Remember back in the day when the extent of your need-to-know marketing terminology consisted of words like ‘buyer’ and ‘brand positioning’? While the principles of marketing have largely stayed the same since the days of old-timey billboards, we’ve been inundated with new terms, acronyms, and totally made-up-sounding words ever since the birth of the internet.
So if you’re like most of us at Geeky Tech, you’re probably overwhelmed by all the words or abbreviations (so many dog-forsaken abbreviations) you’re forced to remember.
Why We Made This Guide
It’s not that the internet deities are trying to confuse us, it’s that technology moves at a rapid pace, and every time a new process, gadget, or system is created, a neologist is hired to invent a new word. And if a neologist isn’t available, the inventors of these new systems steal an already-existing word (such as breadcrumbs) or coin the term by calling it exactly what it is, which is how acronyms are born (such as SEO).
So, it makes sense that we’re constantly getting blasted with new vocabulary, and it also makes sense that your brain can’t possibly remember it all. So, we wanted to make something that could be bookmarked or left open during your work day as an easy-peasy tool.
How To Use This Guide
We hope this guide is self-explanatory and that the definitions are easy to understand. As marketers, you probably know or have at least come across all these terms before—you may just need a little reminding every now and then about what a certain pesky initialism actually stands for.
Because there’s an assumption of basic marketing knowledge, We intentionally kept the definitions short and sweet and easy to remember.
FREE SEO & Marketing Jargon Guide Sample
See AMP
See ADX
ADX is a technology platform that acts as the go-between of buyers and sellers of ad inventory. Ad exchanges facilitate various transactions and ad management from multiple ad networks. Examples: Google Ad Exchanges, OpenX, AppNexus. See our post about programmatic advertising for more information.
In the context of Google and other search engines, an algorithm is essentially a rule that is used to rank a website.
Also called Accelerated Mobile Pages, an AMP is open-source HTML framework designed to make mobile pages load faster.
App store optimisation is similar to search engine optimisation except rather than increasing your visibility on search engines, you are trying to make your app more visible in app stores.
See ASO
Also called target audience, it is a specific group of users that are most likely to buy and the target of your marketing efforts.
An engagement metric used in Google Analytics that tracks the average amount of time users spent on your pages within your website.
Links from other domains that send users to your site.
Any type of SEO practice that is in violation of Google’s Terms and Conditions. It is often viewed as cheating Google’s algorithms and is seen as achieving rankings through deceitful and dishonest means. Examples of black hat SEO include cloaking, keyword stuffing, link farming, etc. Listen to season 1, episode 2 of SEO Unfiltered to learn more.
A single page session on your website, i.e., the user does not interact with your site after landing on the initial page. Bounce rate will not be featured in Google Analytics 4 (the primary platform from July 2023 onwards).
A visual element located on a webpage that helps the user keep track of where they are on a website; also helps search engines understand the hierachy of the page within the website.
See CTA
Page cannibalisation is when search engines don’t know which page to show users for a query. If the content on two of your pages is too similar, then Google cannot tell which page is the most relevant, which will lower the rankings for both pages. Check out our post about cannibalisation for more details.
How users have arrived at your website, i.e. via search engines, PPC, social media, etc.
See CTR
The action of someone clicking on your website link in a search engine. Could also refer to the action of clicking on an ad in Google Search.
A content management system is an application that allows you to create, edit, and manage your website content from a dashboard or backend. The most well-known CMS is WordPress.
Cookies are text files with small pieces of data from a website that is stored within a web browser so the website can retrieve it at a later time. Often used for analytics and advertising purposes.
See CMS
An desired action performed by a user on a website, e.g. download, email sign-up, sale
See CRO
See web crawler
Conversion rate optimisation is the practice of improving web page design and UX to increase the percentage of users that complete a desired action on your website. See UX.
A CTA, or call to action, is a marketing term that refers to any kind of language that prompts a user to take immediate action. A CTA often precedes or is a button that a user can click on to perform the next desired step.
