30 Online Marketing Terms Every Business Owner Needs to Know
Backlinks, Hashtag, CTA, Tweet, Hootlet… Wait, are we still speaking English here? The rise of online marketing has done more that just change the way we promote our businesses, it’s changed the way we talk about marketing. Along with this new powerful method of sharing our message with the world, come new words and phrases to describe what we are actually doing. When getting started with SEO, Inbound, content marketing and the like, the verbiage used can be one of the most confusing parts. In order to help clear things up, we’ve created a list of 30 commonly used online marketing terms, what they mean and how they are used. So get your notepad ready, because your online marketing language lesson is now in session!
Alt Tag:
The term “ALT tag” is a common shorthand term used to refer to the ALT attribute within in the IMG tag. ( psu.edu) ALT tags are used to describe the image that is on a page. Search engines can’t see what the image is and have no way of understanding its relationship to the content. The way we help them out is providing information via the “alt tag.”
Here is an HTML example of how an alt tag should be added:
Adding alt tags to your images will help the search engines better understand the relationship of your image to the content around it.
Avatar
This word has been used so much that it now has its very own place in the webster dictionary. It’s important to note that it is the 2nd meaning of the word, not the first. Anyways, an avatar is a small picture that represents a computer user in a game, on the Internet, etc. ( Merman Webster)
Having an Avatar helps make your online profile more human. With so many people online and many of the online accounts being fake, doing all you can to show that you are who you say you are can go a long way in building trust with your audience.
Backend
Most users only ever see the client facing side of a website or web application. But, just like most other things, there is a lot more going on “under the hood.” Back-end development references a client server architecture common in e-commerce. Development includes the server implementation, how it is stored, and transmitted. (Wikibooks)
This is where all of your actual website information is stored. Everything from your content to the code that runs each one of your pages. Hiring a person who knows how to keep your backend up and running smoothly can pay off big time for those who are using your site day to day.
Backlink
Backlinks are one of the most important factors when it comes to having your website rank for your targeted keywords. While the word may sound mysterious, it’s actually pretty straightforward. A backlink in an incoming hyperlink from one web page to another website. In other words, it’s a line from one website to another.
While obtaining links is important, how you go about earning links and the credibility of the site you are obtaining a link from are just as important. For more on link-building, check out this article I wrote for Search Engine Land.
Blog
Well, I hope you are familiar with this term because you are on a blog right now. The official definition of a blog is, a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style. (source) Blogs are one of the most powerful tools any online marketer has at their disposal. The key is knowing how to use it.
Blogs were originally used as a sort of online journal but quickly became a powerful way for businesses to connect with and continually educate and add value to the lives of their prospects and clients. If you’re not blogging yet, you really should consider it.
Bounce
Bounce can actually refer to two separate things when it comes to online marketing. We will cover them both.
First, a bounce from your website represents a visitor who entered your website and then left (“bounced”) rather than continuing on to view other pages within the same site (wiki). The bounce rate of your site can be found inside your Google Analytics account. For a good idea of what average bounce rates look like across industries, check out this article.
The second way the term bounce is used is in reference to email. When a message bounces, it means that a delivery error has occurred. There are two types of bounced messages, hard and soft. Here is a great and simple explanation from SendGrid
A soft bounce means that the email address was valid and the email message reached the recipient’s mail server. However, it bounced back because:
The mailbox was full (the user is over their quota)
The server was down
The message was too large for the recipient’s inbox
A hard bounce occurs when the message has been permanently rejected either because:
The email address is invalid
The email address doesn’t exist
Email is still a very powerful tool but it only works if your message gets to its destination. Furthermore, if your account has too many bounced messages it can result in your future emails going into spam folders rather than your prospect’s or customer’s inbox.
Canonical
In my years in the industry, this word has caused a lot of confusion. While it may be hard to say, it’s actually pretty simple. Canonical refers to the search engine friendly URL that you want the search engines to treat as authoritative. In other words, a canonical URL is the URL that you want visitors to see. (Marketing Jive)
Many websites have pages with duplicate or similar enough content that to Google it appears to be a duplication. This can hurt your search ranking and the best way to resolve this is to redirect the duplicate content to the canonical page.
Clickthrough Rate
Want to know whether or not your visitors like what they are seeing? Clickthrough Rate can help tell us just that. This is the ratio showing how often people who see your content end up clicking it. (Google) By keeping track of this metric, you can tweak your campaigns and keywords to make sure that your website visitors are interacting with your content and headed towards conversion.
Conversion Rate
This metric goes a little deeper in your visitors actions than just clicking. The conversion rate is the percentage of users who take a desired action. The archetypical example of conversion rate is the percentage of website visitors who buy something on the site. (Nielsen Norman Group) But conversions rates can also refer to how many visitors submitted information on a landing page form.
