Content Marketing Glossary

A / B testing Also referred to as “multivariate testing”, A / B testing uses a variable, such as landing page design or the colour of an advert, to improve the performance of a particular campaign.Above the fold A term borrowed from the newspaper industry to describe the area of a web page that a user can see without scrolling down. Around 80% of eyeball time is above the fold.AdWords Google’s search engine advertising platform. Advertisers can bid to have their advert appear in the “paid” or “sponsored” results for relevant keywords.Affiliate marketing A revenue model that allows website owners to earn revenue by sending visitors to a third party website. Payments are usually on a cost-per-click basis.ALT-tags A meta-tag used to describe an image. This tag is used by Google to rank and index pages containing images. Read more about alt tags and Google’s Penguin update.Anchor text A word or phrase that links to a particular web page. Google follows links to find and index new pages and it uses anchor text to help understand the content of those pages.Article marketing The practice of writing or commissioning articles and getting them published on third party sites in order to acquire brand or anchor text links. Article marketing has some brand and direct traffic benefits, but the priority is usually to acquire “follow” links that help boost search performance.Black hat SEO Tactics that infringe Google’s webmaster guidelines. Black hat SEO is designed to trick Google into giving a web page a better ranking than it deserves. Google applies various penalties to sites when it identifies evidence of black hat tactics.Blog Originally called “weblogs”, a blog allows anyone to create and publish content. Blogs are usually updated regularly with relatively short articles or posts that often reflect the views of the author. Blogs may be private or available to the public on the internet. Free platforms, such as WordPress and Blogger, make it easy for anyone to start blogging. Read more about blogging.Cache A snapshot or copy of a web page stored by Google. Cached pages are used to speed up the process of searching the internet and navigating web pages.Call-to-action A conversion opportunity, such as a sign-up box, form, download or enquiry button. An action that website owners want their visitors to take.CMS (content management system) A platform used to create and manage content published on a website, often referred to as the “back-end” or “admin area”.Content marketing The creation and publication of different types of content to support marketing campaigns. Read more about content marketing strategy.CRO (conversion rate optimisation) Tactics and strategies used to increase the conversion rate on a website or a particular web page. The conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (sign-up, download, call etc).CTR (click through rate) The percentage of users who click on a particular link or advert. Click through rate is usually calculated by taking the number of times the link has been clicked and dividing that figure by the total number of unique views it received.Custom news marketing Tailored news articles written in line with an editorial brief and keyword strategy to support specific marketing objectives. Read more about custom industry news.Deep link Usually an internal link directing users to a page further down a website’s hierarchy.Email marketing Producing relevant and useful content that can be delivered to interested parties via email as part of an integrated marketing campaign. Read more about email marketing.Facebook marketing Strategies and tactics designed to promote and brand, product or service via the world’s largest social media site. This may include creating or enhancing a Facebook profile and the active sharing of appropriate content. Read more about social media marketing.Google juice The search value or Page Rank passed between web pages by a “follow” link.Google Panda update An update to Google’s search algorithm that targeted low quality web pages containing thin or duplicate content. Panda was launched in March 2011 and attracted criticism from some website owners due to the dramatic impact it had on their traffic.Google Penguin update An update to Google’s search algorithm launched in May 2012. Penguin sought to remove the credit websites had previously received by “over-optimising”. Tactics targeted by Penguin included stuffing meta tags with keywords and acquiring high volumes of anchor text links from weak domains. Read more about Google’s Penguin update.Google search algorithm The mathematical formula Google uses to determine where a web page should appear in its organic results for a given keyword search.Google+ marketing Making use of Google’s social media platform to create, share and promote relevant pieces of content. Read more about social media marketing.Googlebot Also referred to as a Google’s “crawler” or “spider”, Googlebot is the tool Google users to discover and index web pages.HTML (hyper text mark-up language) The common language used to write web pages. HTML tags control how content appears to users and helps Google to crawl and index that content.Inbound link A link on a website that points to a particular page on a third party site. If this is a “follow” link, Google will use it to rank the destination page.Infographic marketing The use of infographics as part of an integrated marketing campaign. Infographics can be used to attract inbound links, encourage social media engagement and drive on-site conversion. Read more about infographic marketing.Internal link A link from a web page that points to another page on the same website. Internal links are used to direct users around websites. Google will also use them as a ranking factor.Keyword A word or phrase that relevant prospects are likely to search for.Keyword research The process of identifying appropriate keywords, most commonly for an SEO or AdWords campaign. Keyword research typically looks at factors such as search volume, competition and relevance.Keyword stuffing Over-use of search terms on a web page designed to fool Google into awarding a higher search ranking. There