Extended Glossary

  1. A/B testing: An experimentation process to compare two versions of a variable, such as a web page or page element, to determine which scenario has the most positive impact upon visitors.
  2. Audience grouping: Also called “segmentation.” The process of subdividing a general audience into distinct subsets of customers who occupy similar demographics, behave similarly, or have similar needs.
  3. Audience mindset: The perspective that your company or brand’s audience should be at the center of your marketing strategies, which includes doing audience research and becoming “audience to your audience.”
  4. Audience research: The process of collecting data about your target audience to learn about their interests and motivations for the purposes of forming audience groups and personas.
  5. Average ranking position: The average of the keyword rankings you track over a set period of time.
  6. Average time on page: A website metric measuring the average time spent on a single page across all users.
  7. B2B: Stands for “business-to-business,” and refers to transactions between businesses, such as between a retailer and wholesaler.
  8. B2C: Stands for “business-to-consumer,” and refers to the process of businesses selling directly to consumers.
  9. Backlink: A link from a domain outside your website that links back to your website.
  10. Banner ads: A popular form of online advertising in which a rectangular graphic is displayed across the top, bottom, or sides of a website.
  11. Blog post: Content, most often writing, that is posted on a blog.
  12. Bounce rate: The percentage of all sessions in which a user only visited a single page before leaving the website.
  13. Brand awareness: The extent to which people recognize the existence of a company’s product or service.
  14. Brand identity: The image constructed by a company about itself.
  15. Brand story: A cohesive narrative about your brand that expresses your tone, style, mission, or other important elements of the business that aim to provoke an emotional reaction within customers.
  16. Brand voice: Your company’s distinct personality across online and offline marketing materials.
  17. Business objective: Specific and measurable results that a company hopes to maintain or achieve as the business grows.
  18. Buyer personas: Fictional characters designed from customer interactions and insights to represent a type of customer.
  19. Buyer’s journey: The process a customer goes through as they consider making a purchase.
  20. Call to Action (CTA): The next step that a marketer wants the customer to take, such as signing up or calling in.
  21. Clickbait: A misleading element, such as a catchy headline, designed only to get a user to click a link, though the link may not deliver quality or appropriate information.
  22. Click-Through Rate (CTR): A percentage rate measuring how often people who see your content, such as a link or ad, end up clicking on it.
  23. Competitor analysis: The process of researching the content produced by your online search competitors to identify opportunities and weaknesses in your own content production.
  24. Consumer decision journey: A framework to evaluate how customers make their purchasing decisions to help marketers understand and influence those decisions.
  25. Consumer psychology: The field of study that researches, investigates, and explores how thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and perceptions may influence purchasing decisions.
  26. Content: Any material produced that can be viewed, read, heard, consumed intellectually, or shared.
  27. Content audit: A type of progress report for a content marketing strategy that should be conducted regularly to help identify what is working well and could be improved.
  28. Content manual: Documentation outlining the content strategy and style for content marketing.
  29. Content marketing: The act of producing relevant materials for a targeted audience group in order to provide value to the customer, inspire trust, and cultivate brand loyalty.
  30. Content optimization: Strategic practices designed to make content more easily discoverable and readable across the web.
  31. Content production: The process of creating content for content marketing.
  32. Content shift: The process of evolving a marketing mindset from product- or company-centered thinking toward audience- and search-focused strategies tailored to answering customer questions with high-quality, relevant content.
  33. Content strategy: A written document that outlines how your content marketing will achieve your business goals.
  34. Content strategist: A manager or editor on a content marketing team who is responsible for overseeing and directing overall content production, from defining goals and assigning tasks to measuring success and innovating.
  35. Content tracker: May also be called a “content planner” or “editorial calendar.” A working document that keeps track of all relevant content production details, such as deadlines, publication dates, and other status information.
  36. Conversion: The point at which a customer takes a desired marketing action, such as signing up on a form or making a purchase.
  37. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): The intentional process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as filling out a form or completing a purchase.
  38. Copyedit: The process of checking the consistency and accuracy of written text.
  39. Core keywords: The queries or phrases determined through search research to be the most relevant and valuable to your business, usually closely related to your core pages and often reflective of the business’s primary services or products.
  40. Core pages: The revenue-producing pages on a company’s website, often product or service pages, usually landing pages.
  41. Core questions: Keyword-researched customer search queries that are closely related to what your business does or sells.
  42. Cross-linking: A key element of on-page optimization that connects relevant anchor text to another page on-site using a hyperlink.
  43. Cumulative advantage: The business phenomenon that occurs when a customer continues to stay with a service or goods provider because of the convenience and ease that has built over time. In other words, the effort that would be required to switch providers would be more painful than continuing with the current provider.
