Builderall Glossary

If you want to improve your marketing efforts, A/B testing may come in handy. This is the process of comparing two variations of the same variable to find out which one performs best The variations can be change in copy, call-to-actions, landing pages, etc.

Above the Fold

In website terms, 'above the fold' is the type of content that a website visitor sees before scrolling down on a specific page It's useful being aware of this type of content when you are creating landing pages for inbound marketing. A call-to-action that first pops up after a lot of scrolling may decrease the efficiency of your campaigns.

Ad Network

A grouping of websites or digital properties (like apps) where ads can appear. For example, Google has 2 ad networks: the search network (text ads that appear in search results) and the display network (image ads that appear on millions of websites that have partnered with Google).

Ad Servers

Isn’t it nice to have someone who does the job for you? Yes, it is, and that’s why ad servers exist! Ad servers are automated servers that help you request, bid on, and place your ads on websites, as well as monitor the progress of each campaign. For advertisers handling billions of data per day, ad servers make it easy to select the ads with the most potential and place them on appropriate websites.

Adwords (Google Adwords)

A Google owned program that is used by advertisers to place ads on Google search results pages, on Youtube, and on Google ad network sites. Adwords is the primary platform for PPC advertising.

Affiliate

An affiliate is an individual or company who markets a different company's products for a commission

Affiliate Link

The specific link an affiliate uses to promote a different company’s product or service.  When the customer clicks on the affiliate link, the company makes a sale and the affiliate will get the agreed upon commission for making the sale.

Affiliate Marketing

This is a type of performance-based marketing where a brand rewards affiliate partners for each website visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own advertising efforts. Affiliates typically receive discounts or payments based on the number of visitors or customers they bring.

Algorithm

A process or set of rules that computers follow to perform a task. In digital marketing, algorithm usually refers the the sets of processes Google uses to order and rank websites in search results. The SEO industry gives various Google algorithms their own nicknames like Penguin (which analyzes the quality of links pointing to a website) and Panda (which assesses the quality of the content on a website). The main ranking algorithm is SEO is referred to as “The core algorithm”.  An Algorithm Update is a change made to a Google algorithm. Updates typically affect the rankings of websites. Google makes hundreds of adjustments to their algorithms throughout the year, as well as several major updates each year.

Alt Text (or Alternative Text)

An attribute added to HTML code for images, used to provide vision impaired website visitors with information about the contents of a picture. Best practice dictates that all images on a website should have alt text, and that the text should be descriptive of the image.

Anchor Text

The clickable words in a hyperlink. In SEO, anchor text is a ranking signal to Google, as it provides context about the destination site. For example, if many websites link to one particular website using the anchor text “free stock photos”, Google uses that information to understand the destination site is likely a resource with free stock photos. Theoretically, that could help the stock photos website rank in Google for keywords related to stock photography.

API (Application Program Interface)

An API is a way of getting specific information from other applications or websites, which you can use for a variety of different needs. It is similar to a set of tools used for building a software application. The better the tools, the easier it is to make a good product. In the case of an API, the better the API, the easier it is to develop a program.

Automation

Using computer programs to perform tasks that are repetitive, that would normally be completed by a human. Email programs can use automation to send email messages to people based on certain triggers (new customers, did or did not open the last email, etc). Marketers also use automation to nurture leads by sending relevant content to previous visitors of a website, in an attempt to get the visitor back to convert into a sale.

Autopost

Autoresponder

A metric in Google Adwords that helps advertisers understand where, on average, their ads are showing in Google search results pages. There are usually 4 available ad slots at the top of a search result page (where 1 is the first ad, 2 is the second ad, etc), so for the best results advertisers typically want an average position between 1-4. Average position 5+ indicates that your ads are showing at the bottom of the search results page.

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This is when one website hyperlinks to another website using html href code. Backlinks are a major factor used by Google in determining organic rankings. The basic idea being that if “website A” has incoming backlinks from other strong/relevant websites (websites B, C, and D), the links are votes of trust for website A. Website A will then gain authority from B, C, and D through those backlinks, which generally results in better rankings and a source of potential referral traffic.

