The Ultimate Digital Marketing Glossary

Algorithm is a system created to manage the data used to show the results on search engines. The most well-known one is the Google algorithm. Aside from Google, Facebook also has an algorithm to manage content arrangement or select the ads that users see, for example. Each algorithm varies according to its platform.

Alt text or Alternative Text is the text you input to give details of the images on your website to the Google Bot. This will help increase the possibility of people seeing your site when they search using Google Images. Alt text also matters when it comes to SEO.

Anchor text is the visible keywords or words in an article which, once clicked, redirect to other URLs for further information. Mostly, the anchor text is clickable, seen in blue, and underlined. The anchor text linking to other pages within the same website, also called the internal link, will help Google understand the content better through the keywords used.

Audience is the database or the target group you want to communicate with when you create messages, like ads, for example. You can set the objectives you want to achieve so that you can deliver the ads to the audience with the most potential for your business.

Backlinks, some people call inbound links or incoming links. This is how other websites link back to your website (the reader reads the article, finds the link embedded, and clicks through to your website). Backlinks are one SEO factor that helps Google understand the context of your content by providing more information for readers, or more resources from other new pages.

Bot (Google Bot), mostly known as spider, is a Google tool that enters your site and collects data from the pages to understand the content. Once users search via the search engine, when relevant, the page will be shown as a result thanks to this data collection.

Bounce rate represents the percentage of visitors who access your website and leave without visiting other pages on the site. Your bounce rate can be checked through Google Analytics. A bounce rate over 70% is considered to be high, with a moderate bounce rate generally under 40%.

CTA (Call to Action) is a text button that tells people to click so that they can visit your website, fill in an online form, click to purchase a product, or anything else you’d like them to do. Generally, the text on a CTA button encourages people to click using phrases such as: “Buy now!”, “Complete this form for a discount!” or “Register now!”.

CTR (Click Thru Rate) is a metric that represents the number of clicks you receive from users who’ve viewed your ads. To calculate CTR, take the total measured clicks and divide it by the total number of impressions, then multiply the result by 100. The formula is: CTR = (total clicks ÷ total impressions) * 100.

Conversions are the actions you expect from your audience. For example, if you expect them to fill in a questionnaire when they see your ads, if they do so, that is a conversion. Likewise, conversions can be when someone sees your Facebook ads and clicks to purchase your product. In marketing, there are various types of conversion actions among businesses depending on what they expect from their customers.

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) is the cost of one conversion from your paid ad, calculated from the total payout on the ad, divided by the number of conversions. The formula is: CPA = total payout ÷ total conversions.

CPC (Cost per Click) is the cost you are charged for each click on your ads, calculated from the total payout, divided by the number of clicks incurred. The formula is: CPC = total payout ÷ total clicks.

CPL (Cost per Lead) is the amount you spend on marketing to get one lead. To calculate your CPL, take the total payout and divide it by the number of leads. The formula is: CPL = total payout ÷ total leads. CPL is similar to CPA, however CPA focuses on new customers to the business whereas CPL focuses on qualified ones.

CPM (Cost per Thousand), also called cost per mille, is the amount you are charged per 1000 ad impressions. It is calculated from the total payout, divided by the total number of ad impressions, then multiplied by 1000. The formula is: CPM = (total payout ÷ total impressions) * 1000.

Crawl or Crawling is how a site is discovered by Google bot, which downloads your website’s data. The crawled data will be indexed so that when users search on Google, the algorithm can select and show the relevant data for the keywords searched.

Demographics is population information including age, gender, income, location, and behaviour of individuals. Mostly, demographics are used in advertising to specify the behaviour of each population group in order to deliver the ads to the best target audience for that brand.

Domain is the name of a website. For example, if the URL is www.primal.co.th/seo, the domain is primal.com. Some domains are named after the brand, while others use catchy names.

Dofollow is how you allow Google bot to follow the links to the destination site. For example, Website A links to Website B with dofollow links, Google bot then reads the content on Website A and redirects to Website B through the link. If Website B gets a quality link from Website A, it will positively affect its SEO.

Domain Authority is the trustworthiness of a website. If your website is high-quality with well- composed content, sending links to other relevant sites, providing a good user experience, and receiving positive feedback through the links, then your website trustworthiness will also be good.

Email Marketing is the act of sending an email expecting something back from the recipients, or aiming to expand the business and connect with prospective customers. Email marketing can give you names and details of those who have completed forms, drive sales, or promote the brand. Mostly, email will be sent to those in your contact list and can be sent to a number of recipients at a time.

