Digital Marketing can be an intimidating field to handle if you are a newbie. Sometimes, even seasoned Digital Marketing Professionals do not know all the Digital Marketing Terms, plus, new terms get added in Digital Marketing Glossary on a regular basis.
Therefore, I have put together this glossary of Digital Marketing Terms that you can refer back to anytime.
The glossary is created like a Digital Marketing Dictionary, so you can find A to Z of Digital Marketing in an alphabetical order.
Without any more ado, let us delve into this-
Digital Marketing Glossary of all Digital Marketing Terms
Digital Marketing Glossary of #
301 Redirect
A method that permanently redirects a visitor from one web page to another web page. if you own A.com and B.com and want to only one website A.com then you can 301 redirect all the traffic from B to A
302 Redirect
A method that temporarily redirects a visitor from one page to another web page. This one is predominantly used in temporary situations
404 Error
If a visitor goes to a web page that does not exist, then 404 Error message appears. According to Wikipedia-
The HTTP 404, 404 Not Found and 404 (pronounced “four oh four”) error message is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) standard response code, in computer network communications, to indicate that the client was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested.
Digital Marketing Glossary from A to E
Ad Extensions
Additional information that Google Adwords ads incorporate related to reviews, pricing, address, callouts, Sitelinks, app downloads, and click-to-call are Ad Extensions
Applications
A program that is designed to run Ads on mobile devices, smartphones, and tablets. From Android to iPhone, you can run these applications on all kinds of smart devices
Ad Manager Account
Helps you run ads on the Facebook Ad Network. All kinds of Facebook Ads are run with the help of Facebook Ad Manager Account
Ad Network
A network of different digital channels and properties where Ads can be published, such as Search Ad Network and Display Ad Network of Google
AdWords (Google AdWords)
A Google-owned program that places ads on Google Search Engines. PPC advertising considers AdWords its primary platform
Alt Text (or Alternative Text)
An alternative text that is added to HTML code for images that lets vision impaired website visitors get details of an image. Alt text also lets search engines crawl the images and hence helps in SEO ranking.
Analytics
Allows webmaster to collect the statistical data and information about the performance of a website or marketing campaign. As discussed in the image, web analytics helps marketers in deciding the effectiveness of marketing campaigns
Anchor Text
The clickable words, which are used in a hyperlink, that act as a ranking signal to Google. It provides context about the destination site and play important role in SEO. The blue colored text in the image is Anchor Text
AdSense (Google AdSense)
A Google platform that lets website owners publish Google network ads on their website and earn money. Once AdSense is added on your site, you will earn from the relevant Ads that are published on your site
Algorithm
Set of programmed rules that let computers, operating system, Search Engines, Social Platforms, etc. perform a specific task. Google uses its algorithms for deciding the ranking of websites
Algorithm Update
Any change or adjustment made to a particular algorithm. Commonly it is used for Google algorithm updates, as Google makes different adjustments to its algorithms
Automation
Using computer programs to automate repetitive Digital Marketing Tasks via some of the Digital Marketing tools is called Automation
Average Position
A Google AdWords metric that let advertisers understand where their ads are showing in Google’s SERPs on an average basis
Backlink
Comes into play when one website hyperlinks to any other website via an HTML href code. If a website ‘A’ gets incoming backlinks from websites B and C then those backlinks are votes of trust for website A and act as an SEO ranking factor
Banner Ad
A Digital Image Ad that is placed on various websites and networks. The most popular Banner Ad Network is channelized by Google
Bing
A web search engine that is owned by Microsoft. Bing lets users enjoy search services for web, image, video, and map search product
Bing Ads
A pay-per-click advertising platform that allows advertisers to run Ads on both the Bing and Yahoo search engines in the same very manner as Ads run on Google
Black Hat
When an SEO or Digital Marketer uses tactics that are unethical via some spammy tactics to rank websites then it is called as Black Hat SEO or Digital Marketing practice
Blog
Blog is a Web Page or a website that connects with users or target-audiences via fresh new content regularly to inform, attract, engage and convert visitors to that page or site
Bot
A computerized program that crawls or visits websites. Because of such activities, Bot is also known as a “crawler” or a “spider”. Bot is a Software that automates those tasks that usually human being does.
