Digital Marketing and SEO Dictionary

The “A Record” is used on the DNS of a website when pointing either the main domain or a subdomain of a website to the IP address of the hosting server.

The process of building a site in such a way that allows for those with impairments to still navigate the site effectively. Has potential to help search engine rankings increase if accessibilty is correctly configured.

As the engineers at search engines refine the different weight placed on the many ranking factors, they release those updates to the search results. As machine learning improves, these updates will happen less frequently and will constantly happen in real time.

Short for alternative text, the alt tags used with images to describe the visual element of an image contextually. In WordPress alt tags are easily manipulated with the visual editor but are normally found in the HTML code of the site.

Acronym for Accellerated Mobile Pages, type of html markup that specifically help Google cache a very fast version of your website to be shown to mobile searchers.

Anchor Tags are an HTML element formed with the following structure:

<a href=”https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_a.asp”>Anchor Text</a>

When properly implmented, the end result typically looks like this:

Anchor Text

Anchor tags are found throughout the web, wrapping around things such as text, images, graphics, videos, and more.

The anchor tag is used to send the website visitor to a different page on the web when clicking the item wrapped by the tag. In the above example, clicking on the word “Anchor Text” would send you to https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_a.asp. The same would apply if the anchor tag wrapped around an image or other items, clicking that item would take you to the subsequent link found in the anchor tag.

When an image or other item is wrapped in an anchor tag, it is usually denoted by a change in the cursor style of your mouse from a text highlight cursor to the hand cursor. Like this:

The visible text, usually identified with an underline, that when clicked it takes the user to another page on the web.

API is an acronym for Application Program Interface. An API gives instructions on how components and programs can interact with one another. When you want to connect your application or website to someone else’s software, you’ll usually need to connect via an API.

The shortened term for application, usually refering to a mobile application.

Self generated text, often including images and/or video, that is written to share a perspective and increase the amount of text found on your website.

Clickable text (a link) found on a website, that you do not own, which directs the website visitor back to your website.

Ranking strategies used to clearly manipulate the search engine results pages so that the site you are optimizing shows up higher in the results.

Often used as a tool for search engine optimization, the location of articles created by you as the site owner are aggregated on the blog. WordPress is a platform that is often used for blogging.

A link that exists on another website that points to a url on your site that no longer exists.

Used in the domain name system (DNS), the Canonical Name (more commonly referred as the CNAME) is used when pointing your site as an alias to another site. This is not the same as domain forwarding.

Acronymn for Content Delivery Network, process of putting the assetts of a website on a de-centralized server network allowing for people in different geographic locations to access those assets as quickly as possible from servers near them.

A group formed with people of similar interests, or relation.

Web content, or a link, aimed at attracting visitors and generating advertising revenue, often paid for by the advertiser.

An acronym used to describe a content management system (ie. WordPress).

When using Cloudflare you are given the option of to point a CNAME for your domain at a custom URL from your host versus the normal method of pointing an A record for your domain at an IP address. This allows for the host to move your site to different servers on different IP addresses without you ever having to update your DNS settings.

Acquaintances or business contacts that are added to your network.

Text, images, videos, audio, etc which are created in order to share a perspective.

Proportion of visitors to a website as a result of suggestive advertisement (recommendations, targeted offers, ratings and reviews), that would conclude in going beyond a basic view of the web page, for example: a sale, or subscription.

An acronym for Cascading Style Sheets, used for visual customization of a web page.

Brief description written on website and provided to the search engines as a suggestion for the search engine results snippet. Not guaranteed to be used if the search engine determines something else to be more relevant for the searcher.

A private message sent directly to one recipient on Twitter from another.

Websites that exist for the soul purpose of displaying company information as a lookup source for those looking for specific information.

An acronym for Document Object Model, referring to the contents of a web page.

• Often a name, used as the web address that points to the IP address of the hosting server where your website resides.
• The root words that are used by a site owner to send a website visitor to the specific IP address of a server that contains the code to display a website.

The strength of a website based on a number of factors which make it’s position stronger in the search engines.

The domain name system (more commonly called the DNS) is the location referenced by web traffic when trying to locate a specific service related to the domain in question (ie. Website, Email, etc). Think of it as the traffic controller for your domain, directing people to their requested destination.

