550 Content Marketing Terms That You Should Know

Marketing your business is a necessity when it comes to long-term growth and vitality. Marketing encompasses all types of media, ranging from social media to email and blogging. Understanding the terms surrounding content marketing is a must. We have compiled a list of marketing terms you need to know from A to Z. 

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A/B Testing

Sometimes you need to compare two different alternatives to decide which one looks best. A/B Testing is essentially a compare “A” to “B” type of test. Users may be directed to two different sites, either the original site or new one or two versions of a new site, and they will be asked to determine which one is preferable.

Above the Fold

“Above the fold” is a term taken from print journalism. With newspapers, any story that was of value and was considered the most important on the front page was put above the fold or above where the paper was folded in half to be stacked. It was the first thing you saw when you picked up the paper. Similarly, saying something is above the fold on a web site is the area that is visible without having to scroll down. When a user clicks on your site and is directed to the home page, that person may make a judgment call on whether to stay on the page based on the information he or she immediately sees “above the fold.”

Accessibility

Pages need to be accessible, meaning they need to be viewable and usable for every visitor. Accessibility means that, no matter what type of device or browser the user is using, that person will be able to access the site. 

Account Manager

The account manager (or account executive) is the person who handles a client’s account. When you hire a company to design your web site, the account manager is your main point of contact and is the one leading your project.

Action

An action is anything a visitor does when visiting a site. These actions can include buying a product, emailing an article, “liking” a page or clicking on a link. You want visitors to perform actions when reading your content so it is important that this value is measurable.

Active Verbs

You may remember this one from elementary school. Active verbs are called “doing words.” Rather than more passive verbs like “is, was, have” active verbs directly encourage the site visitor to do something. This can include buying a product, signing up to regularly receive a newsletter or other actions.

Ad Space

Ad space is advertising space. It is the place on your page where advertisements are listed.

AdSense

AdSense is an advertising program offered through Google. Targeted advertising is picked based on your site’s content. AdSense is a revenue-generating program and is quite popular for your more basic sites. 

Advertorial

An advertorial is not your normal advertisement. It is more content-focused, and it is written like an editorial piece. 

AdWords

Another advertising program offered through Google, AdWords makes sure that advertisements appear that relate to the user’s specific search query. For example, if you are doing a search for dog food, the advertisements you will see will relate to pet care or pet food and not home inspections.

Affiliate Marketing

When advertisements are placed onto a site through an agreement with the web site owner so that visitors are directed to the advertising company’s site, this is called affiliate marketing. The site owner earns income whenever a visitor either visits or buys from the advertising company’s site after clicking on the advertisement.

Aggregated Content

Aggregated content is content that has been taken from several sources and has been accumulated into one piece. Several different methods exist, including just an easy reuse of external content, to content curation and news aggregation services.

Agile

Agility means flexibility and speed. Quality sites are agile, meaning they give quick responses and updates on new opportunities or events

ALT-Tags

ALT-tags is short for alternative tag, which is a short written description of an object or image on a web page. Search engines utilize ALT-tags to find images, and some ALT-tags utilize text-to-speech tools to allow users who are visually impaired to access a site.

Analytics

Google Analytics is a program utilized to analyze data to acquire information. It takes this information and provides the web designer data and statistics on the site such as the number of visitors, the origin of traffic and income generated.

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text used in a hyperlink. Users hover over the words that are usually underlined and in blue, and they are taken to a new page. Anchor text is also used by search engines in terms of rankings and pulling search results. 

App

You hear the word “app” used a lot in the context of Smartphones, and an app is short for application. Apps are normally programs for mobile devices, including Smartphones or tablets. Many different types of apps exist out there ranging from calendars to kids’ games.

Article

An article is any type of written piece. Usually, articles are considered more informative in terms of journalism, explaining on a specific area or topic. However, they are lengthier and more in-depth than your typical brief news piece.

Article Marketing

Content is often the best way to drive quality traffic to your site. Article marketing is one strategy involving using article content to bring in that traffic and generate links to the content. Those links will then boost your site’s rankings on search engines.

Astroturfing

Not all individuals go about marketing with ethical methods. Astroturfing is frowned upon and is a controversial way of generating traffic by using fake or covert user comments or reviews to promote a product or idea. Freelance writers are often paid per review and are asked to prepare a negative or positive review for something depending on the client.

Atomization

So many different types of content exist and these different types come in varying formats. Atomization is the process of taking that content and formatting it to fit the medium. It can be a way of taking a long article, extracting the content and re-writing it to fit into a blog post or social media post.

Attribution

When you have success in a specific marketing strategy, practising attribution or identifying what marketing channels or actions brought you that successful result is key. After all, you want to develop the best marketing strategy possible so it is imperative you identify what works and what does not as you go along.

Audit and Mapping

Audit and mapping is a stage in the marketing strategy process where key players audit the company’s content against buyer persona’s, needs and wants to identify any gaps that might exist and the need for any changes in terms of content marketing to dry in new and better buyers.

Authorship

It is always proper to credit the person who created the written content when posting it. Authorship is that process. A lot of freelance content is written via a ghost-writing format, which is an easy and quick way to get content. However, having a named author often adds more credibility to the piece.

Autoblog

Auto blogging is posting content taken from other sources and doing so automatically.

Autoresponder

Essentially, an autoresponder is your out of office message. It is the mechanism that allows you to send automatic replies to senders of emails or texts. The content in this auto response can be whatever you need it to be.

B2B Marketing

“B2B” stands for “business to business” marketing. The practice involves one business marketing its services directly to another business instead of the general public. 

B2C Marketing

“B2C,” on the other hand, stands for “business to consumer” marketing. This practice involves a business marketing its services or products directly to the public or general consumer rather than to a business. 

Backlinko

Backlinko is a blog focused on SEO practices and content marketing strategies. It was established and run by Brian Dean. 

Backlinks

Backlinks point a user back to a web site from another external site. Another term often used for backlinks are incoming or inbound links. Backlinks are one factor utilized by search engines in determining ranking. 

Bad Neighborhoods

You have always been told to stay out of bad neighborhoods, right? Well, apparently, that saying works for online marketing as well. Bad neighborhoods are web sites that use unethical SEO practices to be ranked higher in search engine results. These techniques can include link farming or cloaking. Stay out of those bad neighborhoods!

Banner Ads

Banner ads are advertisements you see embedded into a web page’s design. These advertisements are determined by the visitor’s search history. 

Big Data

These are sets of data that are too large to be analyzed by traditional methods. As technology expands and grows, data becomes too much for normal analyzation tools. Therefore, you have big data.

Bing SEO

Microsoft’s search engine is otherwise known as Bing. Bing SEO are search optimization methods to help a site improve its ranking in this search engine. 

Black Hat SEO

Just like those bad neighborhoods, black hat SEO describe unethical or dishonest techniques used to get around the algorithms search engines used to determine site rankings. You should expect some severe penalties if you are caught using black hat SEO tactics. 

Blacklist

Sites that have been flagged as being spammers are included on a blacklist. If your organization or site has been included on the blacklist, emails sent from associated IP addresses will be rejected. 

Blog

Blogs are short-form publishing platforms used by both individuals and organizations. They started off as more of a diary format for individual users, but they have quickly developed as a way for companies and organizations to share news, content, information and editorial pieces. 

Blogosphere

The blogosphere is the blogging community. This community includes the blogs themselves, readers as well as the writers, otherwise known as “bloggers.”

Boilerplate

Companies use boilerplate language when constructing legal documents or language that is going to be used repeatedly. This standard text is usually the “fine print” included in company documents and web pages. 

Bookmarking

Users bookmark pages they want to come back and visit again. Most Internet browsers offer this method, but users can also go about bookmarking pages through third party services. 

Boost Blog Traffic

Boost Blog Traffic is a blog created and run by Jon Morrow, and its purpose is to help bloggers achieve as many readers as possible. 

Bottom of the Funnel

The bottom of the funnel describes the last stage of pitching sales ideas, representing the process from a sale going from prospect to purchase. This is the last stage to getting that lead to become a customer.

Bounce Rate

When a viewer comes to your site only to quickly click out of your site that is known as a “bounce.” Web designers want to keep the bounce rate as low as possible. You want to keep people on your site for as long as possible so they explore the various pages you have on your site.

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness measures how well the public knows your brand. You can measure this by how many visitors come to your site through a search query by searching terms that include the actual company name versus general words. 

Brand Building

Building your brand is the essence of marketing. This term describes building awareness and increasing popularity surrounding your company or product. 

Brand Engagement

The perceptions, opinions or connections customers have with your brand is otherwise known as brand engagement. 

Brand Evangelist

A brand evangelist is someone who has very strong, positive feelings for a product or company brand. Customers who are considered “brand evangelist” are often asked to give positive reviews and editorials on the product. 

Brand Journalism

When content is produced by a brand, which is otherwise known as brand journalism. It is one method of ensuring that the brand is considered an authoritative voice in the industry. 

Brand Terrorist

The opposite of a brand evangelist, a brand terrorist is someone who has strong negative feelings about a brand and seeks to tear down the popularity of the brand online. 

