14. E-commerce Glossary

1. 301 redirect– 301 redirect is used for permanently moved pages to redirect traffic to the new page. Most of the link juice from the old page is passed on to the new one with this redirect. 
2. 404 error page – This is the page that is displayed when the page could not be found. It is a standardized response, but the page could be customized with custom text, links to other pages or the homepage, etc.
3. A/B testing – It is the process of creating two versions of website pages and comparing their performance.
4. Ad format – Ads can be created in different formats, including text, image, video, and link.
5. Affiliate marketing – It is a segment of online marketing where merchants create an affiliate program for affiliates to join. Affiliates are paid a commission based on their success in promoting the merchant and referring customers.
6. API – Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of functions, procedures, and tools used for creating an application or software.
7. Bandwidth – Website bandwidth refers to the amount of information that a website can handle.
8. Bounce rate – Bounce rate is a metric that shows the percentage of visitors who left the website after viewing only one page.
9. CC License – A Creative Commons (CC) license is a public copyright license that allows free distribution of content. This way the author of the content gives the right to share, use, and alter the published content.
10. CMS – Content Management system (CMS) is an application used for creating and managing digital content. It is a platform on which you create a website.
11. Conversion –A conversion is an action that you mark as desirable. For example, when a site visitor becomes a customer, you achieve a conversion since the desired action, in this case a sale, is complete.
12. Cookies – A piece of data from a website stored on the user’s computer.
13. Crawler – A search engine crawler is a program that browses the internet to collect data and create the index.
14. CRM system – Customer relationship management (CRM) system is a software used for management and analysis of the customer-related data.
15. CTA button – Call-to-action (CTA) button is the button that you want the users to click on to achieve a conversion. A CTA invites the users to click on it.
16. Dedicated server – Dedicated server is a rented server where you host your website. It is assigned only to your company, as opposed to a shared server where multiple websites can be hosted on one server.
17. Domain extension –A domain extension is an internet category added to the domain name after the dot (.com, .org, .edu, .net, etc.)
18. Email marketing – Email marketing is a type of online marketing focused on promoting your brand through email campaigns.
19. External link – External links are links pointing to a source that is not hosted on the same domain. When you link to another website from your own, this is considered an external link.
20. Flash video – This is a file format for delivering digital video content.
21. Follower – A person who chooses to follow your online activity, through social media, blog, forum, etc.
22. Google AdWords – It is the program provided by Google used for creating and managing search engine ads.
23. Guestpost – Guest post is an article designed to appear on another website instead on the author’s site. It is a strategy in online marketing which is often used for increasing traffic and influence in the online community.
24. Hosting – Website hosting or web host is a service enabling you to create the website and make it available on the internet.
25. HTML – Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a standardized system for tagging text files on the web pages.
26. HTML5 – This is the latest version of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) used for presenting digital content.
27. HTTPS –Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a protocol that sends data from the browser to the website. It is a more secure version of the HTTP protocol that is still used.
28. Inbound link – An inbound link is a link published on a third party website that links to yours.
29. Index – To index a website means to collect information about the website and make them available once the relevant search query is performed in the search engines.
30. Influencer – An influencer is an individual who has the authority, knowledge, and position to persuade people. Influencers have a significant following on social media as well as on their website/blog.
31. Internal link – This is a type of link that points to a page that is hosted on the same domain. A link from one product page to a related product page is an example of an internal link.
32. Keyword – A word or a phrase that is considered to have great significance for your business is called a keyword. Keywords are determined through keyword research, and they are used when optimizing the website.
33. Keyword competitiveness – This is the level of how difficult it would be to rank for a particular keyword.
34. Keyword popularity – This is a metric showing how popular a keyword is. More popular keywords are more difficult to position for.
35. Landing page – A landing page is usually an entry page. It is designed with a particular campaign in mind, and the purpose of the page is to engage and convert the visitors.
36. Link juice – This term is used to describe strength or the reputation one web page passes on to the page it is linking to in terms of SEO. It is believed that if a page is ranked well, when the link is placed on that page, this rank or popularity will pass on to the new page as well.
37. Load time – Website page load time is the time needed for the content of the page to be downloaded and displayed to the online users. This is one of the metrics that affect the search engines when ranking the websites.
38. Long-tail keyword – It is a keyword phrase which is more specific than a single keyword. Long-tail keywords are used to narrow down the target group, and they are often less competitive.
