In all the talk about websites, SEO, social media, and digital marketing, it’s sometimes easy to get lost in the tech-speak. To make your understanding of the virtual world a little easier, we’ve put together a resource that we like to call The Digital Dictionary. Below, you’ll find a list of some of our most commonly used terms and phrases along with their definitions. We hope you’ll find it useful.
If there is a word or phrase dealing with digital marketing that you’re curious about but don’t see on this list, tweet it to us at @widenet, and we’ll add it.
Affinity Interests: Identifies groups of users on a broad scale.
Analytics: Information resulting from the systematic analysis of data or statistics.
Automation: A preset, automatic response to defined actions or non-actions based upon the if/this, then/that rule.
Avg Time on Site: This is the average time that a user spent on your website.
B2B: Shorthand for Business-to-Business. Used to describe a company that markets or sells a product or service to other business.
B2C: Shorthand for Business-to-Consumer. Used to describe a company that markets or sells a product or service to consumers.
Blog: Put simply, a blog is a website or hub where a user can post entries (blog posts) to be read by other users.
Bounce Rate: Measures the percentage of people who immediately click away from your website after having clicked the link to get to your website.
Characters: The letters, numbers, and spaces in a block of text. Each one counts as an individual character.
Check In: A function on Facebook that allows you to “check-in” to a place or establishment so that you can let people know where you are, where you’re going, who is around you, or find new places.
Clicks: A “click” is when someone literally clicks on a link that takes them to a website.
Content: A blanket term to describe text, videos, photos, graphics, links, ads, blogs, or anything else that you put on your website or social media profile.
Control Panel: An interface provided for users to edit web content, control contacts, and send emails. It also acts as a file manager.
CPC: Shorthand for Cost-Per-Click. When running a paid advertising campaign, your CPC is how much you are charged every time someone clicks on the link to your website.
CTR: Shorthand for Click-Through-Rate. The number of times someone clicked divided by the total number of impressions
Demographic: A group of people that share some type of common factor. Can be as broad or as narrow as necessary. Ex: A group of men or a group of 20-25 year old men who like football and drink Budweiser.
Desktop: A non-portable computer that sets up and sits on a desk.
Digital Marketing: Marketing through the internet using email, websites, online advertising, and social media, while eschewing traditional marketing such as billboards, newspaper ads, radio spots, and television commercials.
Engagements: An action taken by user in relation to your website or social media profile. Ex: clicks, likes, shares, retweets, mentions, comments, etc.
Fan Growth: The growth of your fan base over time.
Favorite: An action taken on Twitter. If a user especially likes a Tweet, they can “favorite” that Tweet. Similar to a “Like” on Facebook.
Filtering: Narrowing down your target audience through “filters” that allow you specify by numerous different factors such as age, sex, location, interests, etc.
Frequency: In paid advertising, describes the number of times that your ad was shown to a person.
Hashtag: A word or group of words that, when preceded by the pound sign (#), become searchable links.
Impressions: In paid advertising, describes the total number of times your ad was seen, whether it was clicked on or not.
Infographic: A conjunction of information and graphics. Used to explain or break down a concept using pictures and images with minimal text.
Key Phrases: A collection of similar keywords people use to find your website on a search engine.
Keyword: Specific, popular words that a user searches for through a search engine.
Like: An action taken on Facebook to show interest. When someone sees a post they particularly enjoy, they can click the “like” button below the post.
Mention: Most often on Facebook or Twitter, when someone mentions you, they can link to your page by typing your name with the @ symbol in front of it.
Microcontent: Small phrases, graphics, videos, etc. that can be used in a post or tweet to draw users to your website. Often snippets of much larger pieces of content.
Native Advertising: Advertising in the context of the user experience.
New Visitors: People who are visiting your website for the first time.
Organic Reach: The amount or percentage of people you are able to reach without advertising.
Page Posts: Any content that is posted to a webpage or social media profile.
Paid Advertising: An online marketing method where businesses pay for increased exposure in order to boost website traffic and sales. This is often done by bidding for the top rankings on a search engine’s results page or targeting specific demographics or desired actions through social media.
Paid Reach: The amount or percentage of people you were able to reach using paid advertising.
Publish: Posting live content on your website or social media page.
Quality Connection: A connection with a user who is directly connected to your product or service and is likely to become a client/customer.
Ranking: Your position on a search engine’s results page.
Reach: Amount or percentage of people who are able to see your content.
Referrals: Sites that refer users to your website.
Retweet: To repost or forward another person’s tweet.
SEO: Shorthand for Search Engine Optimization. Refers to any number of actions taken to increase your rankings in a search engine.
Share: An action taken on Facebook where a user can repost someone else’s post to their wall. Similar to a retweet.
Smartphone: A modern cell phone with advanced computing capability and connectivity. Ex: iPhone or Android
Subsets: A group of keyphrases that people use to find your site. Includes variations of the root keyphrase.
Tablet: A mobile computer operated primarily by a touch screen. Ex: iPad or Kindle
Targeting: The process of aiming your marketing towards a specific demographic.
Traffic: The amount or percentage of people that come through your website.
Tweet: A 140 character message posted on Twitter.
Unique Visitors: Total number of views measured by the individual visitor instead of by volume. Ex: If your website has 10 views, and five are from the same person, then the number of unique visitors is 6.
User: People online using the Internet and its services, websites, or platforms.
Viral Reach: The amount or percentage of people who see your content through someone else.