Short for electronic commerce and is the act of selling products or services online.

A method that provides the chance for people to be quickly recognized for their skills and expertise via other LinkedIn users. Similar to a recommendation.

The percentage of users that interact with a post, whether it be a like/favorite, share, view, or comment.

A user who likes a Facebook page, in which then that page becomes a part of their interests on their profile.

Affirmation of a status posted by another Twitter user.

A user who supports and tracks posts of another user.

Similar to a “follower” on other social media, a “friend” is generally closer in relation to a user, and mainly requires acceptance to become a “friend”.

Geographical identification linked to a post or picture, shared with friends or followers on social media.

Link and text displayed on the search result pages of google that are placed at the top of the search results in exchange for compensation.

By abiding by the “rules” of ranking a website the natural way, while supplementing with strategies to help organically push the ranking along.

Although given a bad rap by Matt Cutts, the writing of quality content to be published on another website with zero expectation of receiving anything in return. Still works.

Also called a username, a name created to identify a user generally made up of anything other than their real name.

An instant messaging platform created by Google, used to contact those who also use Hangouts.

A term or phrase, with a hash mark (#) as its precedent, used as a keyword to further search for a popular topic followed through social media, typically seen throughout “posts” or “tweets”.

Text wrapped with <h1></h1> in code, often used to highlight major sections of content and regularly contain important keywords or phrases for the page.

Every website on the web has to “live” somewhere. The place where your website “lives”, is on a server usually located in a secure website. The person who owns the server is usually considered the host, and the service they provide is called hosting.

Short for hypertext reference, hrefs is often used when describing where a link on a website is pointing to.

An acronym for HyperText Markup Language and is the most used programming language on the web.

Process of editing an image to load faster on a website, usually done by increasing file size or image dimensions using a third party tool like Kraken.

An estimate of the amount of web users who view an ad or webpage with a particular ad, or how many times the ad was loaded onto a page. Clicking the ad is not taken into consideration when configuring an impression.

In Google Search Console, the number of times a site appeared in a searched result.

A series of numbers, separated by periods, that identifies the location of a computer or modem (similar to the street address of a physical location). These numbers are understood by other computers and act as a sort of map for inter-computer communications.

An image type, used for compressing image files. Does not support transparency.

The number of times your keyword is mentioned in your content. The ideal keyword density is in the 1-2% of all your content should contain text related to your keyword or phrase.

Outdated tactic of repeating the same word or phrase multiple times on your website in order to tell the search engine the keyword you want to rank for.

The words or phrases that are relevant to your business’ success. Often the best keywords are those that are searched most frequently in the search engines.

Affirmation of a post by another user.

The proactive effort of trying to increase the number of links located on other people’s website that point back to a single website.

When links are generated on external websites, an inherent value is passed to the recipient website that helps increase the overall ranking.

Placing an abundance of unneccesary links on a single page in an attempt to increase the ranking of a website.

See Link Juice.

Outdated tactic that replaced reciprocal links, accomplished by a circle of friends linking in a roundabout fashion to each others’ sites in an attempt to gain new links to your site.

A clickable word or set of words, often identified by an underline, that when clicked takes you to a different page on the internet, whether on the same website or on a different website.

Links are made up of an html anchor tag containing a reference to the existence of another webpage.

Handful of large sites that collect all directory listing data, then pushes that data out to it’s customer sites. Updating a listing aggregator often results in numerous sites being updated with new information.

A tagged reference of another user on social media.

Code that is read by the search engine which helps interpret the meaning of a web page.

Moz Local is a directory management service for brick and mortar business locations. It was previously known as GetListed.org before being acquired by Moz in December of 2012.

Moz Local uses their relationships with the top directory aggregation services to push accurate business data out to numerous directory sites. The most important information distributed by Moz Local is your business name, address, phone number and URL, often referred to as your NAPU.

Acronym for Name, Address, Phone and sometimes URL. Used when speaking about directory listing rankings, mostly important for a brick and mortar business. Usually a business will use a directory service like Moz Local to manage this information across the web.

Updates (posts or pictures) from your friends or people you follow, or sponsored posts listed on your home page.

Work done on the content and links that exist on other websites that talk about or link to the site trying to be ranked higher in the search results.