External Link is a link on a website that allows visitors to read more information from other relevant sites.

Frequency is the number of times an ad reaches the audience. Advertising via Facebook ads, for example, will show you how many times your ad has been viewed by the same audience. When it comes to the number of views, 3-5 times for the same viewer is considered to be a good frequency. If your frequency is too high then it can be irritating for your audience.

GA (Google Analytics) is a Google tool used to analyse data and measure values related to your online marketing. It shows you how to improve your campaign, providing you with real-time data, and helping you understand the behaviour of your customers by showing you the channels they use or the marketing campaigns that connected them with your business.

GTM (Google Tag Manager) is a Google tool used to manage all your tags in one place including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Ads, or Facebook pixel. This tool is popular among marketers, and it comes in handy for those who are not skilled at website coding.

GSC (Google Search Console) is a Google tool used to analyse your website. It shows you how users found your site and highlights the parts that need to be improved in order to optimise your site for a good user experience, which is important for SEO.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a computer code related to web page creation. It is considered a core language used to write web pages running on a web browser. A web page is made up of HTML tags which are used to display images and text.

HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) is a protocol for data transfer and communication between web browsers and servers. To clarify, a web browser like Chrome will request data from the server database, then output the results as text or images. Nowadays, websites should use HTTP to keep their users secure when there is a money transfer or personal information involved.

Impressions are the number of times your ad is shown to viewers. It tells you how many people saw your ad, regardless of whether it was clicked or not. Even if an ad is shown to the same viewer multiple times, each time it is shown, it will be counted as a new impression.

Internal Link is the embedded link from page A to B on the same website, providing relevant information for readers within the same site.

Index or Google Index is how Google bot enters your website, reads the content, and collects the data to be stored in its database. Once the user searches using words similar to your content, your site will be shown on the results page.

JavaScript is another programming language that gives your web page more styles and effects. It can be used along with HTML to design and create a more interesting web page.

Keyword Research is the process of analysing possible keywords, phrases or words to use on your website that users might search for on search engines to connect with your business. This will help you create relevant content which can be shown on Google’s SERPs, so that people can reach your business when they search those keywords.

Keyword Stuffing is the act of using the same words or keywords repetitively in an article. Doing this is bad for SEO because it looks like you are trying too hard to get more readers quickly, rather than providing valuable content.

Landing Page is the specific page of your website or URL that you want users to be redirected to when they click. For example, if you want readers to enter your site and go to the article page right away, you just set the landing page with the URL of that article page.

Lead is someone who is likely to be a prospective customer, someone who has shown an interest in your business. Therefore, you can use other marketing approaches to communicate with these leads and finally convert them into customers.

Lookalike Audience is a simulated group you create according to your existing demographic data. It is used with Facebook Ads to search for a group of people whose demographics are similar to those of your current audiences. You can select the similarity of the lookalike audience by percentage, ranging from 1-10% (the closer to 1%, the more similarity your lookalike audience has to your existing target group).

Meta Description is a description explaining the content on your site, it is usually short, no more than 150 words. It will be shown on the Google results page after the Title, and shouldn’t be any longer than 2 lines to make it more convenient to search. It’s a good idea to include SEO keywords here as well.

Meta Title is a title that tells people what they are reading about. The Meta Title is also known as the Meta Tag. It is related to the HTML, in the Headline, and is generally 50-60 words long.

NoFollow is when the Google system (or Google bot) does not attribute a value or score to the destination link. Before, this may have affected your ranking, but nowadays Google bot does not ignore links that are coded =Nofollow. Therefore, a website with Nofollow links still has value and can be considered a good website.

Organic Traffic is the statistics of visitors to a website that are not guided by paid ads. For instance, when someone searches on Google and the page shown is clicked for more information, this is what we call Organic traffic. When doing SEO, the more Organic traffic you receive, the better the ranking you will receive.

Outbound Link is a link from one website to access another. Mostly, Outbound links are related to one another, e.g. on a website talking about beauty products, there may be Outbound links redirecting to a website with related products or a purchase page.

Page Speed is a website’s speed when downloading the manifest (showing the text and graphic content) on browsers and mobile phones. There are 3 factors to consider which are Request for files, Loading time, and Page size. When doing SEO, the Page Speed is one of the essential factors affecting a website’s ranking.

