I am the first one to admit that Digital Marketing has way too much confusing jargon. We have basically made up our own nerdy language. It has got to the point where we can have a conversation amongst ourselves that no outsider can understand (or maybe we are just so annoying people ignore our nerdy chatter). With that in mind, and in the interest of educating those outside of the digital marketing geek community, I have compiled this jargon busting list. This digital diatribe should help you sift your way through a conversation about digital marketing, or at least fake it well enough so as not to frighten the next herd of nerds you encounter.
301 This is a permanent redirect of traffic from one URL to another. A 301 is created using the htaccess file.
302 A temporary version of the 301 redirect also done using the htaccess file.
404 this is an HTTP protocol that indicates a computer can contact a server but the information the computer is requesting cannot be found.
AdWords This is Google pay per click advertising service and a very common online advertising service.
Algorithm A program used by search engines to find web pages to suggest for search query.
Alt text This is a description of a graphic like an image or video. This text tells search engines what the graphic is as they are unable to interpret graphics directly. This is especially important as alt text is used to provide a better online experience for the visually impaired.
AMP This is an open source project that helps people design websites that are extremely mobile friendly.
Analytics A program that gathers data about people using a website. The most frequently used program is Google Analytics.
Anchor text This is the text that is visible when you create a link. Search engines use anchor text to gauge the relevancy of a link compared to the text of the site it is on and the site it is linking to.
Authority This is the amount of trust a site can command. This is also known as trust and link juice.
B2B Business to Business.
B2C Business to Consumer.
Backlink A link from one website to another.
Black hat This is a search engine optimisation practice that uses unethical or other practices that violate search engines best practices.
Bot This is a program that autonomously completes a task. Bots are used by search engines and spammers for various purposes.
Bounce rate The percentage of users that visit a single page on a site and then leave.
Bread crumbs This is a horizontal bar above content on some sites. It shows where a user is on the site and where they have been.
Canonical This refers to a legitimate or original version of a piece of content. If a site has canonical issues it is usually due to content that is very similar which confuses search engines as to what content they should rank and show.
Canonical tags These are the tags that tell Google which piece of content (when there is multiple pieces of similar content) to rank and show.
Click fraud This is the practice of clicking on a PPC advertisement in order to skew the advertisers data and not because you are interested in a product.
CMS Content Management System. This is the program that allows you to manage the content on your website. CMS’s give people who do not know how to code the ability to edit a website.
Comment spam Using the comments on another website to insert a link to your website.
Content This is the text on a website.
Conversion These are any verifiable goals that are tracked on your website.
Conversion rate The percentage of users on a website that complete a conversion action.
CPC Cost Per Click The average amount of money paid for a single click on a PPC campaign.
CPM Cost Per Thousand Impressions This is the cost of 1000 views of an ad on a PPC campaign.
DA Domain Authority This is the value assigned to a domain.
Directory This is like a yellow pages for the internet. It is a directory of web pages.
Duplicate Content This is content on your website that is very similar or identical to content on another website. Duplicate content is bad for your sites trust score.
Ecommerce site A website that focuses on retail sales.
Event This is a type of tracking that can monitor conversions. Events can track people landing on a page, clicking a button, watching a video, downloading an app or just about any other site action.
Feed This is content delivered to a users via a program designed to aggregate said content.
Goal A simple way of tracking actions on a site.
Google juice This is the trust attributed to a website.
Googlebot This is the program Google uses to index websites.
H1 This is an HTML tag that emphasises the first and or most important title on a page.
HTML Hyper Text Markup Language This is a simple form of computer code.
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol This is a set of rules for transferring files.
HTTPS This is a more secure version of HTTP.
Impression This is a view of a page by a user.
In bound link A link to one website from another website. This is one way of building trust and page rank.
Index A database of the websites and pages that have been found by a search engine.
Interlinking Links leading from within a site to another part of that site.
Keyword A word or phrase used in a search engine.
Keyword cannibalization Using the same keyword too many times on a number of pages on a single site. This confuses search engines and makes it hard for them to decide which page they should rank for that keyword.
Keyword density This is the percentage of the total number of words on a page that are your keyword. Using a particular keyword too many times can get your site penalised.
Keyword research The process of identifying which keywords are worth targeting.
Keyword stuffing Adding an unnatural number of keywords to a page in an attempt to force it to rank for said keyword.
Landing page The first page a user visits when they hit a site.
Link An element that can be clicked to take a user from one web page to another.
Link bait A piece of content or website that is designed specifically to garner links from other sites.
Link building Actively trying to create links on other sites.
Link exchange A reciprocal link exchange. These are often low quality links and the practice is frowned upon.
Link farm A group of sites that all link to one another or add links to other sites.
Link juice The trust or authority given to a site via a link.
Long tail These are long and often very specific searches.
Meta tags These are bits of information in the head tag of a website. They include title and description. Meta tags are used in search results.
Mirror site A site identical to another website but at a different web address.
Monetize earning money from a website.
Natural search The search results that can not be paid for only earned.
Nofollow A command in the head tag of a website that tells robots not to follow any links on that page.
Noindex This is a command that tells bots to ignore the page or website.
Organic link links that are created because the publisher finds them useful rather than for profit.
Organic search search that is not paid for in any way and is based on search engine rankings.
PA page authority is the ranking given to an individual page.
Paid search Advertising placed in search results.
PPC Pay Per Click is a form of advertising where users pay for every click on their advertisement.
Responsive This is a type of web design that adapts well to different screen sizes so it works on large or small devices.
Robots.txt This is a file on the root directory of a website that controls what spiders can see on a website.
ROI Return On Investment
Scrape This is the practice of copying content from other websites and is often done by bots.
Searcher intent This is the desire behind a search on a search engine.
SEM Search Engine Marketing.
SEO Search Engine Optimization.
SERP Search Engine Results Page.
Site map A page or pages which link to every page on a website. These are often used by search engines to crawl a page.
Slug The SEO friendly part of a URL that comes after a sites normal web address.
SMM Social Media Marketing.
Spam Low or no quality content designed simply to help or harm a website not improve life for users.
Spammer A person who uses spam.
Splash pages web pages that are designed to look great but without any SEO work. They look very poor to search engines.
Static page A web page that does not have any dynamic content. These are often very good for SEO.
Stickiness The ability to get users to travel around your site and lower your bounce rate.
Text link A normal HTML link that does not have any other code. Basically a normal blue link.
Title Tag This is an HTML element that provides the title of a web page that will be displayed in the SERPs.
User generated content Content that is created by website users rather than a websites creator.
Walled garden A group of sites that link to one another but never link to outside sites.
Web 2.0 Websites or apps that engage with users and encourage interaction.
White hat SEO techniques that are approved up by search engines.
If we missed any digital marketing jargon that you think should be added to our list, or you want to employ a flock of nerds to do your digital marketing bidding, contact Plug & Play Design today.
