A Widget? A Wiki? A What-Cha-Ma-Call-it?

To make it big in the new age of interactive online marketing, you have to talk the talk. Not up on the new high-tech lingo? Our glossary of new marketing terminology will educate you, entertain you and, most importantly, help you communicate your marketing vision clearly. Oh, and it’ll just plain make you sound good in your next staff meeting.

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Ad Views
The number of times that an advertisement is seen on a webpage. Also known as “impressions.”

Affiliate
An affiliate is an individual or company that attempts to sell a product for a company in order to receive a percentage of the income. Many affiliate programs use third party vendors so that sales are correctly tracked and monitored.

Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a form of Internet marketing that is designed specifically to increase sales of a product by taking less money per sale and giving it to another party that has sold it for you. For those that have their own products, affiliate marketing is a way of ensuring that you do not have to do as much work on the sales end, but you lose money per sale. And for affiliates, it is a way of making money without having to have a product or idea.

Alexa
Ranks websites according to how often they are visited.

Average Page Depth
The average number of pages a visitor will see when they visit your site.

Blog
An online journal, usually with regards to a specific topic or niche, especially when used in marketing.

Bounce Rate
The rate that people left your website immediately after entering. For many, this refers to how often they visited another page, but for single webpage sites it could refer to the number of people that have stayed on the page longer than a certain amount of time.

Brand Identity
How you want the customer to see your brand.

Brand Image
How the customer sees your brand.

Branding
The act of making your website, product or service well known so that when someone is looking for something of that nature, they think of your site (or at least recognize it if it comes up.

Campaign
A specific project designed for a specific purpose. For example, an “ad campaign” would be a specific set of keywords provided with their own budget in order to receive clicks. An “email campaign” would be the act of sending emails to all users of a listserve in order to convince people to make a purchase, etc.

Classified Advertising
A method of advertising your business using an open, purchased medium. This is no longer limited to newspapers, as Craigslist.org is often considered classified advertising as well.

Competition-Oriented Pricing
Changing your pricing because the competition has also changed its pricing.

Contextual Advertising
Advertising that changes based on the content on the page.

Conversion Rate
In many ways the most important number on your website, the conversion rate is how often a visitor you receive turns into a sale. A high conversion rate is a sign that you are either receiving very targeted customers or your sales copy is very effective, or both.

Cooperative Advertising
When ad costs are paid for by more than one party because more than one business is expected to profit from it (or advertisements plug all of the products.

Copywriting
Copywriting is the act of writing the words that go onto a page. Since the words on the page are so important for increasing conversion rates, many people pay for copywriting services in order to ensure that their website is properly optimized. Copywriting does not usually include website design.

CPC
Stands for “Cost Per Click.” See PPC (Pay Per Click).

CPM
Stands for “Cost Per Thousand” (M is the Roman numeral for 1,000), and is a way of calculating how much you are paying for 1,000 impressions in order to determine if you are getting good value for the costs.

Crawler
See “Spiders.”

CTR
Stands for “Click Through Rate.” It is the number of clicks you have received on your website divided by the number of impressions, multiplied by 100. These percentages are very important in figuring out advertising effectiveness.

Direct Mail
Marketing that is sent via the postal service rather than through online or phone methods.

Direct Marketing
Marketing that contacts a consumer directly, rather than using something like a mass email, webpage or advertisement.

Directory
A listing of websites based on a particular niche or interest.

Dynamic Rotation
Ads that are rotating, rather than static.

Exposure
The number of individuals that have been exposed to a business, product, service or advertisements.

Eye Tracking
Where the eye goes on a particular advertisement.

Forms
Any text entry field on a website.

Freeware
Free software that remains free, even after extended use.

Friends or “Friending”
The act of adding someone to a social network profile. Social network marketers that use websites like MySpace want as many “friends” as possible in order to know how effective their marketing campaign is going.

Geo Targeting
Targeting ads to a specific area or multiple areas of the planet.

