Digital Marketing Glossary

Keeping a hand on the pulse of modern digital-marketing is sometimes tedious - there are so many new terms, abbreviations and tools. I compiled a handy digital marketing glossary in which I collected all the key terms of digital marketing related to the optimization of site conversion, A/B testing, web design, SEO, and contextual advertising.

A

A/B testing (split testing)

An experiment in which two versions of the page are compared to see which one has the greatest conversion.

Above the fold (Above the fold)

The part of the page that is visible without scrolling (the first screen). It is desirable to put the most important information here.

Affiliate (affiliate) site

A site that promotes the products or services of another company and earns commissions on sales.

Alternative text

HTML-tag in which you can insert a description of the image. Many ignore this function, but in vain. These descriptions are indexed by search engines and displayed in the search results for the relevant keywords. In addition, if the user disables the display of pictures in the browser, then the place of the pictures will not be an empty frame, but alternative text.

Anchor text (Anchor text, anchor text)

Anchor text is usually a “clickable” word or phrase (usually a keyword ) placed in the text of an article . In other words, anchor text is the text of the link that is visible to the reader. To create a hyperlink in the HTML language , a special <a> tag and the href attribute are used , in which the URL ( page address ) or other document referenced by this link is written.

Authoritative sites

Sites highly valued by search engines in terms of content quality and its usefulness for visitors.

AOV (Average Order Value)

Average order value or average check. One of the key characteristics of the effectiveness of the online store. Calculated by dividing the total amount of orders by their number.

B

Backlink

If site A contains a hyperlink that leads to site B, then for site B this hyperlink is the reverse. For a long time increasing the number of backlinks has been one of the main ways to position a site higher in search results. Links from authoritative sites are especially valued, as search engines allocate to them a greater "weight".

Banners (banners)

Rectangular areas of various sizes used to display advertisements on a site. Over time, there were certain standards for the size of banners and their location on the page.

Baseline (Source data)

The basic level of site conversion, which one tries to improve with the help of A / B tests.

Behavioral targeting

Advertising strategy, in which sites show their visitors ads directly related to their interests and preferences. The necessary information marketers receive by tracking purchases and browsing history.

Below the fold

The part of the page that you can see after scrolling (what is below the first screen)

Bounce (failure)

The situation when a visitor comes to one of the pages of the site and leaves without seeing at least one more.

Bounce rate

The percentage of visitors who view only one page of the site. It is often used in assessing its effectiveness. A high bounce rate indicates a lack of value for content.

Breadcrumb navigation (otherwise "bread crumbs")

A chain of navigation links that shows where the visitor is at any moment and the entire previous path.

C

Call to action (CTA)

A call that motivates the visitor to react immediately - filling out the form, calling back, etc. Buttons with CTA are the main elements of the site, leading to a conversion action.

Canonical URL (canonical URL)

The canonical URL allows you to tell the search engine which link is preferred for indexing and displaying in search results. You can tune canonical settings if you have pages with the same content on your site. Due to the nature of an CMS site, pages with the same content can be automatically created at different URL addresses.

Cart abandonment

The situation when the visitor of an online store initiated the purchase process, added goods to the shopping cart, but did not complete the process to the end. One of the main problems of online stores.

Churn rate

Percentage of service customers who stopped using the service in a certain period of time. A high level of outflow means problems in the quality of the product or service.

Clickbait

Clickbait is a link to an article or page on the internet that has a title or image that is striking, arouses curiosity and is exaggerated and dramatized or outrageous in such a way that as many people as possible will click on it.

Click to Call

A button on the mobile version of the site or in a mobile application that allows visitors to directly call the specified phone number.

Clickmap (click map)

A sitemap that shows where users click on the page. With it, you can track the number of clicks for each link, button, navigation item, etc.

Clickstream

A list of links that the user clicked while visiting. Used to determine the interests and preferences of the target audience.

Clickthrough rate (CTR)

The ratio of views to the number of clicks (for an ad in contextual advertising, a link in an email or a banner).

Clickthrough page

Page with preliminary information. The main goal is to prepare visitors for the conversion action on the next page.

Cloaking

Substitution of content, the presenting of special content to the search engine robots (optimized specifically for the search engine), while the real visitors of the site see very different materials.

Confidence level

Indicates that A/B testing can be considered reliable, since enough traffic has been received.

