Marketing terms, in plain English.
Every trade hides behind its vocabulary. Here is the marketing vocabulary, explained the way you would to a smart friend.
A
- A/B testingA/B testing compares two versions of the same thing, like a subject line or headline, to see which one performs better with real people.
- AI agentAn AI agent is a system that can take actions on your behalf, not just produce text: calling tools, running steps and reacting to the result.
- AI OverviewsAI Overviews are the AI-written summaries Google shows above search results, built from several sources and linked back to them.
- Alt textAlt text is a short written description of an image. Screen readers speak it aloud, and search engines read it to understand what the image shows.
- Anchor textAnchor text is the visible, clickable words in a link. It tells people and search engines what the linked page is about.
- Attribution modelAn attribution model is the rule that decides which marketing touch gets credit for a sale when a customer saw several before buying.
- AutoresponderAn autoresponder is an email that sends itself when something happens, like a signup or a purchase. You write it once and it runs on its own.
- Average session durationAverage session duration is the mean time visitors spend on your site in one visit. It is a rough signal, not a stopwatch.
B
- BacklinkA backlink is a link from someone else's website to yours. Search engines treat backlinks as votes of confidence, so good ones can lift your rankings.
- Bounce rateBounce rate is the share of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. A high rate can mean the page did not match what they wanted.
- Bounce rate (email)Email bounce rate is the share of your emails that could not be delivered. It is different from website bounce rate, which measures visitors leaving.
- Brand awarenessBrand awareness is how many people know your business exists and remember what you do. It builds slowly, then pays off when they are ready to buy.
- Brand guidelinesBrand guidelines are the written rules for how your brand looks and sounds, so every person and every channel stays recognizably you.
- Brand voiceBrand voice is the consistent personality in your writing, from blog posts to receipts. It is how customers recognize you without seeing your logo.
- Breadcrumb navigationBreadcrumb navigation is the small trail of links near the top of a page that shows where it sits in your site, like Home / Blog / This post.
- Buyer personaA buyer persona is a profile of your typical customer: who they are, what they want, and what holds them back. It keeps your marketing aimed at real people.
C
- Call to action (CTA)A call to action is the line that tells people what to do next: buy, book, subscribe, download. Every page and email should have one clear CTA.
- CAN-SPAM ActCAN-SPAM is a United States law setting rules for commercial email: tell the truth, say who you are, and let people opt out easily.
- CannibalizationCannibalization is when two or more of your own pages target the same keyword, so they compete with each other and neither ranks as well as it could.
- Canonical URLA canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page is the official one, so duplicate or near-duplicate pages do not compete with each other.
- Case studyA case study is the story of one customer's problem, what you did, and what changed. It is proof that reads like a story instead of a claim.
- Churn rateChurn rate is the share of customers or subscribers who leave during a period. Divide the number who left by the number you started with.
- Click-through rate (CTR)Click-through rate is the percentage of people who saw a link and clicked it. It tells you whether your headline or subject line earned attention.
- Cold emailA cold email is an unsolicited message to someone who never asked to hear from you. It is sales outreach, not marketing email, and the rules differ.
- Content auditA content audit is a full review of everything you have published, so you can see what earns traffic, what is outdated, and what should go.
- Content briefA content brief tells a writer what to write: the topic, the reader, the angle, the points that must appear, and the action at the end.
- Content calendarA content calendar is a schedule of what you will publish, where, and when. It replaces last-minute scrambling with a plan you can actually keep.
- Content distributionContent distribution is how you get a finished piece in front of people. Publishing is not distributing, and most content fails at this step.
- Content gapA content gap is a topic your audience searches for that you have not covered, and often your competitors have. It is a list of what to write next.
- Content marketingContent marketing is earning attention by publishing things people find useful, instead of buying attention with ads. It works slowly and compounds.
- Content pruningContent pruning is deliberately removing, merging or redirecting weak pages so the strong ones carry more weight.
- Content refreshA content refresh is updating an existing page instead of writing a new one. It is usually the cheapest way to win back traffic you lost.