Banner Ad

A popular type of digital image ad that can be placed across various websites. The largest and most popular image ad network is run by Google, and allows ads in the following common sizes:

Behavioral Targeting

Is serving tailored advertising to audiences by utilizing their previous web browsing behavior in order to drive more engagement.

Bing

A web search engine that provides search services for web, video, image and map search products. Bing is owned and operated by Microsoft, and is powers Yahoo! Search. Bing now controls approximately >20% of the search share.

Bing Ads

A platform that provides pay-per-click advertising on both the Bing and Yahoo! search engines. The service allows businesses to create ads, and subsequently serve the ads to consumers who search for keywords that the businesses bid on. This platform also offers targeting options such as location, demographic, and device targeting.

Black Hat

Slang for an unethical digital marketer or SEO that breaks search engine guidelines, in order to artificially rank websites. They use tactics like duplicate content, spammy link building, and negative SEO.

Blog

Short for “web log”, a blog is a web page or a website that is regularly updated with new written content. Blogs are an important section of a website in digital marketing, as they offer fresh new content on a regular basis which can help attract new visitors, engage existing visitors, and give authority signals to Google.

Bot

An automated program that visits websites, sometimes also referred to as a “crawler” or a “spider”. Search Engines like Google uses bots to crawl websites so that they can be ranked and added to search indexes. Spam bots visit websites for nefarious reasons, often showing in Google Analytics as spammy traffic.

Bottom of the Funnel

Bottom of the funnel is the last stage in the buying process when your prospects are close to becoming new customers. Messages at this stage usually include a product offer, a product demo, a free consultation, etc.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website that leave immediately without clicking or interacting with any portion of the page. For example, if 100 people visit a website, and 50 of them immediately leave, the website has a bounce rate of 50%. Websites aim to have as low of a bounce rate as possible, and averages tend to be anywhere between 40-60%.

Bread Crumbs

Links at the top of a web page or in a search result, that better help the user navigate the site. Onsite links often appear near the web page’s title and look something like this: Home > Services > Specific Service.

Browser

A browser aka Web Browser is a software application for accessing information on the internet. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves the necessary content from a web server and then displays the page on the user's device.  Popular web browsers include Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Firefox.

Browser Notifications
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Campaign Canonical (rel=canonical)

A piece of code that is added into the html head of a webpage to indicate to Google whether a piece of content is original or duplicated from somewhere else. Original content should canonical to itself, and content taken from other places should point the canonical to the original source URL. Canonicals can also be used to avoid duplicate content issues within a website.

Chatbot

Churn Rate

This is the metric that comes in handy when you want to find out how many customers your business retains and at what value. To find out your churn rate, divide the number of customers you lose within a specific timeframe to the total number you had at the beginning of that period.

Closed-Loop Marketing

If your goal is figuring out how your inbound marketing drives quantifiable business growth, you might want to take a look at this one. The practice means being able to execute and tie in marketing efforts to bottom-line impact.

Cloud Computing

If you do not have space or resources to build your own computing infrastructure, then cloud computing is for you! It allows its users to store, manage, and transfer data using host servers. There are several types of clouds with different purpose and benefits. 

CMP (Cloud Management Platform)

CMP is a group of products that can be used to manage and monitor cloud computing resources either in private, public, or multi-cloud models.

Click Map/Heat Map

Code

The languages used to build a website. The most commonly used languages in web design are HTML, CSS, JS, and PHP.

Contact Form

A section on a website with fillable fields that visitors use to contact the website owner. Most commonly used to collect names, phone numbers, and email addresses of potential customers. Contact forms are fast becoming a preferred method for reaching out to a business.  In Builderall, the contact form can be used to email individual form submissions, or can be used with webhooks to capture information and integrate with 3rd party platforms using Zapier.

Content

Any form of online media that can be read, watched, or provides an interactive experience. Content commonly refers to written materials, but also includes images and videos.

Conversion

The completion of a predefined goal. This is often used to track the number of site visitors that have been “converted” into paying customers, though sales are not always chosen as the metric. Other common goals are newsletter subscriptions and content downloads from the website.