Bounce Rate
When visitors to a website leave the site immediately without clicking or making any interaction then the percentage is Bounce Rate
Bread Crumbs
A navigation link at the top of a webpage that tells the visitor about the page they are on a website e.g. Home > Services > Specific Service
Business Manager
A Facebook platform that lets marketers manage several pages and ad accounts. This management is also done from one central location
Campaign
Different advertising messages that are used to promote a theme, product or service on different search and display network advertising platforms such as Google, Bing, Email, Social Media, or other platforms on the web
Canonical (rel=canonical)
A piece of code that you add to the HTML head of a webpage, so Google can understand that a piece of content on that page is original or duplicate. It is very important to avoid duplicate content issues on a website
Click-Through-Rate
A metric that shows how often visitors click on an ad or a link after seeing it and you can calculate it by dividing the number of clicks on the ad with the number of impressions
Code
A language such as HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP that is used for building a website. Developers build a website by using Codes. Instructions that make up a computer program is referred as code.
Contact Form
A section on a website that has some fields and visitors need to fill those fields to contact the website owner is Contact Form
Content
An online media that can be read, interacted, watched and shared. Commonly, written material is referred as Content but it can also include videos and images
Conversion Rate
The rate at which site visitors and campaign target complete the predefined goal is Conversion Rate and according to Digital Marketing Glossary PDF, by dividing the number of goal achievements by the total number of visitors, you can calculate conversion rates
CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
A metric in paid advertising that tells about the amount of money, which is spent on acquiring a new lead or a customer. You can calculate it by dividing the total spend by the number of conversions, for specific period of time
CPC (Cost per Click)
The cost that an advertiser pays for a click on a Paid ad is CPC. Each keyword in AdWords has an estimated clikc cost that varies as per the bidding for that keyword proceeds
CPM
It is “Cost per Thousand”, as in Roman numeral M represents 1,000. An advertiser pays CPM for getting 1,000 impressions on their ad
Crawler
Crawler scans websites to find new content and also for evaluating the quality of WebPages suggests Digital Marketing Glossary PDF
CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)
A Digital Marketing Component that is responsible for optimizing the conversion rate of web pages to achieve the goal of a campaign
CSS
A document of code that updates the HTML of a website about its appearance. Full form of CSS is “Cascading Style Sheets”. CSS includes the rules for the presentation of HTML
CTA (Call to Action)
Very common term of Digital Marketing Glossary that can be defined as an element on a web page that is used for pushing visitors towards any specific action or conversion
CTR (Click through Rate)
The ratio that tells how many times an advertisement is clicked on, compared to how many times it is shown is Click Through Rate
Dashboard
A web page that includes and highlights aggregate data regarding the performance of a marketing campaign or website is Dashboard. It pulls information from different data sources and showcases them in easiest possible way
Digital Marketing
An umbrella term that incorporates all kinds of online marketing activities such as SEO, PPC, CRO, web design, blogging, content, and any other form of advertising on the web
Directory
A website that is used for categorically listing of other websites that have similar themes for example chambers of commerce (a list of businesses in one geographic area) that can be beneficial for SEO
Display Ads
Online Ads or advertisements on a display network that may include images, video, flash, and audio, which can be seen on blogs, news sites, social media and other places on the web
Display Network
A network of those sites and apps that show display ads on their web pages is Display Network. The Display Network of Google spans around 2 million websites
DNS
DNS is Domain Name System that gives IP address a name because for internet users, remembering letter and words in website URL is easier compared to remembering numeric characters of IP
Dofollow
A hyperlink that does not have a ‘nofollow’ piece of code added to it is Dofollow hyperlink and it passes SEO equity to the destination URL that “nofollow” never do
Duplicate Content
Used for instances when portions of same text are found in two or more different places on the web. It causes ranking issues for all the websites that have same content
Ecommerce (or E-Commerce)
Stands for Electronic Commerce that defines those businesses, which are conducted online such as an online retailer who sells products and services direct to the consumer. E-Commerce classification includes B2B, B2G, B2C, C2C and C2B.