is no hard and fast rule for how often a keyword can be used on a page before it becomes “keyword stuffing” or “spammy”. Read more about keyword stuffing.Landing page A web page designed to receive visitors directly from organic search results, sponsored links or online ads. A landing page will usually feature a specific call-to-action or conversion opportunity.Link building A broad term used to describe the various strategies and tactics used by website owners or marketers to acquire links from third party sites. These links will send direct traffic and (as long as they are “follow” links) will improve organic search performance.Link profile The various links pointing to and from a website form that website’s link profile. A website’s link profile will help to determine how its pages perform in search and how much value it passes when it links to third party sites.LinkedIn marketing Strategies and tactics that use LinkedIn, the world’s largest social network for professionals, as part of a marketing campaign. This may include creating and optimising company pages; sharing relevant pieces of content; and using individual profiles to promote a brand, product, service or topic. Read more about social media marketing.Meta description A meta tag describing the content of a web page. It will not usually be visible to users, but Google will crawl this tag and use it to summarise the page when it is returned in search results.Meta keywords A meta tag listing target keywords for a web page. Google no longer uses this tag to index or rank pages.Meta tag Descriptive information attached to a web page or page element (such as an image or a video) that will be visible to Google and used for crawling and indexing content.No follow link A link appearing on a web page that points to a page on a separate website. Adding a “no follow” tag will mean Google uses the link to discover and index the page but does not use the link as a ranking signal.On-page SEO Strategies and tactics designed to make web pages easier for Google to crawl and index. On-page SEO refers to changes or improvements to the site and excludes off-page elements, such as link building. Read more about on-page SEO.Page Rank Named after Google co-founder Larry Page, Page Rank is the weighting or authority Google assigns to a particular web page. Page Rank scores are available through various free online tools, although “Toolbar Page Rank” lags the actual Page Rank Google uses, often by some months. Page Rank uses a logarithmic scale, so it is not a simple mark out of 10.Page title Also referred to as a “title tag” or an “HTML title”, this meta tag is crawled by Google and used as an important ranking factor. Check out our tips on fixing up your page titles.PPC A popular pricing model used by online advertisers, including Google and Facebook. Advertisers pay a fee each time their adverts are clicked on.Press release marketing The creation and distribution of press releases to encourage mainstream media and bloggers to write about a particular brand, product or service. Press release marketing may also use search engines, social media and email to drive traffic to a website.Ranking signal The 200 or so different factors that Google uses to determine where a page should rank in its search results for a given keyword.RSS (really simple syndication) A popular method for sharing content. Users can subscribe to an RSS feed using an RSS reader, such as Google Reader. Website owners can use RSS to share their content on third party sites and social media without duplicating it. RSS is also used by Google to crawl and index recently-published pages, such as blog posts or news stories. Read 3 reasons why you need RSS.SEM (search engine marketing) A broad term used to describe the various strategies and tactics designed to promote a website or individual web pages in Google’s search results. SEM includes both organic and paid search.SEO (search engine optimisation) A broad term covering strategies and tactics designed to make website pages easier for search engines to crawl and index, the aim being to improve where those website pages rank in organic search results.SERPs (search engine results pages) The common acronym used to describe the results page when a user runs a Google search.SMO (social media optimisation) The use of popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn to promote a brand, product or individual piece of content.Spam Unsolicited communications, traditionally emails and text messages, but now more commonly used to describe low quality web pages. So-called “over-optimisation” tactics, such as keyword stuffing, are often referred to spam or “spammy”.Twitter marketing Using the micro-blogging service, Twitter, to promote content as part of a marketing campaign. Tactics may include optimising profiles, actively growing followers and identifying appropriate content to tweet about. Read more about social media marketing.URL (uniform resource locator) The unique address assigned to pages on the internet.User experience A broad term used to describe how users (as opposed to Googlebot) interact with a website. It can include areas such as aesthetics, functionality and site speed. Taking steps to improve user experience will often help search performance and conversion.Video marketing Using video to promote a brand, product or service. Video marketing will involve the creation of original content and the sharing through search and social media as part of an integrated marketing plan.White hat SEO The opposite of black hat SEO, referring to strategies and tactics designed to improve how a web page ranks in Google’s results. Unlike black hat SEO, these strategies and tactics will not breach any of Google’s guidelines.Whitepaper marketing The creation and promotion of extended articles providing in-depth information on a particular topic. Websites will often offer whitepapers for download in order to grow their marketing database and build their brand authority. Read more about whitepaper marketing.XML (extensible mark-up language) A common mark-up language often used to deliver content to websites. Read more about how XML can support your content marketing.