Conversion Path

This is defined as a series of actions by which an anonymous website visitor becomes a known lead. Typical steps in your conversion path may be a call-to-action, a lead capturing form,a thank you page, etc.

Conversion Pixel

A piece of code that are placed on your website to track whether a person has landed or converted on a specific web page.  A conversion pixel is typically used to verify that a sale was made or a lead generated.  The conversion pixel is added to the sales confirmation/thank you page.

Cookie

As much as we wish this were a real sweet treat in the internet terminology, a cookie is a unique value stored on your browser (in the form of a small file cookie.txt) assigned by websites you visit. The purpose of a cookie is to keep track of where the user is and help create customized web pages, customize the ad experience, or save login info. 

CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

A metric in paid advertising platforms that measures how much money is spent in order to acquire a new lead or customer. It can be calculated by dividing the total spend by the number of conversions, for a given period of time. For example, if in a month a PPC account spends $1000 dollars and gets 10 conversions (leads), then the cost per acquisition is $100. It is similar to CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPM (Cost Per Mile).

CPC (Cost Per Click)

The amount of money spent for a click on an ad in a Pay-Per-Click campaign. In the Adwords platform, each keyword will have an estimated click cost, but the prices change in real time as advertisers bid against each other for each keyword. Average CPCs can range from less than $1 dollar for longtail or low-competition keywords, to upwards of $100 per click for competitive terms, primarily in legal, insurance, and water damage restoration industries.

CPM (Cost Per Mille) / CPT (Cost Per Thousand)

Stands for “Cost Per Thousand” (M is the roman numeral for 1,000). This is the amount an advertiser pays for 1,000 impressions of their ad. For example, if a publisher charges $10 CPM, and your ad shows 2000 times, you will pay $20 for the campaign ($10 x 1000 impressions) x 2. Measuring ad success with CPM is most common in awareness campaigns, where impressions are more important than conversions or clicks. It is similar to CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPA (Cost Per Action).

CR (Conversion Rate)

The rate at which visitors to a website complete the predefined goal. It is calculated by dividing the number of goal achievements by the total number of visitors. For example, if 100 people visit a website and 10 of them complete the conversion goal (like filling out a contact form) then the conversion rate is 10%.

Crawler

An automated program that scans websites to determine their content and purpose. The name reflects how the software “crawls” through the code, which is why they are sometimes also referred to as “spiders”. Crawlers are used by Google to find new content and to evaluate the quality of webpages for their index. Webmasters and SEOs can request additional scans through Google Search Console.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

CRM is the approach of managing and analyzing your brand’s relationship with potential and existing customers. Digital marketers usually use a CRM system to support this strategy - to streamline processes and increase profitability.

CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization)

A branch of digital marketing that aims to improve the conversion rate of web pages, thus making the pages more profitable. Conversion rate optimization combines psychology with marketing and web design in order to influence the behavior of the web page visitor. CRO uses a type of testing called “A/B split testing” to determine which version of a page (version A or version B) is more successful.CRO consists of numerous techniques, and testing methods.

CSS

Stands for “Cascading Style Sheets”. CSS is a document of code that tells the website’s HTML how it should appear on screen. CSS is a time saving document for web designers, as they can style batched-sections of HTML code, rather than styling individual lines of code one-at-a-time.

CTA (Call To Action)

When it comes to online advertising, a good choice of words and a persuasive CTA are essential. A CTA is a message or element on a web page used to guide visitors towards a specific action or conversion. A CTA can be a clickable button, an image, or standard text. They typically uses imperative verb phrases like: “call today” or “buy now”.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The ratio of how many times an advertisement was clicked on, versus how many times it was shown. It is calculated by dividing the ad’s clicks by the ad’s impressions. For example, if an ad is shown to 100 people, and 10 of them click the ad, then it has a click through rate of 10% (10 clicks / 100 impressions = 10%) This ratio can be useful when determining whether the messaging matches what the consumer is searching for, and if it resonates with them. A higher click-through-rate means more engagement, which generally leads to more quality conversions.

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When you’re handling many digital files on a daily basis, DAM may come in handy. This process helps you store and categorize your digital assets easier, so thar you can access them at any time from one place.