Email Automation
Computerized systems that use software and tools to automatically send emails based on defined triggers and do repetitive email marketing tasks
Email List
A collection of email addresses that Email Marketers can use for channelizing targeted email marketing campaigns to the audiences who email address is comprised under that Email list
Email Marketing
Use of email for generating leads and acquiring customers or for ensuring any other type of conversions is Email Marketing. Newsletters, Events, Marketing Offers and Announcements are different types of Email Marketing
Digital Marketing Glossary from F to J
Featured Snippet
An information in the form of summary that Google pulls from a website and places directly into search results for showing quick answers to common and simple queries that searchers type in Search Bars. Google programmatically does this by using most relevant details from an a site that has good authority
Facebook Advertising
Marketing on Facebook with the help of Facebook Ads to reach the target audiences via Facebook’s ad network is known as Facebook Advertising. It includes paid ads on Facebook
Facebook Profile
A personal Facebook account created by a user by signing up on Facebook is Facebook Profile. Any normal FB profile of your friend, acquaintance or brand is Facebook Profile
Facebook Business Page
A public webpage on Facebook, which is used to represent a brand, business or company and gives users an access to Facebook Ads Manager
Facebook Ads Manager
A tool that is used for creating, channelizing and managing Facebook ads in the most automated and efficient manner is Facebook Ads Manager
Company behind the initiation, channelization and management of search engine giant Google.com that controls around 80% of the search market
Google+
A Social Media platform of Google. It can also be used for business purposes with the help of Google My Business page that includes all the information about a business
Google Analytics
An Analytics platform created by Google, which is and used for analyzing nearly every aspect of a website’s performance
Google AdWords
Online advertising platform of Google that allows advertisers to reach customers via search and display networks. PPC Ads on Google run via Google AdWords
Google My Business
Google’s platform that businesses can use to provide important business information like Name, address, phone number, website link, hours of operation, and reviews to appear in search results, location searches, map packs, and more
Google Hummingbird
A Google algorithm update that was intended to completely update the way Google interpreted the search queries of users. After this update, search results are directly related to the query typed in search bar
Google Maps
Google provides location and navigation services via Google Maps. With the help of this users can find any location with utmost ease
Google Panda
A Google algorithm update that is used for analyzing the quality of a website’s on-page content and its exact interrelation to queries it was being displayed for
Google Penguin
A Google Algorithm update that focuses on analyzing the quality of links pointing to any particular site. It checks the overall quality of the Backlink profile of a site
Google Pigeon
A Google Algorithm update that focuses on offering locally relevant results to searchers. This algorithm plays a significant role in success of local businesses
Google Search Console
Earlier known as Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console that helps webmasters to measure the visibility of a site on search pages and indexability by Google crawler bots
GCLID
Full form is Google Click Identifier that is a small string of numbers and letters, which are used as a unique ID badge for visitors to a website
Gravity Forms
A WordPress plugin that keeps track of all completed form submissions and adds a customizable contact form to a website
HARO
A type of Emails, which are sent three times a day from Monday to Friday for gaining PR and link opportunities. The Full form is Help a Reporter Out
Hashtag
“#” is Hashtag and it is used in social media as a way for tagging content so that users can find them easily. When you add Hashtag to a post, it will let users find that post when they search for the same topic
Header
The top portion of a webpage that includes the logo and menu or an HTML section in the code of website that comprises the information about the site
Header Code
Certain code is placed in header section to find things like Schema Markup, Adwords Code, Analytics Code, and other tools
Header Tags (h1, h2, h3, etc)
Used for categorizing different text headings in a web page. They are used for titles and major topics of a Web Page and play important role in SEO. H1-Page Title, H2- Secondary Title, H3-Sub-header Title, H4-another Sub Header, H5-Sub-header, H6- Sub-Header
Heatmap
Showcases how users interact with your site graphically. Heat mapping tools are used for tracking where users click on a page, their scrolling behavior, and other related details
HTML
Set of codes that let web browsers know how to display a webpage. Full form is Hyper Text Markup Language. It includes starting and ending elements for most of the markups
HTTP
A Protocol used by WWW (World Wide Web) for defining how data is formatted and transmitted on the web. It also guides web browsers and web servers about the actions that they should take for responding to a command. Full form is Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HTTPS
Full form is Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and it is a secured version of HTTP that means its functioning is similar to HTTP but with better security
Hreflang Tag
A code in the HTML of a website that lets search engines know about the spoken language used by a web. It is very useful for websites that have versions in multiple languages
Hyperlink
