensible markup language (XML) –
A human- and machine-readable coding language that adds structure, meaning, or context to a text document. XML ranges from very simple to highly complex (hence “extensible”). Schema markup is an example of how XML can be used to improve the user experience (UX) of search engine results pages (SERPs).
Favicon –
A small icon that is used by some browsers to identify a bookmarked website.
Frames –
A structure that allows for the dividing of a webpage into two or more independent parts.
H1 –
An HTML tag used to identify the highest level of information on a page. In practice, page titles and headlines are usually marked with H1 tags and are the largest pieces of text on a page. H1 tags can be associated with specific styles or formatting in a webpage’s CSS so that headlines always appear in a certain font, color, and size. H1s play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO) and make it easier to index content. If something is in an H1 tag, search engines know it’s important.
Hit –
Request of a file from a web server.
Hyperlink –
A piece of text or an image on a website that takes the user to another webpage when clicked. Hyperlinked text is often blue and underlined, but thanks to CSS, it can appear any way a web designer chooses. Hyperlinks can also link to different areas on the same page, or they can trigger actions with the help of JavaScript.
Hypertext markup language (HTML) –
The coding language used to create websites. With the help of CSS and JavaScript, HTML tells a web browser how to format, style, and link together text and images on a page. For example, the tag is used to separate a block of text into paragraphs. HTML tags can also include attributes and values that tell the web browser what to do with the content.
Iframe –
An Iframe is a section of a webpage that contains content that comes from another page. It’s a page within a page. Iframes are typically used to pull in content from third parties. Iframes are different from framesets (also called just “frames”), which were used in the early days of the Internet to make page layouts easier and navigation consistent.
Index page –
The homepage of a website. Sometimes people refer to pages that collect all of a website’s links, images, or headlines into a single page as an index page like a book. Both are technically correct.
Internet protocol (IP) address –
A unique number much like a street address that uses commas and periods to identify a device accessing the Internet. Each laptop, tablet, and smartphone you use has a different IP address each time you log on. Each of your business devices may have its own static address that doesn't change.
Invisible web –
The portion of the web not indexed by search engines.
JavaScript –
A scripting language developed by Netscape and used to create interactive websites.
Landing page –
A standalone web page that potential customers can “land” on when they click through from an email, ad, or other digital location. A landing page aims to capture information from contacts in exchange for something of value, such as a retail offer code or business-to-business (B2B) insights in the form of a whitepaper. Landing pages are different from other web pages in that they don’t live in the evergreen navigation of a website. They serve a specific purpose in a specific moment of an advertising campaign to a target audience.
Link checker –
A tool used to check for broken hyperlinks.
Link popularity –
A measure of the quantity and quality of sites that link to a specific site.
Link text –
The text contains a hyperlink.
Log file –
A file that records the activity on a web server.
Long domain name –
Domain names longer than the original 26 characters, up to a theoretical limit of 67 characters (including the extension, such as .com).
Managed WordPress hosting –
Web hosting optimized specifically for WordPress, where the hosting company assumes many of the routine maintenance tasks.
Manual submission –
Adding a URL to the search engines individually by hand.
Meta search engine –
A search engine that displays results from multiple search engines.
Meta tag generator –
A tool that will output META tags based on input page information.
Meta tags –
HTML code that helps search engines understand, evaluate, and rank webpages. Meta tags include meta description (a summary of the page), meta keywords (words and phrases used in the content of the page), and a canonical URL (the master version of a page).
Mousetrapping –
The use of browser tricks in an effort to keep a visitor captive at a site, often by disabling the “Back” button or generated repeated pop-up windows.
Navigation –
That which facilitates movement throughout a website.
Nofollow –
A meta tag in the HTML code of a webpage that tells search engines to disregard the page. On pages such as blog posts that invite user comments, a nofollow link protects it from search engines ranking the page based on user comments that are impossible to control - a nofollow tag can be used to avoid search penalties.
Omnichannel marketing –
Omnichannel marketing creates a cohesive, integrated shopping experience across a brand’s sales touchpoints - including brick-and-mortar locations, events, mobile devices, and online stores. It uses data and analytics to create consistency whenever shoppers encounter the brand.
Outbound link –
A link to a site outside of a given site.
Pagejacking –
Theft of a page from the original site and publication of a copy (or near-copy) at another site.
Page view –
A request to load a single HTML page.