A part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines and is generally found only on secret or encrypted servers and requires special software or configurations to access. The Dark Web is thought to be used for illicit activities like black markets, illegal information sharing and underground political discourse.

Dashboard

A web page that contains and displays aggregate data about the performance of a website or digital marketing campaign. A dashboard pulls information from various data sources and displays the info in an easy-to-read format.

Data Visualization

This is the process of visually representing specific information to make it easier to understand. Dashboards and infographics are common examples of visualizations.

Deep Web

In contrast to the Surface Web (indexed sites), this part of the internet that is not indexed by search engines, but does not deal in illegal activities, like the Dark Web. This consists of a variety of databases, documents, reports and other information that is not available to the public. It can also include things like web mail, online banking or subscription based content like videos, magazines, newspapers or other publications.

Digital Assistant

Sometimes known as a virtual assistant or intelligent personal assistant, this software or application can perform tasks or services via verbal commands from a user. These assistants are generally used to answer questions, set events and to-do lists, and can be set up to control utilities like lights and other automated devices in homes or businesses. Most smart devices also have built in digital assistants like Siri or Alexa.  Google, Amazon and Apple offer some of the most robust digital assistants on the market.

Digital Marketing

A catchall term for online work that includes specialized marketing practices like SEO, PPC, CRO, web design, blogging, content, and any other form of advertising on a internet-connected device with a screen. Traditionally, television was not considered digital marketing, however the shift from cable television to internet streaming means that digital advertising can now be served to online TV viewers.

Directory

A website that categorically lists websites with similar themes. Some directories like chambers of commerce (a list of businesses in one geographic area) can be helpful for SEO, however widespread abuse of spam directories led Google to discount links from directories whose sole purpose was selling links.

Display Ads

Ads on a display network which include many different formats such as: images, flash, video, and audio. Also commonly known as banner ads, these are the advertisements that are seen around the web on news sites, blogs, and social media.

Display Network

A network of websites and apps that show display ads on their web pages. Google’s display network spans over 2 million websites that reach over 90% of people on the internet. Businesses can target consumers on the display network based on keywords/topics, placement on specific webpages, and through remarketing.

DNS (Domain Name System)

An internet protocol that translates website URLs (which use alphabetic characters) into IP addresses (that use numeric characters). DNS exists because it is more useful for internet users to remember letters and words in website URLs, but the world wide web communicates in numbers with IP addresses. Without DNS, every website would just be a string of numbers rather than a traditional URL.

Dofollow

A phrase that denotes a hyperlink absent of a “nofollow” tag. By default, a hyperlink is a dofollow link until a “nofollow” piece of code is added to it. Dofollow links pass SEO equity to the destination URL, while “nofollow” links do not.

Domain

It is the "home" address of your website where other internet users can go to visit your website.  The structure of a domain name is:  http://www.yourdomainname.com.  In digital marketing, a domain name is important in the branding process of a business because it identifies the website and email for the company.  For example, Builderall uses http://www.builderall.com for their website, and emails are staff@builderall.com.

Double Optin Subscriber List

Drip Nurturing

Is a lead nurturing method that uses automated tailored content & triggers that are ‘dripped’ at a specific time with the goal of driving a desired action (e.g: a sale). Drip campaigns or drip emails are usually used here.

Duplicate Content

Refers to instances where portions of text are found in at least two different places on the web. When the same content is found on multiple websites, it can cause ranking issues for one or all of the websites, as Google does not want to show multiple websites in search results that have the exact same information. Generally, the site that indexed the content first is considered to be the original content and would not be penalized. Duplicate content can result from plagiarism, automated content scrapers, or lazy web design. Duplicate content can also be a problem within one website — if multiple versions of a page exists, Google may not understand which version to show in search results, and the pages are competing against each other, this is also known as keyword cannibalization. Issues like this can occur when new versions of pages are added, without deleting or forwarding the old version, or through poor URL structures.

Dynamic Content

Dynamic content is the process of displaying different messaging on your website or in your online advertising (e.g. Facebook’s Dynamic Ads) based on information you have or your enriching about your target audience.

