A
ADWORDS
Google’s paid advertising service where you can run business adverts on Google Search and Display networks. Advertisers most commonly pay for individual clicks on their ads, also known as Pay Per Click (PPC).
ALGORITHM
Rules set by Google that are used to determine what websites are displayed after a Google search.
AUDIT
A Digital Marketing audit is simply a thorough investigation of all your digital marketing efforts. The performance of all your practices, strategies, ads, and posts is evaluated–giving you an understanding of where your digital gaps and loopholes exist.
AUDIENCE
Digital audience targeting, otherwise known as a target market, is a defined group of people who are considered to be a company or brand’s ideal customers.
ANALYTICS
Analytics is a service by Google used for tracking and reporting a site’s data and traffic.
AUTHORITY
A site’s domain ‘authority’ can be determined by a range of factors including overall traffic to a site, social media shares, popularity of a site, quality of content on the site.
Basically, a highly visited such as Facebook will have a higher ‘authority’ than a small business with their own website who get a fraction of the traffic a month. Building your site’s ‘authority’ can be done in a number of ways including link building.
B
BACK END
Not the one you’re thinking of! When we refer to the ‘back-end’ of a site, we are talking about the part of the site we can edit that isn’t seen by the average user. See also (CMS) for more information.
BACKLINK
When another website has a link to your website.
BIG DATA
This refers to the study and application of big, complex datasets, which cannot be processed by traditional data-processing applications. These figures generate insights that can lead to better business decisions and strategic moves.
BING ADS
Bing’s paid advertising service where you can run business adverts on Bing and Yahoo Search and Display networks.
BOT
A bot is basically software that you can program to carry out a certain set of actions all on its own on your website. There can be good bots (Google Web Crawlers) and not so good bots (Hackers).
BOUNCE RATE
This is the percentage of people who leave the site without viewing other pages (i.e. single page visits).
BROKEN LINK
A link that has now been removed or has been broken. This would usually return a site error page – also known as a site 404.
C
CACHE
A temporary storage area in memory or on disk that holds the most recently downloaded Web pages. Sometimes, you may need to clear your browser’s cache in order to see the most recent changes to a website.
CALL TO ACTION (CTA)
Content or buttons on a site that encourage a user to take action (get in touch). CTA’s on a website can include phone numbers at the top of a site, links to a contact page and enquiry forms.
CAPTCHA
A test that reduces spam. Usually found on contact forms. “Type in these letters” or “Click on all the pictures of trees”. This is used to reduce spam through the enquiry form.
CLICK
The amount of people who have clicked on a PPC advert or an organic search result.
CMS
Content Management System. This is the programme used to add, edit and manage a website. For example – WordPress.
CONVERSION
Conversion can translate to the amount of users who have taken the desired action – got in touch, filled out an enquiry form etc. “There was 10 conversions through the site this week”
D
DATA
Having good, clean data is vital to effective digital marketing. By collecting customer data, you can develop an actionable understanding of customer behaviour. Data driven marketing can be more effective as it is more relevant to each audience segment.
DIGITAL
Digital marketing is the use of the Internet to reach consumers. Digital marketing is a broad field, including attracting customers via email, content marketing, search platforms, social media, and more.
DOMAIN
An organization’s unique name on the Internet. Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, http://justmedia.ie/
DUPLICATE CONTENT
Content that appears on the internet more than once. For example, copying and pasting content to your website without making it ‘unique’ – can be bad for your site’s SEO. Google may rank your site lower on search if it deems your site with less ‘trust’ as it does not have original content.
DYNAMIC
If a site is ‘dynamic’ – the text, images and form fields should adapt according to the user’s needs and information. For example this can depend on the user’s time zone, native language, time of day and other factors.
E
EMAIL MARKETING
A form of direct marketing delivered to user’s email inbox. This can include a monthly newsletter, a notification that a new blog has been posted or a special offer.
ENTRY PAGE
The first web page visited when someone enters a website.
EXIT PAGE
These are the webpages that users were last on before leaving the site.
EXTERNAL LINK
A link on a webpage that points to a webpage on a different website/domain.
F
A social networking website that allows users to create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues.
FAVICON
The small icon/logo on the left hand side next to the website’s URL in an address bar of a browser. Can also be displayed next to a site name in a user’s list of bookmarks. Typically sized at 16 x 16 pixels.
FORUM
In an ‘online’ sense – a forum is a website used for visitors to post topics of common interest and discuss and interact with others. An example of where this is used – netmums noticeboard.
FTP
File transfer protocol it refers to a standard network protocol that is used to exchange and deploy files over an Internet protocol computer network, such as the Internet.
G
GOAL
A social networking website that allows users to create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues.
GIF
The small icon/logo on the left hand side next to the website’s URL in an address bar of a browser. Can also be displayed next to a site name in a user’s list of bookmarks. Typically sized at 16 x 16 pixels.