Brand Visibility

Brand visibility is the type and amount of exposure a brand gets. You want to increase your brand visibility, and this can be accomplished by producing good content and diversifying your online marketing strategies. 

Breadcrumb Links

The more pages you click into a web site, the deeper you get into its structure. Like Hansel and Gretel, you may need some breadcrumbs to find your way out. Breadcrumb links are trails of links found either at the top or bottom of the page that direct the user as to where they are in terms of the entire site’s structure. 

Business Bolts

Another popular marketing blog, Business Bolts provides online business and SEO training. The blog is produced and run by Lisa Parmley. 

Buyer’s Journey

A visitor to your site goes through many different stages from finding your company online to becoming a loyal customer. Devices exist to measure and gather data on these stages to trace out the buyer’s journey, as a means to help market better to similar future customers. 

Buzz

Anytime a product is launched or new information or updates come out about an already-existing product, a lot of “buzz” is said to be produced. Buzz describes the interest and enthusiasm for this new development.

Calls-to-action

Calls-to-action are a technique utilized in online marketing to turn potential or hopeful customers into actual customers. When designing a page, marketers will ask their clients what the goal of their site is and what kind of customer they would like to attract. 

Canonicalization

Some web pages have more than one URL. This can present a problem for search engines in terms of determining which one to rank above the other. This practice is otherwise known as canonicalization and is something that should be avoided due to the difficulty multiple URLs can cause with SEO and ranking. 

CAPTCHA

Those jumbled letters you have to properly type before proceeding on a site or leaving a comment are known as “CAPTCHA,” which is short for “completely automated turning test to tell computers and humans apart.” These tools are used to prevent fake log ins or sign-ups, identifying real users from non-human ones. 

Citizen Journalism

With the rise of blogging has come the rise of citizen journalism. This method of journalism involves news reporting done by members of the public instead of professional journalists. 

Clambr

Clambr is a blog focused on SEO, created and run by Richard Marriott. 

Click Bait

Many sites will post sensationalized stories or content that is meant to draw in your attention and bring you to click on the link. However, the content that is associated with these interesting links is less than what was promised. These types of stories or links are otherwise known as click bait. 

Click Fraud

Click fraud is a fraudulent technique used by an automated script to fool a pay-per-click advertisement into get more clicks on the advertisement and earn more income, albeit in a fraudulent manner. 

Click Paths

Click paths show where a user has been as he or she goes through a web site including the page they used to enter the site, all the links they clicked on while on the site and the “exit page” through which they left the site. 

Click Tracking

The idea behind tracking the path of a visitor to your site is known as click tracking. 

Click Through Rate

Click through rate is the measurement of how many readers or viewers will “click through” the link given on a piece of content and perform the desired action intended by this link. 

Cloaking

Cloaking is another unethical SEO scheme where the page that is seen by visitors is different than the one that is present to the search engine for purposes of ranking on search results. If this technique is discovered, the developer will be quickly penalized. 

CMS

CMS is short for a content management system, which is whatever program or product is used to manage the content on a site. Content Aggregator

Content Aggregator

A content aggregator is a service that takes all content from various sources and makes it easily viewable in one format to a viewer or site visitor who subscribes. It goes hand in hand with an “RSS” feed. 

Content Brief

Before content can be created, it must be briefed. A content brief is the document that is created before the content production starts. It outlines the information needed: why the content is needed, its purpose, intended audience, etc. 

Content Champion

Content champion is a web site serving as an online resource for small businesses and professionals to learn how to do content marketing. Content champions are also people who “champion” content and content marketing within their company or organization. 

Content Curation

Content curation is the process of managing and promoting your company or organization’s content. 

Content curation portal

A content curation portal is a platform that is used for the curation and publication of content, whether on a blog post or news media. 

Content Curation Software

This software tool helps in the management and curation of marketing content. 

Content Farm (a.k.a. content mill)

The term is not one that is looked upon too favorably. A content mill or farm is a site that publishes a high number of content, not worrying about the quality of content when publishing. These sites are produced more for income production than production of superior content. 

Content Marketing

Is this not why we are reading this list to begin with? Content marketing is the strategy of creating content and publishing it with the purpose of marketing activities, promoting a product or image and reaching audiences and consumers. 

Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Institute is a content marketing training blog created and run by Joe Pulizzi. 

Content Shock

Sometimes users are bombarded with more content than they can handle. The idea behind this is called content shock, and it is the result of too much content hitting web users at once, and it can lead to devaluing the content created. 

Content Strategy

Content strategy is planning content creation and promotion for purposes of making sure that it is effective in reaching users and meeting user needs.

Contextual Advertising

This technique is used by in pay-per-click advertising where the advertisements that show up on a given page are designed to be related to the content on that page. 

Conversation

Conversation involves engaging with a visitor to your site and is an important step in creation of content and web design. You need the customer’s input in order to be truly successful. 

Conversion Funnel

A conversion funnel is an idea detailing the relationship a potential lead or customer has with a company. This outlines the step from the person becoming just a simple prospect to a true customer. 

Conversion Rate

A conversion rate measures how successful a marketing activity is. It can depend on what type of measurement is being accumulated, but typically is considered the number of site visitors who later became leads. 

Conversion XL

Conversion XL is an online conversion training blog, created and run by Peep Laja. 

Convince and Convert

Convince and convert is a digital marketing firm based out of Indiana, focused on content marketing. The firm was founded by Jay Baer. 

Cookies

No, we are not talking dessert. Cookies are files created on a person’s computer after they visit various web sites. You may not realize these are active on your computer but cookies allow sites to recognize when a visitor is returning to the site, making it possible for the site to create a profile on that person’s interests and habits. 

Copyblogger

Copyblogger is a marketing provider of online marketing content products as well as a niche blog, created by Brian Clark. 

Copyscape

Copyscape is a program that allows site owners to run content through a verification software to see if their content has been used somewhere else or has been plagiarized. 

Copywriting

Producing written online marketing content or advertising content is otherwise known as copywriting. 

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit that helps promote sharing and re-use of creative content. 

Crowdsourced Content

Crowdsourcing is a term that has gained popularity over the past few years. It involves the production of content by groups of interested or expert contributors not normally employed by the company or organization involved. 

Data Extraction 

Data extraction involves taking data from multiple sources, including archived emails and PDF documents. Normally this data will then need to be processed and reformatted once extracted. 

Data Mining

Analyzing a company’s database to review the statistical patterns in user behavior is otherwise known as data mining. Different types of data can be analyzed, ranging from location of user to their buying habits. 

Data-Backed Content

Using data extracted to support your claims made in online content is data-backed content. Having data to support yourself not only shows authority and knowledge, but it also assists in building trust. 

Dead Link

Dead links are those that direct users to web sites that no longer exist. 

Deep Link

Links that take the user deeper into a web site rather than to its homepage or landing page are known as deep links. 

Defamation

Defamation is a legal term known as attacking the reputation of another person or organization without any evidence to back up that accusation.

Device Detection

Device detection is a way to identify what kind of device a user is utilizing to come to a web site. It is a method helping web developers count how many users are visiting a page via a mobile device or desktop computer. 

Digital Marketing

Activity meant to promote companies, its services or products is known as digital marketing. Social media, advertisements and email marketing is considered to be digital marketing. 

Directory

A site that offers a list of other web sites is known as a directory. 

Disavow Tool

The Disavow Tool is a program offered through Google that lets you tell the search engine which sites and links with whom you do not wish to be associated. It is a way for sites to protect their ranking against bad online marketing practices. 

DNS

DNS is short for “domain name system.” It is a method of looking up a site’s IP address and sending it back to the user. 

Domain Authority

Domain authority is the measure of a web site’s trust by a search engine. If a site has high domain authority, it is more likely to be trusted. 

Domain Strength

The strength of a site’s domain helps determine that site’s ranking. It can include the age of your domain, as well as the quality and number of inbound links to your site. 

Doorway Page 

A doorway page is a landing page where the content comes from the keywords used in a search query to find this page. 

Double Opt-In

Double opt-in involves asking a user to enter in their email address two different times: when they complete an application form online and also when validating through an automatic email sent to the listed email address. Double opting-in is needed to ensure that the email is a valid one. 

Drop Out Rate

A drop out rate is a measurement of the success of a site and its conversion of prospects into customers. It is more of a measurement of how many prospects do not convert into leads.

Drupal

A drupal is a content management system used by non-profits or charity. 

Duct Tape Marketing

Duct Tape Marketing is a marketing blog created by John Jantsch, aimed directly at small businesses. 

Duplicate Content

Content that shows up on more than one site or page is known as duplicate content. It is not looked upon favorably by search engines in terms of rankings. 

Dwell Time

The amount of time a user stays during his visit to a web site is known as “dwell time.”

Dynamic Content

Dynamic content is continually changing due to the visitors to the web site. It determines what is shown up in terms of products each time a visitor comes to your page. 

Dynamic Keyword Insertion

Dynamic keyword insertion is a tactic used in advertising where search keywords are placed within the advertisements that appear on a site’s page. 

