Digital Marketing Glossary

Key Terms

• SEO
  Search engine optimisation, the work that helps pages rank in organic search.
• PPC
  Pay-per-click advertising, where advertisers pay when someone clicks an ad.
• ROAS
  Return on ad spend, revenue divided by advertising cost.
• CPC
  Cost per click, the average amount paid for each ad click.
• CTR
  Click-through rate, the percentage of impressions that become clicks.
• Conversion Rate
  The percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
• CPM
  Cost per thousand impressions, a metric used in display and social advertising.
• Impressions
  The number of times an ad or piece of content is displayed.
• Lead Generation
  The process of attracting and converting prospects into potential customers.
• Remarketing
  Showing ads to people who have previously visited your website or engaged with your brand.
• ROI
  Return on investment, the ratio of profit to cost expressed as a percentage.
• SEM
  Search engine marketing, the practice of promoting websites through paid search advertising.
• Bounce Rate
  The percentage of visitors who leave a site after viewing only one page.
• A/B Testing
  A method of comparing two versions of a page or ad to determine which performs better.
• CPA
  Cost per acquisition, the average cost to win one customer or conversion.
• CPL
  Cost per lead, the average cost to generate one lead.
• KPI
  Key performance indicator, a measurable value that tracks progress to a goal.
• SERP
  Search engine results page, the page Google shows for a query.
• Backlink
  A link from another website to yours, a key trust signal for SEO.
• Keyword Research
  Finding the search terms your audience uses and their intent.
• Organic Traffic
  Visitors who arrive from unpaid search results.
• Landing Page
  A focused page built to convert visitors from a campaign.
• Marketing Funnel
  The stages a buyer moves through from awareness to purchase.
• Attribution
  How credit for a conversion is assigned across marketing touchpoints.
• Domain Authority
  A third-party score estimating a site's ranking strength, not a Google factor.
• Meta Description
  The snippet under a title in search results, influences click-through.
• Schema Markup
  Structured data that helps search and AI engines understand a page.
• Core Web Vitals
  Google metrics for loading, interactivity and visual stability (LCP, INP, CLS).
• GEO
  Generative engine optimisation, getting cited by AI search engines.
• AEO
  Answer engine optimisation, optimising for AI answers and snippets.
• E-E-A-T
  Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust, the signals Google and AI engines weigh.
• Featured Snippet
  The boxed direct answer Google shows above results.
• Long-Tail Keyword
  A longer, specific search phrase with lower volume but higher intent.
• Customer Lifetime Value
  The total revenue a customer generates over their relationship with you.
• Engagement Rate
  The share of an audience that interacts with content (likes, comments, shares).
• Alt Text
  Text describing an image for accessibility and search engines.
• Canonical Tag
  An HTML tag that tells search engines the preferred version of a page.
• Anchor Text
  The clickable words in a hyperlink.
• robots.txt
  A file telling crawlers which parts of a site they may access.
• Quality Score
  Google Ads rating of keyword, ad and landing-page relevance that affects CPC.