Googlebot
A way of referring to Google’s “Spiders.”

Hit
While the actual definition simply means a request to the server, a hit is also referred to in more casual terms as someone visiting your page. “I received 500 hits this morning from Google.”

Home Page
The main page of a website, or the page that is visited when a customer goes to your website directly.

Hyperlink
A link that can be clicked to go to your website.

Impression
The amount of times a specific ad or page is shown. Some people purchase advertisements by impressions. So if you buy 10,000 impressions, your advertisement is guaranteed to show either 10,000 times or to 10,000 people. In addition, if your advertisement has 10,000 impressions but has only received a few clicks, you can tell that you have a poor performing ad.

Inbound Link
A website other than yours that points to your website.

Indexed
Placed inside the directory of a search engine.

IP address
A unique address given to both websites and individuals (computers).

Keyword
Any word or phrase used for getting your website higher in search engines. What constitutes a keyword is very specific, so “best marketing glossary” is a different keyword than “marketing glossary best” which is a different keyword than “the best marketing glossary.” Despite containing multiple words, those phrases are still considered to be a single “keyword.”

Keyword Density
The amount a specific word or phrase occurs in your article or website. Higher keyword densities are better for search engines, but can take away from readability which impacts conversions. Too high (generally over 6%) and many search engines algorithms will consider your website to be spam.

Keyword Marketing
The act of marketing using keywords, either on your website or by writing articles with high keyword densities.

Keyword Research
The act of researching which keywords receive the most searches that are relevant to your product or service.

Link Bait
A page that has a great deal of information, hopefully to cause people to either bookmark it or link to it.

Link Building
The ability to get other websites besides your own to link to your page, especially without paying for it.

Link Exchange
A bartering agreement whereby a website puts your link on their website in exchange for you putting their link on yours.

Listserver
An online program that sends emails automatically to those that have subscribed themselves to the system.

Mailing List
Both an email list and a postal mail list with which you can directly send information.

Market Penetration
The number of people that have been exposed to an advertisement.

Market Share
The percentage of the market a company “owns.”

Multivariate Testing
A way of testing the effectiveness of your website by testing different parts of the website with different samples (such as two separate sales pages).

Netiquette
What is considered generally acceptable online behavior.

Opt in/Opt out
Refers to email marketing campaigns, users can “opt in” to an email or newsletter, but they should always have the ability to “opt out” or your emails are automatically considered spam (and may even break some laws).

Page Views
Number of pages an individual has seen on your site during their single visit.

Pay-per-Impression
An advertising pricing model that refers to paying for a set amount of “impressions.” In other words, you will know exactly how many people have seen your ad pop up on your page for every dollar you spend.

Pay-per-Sale
A highly outdated form of advertising that refers to the idea of paying someone only for the conversions that lead to sales (different than affiliate marketing). There is very little accountability, which is why this type of method is rarely used.

Podcast
An audio file designed for playback on the PC or on a mobile device like an iPod.

Portal
A multipurpose website with many different types of resources about a specific topics or for a specific audience. Most search engines are also considered portals, as they often have multiple different features for those looking for information.

Potential Market
An untapped market that you have not yet targeted that may be interested in your products or services.

PPC
Stands for “Pay Per Click,” PPC is a way of purchasing ad space (usually on search engines) where you are charged only when you receive a click and not for the number of impressions your ad has.

Qualitative Research
Research that cannot be altered mathematically. For example, comments about the state of your business.

Quality Score
How well a keyword you have chosen works for search engines, especially in terms of PPC ads.

Quantitative Research
Numerical research that can be mathematically altered. In Marketing, it refers to the numbers of your business.

Rank
Can refer to a website’s search engine ranking compared to other websites (in terms of both specific keywords as well as general rank). Or it can refer to where an advertisement shows up compared to other ads.

Referrer or Referring Site
The website that referred a visitor to your web page. Includes search engines.

