Online Marketing Glossary

This glossary is a list of key terms in online marketing with definitions.

Affiliate marketing

In affiliate marketing, as an advertiser you use a partner who places your advertisement. Affiliate marketing is regularly used on comparison sites and in newsletters. For example, the partner earns from every lead or sale via his website. Or the advertiser can agree with the partner that payment is made per click or per page view. There are also various providers that bring advertisers and websites together.

Assisted Conversions

Assisted conversions shows in Google Analytics what resources a new customer uses before making a certain action on your website, such as completing a form or purchasing a product.

For example, he can get to your website on day 1 via Google AdWords . For the sake of certainty, he subscribes to the newsletter and then decides to click the website again to check with the competitor. He is still in the exploratory phase. On day 3 he receives the newsletter from your company and decides to look at your website again. On day 5 he made his choice and looks for your company in Google's organic search results .

The last search option is not the means that led directly to a purchase: the newsletter and the AdWords campaign also contributed to this. Assisted Conversions make that insightful. If you want to know more about this, read our article Insight into visitor behavior with Assisted Conversions from Google Analytics .

Banner

A banner is a graphic or textual advertisement and sometimes contains animation. By clicking on the banner, you go to the website of the advertiser. The page you enter is called the landing page .

Visitor

A visitor is someone who visits your website (a user named in Google Analytics ). With Google Analytics you can see if someone is a unique visitor, or that he comes back later for a follow-up visit. A visit is called a session in Google Analytics.

Blog

A blog (also called weblog) is an online diary, in which an individual or organization discusses experiences or a favorite subject. For example, there are many fashion bloggers. For companies, it is a way to find the target group by providing information, bringing news and promoting products. It is a good way to increase the bond with and experience of customers. A blog also ensures that search engines see the website of the company as an active site, which can be favorable on the ranking in Google .

Call to action

A call to action ensures that the target group is tempted, for example, to buy a product, visit a website, donate money to a charity. For example, a text can be: "Order product A before the end of the week and receive free product B. Be quick, because up = on". This activates people to take action.

Click Through Rate (CTR)

A click through rate is literally translated the click through score. This indicates how many times your ad has been clicked in relation to the number of impressions. This way you can measure how effective your advertisement is.

Content

Content is available in various forms, but usually text and images are meant for various communication expressions. We find content on websites, blogs , in folders and on social media .

Content Marketing

Content marketing is the distribution of content aimed at your target group. We live in an information age. People are looking for information about a product for their purchase. Not only brand and product are relevant, but also the experience. The trick is to position your organization in such a way that you can win the trust of potential customers and choose them for you.

Conversion

Websites usually have a goal that goes beyond online presence. You want to sell something with it or come in contact with new customers. The moment a potential customer performs an action that leads to your goal, you call it a conversion. If all this happens online then a conversion can be measured with, for example, Google Analytics.

Conversion rate

In Google Analytics you can find conversion percentages: the number of conversions is divided by the number of visitors to the website. For example: you have 100 visitors on your website, of which 10 visitors make a purchase. Then the conversion percentage is 10%. The ultimate goal is of course a conversion rate of 100%.

Copywriting

Copywriting is writing your own texts. These texts can have various goals: inform, amuse and activate. In marketing, a text is often written by drawing attention and arousing interest in the beginning, creating a "that is what I want" moment. The text often ends with the activation of the reader. The strategy depends on the chosen means of communication and can deviate.

Customer Engagement Cycle

A customer engagement cycle is - if every phase runs smoothly - a vicious circle, with which customers are bound to a product, brand or company. The process starts with awareness of product X, after which the consumer will consider buying the product. In addition, not only the price, characteristics and quality, but also whether it fits someone as a person. If the consumer has positive expectations, he will make a purchase. But that does not mean that the circle is complete, because all expectations have also come true? In other words: is the buyer satisfied with his purchase? When he has questions or complaints, he must be able to go somewhere for support. This can improve the experience and he will also buy the product more often. He becomes loyal to the product, or even the brand to which the product belongs or the company where the product was purchased. The best part is that a satisfied customer will share this with his environment. This makes him aware of someone else and the circle is complete.