An HTML code that is used for creating a link from one webpage to another web page. When you click on it, you will be directed to the destined location
Iframe
An HTML document that you find inside of another HTML document on a website that is used for embedding content from one source onto another
Impression
Number of times an Ad is shown is called Impression. This is one of the most popular terms of Pay per Click Advertising system
Inbound Marketing
Activities and strategies used for attracting potential users or customers to a website by educating and building trust about your services, product and/or brand and to have a good web presence
Index
Refers to all of the web pages that Google has crawled and stored so that they can be shown to Google searchers. The act of Google copying a web page into its system is Indexing
IP Address
An IP (Internet Protocol) address that uniquely identifies a device that use internet for communicating over a network. Static and Dynamic are two types of IP Addresses
Java
A programming language used to create applications that can run on different Digital device. You can use Java on its own while can use JavaScript only in web browsers
JavaScript (JS)
A scripting language that is used on web browsers for providing interactive elements to web pages which are difficult accomplish with just HTML or CSS
Digital Marketing Glossary from K to N
Keyword
A phrase or word that indicates about the major theme of any web content and it can be understood as the queries or phrases that searchers type in Search Engines to get the desired search results
Keyword Density
Percentage of how often a particular keyword is used in webpage content is called as Keyword density. Having the recommended keyword density is an important SEO ranking factor
Keyword Stuffing
Superfluous and excessive use of particular keywords in content for manipulating search engines is called as Keyword Stuffing
Landing Page
The destination webpage on which a user will land after clicking on a link is landing page. These pages play significant role in lead generation
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing)
A Search Engine Indexing method that is used for creating relationship between words and phrases that helps in forming a better understanding of the subject matter of a text that aids search engines give results to queries with better precision
Lead
A potential customer in the sales funnel that can be converted into a buyer is a lead. Digital Marketing uses different techniques to generate leads and ensure conversions of those leads
Link
A string of hypertext transfer protocol structured text that connects web pages on the internet. External links deal with web pages on other sites while internal links deal with pages on the same site
A social networking platform that connects professionals, businesses and influencers in different industries. Advertising platform of LinkedIn is LInkedIn Advertising
Long Tail Keyword
Those keywords that are longer in length and match a search query with hyper-specification is known as pong tail keywords. These keywords enjoy higher search intent
Meta Tags
HTML snippets that are added to a webpage’s code, which a Search engine will use for deciding what information from a webpage, should be displayed in their search results
Meta Description
A Meta Tag that gives the information of a Page in 160 Characters. It is one of the important SEO practices because it appears in Search Engine Results. A Meta tag that gives information about the specific keywords significant for a page is Meta Keyword
NAP
An acronym that should be used in local citations. NAP includes Name, Address and Phone Number and its immaculate use is important for effective SEO
Nofollow
An HTML link attribute that updates Search Engines and Web Crawlers that the link to the destination web page should not given any SEO benefits to the recipient
Digital Marketing Glossary from O to R
Organic
The natural and non-paid way of gaining traffic or source of traffic is known as Organic methodology. It is one of the most important factors of successful SEO
PPC / Pay-Per-Click
An online Paid-advertising model in which advertisers pay for their ad when it is clicked. It is similar to CPC which I discussed above
Position
The ranking in search results that a site gets for a particular query is called as Position. The functioning of Search Marketing is based upon the position that a site or page gets in SERPs
Penalty
When a webmaster beaks Google’s guidelines then Google issues an infraction which is called a Penalty. You need to fix the issues because of which penalty is issued, only then Penalty will be lifted
Quality Score
The rating of Google AdWords Ad that tells about the relevance and quality of Ads in Pay per Click Advertising campaigns is called as Quality Score
Query
The phrase, term or word that a searcher types in search bars of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo is called Query. Search engines show results for Queries
Rankings
A general term that tells about the position of a site in search engine results is called as Ranking and the whole business of Search Engine Marketing revolves around the ranking that a page get in SERPS
Reciprocal Link
When two websites link to each other to optimize ranking of both then such link is called as Reciprocal Link. The purpose behind this is increasing ranking of both the sites
Redirect
Process via which a web browser takes a user from one page to another for which user does not give any input is called as Redirect
Remarketing
A type of paid ad that lets advertisers show ads to customers who earlier visited their site but did not perform any desired action
Responsive Web Design
A website design that lets all of the content of a site get shown to users accurately regardless of screen size or device. Responsive Web Designs respond to their environment.