Portal –
A site featuring a suite of commonly used services, serving as a starting point and frequent gateway to the web (Web portal) or a niche topic (vertical portal).
Premium WordPress theme –
A theme coded for the WordPress content management system that costs money.
Questionnaire –
A set of questions about a topic that’s used for research purposes. Questionnaires are commonly used in digital marketing to get feedback on user experience (UX). Marketers also commonly use questionnaires after someone unsubscribes from a newsletter or other mailing list.
Really simple syndication (RSS) –
RSS takes the content of a website and packages it into a feed that can be easily displayed on other websites. Aggregators take multiple RSS feeds and combine them into a single interface, which can help people track updates to multiple websites at once. RSS also allows websites to syndicate content from third parties.
Reciprocal links –
Links between two sites, often based on an agreement by the site owners to exchange links.
Redirect –
Sending a user to a different webpage than the one they requested with a URL. Redirects send readers to a new page if content has been moved or an older page has been deleted. This helps prevent 404 errors. They can allow people to type in short, easy-to-remember URLs rather than complicated URLs with many slashes and hyphens.
Referral –
When a website sends traffic to another website. Tracking referrals can explain how people find a website without using a search engine. Referrals can also come from websites that posts news articles, reviews, and other industry-relevant content.
Responsive web design –
An approach to website design that enables a single page to be displayed comfortably whether it’s on a phone, tablet, or desktop. Sites that use responsive web design first evaluate the type of device and its screen size. Then with the help of CSS, they render the text, images, and other elements in a predefined layout that works for that particular device.
Schema markup –
Bits of code added to a webpage that help search engines understand the content of the page. With better understanding comes the ability to format content when it appears on the search engine results page (SERP). Schema markup generate featured snippets on Google’s SERP.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) –
Paid advertising on a search engine results page (SERP). This is also called paid search. Search engine marketing (SEM) ads are used to drive traffic to websites but can include other calls to action, such as making a phone call or visiting a local store. Keywords in a search query trigger SEM ads. They usually appear at the top of search results and sometimes to the side. Most SEM is pay per click (PPC), so a business is only charged if someone clicks on the ad.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) –
A method of encryption that protects data being sent between websites. SSL is closely related to Transport Layer Security (TLS), another encryption method, and the two acronyms are often used interchangeably.
Sitemap XML –
A list of pages on a website that search engines should index. Written in extensible markup language (XML), both humans and computers can understand a sitemap XML. In addition to page URLs, they include modification dates so search engines can tell whether or not a page has been crawled since it was updated. Sitemap XML- and robots.txt-related search engine optimization (SEO) tactics approach indexing from different sides of the same coin. Sitemap XML says “yes” while robots.txt says “no.”
Splash page –
A branding page before the home page of a website.
Stickiness –
The amount of time spent at a site over a given time period.
Tags –
A piece of HTML code that tells a web browser how to render an element on a webpage. Tags are the workhorses of HTML and provide structure to this otherwise plain-text programming language.
Title tag –
HTML tag used to define the text in the top line of a web browser, also used by many search engines as the title of search listings.
Tracking code –
A small piece of JavaScript placed on a website that sends data to Google Analytics. The tracking code is what enables Google Analytics to report information about the audience, including how they arrived at a website, how long they stayed, and what they did while they were there.
Unique visitors –
Individuals who have visited a website (or network) at least once during a fixed time frame.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) –
A web address. Uniform resource locators (URLs) can point to a website or any other resource on the web, such as an image or video. They can use letters, numbers, or a combination of both. Certain characters such as brackets and braces are considered “unsafe.” Various web browsers handle them differently, which can lead to errors.
User experience (UX) –
How a person feels about using a product or service. The discipline of user experience (UX) makes digital experiences efficient, effective, and sometimes entertaining. In the world of digital marketing, UX is often equated with optimizing the user interface (UI) on the website.
Web browser –
A software application that allows for the browsing of the Internet.
Web design –
The selection and coordination of available components to create the layout and structure of a website.
Web hosting –
The business of providing the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website.
Website traffic –
The amount of visitors and visits a website receives.
Website usability –
The ease with which visitors are able to use a website.
Whois –
A utility that returns ownership information about second-level domains.
Wireframe –
A blueprint for a website’s user interface (UI). Wireframes are simplified sketches that show how content and functionality come together in a layout. They focus on how elements are ordered and placed on a page but rarely include specifics about the final visual design. Wireframes are an essential step in responsive web design, since the same elements need to be reordered for different screen sizes.