Domain authority

Domain authority is an abstract concept with which Google expresses the reliability of a domain. The more reliable, the better this is for the ranking . The authority is built up from many factors. For example, it is important to have as many pages of high quality as possible. In addition, external links that are important to your site. And here again applies: the more authority these sites have (see for example the Open Site Explorer , a handy tool from Moz), the more favorable this is for your website. It is also good to gradually expand these links, instead of just 100 links and then nothing more (see also link building). Also check which pages are linked: Is this only to the homepage or to individual pages? In the latter case, this has a favorable effect on your domain authority.

Engagement

Engagement is creating interaction and thereby responding to emotion, behavior and knowledge. This allows you to let the target group become more involved with a product, brand or company. By coming into contact with the target group, it becomes easier to map out their wishes and needs.

E-marketing

See online marketing

Email marketing

E-mail marketing can be seen as sending a mailing (direct marketing), but by mail. You can approach your target group directly and at relatively low costs. For example, to keep the relationship with the customer warm or to encourage new customers. The advantage of e-mail marketing is that you can easily focus on your target group and be measurable when clicked. To combat spam, rules have been set up for e-mail marketing. It is important that the person who receives the newsletter has given permission. This is called opt-in. In addition, it is necessary to add a opt-out option to the newsletter .

Follower

A follower on social media is a follower of a person or organization and has indicated to want to follow the latest news. As soon as a new update is placed, the follower will see this in his news overview.

Google AdWords

Google AdWords offers businesses the opportunity to advertise in Google and on websites of the search engine, such as YouTube, in different ways. The great thing about AdWords is that you can accurately determine your target group and thus keep costs down. In addition, as an advertiser you can choose to advertise on the basis of individual visits to your website, the number of views of the ads or the number of purchases you have earned through the AdWords campaign.

Google Analytics

With Google Analytics you can clearly map visitors to your website. For example, you can gain insight into gender, age, place of residence, internet browser and whether your website is visited via a smartphone, tablet or desktop. You can even see if the visitor uses a device from Samsung or Apple. This provides valuable information to optimizeyour website .

With Google Analytics you can also see how long someone visits the site and whether it is a unique visit or if someone has visited the site before. This online tool is free to use for everyone, provided you are the owner of the website and offers many more (advanced) possibilities.

Google Authorship

Google Authorship is used by Google to provide more background information about the writer of a blog , news item or other article. With this you can obtain authority as a writer by, for example, regularly writing high-quality documents. Google sees and registers this, which can have a positive influence on the ranking . The searcher will now see your name appear in Google with the article and can click on it. He is then forwarded to your Google+ page, where he can find more information about you as an expert. Depending on your privacy settings, the visitor can also contact you.

Google Shopping

Anyone who goes shopping online will often first orientate via Google. You know what you want, but not exactly where you can buy it. Just like AdWords, Google Shopping is a form of advertising in the search engine. At the top of the organic search results and the paid advertisements, there are now also images of the products. The images provide a higher click through rate, and can thus make a positive contribution to the turnover of your web shop.

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is the new name of Google Webmaster Tools. Here you can find information about the performance of your website, such as crawl errors. On the basis of this you can identify points for improvement to make your website even stronger.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a program that makes it easier to find your website and gives insight in the performance and health of your website. For example, there is an overview of all keywords with your website in the results. You also see how often these impressions were clicked. Not enough clicks? Then that is a sign to improve your website. This also applies to errors within your website, such as deleted pages with incoming links from other websites. If your website does not comply with the guidelines and Google penalizes you for that, it can also be found in Google Webmaster Tools. You can link Webmaster Tools to your Google Analytics and Google AdWords account for optimal results.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird is the name for the update of the algorithm that Google uses to find the most effective answers to the searcher's questions. After the previous Panda and Penguin updates from the search engine, Google now seems to have had a complete makeover, also focused on Google Glass and Google Now. Google now understands that "What is the best ice cream parlor in Rotterdam" means the same as "IJssalon Rotterdam". This way the user gets answers of a better quality. Keyword spamming becomes less effective with every update and the search engine seems to look more actively for related words when determining how valuable information is found.

Internet marketing

See online marketing .

Keyword

A keyword is the word that (or a phrase that) you have linked in for example Google AdWords to activate an advertisement. When it comes to organic search results , a keyword is the word or the word combination that you have chosen to optimize your page, or the search term with which you try to come first.

Keyword count

With the help of SEO tools you can easily find out how often a keyword is mentioned on a page, without having to count yourself. By naming the keyword every now and then and combining it with related concepts, Google makes associations here and reads what the page or website is about.