Work done on the content and code of the website which is trying to be ranked higher in the search results.

Cleaning the code and content of a site to be more in line with website and search engine best practices.

The first page of results returned after performing a search query on a search engine. Usually the first page includes the top ten organic results but can change if the query is deemed to be locally relevant.

Originally created by Google founder, Larry Page, an algorithm that outputs the value of a domain based on a number of factors.

The time it takes to completely load a website, often related to user experience and search engine ranking.

Process of offering compensation for the placement of content or a link on a relevant site pertaining to your industry. Usually frowned upon by SEOs, and a hard tactic to use effectively.

When using paid ads on search engines, when an end-user clicks on the paid ad that click registers a charge to the advertiser.

If Google discovers any manual manipulation of ranking factors that would likely increase your rankings, and deems that work as innappropriate, you may suffer a decrease in ranking because of it.

A platform to watch live broadcasts from a mobile device.

An image type, used for compressing image files. Supports transparency.

The numbered position of your website on a search result page for a related keyword to your business. Usually count is done by starting with 1, after the ads, counting down till you reach the bottom of page 1 then go to page 2 and commence counting again.

A suggestion or commendation of a person, with their skills and attributes as the focal point.

A response to a tweet.

Ability of a website to expand and contract to any device size – does away with the old mobile sites. Required by Google to rank effectively.

A posted tweet that is reposted or forwarded.

ROI is an acronym for Return on Investment. The simple math formula is:

(Revenue – Expenses – Invested) / Invested = Return on Investment

When performing black hat tactics, a website may suffer from a penalty so bad that Google de-indexes the entire site.

Code related optimization, universally recognized coding standards by all search engines, used to specifically identify different parts of your website (ie Company Name, Logo, Address, etc).

The act of paying the search engines to display your website and text at the top of the search result pages.

Search Engine Optimization is the act of creating a better web by improving the programming and user experience on individual websites as well as informing other websites of it’s existence via link outreach and social media. By improving websites with Search Engine Optimization, search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo will thereby show the website for terms related to that website and drive traffic accordingly.

A photograph of oneself, taken by oneself.

SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimization.

SERP is an acronym for “Search Engine Ranking Pages.” SERPs are a listing of results returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query.

SME is an acronym for Subject Matter Expert.

A potential ranking factor, although mostly unconfirmed; the idea that when something is popular on social media, search engine rankings increase accordingly.

Any content or links generated in an attempt to provide a quick boost to seo rankings without providing real value.

Acronym for Secure Socket Layer, used when referring to the security of a website. An SSL certificate can be purchased or configured on a domain which encrypts any data entered or received by the user of the site. Also known as a protocol used to create a secure connection between a user and a website allowing safe communication between the two.

A narrative created by collective videos and pictures of a user.

The look and feel of a website.

Someone who has a vast knowledge on a certain topic who is often used as the fount of information from which blogs and other content are created. A subject matter expert will be known as the go-to source for any information regarding the topic at hand. For example, most business owners are subject matter experts about their business. Ask them anything related to day to day operations as well as the products and/or services they offer and you should get a very knowledgeable response.

To reference of a person, place, or company within a post.

The words shown in the top title bar of a website browser application, often used as an indicator of what content will be shown on the corresponding page. Typically used as a ranking factor, although less important these days.

Short for uniform resource locator, the words used to identify the ip address of a specific server where a website resides.

A Virtual Private Server, or VPS as more commonly known, is a hosting environment in which you are the only one accessing the server’s allotted resources. Those resources are normally defined in the amount of ram, hard drive space and CPU’s you are guaranteed access to. One more common alternative to a VPS is a shared hosting solution. A VPS is typically more expensive than a shared hosting plan.

The act of creating the visual component to a website using tools such as Photoshop or Illustrator to come up with a rendering.

No manual work to help increase the amount of content or links talking about your site, letting it all happen naturally.

Outdated tactic of placing a link on your site to another site in white font color on a white background so that the link is invisible to the naked eye, but indexed by the search engine. Doesn’t work.

A platform installed on web servers and used to control the content of a website from a user friendly administration area.

Short for What You See Is What You Get, a tool often used for users to more easily edit content on the web. Replaces the standard HTML code.