Say Hello Hello Digital Marketing Glossary
# (see hashtag)
301 redirect – the code that tells web browsers, bots and crawlers where a missing webpage can now be found and that the change is permanent.
302 redirect – the code that tells web browsers, bots and crawlers where a missing webpage can now be found and that the change is only temporary.
404 error – the code for the webpage that is displayed when a user tries to find a missing, deleted or non-existent webpage.
A/B Testing – when a new version of an ad or web page (A) is compared with the existing version or a control (B) to see which one performs better.
Add on – a piece of code or software that adds an additional function to a web browser. Ad blockers are a popular example.
Adsense – An advertising platform by Google that allows website owners to make money by hosting ads on their site.
Adwords – Google’s advertising network that allows advertisers to create and place ads on Google products and participating websites.
Alerts – Google tool that notifies you via email when a saved search term appears online in new content. Companies often track mentions of their brand using this tool.
Algorithm – The calculations used by a search engine to work out how to rank the sites it has indexed.
Alt-text – code that is added to images. Usually a sentence or few words describing the image. Alt-text is scanned by bots and crawlers and is used on webpages when rendering the image fails.
Analytics – Data collection and analysis. Google Analytics is the most popular analytic tool available. It allows webmasters to see a wide range of data, including the number of website visitors, which pages they visited and how long they spent on the site.
Anchor text – the words you click to open a link to a webpage.
Automation – using software or bots to carry out online tasks on your behalf, whether that is entering information on a form, or following an account on social media
Avatar – An image that represents a user. Often used on social media and when commenting on websites.
Backlink – a link to your website on another website.
Baidu – the most used search engine in China.
Blackhat SEO – SEO tactics that go against the rules of search engines.
Blog – Short for weblog. A frequently updated online diary, journal or collection of articles.
Blogpost – a single entry on a blog.
Blogger – The name of Google’s free blogging platform or the name given to someone who writes for blogs.
Bot – A computer programme that carries out tasks on a user’s behalf.
Bounce rate – The percentage of site visitors that navigate away from a site without visiting more than one page.
Breadcrumbs – A trail on a website that shows where in the site structure the page you are currently on sits.
Broken links – A link to a webpage or site that no longer exists and generates a 404 error.
Cache – Data stored by a web browser to help speed up page loading times for repeat visits.
CTA (Call to Action) – a piece of content on a website intended to persuade a visitor to complete an action (click here, buy now, etc).
Captcha – An online resource used by websites to stop automated bots and spam. Usually asks users to type words from an image, click a particular item on an image or complete a basic maths sum.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – A coding language used by websites to ensure they look their best no matter what device they are viewed on.
Channel – the name given to a profile on YouTube.
Clickbait – Online content that aims to get users to click on links to webpages. Often worded to exploit user curiosity just enough to tempt a click.
CTR (Click Through Rate) – The percentage of users who clicked an online ad when compared to the total number of users who saw the ad.
Comments – User-generated content that often appears after a blogpost or article.
Content – Images, video or text. Any material that appears online.
CMS (Content Management System) – Systems that make managing websites more user friendly. Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal are all popular content management systems.
Conversion Rate – The percentage of website visitors that turn into paying customers when compared to the total number of visitors.
Copy – The words that appear on a website.
Crawler – a programme used by search engines to extract data from websites. (see also Spider, Robot)
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – a catchall term that encompasses strategies, tactics and technology used to maintain and analyse customer interactions and data with the aim of improving relationships between businesses and their customers.
Digital marketing – A catchall term for marketing that utilises websites,
social media and online resources.
Directory – an index of websites, often sorted into categories, that is compiled by people rather than bots or crawlers (like search engines). One of the last, easiest ways to gain free backlinks.
Drupal – free, open source website building software with a built-in CMS.
Engagement – when a user interacts with something online.
Entry – another name for a new piece of content on a website or social network, such as a blog post or article.
Facebook – the world’s most popular social network, boasting over one billion users. Free to use for anyone over the age of 13, companies can also create a presence and interact with users, run paid advertising campaigns and sell direct from the platform.
Follow – the act of subscribing to a user’s feed on Twitter.
Forum – a section of a website (or an entire website) where users interact with each other via written messages that are posted on a message board. Often fan communities or used by companies to provide customer support.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - a way to send files via a network. When you download a file from a website, you are using FTP built in to the browser itself.
Groups – communities within social networks, usually centred around a particular subject or interest.