- Content repurposingContent repurposing turns one piece of content into many. A single blog post can become an email, a dozen social posts, and a checklist.
- Content velocityContent velocity is how much content you publish in a given period. It is a useful capacity measure and a dangerous goal.
- Conversion funnelA conversion funnel is the set of steps someone passes through on the way to buying, from the first visit to the finished order.
- Conversion rateConversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take the action you wanted, like buying or signing up. It measures whether your marketing works.
- CopywritingCopywriting is writing meant to get someone to act: click, sign up, reply, or buy. It is judged by what people do, not by how it reads.
- Core Web VitalsCore Web Vitals are Google's measures of how a page feels to use: how fast it shows content, how fast it responds, and how much the layout shifts.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA)Cost per acquisition is what you pay, on average, for one conversion. Divide the total campaign spend by the number of conversions it produced.
- Cost per click (CPC)Cost per click is the amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Divide total ad spend by the number of clicks it bought.
- Crawl budgetCrawl budget is how many pages a search engine will bother to visit on your site in a given period. Most small sites never come close to the limit.
- CrawlabilityCrawlability is how easily a search engine's bot can reach and read your pages. If a bot cannot get to a page, that page cannot rank.
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)Customer acquisition cost is what it costs to win one new customer. Divide total sales and marketing spend by the new customers you gained.
- Customer journeyThe customer journey is the full path someone takes from first hearing about you to buying and beyond, across every channel they use.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)Customer lifetime value is the total profit you expect from one customer over the whole relationship. It tells you what a new customer is worth.
D
- DKIMDKIM adds a cryptographic signature to your outgoing email so a receiving server can confirm the message really came from your domain and was not altered.
- DMARCDMARC tells receiving servers what to do with email that fails SPF and DKIM checks, and sends you reports on who is sending as your domain.
- Dofollow linkA dofollow link is an ordinary link that passes ranking credit to the page it points to. It is the default, so most links are dofollow already.
- Domain authorityDomain authority is a third-party score estimating how likely a site is to rank in search. Google does not use it, but marketers use it to compare sites.
- Double opt-inDouble opt-in asks new subscribers to confirm by clicking a link in a confirmation email. It costs you some signups and buys you a much cleaner list.
- Drip campaignA drip campaign is a scheduled series of automatic emails, sent one at a time over days or weeks. Each message builds on the last.
- Duplicate contentDuplicate content is the same or near-identical text appearing at more than one web address. Search engines then have to guess which version to show.
- Dwell timeDwell time is how long someone stays on your page after clicking a search result, before going back to the list of results.
E
- E-E-A-TE-E-A-T stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust: the qualities Google's human raters are told to look for in content.
- Editorial calendarAn editorial calendar is the schedule of what you will publish, when, and who is doing it. It turns good intentions into dated commitments.
- Email automationEmail automation sends the right message on a trigger instead of by hand: a welcome on signup, a follow-up after a purchase, a nudge after silence.
- Email blastAn email blast is one message sent to your entire list at once. The name is honest about the problem: it treats every subscriber the same.
- Email clientAn email client is the app someone reads your email in, like Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail. Each one renders your design a little differently.
- Email deliverabilityEmail deliverability is whether your emails actually reach the inbox instead of spam folders. Good content, clean lists, and proper setup keep it healthy.
- Email list hygieneList hygiene is regularly removing dead, bouncing, and long-inactive addresses from your email list. A smaller engaged list outperforms a big stale one.
- Email open rateEmail open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened your email. It is a rough gauge of subject line strength and list health.
- Email preheaderThe preheader is the preview text next to your subject line in the inbox. It is a second headline, and most senders waste it on 'View in browser'.
- Engagement metricsEngagement metrics measure how people interact with your content: likes, comments, shares, saves, clicks, replies, time spent.
- Engagement rateEngagement rate is the share of people who saw a post and did something with it, like liking, commenting, saving, or sharing.