Google is the world’s most popular search engine.
GOOGLE PARTNER
To be a Google Partner you must be Adwords certified. Having the Google Partner badge on our website shows that we excel with Google’s products. Google trusts us!
H
HASHTAG
Hashtags are labels commonly used in social media to make it easier for users to find posts relating to specific topics. Hashtags can be used to collect public opinion on news or events on a large scale.
HTML
(Hypertext Markup Language) HTML is a programming language for web pages. This is the code that achieves font, colour, graphic and hyperlink effects on a site.
HYPERLINK
This is the clickable text on a website which links to either another page on the site or another source on the Internet.
I
IMPRESSIONS
This refers to Google Adwords. The number of times someone views a page displaying your ad.
INTERNAL LINKING
Placing hyperlinks on a page to other pages within the same site.
INTERNET
Internet marketing refers to the strategies used to market products and services online and through other digital means. These can include a variety of online platforms, tools, and content delivery systems, such as: Website content and design.
IP ADDRESS
A unique series of numbers and periods which identifies a device on the internet or local network. It allows a system to be recognized by other systems connected via the Internet protocol.
Instagram is an online photo sharing service. It allows you to apply different types of photo filters to your pictures with a single click, then share them with others. While is a rather basic service, Instagram’s simplicity has helped it gain widespread popularity.
J
JAVA
A powerful programming language which is independent of platforms, meaning it can run on multiple computers and operating systems.
JAVASCRIPT
A dynamic computer programming language that’s commonly used to create interactive effects in web browsers.
JARGON
Jargon is something that you should never use to describe your offering. If you can’t describe your product or service in a simple and meaningful way, go back to the drawing board.
K
KEYWORDS
A word or search term that you want to optimise and rank your website for. ‘Employment Lawyers Ireland’
KEYWORD RESEARCH
We research actual search terms that people enter into search engines using Google AdWords’ planner and various other tools. We use this research to determine what keywords we should implement through the website to boost the site’s ranking in search.
KPI
Digital Marketing KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable goals which help you to track and measure success. In a challenging environment, such as the global pandemic-led recession, it’s more important ever to plan your short-term and long-term KPIs.
L
LANDING PAGE
The page in which a user first enters a site after clicking a hyperlink on another web page, email, banner, search etc. Most commonly this will be the home page but in some cases it can be a specific page on the website.
LINK BUILDING
Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own with the goal of increasing the search engine rankings of that page or website.
LOCAL SEO
When users make a search for a service/product/ business etc. that is (or will be) geographically located close to the internet user’s current or intended location. For example, ‘best digital marketing company in Ireland’.
M
MALWARE
Malware is software that is specifically designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to a Website.
META DESCRIPTION
This is a snippet of HTML code in a web page which summarises the content that is on that page. This makes it easier in search for users to understand what the web page will be about before clicking on the link.
META TITLE
Also known as page title. Similar to meta descriptions, meta titles describe a web page in search. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing use the meta title as the search results’ title for that page.
MOBILE
In Ireland, mobile devices account for 56% of all the time spent on the internet.* Having an optimised mobile website is vital, with 61% of consumers saying they have better opinions of brands who provide a good mobile experience.
N
NATURAL LISTINGS
Also known as organic listings (organic search), these are results shown on search engines because of their relevance to the searched term/query rather than advertisements (such as PPC).
NAVIGATION
The movement from one web page to another. “The user must be able to navigate through the website easily”
O
ORGANIC SEARCH
These are results shown on search engines because of their relevance to the searched term/query rather than advertisements (such as PPC).
ONSITE SEO
Ensuring that all Search Engine Optimisation techniques are being applied to your website including optimising pages with keywords, meta titles, descriptions and calls to action.
OFFSITE SEO
Search Engine Optimisation techniques that take place offline such as inbound links from websites with a decent domain authority, social media and other trusted sources that link to your website.
OPTIMISATION
Website optimization is the process of using tools, advanced strategies, and experiments to improve the performance of your website, further drive more traffic, increase conversions, and grow revenue. One of the most critical aspects of website optimization is search engine optimization (SEO).
OPT IN
The law states that if you want to contact customers by post, phone or email you must give them the option to object. When collecting personal data, always ask customers if they are happy to receive your marketing communications.
P
PAGE VIEWS
The number of hits on a web-page made by various users.
PAID CONTENT
Content that is paid for by its marketer such as Facebook ads, Google Adwords, Twitter Ads, or banner (display) ads.
PAY PER CLICK (PPC)
PPC is a form of advertising where advertisers pay when a user clicks on their ad. Often seen in search engine listings, PPC is popular as advertisers only pay when a visitor clicks through to the site.
Q
QUERY
A term(s) entered into a search engine by a user.