Earned Media

Earned media is often referred to as free media, which involves publicity earned without payment. 

eBooks

A book that is solely published in a digital format and read through an eReader, Kindle or Nook is known as an eBook. 

eCRM

ECRM is short for “electronic customer relationship manager.” Products that are eCRM are management tools integrated closely with online platforms such as web sites. 

Editing

Editing is a fact of life when it comes to creating content. It is required for ensuring content is of excellent quality and has the style and voice to fit a publication. 

Editorial Brief

Outlining what is needed in content before writing it is otherwise known as an editorial brief. These are normally given to writers prior to producing content. 

Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar is a way of outlining and planning the publication of content for a company or organization. 

Email Marketing

Using email to market a product is known as email marketing. 

Embedding

Embedding involves insert blocks of code to a site or page to allow insertion of videos or other content in order to allow it to be viewed by visitors to the page. 

Emotion

Content creation is all about bringing about emotion. Content that is of good quality brings out the best emotions in people.

End User

The end user is the person or organization who uses the marketed service or product.

eNewsletter

An email that is sent by email that includes news and information along with advertising information. 

Entrepreneur on Fire

This daily podcast features interviews of well-known global businessman and was created and is run by John Lee Dumas. 

Entry Page

An entry page is the page through which a user enters a site or the first page they visit on that site. 

EPC

EPC stands for “earnings per click.” EPC is a measure of marketing success based on the number of clicks on a specific advertisement. 

Ethics

Like any aspect of life, ethics plays a huge part in marketing. Utilizing blackhat SEO or other unethical practices does have consequences to your site and reputation, as well as legal consequences. 

Evaluation

An evaluation is a measurement and analyzation of any marketing or content campaign. It is a method to measure success of the specific marketing activity. 

Evergreen Content

High quality content that remains of good quality throughout the course of time is considered “evergreen content.” This type of content contains information that does not typically go out-of-date. 

Exit Page

An exit page is the last page a user visits on a site before leaving that site. 

Experimental Content

Any content that goes away from what is considered normal or predictable for a company is considered to be experimental content. It can be both risky and beneficial.

External Linking

Links that go between two different web sites are external links. The number of quality external links can improve a site’s ranking. 

Ezine

An Ezine is an electronic magazine. These publications are put out online and are delivered through email or web sites. 

Facebook Application

Applications that are add-ons to Facebook to help its purpose are Facebook applications. 

Facebook Marketing

Utilizing Facebook for marketing your business or organization is known as Facebook marketing.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular and successful social media networking sites. 

Fact Browser

A fact browser is a tool that helps creators of content research topics and acquire statistics prior to putting together content. 

FAQ

FAQ is short for “frequently asked questions.” Many sites have this section to provide answers to visitors regarding the company or organization. 

Feature

A feature is a longer, more detailed content piece that usually gives more analysis and information on a certain topic than typical content sources. 

Feed Reader

A feed reader compiles all RSS feeds and put them in an easy-to-view format for a user. 

Fizzle

Fizzle is an online training business that was established by three marketing entrepreneurs, Corbett Barr, Caleb Wojcik and Chase Reeves.

Flat Rate

A flat rate is a fee that charges just one standard rate rather than an hourly or gradual increasing rate. 

Flog

A flog is another word for fake blogs, combining the two into one descriptive word.

Focus Group

Many marketing companies utilize focus groups to help research their target audiences. In focus groups, a sample of people are taken and asked for their thoughts and impressions on a brand or product. 

Fold

Fold is a term from print journalism and refers to the top half of a folded newspaper. For online purposes, the fold is the portion of the page that you can see without scrolling. 

Formats

Formats are the designs and forms used to create and present content. These different formats can be long or short-form, images, or videos. 

Forum

A forum is a type of site that allows for conversation between users, allowing them to communicate between each other.

Freelance writers

Freelance writers are hired and paid on a temporary basis to produce content pieces. 

Frequency

Frequency describes how often content is published. 

Frequency Cap

A cap called a frequency cap is sometimes placed as a means to limit the number of times a user will see an advertisement. 

Fresh Content

Content that is current and up-to-date is otherwise known as fresh content. 

Freshness Algorithm

The freshness algorithm is used to return the most recent content when a user enters a search query. 

Funnel

A funnel represents the various stages a lead goes through when first coming into contact with their company to when the prospect becomes a customer. 

Gain Higher Ground

Gain Higher Ground is a blog created and run by Rob Cornish, focused on teaching users how to run an online business. 

Gap Analysis

A gap analysis studies the gap between actual and potential productivity. 

Geographical Targeting

Some marketing analysis reviews where web site visitors are located and uses this information to target audiences for certain products. 

Ghostwriter

A ghostwriter is someone who produces content that is published without crediting the author of the content.

Goal

A goal describes the ultimate purpose of a site or piece of content or the reason why the site is publishing the content. 

Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a program offered through Google that allows site owners to earn income by hosting targeted advertisements on their pages. 

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is another advertising service offered through Google that lists advertisements that are most relevant to the keywords entered in a search query. 

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a Google service that produces statistical data on a web site’s success including visit numbers, location, traffic and income earned. 

Google Hummingbird

Google Hummingbird is an update to the Google search algorithm. This 2013 update was intended to improve search results relevancy by taking the context in which keywords were used. 

Google Juice

Google juice is another term for the value given to inbound links by the search engine’s algorithm. 

Google News

Google News is the company’s news aggregation service. 

Google Panda

Google Panda was an update to the Google search algorithm made in 2011 and has been updated off and on since then. The purpose of the algorithm was to gauge high quality and low quality sites, punishing the sites that use unethical practices to improve rankings. 

Google Penguin

Google Penguin was an additional update to the search algorithm made in 2012. It was designed to punish sites that used “black hat” SEO tactics. 

Google Search Algorithm

The Google search algorithm is a combination of mathematical formulas and rules designed by the Google company to ensure that Google users receive the most relevant search results when performing a keyword search query. 

Google+

Google+ is Google’s social networking platform. 

Googlebot

Googlebot is another term for Google’s crawler or robot, a program that discovers and indexes web pages. 

Graph Search

A graph search is a search engine created by Facebook that allows users to search via natural language searches. 

Grey Hat SEO

Grey hat SEO is somewhere between white and black hat SEO in terms of ethical boundaries. Techniques that are grey hat are pushing the boundaries but have not quite crossed the line in SEO. Eventually techniques that may be considered grey hat will eventually be treated as black hat and will be punishable. 

Groundswell

A groundswell is a change in public feeling on a topic, normally stemming from outside events or influences. 

Guarantee Images

Guarantee images or logos or symbols inserted to ensure users about how credible a product is. 

Guest Blogging

When people who are not normally contributing writers for a blog or online publication, this is otherwise known as guest blogging. 

H1 Tag

An H1 tag is an HTML tag that identifies the heading on a page and is used by search engines to find relevant content. 

H2, H3 etc. tags.

These tags identify headings on a web page. They are hierarchal ranging from H1 to H6. The lower the number, the more important the heading. 

Habitual Decision Making

Patterns of behavior that show how consumers tend to purchase products show habitual decision making. 

Halo Effect

The halo effect is the positive feelings a consumer has towards another product. 

Hangout

A hangout is a feature of Google+, allowing multiple users to take part in a video conference. 

Hard Bounce

A hard bounce is an email not delivered because of a static issue such as an email address entered in incorrectly. 

Hard Sell

A hard sell is another word for a high pressure sales method. 

Hashtag

Hashtags are most commonly used on Twitter or Facebook and include hashtag symbols for users to tag twee and comments by including the hash symbol before descriptive words. 

Heading Tags

Heading tags are HTML items that identify heading text on a page.

Head-To-Head Competition

If a business is competing directly with another business, this is otherwise known as head-to-head competition. 

Heat Map

A heat map shows how users interact with a page and utilizes colors and patterns to show where contact is higher than in other areas. 

Hidden Object

A hidden object describes a consumer’s unvoiced reason for not deciding to purchase a product. 

Hidden Text

Text that is on a web page in the same color as the background color is known as hidden text. The practice of using hidden text is known as a black hat SEO technique as it tries to fool search engines into ranking the site higher. 

Hit

A hit is a single visit to a web page. 

Homepage

A home page is the main page of a web site and is normally the first page a visitor will see when coming to a web site. 

Hosting

Hosting is the storage of a web site on a server. Hosting a site can allow other users to access it from many other locations. 

House List

A house list is an internal database created by a company’s own activities. 

House Style

Companies have their own house style which is an agreed set of rules that helps form the branding and image for that company. 

HTML

HTML is the computer code that creates web sites and is short for hypertext mark-up language. 

HTML Sitemap

An HTML sitemap lists the page’s URLs or web addresses for a web site. 

HTTP

HTTP is short for hypertext transfer protocol and it controls the transfer of data between computers and servers.

Hubspot

Hubspot is a marketing software platform and system for inbound marketing.

Hyperlink

A hyperlink is a link you can click on in a web page or document that will move the user from page to page or within the document. 

