I can confidently say that didn't know all the ins and outs of digital marketing lingo when I first started in the industry. It was hard to navigate through all the acronyms, short-forms and general business speak. Having said that, once I was immersed into the digital culture, this foreign language started to make sense.
Now I can throw down in an SEO convo with the best of them (for the most part), even more so after writing this post. Speaking of, let me put you on the fast-track to learning digital lingo for yourself. It's impossible to include every single item in this list, but it should give you a head start. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comment section below!
The ABC's of Digital Marketers
Above the fold - Originating from the fold on the front page of most newspapers, above the fold refers to the part of a webpage that appears before you have to scroll. Aim to get your best headlines and content above the fold.
Algorithm Update - Algorithms work behind the scenes to help you find an answer to your search query, using various clues to decide what to serve up on the SERP. Algorithm updates are often rolled out unknowingly to the common web surfer major ones definitely make headlines.
All ships rise with the tide - Not getting anywhere trying to boost the authority of all your pages equally? Why not get your home page ahead of the game and your other pages should naturally rise in authority with it.
Below the fold - Anything below the scrolling point of a webpage. Don't hide any gems down there, people might not go looking for them if they're in a hurry.
Black hat SEO - Erring on the side of risk when it comes to SEO marketing. Breaking the rules and disregarding the regulations and embracing uncertain SEO tactics to boost your online presence.
BOFu - Bottom of the Funnel. Customers and leads who know what they want and when they want it. They're ready to buy and you better hope your marketing has enticed them to choose you!
Cloaking - Similar to the invisibility kind, cloaking is used to deceive a search engine that is crawling your site by displaying a different version of a page then what is actually visible to the common user. This technique can sometimes be used to hide content on a page that could be breaking the rules (see black hat SEO).
CMS - Content Management System. A computer program that lets you make your website look pretty by managing the design, workflow and content of a site in one place. Common examples are WordPress or Joomla.
Content assets - A list of assets needed to support a marketing campaign or a premium piece of content.
CPA - Cost-Per-Acquisition. How much you are spending on paid advertising divided by the amount of people you are able to convert. Simply put, the price of getting a paid conversion for your site.
CPC - Cost-Per-Click. How much you are paying when somebody clicks on one of your ads.
CPM - Technically, Cost Per Mille. Generally, cost per thousand impressions.
CRO - Conversion Rate Optimization. Based on testing, analytics and data, CRO improves the performance of your site by analyzing where and how people navigate, and more importantly, convert on your site.
CTA - Call-To-Action. The brilliant line that your specialist/copy writer has come up with to draw a customer in. Using words to convince somebody to do what you tell them.
CTR - Click-Through-Rate. The percentage of people clicking on your ads compared to how often they show up.
Ducks in a row - Commonly heard around businesses globally, this saying infers that you (the mama duck) needs to get things organized (your ducklings). Example: "come on, we've got to get our ducks in a row before the big meeting tomorrow!"
FTP - File Transfer Protocol. Using the power of the internet to transfer files from one host to another. Control who has access to your FTP with a username and password then have fun downloading!
GA - Google Analytics. A popular program developed by Google to capture and store data about your website. GA can be used to analyze and determine how your website is performing in various aspects.
Hummingbird - Focusing more on search intent rather than exactly matching specific keywords. Google is trying to get the bigger picture by determining what people are actually looking for instead of filling the SERP with pages that rank for the short-tail keywords in a long-tail query.
Impressions - How often your ads show up in the SERP.
Inbound Marketing - A strategy used to attract, convert, close and delight customers. Get ready to nurture you leads along the funnel, takin' them from TOFU to BOFU to profit.
Keyword Stuffing - Hitting your content over the head with highly-searched keywords, often making your on-page unnatural and obvious that you are desperate to rank.
KPI - Key Performance Indicator. A type of performance measurement used to evaluate success. Decide what is most important to your business (profit, leads etc.) and a realistic benchmark for them to compare your numbers to monthly, quarterly or annually.
LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL & PHP, AKA the most common types of web hosting.
Landing Page - Where a customer ends up after clicking a link to your site. It could be custom built to compliment a specific offer or campaign or simply where someone lands on your site after an organic search.
Loop me in on that - Bringing somebody up to speed on part of your business or a missed conversation. Closing the information loop is a great way to get more insight on a problem or help strengthen a strategy.
