Blog | The Marketing Pod

A Digital Marketing Glossary of Terms

Written by Emma Thompson | 31 March 2023 08:09:02 Z

Digital marketing is constantly evolving, with new trends and technologies emerging at rapid pace. Because of this, it can be hard to keep up with the different terminology used in the digital space. To help improve your understanding of digital marketing, we have compiled a list of the most common terms and what each of them means.

Digital Marketing Terms

  1. Above the fold

  2. Algorithm

  3. Backlink

  4. Bounce rate

  5. CTA

  6. CPC vs CPM

  7. CTR

  8. Domain authority

  9. Internal linking

  10. Keyword

  11. Meta description

  12. PPC

  13. Remarketing

  14. SEO

  15. SERP

  16. Sessions vs page view

  17. Slug

  18. Source and medium

  19. Title tag

  20. UTM

Above the fold

This term refers to the content a user sees on a web page before they start to scroll. The ‘fold’ is the part of a page that starts to display the next parts of content once a user has scrolled down. 

Algorithm

This is an important term in marketing, which describes a mathematical set of rules specifying how data works. In marketing, algorithms are heard most when talking about social media and Google’s search results. 

In social media, algorithms assist in displaying content. With numerous pieces of content on platforms, the sites use data to work out what is being shown. When talking about Google, an algorithm is a set of rules that the platform uses to rank websites in search results. 

Backlink

Backlinks are when a webpage links to a page on another site. They are most commonly discussed in the SEO world, where backlinks are one of Google’s ranking factors. If a high ranking site links to yours, Google will see you as a trusted source, and in turn this will help to improve your own site's rankings.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is a term used in web analytics, and it is the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave before viewing other pages. Bounce rate is a key data statistic in informing marketers about how well a page is performing, if users are staying to have a look around, or if the page is not useful to them.

CTA

“CTA” stands for call to action and is the term used to describe a prompt encouraging users to take an action. Examples of CTAs are “Sign Up” or “Contact Us”. CTAs are used across many different tactics in digital marketing. You will see them on organic social posts, paid advertising, websites and much more. 

CPC vs CPM

“CPC” stands for cost per click, and refers to the amount of money an advertiser pays for a click on their ad. When an advertiser is using a CPC method, they are paying every time someone clicks on their ad.

CPM stands for cost per mille or cost per thousand. This means that advertisers, instead of paying for clicks, pay every time an ad is seen 1000 times. This way of bidding tends to be used if a campaign goal is awareness. If the goal is increasing site visits or leads, CPC is advised.

CTR

Click-through rate, shortened to CTR, refers to the amount of times an ad is seen vs the amount of clicks it has. CTRs are often used to define the success of a campaign, but this metric does largely depend on the factors surrounding the data, such as how many people are in your audience and the intent of the ad, to name a few.

Domain authority

Domain authority (DA) is an SEO term that effects a website's Google ranking. It is a number that predicts how likely your site is to appear against competitors. Originally developed by Moz, a site’s DA made up of how many backlinks, internal links and ranking keywords a site has. However, quality of backlinks also has a large role to play; with backlinks from high DA sites, being more important than a lot of backlinks from poor trusted sites.

Internal linking

Whilst on the topic of linking, an important aspect of digital marketing and a site’s performance is internal linking, also known as inter linking. This term refers to a site's structure and how well pages link to other pages on the site. There are many benefits of internal linking such as; better user experience, increasing website sessions/engagement time and improve crawler efficiency.

Keyword

A keyword in digital marketing refers to a word or phrase that a user types into a search engine to find relevant information. Incorporating relevant keywords into your content strategies and website dialogue helps to increase rankings across search engines. When used in PPC, advertisers can bid on certain keywords so that when a user searches for it, an ad will appear directing the user to a site.

Meta description

A meta description is a short piece of text created in the back end of a site and shown on a search engine results page. It is used to summarise a page's context and is displayed underneath a page title. The main goal of meta descriptions is to encourage users to click through to your page being displayed. A strong meta description strategy should always be included in a SEO optimization scheme.

 PPC

“PPC” stands for pay per click. It is an advertising method where marketers pay each time their ad is clicked on. However, it is also more generally used to describe online advertising methods. To find more about PPC and the different tactics, see our “Paid Advertising 101”.

Remarketing

Remarketing when used in digital marketing refers to when an advertiser is remarketing a product, page or service to a user who has already visited their site, seen an ad or engaged with other forms of marketing activity. Remarketing or retargeting is often used in digital advertising and is a strong tactic for keeping users engaged with your services or offering.

SEO

Search engine optimisation also known as SEO is the activity of optimising a site to ensure it is more findable and visible in a SERP such as Google. Within SEO, there are multiple aspects such as Technical SEO; working on things such as site speed and ensuring that a site is mobile friendly. There is On-page SEO; improving anything visible on your site such as web copy, keywords, blogs and more. Finally, there is Off-page SEO; this can include strategies such as backlinks, social media and brand building. To find more about SEO XYZ (link to SEO blog).

SERP

When talking about SEO, you will hear the term SERP; this stands for search engine results page. It is a page that shows up when a user submits a search query. Examples of SERP’s include, Google, Bing, Yahoo and even YouTube. A SERP tends to be made up of a mixture of organic results and also paid ads. 

Sessions vs page view

Website sessions and page views are two metrics that data analysts and marketers will use to track the performance of pages and websites. But often, the two can get mixed up. A page view is when a user clicks onto one single page, as soon as they enter the page, Google classes that interaction as a page view. However, when it then turns into a session, is when a user will perform a set of multiple actions within a time frame. An example of this would be a user clicking on a page, then exploring the site further by clicking on other pages.

Slug

A ‘slug’ refers to the end part of a website URL, after the backslash. It is used to explain a page’s content and, when used correctly, can benefit a website’s ranking in a SERP. Some best practices for the use of slugs would be to keep them short and simple, include keywords where possible and make it user-friendly, often by using hyphens to separate words. 

Source and medium

Two terms used in reporting to analyse data; source and medium. Source stands for where traffic has come from, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter. Medium stands for how the traffic got to the site, for example; through PPC, organically, referral. 

Title tag

A title tag in digital marketing is an HTML code that allows a webpage to display a title. A page’s title tag is displayed on a search engine results page, browser tabs and social media. It is not just the name of a page, but also a major ranking factor. It allows Google to know how relevant your page’s content will be to a user and will be the first thing a user sees when searching for a term. 

UTM 

The final term in this digital marketing glossary of terms we will discuss is UTM tracking. UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, and is a snippet of code that appears at the end of a URL. The purpose of UTMs is to help track website traffic, where it has come from and what the traffic is linked to. Elements such as source, medium and campaign name are found in UTMs and are a vital part of any digital marketing campaign.