Guest Post – A blog post or article shared on a blog or website that was written by someone representing another company or website. Usually done as a means to receive backlinks from respected websites.
Hashtag – a symbol that is placed in front of a word or words on social networks including Facebook and Twitter to denote a particular topic or subject.
H-tags – Also known as ‘header tags’, code that identifies the headings (H1) and subheadings (H2, H3, etc) on a webpage.
Host (or web host) – a business that provides the technology and services a company or individual needs for their website to be seen on the internet.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) – text-based code used for creating websites.
Hyperlink – more commonly just known as a link. A word, phrase or short sentence on a webpage that can be clicked, leading to a webpage on the same or a different site.
Impression – when a user views an ad or webpage.
Inbound Link (see Backlink)
Influencer – Individuals with large followings on popular social networks who can affect buying habits of their followers. As a result of this they are often approached by brands to promote their products.
Instagram – A popular photo and video sharing social network owned by Facebook.
IM (Instant Messaging) – usually text-based messages sent in real time via software or an app. WhatsApp is an example of an Instant Messaging app.
Joomla – a free, open source website building software with a built-in CMS.
Keywords – a word or phrase that users search for using search engines. Websites should be optimised with keywords to increase the likelihood of appearing in results when those words or phrases are searched for.
Keyword Density – the percentage a keyword appears in text when compared with the entire page content. Effectively keyword density is low, around 3%.
Landing Page – a webpage that users are taken to after clicking on an ad or specific search result. Often separate from the main website, with limited navigation options and a clear CTA (Call To Action).
Lead – a potential customer.
Lead Generation – identifying and nurturing potential customers for a business's service or product.
Lifehack – ways to save time on tasks or make day-to-day life more efficient.
Link Building – an increasingly difficult SEO tactic of getting authoritative external websites to link back to yours. Guest posting is a link building tactic.
LinkedIn – A corporate social network for professionals.
Listing – the name given to a website’s entry on a web directory or on a search engine results page.
Long Tail Keyword - a keyword phrase containing three or more keywords that is often used to target specific demographics.
Malware – software that is designed to damage or take control of a computer. Often hidden in email attachments and free downloads from disreputable websites.
Meta Description – a tag that informs search engines of what a webpage’s content is about. Often positioned under the page title in search engine results to give users more information about that page without clicking on it.
Microblog (see Twitter)
Mirror Site – A duplicate copy of a popular website. Often used by global businesses, if a user in the UK visits the site, a version on UK-based servers will load quicker than a version hosted in New York or Shanghai, for example.
Nofollow – If a backlink is a vote in favour of a website, adding a nofollow tag to a link removes that endorsement while keeping the link clickable.
Office Support – a service provided by SayHelloHello. We answer your phones and complete your admin tasks, enabling you to focus on what makes you money.
Open Source Software – publically licensed software that allows users to access, edit and improve upon the original source code. Mozilla Firefox web browser is an example.
Organic Search Listings – Any webpage listed on a search engine’s results page that hasn’t been paid for.
Outbound Links – a link on a webpage that leads to an external webpage or site.
PPC (Pay Per Click) – paid search engine marketing offered by search engines including Google, Bing and Yahoo. Webmasters pay a fee when a user clicks their advertisement and bid for ad positions in specific Google search results pages.
Paid search (see PPC)
PDF (Portable Document Format) – a file format that preserves a document so it will look the same no matter what device it is viewed on.
Phishing – a form of fraud where the perpetrator imitates a reputable company or individual via email, instant messaging or phone calls in order to extract private data, credit card details or website login information from a user.
Pinterest – an online visual bookmarking tool that allows users to ‘pin’ images and videos onto virtual noticeboards, organise them by subject and display them for other users.
Podcast – a portmanteau of ‘pod’ from iPod and ‘cast’ from broadcast. Audio content that can be downloaded and listened to on a digital media player, computer or smartphone at a later date. Often a series on a particular topic or subject, users can subscribe to a podcast and be automatically informed when a new episode becomes available.
Pop Up – an advert or lead capture form that automatically opens on a webpage or opens in a new tab or web browser window. Often seen as intrusive, many web browsers now have add-ons that block this form of advertising.
Post – an entry on a blog, or a message shared on a social network or forum.
Position – where a webpage link sits on a search engine results page
Profile – a user’s personal page on a social network that provides the opportunity to share biographical information. Often also links to the profiles of other users.
Query – the word(s) typed into a search engine to initiate a search.