Confidence Interval

Interval, in which the results of A/B tests are recognized as reliable (usually 4-5 weeks).

Content Management System (CMS)

Software product that allows you to add and edit texts and multimedia content on the site.

Content Marketing

The strategy of creating and distributing text and multimedia content to attract and retain customers.

Control Page

The initial page during the A/B tests.

Conversion

The action that marketers want to achieve from a visitor. Registration of an account, adding to a basket, filling out a questionnaire or using the search function.

Conversion Rate

The percentage of visitors to the page that committed the conversion action.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Actions that increase the attractiveness, convenience and persuasiveness of the page in order to increase conversion actions (calls, transfers, orders).

Cookies

Small files that are stored in the browser of the computer and contain information related to user visits to specific sites. Used to track the history of visited pages and identify user preferences.

Cost per acquisition

The total cost of converting a site visitor to a revenue-generating client.

Cost per Click (CPC)

The model of payment for advertising campaigns on the Internet, in which the advertiser pays a certain amount for each click on the ad. Payment is made to the owner of the

site on which the ad is posted.

Cost per Thousand Impression (CPM)

Another payment model for advertising companies. The amount that the advertiser pays for every 1,000 impressions of his ad.

Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)

Corporate software with which you can collect, accumulate and analyze information related to the interaction of the company with your customers through all communication channels.

Cross Sales

Sales of additional goods to existing customers.

D

Directional Cues (Guides, Pointers)

Visual elements of the site that are used to attract visitors to a specific area on the page - usually with CTA or important information.

Dynamic content

Content that is created on the fly. The content is pulled from a serverside database and is based on the query submitted. It can be used on websites and in emails.

E

Email marketing

The strategy of using e-mail (email-distribution) to attract and retain customers.

Exit PopUp

A pop-up window, usually with a subscription form for any information. It appears when the visitor intends to leave the site.

Exit Survey

One or more questions that are asked of a visitor to the site using a special widget when he leaves the site (usually questions in the spirit of "Why are you leaving?")

Eye Flow

The technology of tracking the direction of view of the user when viewing the site.

F

Friction

Undesirable effects when an element confuses or distracts a visitor, resulting in a decrease in conversion. This can be confusing navigation, inconspicuous buttons with a call to action or a form of registration that is too long.

Funnel (funnel conversion, marketing funnel)

Shows the sequence of steps on the client's way to purchase goods. These are the specific stages from viewing the ad to the order.

G

Gamification

Adoption of the introduction of game elements in the process of brand interaction with potential or existing customers.

Geo-fencing

Segmentation of users according to their location.

Growth Hacking

A sharp increase in the scale of business in a short time. Achieved through various techniques - for example, innovative marketing methods in combination with SEO, A/B

testing, aggressive pricing.

H

Heatmap

Graphical display of the most clickable areas of the site.

Hero Image

The largest banner or other image on the site. As a rule, the first visual image that visitors see when they visit the site. It is considered one of the key elements of attracting attention and keeping the user on the page in the first few seconds.

I

Impressions

An impression is understood as each occurence an advertisement is shown to a visitor of a page. The number of impressions is taken into account for the analysis of the audience's

coverage, the success of the advertising campaign, and also for determining the cost of advertising (if the model of payment for the number of impressions is used).

Interruption (Interrupt, break the template)

The marketing method, which consists of attracting attention to the content due to violation of the usual user experience. A classic example is pop-up windows.

L

Landing Page

The page where users go after clicking on an ad.

Latent Conversion (Hidden Conversion)

The situation when visitors make a conversion not during the first visit to the site but after returning to the site later.

Leads

Potential customers who have left their contact information through the application form on the landing page, callback form or online chat.

Lifetime Value (LTV)

The sum of the total revenue that a client of the company brings for all the while that they are a customer of the company.

Link Building

Actions to increase the number of backlinks to a site - to improve its position in the SERP.

Live Chat

A tool for real-time messaging (usually with the company's customer support managers).

Long Tail Keywords (key phrases with a "long tail")

These are key phrases that include more than three words.

M

Meta tag (Description)

An HTML tag that allows webmasters to insert a textual description of the page. It appears in the search results immediately below the link to the site.

Microsite

A small site with a brief content associated with a specific advertising campaign.

