Understanding Digital Marketing Jargon in Australia
If you’re a small or medium business (SMB), you probably get approached by digital marketing agencies in Australia (and from overseas) regularly. You probably listen to the odd digital marketing pitch as well. But have you ever felt confused by the jargon? – the acronyms, concepts, and terminologies that digital marketers love to talk about. You’re not alone! On this page, we decipher some of the digital marketing jargon circulating in Australia.
A/B Testing
A/B testing involves presenting an audience with variants of a webpage or application screen to determine which one is more effective or persuasive. A/B testing helps organisations to improve user engagement on their websites and apps – potentially generating more business.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves marketing or advertising another company’s products on a website – resulting in referral fees or sales commissions. Google AdSense is a well-known affiliate marketing solution.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the highlighted or underlined text on a website that visitors click on for redirection to another web page or website.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that seeks to create computer systems that can think and act like humans; in other words, analyse and make judgements based on data.
Backlink
A backlink is an inbound hyperlink from another website. Backlinks from reputable websites are considered a vote of confidence in the destination website by Google.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of people who visit a website and leave after only viewing one page (the one they landed on). A high bounce rate is cause for concern, especially if site visitors leave a page quickly.
Call To Action (CTA)
A call to action (CTA) is usually a prompt that motivates a visitor to take action on a website, such as clicking on a button/link or filling out a form (to receive information in return).
ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer)
ChatGPT is a powerful chatbot that uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to create written responses to user prompts. The ChatGPT solution was developed by American company OpenAI.
Cloaking
Cloaking is an unethical SEO technique that seeks to mislead Google Search and the web user. A "cloaked" website is one that the site visitor wasn't seeking or expecting.
Cloud
Cloud is a general term that refers to online hosting. The so-called cloud is comprised of distributed servers (accessible via the Internet) that reside in data centres across the world.
Cookie
A cookie is a tiny text file that a website server puts on the internet browser of a computer or mobile device. The purpose of a cookie is to identify a person (user) returning to a particular website.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) involves fine-tuning a website to increase conversion rates (actions and sales), remove roadblocks, and lower bounce rates. It involves A/B testing, heatmaps, and multivariate testing (MVT).
Content Management System (CMS)
A content management system (CMS) is a software platform that creates, publishes, and manages a website. WordPress is the world’s most popular CMS.
Crawling
Crawling occurs when a search engine (Google, Bing) sends a bot to read and assess (for indexing purposes) a web page on the Internet. For a web page to rank in search results, it must be indexed. Website owners can request indexing of a specific web page on Google Search Console.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a database that stores the details, interactions, and transactions of an organisation’s customers and prospects. Salesforce is a well-known provider of CRM solutions.
Domain Authority
Please refer to Website Authority below.
Google Ads
Google Ads provides organisations and businesses with the ability to advertise on Google properties, such as Google Search and YouTube. Advertisers bid for specific keywords and pay on a "per click" basis.
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is a service that enables websites and blogs to run Google advertisements and earn advertising revenue. Google retains total control of the advertisers and advertising process.
Google Analytics (GA)
Google Analytics (GA) is a service provided by Google that tracks and reports on website traffic. GA is available as a free or paid version. Google Analytics 360 is the name of the paid version.
Google Business Profile
Google Business Profile is a free service provided by Google. The service enables a business to create a free profile that appears on Google Search and Maps. Google Business Profile requires a physical business address. (Google Business Profile was previously known as Google My Business.)
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a service provided by Google that enables a business or organisation to identify page indexing and crawl issues on its website. Page indexing and crawl issues can have a detrimental effect on ranking performance in Google Search.
HTML Headings
HTML headings (on a web page) provide a search engine with insight into the written content. HTML headings range in importance from H1 to H6 (H1 being the most important). A web page should have only one H1 heading.
Indexing
Indexing refers to how search engines (Google, Bing) organise the information they collect. On Google, indexed information is subsequently ranked (based on multiple factors).
Keywords
Keywords are the words and phrases that people regularly search for on Google or Bing. A web page that ranks well usually has keywords in the text.
Landing Page
A website landing page is the one a visitor lands on after clicking an external link or online advertisement. Many digital marketing campaigns incorporate a landing page.
Meta Description Tag
A meta description tag describes the contents of a web page to an online search engine. On Google, a meta description tag shouldn’t be longer than 158 characters. A meta description tag isn’t visible to a website visitor.
Page Authority
Page authority is a metric devised by the SEO consultancy group Moz. It measures the “trustworthiness” or “authority” of a specific web page.
Page Impression
A page impression is a measure of how many times an element on a web page (text, image, or video) has been potentially viewed (“eyeballed”) on a website or in search results and social media feeds.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a form of online advertising whereby the advertiser pays on a "per click" basis. Google Ads is the most famous example of PPC.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing (SEM) typically refers to paid advertising on the Internet. Well-known paid advertising services include Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engine optimisation (SEO) involves “tweaking” a web page or website to improve its page ranking on Google or Bing. Various on-site, off-site, and technical techniques are used in SEO.
Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
A search engine results page (SERP) is the list of results someone sees after entering a query into Google or Bing.
Sitemap
A sitemap is a file that provides search engines (Google, Bing) with an overview of a website’s content structure. Most sitemaps are written in Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing refers to marketing activities on social media platforms, such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS) is simply software that's hosted online (in the cloud) and that's accessible over the Internet. Canva, MyGov, Dropbox, and MYOB (online) are well-known SaaS services used in Australia.
SSL Certificate
An SSL certificate authenticates a website’s identity and ensures an encrypted connection. Google expects websites to have an SSL certificate.
Unique Visitor
A unique visitor is one visiting a particular website for the first time. During the visit, a cookie is placed on the visitor's internet browser to identify them in the future.
User Experience (UX)
User experience (UX) refers to the overall experience (positive or negative) that a visitor has on a website.
User Interface (UI)
The visual navigational elements on a website, such as the buttons, tabs, icons, toggles, and links, form the user interface (UI).
Website Authority
The so-called authority of a website is known as website authority or domain authority (the name coined by Moz). A website with high website authority will be “trusted” by users, search engines (Google, Bing), and other websites. Not surprisingly, well-known and popular websites have high website authority.
"Seeking Value is Smart"
The content on this page was written by Smart Words - www.smartwords.com.au