- Entity SEOEntity SEO is optimising for the things a search engine recognises as real, such as people, companies and products, rather than for keyword strings.
- Evergreen contentEvergreen content stays useful for years, like a how-to guide or a cost breakdown. It keeps attracting readers long after you hit publish.
F
- Featured snippetA featured snippet is the boxed answer Google shows at the top of some results, pulled straight from a page it already ranks.
- First-party dataFirst-party data is information your customers give you directly, like email addresses, purchases, and site behavior. You own it and you can use it.
G
- Gated contentGated content sits behind a form. A visitor gives an email address to get the guide, template, or report, and you gain a lead.
- GDPRGDPR is a European privacy law about how you collect and use personal data. In marketing terms: get real consent, explain why, and let people leave.
- Generative engine optimizationGenerative engine optimization, or GEO, is the practice of making content likely to be quoted by AI answer engines rather than only ranked by search engines.
- Google algorithm updateA Google algorithm update is a change to how Google ranks pages. Some pass unnoticed, and some reshuffle results across whole industries.
- Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics is a free tool from Google that reports who visits your website, where they came from, and what they do while they are there.
H
- Hard bounceA hard bounce is an email that failed permanently, usually because the address does not exist. Remove it immediately and never send to it again.
- HashtagA hashtag is a keyword with a # in front that groups posts by topic, so people browsing that topic can find yours.
- Header tagsHeader tags are the headings that break a page into sections, from the H1 title down through H2 and H3. They give a page structure readers can scan.
- HeatmapA heatmap is a color-coded picture of where people click, move, and scroll on a page. Warm colors mark the busiest spots.
- HreflangHreflang is the tag that tells search engines which language and region a page is for, so the right version is shown to the right searcher.
I
- Ideal customer profileAn ideal customer profile describes the kind of organisation or person you serve best, based on who actually succeeds with you.
- Image SEOImage SEO is the work that makes your pictures findable and fast: descriptive file names, alt text, sensible sizes, and a format that loads quickly.
- ImpressionsAn impression is one showing of your content or ad. Impressions count appearances, not people, so one person can create many of them.
- IndexingIndexing is when a search engine stores your page in its database so it can appear in results. Crawled and indexed are not the same thing.
- Influencer marketingInfluencer marketing is paying or partnering with someone who already has your audience's attention, so their recommendation carries you.
- Internal linkingInternal linking is linking your own pages to each other. It helps readers find the next thing and shows search engines which of your pages matter.
K
- Key performance indicator (KPI)A KPI is one of the few numbers you have agreed actually show whether the work is succeeding. The key part means few.
- Keyword densityKeyword density is how often a keyword appears in a page compared with the total word count. It is an old metric, and no ideal percentage exists.
- Keyword difficultyKeyword difficulty estimates how hard it is to rank on the first page for a search term. Higher difficulty means stronger sites already hold the spots.
- Keyword researchKeyword research is finding the exact words people type into search engines, so you can create content that meets them there.
- Knowledge panelA knowledge panel is the information box Google shows beside results for a recognised person, company or thing, built from sources it trusts.
L
- Landing pageA landing page is a standalone page built for one campaign and one action, like booking a demo. It strips away everything that distracts from that action.
- Large language modelA large language model is a system trained on huge amounts of text that predicts likely next words, which is how it writes, summarises and answers.
- Lead generationLead generation is turning strangers into people you can contact, usually by trading something useful for an email address or a booked call.
- Lead magnetA lead magnet is something useful you give away in exchange for an email address, like a checklist, a template, or a pricing guide.
- Lead nurturingLead nurturing is staying useful to someone who is interested but not ready to buy, until they are. Usually it runs on email over weeks or months.
- Lead scoringLead scoring ranks potential customers by how likely they are to buy, based on who they are and what they do. It tells you who to call first.
- Link buildingLink building is the work of earning links from other websites to yours. Good links raise your credibility with search engines and send real visitors.
- List segmentationList segmentation splits your email list into groups that get different messages, based on who those people are or what they have done.