Keyword density

The keyword density is similar to keyword count: it looks at how often your keyword is called, but at keyword density it is a percentage. An SEOtool counts first how many words there are on the page and then counts the number of times the keyword is mentioned. By dividing the number of keywords mentioned by the total number of words and then multiplying by 100, the keyword density is calculated. So if you have a text of 80 words and the keyword is called 5 times, the calculation is as follows: (5/80) * 100. You then have a keyword density of 6.25%. This can also do an SEO tool for you. A text with a keyword density of between 2% and 8% seems optimal. This keeps a text readable and Google realizes that the text does not deliberately try to score in the search engine. This is counterproductive.

Keyword prominence

The keyword prominence indicates how prominent it is in a text. Is this for example listed in the url or in the title of the page? And is it mentioned in the description of the page? Is he also at the forefront of the text? The more points you answer with "yes", the better this is for the findability. Here too: do not exaggerate.

Keyword proximity

When you use multiple keywords, the keyword proximity calculates the distance between them. It is wise to place them close to each other, so that this can also be displayed properly to the viewfinder in the search results. In addition, Google reads it as a whole.

Keyword weight

Using the keyword density, prominence and context calculates how strongly the keyword is optimized in the website.

Customer ratings

Online customer reviews can contribute to increasing the turnover of your webshop and bringing in new customers . After all, the opinion and experience of someone else is valuable. The more positive reactions are given, the more representative the image of your organization becomes. That creates more confidence.

Landing page

Imagine that you have a shoe store online and you have decided to significantly discount the flip-flops. Then of course you want people to know about this and that they go to your website to view these flip-flops. Now you can get them through a digital newsletter , an AdWordssend a campaign or a flyer to the homepage of your website. Then they also encounter sandals, fur boots, moon boots, moccasins and ballerinas. You do not want to run the risk of losing potential customers. You can prevent this by sending them directly to a page that is fully focused on the flip-flops. Such a specific page where someone enters the website is a landing page. Here you can offer additional information and further develop the campaign. This way you contribute in a simple way to increasing the conversion .

Leads

Leads are people who are interested in the services or products you offer as a company, which makes them potential customers. Usually leads are registered as completed forms on a website.

Linkbuilding

A link from another website is experienced by search engines as casting a vote. Apparently your information is valuable enough to refer to. When this link in the eyes of Google comes from a valuable website, this has a positive influence on the rankingfrom your website. In doing so, the text that is used as a link must be taken into account. Suppose we want a link from Atlantis Creative to an external web page that refers to our site. The underlined text "Click here to go to the website" will offer little value for Google. The underlined section in the text "Atlantis Creative is an expert in the field of online marketing" will give more value and information to Google: Atlantis Creative is linked to the term online marketing. Of course there are many more factors that play a role in the ranking and you are not solely dependent on external links.

Like

A like (or 'Like') is a positive reaction to Facebook, which you can assign to a message, photo, link or video that you like or that appeals to you. You do this by simply clicking on the like button. There is no dislike or 'I do not like' button. You can retract your like afterwards, by clicking on the 'I do not like it' button.

Livecast

A livecast is the regular broadcasting of items that relate to the personal life of the person who is broadcasting it. In this you can easily record and share personal experiences, but also the everyday events. With the arrival of smartphones and tablets with cameras, the threshold for keeping a livecast is reduced.

Long tail

Long tail is nowadays mainly used as a term within search engine optimization. If you search for a broad and general search term ( short tail ), you will get a lot of results. That also means that you have many competitors. That's why companies focus by focusing on more specific search terms with more words (long tail). This allows them to distinguish themselves better in results from the limited competition. Although the result is far fewer visitors, the potential customers who visit your specific page are more focused and look for a higher chance of conversion.

The long tail is also a strategic form in the retail trade for product sales, which has become more popular since the advent of the Internet and webshops. This means that products with less demand can also be found and sold. This concerns products that are not profitable for the assortment of a physical store. The chance would be too small that the item is actually sold. Thanks to the long tail, a constant balance is created between supply and demand.

Mobile advertising

Mobile advertising is the use of ads that are suitable for mobile devices. These are not only smartphones, but also tablets of various formats. The ad automatically adjusts itself to the correct format to be displayed correctly on these devices. Mobile advertising can also be used to approach these users as a specific target group.

Newsletter

A newsletter is used to inform, bind and activate the target group. Often a newsletter also needs to realize extra sales. Newsletters can now also be made responsive for mobile devices.

