Digital marketing is an ever-changing world that requires you to stay up-to-date with the latest changes, trends, and advancements.
TFA are an experienced digital marketing agency, and we want to share that experience with you! Our digital marketing glossary will help you understand the key terms and metrics used in the industry, giving you confidence when investing in your digital marketing journey.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising a website to increase the quantity and quality of organic (non-paid) traffic it receives from search engines, such as Google. It is a long-term, ongoing process that involves repeatedly changing a website’s design, content, and technical features to make it more attractive to users and search engines.
The ultimate goal of SEO is to improve a website’s visibility and ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords, which can lead to increased website traffic, brand awareness, and sales.
To learn more about our SEO services or click here to get a free SEO audit.
SEO involves a range of techniques… let’s explore some of them:
What is On-Page SEO?
On-page SEO refers to the practice of optimising a website’s individual pages to improve its visibility and ranking in SERPs.
Methods of on-page SEO include:
- Optimising the content of the page to utilise relevant keywords and ensure the page is easy to read and navigate
- Optimising the HTML source code of the page, including title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, image alt tags, and more
- Making changes to the site to improve the website loading speed and mobile friendliness
- Building an internal linking structure in the site, linking relevant pages to each other
By focusing on on-page SEO methods, you can improve the relevance and quality of your web pages, encouraging site traffic and improving your rankings.
What is Off-Page SEO?
Off-page SEO refers to the practice of optimising a website’s external factors to improve visibility and SERP rankings.
Off-page SEO methods include:
- Backlink building
- Social media marketing
- Guest blogging
Sites that do well with their off-page SEO indicate to search engines that they are a valuable and authoritative resource, which can help to improve the website’s ranking in the SERP.
What is a Backlink?
As mentioned above, backlink building is an important part of off-page SEO. But what is a backlink?
A backlink, also known as an inbound link or incoming link, is a link from one website to another. Building your backlink profile is crucial for SEO, as backlinks signal to search engines that other websites consider your site to be a valuable and authoritative resource.
If a site has lots of relevant, high-quality backlinks, search engines will reward it with higher rankings in the SERP.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO involves optimising a website or business for location-based searches, which are searches where a user is searching for a product or service within a specific geographic area.
Local SEO methods include;
- Optimising the website’s content and metadata with relevant geographical keywords
- Creating and optimising business listings on local directories and review websites
- Optimising the business’ Google Business Profile and posting consistently on this
- Ensuring consistency in the business name, address and phone number across all online listings.
Businesses that have a physical location that customers can visit must ensure they put time and effort into their local SEO, as this will help customers find their business easily, boosting their number of visitors and, consequently, their sales.
What is PPC?
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a method of digital advertising where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on one of their ads.
PPC ads are usually displayed in search engine results pages or on websites and social media platforms that display ads. Advertisers bid on specific keywords that suit their target audience and create ads that will be displayed to users who search for those terms or visit websites related to those keywords. The cost of each click varies hugely depending on how competitive the word is and the quality of the ad itself.
PPC campaigns are a great way of driving targeted traffic to a website to generate leads and sales. If this sounds like something you need, take a look at our PPC advertising services to see how we can help you.
What is Keyword Research?
Both PPC and SEO campaigns need to start with comprehensive keyword research.
Keyword research is the process of identifying and analysing keywords and phrases that people use when searching for products, services, or information online.
It is important to start your strategy with keyword research so that you can understand your target audience’s needs and behaviour. Site owners can utilise keyword research to find high-traffic keywords that can then be put onto the site, to drive quality traffic onto your website.
But how do you know if it’s working…
To ensure your digital marketing efforts are working, you must check in on your metrics consistently. Here are some of the metrics to look out for.
Search Visibility
Search visibility refers to the extent to which a website or webpage appears in SERPs for relevant keywords and phrases.
Websites with high search visibility are more likely to receive organic traffic from search engines, which can translate into more leads, sales, and revenue.
Domain Authority
Domain Authority, sometimes referred to as Domain Trust, is a metric created by SEO tools such as Moz and SE Ranking that combines multiple factors and ranks a site with a score from 1-100.
It is calculated by the number of quality backlinks a site has, the website’s age, size, content relevance, and overall online reputation. Sites with high DA scores are seen as more valuable and relevant and are rewarded with higher rankings.
Impressions
Relating to SEO, impressions refer to the number of times a website’s link is displayed on the search engine results page for a particular keyword or phrase.
Impressions are important for measuring the visibility and reach of a website in search engines. By tracking your impressions, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.
Users
In SEO, users refer to the people who visit a website as a result of a search engine query. It is crucial to understand user behaviour and intent to ensure your SEO efforts are targeting the right people for your business.
Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) refers to the percentage of users who click on a website’s link in the SERP after seeing it.
CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks on a website’s link by the number of impressions and multiplying by 100.
Engagement Rate
The engagement rate refers to the level of interaction users have with a website’s content.
Google uses a number of factors to calculate engagement rate, including;
- Time spent on site
- Pages per session
- Bounce rate
A high engagement rate is a sign of a good user experience, so make sure to put time and effort into improving it.
Conversions
In digital marketing, a conversion occurs when a user completes a desired action on a website or other digital platform.
These can include making a purchase, filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter, or downloading content. It is calculated by dividing the number of users who complete the desired action by the total number of users who visited the website or interacted with the digital platform.
Call-to-Action
A call-to-action (CTA) is a phrase or button that prompts site users to take a specific action. It guides users towards a conversion.
CTAs are commonly used at the end of a blog post, email, social media post, or landing page and should be clear, concise and attention-grabbing to encourage users to take action.
Key Performance Indicators
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are quantifiable metrics that businesses use to evaluate and measure their performance in achieving specific goals.
In digital marketing, it is important to set goals and KPIs early on so that you can stay on track throughout and have something to work towards.
Now you know the fundamentals of digital marketing, it’s time to kickstart your efforts. Get in touch with the team at TFA today to chat about how we can help you win big with digital marketing!