  44. Domain authority: A search engine ranking score on a scale of 1-100 that predicts how likely it is for a website to rank on a Search Engines Results Page (SERP).
  45. Ecommerce: The buying and selling of goods on the Internet.
  46. Emotional psychology: In marketing, the study of the feelings and emotions in human purchasing behavior.
  47. Entrance: The page at which a visitor enters a website.
  48. Evergreen content: Naturally helpful and organically robust topics that stay relevant and fresh to search engines and users long after the material has been published because of their popularity among your audience and relatively timeless
  49. Exit: The page at which a visitor leaves a website.
  50. Filtering: The process of a user scanning through website results or web pages looking for the information they want.
  51. Geo-location: The use of location technologies such as GPS to physically track the location of electronic devices.
  52. Google Analytics: A free online data-collection tool for tracking website metrics.
  53. Guest post: A piece of content written by a guest for another company’s website.
  54. Head terms: Extremely popular and heavily searched terms online that have very high search volume, often general or vague phrases that are only one or two words long.
  55. Implied question: The indirect question behind a user’s search phrase, for example, the implied question behind “Nike shoes” might be “where to buy Nike shoes.”
  56. Impression: The moment when a user views an advertisement online.
  57. Inbound links: A link from another website that directs people to your website.
  58. Inbound marketing: A marketing tactic that focuses on creating content to attract target audiences and customer relationships.
  59. Infographic: A visual graphic that presents information or data.
  60. Influencer: In marketing, a person with the ability to influence others to buy or engage with a product or service by promoting it on social media.
  61. Information age: The historical period that began in the mid-20th century characterized by a rapid shift from traditional industry to an economy of information technology.
  62. Informational search: A search performed by a user of a search engine that is primarily aimed at finding specific information.
  63. Key Performance Indicator (KPI): The critical indicators of progress toward a desired result.
  64. Keyword: In digital marketing, a word or phrase used by customers to perform a search, often linked to the content of a Search Engines Results Page (SERP).
  65. Keyword modifiers: Additional words added onto a core keyword that increases the specificity of the search, such as adjectives, verbs, slang, locations, shopping terms, or parts of a question.
  66. Keyword performance: The success metric of the results gained from using keyword-associated marketing tactics.
  67. Keyword ranking report: A report showing the organic ranking positions of targeted keywords.
  68. Keyword research: The process of gathering data about the search terms people use to find information related to your business online.
  69. Keyword stuffing: The act of using the same keywords over and over again in a piece of content in order to boost rankings.
  70. Landing page: A single web page created specifically for users to land on during a particular marketing campaign.
  71. Lead: Anyone who has interacted with your brand who has the potential to become a customer.
  72. Long tail: The “mile wide and inch deep” part of the search curve that contains the longer, more specific, more detailed, and less popular search queries, including multiple iterations and modifications of any given keyword.
  73. Marketing: Any set of activities a company takes to promote or sell its products and services.
  74. Market research: The process of gathering information about customers’ needs, interests, and preferences.
  75. Mid-tail: Search terms that generally fall in between long-tail and head terms regarding length and intent.
  76. Navigational search: Search queries that send users to a specific URL.
  77. New user: Someone who has never visited a website before and is interacting with your website content for the first time.
  78. Niche market: A specific segment of a larger market that can be defined by its own unique identity that differentiates it from the market at large.
  79. Opt-in: A type of permission marketing that involves using a sign-up form or other form of information-gathering to collect customer data.
  80. Organic search results: The search results delivered by Google on a SERP that are the unpaid listings below the ad results.
  81. Organic traffic: Web traffic directed to your website through a search engine and not paid advertisements.
  82. Page Authority (PA): A 100-point score developed by the marketing company Moz to indicate where a specific page will rank on the SERP and how it is performing compared to competitors.
  83. Page speed: A measurement of how quickly the content on your page loads.
  84. Pages per session: A score that indicates the average number of pages that users access per session.
  85. Paid search marketing: A type of digital marketing that allows businesses to pay search engines for spots on the SERP that are higher up with the goal of driving more traffic to their website.
  86. Pain point: A specific problem that faces your current or prospective customers anywhere along the buying journey.
  87. Pageview: An instance of a page being loaded in a browser.
  88. Path to Purchase: The journey a user takes to convert from a prospect into a customer, which may occur across different channels and campaigns.
  89. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: A model of digital marketing where the advertiser pays a fee each time their ad is clicked.
  90. Permission marketing: A form of marketing that specifically requires users to make the choice of opting in to receive messages from a business.
  91. Point of Purchase (POP): Also known as Point of Sale (POS), this is the moment and location where a sales transaction is finalized.