Offline marketing

Offline marketing includes offering products or services via traditional media: radio, television, newspapers and magazines. In addition, flyers, leaflets, posters, brochures, etc. can also be used to promote articles. The digital media do not belong here.

Online marketing

Online marketing is also known as E-marketing or internet marketing. It concerns all marketing activities that take place on the internet, such as search engine optimization , online advertising, the use of social media and blogs or use e-mail marketing and affiliate marketing .

Online campaign

An online campaign is partly the same as an offline campaign: you promote a product, service, brand or company and expect results within a set period. The advantage of an online campaign is that you can approach your target group much more precisely and achieve it much faster and more directly. This also gives you faster results when the campaign starts. You can immediately see the reach of your online campaign with statistics. With an offline campaign, the result can be measured less accurately and it is more difficult to adjust an ongoing campaign.

Online marketing agency

An online marketing agency does not only help you create a website, but also ensures that you are easy to find in search engines. This is possible through SEO , SEA and link building . An online marketing agency can also help you write web texts and articles for blogs and help you set up a social media strategy and maintain these channels.

Organic search results

Organic search results are the unpaid results in search engines. These are focused on the quality of the websites, assessed by the search engine algorithm.

Page rank

Page rank is the method of Google to organize pages according to their importance. The most relevant page is therefore at the top.

Panda

Panda is an earlier update (2011) of Google's algorithm, which was used as a filter to find results in search engines. The main focus was on the quality of a complete website. The better a website, the higher it came in the Google ranking. If there were bad pages between them, this not only affected the ranking of that one page, but of the entire website. Blogs and news pages were an exception to this.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

When you advertise online in Google AdWords , you can opt for certain strategies. One of them is to attract as many visitors as possible to your website. In that case, you pay per click on the advertisement.

Penguin

After the Panda update followed Penguin, a newer update of the algorithm of Google. This update can also be seen as a filter and focuses mainly on the distinction between unnatural backlinks. Links ensure that your website becomes an authority in a certain area. It was easy to respond to this by buying links, or by placing them on websites without value. Penguin excludes the so-called cheaters.

Pigeon

Like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird, Pigeon is also an update from Google . Pigeon is responsible for the local findability of companies. This is becoming increasingly important for the search engine. That's why it's important to create a Google+ business page and get your business on Google Maps.

Ranking

A ranking is a position that a website achieves in the search results of a search engine. In general, the websites on the first page (positions 1 to 10) are best visited. Pages on the second page or further will be clicked less quickly.

Remarketing

With remarketing, you can reach people who have already visited your website with an online advertisement. This makes it possible for them to visit your website again and you can increase the number of conversions . This can be particularly effective in combination with, for example, social media .

Responsive website

A responsive website is suitable for display on different devices. So not only on a desktop and laptop, but also on smartphones and tablets. Because the resolutions of these devices are increasingly different, a responsive website is an absolute must.

RSS (Realy Simple Syndication)

An RSS is a simple way to easily keep up to date with news items from a particular site or blog items. You subscribe with an RSS reader (eg LinkedIn Pulse) and automatically receive new messages. So you do not have to visit each site again and again to see if there is something new on it.

SEA (Search Engine Advertising)

Maybe you have a webshop with the best products, but no visitors. Simply because your website is not found. Maybe you have a lot of competitors or maybe your website is not optimally equipped to look good in search engines ( SEO ). You can then choose to advertise in search engines. The search term you enter in the search engine is linked to the keywords that belong to your ads. The most familiar form of Search Engine Advertising is Google AdWords .

SENSEO principle (Self Evolving Niches by SEO)

The SENSEO principle is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. It stands for Self Evolving Niches by Search Engine Optimization . In short, it means that with a well-structured website and texts of good quality (SEO) that is regularly expanded with themes that are linked to you the main theme of your website dominance between the search results because your website becomes more and more powerful . SENSEO is a long-term strategy that can structurally contribute to your online success.

SEM (Search Engine Marketing)

Search Engine Marketing is a specific branch of marketing that mainly focuses on making a website visible in search engines. This can be done in two ways: via Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and via Search Engine Advertising (SEA) . SEO is done by structurally and strategically adapting the website, by making the texts search engine friendly and adding meta descriptions. As a result, Google knows what the content is about.

