49 terms · Plain English
Digital marketing glossary
The words agencies use, explained without jargon — from SEO and CPA to Performance Max, CRM and generative engine optimisation.
Terms
Search & SEO
- SEO (search engine optimisation)
- The work of improving a website and its reputation so it appears higher in unpaid search results on Google, Bing and other search engines for searches relevant to the business.
- Local SEO
- SEO focused on appearing in location-based searches, such as “plumber near me” or “café in Shoreditch”, including the Google Maps local pack. It relies heavily on Google Business Profile, reviews and consistent business details.
- Local packalso: Map pack
- The block of usually three businesses shown with a map near the top of Google results for local searches. Also called the map pack.
- Google Business Profilealso: GBP
- Google’s free business listing that appears in Google Search and Maps, showing address or service area, hours, reviews, photos and contact options. Formerly called Google My Business.
- NAP
- Short for Name, Address, Phone. Keeping these details identical across your website, Google Business Profile and directories helps search engines and AI systems trust that they describe one business.
- Citation
- Any online mention of a business’s name, address and phone number, typically in directories such as Yell, Bing Places or industry listings.
- Keyword
- A word or phrase people type into a search engine. Keyword research finds which phrases potential customers use, how often, and how competitive they are.
- Search intent
- The goal behind a search: to learn (informational), to find a specific site (navigational), to compare (commercial) or to buy or book (transactional). Matching content to intent is central to SEO and ads.
- Backlink
- A link from another website to yours. Links from relevant, trusted sites are one of the signals search engines use to judge authority.
- Technical SEO
- Making a site easy for search engines to crawl, render and index: speed, mobile usability, site structure, canonical tags, redirects, structured data and sitemaps.
- Canonical tag
- An HTML tag that tells search engines which URL is the main version of a page when similar or duplicate versions exist.
- 301 redirect
- A permanent redirect from one URL to another. It sends visitors and search engines to the new address and passes on most of the old page’s signals.
- XML sitemap
- A file listing the pages on a website that should be indexed, helping search engines discover and recrawl them.
- Structured dataalso: Schema markup
- Code (usually schema.org in JSON-LD format) that describes a page’s content — a business, service, article, product, event or FAQ — in a way machines understand. It can enable rich results and helps AI systems interpret pages.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google’s metrics for real-world page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability).
- Google Search Console
- Google’s free tool for site owners to monitor indexing, search queries, clicks, technical issues and links.
- Bing Webmaster Tools
- Microsoft’s free tool for monitoring and submitting a site to Bing, whose index also supports Microsoft Copilot.
- IndexNow
- An open protocol that lets websites notify participating search engines, including Bing, immediately when pages are added, updated or removed.
Paid advertising
- PPC (pay-per-click)
- An advertising model where you pay each time someone clicks your ad. Google Ads and Microsoft Ads search campaigns are the best-known examples.
- Google Ads
- Google’s advertising platform for ads on Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps.
- Performance Maxalso: PMax
- A Google Ads campaign type that uses automation to show ads across all of Google’s channels from one set of assets, optimising towards your conversion goals.
- CPC (cost per click)
- The average amount paid for one click on an ad.
- CPA (cost per acquisition)also: Cost per lead
- The average cost to win one conversion — an enquiry, booking or sale. Often the most useful number for judging campaigns.
- ROAS (return on ad spend)
- Revenue generated divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means £4 of revenue for every £1 spent on ads.
- Negative keyword
- A word or phrase that stops your ads showing for searches containing it — for example “jobs” or “free” for many service businesses.
- Remarketingalso: Retargeting
- Showing ads to people who have already visited your website or engaged with your business. Also called retargeting.
- Paid social
- Advertising on social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn, targeted by audience, location and interests.
- Impression
- One display of an ad or a search result. Impressions measure visibility, not results.
Analytics & conversion
- Conversion
- A valuable action taken by a visitor, such as submitting a form, calling, booking or buying.
- Conversion rate
- The percentage of visitors or clicks that result in a conversion.
- Conversion tracking
- Measuring which ads, keywords, pages and channels lead to conversions, using tools such as Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager and platform pixels.
- CRO (conversion rate optimisation)
- Improving a website or landing page so a higher share of visitors take the desired action — through clearer messaging, faster pages, trust signals and simpler forms.
- Landing page
- A page built for a specific campaign or audience, with one clear goal such as an enquiry or purchase.
- GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
- The current version of Google Analytics, which measures website and app activity as events.
- UTM parameters
- Tags added to a link (such as utm_source and utm_campaign) so analytics tools can attribute visits and conversions to the right campaign.
- Attribution
- How credit for a conversion is assigned to the marketing touchpoints that led to it.
Web & e-commerce
- Responsive design
- A website layout that adapts to any screen size, from phones to large monitors.
- CMS (content management system)
- Software that lets you edit website content without code, such as WordPress, Shopify or Webflow.
- E-commerce
- Selling products or services online through a website or marketplace, including product pages, basket and checkout.
- Product feed
- A structured file of product data — titles, prices, images, availability — used by Google Merchant Center and other platforms to show Shopping ads and listings.
Automation & CRM
- CRM (customer relationship management)
- Software for tracking leads, customers and every interaction with them, usually as a pipeline of stages.
- Marketing automation
- Software that carries out repeatable marketing and sales tasks automatically when something happens — for example replying to a new enquiry or sending a reminder.
- Lead nurturing
- Staying in touch with potential customers who are not ready to buy yet, with useful information over time, typically by email.
- Workflow
- A sequence of automated steps triggered by an event, such as form submitted → add to CRM → send reply → notify team.
AI search
- GEO (generative engine optimisation)also: AEO, answer engine optimisation
- Making a business and its content easy for AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude and Perplexity to find, understand, trust and cite when they generate answers.
- AI Overviews
- AI-generated summaries that Google shows at the top of some search results, with links to sources.
- llms.txt
- A proposed plain-text file at the root of a website that summarises the site and links to its key content in a format language models can read easily.
- AI crawler
- An automated bot that collects web pages for AI systems, either for training or for live answers — for example GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot.
- Entity
- A distinct, identifiable thing — a business, person, place or product — that search engines and AI systems recognise and connect facts to.
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