  92. Post-purchase: The last stage of the Search Cycle when content marketing strategies are focused on follow-up topics with customers.
  93. Previous Page Path: A dimension of Google Analytics that shows the page visited by a user right before the current page.
  94. Proprietary eponym: Specific brand names that have become so widespread that they are culturally synonymous with the generic version of that item.
  95. Processing fluency: The ability of our brains to recognize repeated experiences.
  96. Proofread: To look over a written document looking for any errors in grammar, syntax, spelling, or punctuation.
  97. Publishing mindset: The mindset of a content marketer that sees content production as synonymous with professional publishing.
  98. Pull marketing: A type of marketing that focuses on attracting customers through specific, audience-focused content.
  99. Purchasing decision: The end result of a customer’s process of identifying a need, gathering information about options, and choosing a brand or product.
  100. Push marketing: A type of marketing that brings the product to customers, such as in broadcast marketing.
  101. Query: A phrase typed into a search engine.
  102. Quick start guide: A type of content that offers instructions for product use.
  103. Ranking: A website’s position in the SERP.
  104. Related keyword: A word or phrase that is closely linked to another keyword, semantically or conceptually.
  105. Return visitor: A user that has been to a website before.
  106. Rule of 7: A marketing idiom that states a customer must see a message at least 7 times before they are convinced to take an action.
  107. Sales cycle: The series of marketing events that occur during the pre-purchase discovery phase of a product being sold.
  108. Sales funnel: A visual representation of a customer’s buying journey, showing the sales process from awareness to action.
  109. Scraped content: Content that is stolen from another website and used as if it were original.
  110. Search behavior: The trends and actions taken by a user.
  111. Search competitor: Websites that can be found by using the same search terms as yours.
  112. Search Cycle: An online model of the buyer’s path to purchase, which specifically details five stages of customer interactions on search engines, including: Awareness, Information Gathering, Evaluation, Commitment, and Support.
  113. Search engine: A program that delivers website content based on a database of keywords specified by the user.
  114. Search engine algorithm: A set of rules that search engines use to determine the importance of a web page.
  115. Search Engine Marketing (SEM): A type of marketing used to increase a website’s visibility in search engines.
  116. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Also called “organic search marketing.” An arm of digital marketing focused on growing web traffic organically through non-paid advertising.
  117. Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page that appears after a search query is typed into a search engine.
  118. Search evidence: Information gathered by conducting search research around keywords.
  119. Search filter: A specific attribute a user can determine to refine the search results for a search query.
  120. Search metrics: Website indicators that can be measured to track and improve web page performance.
  121. Search mindset: The perspective that centers search engines as a valuable tool for connecting customers with companies in the online marketplace.
  122. Search strategy: A marketing tactic that uses search evidence to target specific keywords with the goal of increasing a website’s visibility online.
  123. Search volume: The average number of searches for a keyword during a set time frame, usually measured monthly.
  124. Segmentation: The process of dividing up audience groups based on demographics or other factors.
  125. Semantic search: A search engine’s ability to consider the context, intent, relationship, location, and history of a searcher in order to deliver relevant results.
  126. Session: The range of time that a user is active on a website.
  127. Sponsored links: A paid ad on a SERP, often a hyperlink.
  128. Spam: Unwanted content, often sent to many users multiple times.
  129. Spider: The name for a program that works to deliver up-to-date search results for a search engine.
  130. Spun content: The content that is created by rewriting an article, designed to trick Google into thinking it’s new content in order to increase search results for a website, or using a bot to do so.
  131. Style guide: A document guiding the voice and aesthetic for a company’s marketing team.
  132. Subheading: An additional heading or title that appears after the main title or headline of an article.
  133. Subject discovery: The process of using search research to determine topics of interest to your audience.
  134. Subscriber: A user who has signed on to receive some form of subscription from a brand, such as a mailing list.
  135. Target audience: A group of people who buy your products or consume your content.
  136. Thin content: Content that offers little to no value, often very brief, generic, and vague.
  137. Thought leader: Someone who is considered an informed guide in their field of expertise.
  138. Touchpoint: A point of contact between a business and its customers or prospective customers.
  139. Transactional search: A search query that indicates an intent to make a purchase.
  140. User experience (UX): The practice of making web pages easier and more pleasant to read and navigate.
  141. Value proposition: A service or feature that makes a company or product attractive to customers.
  142. Visibility: The overall presence and ability of a brand or company to be found online through search queries.
  143. Vision statement: A guiding statement for the ideal direction of a company.
  144. Web page: A hypertext document on the Internet.
  145. Web traffic: The volume of users who visit a website.
  146. Website architecture: The hierarchical structure of a website’s pages.
  147. Whitepaper: A detailed report that informs readers about a complex issue and offers a stance or solution.