Ignite Social Media

Ignite Social Media is a social media agency in North Carolina founded and run by Jim Tobin. 

IM

IM is short for instant messaging, which is a method of technology that allows users to send short messages in real-time. 

IM Impact

IM Impact is an online marketing blog run by Shane Melaugh.

Impression

An impression is each time a page is viewed by individual people. Some advertising companies charge per impression. 

Impression Fraud

Impression fraud occurs when someone attempts to falsely generate impressions or views of an advertisement. 

Inbound Link

An inbound link is a link coming from an external web site to your own site. Inbound links are used by search engines to help in setting rankings for search results. 

Indexed Pages

Once a page has been visited by a search engine’s crawler or robot, that page has been indexed, meaning it will be able to be retrieved easily by search engines in the future. 

Industry News

Any news that pertains to a specific industry and is aimed for a target audience who are active in that industry is considered industry news.

Influencers

Influencers are people who are well-known in a particular area of expertise. Many of these individuals are the producers of content consumed in that specific industry or area. 

Infographic

An infographic is a visual display of complicated information, making it in a format that is easily understood. 

Information Architecture

Information architecture or “IA” deals with designing environments in a way that is effective and efficient. 

Instagram

Instagram is a popular social media network where users can post, share, edit and tag their own personal photos. 

Integrated Marketing

Integrated marketing is a strategy that attempts to unify several different marketing techniques to make sure that a brand is presented consistently across the board. 

Integrity

It is important that creators of content focus on their integrity, meaning they consistently produce high-quality content and practice with the utmost ethical standards. Maintaining a sense of integrity boosts a site’s reputation as well as its prominence in search results.

Interactivity

When designing web content, keeping interactivity in mind is always a plus. Interactivity allows visitors to the site to interact with each other as well as the company. 

Internal Link

An internal link is a link between two different pages located on the same domain or web site. 

Internal Site Search

Some sites allow users to search within the actual web site to find information rather than having to manually locate this information themselves. 

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer or IE is Microsoft’s Internet browser and is still one of the most commonly used browsers in the world. 

Internet Marketing

The practice of marketing your products online as “information products,” including online education courses or ebooks is known as Internet marketing. 

Internet Press Release

An Internet press release is one that is released online and has likely already gone through search engine optimization. 

Interview

An interview is a format for presenting content, presenting the information as a sort of answer and question format. These can be in written form or video. 

IP address

An IP address is short for Internet protocol address, which is a number given to identify computers that are a part of a network. 

IxD

IxD is short for interactive design, a method of resolving design issues through interaction between humans and computers. 

Jargon

Jargon is another way of describing words and language used solely within a specific industry. Those who are not active in that industry are less likely to understand the meaning behind the words. 

Java

Java is a programming language developers use to create online programs and applications.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language that is frequently used on web sites. 

JIT

JIT stands for “just in time,” which is a strategy used by companies to avoid overstocking inventory. Products are only ordered or created when and as needed. 

Job Lot

A job lot is another term for mixing groups of products or stock when retailers are trying to get rid of surplus products. 

Joint Demand

Joint demand describes the situation where, when demand for one product rises, demand for the other does as well. 

Joint Venture

A joint venture involves two companies joining together to work towards a mutually beneficial goal. 

Joomla

Joomla is a content management system specifically for publishing web content. 

Judgment Sample

Taking a judgment sample is a market research technique where a sample is selected based on expert judgment or opinion. 

Junket

Junkets are commonly used to bring industry journalists or media together to create positive publicity for a product. 

Junkmail

Junk mail and spam are synonymous. Both include unsolicited emails that are usually malicious in nature and contain some type of malware. 

Kaizen

Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement. Taken from Japanese culture, it is used in terms of manufacturing as well as any business processes. 

Kanban

Another term of Japanese origin, Kanban involves creation of productive and lean development processes. 

Keep-Out Pricing

Keep-out pricing is a pricing strategy where larger companies make prices cheap to keep smaller companies from entering the market. 

Kei Analysis

KEI analysis is short for “keyword effectiveness index,” which is a measure of a keyword’s value. Factors that go into this include the number of people searching with that keyword term and how many other pages can be found using that keyword. 

Key Account

A key account is an account a business has where they receive a large proportion of their income. 

Key Buying Criteria

The main criteria someone uses when making a purchasing decision is otherwise known as key buying criteria. 

Key Buying Influential

People or organizations who have the power to influence the purchasing decisions of others are knowing as key buying influential. 

Key Items

Key items are the products that are considered the best sellers. 

Key Performance Indicator

Key performance indicators or KPI are measurements of how well a product or company is doing. It could involve income or sales, customer complaints, etc. 

Key Phrase

A key phrase is like a key word but includes more than one word. 

Key Prospects

Key prospects are possible customers who hold buying power for a certain company or product.

KeyWirky

A keywirky is a combination of keyword and quirkiness and is a word trying to capture the two important elements for content writing on the Internet. Words that are keywirky give the product personality and help it stand out from other products. 

Keyword Density

Keyword density is the measurement of the number of keywords included in content compared to the number of total words in the piece. You should include keywords in your content but including too many of them can bring about penalties for trying to overinfluence rankings. 

Keyword Frequency

The count of how many times a keyword is included in content is known as keyword frequency.

Keyword Ranking

The keyword ranking of content is where a certain keyword ranks amongst others in a search engine. You want higher rank for keywords if at all possible. 

Keyword Research

Searching for the most appropriate keyword with the highest ranking is known as keyword research.

Keyword Stemming

Keyword stemming involves adding prefixes or suffixes to keywords to produce different variations of that keyword. 

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of trying to stuff as many keywords as you can into a web page. This practice is frowned upon as it can make the content difficult to reach and considered low-quality. 

Keywords

Keywords are words typed into a search engine when a user is trying to find web pages involving a certain subject. Keywords are of extreme importance with content marketers when trying to create content that is useful for users. 

KISS Principle

This term is the shortened form of “keep it simple, stupid.” It also stands for “keep it simple and straightforward.” Simple is often better than complicated. When trying to create content, focus on keeping it simple. Do not overcomplicate if you can help it. 

Klout

Klout is an online program that gives users what is called a Klout score. This score shows the influence their site has on various social media platforms. 

Knocking Copy

Knocking copy involves content that criticizes the product of a competitor, comparing it against your own product unfavorably. 

Landing Pages

A landing page is a page on a site that is intended to capture a visitor’s contact information or to get them to sign up for a feature on the site. 

Lead

A lead is otherwise known as a prospective customer. 

Lead Generation

Lead generation involves the effort of finding new potential customers. This can be done by the company running a site or by a third party agency. 

Lead Management

Lead management involves assessing and organizing leads once they are identified.

Lead Nurturing

Once you get a lead it is important you nurture it, which means you communicate with them and attempt to convert these leads into actual, paying customers. 

Lead Scoring

Lead scoring involves taking new leads, assessing them and ranking them in hopes of determine which ones will become new customers as well as determining the best ways to approach them to become new customers. 

Lean Content

Lean content is the theory of creating content that is minimalistic in nature. It is clear, effective and responsive. 

Lifecycle Stages

A framework for understanding and managing a customer’s relationship with a company, for example from their initial contact through to purchase and beyond. Content should be created with different lifecycle stages in mind – i.e. it should be context specific.

Link

A link is a clickable web address that takes a user to a new page or site. You can identify the links through the underlined and blue text, also known as hyperlinks. 

Link Bait

Link bait is content that is created with the purpose of drawing readers in to click on the link from other sites or mediums. It has to stand out and be provocative enough to make the reader want to learn or read more. 

Link Building

Link building is taking various techniques used by marketing professionals to create inbound links. You want to build these links to help your site’s ranking in search engines. 

Link Checker

This tool allows users or developers to check if links include in a site actually work. 

Link Exchange

A link exchange is a technique used in marketing to group related sites that agree to place links to each other on their own pages.

Link Farm

A link farm is a site created with the sole purpose to increase ranking on a page by including too many inbound links to the page. They are considered unethical or black hat SEO techniques and tend to be penalized when discovered. 

Link Popularity

Link popularity measures search engine rankings based on the number of quality inbound links to a site. 

Link Profile

A link profile includes all of the links, both inbound and outbound, for a site. A site’s link profile helps search engines determine a site’s ranking and “importance” in search results. 

Link Reclamation

Link reclamation is the identification of inbound links that are broken because of modifications of the linked page’s address. 

Link Rot

Once links stop working or are moved from locations or get erased, link rot occurs, meaning the link is no longer accurate. 

Linkedin

LinkedIn is a social networking site that is aimed for business professionals where individuals are about to post their professional experience and information. 

Load Time

Load time is the time that it takes for a site or page to completely show when a user visits the site. Most users do not have a patience for slow load times and prefer pages that have a shorter load time length.Local Search

Local Search

A local search offers results that are geared for a geographical location. Sometimes these can be given intentionally, meaning the user entered in a geographical location in the search query or unintentionally when a search engine picks up on the user’s location and gives the results in accordance with that information. 

