Digital marketing glossary.
Clear definitions, no jargon.

A

A/B testing

A method of comparing two versions of a page, email or ad by showing each to a share of visitors and measuring which performs better. See A/B testing for low traffic websites.

Account-based marketing (ABM)

A B2B strategy where marketing and sales focus coordinated, personalised campaigns on a defined list of high-value target accounts. See account-based marketing.

AEO (answer engine optimization)

Structuring content so search features, voice assistants and AI tools can present it as the direct answer to a question. See answer engine optimization.

AI Overviews

Google's AI-generated summaries shown at the top of some search results, with links to supporting web pages. See how to rank in Google AI Overviews.

Anchor text

The visible, clickable text of a link. Descriptive anchor text helps users and search engines understand the destination page.

Attribution model

A rule or algorithm that assigns credit for a conversion to the marketing touchpoints a buyer interacted with. See marketing attribution models.

B

Backlink

A link from another website to yours. Relevant links from trusted sites are an important signal of authority. See B2B link building.

Bounce rate

In GA4, the percentage of sessions that were not engaged sessions. It is the inverse of engagement rate.

C

CAC (customer acquisition cost)

Total sales and marketing cost in a period divided by the number of new customers acquired. See SaaS customer acquisition cost.

Canonical tag

An HTML element that tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page when similar or duplicate versions exist.

Churn rate

The share of customers or recurring revenue lost in a period. See how to reduce SaaS churn.

Click-through rate (CTR)

The percentage of people who click a link, ad or search result after seeing it: clicks divided by impressions.

Consent Mode

Google's framework for passing users' cookie consent choices to Google tags so they adjust data collection. See Google Consent Mode v2.

Conversion rate

The percentage of visitors or sessions that complete a desired action, such as submitting a lead form or booking a demo.

Core Web Vitals

Google's metrics for real-user page experience: Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift. See Core Web Vitals optimization.

Cost per lead (CPL)

Marketing spend divided by the number of leads generated. See how to calculate cost per lead.

Crawlability

How easily search engine bots can discover and fetch the pages on a website.

CRM (customer relationship management)

Software that stores contacts, companies, deals and interactions, acting as the single source of truth for sales and marketing. See CRM for small business.

CRO (conversion rate optimization)

The systematic process of increasing the share of visitors who take valuable actions. See B2B conversion rate optimization.

D

Demand generation

Marketing that creates awareness and preference among future buyers before they are actively purchasing. See SaaS demand generation.

DMARC

An email authentication policy that tells receiving servers how to handle messages failing SPF or DKIM checks and provides reports. See email deliverability.

E

E-E-A-T

Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness: concepts in Google's quality rater guidelines used to describe helpful, reliable content.

Entity

A uniquely identifiable thing or concept, such as an organization, person or product, that search engines and AI systems recognise. See entity SEO.

F

Featured snippet

A highlighted excerpt shown near the top of Google results that directly answers a query.

G

GEO (generative engine optimization)

Making content and brand information easy for AI-powered search and assistants to find, understand and cite. See generative engine optimization.

Google Business Profile

Google's free business listing that appears in Maps and local results. See Google Business Profile optimization.

I

Ideal customer profile (ICP)

A description of the type of company most likely to buy, succeed with and stay with your product or service. See ideal customer profile.

Indexability

Whether a fetched page is eligible to be stored in a search engine index and shown in results.

Internal link

A link from one page on a website to another page on the same website. See internal linking strategy.

K

Key event

In Google Analytics 4, an event marked as important to the business, such as a lead form submission. See GA4 lead generation tracking.

Keyword cannibalization

When several pages on one site target the same keyword and intent, competing with each other. See keyword cannibalization.

L

Landing page

A page designed for one audience and one conversion goal, often used for campaigns. See PPC landing page best practices.

Lead magnet

A valuable resource offered in exchange for contact details, such as a template, audit or calculator. See B2B lead magnet ideas.

Lead nurturing

Building relationships with leads not yet ready to buy through relevant content and communication over time. See lead nurturing strategy.

Lead scoring

Assigning points to leads based on fit and behaviour to prioritise follow-up. See lead scoring model.

llms.txt

A proposed Markdown file at a site root that summarises important content for AI tools. It is optional and not an official standard. See llms.txt explained.

M

Marketing qualified lead (MQL)

A lead whose fit and engagement meet agreed criteria for handoff to sales.

Meta description

An HTML summary of a page that search engines may show in results. It influences clicks rather than rankings.

N

Negative keyword

A term added to a paid search campaign to stop ads from showing for irrelevant searches. See negative keywords.

Net revenue retention (NRR)

Recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period, including expansion and losses, divided by starting recurring revenue.

O

Offline conversion

A conversion recorded outside the website, such as a qualified lead or closed deal in a CRM, imported into ad platforms. See offline conversion tracking.

P

Pillar page

A comprehensive page on a core topic that links to detailed cluster articles. See topic clusters.

PPC (pay-per-click)

Advertising where advertisers pay when someone clicks an ad, such as Google Ads search campaigns. See SEO vs PPC.

Product-led growth (PLG)

A go-to-market model in which the product itself drives acquisition, conversion and expansion. See product-led growth marketing.

Q

Quality Score

Google Ads' 1 to 10 diagnostic estimate of ad relevance, expected click-through rate and landing page experience.

R

Retargeting

Showing ads to people who previously interacted with your website or content. See B2B retargeting.

S

Schema markup

Structured data, usually JSON-LD, that describes page content using the Schema.org vocabulary. See schema markup for SEO.

Search intent

The goal behind a search query, such as informational, commercial, navigational or transactional.

SEO (search engine optimization)

Improving a website so it is discovered, understood and ranked by search engines for relevant searches. See our SEO services.

Share of voice

Your visibility relative to competitors within a channel or topic. See digital marketing competitor analysis.

T

Topical authority

A site's demonstrated depth of expertise on a subject, built through comprehensive, interconnected content.

U

UTM parameters

Tags added to URLs that tell analytics where visitors came from. See UTM parameters.

Z

Zero-click search

A search that ends without a click to a website because the answer appears on the results page. See zero-click searches.