In advertising, the clickthrough rate is the is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown. In more general terms, it is the amount of clicks divided by the number impressions. See impressions.
See DMP
See DPS
Website visits that occur when a user types your URL directly into their browser or selects it from their bookmarks.
A data management platform is a software that allows advertisers to buy inventory from multiple ad networks and manage their ad campaigns. See our post about programmatic advertising for more information.
A domain name server/system can be seen as a domain phone book that locates a site’s IP address from a domain query, i.e., when a user types in a URL into a browser’s address bar, the DNS retrieves the IP address that is assigned to the URL.
A domain name is the ID of your website as it is read in a URL. It proceeds the subdomain (typically www.) It is not necessarily the name of your company or business.
Domain authority is the name of a search engine ranking score developed by Moz. It measures the strength of your domain and its ability to rank highly in Google. Several factors affect a domain’s authority, such as the domain’s age, on-page SEO, and the quality and quantity of backlinks.
Domain authority is the name of a search engine ranking score developed by Moz. It measures the strength of your domain and its ability to rank highly in Google. Several factors affect a domain’s authority, such as the domain’s age, on-page SEO, and the quality and quantity of backlinks.
See DNS
The demand-side platform is a software that allows advertisers to buy inventory from multiple ad networks and manage their ad campaigns. Examples: Facebook Ads Manager, Rocket Fuel, Amazon (AAP). See our post about programmatic advertising for more information.
Display and Video 360 is Google’s programmatic display demand-side platform with campaign management features. See marketingplatform.google.com/about/display-video-360
Users ‘entering’ your site. Entrances are counted with the first pageview of the session, and assigned to the landing page.
How often a page was the last visited in the session.
The most recent version of Google Analytics, which includes data for both websites and applications. Will replace Universal Analytics in July 2023.
One of many ad networks where advertisers can bid on ad space for video, display, and mobile apps. See our post about programmatic advertising for more information.
The General Data Protection Regulation is a data security and privacy law passed in the EU in 2018 that is designed to protect a user’s personal data.
See GDPR
A goal completion is when a user completes a desired action on your website, such as make a purchase, sign up for the newsletter, etc. This name comes from Universal Analytics and will be called ‘Conversions’ in Google Analytics 4.
Goal completions divided by sessions in Google Analytics. See sessions.
A goal is any pre-defined action that is performed by a user and is specific to the customer and their goals. Examples of common goals include contact clicks, form submissions, etc.
An analytics service offered by Google that tracks website traffic and produces detailed data reports for users.
See GDN
See GSC
Google Search Console is an online tool that provides insights into your Google search traffic and performance. You use GSC to find out how well your web pages are performing on a search query.
Google Search Console is an online tool that provides insights into your Google search traffic and performance. You use GSC to find out how well your web pages are performing on a search query.
A service that makes your website accessible on the world wide web. This is the server where your website files are stored.
HyperText Markup Language is the code that is used to create web pages and content. Every website is written in HTML code.
If this then that is a logic expression used in various applications to establish a series of rules.
Your URLs’ level of visibility to users.
Indexing, particularly search engine indexing, is the process of storing and cataloguing your web content to display to user in a SERP. See SERP.
Also known as key phrases or key terms, keywords are search engine queries. From an SEO perspective, keywords that are included within your web pages contribute to how high you rank on a search engine result page.
The webpage where the user started the session.
See MQL
Simply put, metadata is data that provides basic information about other data.
A meta title is the name of a web page that appears on a SERP; also called title tag
A marketing-qualified lead is a potential customer that is likely to buy and who has shown interest in a company’s product or service via a marketing channel. See SQL.
Shorthand for name, address, phone number and is often used in the context of SEO. For example, good SEO practice is to include your NAP at the footer of your web pages and to ensure that the NAP info is consistent across your online profiles outside of your own website.
Users who have not been to your site before; reporting terminology in Google Analytics
A nofollow HTML tag tells search engines to ignore a link on a page.
If your webpage script has a noindex tag, search engines are being told not to index the page, and therefore it will not be visible.