Across industries, the average landing page conversion rate was 2.35%, yet the top 25% are converting at 5.31% or higher. Ideally, though, you want to break into the top 10% — these are the landing pages with conversion rates of 11.45% or higher. (Search Engine Land)
CTA
This acronym stands for call-to-action. A call to action (CTA) is an instruction to the audience to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as “call now”, “find out more” or “visit a store today”.
A CTA can be a simple non-demanding request like “choose a colour” or “watch this video”, or a much more demanding request. An obvious CTA would be requesting the audience to purchase a product or provide personal details and contact information. (wiki)
CTAs are used to help encourage your visitors to engage with you and share some of their information in exchange for some powerful content. When it comes to creating CTAs, knowing who your buyers are and how they interact it essential.
Evergreen Content
Evergreen content is content that is continually relevant and stays “fresh” for readers. It gets its name from the evergreen tree which is a symbol for perpetual life throughout all seasons. While doing time-based content is good, today’s news cycle moves so fast that what was relevant yesterday is stale today. That’s why producing content that is relevant over time is key to long-term online marketing success.
GIF
GIFs have become a very popular tool in online marketing. People love visuals. Animated GIFs can help make your images more interactive. An animated GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file is a graphic image on a Web page that moves – for example, a twirling icon or a banner with a hand that waves or letters that magically get larger. (Tech Target)
The key is to make your GIFs look professional. While many use them for humor and other topics, businesses that use GIFs need to be sure that they aren’t trying to be “trendy.” If used wrong, it can damage your online reputation.
Hashtag
The symbol formerly known as the “pound size” was changed forever by a little company called Twitter. A hashtag is a type of label or metadata tag used on social network and microblogging services which make it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. Users create and use hashtags by placing the hash character # in front of a word or unspaced phrase, either in the main text of a message or at the end. (wiki)
When marketing your content on social media, using Hashtags can be a great way to insert yourself into a larger conversation. For example; say you want the new piece you just did on a popular new widget to get more exposure. You can post a message to your social channels using hashtags others are using and when searched, your piece will show up in the feed.
Hootlet
Social media is a powerful way to reach a larger number of people across the globe with the stroke of your keyboard and the click of a mouse. Hootsuite has helped millions better manage their social media for free with their online tool. As a result, Hootlet is now a marketing term you need to know. Hootlet is a Chrome Web Browser extension that lets business owners schedule Tweets a day in advance or can help bloggers looking to share interesting content with their followers. Ever been on a page and want to share it with your followers? This extension lets you do that without ever leaving the page. What a time saver.
Inbound
Inbound refers to marketing activities that draw users to you, rather than you going out after prospects yourself. As HubSpot puts it, sharing is caring and inbound marketing is about creating and sharing content with the world. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your dream customers, inbound attracts qualified prospects to your business and keeps them coming back for more.
There are a number of strategies and tactics that make up Inbound, but they have “attraction” in common. Inbound is a buyer-driven marketing process.
Influencers
An influencer is a person who has the power to influence another person’s beliefs, actions or experiences. In the realm of marketing, influencers are individuals that have influence over potential buyers and orients marketing activities around these influencers. (wiki) In online marketing, the goal is for the business not only to connect with influencers but to become an influencer by adding value to the lives of those we interact with.
Link Bait
As we discussed above, links are extremely important to getting your content ranked in the search results. The best backlinks are natural ones and that’s where link bait comes in. Link bait is content on your website that other sites link to because they want to, not because you ask them to. (Luna Metrics)
Link Bait come in all shapes and sizes, from blog posts and site pages to helpful resources like eBooks, infographics, videos and more. The key here is to create content that is helpful to others in your niche and can stand the test of time.
Link Building
Ok, one more term around links. Why? Because it’s that important. Link building is the art of creating connections with other site owners in your niches that result in backlinks. Here’s what MOZ has to say about link building. There are many techniques for building links, and while they vary in difficulty, SEOs tend to agree that link building is one of the hardest parts of their jobs. Many SEOs spend the majority of their time trying to do it well. For that reason, if you can master the art of building high-quality links, it can truly put you ahead of both other SEOs and your competition.
Meta Description
You know that text underneath a link in the search results that tells you a little bit about the site you are about to click on? That’s the meta description. Meta Descriptions help describe your page to search engines and your potential readers. While they no longer have “ranking” value, they are still very important. Having a well written and accurate meta description can increase the clickthrough rate of your site on the search engines.
If you use a content management system like WordPress or HubSpot, adding meta descriptions is fairly simple. If you are doing things the hard way, you can add a description in your site’s section using this code.
Author: Ryan Shelley
Ryan’s pretty much your average guy, except for the average part. He is the owner and founder of Shelley Media Arts LLC. He is passionate about helping companies make a more personal connection online with their customers and prospects. Ryan is active in influencing and promoting growth driven design and… View full profile ›
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