404 error
A page not found error. Should be handled with a helpful custom page.
Topics: Websites
Glossary
Browse definitions. Filter by starting letter or by topic.
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A
A/B test
A controlled experiment comparing two versions of an ad, audience or landing page to find the better performer.
Topics: Digital Advertising
A/B/n testing
Testing multiple page or element variants to improve conversions.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Accessibility (WCAG)
Standards that make websites usable for people with disabilities. Good for users and SEO.
Topics: Websites
Ad rank
Google Ads’ competitive position of your ad in the auction, influenced by bid, quality and expected impact.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Alt text
Alternative text describes the images on web pages for accessibility. Search engine robots also use this to identify what is in an image.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Alt text
Text descriptions of images for accessibility and SEO.
Topics: Video and Photography
Anchor text
The text with which you link to internal or external pages.
Topics: SEO and CRO
API
A method for applications to talk to each other and exchange data.
Topics: Martech
Aspect ratio
The width-to-height proportion of an image or video, e.g. 1:1 or 9:16.
Topics: Graphic Design
Attribution model
Rules that assign credit for conversions across touchpoints, such as last click or data-driven.
Attribution window
The time period after an ad interaction during which a conversion is credited to the ad.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Automation (email)
Prebuilt emails triggered by actions or time, such as welcome or abandoned cart flows.
Topics: Email Marketing
B
B-roll
Supplementary footage used to add context or visual interest to a video.
Topics: Video and Photography
Backlink
A link from another website to your site. High-quality backlinks can improve rankings.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Backlinks
Or “inbound links” are links from other websites that direct to your website.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Bid strategy
How a platform spends your budget to achieve a goal, such as maximise conversions or target CPA.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Boosted post
A paid promotion of an existing organic post to reach more people.
Topics: Social Media
Brand guidelines
A reference for using your logo, colours, fonts, imagery and tone consistently.
Topics: Graphic Design
C
Canonical URL
The preferred version of a page when duplicates exist, set to consolidate signals.
Topics: SEO and CRO
CDP (customer data platform)
Software that unifies first-party data from multiple sources for activation and analysis.
Click rate
Percentage of delivered emails that had at least one link clicked.
Topics: Email Marketing
CMS (content management system)
Software used to create and manage website content. WordPress is the most common CMS.
Topics: Websites
Community management
Responding to comments and messages and fostering audience relationships.
Topics: Social Media
Competition
The density of advertisers bidding on this keyword for their ads on the national level.
Topics: Digital Ads, SEO and CRO
Content pillar
A recurring theme that guides social content planning.
Topics: Social Media
Conversion
A meaningful action taken after seeing an ad, such as a purchase, form submit or phone call.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Conversion rate
The percentage of visits or clicks that result in a conversion.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Core Web Vitals
Google metrics for loading, interactivity and visual stability used to evaluate page experience.
Topics: SEO and CRO
CPC
Cost-per-click is the amount advertisers pay per ad click
Topics: Digital Ads, SEO and CRO
CPC (cost per click)
The average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad.
Topics: Digital Advertising
CPM (cost per mille)
The cost to deliver one thousand ad impressions.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Creative concept
The central idea that ties campaign visuals and messages together.
Topics: Graphic Design
Creator partnership
A collaboration with a content creator to produce and share sponsored content.
Topics: Social Media
CRM (customer relationship management)
A system for managing contacts, deals and communications across the customer lifecycle.
CRO (conversion rate optimisation)
Improving pages and user journeys to increase the percentage of visitors who convert.
Topics: SEO and CRO
CTR (click through rate)
The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click. Calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
Topics: Digital Advertising
D
Dashboard
A live view of key performance metrics from multiple sources.
Deal stage
A step in your sales pipeline that tracks progress towards closing.
Topics: CRM
Deliverability
The ability of an email to reach the inbox rather than the spam folder.
Topics: Email Marketing
E
Earned media
Publicity gained through editorial coverage rather than paid placements.
Topics: Media, PR and Influencers
Editorial calendar
A schedule that maps content topics, formats and publication dates.
Topics: Content Marketing
Embargo
A request that information not be published before a specific date and time.
Topics: Media, PR and Influencers
Engagement rate
Interactions such as reactions, comments, shares and saves divided by reach or followers.
Topics: Social Media
Evergreen content
Content that stays relevant over time and continues to attract traffic.
Topics: Content Marketing
F
First-party data
Information you collect directly from customers through your channels.
Frequency
The average number of times a person saw your ad in a set period.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Funnel
The journey from awareness to consideration to conversion and loyalty.
Topics: Marketing Planning and Strategy
H
Header tags – H1, H2
A HTML element used to designate and differentiate headings on your page.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Heatmap
A visual report showing where users click, move and scroll on a page.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Hosting
The server space where your website files live. Impacts speed and security.