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Stands for Electronic Commerce, it is a classification for businesses that conduct business online. The most common form of e commerce business is an online retailer that sells products direct to the consumer.

ELearning

Email

Define not only email but professional email

Email List

A collection of email addresses that can be used to send targeted email marketing campaigns. Lists are typically segmented by user classification, so a list of existing customers can receive one type of communication, while potential customers can receive more promotional communication.

Email Marketing

The use of email with the goal of acquiring sales, customers, or any other type of conversion.

Email Marketing Campaign

A marketing system that uses software to automatically send emails based on predefined triggers. A series of advertising messages that share a theme, and market a product or service. In the context of digital marketing, campaigns can be run through search and display network advertising platforms (i.e. Google, Bing), social media, email, or other online platforms. Campaigns can also refer to a comprehensive digital marketing strategy or project.  Multiple automated emails in a sequence are used create user funnels and segment them, based on behavior. For example, an automation funnel could be set to send “Email A” when a person provides their email address, then either “Email 2a” or “Email 2b” would be sent based on whether or not the person clicked on the first email.

Email Marketing Form

Email Sequence

Engagement Rate

This is a valuable metric used to describe the amount of social media interaction a post, ad, or campaign has. This is usually measured based on interactions like Comments, Shares, and Like.

Event Tracking

If you want to track beyond revenue and conversion metrics, keep an eye on Event Tracking. This is a method for analytics and social (e.g. using Facebook’s pixel) that helps you track your customers’ journey every step of the way by analyzing certain behaviors like form fills, cart additions, or newsletter sign-ups.

Evergreen

This is the type of content that is always relevant to your audiences, no matter when they read it. Compared to time-sensitive content such as seasonal articles or campaigns, evergreen content continues to provide value way beyond its release date.

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Facebook

Facebook Ad Manager

An advertising account on Facebook that allows you to run ads on the Facebook Ad Network.

Facebook Business Manager

A Facebook platform that allows marketers to manage multiple pages and ad accounts in one central location.

Facebook Messenger

FE (Front End)

FQDN (Fully Qalitified Domain Name)

A fully qualified domain name is the entire required elements of a domain name to make it a clickable link.  A FQDN typically has the http://www. in front of the domain.  An example:  http://www.builderall.com is a fully qualified domain name.  Some platforms such as YouTube require a FQDN in the description to create a clickable link.

 

A friction describes any type of element that causes your website visitors or campaign to stop taking a desired action. On a website, a friction can be a distracting color, a confusing message, etc.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol standardized to make transferring of computer files between a client and a server easier.

Funnel
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Geo Targeting is an effective way for increasing conversions where content is delivered to audiences based on their geographic locations. It’s effectively used in paid search or social campaign. The location can be a country, state, city and more.

Google AdSense

A Google platform that allows websites to earn money by publishing Google network ads on their website.

Google AdWords

Google AdWords is an online advertising service made by Google where customers can create and manage ads within the Google universe (on Google Search, Display, YouTube, etc.).   It is Google's advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their clickable ads to appear in Google's search results. Since advertisers have to pay for these clicks, this is how Google makes money from search.

Google Analytics

Even if you are entirely new to the digital marketing world, you have most likely heard about Google Analytics already. This analytics service is provided by Google, and it helps you track, analyze, and measure all types of revenues and costs of your website, advertising campaigns, videos, social channels, etc.

Google Tag Manager

Gray Hat

Slang for a digital marketer or SEO methods that skirt the line of being unethical.  They may not break search engine guidelines, but come very close.  Typically gray hat tactics are not as dangerous legally as black hat, but can be considered unethical depending on location and can result in being banned from certain platforms.

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In email marketing, hard bounces are simply emails that were not delivered. This can happen for different reasons: the recipient email address could be wrong or inactive, the recipient might have blocked you or reported your emails as spam etc.

Heatmap
A visual representation of data that uses a system of color-coding to represent different values. It shows where users have clicked on a page and how far they scroll down a page.

Hosting

The location your website files are at while they are live on the internet.  Hosting is included in all Builderall paid plans.

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