A
A/B Testing (or Split Testing)
We use this marketing experiment to which ad campaign is working best. The two audiences are given different content. The one that provides the greatest ROI, we’ll put more energy and money into.
Above the Fold
The part of a website that you see without scrolling. This is where you need to grab your audience’s attention because if you don’t, they won’t scroll down.
Adwords (Google Adwords)
This program by Google is what allows you to place ads on Google search results pages and YouTube. It’s necessary for PPC advertising.
Alt Text
The website crawlers and those that are vision-impaired cannot see the pictures on your website, so Alt Text is added to them to give descriptions about them. It’s also beneficial for SEO.
Anchor Text
This is when you have clickable text (a link) within your content that brings you to another webpage when clicked on. It’s best practice to have the text describe where the link is taking you to. Usually, the link is a different color and font to distinguish it’s a link.
B
Bounce Rate
This represents the percentage of visitors to a website that leaves without taking some action within that site. High bounce rates lead to a lower SEO ranking.
Backlink
When another website links to your site a backlink is created. An example could be if a charity you work with mentions you and your site on their website with a link back to your website. Having many, high authority backlinks is crucial to maintaining a high SEO ranking.
Blog
This is the content you share on a website that provides the reader value. It can be as long or short as you want but best practice says 1500 to 2200 words is the sweet spot. Too long and you can lose the reader. To short and you risk not providing value to the reader.
Brand Awareness
Represents how familiar people are with your brand. Think Clydesdale horses and Budweiser.
Buyer’s Journey
The purchasing path that a buyer goes through to become a customer. The four stages include awareness, consideration, decision, and loyalty. We market to consumers differently at each stage to be most effective.
C
Call-to-Action (CTA)
Written part of a website designed to motivate the reader to take the next step. The next step could be a purchase, make a phone call, join a list, etc.
Chat Bot
Becoming common, it’s software that imitates a person to respond to questions.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
The number of people who click on your ad divided by the number of people who see your ad (impressions). The higher CTR the better! CLICKS ÷ IMPRESSIONS = CTR
Cluster Pages
Pillar pages cover topics from a high level and link to the multiple Cluster Pages that go into greater detail. All the Cluster Pages follow a common them and link to one another. This internal linking of the Cluster Pages and Pillar Page is an effective SEO strategy.
Content
Information for public use that provides value. Examples can be blog posts, videos, e-books, social media posts, guides, and webinars.
Content Marketing
A marketing strategy where useful content is continually provided with the intent to bring in and keep customers hooked by maintaining a positive relationship so they remain paying customers.
Customer Acquisition Cost
The amount of money it takes to convert someone into a customer.
D
Digital Marketing (Online Marketing)
All marketing efforts done on the internet to promote a product or service and connect them to potential customers. Channels used are search engines, websites, social media, email, mobile apps, and text messages.
E
E-Commerce
The buying and selling of goods or services over the internet. Email Marketing: Use of email to deliver content to an audience about products or services while building relationships. Common uses are to welcome a new customer, newsletters, and upcoming promotions. It’s a great way to stay top of mind for repeat business.
Engagement
A common social media KPI, is the number of comments, shares, and likes a post receives.
Evergreen Content
This content can be used repeatedly because it stays relevant to the audience. It doesn’t have an expiration date. It may be in the form of blogs, videos, social media posts, guides, and more. We balance Evergreen Content with Timely Content (trending, news, and pop culture).
G
Geo Targeting
When you have offices in multiple locations, we will use Geo Targeting to deliver each audience-specific content relevant to its location.
Google Ads
Get in front of customers when they’re searching for businesses like yours on Google Search and Maps. Only pay for results, like clicks to your website or calls to your business. This definition was borrowed directly from ads.google.com.
Google Algorithm
The process Google uses to retrieve and deliver search results. Nobody outside of Google knows it, it frequently changes, and they give us hints on how to position our marketing to serve its users.
Google Analytics
The web analytics tool Google uses to measure, collect, analyze, and report website traffic. It’s a valuable tool to measure your ROI on advertising.
Google My Business (GMB)
This is a profile of your business on Google. It’s how your business can show up on Google Maps and in the local search results of Google. Being on GMB is one of the most important things you need to do for your digital marketing efforts.
I
Impressions
This is the number of times your content or ad has been shown, regardless of being read or not. It’s an indicator that we monitor to make sure you’re getting in front of your audience. Impressions are tied closely together with Reach. Inbound marketing: Is the business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them. Definition borrowed from HubSpot, the king of inbound marketing.
Influencer Marketing
This is a commonly used practice in social media marketing that gets endorsements from people that have a large social following. Your brand is shown to their following, potentially exposing your brand to a new and larger audience.
K
Keyword(s)
Can be one word or a short phrase. These words are strategically placed on your website or blog to grab the virtual eye of the search engine, so it knows what results to display when someone is searching for that topic.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
These are metrics that are tracked to see progress towards your marketing goals. The term SMART KPIs is often used. Specific - Measurable - Achievable - Relevant – Time
L
Landing Page
A page people “land on” when coming to your site from an outside source. Generally used to entice people to buy something or exchange their information to become a lead. There is a variety of landing pages.