Rankings – another name for where a webpage link sits on a search engine results page (see Position)
Reach – the total number of people who have seen an advert or piece of content.
RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) – a way for users to keep up with regular website updates. Websites offer a feed that can be collated into a ‘feed reader’ or ‘news aggregator’, which allows a user to read updates from a vast number of websites without having to navigate to each one.
Reciprocal Links – a link building tactic where webmasters agree to exchange links and share them on each other’s sites. Often abused, too many outbound links can be deemed suspicious and can sometimes lead to penalisation by search engines.
Reddit – web content aggregator site and forums (see sub-Reddit). Often awards itself the title ‘the front page of the internet’
Redirect (see 301 redirect)
Remarketing – A service by Google that allows advertisers to target users who have previously
visited their website. When a user leaves your site, a remarketing campaign shows them ads for your services or products on different sites and devices.
ROI (Return on Investment) – a way to record the profitability of a particular marketing campaign, usually by comparing the amount spent on the campaign with the amount of new business it brought in.
Retweet – a post by a Twitter user that is shared by another Twitter user.
Robot (see Crawler)
Robot.txt – a file that websites contain that can give search engine bots instructions, such as listing pages that bots should not scan and index.
Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) – a free Google tool for webmasters that allows them to monitor and optimise their site’s presence in Google search.
Search Engine – a computer program available through the internet that searches databases of websites and webpages, indexes them depending on keywords and phrases and presents the sites or webpages it deems the most relevant to the user on its results page.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) – online activities carried out with the aim of improving the ranking positions of a webpage or site in search engine results.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) – the way the result of a search are presented to the user. Often features PPC ads above the organic listings.
Search Term (see Query)
Server – a computer that is used to deliver data to, and process requests from, other computers, usually over a network or the internet.
Sharing – the act of making content available to other users on a social network.
Social Bookmarking – the act of saving a piece of online content to an online tool for reading at a later date or bringing it to the attention of other users. Pinterest, Stumbleupon and even Reddit can be classed as social bookmarking websites.
Social Media – often considered to be another name for Social Networking, Social Media more accurately describes the content a user creates or shares on a Social Network.
Social Network – a website, app or online tool that allows users to interact, share content and build communities based around common interests.
Spam – unsolicited messages or advertising of little value, often sent via email to members of illicitly-acquired mailing lists..
Spider (see Crawler)
Split Testing (see A/B Testing)
Stumbleupon – a website where users submit links to interesting content they have ‘stumbled upon’ online. Known as a ‘discovery engine’, users can browse submissions by interest or by who it was who shared the link.
sub-Reddit – the name given to forums on Reddit. Sub-Reddits exist for all manner of topics and subjects, from general interest to extremely niche, and everything in between.
Subscribing – when a user chooses to receive notifications from a particular website, podcast or social account when it updates.
Thread – a series of messages following an initial entry on a forum or a microblog.
Trend – a topic or subject on social networks that receives a high number of posts in a short period of time.
Troll – a user who deliberately antagonises another user or users through provocative messages and behaviour, often on social networks.
Title Tags – a piece of code that identifies the title of a webpage. Often used as the clickable ‘headline’ in SERPs.
Tweet – the name given to an entry on social network Twitter. Limited to 140 characters in length, users can add images, links and videos to their tweets.
Twitter – a social network based on the sharing of short, 140 character length messages, known as microblogging.
Unfollow – the name given to the act of unsubscribing from a user’s feed on Facebook or Twitter.
Update – a software file that contains improvements to an existing piece of software. A user downloads and installs the update file to fix issues and faults that the developer noticed after originally making the software available. Usually free.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator) – the technical name for a website address
User-Generated Content – any online content produced by an internet user, such as blog posts,
product reviews, article comments, photos and entries on social networks.
Visitor – a user who looks at your website.
Viral – online information or content that spreads from user to user online, like a virus
Vlog – Short for video log. A frequently updated online diary, journal or collection of essays/documentaries in video form, rather than text.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) – a phone service that works over an internet connection rather than a telephone line.
Webinar – a lecture or seminar conducted via the internet.
Webmaster – the person in charge of maintaining a website.
Whitehat SEO – SEO tactics that follow the rules of search engines.
Wordpress – free, open source website building software with a built-in CMS.
XML Sitemap – a document that webmasters use to let search engines know which pages on the website are available to be crawled and indexed.
Yandex – the most used search engine in Russia.
YouTube – a popular video hosting and sharing website. If you’ve ever watched a video online, chances are it was hosted on YouTube.