QUICK RESPONSE CODES
A Quick Response (QR) code is a barcode that can be scanned by a mobile device, with a QR code reader app. They can be used for many different things, including leading users to a website, Google Maps or app downloads.
R
RANKING
The position of a website’s listing(s) in search-engine results pages. The higher rank for a specific keyword, the more generally visible a page is to search-engine users.
REACH
In advertising, media and marketing, reach is the number of unique users you have exposed your ad to. In digital marketing, this can refer to the number of unique users reached in a digital campaign, not the total number of impressions delivered.
REDIRECT
Redirecting URLs is a technique for moving users to a different address when the original address has been changed or broken. Some users may have become familiar with that particular URL and rather than changing this we simply re-direct the location.
RETARGETING
Retargeting is a form of advertising that targets consumers who have expressed an interest in your products or services. The most common type of retargeting is site retargeting. This is where people who have visited your site and not converted are shown your adverts as they visit other websites.
ROBOT
A bot is basically software that you can program to carry out a certain set of actions all on its own on your website. There can be good bots (Google Web Crawlers) and not so good bots (Hackers).
ROI
Return on investment (ROI) is an important part of digital marketing (and really, almost every part of marketing)—it tells you whether you’re getting your money’s worth from your marketing campaigns.
S
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO)
Optimising your website and strategy to gain higher rankings in the organic search engine results.
SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS PAGE (SERP)
The page of results you see after conducting a search in a search engine like Google.
SITE AUDIT
Conducting a full review or analysis of a site to ensure it meets certain requirements including – optimisation, calls to action, no broken links, easy user experience etc. You can receive a free audit of your legal website & digital strategy here. Sitemap – A page that links to all other pages on the site allowing spiders to easily find all of the pages on your website.
SPAM
Messages that are irrelevant or unsolicited, typically to large numbers of users usually advertising, phishing or spreading malware. Users may find they get a lot of spam through their online enquiry form – having an anti-captcha added to these forms can decrease the amount of unwanted messages.
T
TARGET
Audience targeting is exactly what you’d expect: It’s the practice of using data to segment consumers by demographics or interests in order to find the holy grail that is the right person on the right device at the right moment.
TRAFFIC
The number of people who visit your website.
TOTAL REACH
The total number of users the ‘ad’ has been exposed to.
TESTING
One of the brilliant things about digital is the ability to test essentially any element of your campaigns. By using A/B or multivariate testing you can esablish how to make your marketing more successful and improve your ROI.
Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ system that allows you to send and receive short posts called tweets. Tweets can be up to 140 characters long and can include links to relevant websites and resources. Twitter users follow other users. If you follow someone you can see their tweets in your twitter ‘timeline’.
U
UNIQUE VISITORS
Number of unique users refers to the amount of people rather than hits. For example there may be 100 views on a website by 20 users but those users keep re-visiting the site, therefore irrelevant of how many times that user returned there was only 20 unique visitors.
URL
(Uniform Resource Locator) is the unique address for a file that is accessible on the internet (website).
USER EXPERIENCE
User experience describes the overall experience of a user using and navigating through a website, based on how easy and pleasing it is to use.
V
VISITS
The number of visits to a website is determined by the number of users that have went on to that website.
VIDEO
Using video to market your product or services. Video marketing has been proven to be an extremely effective use of marketing. Find out more on our video marketing guide here.
W
WEB HOSTING
Providing server space, web services and file maintenance for web sites.
WEBMASTER TOOLS
Google Webmaster Tools is a free online service from Google that helps you manage your website or blog, or those of your clients.
WORDPRESS
Another popular content management system.
WWW
World Wide Web. It is important to know that this is not a synonym for the Internet. The World Wide Web, or just “the Web,” as ordinary people call it, is a subset of the Internet. The Web consists of pages that can be accessed using a Web browser.
X
X-FACTOR
Is your digital marketing bland and generic or does it have the X-Factor? Make sure that your marketing communications engage your audience. Whether it’s entertaining, educational or exciting, make sure you stand out.
XML SITEMAP
A list of pages you want search engines to find created in a standard XML format.
Y
YOU
Your marketing copy should be full of ‘you’s rather than ‘I’s and ‘we’s. Think about the benefits of your products or services and make them your focus of your content.
YOUTUBE
The most popular video-hosting and video-sharing site, it is also currently the largest search engine after Google (YouTube is also owned by Google).
Z
ZONE
A zone is a specific area on a map that is used to target an audience.
ZOMBIE
Avoid marketing zombies should at all costs. These creatures cut corners, curating other people’s content and using buzzwords without contributing to the conversation. If zombies are plaguing your marketing it might be time to pull out your Colt Python and get rid of them once and for all.
ZMOT
(Zero moment of truth) The zero moment of truth (ZMOT) refers to the point in the buying cycle when the consumer researches a product, often before the seller even knows that they exist. Term created by Google referring to the first stage of the 4 moments of truth.