Lowest hanging fruit - It might not be the most ripe or best tasting, but it is easy to acquire and will fill an empty stomach. In the business world, those quick, easy wins to help make both the customer, client and provider happy.
LTV - Lifetime Value, also commonly known as customer lifetime value (CLV) predicts the net profit of the entirety of your future relationship with a customer. Better start planning the first date now.
MOFu - Middle of the Funnel. Customers and leads who are interested in your line of business but are still trying to figure out who has the best offer. It's time to put on your nurturing hat and convince them you are the best at what you do.
Moving the needle - Not actually having anything to do with sharp metal objects, to move the needle is to show a client that the job you're providing is helping their business. In a nut shell, showing your worth.
Offer - What you're giving up to potential customers to draw them into your funnel and turn them into a solid lead. Common examples are downloads, consultations or free trials.
On the same page - You can't take full advantage of a book club if everybody hasn't ended their session on the same page (no spoilers here!). Same goes with business, everybody needs to have all the information and understand what it means when you're on the same page.
Organic - Au natural. Also known as organic search, when people find info on the web through the power of SEO.
Packaging - Sanding down the rough edges of your campaign, nailing down your branding and in general making a rough draft presentable.
Page Rank - An algorithm used by Google to decide where to show websites on the SERP AKA how and where a website ranks. Page rank determines the importance of a website by counting the number of links, and more importantly (ahem, Penguin) quality of links directed at a page.
Panda - Targeting sites with duplicate content, pushing internet marketers to be less lazy and more creative when it comes to writing interesting copy.
Penalty - When you don't follow the rules of the internet, you just might get hit with a penalty. Have you done too much link building? Created duplicate content? An automatic penalty could be coming your way. Google can also hit you with a manual penalty - behaviour outside the defined penalties that they still deem as deserving punishment.
Penguin - Making link building a thing of the past since the spring of 2012. Instead of paying $5 to have thousands of links built to your site, Google now wants web companies to earn their links from reputable sources on the web.
PPC - Pay-Per-Click. The meat and potatoes of paid marketing ... paying for each click on one of your paid advertisements in a SERP.
Push the envelope - Tired of playing it safe? It's time to blow the lid off your current project, push the limit and see what you can come up (without taking it too far, of course!)
Responsive Design - Making sure your website is functional and pretty when viewed on various devices.
ROI - Return on Investment. How much you make after your initial investment. For example, you invest $100 and make $200. Way to go! That's a 100% ROI! Mathematically speaking, profit minus investment divided by investment.
SEO - Search Engine Optimization. Want to get found on the internet? Time to optimize the on-page elements of your site so when it's crawled by a search engine, your content is found! Do a bit of keyword research to ensure you're including important and relevant keywords and locations.
SEP - Search Engine People. The best damn search company in Canada.
SERP - Search Engine Results Page. After you type a query into your favourite search engine, you are brought to the SERP where links are just waiting to be clicked.
Spider/crawler/bot - Not as creepy as the name suggests, these digital creatures crawl the internet to update web content and index websites. They provide updated data so information can get found more quickly and accurately during searches.
Taking something offline - Continuing a conversation outside of one you are currently in. Ever been in a meeting where two people go off topic and take up 15 minutes talking about something irrelevant to the original meeting? They should have taken it offline. Specifically to the world of online marketing, taking something offline could also be referring to traditional forms of marketing (public relations, television and radio for example).
TOFu - Top of the Funnel. Customers and leads who are new to your site or still checking out their options before committing to a particular brand. Entice them with juicy content offers to grab their interest and start to nurture them down the funnel.
TPT - Top Priority Tasks - have something with a quickly approaching deadline? A project with a lot of worth for a client? Those are probably priorities over your Friday afternoon lunch plans.
Viral - Gangnam Style, Grumpy Cat, twerking ... global sensations that rock our world and fill our social feeds because of their likeable, outrageous and sharable nature.
White hat SEO - Behaving when it comes to promoting your online presence through SEO. Using preferred tactics and no deception to get your site an A+ grade in SEO.
Win-win-win situation - You guessed it, everybody wins! The client, business and employees.
WMT - Webmaster Tools. Despite the name, this tool is available for general public use and not just for masters of the web. A handy tool developed by Google to easily allow you to check aspects of your site like optimization or indexing as well as providing useful stats for reporting or troubleshooting.
What Did I Miss?
Let me know in the comments!