Long-Tail Keywords

When a user enters in longer, more specific keyword phrases when attempting a search this is known as a long-tail keyword search. These types of searches tend to produce more relevant results and narrow down the information for which the user is searching.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation involves the use of software to handle marketing and repetitive jobs or tasks. Analytical features are normally the main appeal of this software and can be used to improve efficiency in your marketing strategies.

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix involves four elements of marketing, which are the product, price, place where it will be sold and the method through which it will be promoted. 

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a written document or set of documents that detail how a company intends to market itself or a product and how it intends to measure objectives or its success. 

Mashable

Mashable is an online media and technology blog. 

Mashup

A mashup is a combination of content from more than one source. 

Mass Customization

Mass customization involves combining mass production with marketing techniques that involve personalization towards a specific consumer or user. It involves taking elements of what works from both techniques and attempting to market the product to even more individuals within a specific subsect. 

Meme

Memes have gained a great deal of popularity with the increasing presence of social media. A meme is known as a phrase or image quickly passed along from person to person online, normally focusing or commenting on a specific idea or cultural phenomenon. The term “meme” came from biologist and author Richard Dawkins. 

Mentions

Whenever a company or its brand name is included in an online article or conversation that is otherwise known as a mention. The more a company or brand is mentioned, the more popular that item is deemed. Mentions are normally monitored closely by a company’s marketing department and are often responded to depending on the content of the mention. 

Meta Data

Meta data is data that is describing other data. They can be used to describe images or videos that would be difficult to search for without these descriptions. They are not visible to the user but more so to the search engine. 

Meta Element

Any piece of data that gives information about the content of a page is a meta element. These are used by search engines to categorize a web site or its content.

Meta Keywords or Keyword Tag

These items are another part of a web site’s meta element. While not used as frequently as in the past, meta keyword or key word tags were used to direct search engines directly from the page with the use of keywords relating to the user’s query or search. 

Meta-Search Engines

Meta-search engines are tools that allow users to search multiple search engines through queries all at the same time. 

Metric

A metric is a unit of measurement used to determine success. One example of a metric is the number of visitors to a web site. Metrics are important in evaluating the success of a web site or the brand. 

Microblogging

Microblogging involves posting short but frequent content. One well-known example of this method is Twitter, a platform that limits the characters used to 140 characters. 

Microsoft Search Alliance

The Microsoft Search Alliance is an alliance between powerhouses Microsoft and Yahoo!, forming the Yahoo! Bing Network search engine business. 

Middle of the Funnel

The middle of the funnel is the section of a sales funnel, a concept detailing the stages of a lead’s relationship with a company from a potential customer to purchaser. The transitional stage where leads are evaluated and understood is known as the middle of the funnel. 

Mini Browser

A mini browser is an Internet browser specifically designed to be used on a mobile device.

Mirror sites

Mirror sites are duplicates of existing web sites held on a different server than the one on which the original site appears. This happens when the original server is not able to handle a large volume of traffic received by the site. 

Mobile

Something that is mobile refers to certain aspects of accessing content online via a mobile device. Mobile refers to the actual device but also the behavior related to accessing the content.

Monetizing

Monetizing is the ultimate goal of marketing. It involves achieving income from an activity or product. 

Multipurpose Content

Content has been created for reuse and reformatting is considered multipurpose content.

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing involves comparing one aspect of a site at a time to another, using complex statistical methods to ensure that multiple aspects are compared at the same time. 

Narrow and Deep

When a topic is approached in great detail over a narrow range of topics, this method is called going narrow and deep. 

Native Advertising

Native advertising is a method where online advertisements are included in a way that is less intrusive, making it appear as if it is a natural and original part of the site on which they appear. 

Natural Search 

A natural search is also called an organic search. These types of search results appear as a natural result of the user’s search term rather than through paid placement. 

Navigation

Navigation is the act of moving around a site, moving from one page to another. It is important to understand how users chose to navigate through a site in order to improve content as well as web design. 

Need profiling

Need profiling involves reporting customer requirements, gathered during meetings and discussions with a user about their needs and wants. 

Negative SEO

Negative SEO involves unethical and malicious forms of SEO intended to damage a competing site’s search rankings. Creating inbound links through bad neighborhoods or engaging in black hat SEO are considered negative SEO. 

Netiquette

Netiquette is a word created by combining the words “net,” from Internet, and etiquette. Netiquette describes online social conventions and behaviors that are not otherwise used in real world, offline settings. One such example of this is the use of capital letters in online messages to indicate shouting or loud talking normally does not have this meaning in other printed media. 

New Media Marketing

New media marketing is a form of marketing that examines social media communities. 

New Visitor

A user who comes to your web site for the first time is considered a new visitor. 

Newbie

A newbie is another term for a person who is not familiar with normal conventions of Internet. Another word for this is “noob.”

News Reader

A news reader is an online service that takes news from different sources and presents them through one RSS feed to a subscribed user. 

Newsgroup

Newsgroups are discussion forums that exist online to allow discussion on a topic. These usually involve discussions on news and group subscribers are allowed to engage in these discussions.

Newsjacking

Newsjacking involves creating content relating to a news story to take advantage of the interest and public interest in that story. 

Newsletter Marketing

Email marketing where the emails contain news or other company information that are sent to followers and leads through email format is newsletter marketing, also known as an “eNewsletter.”

New-to-the-World Product

A product that has never been created and is unlike any other product already existing is known as a new-to-the-world product. 

Niche

A niche describes a small and specialized market. People who create content in niche markets tend to be industry experts or those with special knowledge of the subject matter.

Niche Marketing

Niche marketing is that type of marketing that focus on these specialized areas and audiences. 

Niche Product

Niche products are products that are created for and appeal to a small, specialized audience.

Nofollow Link

A NoFollow link is something that can be assigned to the HTML part of a link. It essentially tells the search engines to disregard the link when determining page rank. It can still be used by the search engines to discover and index the page, however. 

Noindex

Like NoFollow, NoIndex is something that can be added to the HTML meta element of a web page, telling a search engine to not index that specific page. If a web site owner does not wish to be visible or wants to prevent the indexing of irrelevant pages, he or she can add a NoIndex attribute to the HTML code. 

Nomenclature

Nomenclature refers to the process of naming something. Marketing nomenclature includes naming products or brands or keywords that you want associated with it. 

Offers

Offers are deals or incentives that are given in hopes of generating new leads. They draw in web site visitors on the promise of some type of reward or deal. 

Omnichannel

Omnichannel is a retail strategy that puts the user at the center of a multiple channel experience. It offers optimized content to the user based on the place they hold within a task.

Online Press Release

An online press release is a press release that is sent out online and has possibly undergone SEO. 

Online Press Room

An online press room is the part of a web site that offers information for journalists specifically, including press releases and public relations contacts. 

Online Reputation Management

The management of a brand or company's online profile by responding to mentions (negatives included) and monitoring external media such as blog posts and reviews.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO involves SEO tactics that are applied to a web page instead of doing so internally. It includes inserting keywords and placing HTML page meta tags to help boost SEO. 

Open Graph

An open graph is a policy used by web site developers that inserts tags to images or other content on pages, so that these web pages can be understood by various social media platforms.

Open Rate

An open rate is the measurement of how many emails that have been sent as part of an email marketing campaign are actually opened by recipients. 

Open Source

Open source is a source code that is free to be used and changed by other developers under a Creative Commons or other similar license. 

OpenSearch

Open search is a set of formats for data and technology that let search results be aggregated and syndicated. This was originally created by Amazon in 2005. 

Operational CRM

An operational customer relationship management product or CRM product helps encourage public-facing functioning parts of a business, including customer service and care as well as contact liaisons. 

Opt-in

One method used by companies to disburse content to users is to offer an “opt-in.” This allows the web site visitor to subscribe to a specific service or authorize a contact method to receive messages. It should be noted that, in the United Kingdom, contacting users who have not chosen to opt-in breaches the marketing guidelines of the Information Commissioner’s Office. 

Opt-out

If a person does not want to be on an email mailing or contact list, an opt-out allows that person to unsubscribe from receiving future communications. Contacting users who opt-out after they have unsubscribed also violates United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office marketing guidelines. 

Organic Search

An organic search is one that returns web sites and pages based on how well they match the keyword or phrase entered into the search engine. The results returned are based on relevancy alone and not because of paid-for advertising. 

Original Content

Original content is content that is fresh and new and has not been published before. Users look for original content and consider this type of content to be high quality. Search engines do the same, and sites that offer original content tend to be favored over those that duplicate their content. 

Original Referrer

An original referrer is the first web site address from which a visitor hits another web site for the initial visit. 

ORM

ORM is short for online reputation management. 

Outbound Links

Outbound links are those links that point users to a different web site. 

Outreach

Outreach involves engaging with users, visitors and prospects by asking for their opinion. If a company wants to create relationships with potential leads, outreach methods can often be the best method for accomplishing this goal. 

Overture

Bought by Yahoo! in 2003, Overture is one of the original companies providing pay-per-click advertising. Overture is now known as Yahoo! Search Marketing. 