SEA is the paid advertising in search engines, where search terms are linked to the keywords in your ad. Google AdWords is the best known of this.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is the strategic improvement of your website to come higher in the search results of search engines. This can be done in various ways, for example by writing texts that are strong in terms of content, by adding metadata to your web pages, but also by writing the texts with the correct grammar.

This makes it easier for potential customers to find you. If you know how to proceed, this is a particularly efficient method.

Short tail keywords

Short tail on the online level has to do with search terms. A searcher who enters the search term 'laptop' will get a lot of results. A large part of these searchers may not be interested in your product or service at all. Suppose you are specialized in repairing HP laptops, then searchers who 'HP + pavilion + laptop + repair' (a long tail keyword ) will be a much more attractive target group, with a much higher conversion.

Short url

When an url is very long and needs to be shared on Twitter, for example, it takes up too much space to add a strong text. That is why a url shortener is very useful: this program makes a short url of a long url. When you use Google's short urls and have a Google account, you can also track how often the link was clicked.

Social media

Social media are all online platforms that people can use to share their thoughts, photos and videos. Think of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+, but also YouTube and Wikipedia. Whatsapp, on the other hand, does not belong here, because this is covered by instant messaging.

Social sharing

By making your information divisible via Facebook or Twitter for example, you ensure that others increase your reach. It is the modern variant of free publicity.

Spam referral

Unfortunately, it happens that spam bots are able to help the statistics of your website. These spambots can be found in Google Analytics, under the channel of the referrals. With the aid of filters, the data can again be made representative and reliable.

Tagging

Tagging is linking a person to a message, image or video. For example, if you place a photo on Facebook of you and your friends, you can tag them there. So you can click on the persons in this photo and indicate who they are. This message appears - depending on their settings - on their own timeline. Other people can then click on these names and end up on the profile of the person who is tagged.

Targeting

Targeting is defining a target group. This can be done for example on location, language, sex, age and even on income. Of course there are more options to make a distinction in who does or does not belong to your target group.

Traffic

Traffic is the amount of data sent and received on a website. Nevertheless, traffic is more often referred to as the number of visitors to a website.

Traffic building

Traffic building means taking action to get more traffic to your website. This can be done through SEO (search engine optimization) , SEA (search engine advertisements)and link building .

Trust

Trust (domain trust) is the trust that Google gives to your website. This is part of the algorithm and is determined by a large number of factors. Does your website offer reliable information, is it technically strong, suitable for all users (including mobile), how long has the domain been there, have there ever been penalties, which websites refer with links (bad links provide less 'trust'). The more trust Google has in your website, the better your findability will be. In practice, this often means that new domains need some time to earn this trust.

Tweet

A tweet is a message of up to 140 characters. A twitterer, someone who sends these messages via Twitter, can include links and images in his tweets.

Webcare

Social media are not a one-way street. It is the ideal opportunity to come into direct contact with your target group. This is useful when there are questions about the products you sell or the services you provide. Yet it may also be that people express their dissatisfaction on the internet. With the help of a good webcare you can announce that the message has reached your organization. It does not stop there, because someone is not looking for contact for nothing. Show understanding and try to find a solution together. With this you can easily convert something negative into something positive.

Video advertising

When you want to watch a video on YouTube, an advertisement often appears. This is called video advertising. It is similar to the advertisements you see on TV, but they are often shorter and can sometimes be skipped after a few seconds.

Viral

A viral is a form of social sharing to increase brand awareness or brand awareness. This can be done with a video, for example, that spreads rapidly over the internet. Social media promote this process through the function of sharing messages. This quickly reaches a large audience. Whether something really can become a viral depends on the authenticity of the action.

Vlog

A vlog (abbreviated from video blog) comes down to the same as a blog. The difference is that a blog is typed and a vlog is designed in the form of a video, sometimes combined with text. Vlogging is especially popular among young people.

Searchmachine optimalisation

Having a website is one thing, but it is the intention that you are discoverable. The best way to be found is by being visible in search engines. By structurally improving your website in a strategic way, you can be found faster. You optimize your website for search engines. Search engine optimization is the same as Search Engine Optimization .

Search terms

Search terms are the words you enter in, for example, a search engine such as Google. Search terms are often confused with keywords, but are not the same. Search terms can also consist of several words. This is always the case with long tail terms and sometimes also with short tail search terms .

Keywords

Keywords are the words you use as an advertiser to activate the ad.