The Marketing Glossary

So uh, remember those URL thingies we were just discussing? Sometimes these addresses get changed. Perhaps from http to https, or because of a restructuring of the site (/news/example-article to /blog/example-article), or for SEO purposes. Whenever you change a URL, you want to redirect the old address to the new address. This way, you don’t lose any of the SEO juice from the old address, and you don’t leave any users who stumble upon the old address hanging. The other obvious reason is to tie up loose ends and avoid any broken links on your website. 301 is a permanent redirect, which is what you want to use in all cases regarding SEO.

(also known as split testing) a way to compare two versions of something to figure out which performs better. Not to be confused with “Testception” which is a test within a test…within a test?

Used to describe images and will show up in place of the image if said image fails to load. It is used mainly for accessibility purposes for tools like screen readers, so this text should accurately describe what the image portrays. It is also used by crawlers to assist them with indexing images, thus good for SEO and thus should include the keyword when possible.

The clickable bit in a hyperlink. A common example: Click Here for more info on how to get your neighbor to stop cutting YOUR side of the lawn! The click here would be the anchor text.

the steps someone goes through before making a purchase. The simplest breakdown consists of an Awareness stage, a Consideration stage, and a Decision stage. More complex versions include stagehands, stage fright, and newly-staged houses.

This is a prompt on your website that encourages users to take a specific action. Some common CTAs being: “Get A Quote, Call Us Today, Learn More Below”. Some uncommon CTAs being: “Don’t Press This Big Red Button”, “Get A Computer Virus Today”, “Fast, Painless DMV Appointments”.

A tag that lets search engines know which page is the OG. This prevents duplicate content issues if you have two different versions of content on your site, or two different URLS for the same page. It also makes sure you get those sweet SEO kudos if you post a guest blog on someone else’s site (assuming that same blog is already on your site, and assuming they provide a canonical back to your site).

The ratio of clicks to impressions. In other words, the percentage of users who viewed an ad, link, or email, and then clicked on it. The higher the better!

a software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge (bleep boop beep). WordPress is a CMS, for example.

any action taken by a user that is deemed “valuable”. This can be something like a phone call or form fill, or it can be something less direct like a product catalog download. Conversions are whatever you (or your super smart marketing agency) define them to be!

Cost Per Mille is the cost per one thousand impressions; mille meaning “thousand” in Latin. This is a very useful metric in advertising to both calculate and predict ad/brand exposure. The word “mille”; however, isn’t very useful, as the Latin language sadly passed away years ago.

the process in which you manage your current and prospective clients. Though the acronym “CRM” is commonly used to refer to “CRM Software”, because who really has time for all of these syllables?

a system built to assist you in managing your customer relationships (think HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho). From storing prospective customer info, to lead-nurturing support, to better team communication

Links to places not on your site, i.e. other websites.

the number of times a user saw an ad over a given time period. A frequency of 3 would mean that on average, each user saw your ad 3 times. You can use this to determine the ideal number of times someone must see a particular ad before making a decision.

a method of serving different ads to different users, based on their location. For example, a retail store might have one giant sale campaign, but show Floridians flip flop ads while Alaskans get snow boot ads.

These are organizational tags that rank in order from H1 to H6, sort of like an outline for search engines. For SEO purposes, all pages should have an H1, and only one H1. You can have multiple H2-H6 tags. The H1 should include the keyword and represent the overall topic/title of the page.

a single instance of an online advertisement being shown. If your ad had 100 impressions, it means your ad was seen 100 times. Though this doesn’t mean 100 unique people viewed it as a user can see the same ad multiple times (see frequency), and each time would count as an impression.

Links to other place on your own site. If you are linking to a page that is optimized for a specific keyword, it would be a good idea to include that keyword in the internal link’s anchor text.

Word/s searched into Google to find stuff. Could be one word like “donuts”, could be something more specific like “how to tell if you have bad body odor”. If you are a website that sells donuts or deodorant, you may want these keywords to appear on your site.

This is the blurb under the title tag on Google search result pages. This has no real bearing for SEO but it does have bearing on UX and click through rates. This should include the keyword you are targeting.

Not as important as they used to be. This is a spot to define what keywords this page is relevant for, but Google is all “that is sooooo 2007” and doesn’t pay attention to this anymore.

Code that assists search engines to provide additional information about your website to viewers. Common types are when you Google something and it shows you that it got 3.6 stars and this many reviews, or you type a band and you can see without clicking through that they play at this venue on that date. That's schema ya’ll.

Search Engine Optimization. Pivotal for websites if they want to be approved by Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc... This can be achieved in a few different ways, the most straightforward is using keywords. The more “optimized” your site is for Search Engines> the better it will like you > the better you will rank.

Stands for “Search Engine Results Page”. It’s the fancy acronym used to describe the page you see after you type something into a search engine. These typically have 8-10 website links per page, not counting ads, maps and other potpourri.

Here's the boring definition: a digital certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection. Yawn. If you go to a website and see a little lock in the URL bar, that website has an SSL. What's interesting is that the omniscient, ever-loving Google prefers websites with SSLs to those that don’t yet have them. So an SSL is good for SEO, good for the soul. Like chicken soup.

Every heart needs a home and every page on your website needs a title. The title tag is an HTML code that allows you to define your web page’s title. This is the blue link you see on Google search result pages, and you can also view it by hovering over the page tab in your browser. This should always include the keyword you are targeting.

Aka the “slug”, aka the “web address”, aka the “A/S/L of websites”. Two things to note here: 1. Keep URLs short when possible. Google likes em short n’ sweet, like french toast sticks. 2. If you are targeting a keyword for a page, include the keyword in its URL.

Different from an HTML sitemap (intended for the user), An XML sitemap is an outline of your site to make those pesky search engine bots’ job easier. It provides an easy-to-crawl list of every page on your site. Structure > everythang.