Owned Media

When a company publishes content through its own blog, email or web site, this content is otherwise considered to be owned media. 

Page Exit Ratio

One method of a site’s success is the page exit ratio. This measurement calculates how many users exit a page in comparison to how many times it has been viewed. The metric can be subjective on the reasons for the user’s exit from the page. 

Page Tags

Page tags are descriptions or labels attached to a web page. These tags help the user find content they want and also help a search engine categorize a page.

Page Title

A page title is the heading that describes the page’s contents. You can locate it within the HTML H1 heading tag. Users can view it as well as search engines. Page titles are often used by search engines to rank and categorize pages. 

Page Views

Page views are how many times a page has been viewed by users or the number of times a page has been requested from a server. 

Page Views per Visit

Sometimes it helps to compare how many times a site is viewed per visit to determine how interested users are in the site’s content. Again, this number can be subjective depending on the reasons the user views or exits the page. 

PageRank

Page rank is important when it comes to content marketing. It is the entire purpose behind the Google algorithm and is used in determining where a site will fall in search results. The higher the page rank, the more successful the site is. 

Paid Inclusion

Paid inclusion is also known as pay-for-inclusion or PFI. This technique is a paid-for SEO service allowing a web site to pay to be indexed higher in search engines. Many larger sites are able to pay to be ranked and listed higher in Google searches. 

Paid Search

Paid searches is an advertising technique where search engine providers can pay advertisements on their search results. It is the opposite of natural or organic searches. 

Pass on Rate

The amount of times a piece of content is passed on or is shared is known as its pass on rate. 

Permalink

A permalink is one that points at a piece of content. This can be a blog, and a permalink should remain unchanged so that it can be accessed for future purposes. 

Permission Marketing

Potential customers have to give their express permission to be contacted in a certain way. This is otherwise known as permission marketing. 

Persona

A persona can be used in planning a site or marketing campaign. It is a personality type you hope to find in your prospective audience and helps plan how you market content by viewing how this person or “persona” will see it. 

Personalize

Customers like to feel that what they are seeing has been made just for them. Personalizing content, products or other methods of marketing can assist in helping turn them from leads to actual customers. 

Phishing

Phishing is a way of directing people to a site in an attempt to gain access to their personal information. Many times this includes attempting them to disclose their credit card information through fraudulent techniques. Phishing is illegal. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media platform that allows users to share visual content and ideas. 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism involves taking someone else’s work and putting it out there as your own. It is considered a dishonest act and can lead to penalization by search engines. 

Plug-In

Plug-ins are software that help extend the functionality of a piece of software. Internet browsers often have plug-ins that add helpful features like password management. 

Podcast

A podcast is an audio file normally part of a series. Podcasts are used for many purposes including informational purposes, education or news. They can be both downloaded and listened to at a later time or heard immediately. 

Popup

When a smaller window suddenly appears in front of the page you are currently viewing, this is called a popup. They normally involve advertisements or calls-to-action. Most popups are unsolicited, and many users opt to install popup blockers to avoid this inconvenience. 

Ppc

PPC is short for pay per click which is an advertising technique where sites are paid for advertisements included on their pages, paying each time an advertisement is clicked on by a user. 

Press Release

Press releases are content sources designed to give journalists information, normally involving a specific news story or event. 

Programmatic Advertising

Advertising that uses software programs to purchase digital advertising automatically rather than making you manually negotiate for it yourself is known as programmatic advertising. 

Promoted Content

Promoted content is content a company has paid a third party to have included on their site. It is also called sponsored content. 

Promotion

A promotion refers to a marketing campaign where a company issues an offer to attract public interest in hopes of acquiring new customers. Promotions are widely used and have had a great deal of success, especially in gathering interest regarding a new item or product.

Pushing Social

Pushing social is a blog focused on social media and digital marketing run by Stan Smith. 

Q&A

Q&A is short for questions and answers. Like a FAQ section, many companies will include a Q&A section on their site allowing users to engage with the company, asking questions of the company or providing interviews of industry experts. 

Qik

Qik is an online service that allows the use of video-sharing where users can stream video from other sources to their mobile device. However, after being acquired by Skype in 2011, Qik retired in 2014 and is no longer an offered service. 

QR Code

QR is short for quick response code. These codes are barcodes that hold information for the user to access by scanning with their smartphone. Usually a company’s web address will be accessible via a QR code, taking a user who scans the code automatically to a page on that company’s web site. 

Q-Sort Technique

Q-sorting involves taking people’s opinions by giving them a question and asking them to sort and rank their opinions or views based on statements presented to them. This technique is fairly subjective and is used to find groups of people who share similar views or opinions on a topic. 

Qualified Lead

A qualified lead is a potential customer who has given interest in a company’s product or service. 

Qualified Traffic

Qualified traffic is otherwise known as visitors who arrive at a web site and are interested in the service or product offered through the site. Marketing firms aim to attract this type of visitor. 

Qualitative Data

Any data that cannot be measured with numbers but is descriptive in nature is considered qualitative data. This would include people’s thoughts, opinions, tastes or views. 

Qualitative Forecasting

Qualitative forecasting involves taking opinions from experts or staff and attempting to predict future sales rather than using data to accomplish this goal. 

Qualitative Media Effect

Qualitative media effect measures the impact a medium through which an advertisement or content is delivered has on public perception. 

Quality

Quality is paramount when it comes to marketing. It is needed to develop consumer trust and assist in helping a web site’s rankings. The higher-quality content is included on a page, the better the trust and reliance on that site’s information. 

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance is all part of content creation. It involves the stage of content creation when the content is thoroughly checked to ensure that it means the highest of quality standards.

Quality controls

Quality controls govern the methods used to ensure that content is at the highest quality standard possible. It involves the processes and rules that are needed to ensure that quality content is consistently produced. 

Quality Creep

However, over time, quality creep can occur. This happens when improvements are made over time to product to increase its quality, but it comes at the cost of losing customer’s ability to afford the high cost of the product. 

Quality Score

A quality score is a score given in pay per click advertising. Quality scores will be applied by search engines to advertisements before determining where these advertisements will be displayed on search results pages. 

Quantcast

Quantcast is a company that gives the details of web site traffic and demographics of site visitors. This information assists in building that web site’s audience. 

Quantitative Data

The opposite of qualitative data, quantitative data can actually be measured numerically. This type of data includes how many visitors come to a site, how long they remain on the site and more. 

Quantity

Quantity matters just as much as quality. To be successful, you not only need to produce excellent content, but you also must produce it frequently enough and in enough numbers to keep your audience engaged. 

Query

A query is otherwise known as the keywords entered into a search engine when a user is attempting to find information online. 

Questions

Questions are key when attempting to engage users and create a site that appeals to them. Content should be written with the user in mind, and posing question can often be the best way to get to that goal. 

Quicksprout

Quicksprout is an online business and marketing blog created and run by Neil Patel. 

Quicktime

Apple Inc. created this software product to play media files, including video and music files. 

Quotes

When creating content for news stories and press releases, including quotes from parties involved or industry experts adds an element of credibility to the piece. 

QWERTY

QWERTY is the name that comes from the letters in the top left corner of your keyboard, meaning the order of what the letters are laid out in most western countries. 

Ranking

Ranking describes the position a web page is given when included in a list of search engine results. SEO techniques are used to improve a page’s ranking, ensuring that the page is easily viewable to a user attempting to locate information on that topic. 

Ranking Signal

A ranking signal is the set of factors that a search engine considers when determining a page’s ranking. 

Rational Appeals in Advertising

Rational appeals in advertising is a strategy that focus on the practical reasons for purchasing a product. 

Rational Buying Motives

Rational buying motives are the practical reasons or motivations behind making a purchase. 

Reach

The ability of an advertisement to be seen by the public describes the reach of that advertisement. 

Readability

Content must be readable for it to be effective. When producing content, make sure that it is easy to understand. 

Reciprocal Linking

An agreement between two sites that each will provide links to the other page is known as reciprocal linking. 

Referral

A referral is a visit to a site obtained through an external source, like another site or blog. 

Remarketing Or Retargeting

Remarketing or retargeting is a strategy that includes targeted advertisements on a web site when these sites are viewed by previous visitors to your site. It is a feature of Google. 

Repeat Visitors

Visitors who have come from the same web site within a specific period of time are repeat visitors. 

Repurposing

Taking existing content and allowing it to be used in other places is repurposing. One example of this is taking a news article and turning it into a blog post or tweet.

Reputation Capital

Reputation capital includes qualitative business assets, like consumer trust and authority. 

Responsive Design

Responsive design is a method of ensuring sites are easily viewable on any type of device, including a desktop computer to Smartphone screen. 

Return Visitor

A return visitor is someone who has been to your site previously and returns to it at least one more time at a later date. 

Revenue Share

Revenue sharing refers to earnings two different entities share with each other. Referral fees are an example of revenue sharing meaning if a web site gets income from a new customer, they may pay a part of that revenue because of the referral from a separate entity or site. 