See NPA
According to Google, non-personalised ads are ads that aren’t based on the user’s internet or search behaviour and that simply take into context certain user information like their rough location or real-time search query.
Off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, is a term to describe a number of SEO practices that are performed outside of someone’s website and that aim to increase the site’s credibility and authority, and therefore, its rankings. Examples of off-page SEO include backlink building, guest blog writing, and review writing. Check out our post about off-page SEO for more information.
On-page SEO, also called on-site SEO, is a term to describe various SEO practices performed within a site’s CMS that improve a website’s visibility on search engines. Examples of on-page SEO include UX, site speed, technical accuracy, and keyword implementation. Check out our post about on-page SEO for more information.
Any digital marketing effort or outcome that is the result of unpaid search engine optimisation
Total pageviews divided by total sessions in Google Analytics.
See PPC
A premium marketplace reserved for top-tier advertisers who are invited by publishers to bid on exclusive ad space. See our post about programmatic advertising for more information.
Pay-per-click advertising is any paid marketing effort to attract visitors to your website. Examples of PPC include social media advertising, display and video ads, affiliate marketing, etc.
A rank pertains to a web page’s position on a search engine result page.
A web page that is indexed by Google and ranking within the top 100 search results for a specific query.
See RTB
Synonymous with retargeting but used specifically in Google reporting tools. See retargeting.
Remarketing is the process of reintroducing your brand to users that have already expressed interest in your product or service via advertising (but have not yet converted).
As the name suggests, real-time bidding is the process of buying and selling ad inventory in real time. No human intervention is necessary, and the programmatic transaction takes less than one second. See our post about programmatic advertising for more information.
See SQL
Schema is a HTML vocabulary that you can add to your website’s code to help improve your rankings. Schema.org markup can improve the way your site is viewed on SERPs.
See SEM
See SEO
See SERP
See SSP
Search engine marketing is often confused with SEO or search engine optimisation, but it is its own separate marketing channel that pertains to any practice that improves your search engine rankings through paid methods.
Search engine optimisation is the name for a set of practices that are designed to improve your search engine rankings and therefore your web traffic through organic (or unpaid) methods. Examples of search engine optimisation techniques include keyword optimisation and backlinks.
A search engine result page is a list of websites that are displayed in your search engine when you enter a search query, in order of relevancy, not including ads that look like search results.
A visit from a user to your website or a group of user interactions with your website that take place within a given time frame.
See web crawler.
A sales-qualified lead is a person who has moved through the marketing funnel and is at the stage where a company’s sales representative is ready to convert them into a customer. See MQL.
A secure sockets layer is technology that gives a user a secure connection from one online system to another. This security protocol prevents cyber criminals from accessing or modifying sensitive or personal data.
As the mirror image of the DSP, the sell/supply-side platform is software for media publishers and ad networks to manage and sell their ad inventory to advertisers. See DSP.
“A response from a server when you request a web page (click on a link). There are much more than what is listed below, these are the most common ones.
200: Success
301: Page moved permanently
302: Page temporarily moved
404: Page cannot be found”
See Schema
See SSP
A script integrated into your website from an outside party that gives your site more functionality.
See meta title
In search engine optimisation, topical relevance refers to backlinks from web pages that are related to your content or niche.
A trust signal is any element or data point on a website that helps make a user feel more secure buying a product, downloading a file, or performing any other action that may be considered risky. Examples of trust signals: positive reviews, BBB logo, SSL symbol at checkout
See UTM
In Google Analytics, a user is a unique visitor to your site.
See UX
A code affixed to the end of a URL that provides more details about where your site traffic is coming from. To learn more, check out our free UTM Builder.
In terms of web design, user experience refers to how a user interacts on your web site. UX is based on several factors, such as accessibility, navigability, and efficiency.
Universal Analytics is a version of Google Analytics that Google is planning to sunset by 2023, as it has been replaced by GA4.
Also known as a spider, spiderbot, or simply a crawler, a web crawler is an internet bot that scans new pages and major changes to existing web pages for the purposes of indexing.
The person responsible for managing a website.
