Marketing & SEO Glossary
Plain-language definitions for the terms that show up in proposals, reports, and meetings, without the marketing-jargon padding.
How to use this glossary
This glossary is a working reference for the marketing terms that appear in proposals, reports, dashboards, and strategy conversations. Definitions are written for marketers, owners, and operators who want to be confident they understand what is being discussed, not for academics or for people studying for a certification exam. Where a term has a precise definition tied to a public standard or framework (the four Ps, RACE, AIDA, STP, the standard channel taxonomy), we describe it accurately. Where a term is genuinely contested or has been stretched by overuse to the point of meaning everything and nothing, engagement and brand are good examples, we describe the contest rather than pretending it does not exist.
Why glossaries matter more than they look like they do
Marketing conversations break down constantly because participants are using the same words to mean different things. A clear shared vocabulary does not solve every problem, but it removes a category of conversation-killing confusion that occurs surprisingly often even among experienced practitioners. We use this glossary internally as a reference and externally as a way to make sure clients and partners are on the same page about what we are discussing. If a term that you expected to find is not here, or if a definition seems off, let us know, we maintain the glossary by hand and update it when the practice shifts or the language matures.
What we deliberately leave out
We have kept the glossary focused on terms that appear in real world marketing work today. We omit the consultancy-coined frameworks that exist mainly to brand a particular firm's methodology, the vendor specific terminology that exists mainly to sell a particular tool, and the trendy terms that appeared in one or two LinkedIn posts and have not actually entered the practice. If you were expecting one of those and do not find it, that is intentional. If you were expecting a genuinely useful term and do not find it, that is an oversight worth telling us about so we can fix it.
- Above the fold
- The portion of a webpage visible without scrolling. The exact pixel range varies by viewport.
- Anchor text
- The visible, clickable words in a hyperlink. Search engines use anchor text as a relevance signal.
- Attribution
- The model used to credit marketing channels for a conversion. Common models include last-click, first click, linear, time-decay, and data driven.
- A/B test
- A controlled experiment comparing two variants of a page or element to see which performs better on a chosen metric.
- Backlink
- A link from another website pointing to yours. Quality and relevance matter more than quantity.
- Bounce rate
- The percentage of sessions that ended without further interaction. A high bounce rate is not always bad, context matters.
- Buyer journey
- The stages a prospective customer moves through from awareness to decision and purchase.
- Canonical tag
- An HTML element that tells search engines which URL is the preferred version of a page when multiple URLs serve similar content.
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Clicks divided by impressions. Used in search, ads, and email.
- Conversion
- A measurable action you want a visitor to take, a purchase, sign-up, form submission, etc.
- Core Web Vitals
- Google's set of user-experience metrics: LCP (loading), INP (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability).
- CRO
- Conversion rate optimization. The discipline of improving the percentage of visitors who take a desired action.
- Domain authority
- A third party score (popularized by Moz) estimating a domain's ranking strength. Not used directly by Google.
- DNS
- Domain Name System. Translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses.
- E-E-A-T
- Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. A framework Google's quality raters use to evaluate content.
- ESP
- Email service provider. Platforms like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, or Customer.io.
- Featured snippet
- A search result excerpt displayed at the top of Google's results, often pulled from a high ranking page.
- Funnel
- A model of the steps a prospect moves through from first touch to conversion, used to find drop-off points.
- GA4
- Google Analytics 4, the current generation of Google Analytics, event-based rather than session-based.
- Google Business Profile
- The free business listing that powers local search and map results.
- Heading tags
- HTML elements (H1–H6) that define the hierarchy of headings on a page. Important for both readers and search engines.
- hreflang
- An HTML attribute that signals the language and regional targeting of a page to search engines.
- Impression
- A single appearance of a page or ad in search results or a feed. Different from a click.
- Indexation
- The state of a page being included in a search engine's index and therefore eligible to appear in results.
- INP
- Interaction to Next Paint. The Core Web Vital that measures interaction responsiveness.
- Keyword
- A word or phrase entered into a search engine. In modern SEO, "keyword" is shorthand for query intent, not a literal string match.
- KPI
- Key performance indicator. The metric you've agreed to be measured by.
- LCP
- Largest Contentful Paint. The Core Web Vital that measures rendering time of the largest visible element.
- Long-tail
- Lower-volume, more specific queries. Often higher intent and easier to rank for than head terms.
- Meta description
- The HTML attribute summarizing a page, often shown beneath the title in search results. Not a direct ranking factor but influences click-through.
- NAP
- Name, Address, Phone. The contact information that needs to be consistent across local citations.
- nofollow
- A link attribute that tells search engines not to pass ranking credit through the link.
- Organic traffic
- Visits arriving from unpaid search results.
- OTA
- Online travel agency (Booking.com, Expedia, etc.). Source of bookings but at significant commission cost.
- PPC
- Pay-per-click advertising. You pay each time someone clicks your ad.
- PWA
- Progressive Web App. A web application that uses modern browser features to behave more like a native app.
- Redirect (301/302)
- Server responses that send users (and search engines) from one URL to another. 301 is permanent; 302 is temporary.
- ROAS
- Return on ad spend. Revenue divided by ad spend, usually expressed as a multiple.
- Schema markup
- Structured data added to a page so search engines can better understand its content and entities.
- SERP
- Search engine results page.
- Sitemap (XML)
- A file that lists the URLs on your site you want search engines to know about.
- Tag manager
- A tool (e.g. Google Tag Manager) that lets non developers deploy and manage tracking tags without code changes.
- TLS / HTTPS
- Secure transport for web traffic. Required for trust, performance features, and modern APIs.
- UGC
- User-generated content, reviews, photos, videos, and posts created by customers rather than the brand.
- URL slug
- The human-readable portion of a URL after the domain.
- Vanity metric
- A metric that looks impressive but doesn't inform decisions (e.g. raw follower counts).
- WCAG
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The international standard for accessible web content.