Digital marketing glossary
Plain-English definitions of the digital marketing terms that come up when you are growing a business online. No jargon for the sake of it, just clear explanations of what each term means, why it matters and the mistakes worth avoiding.
SEO
How search engines find, rank and surface your business.
AI Overviews and AI search
AI Overviews are the AI-generated answers Google shows at the top of some search results, summarising information from across the web. AI search more broadly refers to how tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini answer questions directly instead of returning a list of links.
Read the full definitionAnchor text
Anchor text is the visible, clickable words of a hyperlink. It helps both readers and search engines understand what the linked page is about before they click through.
Read the full definitionBacklink
A backlink is a link from another website that points to a page on your site. Search engines treat backlinks from reputable sites as votes of confidence, and they are one of the strongest signals of how trustworthy and authoritative a site is.
Read the full definitionDomain authority
Domain authority is a third-party score that predicts how likely a website is to rank well in search results, based largely on the quality and quantity of its backlinks. It is an industry estimate, not a metric Google itself uses.
Read the full definitionKeyword research
Keyword research is the process of finding the words and phrases people actually type into search engines, so you can build content around the searches your customers are making. It is the foundation of any SEO or paid search campaign.
Read the full definitionLocal SEO
Local SEO is the practice of optimising a business to appear in search results for a specific geographic area, including the Google map pack. It is how businesses that serve a local market get found by nearby customers.
Read the full definitionMeta description
A meta description is the short summary of a web page that appears beneath its title in search results. It does not directly affect rankings, but it strongly influences whether people click through to your page.
Read the full definitionOrganic traffic
Organic traffic is the visitors who reach your website through unpaid search results, rather than through ads. It is the traffic you earn by ranking for relevant searches, not the traffic you pay for click by click.
Read the full definitionSchema markup
Schema markup is structured code added to a web page that describes its content in a standard format search engines understand. It helps search engines and AI tools interpret a page accurately and can unlock richer search result features.
Read the full definitionSearch engine optimisation (SEO)
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the practice of improving a website so it ranks higher in unpaid search results on Google and other search engines. The goal is to earn steady, free traffic from people actively searching for what you offer.
Read the full definitionConversion
Turning the visitors you already have into enquiries and sales.
Bounce rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on a page and leave without interacting further or visiting another page. It is a rough signal of whether a page is meeting the expectations of the people who arrive on it.
Read the full definitionConversion rate optimisation (CRO)
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is the practice of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as making an enquiry or a purchase. It focuses on getting more value from the traffic you already have.
Read the full definitionLanding page
A landing page is a standalone web page built around a single goal, usually getting the visitor to take one specific action. It is the page people arrive on from an ad, an email or a search, designed to convert rather than to inform broadly.
Read the full definitionPaid Ads
Measuring and getting a return from advertising spend.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click a link, ad or search listing after seeing it. It measures how compelling and relevant something is to the audience that encounters it.
Read the full definitionReturn on ad spend (ROAS)
Return on ad spend (ROAS) measures how much revenue you earn for every dollar spent on advertising. It is the core metric for judging whether a paid campaign is actually profitable.
Read the full definitionWeb Design
The site experience that underpins search and conversions.
Strategy
The bigger picture of how customers find and choose you.
This glossary covers 17 terms and grows over time. If there is a term you want explained, tell us and we will add it.
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