Glossary terms
Agency: An outside partner that fulfills a company’s digital marketing and advertising needs
Business-to-business (B2B): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to other businesses (when businesses purchase from each other)
Business-to-consumer (B2C): Refers to when businesses sell products or services to consumers (when consumers purchase from businesses)
Consumer-to-business (C2B): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to businesses (when businesses purchase from consumers)
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Refers to when individuals (consumers) sell products or services to other consumers (when consumers purchase from each other)
Digital channel: Any communication method or platform a business can use to reach their target audience online
Digital marketing: The practice of reaching consumers online through digital channels with the aim of turning them into customers
E-commerce: The buying and selling of goods or services using the internet
Engagement marketing: (refer to experiential marketing)
Experiential marketing: The process of encouraging consumers to not only purchase a brand or product, but to experience it
Influencer marketing: The process of enlisting influential people to endorse or mention a brand or product to their followers on social media
In-house: Within a single company
Social media marketing: The process of creating content for different social media platforms to drive engagement and promote a business or product
Transferable skills: Skills from other areas that can help someone progress a career in marketing
A/B Testing
This is the process of comparing two variations of a single variable to determine which performs best in order to help improve marketing efforts. This is often done in email marketing (with variations in the subject line or copy), calls-to-action (variations in colors or verbiage), and landing pages (variations in content). Outside of marketing, you can use it to determine what tastes better on a peanut butter sandwich: jelly or fluff.
Analytics
What I sometimes refer to as the “eyes” of inbound marketing, analytics is essentially the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data. When referred to in the context of marketing, it’s looking at the data of one’s initiatives (website visitor reports, social, PPC, etc.), analyzing the trends, and developing actionable insights to make better informed marketing decisions.
Awareness stage: The first stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer first becomes aware of the product or service
Consideration stage: The second stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer's interest builds for a product or service
Conversion: The completion of an activity that contributes to the success of a business
Conversion rate: The percentage of users or website visitors who completed a desired action, such as clicking on a link in an email or purchasing a product
Conversion stage: The third stage of the marketing funnel, when marketers capitalize on the interest people have already shown
Customer journey: The path customers take from learning about a product, to getting questions answered, to making a purchase
Customer journey map: A visualization of the touchpoints a typical customer encounters along their purchase journey
Frequency: How many times an individual encounters an ad in a given timeframe
Impressions: The total number of times an ad appears on people’s screens
Inclusive marketing: The practice of improving representation and belonging within the marketing and advertising materials that an organization creates
Lead: A potential customer who has interacted with a brand and shared personal information, like an email address
Local search: A search query that generates local-based search results
Local SEO: Optimizing content so that it displays in Google's local search algorithms
Loyalty stage: The fourth stage of the marketing funnel, when customers become repeat customers and brand advocates
Marketing funnel: A visual representation of the process through which people go from learning about a brand to becoming loyal customers
Omnichannel: The integration or synchronization of content on multiple channels
Pain points: Problems customers want to solve
Reach: The total number of unique individuals who encounter an ad across their different
devices
Target audience: The group of people most likely to purchase a company's products; often defined as the combination of customer personas
Touchpoint: Any interaction a customer has with a brand during their purchase journey
Beginner SEO terms
You’ve learned the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) and how it works. Now, it’s time to review the SEO terms you’ve learned and introduce a few more that you’ll learn about later in this course. This glossary will help you become familiar with some of the beginner SEO terms and definitions you may need to know for an entry-level position in digital marketing or e-commerce.
Bounce rate: The percent of visitors that view one page and then leave the site.
Breadcrumbs: A row of internal links at the top or bottom of the webpage that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the home page. Also known as a breadcrumb trail.
Broken link: A link that leads to a webpage that no longer exists. For example, the webpage may have been deleted, or the content may have been moved to a different location.
Crawl: The process of looking for new or updated webpages. Google discovers URLs by following links, by reading sitemaps, and by many other means.
Crawlers: Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them.
Domain: The core part of a website’s URL, or internet address. For example, in the URL www.google.com/ads, the domain name is google.com.
Googlebot: The generic name of Google's crawler.
Google knowledge panels: Information boxes that appear on Google when you search for people, places, organizations, or things that are available in Google’s knowledge database.
Index: Google stores all webpages that it knows about in its index (similar to the index in the back of a book). The index entry for each page describes the content and location (URL) of that page.
Keyword: A word, or multiple words, that people use to find information, products, or services online.
Keyword research: The process to find terms and phrases that potential customers are typing into search engines.
Meta description: Provides the search engines a summary of what the page is about. In some situations, this description is used in the snippet shown in search results.
Mobile-friendly: A webpage that is designed to load quickly and render well on a phone screen.
Organic search: Unpaid results a search engine produces when a search is performed.
Rank: A webpage’s position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which is determined by an algorithm.