- ListicleA listicle is an article built as a numbered list, like nine subject lines that work. The format promises a clear scope and easy scanning.
- Local SEOLocal SEO is the work that gets your business found by people searching nearby, in map results and in phrases like plumber near me.
- Long-tail keywordA long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase with fewer searches but clearer intent, like 'emergency plumber open Sunday Austin'.
M
- Marketing automationMarketing automation is software handling repetitive marketing tasks: scheduled emails, contact sorting, timed publishing. You set the rules once.
- Marketing funnelThe marketing funnel is the path from stranger to customer: they discover you, consider you, then buy. Each stage needs different marketing.
- Marketing qualified lead (MQL)A marketing qualified lead is someone who has shown enough interest to be worth a sales conversation, but who has not asked to buy yet.
- Marketing ROIMarketing ROI is the return you get on marketing spend. Subtract the cost from the revenue it produced, then divide that by the cost.
- Meta descriptionA meta description is the short summary under your page title in search results. It does not affect rankings, but it convinces people to click.
- Multi-touch attributionMulti-touch attribution spreads credit for a sale across every marketing touch the customer had, instead of giving it all to the last click.
N
- Native advertisingNative advertising is paid content built to look and read like the publication it sits in, and labeled as sponsored.
- NewsletterA newsletter is a recurring email you send to people who asked to hear from you. It is the one audience channel you actually own.
- Nofollow linkA nofollow link is a link marked so search engines know not to pass ranking credit through it. It still works normally for the person clicking.
O
- Off-page SEOOff-page SEO is everything that builds your reputation away from your own site: links, mentions, reviews, and where people talk about you.
- Omnichannel marketingOmnichannel marketing means every channel a customer touches works as one continuous experience rather than as separate campaigns.
- On-page SEOOn-page SEO is everything you control on the page itself: the title, headings, copy, links, and images. It is the part you can fix today.
- Open GraphOpen Graph tags are the meta tags that control how a link looks when shared: the title, description and image in the preview card.
- Opt-inAn opt-in is a person actively agreeing to receive your email. Permission is what separates a marketing list from a pile of addresses.
- Organic trafficOrganic traffic is visitors who find you through unpaid search results. It grows slowly but compounds, and it keeps arriving without ad spend.
P
- Page speedPage speed is how quickly your page loads and becomes usable. Slow pages lose visitors before they see anything, especially on phones.
- Page viewsA page view is one loading of a page on your site. Reloading the same page counts again, so page views always run higher than visitors.
- Pay-per-click (PPC)Pay-per-click is advertising where you pay only when someone clicks your ad, not when it is shown. Search ads are the best-known example.
- People Also AskPeople Also Ask is the expandable list of related questions on a Google results page, and a direct readout of what searchers want next.
- Permission marketingPermission marketing means only reaching people who agreed to hear from you. Attention is earned and can be withdrawn, so you spend it carefully.
- Pillar pageA pillar page is one long, definitive guide to a broad topic, linking out to detailed articles on each subtopic. It anchors a topic cluster.
- Press releaseA press release is a short, factual announcement written for journalists, covering news such as a launch, a funding round, or a new location.
- Product-led growthProduct-led growth is a strategy where the product itself does the selling, usually through a free tier or trial people can use before talking to anyone.
- Programmatic SEOProgrammatic SEO is generating many similar pages from a data set, one per variation, to target a large set of long-tail queries.
- Prompt engineeringPrompt engineering is the practice of writing instructions that get useful, repeatable output from an AI model.
R
- RedirectA redirect sends anyone who visits one web address to another one automatically. It is how you move or retire a page without breaking every old link.
- RetargetingRetargeting shows ads to people who visited your site but left without buying. It works because they already know you.
- Retrieval-augmented generationRetrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, is giving an AI model your own documents to read before it answers, so the answer comes from your material.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS)ROAS is the revenue an ad campaign produced for each dollar spent. Divide the campaign revenue by the campaign cost.