PPC or Pay-Per-Click Advertising is an advertisement on Google search pages (or other search engines). The ads will be shown above the organic search results with the label ‘Ad’.

Pixel or Facebook pixel is a tool from Facebook that installs Code on your website to analyse, interpret and evaluate the people who fill in the form, submit an order or make a requested action. The values from Pixel can be used to improve the advertisement to reach out to target groups more accurately.

Quality Score is a score given by Google as a factor to decide when your ad is displayed. This score shows the quality of your ad and the relation between your ad and the keyword searched by users. The scale of the Quality Score is between 1-10, the closer you are to 10, the better quality and more relevant your ad or landing page is to the user’s search.

Retargeting or Remarketing is when you try to send messages to customers who have transacted with you before. They can be old customers or someone who has previously visited your site but not followed through with the desired action, for whatever reason. The purpose of retargeting is to encourage these customers/visitors to gain interest in your products once again and eventually make a purchase.

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is an evaluation of ad results, comparing the investment made and profit gained. The formula is the value received from the ad ÷ ad budget.

Robots.txt (Robots Exclusion Protocol) is a file that tells Google (or other search engines) whether or not to collect data on your website. Normally, the bots will collect all the data, but if we add Robots.txt, we can tell them not to collect data on some pages (Disallow). You can check if a website has Robots.txt by adding ‘/robots.txt’ at the end of the URL.

ROI (Return on Investment) is the return on the investment you made. The formula is: (income - investment fund) ÷ investment fund.

SIS (Search Impression Share) is the percentage of your advertisement shown on Google search compared with others on the same search page. Our Search Impression Share value reflects the amount of times our Google ads have been seen by users.

SEM or Search Engine Marketing is marketing on Google or other search engines. There is SEM marketing which you have to pay for, such as Google ads, and some you can do for free, such as doing SEO to improve your website’s ranking.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is done to try to earn the top-spot on Google’s search ranking. It can be done by improving your website, its content and its Backlinks to make sure the content shown is best for the user. Doing SEO takes time, but if you do it correctly, you can climb up the ranking in a short period of time without paying for anything, unlike paid media.

SERP or Search Engine Results Page is the search results page you see on search engines (the text and websites shown on Google when you search keywords). You will see that the 100 websites shown will all have text which may answer the query you’ve submitted to Google.

Sessions are when people visit your website and interact with your website within a certain timeframe. One user can open multiple sessions.

Sitemap is the website layout or structure. It helps visitors find out what your website consists of and takes them to the page they desire.

Spider or Google spider is a tool from Google (also known as Google bot) that checks and collects data on your website. These particular acts are called Crawling, which then creates an index (Indexing), for when users search for something. The data is then manifested in the form of the website ranking.

Trigger is the control panel for tags on Google Tag Manager. Trigger will act according to the user behaviour e.g. when people reach the Thank You page after filling in the form or after purchasing products, the Trigger collects data to use for Remarketing later on.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the location of the files on the internet or, to put it more simply, the link of a website. One link can be attributed to just one page. If the URL changes, the access to the page changes accordingly. URLs can be in formats other than web pages, such as image files, voice files, etc.

UTM Tracking is a parameter attached to the end of a URL when it’s shared on social media to show the source of the traffic to the website. The source can then be tracked from websites and campaigns through Google analytics.

Value Proposition is the value (benefit) delivered to customers through your products or services. A business should focus on making its value proposition stand out from the competition in order to gain an advantage.

Web browser is a programme that people use to access web pages using HTML language, converted to a less complicated version. The users have to put in the Domain name or website name. Simply speaking, a Web browser is basically a service provider that gives you access to web pages on the internet e.g. Google Chrome or Safari.

Web page is a window that manifests data, texts or files such as images, in HTML format. Such data can be accessed by anyone.

WordPress is a programme used for creating and managing the elements on a website. It is mainly used to manage content, acting as a Content management system (CMS). Using Wordpress helps a lot when doing SEO, as the programme itself is SEO-friendly.

XML Sitemap is a website layout that shows the structure for Google bots to understand what content is offered. If you plan the XML Sitemap properly to make the website easy to use and well-ordered, it will be good for your SEO as well.

Yoast or Yoast SEO is a plug-in that you can install to manage content or other technical elements. You can install this plug-in with Wordpress. If you improve your website properly according to Yoast’s suggestions, it will also improve your website’s SEO.