Lead Magnet
A piece of content you give away in exchange for their information resulting in them becoming a lead. The content can be an e-book, webinar, guide, list and the minimum information you attain is their name and email.
Link Building
When another website has a link to your website a link has been built. The higher the authority of the original website and the number of these links are important for SEO ranking.
Local SEO
As a contractor, you’re only going to provide service to those within a specific radius around you. You want to be on the first page of the search results when someone is searching for your service within that area. Go to Google and type in your service + near me. Does your company show up on the first page? We can get you there!
Long Tail Keywords
Typically consists of three to five more specific words. They’re more specific because the user knows what they’re looking for. This means the buyer is later in the buying cycle and potentially close to purchasing. You want to rank high with these keywords!
Lookalike Audience
This allows you to target an audience that is similar to an audience you already have. When using paid ads, you can use a Lookalike to reach a wider audience you’ve already had success with.
M
Marketing Automation
The use of software to automate tasks done in marketing. AKA, work smarter not harder.
Meta Description
A one or two-sentence description of a page that is shown on the search engine results page. It is an HTML code and an important piece of Technical SEO.
Meta Tags
These are not visible on the website but are important for search engines. They give the search engine an explanation of what the page is about.
Mobile Page Optimization
The process of ensuring your website looks good on and can be accessed from a mobile device. One could have a website that looks great on a computer but terrible on a phone. Our task is to make it look and function on both. When a page is mobile friendly it becomes more relevant to search engines.
O
Off-Page SEO
The elements outside of your website that influence your rankings within the search engine results. Creating backlinks is one of the most important means to optimize Off-Page SEO but another is guest blogging.
On-Page SEO
Optimization of web pages to increase search engine ranking with the use of keywords. The content that needs to be optimized includes title tags, meta descriptions, headlines, and header tags.
Open Rate
A KPI for email marketing that gives the ratio of emails opened over the number sent. The industry average is 10-15% with 30% being an excellent open rate.
Organic Traffic
People coming to your website through various channels at no cost to the business. An example would be someone coming to your website because they saw their friend comment on your Facebook post showing before and after pictures.
P
Pay Per Click (PPC)
Online advertising where payment is only made when potential customers click on your ad.
Persona (Buyer Persona)
Is a representation of your ideal client. To create one, market research and real data are collected to be very specific. It’s important to create a buyer persona so you can market to the right customer.
Pillar Pages
A broad piece of content that overviews many topics and links to other pages (Cluster Pages) that give more detail about each of them. Pillar pages are used with Cluster Pages.
Pixel
This is a piece of code you place on your website that allows you to track data about the people that visit your website. It is very helpful to retarget customers with Facebook.
R
Ranking
In digital marketing, this is used to tell us where your website shows up in search engines. 75-95% of the time people choose from the first page of the search results. Ranking high means, you show up on the first page and this is where you need to be.
Reach
Another KPI that tells you how many people have seen your ad or content. Reach is often monitored in conjunction with Impressions.
Remarketing
Here we can market to people who have already visited your website. Because they’ve already shown some interest in your business, they are more likely to purchase than someone that has never heard of you. Remarketing can show a greater ROI than other forms of paid ads.
Return on Investment (ROI)
The amount of profit gained when compared to money spent to receive it.
S
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you want to rank higher on search engine results, SEO is a must. Let’s face it, every business wants to be higher on the results page. Those that do are the chosen ones. It’s organic and some say the slow game but when you put all the pieces together right, you can start seeing results earlier.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
A digital marketing strategy to increase the visibility of a website to the SERPs. SEO can be part of SEM. Where SEO has no cost and may take longer to see results, SEM uses paid marketing to boost ranking and results are seen quicker.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
When you type anything into a search engine, hit ENTER, whatever loads on the next page is a SERP. It may include ads, organic results, pictures, and videos. The algorithm for each search engine is complex and changes frequently.
T
Targeting/Target audience
This is your ideal client. You can use demographics to get very specific. The more fine-tuned you can be the more your marketing strategy can zero in on that target making the chance for the success of the strategy higher.
Technical SEO
What isn’t included in On-page or Off-page SEO is here in Technical SEO. It includes site speed, mobile-friendliness, XML sitemap, and website security.
Timely Content
This content is time relevant. Types of Timely Content are holidays, seasons, promotions, news, and campaign launches. Timely content must be balanced with Evergreen Content that can be used anytime.
Title Tag
A crucial part of SEO, the title tag is an HTML code tag that gives the website a title
W
Webinar
When you watch a live or recorded workshop, lecture, or presentation you are in a webinar. In a live webinar we can now use the chat portion to interact with the presenter or other participants, sometimes speak, and share files with everyone. Covid boosted their popularity!
Wireframe
In marketing terms, a wireframe is akin to a house’s blueprint for a website or app. It shows where the technical pieces and content go.