Topics: Websites
I
Impressions
The total number of times your ad was shown.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Influencer brief
A document outlining deliverables, timelines, key messages and approvals for a collaboration.
Topics: Media, PR and Influencers
Internal links
Links between different pages on your own website.
Topics: SEO and CRO
K
Keyword
A word or phrase people type into search engines. Used for targeting and on-page optimisation.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Keyword Difficulty
An estimation of how easy it would be to rank your website for this keyword.
Topics: SEO and CRO
L
Landing page
The web page people arrive on after clicking an ad, designed to drive a single action.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Lead magnet
A valuable resource offered in exchange for contact details, such as a guide or checklist.
Topics: Content Marketing
Lead source
Where a contact or deal originated, used for reporting and optimisation.
Topics: CRM
List hygiene
Regularly removing invalid or inactive contacts to improve performance.
Topics: Email Marketing
Lookalike audience
A Meta or Google audience that finds new people similar to your best customers.
Topics: Digital Advertising
M
Media release
A written announcement sent to journalists to share newsworthy updates.
Topics: Media, PR and Influencers
Meta description
A short summary shown in search results that can influence click throughs.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Meta descriptions
HTML elements that describe the contents of the page that they’re on.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Meta title
An HTML element that names a page in search results and browser tabs.
Topics: SEO and CRO
N
Negative keyword
A keyword that prevents your ads from showing for unwanted searches.
Topics: Digital Advertising
NoFollow
NoFollow links tell search engines not to pass PageRank to the linking website.
Topics: SEO and CRO
O
On-page SEO
Optimisations on a page such as titles, headings, copy, internal links and images.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Open rate
Percentage of delivered emails that were opened. Impacted by privacy features.
Topics: Email Marketing
P
Persona
A semi-fictional profile representing a key audience segment, used to guide messaging and channels.
Topics: Marketing Planning and Strategy
Personalisation
Tailoring email content using subscriber data such as name, location or past behaviour.
Topics: Email Marketing
Pitch (media)
A tailored message to a journalist suggesting a story idea or angle.
Topics: Media, PR and Influencers
PMax (Performance Max)
A Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to run across all Google networks from a single goal-based campaign.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Positioning
How you want your brand to be perceived relative to competitors.
Topics: Marketing Planning and Strategy
PPC
Search advertising where advertisers pay for each click on their ad that is shown in the SERP.
Topics: Digital Ads, SEO and CRO
Q
Quality score
Google Ads metric estimating the relevance and quality of keywords, ads and landing pages.
Topics: Digital Advertising
R
Reach
The number of unique accounts that saw your post or story.
Topics: Social Media
Reach (paid)
The number of unique people who saw your ad.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Remarketing
Showing ads to people who have already interacted with your business, such as visiting your website.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Repurposing
Turning one piece of content into multiple formats and channels.
Topics: Content Marketing
Responsive design
Design that adapts to different screen sizes for a consistent experience.
Topics: Websites
ROAS (return on ad spend)
Revenue generated divided by ad spend. A measure of advertising efficiency.
Topics: Digital Advertising
Robots.txt
A file that tells search engine crawlers which URLs they can or cannot access.
Topics: SEO and CRO
S
Schema markup
Structured data that helps search engines understand and display your content as rich results.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Search Volume (SV)
The average number of times per month that a keyword was searched for on Google (nationally).
Topics: SEO and CRO
Segmentation
Grouping subscribers by shared traits to send more relevant messages.
Topics: Email Marketing
SEO (search engine optimisation)
Improving your website to increase visibility in unpaid search results.
Topics: SEO and CRO
SERP “search engine results page”
The page you see after search in your search engine (Google, Bing, etc.).
Topics: SEO and CRO
Sitemap
A file that lists your pages to help search engines discover and crawl your site.
Topics: SEO and CRO
SMART goal
A goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Topics: Marketing Planning and Strategy
Social listening
Monitoring online conversations about your brand, competitors or industry.
Topics: Social Media
SSL certificate
Security technology that encrypts data sent between a browser and your site, shown as https.
Topics: Websites
Storyboard
A sequence of frames that plan out a video before filming.
Topics: Video and Photography
T
Technical SEO
Back-end improvements like site speed, indexation, structured data and sitemaps.
Topics: SEO and CRO
Tone of voice
How your brand sounds in writing. Should be consistent across content.
Topics: Content Marketing
Trend
How much interest web searchers have shown for a keyword in the last 12 months.
Topics: SEO and CRO
U
UGC (user-generated content)
Content created by customers and fans that a brand may reshare, with permission.
Topics: Social Media
UTM parameters
Tags added to URLs to track campaign performance in analytics platforms.
Topics: Digital Advertising
V
Value proposition
The core benefit your brand promises to deliver and why it is different.
Topics: Marketing Planning and Strategy
W
Workflow automation
Rules that trigger actions across tools, such as sending emails or updating CRM fields.
Topics: Martech