Reviews

Opinions of a product given through the general public or experts are known as reviews. A lot of companies go off of the opinion of others through positive reviews to get new business. 

Right to Be Forgotten

The right to be forgotten has recently been started by the European Union and Argentina. This concept is about privacy protection and that allows people to request that content and data about them be permanently deleted from the Internet. 

Roas

ROAS is short for return on advertising spend. It is a measurement of the income created by a campaign versus the amount of money spent on the advertising.

Robots.txt

Robots.txt is a file that instructs a search engine’s robot on how to search that specific web page. 

ROI

ROI is short for return on investment, which is a measurement of the income generated versus the cost needed to generate that income. 

RSS

RSS is short for really simple syndication. RSS feeds take content from all sorts of sources and aggregate it into one simple form, making it easier for the user to receive this content. 

Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM and cloud computing company. 

Schema.org

Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! came together to create Scheme.org, which is a shared set of standards for controlled data markup. When content is marked-up, that information is more accessible and reachable to search engines. This allows the content to be reformatted or reused in the future. 

Scraper

A scraper is a software tool that extracts content from web sites for the purpose of using the content in another place. However, this is considered duplicating content and is penalized by search engines if discovered. 

Search Algorithm

A search algorithm is a complex formula and set of rules created by search engine companies to give their users the most relevant results with each keyword search. 

Search Term

A search term is the word or words users enter into a search engine for a general search query. 

SearchStatus

SearchStatus is a plug-in for Firefox that gives users information on how sites are performing, including how well they are ranked. 

Seasonal content

Seasonal content is content that is produced and issued with relation to seasonal events or holidays. 

Seeding

Seeding involves distributing a marketing message to a small group of individuals to “prime” that audience and create publicity. 

Segmentation

Segmentation involves dividing current or potential customers into categories, using shared characteristics to make this division. This process allows those to target certain audiences specifically. 

Sentiment

Sentiment encompasses how people feel about a certain message, product or brand. These sentiments can be positive, negative or neutral. 

SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the concept behind improving a site’s performance in search engines, reaching the largest audience possible. 

SERPs

SERPs stand for search engine results pages. These pages given the results returned by a search engine after a search query is run. 

Session

The time that a visitor enters and remains on a web site before leaving is known as a session. 

Share

Sharing involves taking a piece of content or a link and passing it along to another person. 

Short URL

A short URL is a shortened version of a web site address. It has the same effect of taking a user to the same web page. Shortening a URL makes it possible for the site to be put on Twitter where space is limited. 

Smart Passive Income

Smart Passive Income is a business and online marketing blog run by Pat Flynn.

Social

Social is short-hand for the use of social medial platforms for marketing. It allows marketing to customers and individuals who would not otherwise be reached through traditional marketing methods. 

Social Graph

A social graph is a model showing all of a person’s social connections online. A “friends list” on Facebook is one example of a social graph. 

Social Media

Social media are online platforms through which content and communication can be shared between people who would not be connected in real life without the connection of this platform. 

Social Media Examiner

Social Media Examiner is a blog that helps businesses understand the practice of social media marketing, founded and run by Michael Stelzner. 

Social Media Explorer

Founded by Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer is a social media and online marketing blog and agency. 

Social Optimization

Social optimization is the process of designing content so that it can be shared easily via social media. 

Social Proof

Social proof involves the idea that people’s ideas of what is right and wrong can be influenced by the opinions and actions of others in their social circle. 

Social Signals

Social signals help determine the importance or ranking of a site. One example of a social signal is the number of retweets of a specific tweet or the number of “likes” a page has on Facebook. 

Social Triggers

Social Triggers is a popular online marketing strategy blog founded by Derek Halpern. 

Soft Bounce

A soft bounce is the failure to deliver an email for a reason that is not permanent, such as a full inbox or server error. 

Spam

Items that are spam are messages or content that is unsolicited and normally contains a low quality, obvious sales message. 

Spider

A spider is one example of a program used by search engines to go through and index web pages. 

Split Testing

Split testing is the same thing as AB testing or getting opinions from users about whether they prefer an option “A” over an option “B.” 

Splogs

Splogs is a word derived from the words spam and blogs. Splogs are blogs on which content is taken from elsewhere to attract visitors via search engines with the sole purpose of generating income through advertising. 

Sponsored Links

Sponsored links are a form of advertising that involve paid-for-search results. 

Stakeholder

A stakeholder is a person or organization that has an interest in the future or plans of another organization. 

Stories or Storytelling

One of the best ways to create content is through storytelling. This allows writers to insert emotion into their content as a way to engage their readers. 

Streaming Media

Streaming media includes music or television shows that can be viewed over the Internet without the need to download the complete file. 

Sweating Your Content Assets

Sweating your content assets involves getting the maximum benefit out of your existing content by reusing it. However, make sure it is obvious and indicated if you are reusing previously-published content.

SXO

SXO is short for search experience optimization, which is an idea that a visitor’s experience of a site should be considered in order to plan pages that improve conversion rates. 

Syndicated Content

Syndicated content is content that is taken from one provider and is made available to those who have subscribed to receive the content, such as with an RSS feed. 

Tabs

Tabs are multiple open web pages in a browser. It can also refer to the branded company pages on Facebook. 

Tags

Tags are descriptors attached to a page, image or video that summarizes the content. They can be useful in helping users locate content through search engines. 

Targeting

Targeting involves tailoring messages for a specific group of people. It involves a great deal of research in the audience and product to truly understand what the “target” is for a brand or product. 

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is an approach to information management where web pages are lumped together and classified in a hierarchical structure. 

Technical Writer

A technical writer is one who specializes in writing documents such as user guides for products, writing processes and product guides. These writers are familiar with the industry jargon and can translate complicated information into readable content. 

Templates

Templates are technical forms that can help improve content efficiency and consistency in format. 

Tentpole Content

Tentpole content is a concept that a high-value piece of content that is shown prominently will draw in traffic to a site, thus bringing them in to see other aspects and content from that site. 

The Sales Lion

The Sales Lion is a content marketing blog created by marketer and speaker, Marcus Sheridan. 

Third Party Cookie

A third party cookie is a small text file saved onto your computer or within your browser by a site other than the current site you are visiting. Cookies are used to build up a profile of your Internet browsing habits and history. 

Thought-Leader

A thought-leader is a person or organization that has expertise in an industry or area and is able to produce original ideas on that subject. This person or thing shapes the direction of this topic and influences others. Their voices are ones of authority and inclusion of their opinions in content adds trust and authority to your piece. 

Title Tags

A title tags includes HTML heading tags to inform users and search engines about the heading a web page. It is visible to visitors to the web site and should include SEO keywords as well as describe the page’s content in a way that makes readers want to stay and read more.

Top Of The Funnel

The top of the funnel goes along with what is called a sales funnel. This idea describes the stage a lead takes with a company, going from a prospective customer to an actual customer. The top of the funnel is the first step of this process and normally includes the company offering content to attract users to their page. 

TopRank Blog

The TopRank Blog is a well-known online marketing blog that was created and is run by Lee Odden. 

Touch Point

The touch point is otherwise known as the contact point. Any time a customer interfaces with a company or its brand or product, what happens is otherwise known as the touch or contact point. This contact can include any medium, including online, social media, web sites, print advertisements or in-person communication. 

TrackBack

TrackBack allows a web site or blog to see when another site or blog has linked up to their content. It is a feature commonly used by blog owners. 

Tracking

Tracking is the process of monitoring progress and statistics on a marketing campaign. You can track how many people received a message, how they responded and whether they became more than just potential leads but customers after viewing the message. 

Tracking Codes

Tracking codes are often added to web sites to allow the site to track how visitors use their web sites. Google Analytics is one prime example of a tracking code program. 

Traditional Media

Traditional media is anything that is offline or not digital in formation. Essentially any type of media that existed before the rise of the Internet, such as magazines, newspapers and television, is considered traditional media. 

Traffic

Traffic describes the number of visitors a web site receives or the amount of data sent by or received by a web site. Keeping traffic at a high level is important in terms of maintaining success of a web site. 

Trawler

Trawler is another name given to a software program used by search engines to search through and index web pages. Crawlers, robots and/or spiders are other words for a trawler. 

Troll

The Internet is full of what are known as “trolls,” and we are not talking the dolls. A troll is a term for an Internet user who deliberately posts controversial and often hateful comments on posts or articles trying to invoke conflict or a discussion. 

Trust

Trust is paramount in the world of content marketing. You want to publish content that people will trust to be high-quality and informative. Obtaining the trust of your readers is the best way to get them coming back for more. 

Twebinar

A twebinar is a combination of the words Twitter and webinar. A twebinar refers to using Twitter as a way to comment on an online broadcast or offer a webinar. Many times, twebinars will be occurring while a broadcast is ongoing. 

Twitter

Twitter has become one of the more popular social media platforms and is also a prime example of a microblogging site. Users can only post short statements no longer than 140 characters, which includes links to sites and outside images. 

Ugc

UGC is short for user generated content, which is content created by the actual user and not the employee of the company involved. 