- Robots.txtRobots.txt is a small text file at the root of your site that tells search engine bots which areas to skip. It is a request, not a lock.
S
- Sales qualified leadA sales qualified lead is one that sales has accepted as worth pursuing, a step beyond a marketing qualified lead.
- Schema markupSchema markup is code that labels what your page is about, so search engines know a number is a price, a rating, or an event date.
- Search intentSearch intent is what a person actually wants when they type a query: to learn, to compare, or to buy. Matching it is what makes content rank.
- Search volumeSearch volume is how many times a keyword gets searched each month, on average. It tells you how big the audience for a topic is.
- Semantic searchSemantic search matches the meaning behind a query rather than its exact words, which is why synonyms and phrasing no longer need to match.
- Sender reputationSender reputation is the score mailbox providers keep on you, based on how people react to your email. It decides inbox or spam folder.
- SEOSEO, or search engine optimization, is the practice of helping your pages show up in search results when customers look for what you sell.
- SERPSERP stands for search engine results page, the page you see after typing a search. Where and how you appear on it decides your click share.
- SERP featuresSERP features are the parts of a results page that are not ordinary blue links: snippets, maps, images, questions, ads and AI summaries.
- SessionsA session is one visit to your site: everything a person does from arriving until they stop. One person can start many sessions.
- Share of voiceShare of voice is your slice of the total visibility in a market, measured against competitors rather than against your own past.
- Social listeningSocial listening is monitoring what people say about you, your competitors, and your category online, then acting on what you hear.
- Social proofSocial proof is evidence that other people already trust you: reviews, testimonials, case studies, logos, and counts you can actually verify.
- Soft bounceA soft bounce is an email that failed temporarily, like a full mailbox or a server that was down. Sending platforms usually retry on their own.
- Spam trapA spam trap is an email address created or recycled to catch senders using bad lists. Mail to one is strong evidence you did not collect permission.
- SPF recordAn SPF record is a DNS entry listing which servers may send email using your domain, so receivers can spot forgeries.
- Statistical significanceStatistical significance is the test of whether a difference between two results is real, or small enough that luck could explain it.
- Subject lineThe subject line is the one line that decides whether your email gets opened. It has to earn attention in a crowded inbox in about a second.
- Suppression listA suppression list is the record of addresses you must never email again: unsubscribes, complaints, and hard bounces. It runs on every send.
T
- Technical SEOTechnical SEO is the plumbing: whether search engines can crawl, render, and index your site, and whether it loads fast and works on a phone.
- Thought leadershipThought leadership is publishing a real point of view on your industry, backed by what you have seen, so people come to you for judgment.
- Title tagThe title tag is your page's clickable headline in search results and its browser tab label. It matters for both rankings and clicks.
- Topic clusterA topic cluster is a group of linked articles covering one subject in depth: a broad pillar page plus focused posts on each subtopic.
- Topical authorityTopical authority is the credibility a site earns by covering one subject thoroughly, rather than by publishing single pages across many subjects.
- Traffic sourceA traffic source is where a visitor came from before landing on your site: search, social, email, a link elsewhere, or your address typed in.
U
- Unique visitorsUnique visitors estimates how many different people visited in a period. Each person counts once, no matter how many times they come back.
- Unsubscribe rateUnsubscribe rate is the percentage of recipients who opt out after an email. A steady trickle is normal. A spike means something changed.
- User-generated content (UGC)User-generated content is anything your customers make about you: photos, reviews, unboxing videos, and posts you never commissioned.
- UTM parametersUTM parameters are short tags added to a link so your analytics can tell exactly where a visitor came from, like a specific email or social post.
W
- Web analyticsWeb analytics is the practice of measuring what people do on your website, then using what you find to decide what to change.
- Welcome emailThe welcome email is the first message a new subscriber gets. It arrives while interest is highest, so it deserves more care than most sends.
- White paperA white paper is a long, evidence-led report on one problem and how to solve it. It is used to earn trust with a serious buyer.