39. Mailing list – A mailing list is a list of email addresses of your subscribers or previous customers.
40. Marketplace – A marketplace is the place where the things are sold. It connects sellers and buyers.
41. Niche – In marketing, a niche is a part of the online market which is focused a particular topic, product, or service.
42. Online marketing – Online marketing, or internet marketing, is the process of advertising products or services on the internet using online channels such as search engines, email, social media, etc.
43. Organic reach – Organic reach is the portion of online audience you reach without paid distribution.
44. Page view – The act of an online user visiting a page is referred to as page view.
45. Paid reach – This is the total number of people you reach through paid distribution using online advertising methods, such as social media ads, search engine ads, etc.
46. Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI) – This is a global forum formed to manage the evolution of Payment Card Industry Security Standard.
47. Penalty – When a website is believed to use suspicious practices and methods to mislead the internet crawlers and thus increase its ranking, this site is given a penalty by the search engines. This has an adverse impact on the ranking of that website.
48. Ranking – In terms of SEO, ranking is referred to as a position a certain website has in the search engine result pages.
49. Registered trademark – It is a symbol signifying that a product or service has been registered with a national trademark office.
50. Rel=canonical tag – This is a part of HTML that is used to resolve the duplicate content issue. With this tag, the webmaster specifies which page is the preferred version.
51. org markup – It is a code placed in your website code, that enables search engines to understand the site in a better way.
52. Search engine ad – A search engine ad is a part of advertising message shown in the search engine result pages, usually above the organic results.
53. Search query – A search query is a term the online user types in the search engine.
54. Security protocol – This protocol is conducted regarding security-related functions. It is a method used to establish a secure transfer of the data from the web browser to the user and vice versa.
55. Segment – In online marketing, to segment means to create categories or groups based on particular features. For example, you segment a mailing list to create several groups of subscribers (those that already bought from your, those that live in a particular location, etc.)
56. SEO – Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of conducting a series of actions to improve the site’s ranking the search engine results.
57. SEO audit – SEO audit is the process of analyzing the website performance by examining the SEO elements such as title tag, image optimization, site speed, etc.
58. Session duration – This is the metric in website analytics showing the duration of the visit, usually in seconds.
59. Showrooming – Showrooming is the act of visiting a shop to see the product before buying it online, usually at a lower price.
60. Site speed – This metric is used to measure how fast a website page loads. It is one of the factors that affect ranking.
61. Sitemap – A sitemap is a list of all the pages of a website. Search engine crawlers use it to detect links and figure out the site structure.
62. Social media marketing – Social media marketing (SMM) is the process of using social networks to promote your business, connect with the customers, etc. It includes both organic and paid reach.
63. Spam – Spam is an irrelevant or unsolicited message. This term is used in reference to email messages, but some people use it in a more general context, so any type of irrelevant and poor-quality content is considered spam.
64. Strategy – A strategy is a plan of action, a roadmap that shows you the goals you plan to achieve, as well as how to achieve them.
65. Subscriber – The person who willingly decides to follow your email updates via newsletter is called a subscriber.
66. Targeting options – Targeting options are used for targeting content so that it reaches the users who are most likely interested in such content. These options can include targeting by location, age, gender, behavior, etc.
67. Template – A website template is a predesigned set of webpages that are used to create a website which is further customized with custom texts, images, and videos. A template represents the layout of the site.
68. Trademark infringements – It is an unauthorized use of a trademark.
69. Traffic – Traffic, or website traffic, is the amount of data sent and received on the site. A measurement used to track traffic is called a visit, or sometimes a session.
70. Transaction – Transaction in e-commerce is an agreement between the seller and buyer which finalizes the purchase process.
71. URL – Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the web address of an online resource. It points to a web page.
72. Virtual private server – Virtual private server (VPS) is a service provided by hosting providers giving the owner of VPS access to the virtual machine used to operate the system.
73. Visibility – In terms of online marketing, visibility is often referred to as the likelihood of the website being shown in the search engine results and thus being visible by the online users.
74. Webrooming – Webrooming is the term used for researching products online before buying them in a physical store.
75. Website optimization – It is the process of modifying and improving the website to increase its ranking. Website optimization is frequently called search engine optimization (SEO).
76. Word-of-mouth – In marketing, word of mouth (WOM) is the process of passing information about a certain topic, product, or business, from one person to another. It is an excellent way to get your products promoted and recommended without any promotional action from your end. In the online world, this practice is sometimes called electronic word of mouth (eWOM).