Ultimate User

The ultimate user is the consumer or user of the company’s product or service. 

Unbundling

Unbundling involves marketing only some of a company’s products or services or all of them. An example of this would be publishing only small parts of a blog or eBook rather than the thing in its entirety. 

Undifferentiated Marketing

Undifferentiated marketing is marketing that is not tailored or aimed for a specific audience. Anyone who encounters the marketing message sees the same advertisement or message. 

Unique Content

Content must be unique for it to stand out. Original content is always more valued and considered of higher quality and may improve your page’s search rankings as well as bring in more readers. 

Unique Forwarders

The number of people who forward an email onto other people is known as unique forwarding. 

Unique Visitors

The number of different people who visit a web site once or more times are considered to be unique visitors. 

Unit Cost

Unit cost is the total cost needed to produce an item of a product. 

Unit Margin

Unit margin is the difference between what it costs to make one product and how much it is sold for. 

Unit Market Share

A unit market share is the number of products sold by a particular company for a particular market. 

Universal Search

A universal search is one that produces results containing content from numerous sources and in various formats. 

UNIX

UNIX is an operating system that is used frequently by Internet servers. 

URL

URL is short for uniform resource locator, which is the address of a web site. 

URL Rewriting

URL rewriting involves taking alternative URLs that are shorter than the original one and using those so that the URL is more search-engine friendly. Adding keywords to the URL rather than random numbers can also be helpful URL rewriting. 

Usability

Usability involves how easy it is for a site visitor to navigate a web site. 

Useful

It is important that content is useful for its readers or visitors. People want helpful information, and they can only get that when they discover content that contains what they want to know. 

User Acceptance Testing

User acceptance testing is also known as UAT. This is the process of testing new products or features to see that these things will actually be used by the customer as was intended. 

User Advocate

A user advocate is someone who is positive about a brand or product and is an active spokesperson for that product. 

User Experience

A user experience is the experience and feelings a user feels when working with a web site or product. This user experience is often measured to see if a specific marketing strategy is effective. 

User Friendly Content

Content is meant to be consumed by the user. It should be created so that this end user can handle it, understand it and want to come back for more. 

User Interface

A user interface is what is visible on a software program used to access the features on the program. Developers work hard to make sure that interfaces are user friendly to allow for a pleasurable experience for all visitors to their sites. 

User Research

User research involves taking current and possible users and evaluating and analyzing their experiences to make sure products and services continue to meet their needs. 

User Testing

Taking what the actual user can do with a new product or service and getting their feedback is all part of user testing, and this is an important method to get feedback to improve design. 

Users

Users are the people or organizations that make use of the product or service offered by a company. 

Usp

USP is short for unique selling point, which is the part of a product or service that makes this product stand out from other similar products out there. 

Vampire Effect

The vampire effect occurs when images in an advertisement distract or take away from the actual product being advertised. 

Variable Costs

Variable costs are production costs that vary in comparison to the volume of the product being produced, such as the cost of raw materials. 

Veblen Effect

The Veblen effect measures irrational consumer behavior where certain consumers will buy products that are highly priced simple because they are a status symbol rather than buy similar products that are at a lower cost point. 

Vendor

A vendor is the individual or company that sells goods or supplies a product or service. 

Venture

A venture can be a new company, new business entity or new project. 

Venue

A venue is a platform or channel through which content can be disbursed. 

Vertical Channel Conflict

A vertical channel conflict occurs when there is disagreement between different parts of a marketing channel. For instance, a retailer can have a disagreement with the wholesaler if the quality of the products sent are subpar or of the delivery date is not set quickly enough. 

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration is a management strategy where all of the information required to produce or sell a product is owned by one sole corporation instead of several different business entities. 

Vertical Search

A vertical search is a search engine that is meant to search for only a narrow subset of content on a specific topic or area. By narrowing down the range, you are more likely to receive the most relevant results possible. 

Video Blogging

Video blogging is a form of blogging where posts are videos rather than written content. 

Video Marketing

Video marketing involves using videos instead of written content to market or advertise a product or brand. Videos can easily be shared and posted via social media and have stepped up over time as a positive way to reach larger audiences quickly. 

Vimeo

Vimeo is a web site that allows users to share videos. 

Vine

Vine is an online service run by the same people who run Twitter. The purpose of this service is to allow users to record and share short videos. These videos can only be up to six seconds in length. 

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a version of word of mouth marketing. It is the process of spreading content or an idea quickly to a rather large number of people. Social media has helped viral marketing tremendously over the years. 

Virality

The virality of a video, post, story or any marketing material is the possibility of whether that piece will “go viral,” meaning it will become popular overnight by a huge number of people. It is hard to predict and sometimes can happen to the most unlikely things overnight. 

Visit Duration

A visit duration is the length of time that a user spends on a web site from the time they first land on a page to when they leave. 

Visit Referrer

A visit referrer is an outside site from which a site visitor has arrived. 

Visitor Session

The length of time a visitor has remained on a site from when they arrived to when they leave is known as the visitor session. 

Visual Content

Visual content includes images, photos, charts, graphics or videos. 

Vlog

A vlog is a combination of the words video and blog and refers to a blog that consists of video posts rather than textual content. 

Voice

The voice is the tone or personality of a piece of content. It should stay consistent and match the brand throughout the course of time. 

VoIP

VoIP is short for voice over Internet protocol and it involves a set of rules that allow audio to be streamed online. 

W3C

W3C stands for World Wide Web consortium, which is a group of organizations that have come together to develop and promote international web standards. This organization was founded by Tim Berners-Lee and provides free online education on different web development topics. 

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a shift in Internet technologies or use that started at the end of the 1990s and involved more interactivity and user-generated content, as well as the advent of social media. 

Web Analytics

Web analytics involve data on the different site visits and navigation to get insight as to the success of existing content and future content.

Web Application

A Web application is a tool that can be accessed and utilized within a web browser. GoogleDocs is one popular example of a Web application. 

Web Content

Web content is any content accessible online, including written, graphic, images or video. 

Web Design

Web design is a discipline of computer programming and graphic design for the purpose of developing and building web sites. 

Web Presence

Web presence is the online “real estate” a company has on the web, including their own site and social media accounts. 

Webinars

Webinars are online versions of seminars and allow users to receive education through use of video conferencing. 

Website Curation

Web site curation is the management of online content and sites. Curators are active in determining which content to produce, promote and where to advertise it. 

White Hat SEO

White hat SEO practices are those that utilize ethical standards and are not penalized by search engines. 

White List

White lists are lists of email addresses that are considered “safe” by an email service and will be classified as spam. 

Whitepaper Marketing

Whitepaper marketing involves lengthy content and in-depth reporting on a topic. It can be one excellent method to improve a company’s reputation and authority. 

Widget

A widget is a software tool that performs a specific job or function. 

Wiki

A wiki is an online content management system that allows users to enter in and edit content directly. One example of a wiki would be Wikipedia. 

Wireframe

A wireframe is a bare-bones diagram of a web site’s structure. 

Word of Mouse

Word of mouse refers to content and information that is spread online. 

Word-of-Mouth

Word-of-mouth is spreading content from person to person and not from organization to person. 

WordPress

WordPress is a popular platform allow for content creation and production without the need for a professional web developer. 

WordTracker

WordTracker is a type of keyword research program. 

Writing for the Web

When producing content, one must differentiate between writing for print publications and writing for the web. The format and flow of the content varies depending on the medium through which it is presented. 

WWW

WWW is short for World Wide Web, which includes all content accessible over the Internet. 

XML

XML is short for extensible mark-up language, which is another way of marking data sets and documents so that they can be transferred between applications. 

XML feeds

An XML feed is use of the XML language in a fashion very similar to an RSS feed. 

XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of the pages on a web site and is comparable to an HTML sitemap. 

Yahoo!

Yahoo! is one of the oldest and most popular search engines, founded in 1994. 

Yield Management

Yield management involves a pricing strategy that takes an understanding of consumer behavior and uses flexible pricing to sell products. 

Youtility

This content marketing concept involves helping instead of selling. It comes from a book written by Jay Baer titled “Youtility.” 

YouTube

YouTube is one of the most successful video hosting and sharing sites. It was founded in 2005 and later purchased by Google in 2006. 

Z Chart

A Z chart is a type of chart used to plot sales throughout the year taking into consideration breakdowns based on monthly periods, cumulative totals and annual sales.

Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist is a German phrase translated as “spirit of age.” It encompasses an understanding of ideas and opinions that seem to embody and define a particular period in history.

Zemanta

Zemanta is a software plug-in that offers links to additional relevant content to users and is also helpful to content marketers. 

Zero Level Channel

Zero level channel is a marketing channel where the manufacturer reaches out to the consumer directly and sells to that person without the assistance of retailers or other parties. 

Zerys

Zerys is an online marketplace platform that allows groups and companies to commission and purchase content from freelance writers. 

Zone Pricing

Zone pricing involves a pricing strategy where prices are calculated on location, with customers being charged different prices depending on where they live. They can also be affected by shipping costs depending on the location or other overhead costs.

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