Registration
The act of registering to an account on a website. Registration is a good way to gain information about interested visitors, but it also runs the risk of pushing users away.

ROI
Return on Investment. In the marketing world, this term means the amount of cash gained compared to the time and money wasted. The same is true in the online world, though ROI can also refer to how well a keyword (which can be free) leads to sales.

ROKI
“Return on Keyword Investment.” How well the keywords you are focusing on are turning into conversions.

Sales Page
The main page of many online businesses that is designed to hard sell a product or service.

Shareware
Software programs that are downloadable that start free but usually require you to register for either extra services or after a specific period of time.

Search Terms
See “Keywords”

SEM  “Search Engine Marketing”
SEM is the act of marketing using search engines, including both SEO and PPC.

SEO “Search Engine Optimization”
The process of making one’s website show up higher in search engine rankings, often through the use of keywords and marketing on other websites.

SEO Services
Those that offer to provide you with the ability to make your website show up higher in search engines.

SES
Search Engine Strategy.

Session
What an individual does during their visit to your website in terms of websites viewed and time spent.

Slogan
A tag line that makes your product, service or business more memorable.

Snail Mail
Defined as regular mail (postal mail). “Snail” refers to the speed they are received compared to email.

Social Networks
Websites that allow interaction between individuals, especially websites that allow continued interaction. This refers to the well known websites like facebook and MySpace, but YouTube and other websites are also considered social networks, because they have their own messaging system and “friending” services.

Spam
Though this is typically thought of as emails that you get from untrustworthy companies, spam is a broader term for anything online that has no real value and is essentially just taking up space. Emails that are sent to those that ask for them, but the emails are nothing but an unwanted sales pitch can be considered spam, even though they were requested. Websites, as well, that do not have any real content are often considered spam sites.

Spiders
The bots that roll through webpages in order to see where they fit in a search engine’s algorithm.

Splash Page
A single, easy, aesthetically pleasing page that comes before the ultimate page in order to entice visitors to click further.

Stickiness
A term for the number of people that are either visiting other pages or staying on the website for longer. In other words, the people that “stick” to the website once they get there.

Submission
The act of placing something into a directory. This is a broad term that covers submitted a website to a search engine to submitting an article to an article directory.

Tag Line
A single line that summarizes the entire advertisement.

Tags
Keywords used to keep content organized, especially on blogs.

Target Audience
The audience you hope your advertisement reaches.

Target Market
The specific market your product is best for. Target markets are not static, they are the hypothetical perfect market that you are always measuring to reach.

Targeted Marketing
Marketing methods aimed at a very specific niche or group. The idea behind targeted marketing is that although your hits may go down, the interest of the people that do visit your site is higher.

Traffic
The amount of visitors that have come to your website on a particular day. Also can be the average number of visitors your website usually receives.

Unique Visitors
The number of different individuals (or computers) that have visited your site, excluding duplicates/repeat visitors. For those that have a reason for previous visitors to come back, unique visitors is one of the best way to measure growth.

Viral Marketing
A method of marketing that self-propagates, with some type of content that is interesting enough for people to send to others for viewing.

Visits
A person that sees your webpage. Visits can refer to unique visitors or to all visitors.

Vlog
A video weblog.

Web 2.0
Though people define Web 2.0 in several ways, Web 2.0 is not an actual software product. Instead, it is the idea of the “new generation of the Internet,” especially social networking and interactive forums.

Web Site
The cornerstone of your business, even when you start multiple webpages in order to market your product or service, your website is the last thing these individuals will see before they decide to pay for what you are offering.

Widget
Any regularly updated gadget placed on a webpage.

Wiki
Any Internet Application that allows you to edit the webpages, usually with information. Most often refers to websites that use the type of template provided by Wikipedia.

Word of Mouth Advertising
The act of marketing your company by getting other people to talk about it.

WYSIWYG
Stands for “What you See is What you Get.”

Zine
A Magazine that is published only online.