Rich results: Enhanced results in Google Search with extra visual or interactive features.
Search algorithm: Automated process that helps locate information to answer a user’s query.
Search engine optimization (SEO): The process of making your site better for search engines.
Search engine results pages (SERPs):The results pages that appear when someone performs a search query.
Sitemap: A file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to crawl your site more efficiently.
Structured data: Code used to better describe a webpage’s content to search engines.
Subdomain: The subset of a larger domain used to organize an existing website into a different page URL. Subdomains are usually found at the beginning of a URL. For example, support.google.com is a subdomain of google.com.
URL: The address of a webpage or file on the Internet. For example, www.google.com.
Webpage title: Provides users and search engines the topic of a particular page.
404 page: A page that informs the user that the webpage they were trying to visit does not exist.
Algorithm: An automated software that helps locate information to answer a user’s query
Bounce rate: The percentage of website visitors who view one page and then leave the site
Breadcrumbs: A row of internal links at the top or bottom of the page that allows visitors to quickly navigate back to a previous section or the homepage
Broken link: A link that leads to a webpage that no longer exists
Crawlers: Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them
Crawling: The process of finding new or updated webpages
Domain: The core part of a website’s URL, or internet address
Featured snippet: A special box that displays information about a search in the results page
HTTPS: An internet communication protocol that protects the integrity and confidentiality of data between the user’s computer and the site
Indexing: The process of Google saving and organizing website information to display in the search engine
Google Business Profile: A tool that allows local businesses to tailor how their information appears on Google Search and Google Maps
Google knowledge panels: Information boxes that appear on Google when someone searches for people, places, organizations, or things that are available in Google’s knowledge database
Googlebot: The generic name of Google's crawler
Keyword: A search term that people use to find information, products, or services online
Keyword research: The process of finding terms and phrases that people use in search engines
Keyword stuffing: The practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in the search results
Meta description: Provides the search engines a summary of what the page is about
Mobile-friendly webpage: A webpage that is designed to load quickly and render well on a phone screen
Organic search: Unpaid results a search engine produces when a search is performed
Query: The words typed into a Google Search bar
Rank: A webpage’s position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), which is determined by an algorithm
Rich results: Enhanced results in Google Search with extra visual or interactive features
Search algorithm: An automated process that helps locate information to answer a user’s query
Search engine: Software that provides information on a search query
Search engine optimization (SEO): The process of increasing the visibility of website pages on search engines in order to attract more relevant traffic
Search engine results pages (SERPs): The results pages that appear when someone performs a search query
Sitemap: A file that provides information about the pages, videos, and other files on a site, and the relationships between them
Structured data: Code used to better describe a webpage’s content to search engines
Subdomain: The subset of a larger domain used to organize an existing website into a different page URL
Subpage: A lower-level page that appears below the homepage of a website
URL: The address of a webpage or file on the internet
Webpage title element: Text that provides both the users and search engines with a page’s topic
A
A/B testing: A method of testing where two versions of content with a single differing variable are compared to determine which yields better results
Abandoned cart: When a potential customer adds an item to their cart, but doesn’t complete the purchase
Awareness stage: The first stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer first becomes aware of the product or service
C
Consideration stage: The second stage of the marketing funnel, when a potential customer’s interest builds for a product or service
Content marketing: A marketing technique that focuses on creating and distributing valuable content
Conversion rate: The percentage of users or website visitors who take a desired action
Conversion stage: The third stage of the marketing funnel, when marketers capitalize on the interest people have already shown
Copy: Any written material that encourages a customer to buy a product or service
Customer persona: Represents a group of similar people in a desirable audience
Customer persona barrier: What is preventing the customer from achieving their goal
Customer persona goal: What the customer wants to achieve
D
Demographics: Information specific to the customer, such as age, gender identity, income, family size, occupation, education, and location
Display ad: A visual ad format placed on websites or applications
E
Email marketing: Sending messages to a list of existing subscribers to share information, drive sales, or create community
I
Influencer marketing: Involves a brand collaborating with an online influencer to market one of its products or services
L
Loyalty stage: The fourth stage of the marketing funnel, when customers become repeat customers and brand advocates
R
Remarketing ad: An advertisement delivered to previous purchasers, subscribers, or visitors to a brand’s website or social media
S
Search engine marketing (SEM): Increasing a website’s visibility on a search engine results page through paid advertising
Search engine optimization (SEO): The process of improving a website to increase its visibility in a search engine
Social media marketing: The process of creating content for different social media platforms in order to drive engagement and promote a business or product
Social share: When a customer shares a product or service with their social media followers
Strategy: A plan to achieve a marketing goal
T
Tactic: An action a marketer takes to make a marketing goal happen
U
Unique selling proposition (USP): An explanation of why a product or service is better than the competition
W
Webinar: A presentation, typically educational, that is provided online