Multivariate testing

Variant A/B test, when more than one element is changed and tested on the page (for example, the header and the CTA button at the same time).

N

Null Hypothesis (Zero hypothesis)

Hypothesis, which they try to refute with the help of the A / B test. It consists of the fact that the level of conversion of the source page and the test page will be the same - that is, the changes made will not affect the conversion in any way.

O

Organic traffic

"Natural" unpaid traffic that is generated via search engines through the implementation of SEO techniques.

Outbound Links

Hyperlinks that lead to other sites.

P

Personalization

Customizng the content according to the individual interests or preferences of the visitors.

R

Responsive Website Desigh (RWD)

This is the optimal display on any device - desktop computer (desktop), laptops, tablets, mobile phones.

Retargeting

Marketing method when on various advertising platforms users see offers of the goods or services which they did not use during visiting of a particular site. For example, after viewing the category of Samsung laptops in the online store, the user sees an ad in the Google advertising network "Samsung laptops for you with a 30% discount".

Another strategy retargeting is showing ads for the purpose of selling existing customers related products.

Revenue per visitor (RPV)

The average income that a site receives from each visitor. It is calculated by dividing the total amount of income for a certain period by the number of visitors for the same period. One of the key metrics of the efficiency of online stores.

S

Sample Size

When conducting A/B tests - a minimum audience of visitors, with which you can reliably determine the level of conversion of various options for the page.

Scarcity (shortage)

In marketing - one of the psychological techniques in order to encourage visitors to buy. Advertising plays on a person's fear that they will miss out on something. Examples of

scarcity offers are "The quantity of the goods is limited!", "The price is valid only until the end of the month", etc.

Search Engine Results Page (SERP)

A page that is generated by the search engine in response to a user's search query. The ultimate goal of SEO is to make sure that the target site is at the top of this page.

Site Map

Hierarchical list of all pages of the site - by analogy with the contents of a complex document or book.

Social Proof (Social Evidence)

Customer reviews, product reviews and other information from users of the product, which helps other users in making purchasing decisions.

Split Testing

A generic term that combines A/B tests (tests of different page variations on a single URL) and testing on different URLs.

Split-URL Testing

The technique of split tests, when the versions of the page are placed on different URLs (they have different addresses) - in contrast to A/B testing, where all variants have the same address. Split URL tests are used when checking several site variants that differ significantly among themselves, while A/B tests are aimed at identifying the impact of a particular site element.

Standart Error

The range within which A/B test results are not considered satisfactory, since they can be written off to the influence of random factors.

Statistical Significance

The parameter that determines whether the results of A/B tests can be recognized as reliable. It directly depends on the duration of the tests and the amount of traffic.

T

Test Hypothesis

The assumption that changing a particular site element will lead to an increase in the number of conversions.

Title-tag (Meta Title Tags)

HTML tags that describe the page headers. The headings are displayed along with the description of the site on the search page.

Trust badges

Badges that notify visitors that the site is safe to visit, because it is checked by the appropriate software.

Test duration

The time period during which an A/B test is performed.

U

Unique visitors

The indicator, which specifies how many different people visited the site. Because there are different devices to access sites, there is no reliable way to determine when the same person

comes in, for example, from a work and home computers, a mobile phone, a tablet, etc.

The main way to track unique visitors is browser cookies.

Upsell

A marketing technique in which the user is offered to buy a more expensive and advanced version of the product than the one that he has already chosen.

Usability

Convenience of using a particular resource (how easy it is for users to navigate and find the information they need).

User generated content (UGC)

Content (text, images, video), placed on the website of the company by the visitors themselves. A vivid example of a site on which most of the content is user generated is

Youtube. Visitors can publish here videos, reviews and comments.

User Intent

The ultimate goal that the user pursues through queries in the search engine. Understanding the user's intentions is necessary for the successful ranking of search results.

User testing

This is a test of usability with the involvement of ordinary Internet users.

V

Variable

When carrying out A / B tests, a page containing a new element whose influence is to be checked.

W

Webmaster

The person who is responsible for maintaining the site in working order, its development and editing.

White spa

A design strategy based on the use of empty space to attract attention to key elements. For example, a button with a call to action. A vivid example is Google.

Widgets

Small constructional elements, usually placed in the side panels of the site. They Perform various functions - navigation, calls to action, receiving information from users and so on.