Robots.txt
A text file that gets stored on the server of a website and incorporates rules for indexing robots that will “crawl” that site
RSS
Full form is Really Simple Syndication and it helps you keep track of updates to multiple websites (news sites, blogs, and more) in one place
Digital Marketing Glossary from S to Y
Schema Markup
A code that is added to the HTML of a website for providing search engines important information related to a business, place, person, product, or thing
Search Network
A group of websites on which Ads can appear e.g. Search Network of Google can be a group of Google & non-Google websites that collaborate with Google for displaying different kinds of text ads
Search Engine
A program that goes through an index of information and provides results to the user based on user’s search. Google is the most common search engine
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Marketing on Search Engines via Paid and Un-Paid marketing channels such as PPC and SEO. Search engine advertising includes PPC, PPI, and PPA while Search Engine Optimization includes On-Site and Off-Site optimization.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The process of optimizing online presence of a site, business, blog or brand via un-paid means to boost search ranking and increase traffics organically. SERPs are known as Search Engine Results Pages
Sitelink
The ad extension in Google Adwords that will appear below the main Ad copy that further links to particular page on the website such as Contact Us or About Us, etc.
Sitemap
An XML file or page on a website that is used for listing all of the pages and posts so that Search Engines can see them is known as Sitemap.
Slug
The portion of URL that comes after .com is called as Slug and it also play very significant role in optimizing search ranking of page. In ‘www.domain.com/contact-us’, Contact Us is slug
Spam
Different types of nefarious activities in digital marketing that are cunningly used to help a website rank better. Spam is also used for harming competitors
Spider
An automated program that will visit or crawl your site and it is also known as a “crawler” or a “bot” is known as Spider
Tag
An identifying marker in WordPress, which is used for classifying different posts as per the keywords and topic is known as Tag. An HTML element that is used for describing the specific topic related to a web page is called as Title Tag
Tracking Code
A script that is placed in Thank You Page, Header or Footer of a website to pass the information to software tools to help them gather data
Twitter Advertising
Allows advertisers to use Twitter Ads for promoting a tweet or business on Twitter users’ feeds. Twitter Advertising is one of the very important pats of Social Media Advertising
URL
Uniform Resource Locator that refers to what specific web page a browser is viewing. it is also known as the address of a Web Page
UI & UX
An area where a user interacts via a Digital Device and its full form is User Interface. UX is User Experience that tells how a user will interact with a site or App
Visits
Tells about the traffic sources that visit a site. A metric that quantifies a user of a website who visits a site for a particular period of time is called Visitors
Web 2.0
Another form of World Wide Web that is developed for the shift from static web pages to dynamic content along with social media and user-generated content
Webinar
A seminar on the web is called as Webinar. It is used for training, informing, or selling to an audience of viewers who has signed up to view the video webinar
White Hat
Ethical digital marketing practices are known as White Hat practice and White Hat Marketers do not participate in work that could be viewed as unethical, illegal, or as spam
XML
Extensible Markup Language used for categorizing various data for computers and humans to use. It allows customizable tags to mark up those information which otherwise difficult to comprehend by computers
XML Sitemap
Document in XML format that is used for categorizing all relevant pages, files, posts, etc. of a website. It is designed to help search engine crawler bots find all of the pages of a given website quite easily
Yelp
A social review platform and search engine that lets users leave reviews for different businesses. It also offers an advertising program
YouTube
A video sharing website that is a second most used search engine in the world. Google bought it in 2006 and now, it is part of ad network of Google
YouTube advertising
YouTube offers 6 different types of advertising- Display ads, Overlay ads, Skippable video, non-Skippable video ads, Sponsored Cards and Bumper ads. YouTube Ads can also be created and run via Google Adwords platform
Yahoo!
Search Engine owned by Yahoo and owned by Bing. Yahoo and Bing ads are comprised under Yahoo Advertising and both are run via Bing Ads platform
In Conclusion…
On a concluding note, I hope this overstated Digital Marketing Glossary would have helped you get an idea about different Digital Marketing Terms, their basic use and their significance in running a Digital Marketing Campaigns.
Knowing all the terms well might be a good thing when it comes to information and awareness, but to build practical skills and to make use of the enormous opportunities that Online Marketing offers, enrolling in a Digital Marketing Training would be ideal.
What are the terms that you think I missed in this Digital Marketing Glossary? –Share them in the comments.
Interesting & useful information.
I find fhis content most interesting and helpful to me as beguiner in marketing digital…
Tanks
You’re Welcome.